《The World&#x27;s most Overpowered Side-Character》


 Chapter 1: This goddess is an idiot.

    Plumes of smoke and ash towereing in the air in every direction for as far as the eye could see, craters and chasms as wide and deep as canyons; thend had been decimated by the most terrible battle the magical world of A had ever witnessed.

    The Demon King had been far more powerful than the hero could have anticipated and as the downpour washed the evidence of warfare away, only one man remained standing, clutching his sword with a vacant expression in his lifeless grey eyes as he stared down at the final enemy skewered by his weapon and slowly fading away into particles of light and dust having exhausted his very life essence in the final stand against the hero.

    He had not seen the sun in weeks since joining the war, his armour was torn and tattered beyond physical repair and his skin had gone pale from the overwhelming weather and eldless fighting; what remained of the person he once was now only a memory, this war had recreated him, he was born anew.

    "You fought well, warrior, I am honoured to have died by your de," The Demon King smiled, extending his one good hand and pressing it against the hero''s forehead as white cracks slowly spread across his broken armour. "For what it is worth, I share regret for what I did..."

    "You should have never attacked this world, you should have nevere here," The warrior sneered back at the demon.

    "You bastard, you should have never existed, there is nothing left to salvage from either sides, you and your demons killed all the all of my people, and I have destroyed your race down to thest child, thest beast, everything is gone, but to what end did you even go that far?" The hero ground his teeth visibly bitter and unwilling to forgive the demon beneath him.

    "It was all for nothing!" He drove his sword deeper into the heart of his enemy sneering and hissing in pain as blood dropped from his eyes and nose. "You monster!!"

    "I never cared for this world to begin with, I just wanted to go back home, but I made friends in this terrible war, after years of fighting by their side, I had allies... I found... I found love, and because of you, I now have nothing!" He released his sword and fell to his hands, kicking up mud as he grabbed the dead Demon King by his broken horn and started punching him.

    "Get up, keep fighting, you''re all that''s left here, don''t leave me here to wither in the aftermath of your war!" The warrior sobbed, taking a moment to breathe and then looking to the skies and screaming with every bit of strength his tired bones could summon.

    "What more do you want from me, Ikaris!?" He cried to the clouds. "I did what you wanted didn''t I, they''re all dead aren''t they?"

    "You did well, Hero," came a voice from beside him and with the voice a bright light opened the clouds and a woman d in white robes with great wings on her back appeared like a sh of lightning, her skin had a slight glow, and she wore a glowing white dress and a crown of flowers atop her head, her eyes were a brilliant shade of blue, and her hair was darker than any night could ever be, shimmering with traces of starlight.

    "I congratte you on defeating the Demon King, you have removed this great evil from my beautiful world and I can now start rebuilding once more," She went on her knee in the mud before him and gently cupped his cheeks, resting his face in her breasts as his wounds began steaming and healing.

    "As I had promised, whatever you want I will grant it, riches, I can give that to you, all of A is yours if you demand it, if you wish to join me as a spouse orpanion, or to have me beneath your heel, I will give you whatever you want, Sol, I am eternally grateful to you so tell me and I will grant you anything as the goddess of this world; as the ruler of this universe."

    "Can you... bring my friends back, I miss them, and my fiance too?" Sol had his head in the goddesses bosom as he spoke.

    "Your... fiance?" The goddess asked surprised, she was the most beautiful being of that world, the goddess, the peak of power, and yet this dull man had asked for the touch of another woman after being embraced by her.

    "I am sorry, Sol, I cannot bring back the dead, your fiance''s soul has long passed the great gates and gone to the afterlife where my power holds no-"

    "That''s some power you have there, goddess," Sol sighed and stood, staring at her shocked face, he had endured too much to be easily hung up on impossibilities.

    "Whatever then, I did what you wanted, I don''t care about your kinks, you can follow me around as much as you want it doesn''t matter to me that''s your choice, but if there''s nothing else you can do for me here, just send me back home, I spent ten years fighting your holy war, I''m tired." Sol kept staring down at the goddess as she slowly took hold of his leg with a bright blush on her glowing face.

    "...As you wish," She answered, and the next time Sol blinked, he was in a vast white space with no end in sight.

    "What the hell just happened?"  He asked shocked.

    "You asked to return home, so, I am sending you back to your world," The goddess Ikaris answered.

    "Wait, hold on, it''s been ten years, nobody''s gonna ...my life there has already been over!" Sol snapped, shocked that she was already doing what he asked, but he had no power to stop her, he could only watch himself dissipate into the white light around him helplessly.

    "Do not worry, my lord, everything will be fine."

    "Huh?" Sol asked after Ikaris said something weird and his vision blurred again.

    The next time Sol could feel his body, there was a weight on his chest, and a nostalgic scent he had both hated and missed.

    "Ramen..." He groaned, trying to move and failing when the weight on his chest started clinging to him.

    "Ramen... Ramen?" Sol''s eyes slowly opened to the sight of an old ceiling fan spinning over him, and to the sound of a car horn right beneath his window.

    "Ikaris?!" Sol shrieked when he looked down and saw the goddess fast asleep on his chest, but even more shocking, that ramen was what killed him, he would never forget choking on his instant noodles and dying, he would never forget such a stupid death.

    "Hmmm?" Ikaris hummed, snuggling onto Sol''s arm. "Sleep, master, you have all the time in the world-" Ikaris tried getting Sol to go back to sleep but he shrieked again in shock and grabbed her by her shoulders, shaking her until she was fully awake.

    "What have you done, you stupid goddess, why am I back to this shitty ce?" He asked, jumping to his feet and tapping himself again, but paused in shock, thest time he was in this tiny run-down student apartment he was skinny in his first life, but he was clearly not, he was also taller than ten years ago, and for some reason, he could feel his magic, even though he was on earth again.

    "What did you do?" Sol slowly turned and looked at Ikaris who sat with a pleased smile after watching him realise that the only thing which had gone back to the past was his age.

    "It was a long process, can I tell youter, I have not rested in Eons," Ikaris smiled and turned to lie down a second time.

    "Get up and exin yourself, why did you send me back here, why do I have my magic, why are you here in this shitty apartment with me?!" Sol snapped, dragging the pillow from under her head and smacking her with it, gawking when the bed broke from hitting someone with a pillow.

    "O..." Ikaris raised her head and looked around at him with a pout. "Fine," She blushed, causing his face to go blue as he withdrew his hand from her grasp.

    "My lord, you wanted to return to your homeworld, that is what you said, I merely obeyed your will, you wanted me to be your concubine so here I am, forever in your service my lord, I used all my power to grant you your magic across space and time, so you can always be a magnificent warrior, this was all ording to your will," She grinned with a bright red blush, raising her chin and showing him the tattoo of a ve cor on her neck as well as the contract on her tongue from her world dimension.

    "See, I am yours, forever," Ikaris grinned, hugging his leg with a blissful smile and lustful eyes.

    Sol stood there shocked out of his mind that this woman had obeyed everything he had said in his depressed state, and even lowered herself from her status as the goddess of an entire universe to a ve in his service, he pped his forehead; ve contracts from his understanding were soul bindings, she could never leave his side, and if she really did expend all of her power to grant him magic from a whole other dimension, then didn''t that mean she was now much weaker, or even powerless entirely?

    "Are you... an idiot?"

 Chapter 2: I just want a simple life.

    "I can''t believe this..." Sol sat on the edge of his broken bed looking at the goddess with an expression of disdain and disbelief. "This contract that you forced on me, does it have any kind of requirement?" He asked, staring at Ikaris who was prostrated before him humbly with her hands in herp and her head slightly lowered.

    "Yes, my lord," The woman responded with a smile. "I could find no way to cement your magic in this magicless world, so while you are indeed able to use your magic, you will also need to replenish it, and this world has no such properties."

    "So when I''ve used it all up, my magic will simply be gone forever?" Sol asked depressed, but withdrew his thoughts when he saw the gaze she returned.

    "Of course not, so long as I am here by your side you will be able to draw power from my dimension as many times and in however much quantity you please," She answered, slightly opening her mouth as a blush crossed her cheeks again. "Through intimacy," She added, and Sol almost choked on air after she said it.

    "Intimacy?" He narrowed his eyes staring at the ve crest imprinted on her tongue like a tattoo.

    "Yes, to show my unyielding devotion for my lord, I have ced my crest in several areas acrossy body best suited to pleasing you,"

    "What''s that supposed to mean?" Sol''s eyes went wide as he thought about the implications.

    "Everything I do is to better serve you-"

    "Okay, I get it!" Sol snapped and grabbed her hands when she attempted to undress before him.

    "M-my lord, you are grabbing me so roughly~!" Ikaris stuttered staring at Sol''s hands gripping hers tightly. "This is my first time being handled with such... Assertion!" She closed her eyes and began squirming, causing the former warrior to grit his teeth in annoyance at her antics.

    "So you truly went and made yourself my ve, huh?"

    "Body and soul," Ikaris answered without missing a beat.

    Sol stood and started massaging his temples, looking at his worn down t-shirt and his torn pants, and then looking at his apartment again.

    "How pathetic I was back then," He thought. "I spent every day wanting to die, to escape the hell I thought I lived in, but after being summoned to another world and fighting holy wars for a whole decade, I realise now how ungrateful I was back then,"

    He shook his head and looked at the former goddess once more.

    "I can at least get my old life back, and live in rtive peace here on earth,pared to what you put me through, this life I used to live doesn''t seem so bad, so I''ll make use of it, thank you," He gave her a nod.

    "I''ll try to forget everything, my friends and spouse I can never get back, the lives, deaths, all of it, I''ll take this chance you''ve granted me and live to the fullest of my ability."

    "If you reward me my lord, your magic is replenished twofold," She remained on the ground staring up at him expectantly.

    "Reward?" Sol asked curiously.

    "Yes, any form of intimate contact will do, there are numerous crests all over my body after all, and in special ces as well," She crept closer to him, and Sol felt shivers across his shoulders at the gaze she gave him, it was lustful, predatory, lecherous.

    "How much of a pervert are you, Ikaris?" He asked out of curiosity, but regretted it when she suddenly grabbed his hand and ced it on her head. "O-oi!"

    "Please, pet my head," She requested, and subconsciously, Sol began running his fingers across her hair, but before anything could happen, his door was flung open and another young man barged in.

    "Oh my,"

    "You''rete again you dumb... Huh?" The man stopped in his tracks and stood there staring at Sol with his eyes wide and his mouth wide open.

    "What was your name again?" Sol cleared his throat, looking at the young man and trying to remember his past life, was this a friend or an enemy?

    "Um, sorry, I barged in without even knocking, where''s the scrawny loser who usually lives here?" The man asked confused, alerting Sol once again that he looked nothing like his past self.

    "My lord, I think he means you," Ikaris regarded Sol respectfully as she stood and took her ce by his side, staring at the man with a cold and almost hateful expression after he had interrupted her reward and insulted Sol in the same breath.

    "I''m the one you''re looking for, Ken, it''s me, Sol." Sol gave the young man his full attention, taking note of how well dressed and well-fed he seemed in contrast to the Sol of the past.

    "Huh, no way," Ken stepped closer in and stared at him more closely, and then looked at Ikaris by his side and back at him again. "No way, Sol couldn''t get a girl to kneel in front of him even if the world was ending-"

    "Watch your tongue you lesser being, my lord has had many kneel in his presence -"

    "Cut it out, Ikaris," Sol looked around at her and then back at Ken when she huffed and went silent.

    Ken was wearing in clothes, but they were brand new, his shoes, his hair, everything reflected the fact that he was well-off, and as Sol stood there he couldn''t helpparing himself to this man who was supposed to be his friend.

    "Who is this?" Ken looked at Ikaris again, ogling her barely covered clevage and staring at her exposed leg poking through the seams of her garment, she was stunning, what was she doing in this cheap rundown ce. "Is this some kind of ckmail?" He scratched the back of his head with a smile. "Does this bastard have dirt on you, miss?"

    "Bastard?" Sol narrowed his eyes and held out his hand when he sensed the hostility in Ken''s words, as well as the hostility Ikaris showed after being ogled by a lowly magicless human.

    "Okay, forget it, I didn''te here to get mixed up in any of your business, I need you to do another run for me, my client''s been busting his ass off, and he''s from your college so you get to go to school today, at least," Ken raised a small package he had been holding on to and shoved it in Sol''s grasp.

    "Ah, that''s right, I used to do drug runs for this bastard because he promised he''d help mend a good job in his father''spany, I was a pushover, no wonder I kicked the bucket with a cup of ramen in my grasp," Sol shook his head and shoved the package back into Ken''s grasp.

    "Deliver this filth yourself, I have sses," Sol looked at Ikaris as he walked past Ken who was too shocked to speak.

    "Come on, today should be a Thursday, I have afternoon sses so we can visit the mall before we go.

    "You are taking me with you?" Ikaris asked shocked as she gleefully bounced behind him.

    "I figured you''d just follow me either way, plus I don''t trust what you''ll do to anyone who isn''t me who walks through this door," Sol grabbed a set of keys and a wallet off a small table by the door and opened it.

    "I''ll buy you some clothes too, you are gonna draw too much attention dressed like a Greek goddess, I just want a simple life so there''s no way I''m gonna have you draw attention to me, I''m buying you some simple clothes,"

    "What is a Greek goddess?" Ikaris asked stepping through the door after him.

    "Juste,"

    "Yes, my lord,"

    "Ken," Sol stood at the opened door with his ve. "What are you still doing in my shitty apartment, get the hell out and get lost,"

    "What did you just say to me?" Ken looked around at him soaked in anger at being told to get lost.

    "I said get out of my shitty apartment, and fuck off," Sol stood his ground as the man angrily stomped over and stood facing him with a scowl.

 Chapter 3: Backwater shop

    "Listen, Ken," Sol stood firmly in front of his past bully with an annoyed frown. "I''m not the Sol you remember, I''ll mess you up if youe at me," He stared at the fuming man.

    "Truth be told, though, I am tired of being seen, I just want to disappear into the crowd and never gain any kind of attention, I want to live the life of a side character for once," He grabbed Ken by his face and pinned him to the wall in a split second.

    "Thanks for making my life a living hell ten years ago you bastard, it gave me the strength to ovee everything thrown at me in Ikaris''s world," Sol admitted but Ken was barely able to hear anything over the sound of his own screaming as Sol squeezed his head with his one hand.

    "Well, you''re not paying attention, and it doesn''t matter anyway, but I''m over it now, if you ever show up at my ce again, I''ll reduce you to a pile of ashes on the sidewalk," Sol threatened the man.

    Ken screamed out when he felt the sensation of something was breaking inside of him, but then momentter he was outside of the cheap apartmentplex with his pants wet after peeing himself from pain and terror.

    The man did not even try to understand what happened, he got up and ran off in the first direction he saw, leaving his car and everything else behind.

    "My dear hero, that was very un-hero-like of you, was it not?" Ikaris asked Sol, staring at his back as he watched Ken from the rooftops.

    "Are you surprised that I never made much of a hero? Sol replied with a bitter taste in his mouth after being called ''Hero'' again.

    "You were not a great ''hero'' my lord, I admit this, but you were the perfect hero that my world needed, I admired the person you were, and I am still impressed with the specimen you are," Ikaris answered with a blush, attempting to go on her knees again.

    "Don''t do that, rooftops here are filthy," Sol pulled her to her feet. "Come on, if you are gonna be a part of my world you have to look the part, right now you are gonna draw too much attention to me.

    "As you wish, my lord," she obediently followed as Sol took off running across rooftops, it was like a trip down memoryne seeing his city Q again, just as riddled with crime as he remembered, just as polluted as he remembered, just as sick and corrupted as he remembered,pared to A, the humans on earth were mostly pitiable scum.

    Somehow though, the only thing about City Q that troubled him was the fact that he used to do supplies for the corrupt Mayor''s son; Ken.

    Sol had made it into the best college in the state through his own hard work, but he needed money, and he was never able to find a job on his own, so he was exploited by the rich and was on his way to an early grave, until that day he choked on his cup ramen and died. "It is just like I remember," He spoke aloud, staring at the mall entrance with disdain.

    "Can I truly live a normal life here after everything I have gone through?" Sol asked himself.

    "You are destined for greater things, my lord," Ikaris answered his empty query, but he scoffed and took her by her hand when she started wandering on sight of her first ne in the air.

    "Stay by my side, Ikaris."

    "Certainly," She glued herself to his side, making a spectacle as the two of them entered the mall.

    "I have never seen such a market, you told me before that the structures from my world and even the beasts of thend were very different, but even then, I have never seen such structures, the gods of this world must be pleased with his subjects!" Ikaris eximed as soon as she saw the interior.

    "Well, if they are they sure has a funny way of showing it," Sol chuckled to himself looking across the mall, to the food court then the clothing store, and then the machines in the corner.

    "That''s right," Sol groaned and pulled out his wallet and took out his card. "My card was declined the day before I died," Sol grimaced at the shoddy old card.

    "Hey, you can charm things right, like bless them to work when they shouldn''t?" He asked Ikaris, and she smiled and took the card from his grasp.

    "I can do nothing to influence thews of this world any more than I already have," She looked at Sol with an apologetic smile. "I used all my power to resurrect you, so until I have ess to magic again, I am also reliant on this contract we share," She stuck her tongue out at him. "for it to work, you need to initiate-"

    "Intimate contact, I get it, you lewd woman," Sol reached up and grabbed her cheeks with his free hand, staring at her lips. "How can I ever be a side character when you are like this?" He asked, and then stuck his finger in her mouth without warning, causing everyone around them to stop and stare when she suddenly moaned loudly against his hand.

    Sol wanted to kick himself, of course, she would overreact because of the sensation the ve binding caused, wherever it was the marks would cause magic to surge, and if she had actually put it all those ces where it had no business being then it would cause her entire body to be exposed to pleasure.

    "Keep it down It''s just a finger!" Sol snapped at her, embarrassed at the scene she was causing.

    "I will try, my lord," Ikaris took hold of his hand and stuck another of his fingers in her mouth, squirming and breathing heavily against him.

    "Okay, that''s enough," Sol turned from her and took her hand again as she tried controlling herself.

    "My lord," Ikaris handed the card to him. "it will work."

    "If it doesn''t, I''m not impartial to stealing them either,  It''s just clothes," He answered, pulling her into the clothes store where they were met by an attendant who stood opposing them.

    "Sir, we have a dress code to uphold-"

    "Dress code?" Ikaris sobered up and stood at Sol''s side with a frown, she knew immediately where this was going, Sol barely cared about his appearance, so it would make sense that others saw him as poor because of the shabby clothes he was wearing. "Do you have any idea who I am, do you even know the wealth I possess?" Ikaris took the lead and approached the woman.

    "Um-"

    "Shut up and move, and consider yourself lucky his lordship would even want to spend in this tiny backwater shop!"

    "L-lordship?" The woman swallowed and looked around frightened while her manager came running over in a panic.

 Chapter 4: The Clothes Store

    "I''m so sorry ma''am, we never expected someone of your stature to visit our humble store-"

    "Store?" Ikaris red at the woman who was on her knees in the middle of an apology while she stood with her hands on her hips and her nose upturned. "You call this small thing a store?" She asked, causing the manager to bump her worker in her side as she too took a knee before Ikaris.

    "Shop, she meant shop, ma''am, forgive her, she is new!" The manager regarded Ikaris like royalty while Sol stood in the back with his eyes rolling as he searched for clothes for Ikaris.

    "Keep a low profile, don''t cause a scene, stay hidden, no instead she blows everything out of proportion!" Sol ground his teeth with veins popping up on his face and arms. "She''s gonna be the death of my ns!" He clenched his fist in the hoodie he had chosen for her and shook it.

    "Ikaris,e on I have ces to be, stop scaring them already," He called to her and watched her entire godly demeanour change again as she flocked to his side like an excited child.

    "My lord!" She took his hand. "Are you changing me now?" She asked, blushing.

    "Cha-what?" Sol threw the clothes he had chosen over her head and pointed to the changing room. "I also need to get out of these rags, so do it yourself," He pushed her along, looking at the card in his grasp and observing the magic he could feeling from it. "Ikaris," He called to her before she entered the changing room with the most depressed expression he had seen on anyone, ever.

    "Can you exin the contract to meter, I want to know everything about how it works in detail,"

    "Certainly, my lord, for a reward from you there is nothing I would not do," The goddess smiled humbly and entered.

    "Rewards, huh?" He sighed and went into his own booth. "A ve contract that can use that much power is bound to have its drawbacks," He thought to himself.

    After spending a few minutes in the store, Sol checked his phone. Multiple missed calls and several bank notices alerted him that something ridiculous had happened because of Ikaris, so without thinking, Sol went straight into her booth and sat behind the screen.

    "Ikaris,"

    "My lord?" She poked her head through and stared at him, already blushing up a storm. "Do you require my services, I will-"

    "Just stay on your side-" He interrupted her, but still had to avert his eyes when she pushed the curtains away and started approaching him holding her removed gown before herself as the only thing hiding her from him.

    "I do not understand this thing they call a hood, how can I appeal to you if I am hidden by this prudent cloth?" She asked, and Solughed out and stood, staring into her eyes to prevent his own eyes from wandering.

    "Ikaris," He used a moremanding tone, and as he did, the crest on her tongue emitted a hum and a faint blue light, as well as the imprint that hugged her throat like a cor. Ikaris lost her footing and grabbed on to him, sighing and breathing heavily.

    "Y-yes, sir," She stuttered after Sol caught her and her garments fell to her feet.

    "Ugh, I can''t talk to you if you''re like this," He picked up the bra he had chosen after close observation of her proportions earlier. "Turn around,"

    "F-from behind!?" Ikaris eximed causing the woman standing outside of the booth to jolt from surprise and blush at what she was hearing.

    "Ikaris, stop squirming like that, keep your ass still!" Sol snapped back at her.

    "I can''t help it, this is an entirely new experience for me, usually I don''t ahn~!"

    "Stop doing that... here raise your leg like this and try keeping your butt still, you''re making this difficult-stop squirming Ikaris!" Sol snapped again.

    By this time the rest of the staff had stopped working and was listening with shocked expressions as the woman in the booth kept getting louder and louder.

    "My lord not there, I am sensitive!" Ikaris grabbed Sol''s arm when he held on to her hips to support her while she tried rolling up a pair of thigh-high silk stockings.

    "You''re doing it wrong, bend your hips and reach down for the base, put in some effort here I can''t help you every time," Sol groaned in annoyance. "There, good, you''re getting it," He praised her.

    "My goodness, young people these days," The manager fanned herself with a blush while her workers nodded in agreement.

    "My lord, how do I... AH~!" Ikaris cried out when Sol ced her to sit and stuck his finger in her mouth to quiet her down.

    "Ikaris, stay there, do not move an inch." He ordered her, causing the ve tattoos to light up again, it was also here that he realised that there were several tattoos in ces best left undescribed, and each of them was big enough to touch another, they caused her entire body to glow.

    "You have more of those things under your skin?" He asked shocked, but Ikaris was obeying his order with an expression of bliss as her eyes rolled over in her head and her legs slightly shook. "What the hell kind of goddess are you, Ikaris?" He asked cradling his head and removing his finger from her mouth.

    "That''s it, you need to exin the entire deal with this ve contract right now."

 Chapter 5: The Contract.

    "The contract," Ikaris began while they exited the booth, she was fully dressed and blushing while Sol had a serious and attentive stare directed at her.

    "Go on,"

    "Do you remember my two year absence in the war?" She asked, and his attention turned sour as he stared at her head while she refused to look at his own expression.

    "You abandoned us, how can I ever forget, half of humanity died because you turned your back, goddess,"

    "What if I told you, it was meant to be that way?" She added, and Sol stopped at the desk waiting for the women to finish packing everything that they had packed, and turned to her taking her shoulders.

    "If you had been there, none of that would have happened, people died because you turned your back, my entire party, my fiance, the seventh and eighth years of that holy war were hell, what do you mean by it was meant to be that way?" He slightly shook her taking mind of the fact that they were in public. "What does that mean?"

    "It was meant to be that way, in my home dimension, I see all and know all, for you, a mortal, death seems like the end, but for me, who has been living for Eons before we even met, death; whether it be myself, or the death of others, it is merely a door through which one leaves from one life to the next-"

    "Get to the point, what are you trying to say?" Sol grew dark with anger. "Stop beating around the bush ande out with it," He demanded.

    "The only thing I could not change was destiny, even for a goddess as powerful as myself, it was impossible to do anything, for the two years that I was absent, I spent my time studying and preparing to bring you back home-"

    Sol mmed his card on the desk, startling the clerk who was about to start listening in on their conversation. "Please, understand, it was not my will, but that of a higher power than myself," She tried calming him down, but he only seemed angrier with every word.

    "You want me to calm down, but you''re also saying to me that you who brought me to your world was powerless to do anything in the first ce, no... No, forget that, I said tell me about the contract!" He snapped at her, and she flinched away from him, as did the clerk and the manager who wasing over to see them off.

    "I learned that your world had a reliable system of reward for services, much like my own, essentially, I am your medium, as you are mine, we only work together," She held her head low from his gaze while he took the bags from the desk and started walking.

    "Take my hand and keep exining,"

    "Yes," She held on to his arm and kept pace. "My world is currently in the process of destruction; a Ragnarok of sorts, all the remaining creatures, thends, the seas, everything is being purged, this will take a few years, maybe a decade, and after the purging, new life will be reborn, even if you did not want to leave, I would have still spent all my power to send you back home-"

    "Stay focused," Sol warned her.

    "I am the medium by which you gain power from my world, all the magic of my world resides there, but through contact with you, I am able to ess and then gift that power to you, the sigils on my body are the bridge, I am the vessel, and you are the key, without me, you will run out of magic, despite your enormous reserves, and if I do not remain in contact with you, the supplies I have will dry up as well turning me into no more than an immortal human woman, though," she paused and finally looked at him again.

    "I do not mind being powerless if I have you by my side, I chose to be by your side for this reason," She admitted, and Sol sucked in a breath and turned to her.

    "What reason?"

    "You are strong, Sol Vestic, in mind and body, and most importantly, despite your many bad habits you are pure of heart, you are a kind and caring man, this is why I saved your soul from the abyss of this dimension, and brought you to mine," Ikaris hugged onto his hand tighter. "To me, there is no wrong in you, you are perfect in my eyes, a perfect mate."

    "Mate?" Sol sucked in another breath. "Are you serious?"

    "Yes," She leaned her head against his arm. "I am smitten by the man that you are-"

    "Don''t lean on me,"

    "Ah... As you wish, my lord,"

    "About the riches you mentioned before," Sol looked at the bags hanging from his grasp, they were numerous.

    "You have ess to every bit of wealth that you left behind, and mine,"

    "What does that even mean?" Sol shook his head.

    "In your currency, the money you had should be several hundred million of the strongest currency, for myself, the number is uncountable, but I could not give it all to you so for the time being you only have the mere few hundred millions," She exined, and Sol nodded with a trickle of sweat, no wonder he was being bombarded with messages, this idiot had suddenly transferred hundreds of millions into his empty bank ount.

    "Well, you did well, good job, Ikaris," Sol praised her with a wyry smile.

    "Thank you, my lord," Ikaris blushed and hooked herself to his arm again. "By the way, where did you n to go with these?" She asked, staring at the bags of new clothes.

    "Oh, these," Sol released them and snapped his fingers causing everything to vanish in a thwip of light the moment they exited the mall grounds. "I wanted to visit my old college and possibly meet some old friends before I leave," He answered, causing Ikaris to stare up at him with a sharp gaze.

    "You intend to leave?"

 Chapter 6: Heros summoning

    "You intend to leave?"Ikaris asked, disturbed. "Where are you going?" She questioned seriously.

    "I do not know yet, but I came to that conclusion as soon as you told me I still had my magic, for someone like myself, this city, this country, this world was nothing more than a prison I could not get out of, I spent my entire life wanting to do things and go to different ces, but I was orphaned as a child, and I suffered as a ward of the state, I was always hungry, always in need," Sol answered her while waving down a taxi for them.

    "Later on in my life, I got involved with the wrong people, I made stupid decisions and eventually, I ended up at your steps, an early and embarrassing death, I never want to see ramen again," He held a deadpan as they got into the taxi.

    "Where will you go then, my lord?" Ikaris asked, and Sol smiled to himself as he thought about it.

    "Take us to Q University," He directed the driver and then looked at her again. "It doesn''t matter, honestly, I just n to have a good time and stay out of any limelight..."

    "Limelight?"

    "I don''t want to be the centre of attention this time around, I want to fade into the background and live an easy and fun life, an unassuming life," He answered, and she nodded, seemingly agreeing with him.

    "Sorry if you expected me to have some grand dream or goal, but I pretty much lost all interest in grand lifestyles after living ten years of constant unending war, I crave the simple things now, a simple life, maybe settling down with someone and watching our kids grow in the countryside away from people, or something like that, because it''s clear to me now that the things people take for granted the most are the things that can make them happy,"

    "How very specific," Ikarismented, to which he nodded again and then went quiet.

    They kept that silence until they reached the campus grounds of Q University.

    "My lord," Ikaris took Sol''s hand, but he stood before her with a stern expression and a shake of his head.

    "Don''t call me that in the presence of others, It can never be revealed that we have a master-ve rtionship," Sol covered her mouth, regretting his actions immediately because of the amount of curious eyes that fell on them.

    He had grown used to her presence as the goddess, he had long grown immune to the effects of her beauty, so he had underestimated just how she would catch the attention of others, and because of his absence for ten years he had made the next mistake of buying brand clothes from the store, even though he had dressed her moderately, she still looked as stunning as she always did, and he was just as brilliantly dressed as well, not to mention his physical appearance was that of a seasoned warrior, he was at the very peak of fitness, and it showed with every action he made.

    "I shall call you by your given name then, while we are in the view of other humans," Ikaris blushed while he was in the middle of regretting his decision to bring her, even though he knew that leaving her behind was a far worse idea.

    "Don''t address them as humans, they are people, just like you and I are people-"

    "I am not human, therefore I will notpare or call myself ''people'', I am a goddess, and you are my lord, there lies a line I will never cross, I am not like any other, I am superior, and you are my master, the absolute peak of superiority," She stared at him defiantly reminding him that even if she was his ve, she still had her dignity as a goddess, and he still held his title as the one who conquered her, in a sense.

    "Fine, as long as you don''t call me anything weird in front of anyone here, I just need to withdraw from the semester and drop out, then we can leave and you can be as entric as you please-"

    "Excuse me," A random approached them, it took a few seconds of staring at her, but Sol eventually remembered that this person usually sat next to him whenever he did make an appearance in ss. "Sol Vestic, right?" She asked, causing him to take a step backwards in shock.

    She was average in appearance like most people in their area, with brown eyes and hair, and fairly tanned skin with barely visible freckles.

    "You recognize me?" He almost gasped, he was unrecognisable even to himself, and yet this woman had identified him at a single nce. Even Ikaris was taken aback by her acute perception.

    "Only a witch could recognize you so easily," Ikaris pulled Sol to her height and whispered in his ear.

    "Stop it, she is not a witch," Sol scoffed and looked at the young woman again.

    "So it is you!" She eximed, adjusting her loose sses.

    "How long has it been... Um?" He gestured to her and she pouted and stared him down.

    "Eris, my name is Eris, and you have not been to sses in just under a month, with your attendance I''m shocked you even show up at all, but wow, I see you took my advice and started taking care of yourself!" She grinned at him and then took a more serious tone as she looked at Ikaris.

    "Sorry, I won''t take any more of your time, it looked like you two were in the middle of something intimate," She stated, staring at the way Ikaris never let go of Sol''s arm.

    "Is that Sol?" Another random voice boomed behind them

    "Let''s go-" Sol started pulling Ikaris to walk with him, but the guy who had called to him raced over and pped Sol''s shoulder despite obviously being ignored.

    "Hey man, are you ignoring me?" The guy grabbed Sol''s arm but then reclined his head.

    "Sol, it seems you were probably more popr than you let on," Ikaris chuckled pushing the man''s shoulder and standing between Sol and him. "He''s not interested in whatever lowly greeting you want from him, we''re busy, beat it." Ikaris ced her hands akimbo and stared up at the man who was even taller than the new Sol.

    "Ikaris, I warned you about acting up, Han, I don''t have the time, we''re in a rush-" Sol took her hand and attempted to walk away, but the man insistently grabbed onto Sol''s arm again.

    "Hold it there, friend, I''m not done talking to you yet," Han shook his head. "Where''s the stuff you were supposed to bring today, you showed up empty-handed?" Han asked, and Sol felt all his patience dry up like a well.

    Sol wanted to react, but there was a small crowd forming, and it seemed people were recognising him easily, his peace was on the cusp of being burdened. "Sol, we should leave!" Ikaris suddenly grabbed his arm again and attempted to run off but on her first step, a bright light appeared under her feet and spread several hundred metres in every direction.

    "No!" Ikaris snapped, turning and grabbing onto Sol''s arm. "I need more power, we''re being summoned!"

 Chapter 7: This World Is Beyond Saving

    "What!?" Sol almost screamed out when he looked around and realised that everyone was frozen in ce except the two of them.

    "Hurry!" She grabbed his hand and guided him to groping her, but all her efforts went out the window as the ground beneath them vanished and they started falling, and along with them were several other people who got dragged into the summoning.

    "Well, I guess that''s that then," Sol rubbed his forehead and held onto Ikaris''s hand pulling her into a hug and holding her tightly.

    "Why are you so calm?" Ikaris snapped at him in frustration.

    "Well, I can''t do anything about this, and clearly you cannot do a thing either, I am going to find the first opportunity and make a run for it, I don''t want to fight another war, and from my experience, hero summonings can only mean the country or world is about to be destroyed, this time I will pass on all of that, wherever we are going, I do not want to fight their war, your war was the only one that mattered and it is long over," Sol exined his reasoning to the goddess and she seemed to misunderstand what he was saying as a blush appeared on her cheeks.

    "Oh..." Ikaris looked around them at the other people who had been summoned as heroes, among the other five that were chosen, there was Eris, and Han, the other two that had recognised Sol immediately, and then three other people she had seen approaching them before everything went bad, two more girls and a tall man, even taller than Sol.

    "Get ready," Sol called her attention back to himself as another white light started surrounding them.

    One moment they were on earth, then next they were falling through a long ck space surrounded by screaming people, and now they were standing before an empty throne, as if they had been there from the start.

    It was arge circr space filled with supporting pirs and a single staircase behind a simple throne, and there by each stone pir stood a cloaked statue holding a staff with a red gem at the top of it.

    "Not what I expected," Solmented, looking around at the summoning ritual and realising that those human-sized statues had just been petrified, "Seven, eight, twelve... twelve people just gave their lives in a summoning ritual to bring us here," He looked at Ikaris, but she was glued to his side and afraid to make a sound. "Are you okay?"

    "No, I was summoned by a world where the god has abandoned the people, I have no idea what they are doing or what caused them to do it, but it is very like this entire world will be reset in theing future," Ikaris answered in a whisper.

    "Hm," He hummed, looking at her name floating over her head, and then behind her at Eris and Han''s names floating over their heads as well. "This time we got summoned into a world with a system,"

    "System?" Ikaris asked confused.

    "Brilliant heroes, wee to thend of Arkadia!" Came a woman''s voice from behind the throne, and the confused group turned to her and witnessed as several guards suited in golden armour filled the spaces between the pirs and the petrified statues.

    She was wearing in clothing, but on her head, there was a crown of red gems much like the gems from the staff of the statues that surrounded everyone.

    "I am Queen of thisnd, Misty Vermon," The woman introduced herself with a low bow.

    "What the hell is going on here?" Han was the first to speak up assuming a leading role from the beginning. "Who are you people, where are we, is this some kind of prank?" He asked, and while he was asking, Eris slowly made her way over to Sol''s side and leaned closer.

    "Look at the way they are dressed, do you think we got summoned to another world by that bright light earlier?" She asked with a bead of sweat rolling down her cheek, and Sol looked at Ikaris dumbfounded.

    "Get away from him, you perceptive witch," Ikaris pushed them apart again and stood by Sol''s side. "You need to stop getting so close to my Sol, I do not like it!" She raised her voice causing everyone to stop and look at her.

    "Gosh, Sol and I are friends-"

    "We are?" Sol took a step away from Eris and held onto Ikaris''s shoulders. "I must have forgotten that bit,"

    "W-well, we sort of are though!" Eris seemed hurt, but in the back of Sol''s mind, he had already formed his n.

    Step one, pretend to be a coward and get kicked out of the unformed heroes party, step two, get himself banished from this country if possible, step three, find a way to get back home-

    "Ahem," The queen cleared her throat impatiently and then took a knee in front of them, causing Ikaris to hold her mouth and hold on to Sol''s arm tightly.

    "Please, before you cast judgment, please listen to what I have to say, I will answer every question you may have regarding your summons, as well as how to return you to your homeworld," She ced her sceptre in front of her on the ground and pressed her forehead against the floor.

    "Master, this is bad," Ikaris tugged at his arm.

    "I have never seen a queen bow before," Sol looked at his goddess confused.

    "Imminent destruction; this ce faces imminent destruction, they are overwhelmed, overrun, and helpless, their mages sacrificed their lives to summon heroes from another world, their queen bows, she even let her ceremonial staff rest on the floor before you, she has no option left, if this is her only option, then there is already no hope,"

    "You said you would send us back?" Han answered the queen, keeping his boastful attitude before her. "How?" He asked, and the queen picked up her sceptre and nodded. "Upon defeating the Demon Lord, I will sacrifice my life and magic to send you home.

    "She has no hope of winning without the aid of heroes," Ikaris hugged herself to Sol''s arm again. "With new heroes, inexperienced, this entire summons is a waste of the lives of mages, this world is beyond saving."

 Chapter 8: A Desperate Queen

    "Are you looking down on me?" Sol raised a brow at Ikaris and watched her fumble for her words.

    "N-no, that is not what I meant-"

    "You just said this world is doomed, that means it is doomed in spite of my presence, isn''t it?" He asked again, and she sighed and held on to him again calmly.

    "You have all my power at your disposal, there is no threat too powerful for you to face, regardless of what world you find yourself on,"

    "Yeah," Sol scratched his head looking at Han speaking down to the queen because she had gone on her knees. "It''s a pity we''re stuck here," He looked around at the other three heroes.

    "Stuck?" Ikaris gave him a skeptical nce. "The human queen just said that she had the power to send us back, at the expense of her life, but still..."

    "I''m not going to sit back and watch this poor woman get taken advantage of by that guy of all people, Han Young is a parasite, I don''t know how he ended up here, but I won''t sit idly by and watch him ruin an already perishing kingdom.

    "But, this goes directly against what you said earlier, about not wanting to get involved in their affairs," Ikaris contradicted him immediately.

    "Obviously it does, but I do not n on directly interfering if that''s what you mean, I just don''t want to be hailed as another hero, once was more than enough, I''ll keep an eye on things from the shadows, as it stands, I can still feel all my magic, so I don''t see the harm in dirtying my hands every now and then, but I''d rather just rx and do absolutely nothing, and if Han gets his way, there''s no way in hell this ce survives,"

    "Hello again-"

    "This witch is persistent," Ikaris hissed at Eris as soon as she tried approaching them. "What do you want now?"

    "I''m hearing voices in my head," Eris answered worriedly. "Telling me to do weird things,"

    "Ah, the system,"

    "System?" Ikaris asked again, remembering that he had mentioned it before.

    "Well, right now, I can see the names and levels of everyone in this room, all of us who were brought here are level one, the queen is just thirteen levels, and most of her guards are about level fifty, which gives me the impression that level 100 is not that big of a deal since they''re in this kind of trouble," Sol exined, and saw a glint of Eris''s inner nerd leak out as she adjusted her sses and clutched the edges of her blouse.

    "When you say system, do you mean... Magic system, like real magic?"

    "Yep,"

    "Are you sure?" Eris asked again.

    "Pretty sure, I can see levels and names above everyone''s heads," Sol answered nonchntly.

    "So we were really summoned to another world, a magical world?" She gawked.

    "That''d be correct,"

    "Oh my goodness," Eris turned her back and walked off and then spun embarrassingly and thrust her palm outward.

    "What is she doing?" Ikaris asked, watching the girl repeat the action over and over again.

    "Probably trying to utilize magic now that she believes she is in a magical world," Sol answered with an amused chuckle. "That''ll keep her away from us for a while," He looked toward Han and the queen again as they conversed in the presence of her guards and the other three heroes, two females and one more male, making their number a total of six.

    "Well, let''s speed things up a bit then," Sol cleared his throat and then raised his hand.

    "Pardon me, your majesty," he called, gaining everyone''s attention and Han''s disapproving re. "Just how powerful are these enemies you want us toy down our lives to fight for you, and what kind of benefits can we get from risking our necks like that, we''ve never fought any kind of war before, I personally don''t want to fight at all-"

    "Shut up you coward-"

    "Watch your tone you snotty shit-stick!" Ikaris snapped at Han as soon as he spoke. "Sol is speaking, that means you be silent and stay listening," She huffed, causing Sol to grab her and cover her mouth in a panic.

    "Ikaris, this isn''t the ce to y fangirl-"

    "What did you just call me?" Han started stomping over to them.

    "If you want to y your part, then allow me to y mine," Ikaris winked at Sol and then turned to Han again.

    "This isn''t earth right, then nobody''s gonna give a shit when I smash your pretty little face in... Wh- aaah!" Han''s threat turned to him screaming when Ikaris grabbed his arm and bent it behind him, bringing him to the ground in an instant.

    "I am notfortable touching this filth, so let me be clear to everyone here, Sol Vestic is under my protection, there''s nothing I won''t do for him, no length I won''t go to, so whatever demon army you have that you think will destroy your country, I''ll eradicate it, that demon lord you think is so powerful, I''ll destroy that too, so don''t take empty promises from this shit-bag, I''m the best here, that''s a fact." Ikaris dered, kneeling in Han''s back when he tried struggling.

    "Well, o-okay then," Queen Vermon gulped at how this seventh person dealt with one who was supposed to be many times stronger then her.

    "Ugh," Ikaris stepped on Han''s head and walked back to Sol, holding out her hands and creating a cleansing light to rid herself of the touch of someone who was not Sol. "Gross,"

    "You can already utilise magic, without having learnt?" The queen gasped, walking pass Han and approaching Ikaris carelessly, in response to the careless approach Ikaris stood before Sol protectively, but raised a brow and looked at Sol confused when the queen fell to her knees before her just as she had done with Han.

    "Of course I can, as I said, I am the best,"

    "Brave Hero, please, help us!"

    "You do not need to-"

    "I absolutely must!" The queen held her forehead to the ground as her subjects also went to their hands and knees. "We are helpless, without the aid of the hero, we will all die, please, lend us your strength!"

 Chapter 9: Is There An Imposter?

    "So... Arkadia?" Sol asked, changing the topic before Ikaris even had the chance to respond to the queen''s plight.

    "Yes, Hero -"

    "Please, just call me Sol, I am no hero," Sol delicately extended his hand to the queen, lowering his head respectfully and helping her to her feet once more.

    "Arkadia, was once a brilliant and fruitfulnd, but decades of constant war has ravaged ournd of its beauty and bounty, today we are but a small kingdom pushed in the corner of our world by the dark invaders.

    "Demons...?" Sol grimaced, he had hoped to never see another demon kin as long as he lived, but after being sent back home he was not spared even a few hours before he was being told he would have to fight demonkind again.

    "They appeared with massive armies sixty years ago, and have spent no expense to relentlessly beat against our doors, the neighbouring kingdoms across Arkadia have all long fallen and retreated to our borders, and all that remains now is our kingdom and the coalition that brought us all together, our now little kingdom of Argom is all that remains..."

    "Exactly how little, is little?" Ikaris asked, taking charge of the situation again, and earning an estranged look from the queen after she realised something odd about her.

    "Lady hero, you have the strangest magical aura I have ever seen."

    "I am special," Ikaris raised her nose with a smirk, and the queen diligently epted that as the truth and continued without another thought on the matter.

    "It is said that Argom was once a billion strong, but now, there are less than ten million humans remaining, our armies are a small million and a halfpared to the three hundred million before, everything has gone terribly wrong, and I cannot help but me myself,"

    "Well, if this war you have been fighting has been ongoing for longer than you have been alive then it is not really your fault that you are on the losing end, but take all the me you wish, I will still crush all enemies,"

    "Wow... Ikaris, you''re so badass," Solmitted to his role and gave her a nd and empty gesture of praise, but the goddess relished in it nheless and huffed proudly.

    "So that''s what''s up huh?" Han finally made his way to his feet seething with anger. "You went out and found yourself some rich chick to fight your battles for you?" He asked, and Sol''s face lit up with glee at how easily they were believing his nonsense.

    "Of course- of course! Ikaris is the answer to everything, why do I need to raise a finger when she is all-powerful?" He asked, and again Ikaris huffed up with pride.

    "Shameless coward."

    "Say what you will big guy, she''s strong enough for both of us, why would I raise a finger when she will protect me?" Solughed boastfully, earning looks of disapproval from most of the guards and the rest of the heroes, even Eris.

    "At any rate, you said that if we can defeat the demon army we will be sent back home, correct?" Ikaris turned to Queen Vermon again.

    "Yes, I willy down my life and send you back, it would be my honour as thest queen of Arkadia-"

    "Let us put a hold on that sacrifice thing, it makes Sol ufortable," Ikaris turned to him and took his hand. "He is also hungry, as am I, you are free to exin everything to us while we dine," Ikaris began walking just as the queen gave her an urgent nod and took off towards the staircase.

    "How sad, if it was anyone else, she would be taken advantage of," Sol frowned, ncing behind himself as the other five heroes began walking.

    "Especially that bastard," He red at Han who was still furious after being humiliated twice, from what he remembered of Han, he was nothing like what a hero was supposed to be, he indulged in lust and gluttony, sloth and greed, he was more like a demon than any human.

    "Watch your back, Ikaris, I know you don''t believe anyone or anything can hurt you, but we haven''t tested or proven any of that, and now you''re two whole dimensions away from your homeworld, let''s try the ve bond the first opportunity we get to see if it works as well, if this ce is as bad as it''s been made out to be we need our strengths."

    "Understood, my lord," Ikaris smiled because of his concern. "I will be careful,"

    "You are now entering her Majesty''s throne room," The lead guard announced, stepping to the side after exiting the staircase.

    "From here on, you will regard the queen with the utmost respect, failure to do so in her presence will lead to immediatel exile or imprisonment, Her majesty is not a weak woman, she is an undying me!" The guard continued speaking while they walked pass him.

    Sol was skeptical after the weakness the queen had shown, but he was shocked when he saw that same woman dressed regally and holding a muchrger sceptre in her grasp while she stood next to her throne.

    They were directed in front of the queen once more, and then the entire court knelt.

    "All hail Queen Misty Vermon the third, grand priestess and protector of ournds!" Her guard eximed.

    "Do we bow?" Eris asked, looking around and realising that they were the only ones on their feet.

    "Look above her head," the male of the other three unnamed heroes gasped, staring at the thirteen that had suddenly turned into a hundred and thirteen.

    "Heroes, my heart is touched by your sacrifice, I promise to do all in my power to help you grow, you will be provided with the best facilities and the best gear imaginable, along with your chosen weapon, once, I will set you on the path to the northern curved mountains, their of the demon lord, and there you will defeat Albion the ruler of the demon army, but before then, I will ask the six of you to..." Her eyes narrowed and she stared at them confused.

    "Majesty, what is the meaning of this?" A short priest stood next to the queen confused as well.

    "Seven... the hero summoning limit is supposed to be six, but seven people have arrived instead?"

    "Is there... An imposter?

 Chapter 10: You Want A Fight?

    "Is there something wrong?"

    "The hero circle is supposed to summon six people..."

    "So, one of us clearly is not a hero then," Sol spoke up before anyone could point their fingers elsewhere, he already knew that the imposter was Ikaris, but nobody else needed to know that.

    "Are you saying you know who the imposter is?" The queen red at him.

    "I am not a hero, I said that earlier, I was dragged here-"

    "Death to the imposter!" The priest next to the queen raised his staff, and a ball of fire appeared over his head. "I will burn him to ashes!"

    "Wait!" Queen Vermon shouted above the chaos in the throne room. "Nobody is to touch that man," She looked at Ikaris while she was speaking.

    Sol did not show any kind of fear, but Ikaris was on the verge of attacking the priest after he had said that.

    "That man is under the hero''s protection, to kill him is to make an enemy of the heroes, I forbid anyone from touching him," She dered.

    "The... six heroes, will now receive the blessing of the queen," the short old priest red at Sol hatefully.

    "What about Sol?" Ikaris asked.

    "He is no hero, he has no standing here, or anywhere else on Arkadia, from today onwards, he is no more than an outcast, as long as Ikaris remains alive he will be weed here, but should the daye when his protector falls in battle, Sol Vestic will be cast out and abandoned, there is no ce for weakness amongst the heroes.

    "Ikaris, go receive your blessing, I''m still hungry," Sol slightly pushed her forward.

    "Of course," She turned to the queen and walked past everyone else. "How does this work exactly?"

    "I will grant you the blessing of heroes, your stats will improve, your levels will rise, and in an instant, you will be more powerful than my strongest warriors," the queen raised her sceptre. "Take a knee and prepare to receive it.

    "If it''s a blessing you can just to anyone that easily then why summon people from their peaceful lives like that?" Sol mumbled to himself, but just loud enough that everyone heard.

    "The people of Arkadia are unable to receive the blessing of heroes, their bodies overflow with mana and they die instantaneous deaths, Arkadians cannot receive this blessing,"

    "What happens if I don''t receive the blessing of the hero?" Eris asked.

    "There is no ce for another regr human here, you would be killed and disposed of to save rations for the army," The priest answered seriously.

    "I thought we had a choice in this!" Han pped his fist against his palm, frustrated. But nobody said a thing after his outburst, instead he heard the sound of several swords being drawn as the guards stared at him.

    "If the hero refuses to fight for the sake of humanity, the hero forfeits his life," The queen tapped the sceptre on Ikaris''s shoulder and a bright white light filled the room.

    "Please, step forward heroes, and ept your blessings, or remain where you are, and ept your deaths."

    "This bitch is crazy!" Sol chuckled to himself, the conditions of this hero summoning were too cruel, but he only felt sorry for Eris, she seemed to be more scared than anyone else was.

    "Do you feel any different?" Sol looked at Ikaris who now had a small shield crest on her neck beneath his ve tattoo.

    "I was granted more power, so it seems my identity as a goddess will remain secret," She answered taking his hand and sighing. "It is insignificant though, but I can see the system you spoke of before, a strange little box of light with information on myself, as well as the levels of everyone,"

    "Really?" Sol seemed excited. "What''s my level?"

    "The system says error when I try to look at your level, the numbers are three digits, so the maximum level will be 999, but if it has an error then your level must be far above that," Ikaris answered with a proud huff. "Naturally, my hero is far superior to anything this backwater dimension can produce.

    "Your level raised from one to thirty after receiving the blessing," Sol nodded and then looked at everyone else. "Everyone else received ten, but you got twenty-nine levels,"

    "I am superior, clearly," Ikarisughed out with her nose pointed to the ceiling.

    "So, who will lead this hero''s party?" The queen asked, and everyone instinctively looked at Ikaris who was clearly stronger than they all were.

    "I do not want to lead, I will fight whenever I have to, but I will spend all my time next to this man," She pped Sol''s ass causing gasps throughout the throne room. "I do not have time to discuss battle ns and strategies, I do not care for such things, just point me in the direction of the enemy and I will destroy everything-"

    "He will remain by your side, hero," Queen Misty raised her brow.

    "Huh?" Sol asked.

    "Wherever the hero goes, so too will you, as a non-essential, your duty is to her, you will not be pampered by this kingdom. "She stared at him with visible disdain, clearly she hated the sight of the imposter.

    "So... As long as I''m with Ikaris, I can do whatever I want?"

    "... Yes,"

    Sol groaned annoyed. This was going to hinder hiszy life even more, he was going to have to be in any fight Ikaris was in.

    "I''m not a hero though-"

    "Then pray your hero protects you,"

    "That is not the agreement!" Ikaris looked across at everyone else who were all nodding in agreement to the queen''s decision. "If hees-"

    "If your wish is to go home, Ikaris, then you only need to kill the demon lord and vanquish his allies to the depths of their world, if that is all you wish to say, then I have other matters to attend to, you will be directed to the baths, and then fed and shown your sleeping quarters in the southern wing of the castle grounds, excuse me," She turned her back and left.

    "That woman, makes me want tomit crimes I have never thought of, I feel cheated," Sol sighed and looked across at the other five heroes who were all staring back at him.

    "Looks like I won''t have to raise a finger after all," Han snickered.

    "Did you say something?" Ikaris turned to the much taller man and stared up at him. "Maybe you need to be taught a new lesson already?"

    "You wanna throw down for real you pipsqueak?" Han stared down at her, but felt the air around him sting his face when Ikaris stepped closer and started grimacing, causing her stored-up divine magic to leak out and fill the room like a flood.

    "You want a fight, huh, are you challenging me to a fight?" Ikaris watched Han''s hand light up and a sword appear in his grasp out of thin air, and she reached for thin air and a ball of white fire appeared above her opened palm. "I''ll reduce you to ashes before you even have a chance to swing that piece of iron, boy,"

    "Boy?" Han raised his sword and swung it intent on cleaving her head clean off her neck.

    "I''ll kill you, you little rat!"

    "Wait!"

 Chapter 11: Death Threat.

    "Wait!" Eris screamed out running in between Ikaris and Han and almost losing her head if Ikaris had not kicked the back of her knee causing her to fall.

    "You moron, where have you ever seen someone run into the path of a sword in motion and live?" Ikaris chastised her and pped her on the back of her head.

    "Heroes, it is unbing of you to fight in the presence of others," A young woman spoke up from the side, she was almost a perfect copy of the queen, even without asking, nobody would deny that this girl was that woman''s daughter, she wore her hair the same, her dress was the same, she as a mini queen.

    "I apologise for my mother''s bluntness, she is overworked," She gave them a small bow as she approached. "I am Da Vermon, Princess of Argom, and I will be overseeing your affairs on the Queen''s orders.

    "A princess as a guide?" Sol mumbled and looked at Han who was ogling the princess without even checking his surroundings. "Are these people that desperate?"

    Please follow me, I will exin anything else you need to know as we walk, this gathering is dismissed," Princess Vermon waved gently to the court, and everyone began leaving immediately.

    "I thought this ce was gonna be a bore, but who would expect that I would be in the presence of a beautiful princess so soon?" Han asked, walking next to the princess and casually speaking to her.

    "Hero Han Young," The princess stopped and looked at him seriously. "You are not the strongest among the heroes, that title belongs to Miss Ikaris, I will only speak casually to the strongest, I will only dine with the strongest, a mere hero should know his ce," She red at him.

    "Heh, they''re all the same, pretty little devils," Sol chuckled to himself.

    "Did you say something?" The princess turned her attitude towards Sol.

    "Don''t mind me, princess, I''m not even a hero, just y your part and I will stay out of your way," Sol smirked at her resting his hand on Ikaris''s head, while the goddess herself was not even listening to a thing as she focused on Sol''s hand with a small blush.

    "Sol, your hand is so warm..." Ikaris couldn''t bare it anymore and grabbed Sol''s hand, hugging him against herself and sighing. "When can we be alone again?" She asked, and the male hero next to them groaned in annoyance.

    "What''s your deal man?" The hero asked, and Sol looked over his head, opening his status window forcefully.

    [ Name- Bruce Chaolung

    Race- Human

    Level- 011

    Title- Hero

    Skills- None

    ss- Shield

    Buffs- None

    Blessing- Hero''s Blessing

    Curse- None

    Special- None ]

    Unimpressive

    After seeing Bruce''s stats, Sol ignored him and looked at Ikaris.

    "Can you see my stats?" He asked, and she looked up at him.

    "No, when I try it says error," Ikaris chuckled.

    "That is probably for the best, Imagine f they actually could see your previous stats?" She asked, and he looked at her intrigued.

    "What would they be then?"

    "Judging by the strength of the strongest person I saw, which just so happens to be this princess here with a level of 202, your level by the end of the great war would have been somewhere between eighty to a hundred..." She admitted.

    "A hundred thousand?" Sol asked sceptically, but the goddessughed out.

    "Of course not, eighty to a hundred million, not thousand, I never would have chosen you otherwise.

    "That much?!" Sol snapped in horror.

    "Doesn''t that mean that your Demon king would have been able to easily wipe the floor with this entire?" He asked.

    "Aragor was not just a Demon king, Sol," Ikaris smirked at him. "He was the demon god before I summoned you, my world had undergone several thousand years of suffering under his reign,"

    Sol clenched his teeth and roughly patted her head.

    "AH? be gentle my lord, my head is fragile," Ikaris grinned at him.

    "You made me fight a god?"

    "Yes, you gained his powers after his death as well thanks to that gluttony skill you asked me for when we first met."

    "That [shapeshifter] skill he had mighte in handy then," Sol grinned to himself.

    "We are here," Princess Vermon announced and gestured to arge door guarded by a sole guard wearing ck armour.

    "Beyond this door is the hero''s bath, you have an hour, after which you will be provided with new clothes and be shown to the dining hall by someone else, everything you need will be inside." She quickly left them standing while the guard turned and started opening the door.

    "Is this some kind of mixed bath?" Another of the female heroes asked timidly, not just her, but the other women also looked at the men with disdain, specifically, Han.

    "The Women will bathe first, thirty minutes, and the men will bathe afterwards," Ikaris spoke up, looking at Sol with an almost apologetic expression.

    "Who gave you the authority to speak for us?" Usami Takae, one of the other three female heroes asked. "I thought you said you did not want to be the leader," She stepped closer to Ikaris.

    "If you want to bathe with the men then you can wait with them, but I will personally kill any man who dares to stare at me unclothed, no more than kill, I will crush them into a million pieces and devour their soul whole, understood?" Ikaris stood before the taller woman defiantly and pressed her thumb against her forehead.

    "This body belongs to Sol Vestic, anyone else who dares to approach me will suffer death and destruction," Ikaris dered and then looked around at Han, who she remembered was staring at her when they first met.

    "Especially this waste of human blood,"

    "I stare where I want when I want you little-"

    Han stopped talking when Sol ced a hand on his shoulder.

    "This is not up for debate, Han Young, If you stare at her, I''ll murder you myself," He smiled at Han with the most sinister auraing from his smile.

    "Ikaris is my goddess, she is my property, you''re not allowed to ever touch or stare at her with those filthy eyes of yours, if I ever catch you staring at her, I will gouge them out and feed them to crows, if you ever touch her, I''ll cut your hands off and feed them to the pigs," Sol continued smiling.

    "I am going to kill you," Han stared at Sol crossed.

    "Nothing in this world can kill me,"

 Chapter 12: The Demons Attack!

    "Sol, calm down, he didn''t mean it like that," Bruce tried intervening again, but Sol had passed his limits of patience with Han, he was turning out to be a thorn in his quest for a peaceful life and they had only been there for an hour.

    "Killing is prohibited within the castle grounds, any act of killing will be deemed a severe crime against Her Majesty''s rule, the punishment is death," The ck armoured guard stomped his spear on the ground, and Sol turned his attention to the man.

    [ Name- Grim

    Race- Human

    Level- 180

    Title- Queen''s General

    Skills- Indomitable Will (passive), Berserker, Tundra, Frostbite

    ss- Spear, Sword, Shield

    Buffs- Ice resistance

    Blessing- Queen''s Blessing

    Curse- None

    Special- Ice elemental spirit summons.]

    "Why is the queen''s general standing guard over the bathroom?" Sol asked, shocking everyone with the revtion that he was able to read their statuses.

    "I thought you weren''t a hero, how can you read statuses?" Usami asked surprised, but Sol ignored her a second time in favour of the General.

    "Her majesty, the princess had asked me to personally oversee you runts for the same reason as this, it would be a waste for the heroes to be executed because they have no control over themselves, but I never imagined that the one causing trouble would be the outsider that came with the heroes," He answered.

    "Well, don''t mind me, I''ll just wander around until everyone is done, and then I''lle back whenever," Sol stuck his hands in his pockets and walked off.

    "My-" Ikaris started but went silent when Sol kept walking with his hand waving at her. "If that is what you wish, then I will ask no more," Ikaris sighed and looked at the general again. "We will be going in then," She announced and walked into therge spacious spring-like bathroom followed by the other female heroes while the men stood at the side idly waiting.

    "Keep an eye on that troublemaker," The general spoke, and from behind him, seemingly out of nowhere a maid walked by bowing to the heroes and nodding to the general as she chased after Sol.

    By the time she turned the corner though, Sol was nowhere to be found, it was a long brick hallway withrge stained ss windows that couldn''t be opened, but somehow Sol had disappeared into thin air, the woman stood there for several seconds in disbelief, but eventually she started searching for him.

    Sol in the meantime was on the very highest point of the castle, the regr hood, pants and shoes that he was wearing were gone, and in their ce, he was wearing a long ck coat that covered down to his legs where he was wearing boots while he crouched and looked across the horizon.

    "To the East, there are demons, to the West more demons, from the North there are innumerable portals, and from the South more demons again, they''re surrounded with nowhere else to go, how pitiful, if I wanted to be the god of this world, it would be an easy matter to destroy everything and save them, but I don''t even want to be here, I have been wanting to watch my favourite anime (Three Piece), for over ten years, but as soon as Ie back I''m dragged here,"  Solined.

    "If Ikaris hadn''t volunteered I''d have probably gone out and killed everything overnight, but she wants to y hero, so I can just rx and see what happens," He smiled to himself, then looked at the northern mountains in the distance again.

    "There''s just no way they''d be able to beat that monster, even with ten years of experience and their levels maxed out, she would still kill them," He spoke out, using his enhanced vision to peek at the status of the Demon Lord of this dimension and remembering the one he had faced.

    "That thing might be another Demon god, aside from myself, only Ikaris can fight her, well, only Ikaris I guess, since I won''t lift a finger to save..." Sol paused when a cold wind brushed him from the side and he heard the sound of screams. "Ugh,"

    System

    [Activating enhanced vision x100]

    Sol stared at the vige at the far side of the kingdom, being attacked by level 80 demons, with the strongest fighter being only level 45.

    System

    [Activating telepathy, range, limitless].

    "Those demons are stronger than you, you stand no chance, get the vigers to the back of the vige and hide inside of the temple," He spoke calmly and watched the vige''s champion freak out after hearing a voice inside of his head.

    [ Name- Gordo Hurkson

    Race- Human (special)

    Level- 45

    Title- Chieftain

    Skills- Strike, quick attack

    ss- Spear

    Buffs- Strong leader (anyone who follows him receives a 10% strength buff)

    Blessing- Warrior

    Curse- Poverty

    Special- Limitless Potent me magic].

    "Who said that!?" The man shrieked.

    "Never mind who said it, just do as I say, within the next three minutes, all the demons and anyone else outside of that temple will be killed,"

    "Oh!" The man grabbed the closest old woman and started obeying the voice in his head. "Everyone! Into the temple now, the voice of God has instructed me, quickly, destruction ising!" The man shouted, and the entire vige became rampant as the people stopped running around like ants and turned into a stampede toward the temple.

    "Good job," Sol stood and held out his hand, summoning a spear in his grasp. "The weapon I have gifted you, will help you kill demons many times stronger than yourself, use it wisely, but mark my words, if you turn it against an innocent, the spear will kill you," Sol warned the man as he locked the doors of the temple and started leading everyone to an underground crypt.

    "After tonight, wait a whole day, and then seek the spear, and head to the capital, there will be no habitablend for miles, lead your people to safety.

    "U-Understood!" The man shrieked again.

    Sol cleared his throat. "Destroy everything," He whispered to the spear as it began glowing in his grasp, and then he tilted his arm back and threw it with a light huff watching it burst into white mes and disappear in the clear night sky.

    System

    [Activating, absolute barrier]

    Sol opened his palm and sped it shut, and the temple in the vige shook when a shield the shape of a pyramid appeared around it, blocking the demons from entering just as the sky above them became as bright as midday.

    System

    [Activating telepathy, range, limitless].

    "Demons of Arkadia, mark this moment where the night became day, and your night star trembled, your time ising to an end," Sol spoke in a frightening voice that sounded nothing like himself, as much as he hated to admit it, he wouldn''t see someone needing help and not help, and he hated demons more than anything else that existed.

    The demons stopped and looked to the sky, staring as the spear crashed into their army like a meteor, and from where he stood, Sol watched the horizon light up as a giant ball of fire arose from the ground and annihted everything for miles in every direction.

 Chapter 13: Goddess of battle

    Inside the castle in the bathhouse, Ikaris smiled and looked at the ceiling, she could feel Sol''s otherworldly magic in the atmosphere, she could see it everywhere like a fog, and she had witnessed him being a brilliant hero, despite hating the job and constantly iming he was not.

    "What''s up with those weird tattoos?"  Thest unnamed hero amongst the girls asked, staring at Ikaris''s back and how the chains on her ve crests connected with each other. "The way you behave gives me the impression that you''re some kind of noble at least, but with tattoos like that it''s more like you''re the daughter of some kind of gang member, or a gangster''s daughter or something,"

    "Frankly speaking, I do not like the lot of you looking at me either, especially you who have remained quiet all this time, Dina Levina, mage hero," Ikaris sunk into therge bath leaving only her head exposed.

    "You are all too weak to survive here on any level, I suggest you stop treating this as a normal summoning and see the facts as they are, you have been summoned to another world as thest hope of humanity, if you do not grow your strength you will meet gruesome deaths by the hand of demons, or, maybe even fates worse than death awaits those who fail," Ikaris shuddered, remembering with a disgusted expression how vile the demons of her home had treated the human women.

    "Are you seriously believing this bull?" Dina asked with a smirk, rxing on the edge of the bath and boldly exposing her cleavage to the other women.

    "There''s no way demons and magic exist, this is all just some long and thought out-prank, I can''t evenin too much because sses were killing me, I''m taking this as a retreat and enjoying their stupid fetishes as much as I can, I can even getid and really rx myself~" Dina stretched.

    "I do not think that''s the case at all," Usami shook her head, moving her short ck hair from her eyes to look at Dina. "If this is a prank then how do you exin the levels, and this-" She held out her hand and thought ''speare'', and just as she thought it, light appeared in her grasp and turned into a spear, just as Han had summoned his sword earlier.

    "I think we should properly immerse ourselves and learn about everything we can in order to survive, you heard the Queen right, if we don''t fight they''re gonna kill us, there''s no room here for doubt or mistakes, or disbelief," Eris spoke up, looking at Dina who was staring at Dina''s name, and the fact that unlike the rest of them who had gained ten levels from the queen''s [hero] blessing and Ikaris who had gained fifteen, Dina had only gained five levels, she was the weakest.

    "I am Eris Schneider, Level 11, my ss is Healer, so I guess I can do things like heal injuries and add buffs and so on."

    "Are you serious right now-"

    "I''m Usami Takae, level 11, my ss is Spear Hero, as you can see," Usami slowly waved her spear in the water after interrupting Dina.

    "Well... I''m Dina Levina, and I guess I''m supposed to be the Mage or something," Dina had an embarrassed blush as she was stared at by everyone else.

    "What?" Ikaris asked with her eyes closed.

    "What about you, the only thing we know is your name," Eris tried approaching Ikaris but was promised pain as the goddess red at her from the far corner of therge bathpool.

    "Did you not hear my Sol speak for me earlier?" Ikaris huffed and turned her back to them again. "I am a goddess, there is nothing else I wish to reveal to you peasants," She leaned on the edge of the pool, using her divine sight to stare through the ceilings at Sol who was rxing on the roof.

    "How do you expect anyone to take you seriously when that''s all you have to say, and who the hell are you calling a peasant?" Dina shook her fist, but Ikaris ignored herpletely.

    "Pardon the intrusion!" A maid announced herself as she approached from a side door, carrying with her arge cart full of fine clothes and minimalist jewellery. "Her majesty has ordered a change of your garments from your foreign world, these may seem like normal clothing, but they have all been blessed and have several buffs to their properties, they provide armour and-"

    "I will pass on getting any of that," Ikaris looked around at the cart. "I don''t want it."

    "Pardon?"

    "My dresses are far superior, and what I was wearing before was handpicked by Sol himself, why would I ever wear that dribble over the Clothes chosen by him?" Ikaris asked with her nose upturned.

    "But the queen-"

    "The queen can kiss my ass, I''ll wear whatever I want, I''m not her subject nor her servant for her to order me around, I answer to only one, and hisw is the onlyw I will obey," Ikaris chuckled to herself.

    "God, all she talks about is that imposter bastard, he wasn''t even supposed to be here," Dina scowled, and Ikaris took a serious expression, indeed, they would have been separatedst minute if she wasn''t holding on to Sol''s arm, he would have been the only one summoned to Arkadia and she would have been stranded on earth because of the ve contract she ced on herself that limits her power to whenever he touches her improperly.

    "If I lose him, nothing else matters, he is my master, and I am his property," Ikaris sighed sadly. "My existence would be iplete."

    "Hey... hey, what the hell, she''s a fucking delusional submissive!" Dinaughed out loud.

    [Activating Telepathy, range, individual infinite]

    "Ikaris," She heard Sol''s voice in her head.

    "Yes!" She looked upward, causing everyone to stop and stare at her as she rushed out of the bath and her clothes vanished from the maid''s grasp and appeared on her.

    [Come to me right now, I want to test out the contract,] She heard his voice again and took off toward the windows.

    "Hey what are you doing!?" Eris shrieked when Ikaris jumped out the window without hesitation.

    "She''s lost her mind!" Usami summoned her spear and started running toward the window, but she was suddenly blown off her feet when Ikaris flew upwards past her with a pair of white wings covered in light. "Waaah?!"

    "She has mastery over her magic after only an hour!?" One of the maids gasped and covered her mouth, falling to her knees with tears in her eyes. "The legends, the legends were true, the chosen one, the goddess of battle has finallye to Arkadia, she is our long-awaited hero of legend!"

    "Goddess of battle?"

 Chapter 14: Contract Of A Submissive Goddess

    "Goddess of battle?" Eris asked.

    "Legend tells of a great hero who woulde to Arkadia, the champion of another world, one who has killed gods before and seen lossparable to death itself, a god of war and battle, an absolute power uncontested by anything on Arkadia," The maid shook her head while another maid helped her to her feet.

    "That''s ridiculous," Dina scoffed. "There''s no way that woman is any kind of goddess of war or whatever, she''s nothing where wee from, I''ve never even seen or heard of her,"

    "And yet, she holds the appearance of the one who is heralded as the greatest," The maid pointed to the roof, and all three heroes were shocked when they saw that the ceiling was a giant mural painting of the very same legend they were talking about.

    There were drawings of demons from one side to the other, filling up every corner, and in the midst of it there stood two figures, one male and the other female, the male stood still, safe in the chaos, and next to him was a ck haired woman with a ming sword andrge white wings just like Ikaris''s.

    "Wow," Usami took the blouse from the maid and covered her naked self, the others seemed to not mind, but she was too shy to be brazenly parading around without clothes like that. "If someone like that came, then what is the point of us as heroes?"

    "Obviously, if she''s this hero, then we''re her support, just think, she''s already amazing but maybe she can''t use healing magic like I can, we don''t know what she can do, but if she can get me home faster if I help then I''m gonna give it my all too!" Eris pumped her fists.

    "You''re all crazy, do you think that bitch cares about anything other than that weakling of a man she''s so obsessed over?" Dina scoffed again, and everyone looked at her, maybe she was right too.

    Outside on the rooftop of the castle Sol was lying on a beach bench and bathing in the light of Arkadia''s three massive moons in the sky when Ikaris crashed through the window and flew up to him,nding and falling to her knees at his side.

    "My lord, you called?" She took a submissive role immediately, rxing with her hands in herp and her head slightly lowered beneath his gaze. "Do with me as you please," She scooted closer to him, unable to hide the blush that revealed her true nature.

    "Come closer," Sol sat up extending his hand to her.

    Ikaris did not hesitate, she reached for his hand with her eyes glimmering like stars as he helped her to her feet. "If I may, my lord, how exactly will you be testing the hnn!?" Her curiosity was rewarded when Sol suddenly grabbed her hip and ced her to sit next to him.

    "Try to keep your voice down this time," Sol ordered her and watched fascinated as the goddess nodded and slightly leaned toward him with her eyes closed in anticipation.

    "So, I remember there was one here," Sol ced his hand firmly against her breast, but paused and shook his head, and then with a scoff he snapped his finger and the hoodie she was wearing vanished out of sight, leaving only her fis blouse and her bra beneath it, and then her groped her again, and watched as the ve crest on her skin lit up at his touch.

    "Ah~"

    "Keep it down," Sol sensually guided his other hand across her other breast and rested it on her abdomen, just above her hip, and watched as several small crests lit up down there as well. "You said this heightened sensation, right?" Sol asked curiously, as his hands began moving on their own and Ikaris began breathing heavily.

    "Ah-yes, M''Lord," she answered.

    "Then the more pressure and force I use..."

    "The stronger the sensation-aah!" Ikaris failed to keep her voice down when Sol suddenly sunk his finger into her soft skin grabbing both of them and raising them with an amused and childish excitement.

    Ikaris shook from the sudden rough manhandling, her arms grabbed onto Sol''s, and her legs crossed as she looked up at him.

    "M-my lord, did you just use more magic on my magic?" She asked as a bead of sweat rolled down her neck and into her bosom.

    "I did," Sol nodded, taking her hoodie and slowly draping it around her shoulders and then taking her cheeks in his palms. "I don''t know why I''m thinking of As now, it might be nostalgia after spending ten years there, but...

    If I think of it as home, then I think you''re the remedy for my homesickness, so I''ll be taking advantage of that," Sol pulled her in and slowly ced a kiss on her forehead, and then another on her nose.

    "M-m-m-mmm~!" Ikaris started melting in his grasp when all the crests on her body started lighting up one after another because of his actions.

    "Master~" Ikaris opened her mouth and weed Sol''s kiss, and as he kissed her, he felt the familiar magic of her home dimension multiply and invade his body in massive quantities.

    The longer he kissed her, the more magic he could feel, like a drug, it was addictive, and she showed no signs of wanting to stop either, after a few minutes kissing the goddess and allowing himself to do as he pleased, she was pudding in his arms.

    "Okay, that''s enough, I guess I understand how it works on a better level now than I did before," Sol ended the kiss, but Ikaris waspletely out of it, for him it was a simple exchange of gaining magic in the most perverted way he''d ever seen.

    But for Ikaris, it was more personal, she had been groped to stimte her magic, and then kissed and had that magic absorbed from her erogenous zones where the crests were meticulously ced, for her it felt like she had just been pushed over an edge and was still riding it out, and it showed with the way her eyes barely focused on him even as he spoke to her.

    "Hey,"

    Sol snapped his fingers in front of her, barely waking her up.

    "Yes, Master?" Ikaris slumped on his chest and took a deep breath of his scent. "You smell divine, Master~" she blushed.

    System

    [Warning, divine magic detected]

    "Hm, someone''s trying to spy on me?" Sol looked toward the sky where a single star was brighter than the rest all of a sudden. "You''re just realising our presence now?"

    System

    [You are being observed by a god]

    [A god shows disdain at divinity mixing with mortality]

    "You''rezier than even Ikaris was." Sol set her to lie down on the bench and summoned another spear staring at the skies. "Don''t pry in my business, I can forgive my goddess, but how dare you peek your filthy eyes in another man''s private affairs?"

    [A god is disgusted]

    Sol pointed his spear to the stars, "Disgusting, who the hell are you calling disgusting, you want a fight, you bastard?" He leaned his head like a gangster.

    [Warning a god has shown animosity]

    [Warning, a god is staring at you]

    [Warning a god is approaching]

    [Warning a god is approaching]

    [Warning!] ...

 Chapter 15: Cursed by the Gods.

    [Warning a god ha- ]

    "That''s enough already," Sol stuck his finger in his ear, silencing the system with a thought. "Now then..." Sol tapped his finger against the spear and smiled to the night sky. "Let''s dance!"

    With a quiet leap, Sol took off into the air like a bolt of lightning, approaching the clouds in an instant and stopping when the descending light halted just outside of the atmosphere.

    [How dare you, a mere mortal-] He heard a male voice booming from the atmosphere around him, and in response, Sol chuckled and stuck his finger in his ear again.

    "Trying to intimidate me to avoid a fight?" Sol asked with his brow raised. "Come on,e a little closer,e to daddy Sol and let me show you how easily a god can be broken!" Sol roared back to the skies, waving his spear angrily and causing the clouds to disappear from just swinging his weapon.

    "I get it, I understand what''s going on here, it''s not that these people aren''t praying, it''s really that their gods have abandoned them, to you who created a system in ce of yourzy blessings this is nothing but a game, while demons from another dimension run rampant, you treat it like entertainment!" He pointed his spear to the slowly retreating light.

    [...]

    "I saide and fight me!" Sol snapped again, taunting the god into action, but his taunt went unanswered a second time.

    "...Or, is it that you''re nothing but a coward, honestly I get it, my goddess has the power to govern an entire universe on her own, but you''re a mere pantheon of separate consciousnesses, she''s stronger than you are, maybe even stronger than all of youbined, you''re too much of a coward to face her, or the mortal she has given herself to," Sol grinned, summoning white armour over his clothes.

    [H-how dare you!] The skies boomed again causing thunder across the heavens as the light descended with a roar.

    "That''s more like it!" Sol''s grin became feral and he turned his spear sideways, changing the weapon into a giant hammer and wailing it just as the god descended upon Arkadia pping him back into the cosmos in an explosion that could be seen from any corner of the continent he was above.

    "I don''t care what you do here, but I can''t stand those in power abusing it simply because they can, especially when they stick their noses into my business," Sol turned his back to the sky.

    [Warm-]

    [Impudence.] Sol heard the voice of another god above him, and turned just in time to block a zing crimson sword from cleaving him in half.

    [How dare you strike a god?]

    "Well, this is a pleasant surprise," Sol chuckled as a bead of sweat rolled down his cheek.

    "Where the hell were you hiding?" He asked staring as a female figure of white light holding a red ming sword casually floated before him, she was as tall as a five story building, and even through the light he could see her armour and her long flowing hair, unlike the other god that had approached on impulse, this goddess was far morepetent.

    [Warning, Dr''ul, the goddess of war has taken spite against you]

    [A curse of the gods has been afflicted upon you]

    [Curse: DAMNED has been afflicted]

    [Whenever facing an opponent of lower power their stats will increase by 80%]

    [Whenever facing an opponent of lower stats, your overall stats will receive a 30% debuff]

    "Shit, she''s stronger than I expected, did I get myself killed by mouthing off to unknown gods?" Sol asked himself as another bead of sweat rolled down his cheek.

    [Know your ce human!] The goddess approached him in the blink of an eye and swung her ridiculouslyrge sword again.

    "Raaa!" Sol roared and swung his hammer putting his back into it and shing against the goddess causing the skies to ripple and the atmosphere to tremble as his hammer and her sword were sent flying in two directions while her hand only shook, Sol''s entire arms trembled as blood dripped from the creases of his armour.

    [This is my only warning!] The goddess raised her fist and struck Sol after realising that a serious fight against him would probably kill everything beneath them, the punch itself shook Sol and caused his bones to rattle as he plummeted from the air, but before he could crash into the ground he vanished, appearing at Ikaris''s side unharmed and confused.

    "Interesting," Ikaris stared at the goddess of war with a smirk. "Master, shall I-"

    "Don''t," Sol grabbed her hand. "If you take action then all of them will join the fight, I hate to admit it but you would lose a fight like that, remember Ikaris, your immediate magic is limited," He reminded her, and a bead of sweat rolled down her cheek.

    "Ah- yes, what was I thinking, I am a hero here!" She chuckled sheepishly and turned her back to the goddess as she slowly ascended with her hand that had swung the sword trembling from the aftershock of her sh with Sol.

    [How in the gods did that monstrous human get summoned here, and with a foreign god too?] Dr''ul thought to herself  as she disappeared. [If he behaves, he might be the answer, after all.]

    "Are you okay?" Ikaris looked at Sol concerned, watching as he checked himself for any injuries. "Master?" She took his hands and squeezed them when she sensed the fear beneath his calm exterior, her blue eyes turned a sick and frightening red, and her godly demeanor became that of a devil as she stared at his hands intently.

    "I am yours tomand, of you give the word, I will destroy everything, their pantheon, their world, and them along with it all,"

    "I just said you can''t-"

    "I will destroy them all!" Ikaris squeezed his hands, and Sol felt a surge of power beneath her anger that threatened to explode. "How dare they, how dare she!"

    "Ikaris, stop," Sol took his hands from her grasp and rested his palm on her head, watching her calm down immediately and be docile.

    "It was my arrogance that led to that encounter, technically, they''re not at fault, and I may have jumped the gun with my assumptions too, it doesn''t seem that their world is as ck and white as we thought," He caressed her head gently. "Nobody was hurt, so let it be,"

    He seeded in calming her down at the expense of sharing the me between himself and the gods.

    "Fuck she nearly lost her shit, I don''t want to fight gods like this, are you insane Ikaris!?"  Sol had a meltdown in his mind as he thought of fighting a pantheon of gods.

    "Thank you for getting mad on my behalf," Sol rubbed her cheek, and she hummed under his palm from being praised, but their moment was interrupted when they felt another magical presence approaching rapidly.

    "I found you!"

 Chapter 16: System Error

    "Took her long enough," Sol snickered to himself watching the skilled maid run along the rooftop toward him, while Ikaris slowly disappeared.

    "Sir, please refrain from wandering off like that in the future..." The maid stopped in front of them panting after searching the entire castle before seeing him through a tower window.

    "Are you my babysitter?" Sol raised an amused brow.

    "Actually, yes!" She reached for his hand and pulled him along roughly. "The general has instructed me to keep you in my sights at all times, nowe, you are to take a bath and join the heroes for dinner with the queen, you as an imposter must keep a low profile and behave yourself is that understood?" The maid stepped on the edge of the window and Gertrude that he enter before her.

    "... Understood ma''am,"

    "Please, I am Sara, do not call me ma''am we should be the same age," She smiled at him.

    "Okay, Sara." Sol smiled to himself and obeyed her.

    "You''re back?" Princess Vernon turned as soon as Ikaris entered the dressing room regarding her with a warm smile. "What happened?"

    "She went crazy and jumped out a fricking window, that''s what happened!" Dina grimaced from the side, she was no longer wearing her earth clothes, she and the other female heroes were instead wearing the clothes of Arkadian Nobility, though Dina herself was wearing pants while Eris and Usami wore full dresses.

    On the other side of the room, Han and Bruce were wearing different clothes as well, leaving only Ikaris who had stubbornly refused to wear anything other than what Sol had given her.

    "I met Dr''ul," Ikaris proimed with a sour expression. "I must say, I do not like her one...!?" She stopped shocked when the princess suddenly approached and grabbed her by her shoulders.

    "Dr''ul!?" Da shrieked, staring Ikaris in her eyes. "Did you truly meet Dr''ul!?"

    "Yes, thisrge muscr figure with a body covered in white light and a ming red sword, Dr''ul." Ikaris removed the princess''s arms with a slightly disgusted face. "Do not touch me so casually, regardless of the situation,"

    "A-apologies!" The princess dropped to her knees and stared up at Ikaris with bright blue eyes full of wonder, adoration, and respect. "Unbelievable, you have been acknowledged by the goddess of war and you have yet to even touch the battlefield!"

    "Acknowledged, is an understatement-"

    "Most definitely not!" The princess eximed passionately, causing a blush across her face.

    "Dr''ul, the goddess of war, the most violent and impractical of all the gods that created Arkadia, I could have easily refused to believe, but not only did you provide her name despite not being Arkadian, but you even know her appearance which is only recorded once in the history of our people, magnificent, this... You Hero Ikaris, are truly magnificent!"

    "Did she really?" Eris turned to Dina, but found the woman fuming with her teeth grit and steam rising off her clothes.

    "Does she strike you as the type of woman who likes a lot, she''s been unbelievable since the start, using magic even though nobody taught her, dering herself the strongest, hell, there''s a ten-thousand-year-old mural of her in the castle, it makes sense don''t you think?" Usami asked with slight praise in her voice.

    "Ikaris, is the chosen among us heroes, I think, if we all want to get back home alive, she''s our best chance,"

    "What garbage," Han spoke up. "There''s no way you met any goddess of war, what a load of bull-"

    "So I suppose that great red me in the distance isn''t the doing of the sword of the goddess of war falling from the heavens, and all the thundering you heard on this clear night were just what then?" Ikaris asked, pointing to a closed window, next to him.

    "Don''t bullshit me-" Han shoved the window open and went into shock when he saw the red me she spoke of, a tower of crimson fire off in the distance that seemed to reach into the heavens.

    "Why, why did the goddess drop her holy weapon, there is nothing in the texts that said this would ever happen," Princess Vermon stood afterposing herself.

    "History is not set in stone you know, unexpected things happen all the time, honestly, it was kind of a shock for me too," Ikaris nodded, but she didn''t mean the fact that the goddess had lost her sword.

    She was talking about the fact that Sol was only able to tank a single attack from her before being struck from the heavens, it made her blood boil that a foreign god was so easily able to beat her greatest warrior.

    "The meal begins in thirty minutes," One of the maids had a small magical item resembling a watch staring at a timer with arcane letters and numbers.

    "In the meantime, where is the imposter?"

    "Oh, he is in the middle of a bath," Ikaris pouted, taking a seat opposite of everyone else and crossing her legs with the most regal posture the princess had ever seen from someone other than her mother.

    "He was dragged there by several maids," She huffed.

    "Several?" General Grim asked surprised. "I sent only one-"

    "You will find that it takes more than a single woman to subdue him, Sol is a beast, he does whatever he wants whenever he wants, he does not adhere to any rule, he is subject to no being be it a mortal or a god, he is and will always be the brightest star," Ikaris boasted.

    "Are you kidding me, that boy is nothing but a side character," Dina scoffed causing Ikaris to lower her gaze to meet the woman who seemed set on opposing every word she uttered. "Don''t start trying to convert anyone into your fetishism.

    "Dina Levina, a mere level 6," Ikaris smirked after hitting the nail on the head.

    "I promise you, he may actively y the role of a weakling, but Sol is the strongest, otherwise, how could he have subjected me to his will, maybe the Sol you knew was some weakling, in fact, he probably was, but the man I met is not weak, he is resilient, intelligent, brave, heroic, he is everything a man should be, and most of all, he is powerful beyond anyone''s wildest imagination, and despite all of that, he is still pure of heart."

    "You expect me to believe that?" Han spoke up again, siding with Dina. "Sol Vestic has always been a weakling, just because he went and put on some muscle over a month of absence doesn''t change that fact,"

    Meanwhile, Sol was seated in the bathroom with three maids fully nude surrounding and washing him while he wore a serious expression as he recounted his short fight with the goddess of war.

    "Dr''ul, she utterly beat me in two moves, if we weren''t above such a popted ce I''m sure she''d have tried killing me at whatever cost, but thest kingdom must be important to the gods, not only that, but she even cursed me, I''m sure Ikaris can get rid of it, but it just goes to show, I may be strong, but the gods here are no pushovers either, if I don''t want to end up getting killed because of some irrational deity, I need even more strength, I don''t know how, but I need to get stronger somehow!"

    System

    [Open status window]

    [Error]

    [ Name- Sol Vestic

    Race- Human +

    Level- 98,350,120

    Title- Error

    Skills- Error

    ss- Error

    Buffs- Error

    Blessing- Goddess''s Love

    Curse- Damned.

    Special- Error

    Evolution- Unknown]

    "How on earth do I get stronger?"

 Chapter 17: Who the hell are you?

    "How disheartening," Sara sighed helping Sol into his Arkadian attire. "How can one man be so... untempted, am I not attractive?" She looked at Sol with a pout. "Little lord, are you perhaps impotent?" She asked while her fellow maids were getting dressed right in front of Sol.

    "Impotent!?" Sol almost broke intoughter. "Of course not, I''m simply not interested in you," he answered causing all three of them to stare at him shocked.

    "A-are you into men?" She seemed embarrassed now.

    "No, listen you''re pretty, but I have no interest in any of you," He took the buckles of his pants from her and did it himself while she went behind and ced a small towel over his head and started drying him.

    "Have you seen Ikaris?" Sol asked, and Sara paused and thought about the hero who imed Sol as her own.

    "She is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen," Sara sighed, understanding what he meant now, and the other two maids sighed along with her, they had not seen Ikaris, but rumours of her beauty had already spread throughout the castle among the staff and servants.

    "I told her to wear those clothes because she has a tempting body, and it would be a hassle to constantly fend off other men, if I were topare her to anything it would be the goddess of lust and temptation, she is iparably attractive," Sol admitted something he had always thought even on the first day he had met the goddess.

    "I believed only she held you in high praise, but I see the feeling is mutual," Sara responded sheepishly. "I am sorry for the way I behaved earlier,"

    "It''s fine," Sol nodded while the other twoaids helped him with his shoes.

    On the other side of the castle, Ikaris had an extremely pleased expression while she was walking next to Eris, who was by far the least annoying person among the heroes.

    "Is something wrong?" Eris asked when Ikaris suddenly started snickering with herself after eavesdropping on Sol''s conversation with her irvoyance.

    "Hehehe he called me attractive beyondpare!" Ikaris snickered to herself while they entered a massive dining hall with arge table filled from one side to the next with the finest food any of them had ever seen.

    "Holy..." Eris stared in disbelief watching as not only the Queen, but several other important-looking people stood there waiting for them.

    "Are wete?" She asked, and the general behind them grunted.

    "Of course not, Grim answered. "The heroes can never bete, you are the hope of this world," He dered, gesturing toward the Queen with his head lowered.

    "Musicians," Queen Vermon waved her hand, and the musicians staged on a high balcony began ying soft music to kick off the entire event.

    "Wee heroes, I presume you have been taken care of..." She stopped when her eyes fell on Ikaris who was wearing the same attire she arrived in. "Had I not instructed that the heroes be fitted for the asion?"

    "The only person I will obey is Master, and the only reason we are not gone is because he has shown no interest in leaving yet," Ikaris dered.

    "Master?"

    "She means the seventh, my Queen, it seems the Hero Ikaris regards that imposter as master over her, she is obedient to none other than him, she even dered that no queen or god can get her to bend a knee, only him," Her advisor at her side whispered to her.

    The queen seemed reluctant, but because she valued Ikaris as the strongest and most willing amongst the heroes she allowed the disrespect in the presence of her subjects to go unpunished, swallowing it with a bitter pill and gesturing to the table. "Your seats have been assigned, Heroes,e and dine with me, tonight you will feast, and your training will begin at sunrise in the morn.

    Ikaris turned her attention to the door while everyone else went to their assigned seats, this is also when she saw Han of all peoplee next to her and ce his hand on her chair, pulling it out as a sign of courtesy.

    "They told me that next to you is where I should sit, as the next strongest amongst the heroes," Han spoke frankly, staring down at her with a somewhat lustful re.

    "Ikaris, did this bastard just stare at you?" Sol seemed to appear out of nowhere between the two of them picking up a fork and swinging it thoutlessly toward Han''s eye.

    If Han hadn''t been aware of the threat and seen Sol move he would have lost an eye in an instant, but he was able to summon a sword and block the fork causing it to graze and tear off a piece of his ear, but the sword itself was smacked into his face because of the amount of force Sol swung with.

    The entire dining hall erupted in gasps of shock and outrage.

    "How dare you attack a hero in my presence you-"

    "We have an existing agreement, Your Majesty," Sol turned his gaze to the Queen. "I would avoid him because of our personal grudge, and in return, he would nevery his eyes or a hand on Ikaris, this is a dispute amongst using from our own world, he broke that agreement the moment he ogled her,"

    "I-I never agreed to-" Han stammered to respond, but went silent at Sol''s gaze falling upon him again.

    "I do not care about some petty squabble!" The Queen stood outraged, looking at Han who was being healed by Eris and clutching his sword with his eyes wide in shock and blood dripping from his nose.

    "It''s his honour, and my pride on the line, a line that he crossed, no matter the day, age or world, no man has the right toy their filthy eyes on her!" Sol summoned a spear from his pocket arsenal and mmed the hilt of it on the ground causing the entire hall to shake and the musicians to halt in shock.

    "I don''t give a damn about your rules, yourws or your title of Queen, he''s lucky to be alive-"

    "Master, calm down," Ikaris grabbed Sol''s fist and slowly opened his hand, taking it and resting it on her own head.

    "Tch, find somewhere else to sit, I don''t want you anywhere near her from now on," Sol looked down at Han who was trembling on the ground and then looked at Ikaris. "Why are you still wearing that?"

    "Ah- because you bought it for me!" She chuckled nervously.

    "Sol Vestic, seventh summon, imposter amongst the heroes," The Queen leaned on the table angrily as her eyes red with magic.

    System

    [The queen has shown interest in you]

    "Just who the hell are you?"

 Chapter 18: An Impossible Dream

    System

    [You are under immense scrutiny from the entire hall]

    "How are you already able to use magic tiers above your-"

    "That is my magic," Ikaris interjected before Sol was able to respond to the Queen himself. "He is using my magic," She said again, causing murmurs to fill the hall.

    "I... I will need a better exnation than  ''he is simply able to use your magic,'' hero," Queen Vermon narrowed her eyes, but went silent in shock when Ikaris summoned another spear that was identical to the one in Sol''s grasp while the one he was holding vanished.

    "She is able to use spears?" Usami, the spear hero seemed shocked at this. "Then what use am I?" She asked, and Ikaris turned to her with a raised brow and then summoned a sword next, then a hammer, a crossbow, a magic staff, and a shield, causing the hall of nobles to erupt in spectacle as the nobles showed even more interest in her.

    "My ss is called [Mimic] this gives me the power to create anything in my mind and utilize it to the maximum potential from the start, it is only in the first level, but it is already easily understandable, and one of the many skills it has is called blessing, which allows me to grant any amount of my magic and the skill itself to anyone I please," Ikaris lied on the spot, in truth, she had no ss, all she had done was take the hero''s blessing from the queen instead of Sol, adding [hero] to her title to hide the fact that she was the true imposter.

    "So again, all he''s doing is leeching off you!" Han stood up after regaining his confidence in knowing that Sol was only using Ikaris''s magic and not his own,"

    "The blessing is permanent, the only leech here Han, is you," Sol turned to him with a hateful re, and Han shrunk again.

    "Even so, I cannot simply forgive what you have done, Sol Vestic, I will deal with your sentencing after the guests have left, you are permitted to dine, but any further outbursts will result in the death penalty, I do not care who you are, or who serves you," Queen Vermon looked at Ikaris who directed a hateful re toward her.

    "Your majesty, he''s not supposed to be here, how can you just let him be?" Han protested.

    "If you have the ability to remove him, Hero Han Young, then by all means go right ahead," The Queen answered Han with the most nonchnt attitude anyone had ever seen her disy publicly causing a few of the guests to burst outughing.

    "I swear it, Sol, you''ll regret this, this time, I won''t let this pass, you''ll get what''sing," Han stared at Sol hatefully and then moved down two seats leaving a noblewoman to sit next to Sol, whole Eris, Bruce Dina, and Usami were seated on the opposite sides, with Usami next to the General and Ikaris directly next to princess Vermon who were both seated next to the Queen.

    "Aren''t you going to do something about the way you''re dressed?" Sol asked loudly enough that almost everyone heard, the queen saw this as a small victory since Ikaris was proving impossible to control.

    "Does it bother you, master?" Ikaris seemed distraught that he wanted her to change her hood and shorts, but they just didn''t fit the overall vibe, she was constantly drawing attention.

    "It doesn''t, in fact, I prefer you wear this to keep yourself out of people''s eye, but you don''t have to always do as I say down to the letter, y''know," He took her hand and stood again with her.

    "How about that dress you wore when we first met," he whispered to her, and she nodded immediately.

    "Then," Ikaris helped Sol unhook his coat and threw it over herself as light shined from the sides and creases, and the next moment Sol removed his coat she was dressed more elegantly than even the Queen, in a pure white dress a small amount of her cleavage exposed and the tail just below her knees and a split that went up to her thighs while the dress itself hugged her body.

    "These two are full of surprises," The noblewoman stared shocked at Ikaris.

    Just as Sol had predicted, now that Ikaris was in the view of others with her slightly glowing dress, they couldn''t stop staring at her, it was not that she was too attractive to look away from, it was her divinity that drew eyes, everything she did was a divine act, it was impossible to not be drawn to her.

    "The feast will continue!" The queen spoke up kicking everything back into motion.

    The dinner, despite everything that happened, was a sess, and in the end, after meeting several nobles, the heroes were finally able to get some well-needed sleep.

    "Training begins at dawn they said," Ikaris sighed sitting between Sol''s legs while he ate a blue apple and stared out the window of their bedroom at the three moons of Arkadia.

    "Master, are you sure you are okay?" Ikaris asked after he said nothing.

    "Ikaris," He addressed her and she sprung from her lustfulfort and fell to her knees at his side resting her hands on his leg and staring up at him pleadingly.

    "I am yours to do with as you wish, Master,"

    Sol unconsciously reached for her head and pulled up a fistful of her hair, raising her off her feet and standing along with her.

    "The demon king, was he really a demon god, or did you just say that to make aparison to his power?" Sol asked throwing her on the bed and kneeling over her.

    "I.. he... Uh," Ikaris was flustered when Sol ced his hand over her throat directly on top of the ve shackle tattoo and bound her hands above her head with a magic enchantment. "He was a demon king who wanted ascension to godhood, by the time he fought you he was already strong enough to im his seat next to me,"

    "But he was much weaker than you were, right?" Sol asked staring down at her white dress that shined in the light of the moons, and her eyes which reflected every bit of light as they faintly glowed in the shadow of his reflection.

    "Yes, iparably so, Master," Ikaris sucked in a breath when Sol reached for the straps of her dress and started undoing them.

    "Then, a serious question," Sol grabbed her dress, and veins popped up across his arms as he utilized his strength to the maximum potential and grit his teeth, holding the intersection between her breasts and tearing the dress open with a low growl.

    Ikaris was equally pleased as she was shocked, Sol had torn apart her garment a godly artifact capable of surviving the explosion of a star, and he had torn it in two with his bare hands.

    "Master~" Ikaris held on to the magical binds with her eyes zed over in admiration. "Have you be stronger again?"

    "That''s my question," Sol stared at her naked form beneath him. "Tonight was a wake-up call I never expected after feeling like I had be the peak of strength, so I wanted to know, just how powerful do I need to be to defeat Dr''ul the goddess of war?" He asked while she began squirming beneath him as his hands slowly explored each ve crest on her torso.

    "Is there a way for me to reach that level of power while we''re here on Arkadia?"

    "Master~"

    "How do I gain the unattainable power to kill god?"

 Chapter 19: Get along with humans

    "Master," Ikarisid on her stomach, wrapped in the bedsheets while Sol was standing by the window, watching the sun slowly rise over the horizon. "Is your goal to challenge and defeat the Arkadian pantheon?" She asked, taking a deep breath and standing on the bed with the sheet over her shoulders.

    "I don''t want to, not at all," Sol looked around at her. "In all honesty it''d be great if I never had to raise a sword or spear again as long as I live, ten years have left me with scars and sights that I never want to relive again... But,"

    "But?" Ikaris asked walking up to him and resting her forehead on his bare back.

    "These gods cursed me, and they have shown interest in me, then there''s that mural I saw in the heroes'' bathrooms; it was the two of us fighting that demon lord from another dimension, I don''t think I can rest easy as long as I''m on Arkadian soil, and I don''t think we can leave whenever we want either, so I want to be strong enough that not even the gods can disturb my peace, and you won''t have to stain your hands with fighting," He turned and rested his hand on her cheek smiling fondly at her.

    "I quite like the exercise every now and then though, Master," Just as Ikaris closed her eyes to receive a kiss, there was a knock on the door, and they heard a maid clearing her throat.

    "Please pardon my intrusion!" Sara slowly barged in with her head lowered. "Good morning Hero Ikaris, Lord Vestic." She gave them both a bow and then raised her head with a stoic expression. "Herpes training begins in a few minutes, the general has asked me to remind you,"

    "What, me too?" Sol turned to her, and she quickly blushed and looked away, causing Ikaris to open up the sheets and hug Sol under them reminding him that he was still very naked.

    Well, we''re ready," Ikaris dropped the sheets revealing herself and Sol wearingmon Arkadian cloth.

    "Wow," Sara mused and then pped twice inviting several other maids into the room. "T-then, the room will be cleaned and restocked in your absence, please follow me,"  She directed them to the door and started walking.

    "Why do I need to train?" Sol sighed depressed.

    "It is the demand of the queen that you undergo the same training as the heroes, since you also possess the abilities of a hero through blessing, you will be treated the same as they are in every regard, except title," Sara smiled as she lead them down the castle grounds toward arge clearing. "In that respect..." She went serious as she remembered every inch of Sol''s body.

    "Lord Vestic, are you perhaps a warrior from your own world as Lady Ikaris had dered?"

    "Hm?" Sol looked at Ikaris, and she looked to the side with a nervous smile, unable to hide the guilt of outing his secrets. "Why do you ask?"

    "I washed youst night, sir, you do not have the body of a man who has seen a day of peace in years, from the way you walk, to the fact that even when you hold nothing you still feel like you are holding a dangerous weapon, you have yet to drop your guard, I assumed you must be some kind of warrior, surely,"

    Sara turned with a sudden punch, forgoing her restrictions with the intention of stopping her punch halfway so she didn''t hurt him, but out of the blue before she could even stop she was upside down and falling.

    "Oi, that was dangerous," Sol caught her by her leg and let her down gently, but the maid was so shaken that she couldn''t move right away.

    "What just happened, I didn''t see anything," She thought, staring at Sol''s unassuming and innocent stare. "What the hell just happened, how did I end up upside down?"  She stared at him with her eyes wide in shock.

    "Are you okay?" Sol snapped his fingers at her.

    "Ah-yes!"  Sara righted herself and stood, fixing her dress.

    "Pardon me," She turned and walked without exining why she had suddenly attacked him.

    "Aren''t I level 70, how did I end up on the ground so fast, aren''t the heroes supposed to be under level 20? And he didn''t even get the blessing, so his level can''t be more than 5, but yet..." She bit her nails as a look of admiration and interest cast itself across her face along with a blush. "I was utterly beaten before I even understood what was going on!?"

    "She looks like a child that has just discovered a new toy," Ikaris nudged Sol''s ribcage.

    "I did not intend to, but our war quite literally ended just a day ago, as far as my senses and reflexes go, I''m the sharpest I''ve ever been," Sol stared at his hand as he remembered what happened.

    The moment the maid punched at him, Sol reached out his hand and twisted her fist with so much precision and uracy that her entire body revolved with it, causing her no harm in the process.

    It happened so fast that not even the wind around him broke, it was wless.

    "The training grounds," Sara announced turning thest corner and gesturing to the clearing they had been walking toward. It was arge clearing with small barracks at the farthest side with multiple different types of training facilities all across it, and standing in the middle with the general and several other soldiers were the heroes, and a few unknown people.

    "I am kind of curious about what they''re gonna do in this training," Sol admitted running his nose, staring at everyone and their levels. The highest was still the general, but using him as the peak of military power, these six unknown people weren''t all that bad.

    "It will be a hassle," Ikaris stared at the field. "Master, is it not better to simply march to this demon lord right now and kill her?" Sheined.

    "I don''t want to," Sol chuckled. "Training is easy it''s good to rx a little Ikaris," He patted her head with a grin.

    "But-"

    "Come on now, Ikaris," Sol smiled and pinched her cheeks. "If you want to y hero, you have to do a good job and impress me, if you want to be around me there is one thing you absolutely must learn,"

    "Master... I can''t-"

    "You have to learn how to get along with humans,"

    "Did he just say get along with humans?" Sara bit her lip in shock after eavesdropping on their conversation.

    [The goddess of war is paying attention]

 Chapter 20: The Training Grounds

    "Did I hear that right?" Sara stumbled in her stride and stopped abruptly in front of them.

    "I am more than just some human though, I am a goddess, and now I am even a hero," Ikaris shook her hands annoyed at his request.

    "You are only my goddess, nobody else''s, to everyone you are just another woman," Sol smiled at her.

    "Oh," Sara took a breath and began walking again. "I misunderstood," She shook her head assuming that they were just caught up in their infatuation for each other again.

    "Master, must I?" She asked with a pout.

    "It is an order, you don''t need to get them to like you, hell, I don''t even like them, but as a hero, it is your duty to see your role to the end, and that means you have to get along with them, at least a little,"

    "This might be the most difficult thing you ever ask of me," Ikaris walked ahead of Sol with her brows low and her eyes narrowed and greeted everyone with a nod. "Good morning-" She gave them a small smile.

    "What the hell, we were supposed to begin at sunrise, it''s already an hour after sunrise, you''rete!" Dina scolded Ikaris as soon as her momentum stopped, but another momentter Dina was eating grass with Ikaris standing in the back of her head.

    "I apologise for beingte, I have already been scolded by my master and ordered to do better, so let us please move on and begin, I am ready," Ikaris had a vein in the side of her head as the woman beneath her continued to curse profanities that the Arkadians had never heard or dreamt of saying in public.

    "Ikaris, you''re being a bit harsh," Eris helped Dina to her feet and tried healing her bruised forehead, but the angry woman pped her hands away and turned to Ikaris and swung her hand at her summoning a staff in an attempt to hit her in her face.

    "Heroes, please," General Grim blocked Dina''s swing and grabbed onto Ikaris''s hand before she stabbed her fellow hero to death with her summoned sword. "Please, this is the first day, I understand there is a lot you need to sort out asrades, but a fight to the death cannot be allowed,"

    He had a sheepish grin as he looked at Ikaris who was fuming after Dina had tried to hit her, he was especially shocked at how much strength she possessed, even though the heroes were summoned with a massive portion of mana and strength stats inparison to anyone else on Arkadia.

    This woman was far too strong already, had she swung that sword he would have had to tank or parry her blow instead of try catching her hand.

    "I don''t think I''ll be able to follow that order very well, Master," Ikaris looked around at Sol as he casually walked up to them and ced his hand on her sword.

    "Behave, Ikaris,"

    "...As you wish," She cancelled the sword and stood at attention next to him. "General, I apologise,"

    "Isn''t it strange how much she obeys him?" Usami asked Eris, and thetter nodded.

    "You''d think that being in another world would get her to change how she was, but she''s been like this since the moment we first met beforeing here, Sol is the only one she listens to," Eris added with a nervous smile.

    "Dina," It was wrong of me to strike you for stating facts, forgive me,"

    "You can save your forgiveness and watch your back, I''m gonna make sure to ruin that pretty face of yours the first chance I get princess!" Dina spat at her feet and turned her back, walking over to everyone else.

    "I will kill her." Ikaris bit her lip and took a step toward Dina, but was blocked by Sol''s hand.

    "I forbid it," Sol looked at her seriously, leaving no room for debate or challenge in his words. "Frankly speaking, I do and say a lot that conflicts with my beliefs, but I genuinely think that Dina is going to be useful, she is a mage-type, she isn''t like Han who only wields a sword, she''s going to be essential," He held on to her shoulder.

    "She threatened to touch my face, master-"

    "Focus on training, let me deal with her," Sol shook his head with his eyes closed.

    "Should I intervene as well?" Grim stood before Sol seriously, seeing that the imposter wanted to mediate.

    "No, that''s okay, I can manage,"

    "You are a strange anomaly, Sol Vestic," The much taller general looked down at him with a frown, he couldn''t find an opening to attack, even though Sol seemed to be standing passively. "When you are much stronger, I will challenge you to a duel,"

    "Sorry, you''re not on my list of people to fight," Sol smiled at the general.

    "List?" The man asked confused.

    "As far as strength goes, you''re already... Weak," Sol smiled at him.

    "Weak?" Sara stared at Sol''s expression as he said it, she couldn''t forget how easily and passively he had bested her in a contest of strength and speed. "The general is almost at 200, how can he call that weak?" She bit her nails again as a blush appeared on her cheeks. "This man, is he seriously that strong?"

    "Ha.. hahahaha!" The generalughed out and turned his back to Sol, prioritising the heroes. "Then when I am stronger, I will challenge you hahaha!" He continuedughing.

    "Sir," Sara approached Sol''s side right as he was about to join the others.

    "Sara?"

    "Can we fight?"

    "Sorry I''m going to learn some stuff now, plus those six people, I''m curious about them," Sol gestured to the six who stood opposite of Ikaris and the others.

    "Allow me," Sara gestured to the man standing with a sword in front of Han Young, the sword hero, he was a short little man with a round bald head that had only one lock of hair at the very top, but under his casual office worker getup, Sol could see decades of training, this man, even if he was lower level than the General was probably just as formidable.

    "That is Sir Kane Angelman, he is the former general of the former general of the Argom Army, he retired of old age just a few years ago and now serves as an advisor.

    "Oho, a named character atst," Sol held excitement as he stared at the former general''s stats.

    "Named character?"

    [Name- Kane Angelman

    Race- Human

    Level- 153

    Title- General''s Aide

    Skills-  Dance of a thousand des, Cloud-piercing strike, annihtion sword, heaven''s piercing barrage

    ss: Sword Mage

    Buffs: Commander: able to get her courage on any battlefield by simply being present, lower level enemies cower at his presence, allies get a 30% agility increase

    Blessing- Mana body; Subject can indefinitely absorb a set amount of mana from the atmosphere

    Curse- None

    Special- Sacrificialmb; Once enough mana is umted, subject can sacrifice their own blood and body to create a heaven-defying attack with their soul, 1 one-time use, punishment is instant death]

    "Wow! What a lineup!" Sol nodded his approval, maybe Han could learn properly under this man''s hand. "And who is that woman with the mage staff in front of Dina?"

    "That is..."

 Chapter 21: I see you

    "Lady A Amastacia," Sara gestured, and then stiffened when the woman who she had mentioned leaned her head and looked around Dina at her. "S-she''s a very observant and entric woman,"

    Her eyes were a dark brown, and her auburn hair caught her at the base of her thighs.

    She was wearing a robe that dragged along the ground, but one could see at a nce that she had a tempting body beneath the dark cloth, but what stood out even more were her ears, they were easily three times the length of a regr human''s.

    [Name: A Amastacia

    Race: Half-Elf

    Level: 170

    Title: Captain

    Skills: Copsing star, Earthen wall, Cataclysm, Flood, Hurricane, Absolute Zero, infernal magic

    ss: Mage

    Buffs: All elemental attacks lose 30% of their potency against the subject

    Blessing: Luck on the battlefield

    Curse: None

    Special: Blessing; Subject can share her life essence and conjure mass healing at the cost of shortening their life, consequence of overuse is death.]

    "Hoho~" Sol grinned when A looked at Dina and continued introducing herself. "She''s pretty impressive too, and those skills, I''d love to see them," he grinned. "And even more unexpected, I know the system keeps saying ''human'' but I never expected that races like elves existed here too," He looked at Sara with a curious grin.

    "Elves, Humans, orcs, trolls- the list goes on and on, there are even dragons and dragonkin hybrids here," Sara seemed confused at his statement.

    "Do you not have these on your homeworld?"

    "The only truly sentient race on earth, is human, there, we''re alone, angels are horrendous-looking catastrophic beings, and demons have no physical body," Sol exined unenthusiastically. "It''s not that interesting.

    "...right," Sara pointed to the man in front of Usami, holding a ck spear in his grasp. "That is Lord Morn Castillon, he is a high noble who earned his position through his own hard work on the battlefield," She exined and watched Sol''s eye going as he checked the man''s status.

    [Name: Morn Castillon

    Race: Human

    Level: 149

    Title: Duke

    Skills: Dark spear

    ss: Spearman

    Buffs: Persere; Skills of the abyss have no effect

    Blessing: Child of the abyss

    Curse: Child of the abyss; Subjects lifespan is shortened by 10%

    Special: Reaper; upon death, all who are deemed enemies within the vicinity will be cursed with abyssal magic and die immediately].

    "Hm, he''s the least impressive of the first three, but considering he''s going to be fighting the demons, he has the best counter to their dark magic, interesting," Sol nodded and then started walking over when the general gestured that he join. "You can tell me moreter," he waved at Sara.

    "Of course,"

    "Ah, the imposter," A addressed Sol with a lick of her lips before anyone else could say a word. "May I?" She walked past Dina and extended her hand toward him.

    "Uh-sure?" Sol reached his hand toward her with a smile, but instead of taking his hand, A roughly grabbed his shirt and pulled him into a kiss, shocking Ikaris so much she froze for a full second before she stepped across the shocked crowd and picked up the mage by her cor like a kitten.

    "Do I need to start making rules, how dare youy your filthy lips on my master?!" Ikaris seethed but made no attempt to harm the woman.

    "Oh my, what strength~" A chuckled in her hung state. "If you would kindly put me to stand, dear hero,"

    "That was unexpected," Sol wiped his lip with his cor and took a few steps back, thank you for the knowledge,dy Amastacia," He slightly lowered his head, and everyone looked at him shocked, while the half-elf smiled at Ikaris who slowly ced her to stand again.

    "Please refrain from doing that again though, I can''t protect you from Ikaris if you manage to cross her," Sol warned her as he raised his head again.

    "What just happened?" Dina stepped forward, and Sol leaned his head and turned to the other teachers rather than the heroes.

    "That is between the three of us, Hero," Sol answered while extending his hand toward Morn. "A pleasure, Sir Dark Spear," He smiled with his eyes closed, and the Nobleman''s eyes widened.

    "As impressive as you seemed from afarst night, I had not expected such a polished man in person," Morn took Sol''s hand in a firm shake.

    "Polished?" Sol asked grinning when he realised Morn didn''t want to let go.

    "Yes, you have the body of a warrior, and I could not help but notice your first chosen weapon was a spear," Mornughed back applying more pressure to Sol''s grip. "It makes me want to take up the user of that impressive ''mimic'' ability as my pupil instead hehe!"

    "What?" Usami gasped holding on to her spear. "Sir!"

    "There''s just no way that I would be a good pupil," Sol squeezed back with a smile, allowing his magic to slightly seep out after being challenged. "I can''t ept such a bold offer,"

    "Master," Ikaris grabbed Sol''s hand and pulled him away easily, and that''s when he realised that Morn''s spear was on the ground and he was cradling his hand with the other with a panicked expression. "Remember to not be too harsh with them," She looked around at the others who were looking at Morn shocked while Eris approached and extended her hands toward his bruised hand.

    [HEAL]

    "They are fragile," Ikaris narrowed her eyes, and Sol sighed and closed his eyes regretfully.

    "Fragile...?" A heard Ikaris while nobody else did. "Morn is not a fragile man," She mumbled to herself. "As you said to general dearest, he was simply too weak to contest you," She looked up at Sol who was staring at the man worriedly.

    "How strong do you need to be to so easily break one of the nation''s most powerful warrior''s hand so casually you do not even realise?" She questioned quietly as a smile crept across her face once more. "What an interesting man, Sol Vestic."

    "Of course," Sol pped his forehead and looked to the skies.

    [The goddess of war is watching intently]

    "How stupid of me,"

    [The goddess of war is staring at you]

    "These little people aren''t my side-quest are they?"

    [The goddess of war is curious about the imposter''s goal]

    "I don''t have any intention of fighting for these dned gods that cursed me, but the gods themselves are a whole other story, aren''t they?"

    [What is that supposed to mean, does the insolence of that man know no bounds?] Dr''ul sat on a golden throne in a room made of light staring at Sol through a system window.

    [System Error]

    [Huh?] She leaned forward when the message came through.

    Back on Arkadia, Sol had a grin while he was looking to the sky, and Ikaris next to him seemed to notice what he was doing when he started chuckling to himself and staring through his fingers.

    His left eye lit up with golden light, and magic engrams and circles rapidly rotated through it.

    [Activated: Eye of divinity]

    "That''s where my goals are set."

    [H-how dare he!] Dr''ul stood from her throne furiously staring at the system window.

    [Warning, Sol Vestic is observing you]

    [Warning, you have gained the attention of the tarnished warrior]

    [Warning, the warrior''s spite is being directed at you]

    [Sol Vestic isughing at your expression]

    [Y-you...!]

    "I see you, Dr''ul!"

 Chapter 22: One Foot In The Heavens

    [You, how dare you!] Dr''ul seethed, stepping off of her thronepletely walking toward the system window and grabbing the edges of the otherwise untouchable surface.

    [Warning, the goddess of war is wroth!]

    [The goddess of war epts your challenge]

    [The goddess of war is making preparations for battle]

    "Good grief can''t you take a joke?" Sol snickered when the clear morning skies began darkening and rain clouds began racing toward them from across the horizon. "Or, do you truly want to fight here, in the presence of your precious heroes, Dr''ul?"

    "M-my what strange and unpredictable weather we are having t-today!" A held on tightly to her staff preparing to flee on the first sight of any divine magic being activated near her after hearing Sol directly address and tease the goddess of war who she believed had abandoned Arkadia long ago. "Should we perhaps start training the heroes tomorrow?"

    "It is just a little could cover," Grim looked around at her after Eris had finished healing the hand of Sir Morn.

    "Well..." A stared at Sol''s provoking expression as the clouds slowly vanished again.

    [The goddess of war is reconsidering her attack for the heroes'' sake]

    [You have gained the spite and interest of the goddess of war once again]

    "Master Vestic... Sir," A approached Sol''s side nervously. "Did you just converse with the gods?" She asked, and Sol looked down at her with a raised brow.

    "Master?" Ikaris repeated.

    "Lady Amastacia," Grim called to her. "Please stay focused, your student is Dina, not the imposter, as interesting as he might be he is not the focus of today,"

    "Ah- yes," She nodded and approached Dina with a bounce to her steps. "Apologies Dina, something interesting caught my attention,"

    "... It''s fine," Dina red at Sol and turned her back, continuing her introduction to her future tutor.

    "Even though it seems like I''m weed here, I get the feeling that I am just a distraction," Sol looked at Ikaris sheepishly. "I thought I''d at least learn something interesting, but being around so many warriors has only served to bring out that part of me which I want to keep hidden," He exined and turned his back.

    "So... It is not your wish to challenge the heavens?" Ikaris asked, slightly disappointed.

    "I don''t... I''m not sure if I''m ready for that yet, maybe with some more time spent rxing, I can do it whenever I feel the urge," Sol chuckled and began walking away. "Isn''t Dr''ul kind of cute when she''s upset though, like an ember that won''t go out,"

    [The goddess of war curses at your impudence]

    Unlike the times they had appeared in the mortal world, the realm of gods seemed normal, aside from their grand structures most of the pantheon of gods looked like normal people, aside from the ones who were different in appearancepletely, like those with multiple heads, arms, and such, Dr''ul in particr carried with her the mes of warfare, so as long as there was the spirit of battle her red hair would glow brightly, but currently, the goddess of war''s head was ming because of how badly she wanted to teach Sol a lesson.

    She sat on her throne with her sword in herp, grinding her teeth and tapping her foot impatiently.

    [How dare he, how dare that mortal make fun of a god so openly, how dare he stare at my face, how dare heugh at me!] She held a hand to her red cheek as a blush crept across and doused her anger in one fell swoop while the system window closed. [How dare that man... With those eyes... I want to fight him more than anything else!]

    [Dr''ul!] Another voice echoed through her chamber while she was in the middle of fantasizing about her fight with Sol. [Dr''ul have you yet to smite the little bastard?] Came the voice again, and she sobered up and watched a male god with the head and horns of a goat with a shield on his back tear the space of her domain and enter unannounced.

    [You little goat,] Dr''ul grabbed him by his head and raised him off the ground, revealing that she was even more massive in her own realm than she was when she was on Arkadia or elsewhere, the god was as small as a cat to her. [How dare you enter my pce unannounced, did the human beat thest sense out of your ugly head as well?]

    [M-my apologies lord Dr''ul, but I spied and saw him walking unharmed after you descended and struck him!] The goat-head shrieked when Dr''ul squeezed his head.

    [My affairs with that man are to go undisturbed, they most certainly do not need to be discussed with the likes of you.] She shook him like a doll.

    [But know this, he may not be equal, but he already has a foot amongst the gods, several times more powerful than the vast majority of you lesser gods and almost equal in strength to many of the higher echelon, do not treat him like a cockroach, otherwise you will be trampled and embarrassed again, Sven.] She warned.

    [He may be human, but he has divine blessings from his own goddess, who treats him like her own god, he is beyond you.] Dr''ul stared at the shocked expression of the goathead and released him to the floor, and then watched him scurry away again and disappear through the system gate he had entered.

    [Sol Vestic,] She spoke his name with an air of respect, holding her cheek.

    [I truly wish to fight you.]

    Back on Arkadia Sol felt his ear ringing as he was being discussed by many gods.

    "Ugh, this is annoying," He tried drowning out the sensation by smacking the side of his head but in the end, it was to no avail, and he just started ignoring the feeling.

    "Lord Vestic," Sara held a fork with a red grape to his mouth, and Sol ate from her hand with a gleeful and carefree expression, sitting in the castle''s kitchen with her as the other maids had to be doing actual work.

    "Ah, it really does taste different from earth grapes, is this really grape?" Sol picked up another one, and the maid waved her hands with a sheepish smile. While the others gave her expressions ranging from annoyance to jealousy.

    "I assure you it is!" She chuckled, taking a seat next to him and smiling fondly at his almost childish mentality.

    "Next then, what''s that over there?" Sol pointed to another random fruit he had never seen before, arge purple fruit that had swirls in the form of wrinkles. "It kind of reminds me of the bubblegum demon fruit from that anime ''three-piece," He stared at it with a grin.

    "That is just an ingredient," Sara quickly fetched and brought it back to him, presenting it like a baby, and Sol reclined like a demon from an exorcist after smelling it.

    "I-Isn''t that garlic?" He asked, and sheughed out at the way he behaved.

    "I do not know of anything called ''garlic'', but the bane root is a very potent medicine, it also makes for good ingredients,"

    "Gosh, get that thing away from me it stinks!" Sol held his nose and turned his head.

    "Very well, I will make up for it by introducing you to the nectar of wraith ants," Sara smiled and hurried to the other side of the kitchen again.

    "This isn''t so bad," Sol smiled and rested his cheek on his fist, peeking through his left eye at the status window right next to his head. "If only you bunch would just stop staring at me,"

    [You are being observed by the god of disaster]

    [You are being observed by the goddess of chaos]

    [You are being observed by the god of destruction]

    [You are being observed by the god of goats]

    "Wh-  the goats get their own god too?!"

 Chapter 23: Too Strong

    Eris was on her hands and knees, panting and watching her sweat roll off her nose into the short grass, around her body was a light red aura, and her skin was littered with countless small scratches that were slowly being healed. "I need a moment," She held up a hand, but her tutor, Lady Idria, a purebred elf woman saved her no such courtesy.

    "The enemy will spare you no such luxury, as a healer they will target you first, it is not my job to babysit, despite being only level 27, your healing magic far outpaces mine in potency after just a month of training it, but to face the demon hordes you need much more than the meagre levels of stamina and strength and durability that you currently possess," The elf chastised Eris.

    Her ears were twice the length of A''s, and unlike the half elf''s ears that were pointing to the sky diagonally, Idria''s ears were straight at a 90�� angle with sharper pointed tips, her eyes were gleaming with magic, her skin much paler than anyone else''s and she had silver hair that was neatly tied in round knots that caught her just at the middle of her back.

    [Name: Idria

    Race:  Elf

    Level: 130

    Title: Healing Corps Commander

    Skills: Healing, AOE heal, Healing Arrow

    ss: Healing Mage (max level)

    Buffs: Preserver, Mana boost, Health increase

    Blessing: Fruit of the world tree

    Curse: Moonchild; subject is stronger by night, but has difficulty seeing by day

    Special: Soul reconstruction; Subject can reconstruct the soul of one target even from the abyss of shattered souls with 100% sess, penalty is death].

    "If you wish to survive the wars of Arkadia, Eris Schneider, you must be unbreakable!" Idria who was wearing loose pants and a ck cropped sleeveless blouse flexed her arms and brushed her chin with her knuckle. "On your feet hero in training, there is much more hell to go through." She adjusted her sses.

    "Ugh," Eris fixed her sses as well and forced herself to her feet with a huff. "Yes ma''am,"

    "Alright then," Idria seemed to vanish from Eris''s sights and the girl in response raised her hand blocking a punch to her face but failed to predict the next punch that connected with her stomach raising her off the ground and sending her flying and crashing across the rough sharp grass again.

    "I wouldn''t want to be her," Dina chuckled to herself, staring across the patch at Eris who struggled to her feet again.

    "Focus!" A grunted smacking Dina''s fingers with her staff and jolting her attention back to herself. "It is embarrassing to say this of a hero but even amongst the regr people you seem tock progress, not to mention your fellow heroes!" A chastised her.

    "You have no right to mock anyone with yourcklustre skills, are you going to throw your life away in your first battle?" She asked, and Dina gritted her teeth and stared ahead at her target.

    Her job was learning to multi-cast while holding a protective barrier around herself, abination of three spells of the lowest grade.

    [Activated barrier tier 1 sess]

    [Casting fireball failure]

    Casting windde failure]

    [-Failure]

    [-Failure]

    [-Failure]

    [Your mana reserves are lower than the required amount to cast these basic spells

    [Remaining mana (0/1309,) five hours until mana ispletely replenished]

    "Fuck, I can''t cast any more!" Dina threw her staff to the ground and stomped past her tutor. "I''m going back to the castle!"

    "Dina you have to keep pushing yourself, I have potions-" A tried stopping her but the girl dragged her hand away and kept walking.

    "That''s the third time in just as many days that she has given up, did her majesty choose the right summons, I suspect that Sol might have been the mage hero and she may be the imposter," Grim approached A while she was in the process of pping her forehead and kicking grass out of frustration,"

    "Unlikely, Master Vestic is his own case, Dina was always meant to be the Mage hero, she probably can''t focus because of her inferiority to her fellow heroes," A admitted. "While they have all broken past level 20, she is still only level 9, her progress is too slow, she has been left behind." She stated, and the general nodded in agreement.

    "The truth is quite sad, that girlcks imagination, I may have to start from the children''s basics to teach her properly,"

    "Not even the children use the ''children'' basics," Grim shook his head.

    "Speaking of, if she is already leaving then I will excuse myself as well," A waved to the general and vanished in a sh of light particles, leaving him there standing awkwardly as he thought about her destination.

    "Ah, that bitch is gone  after master again!" Ikaris made to follow after A but was stopped by her mentor. She was arge woman with divinity mixed in her bloodline, she was apparently a descendant of one of the more lecherous gods in the Arkadian pantheon, technically speaking, a demigod.

    "Please keep focused, Lady Ikaris,"

    "Ugh,"

    "That''s him right, the imposter who stole the ''mimic'' magic and has a hero as his ve?" Sol heard someone murmur behind him while he was standing outside of a shop and looking through the ss at the weak weapons on disy.

    "I heard he keeps the hero Ikaris chained at night and does all manner of I''ll and deplorable things to her," Another person whispered, forcing Sara to turn around and re at them causing them to disperse into the crowds.

    "I heard he''s a demon in disguise,"

    "There''s no way a demon can enter the kingdom so easily!"

    "Who started these filthy rumours?" Sol whispered as he ground his teeth in annoyance. "Someone''s trying to tarnish my good name!"

    "Sir you never had a good reputation amongst the people to begin with, these were rumoursing as far back as your first debut when you bullied a hero in the queen''s presence," Saraughed at his despair.

    "I didn''t bully anyone, I made a point," Sol shook his fist at the people behind him, and they all scattered.

    "Goodness me, how scary~" A grabbed onto Sol''s hand burying his arm between her breasts, she was dressed in casual clothes, revealing most of her curves and her figure. "Good morning master Vestic~"

    "A," Sol stared at her surprised. "Did Dina run off again?" He asked.

    "Shecks the motivation to fight at all, she struggles with the most basic spells and despite even the average person being able to double cast with a bit of preparation, she struggles to even get her second spell off the ground," Ained, and then looked up at Sol again with a slight blush. "Are you free, master Vestic?"

    "Am I?" Sol looked at Sara, and the maid smiled and nodded.

    "Aside from the castle, you are free to roam wherever else you please, I am overseeing you, after all," Sara gestured to the entirety of the town they were in while Sol looked at the castle in the distance.

    "I suppose I am then," Sol agreed.

    "Then, I insist on taking you out on a date,"

    "D-date?" Sara gulped as a foreboding feeling gripped her stomach. "Lady A that is unwise-"

    "It is just a date, I am sure Ikaris will understand," A smiled.

    On the other side of the castle grounds by the training field, the targets were destroyed and there was a crater in the ground and the warrior Lyra Raman, Ikaris''s tutor was sitting on her ass with sweat dripping down her chin.

    "What the devil just happened?" Grim came running over to the site of the explosion. "Did Ikaris blow herself up?" He asked shocked, but Lyra looked at him even more shocked and shook her head.

    "N-no, she suddenly dered that she would murder something and then left, this crater is the result of her jumping before taking flight," Lyra exined as more sweat rolled off her chin. "She has divine magic, and how is she so strong at only level thirty, I do not think I qualify to teach that monster anything!"

    "She may already be as strong as I am!"

 Chapter 24: The Inconceivable

    "Caused by just jumping?" Grim stared at the ten-foot-wide crater in front of Lyra in disbelief. "And did you just say she wields divine magic?" He shook his head again.

    "Aye, I felt it, just a small portion, but I am sure I felt it, Ikaris is blessed by the gods themselves, she truly is the hero of legend!"

    "Hero of legend?" Bruce Chaolong approached them after he and his trainer Kris Ravenmar showed up when they saw Ikaris suddenly take to the sky like a vertical ne.

    "Ah, that''s right, us boys and girls do not mix much so we never mentioned it, but haven''t you noticed?" Usami also came walking over along with lord Morn.

    "Noticed what?" Han approached.

    "There is a mural in our bathroom ceiling that they say is a prophecy, and in the middle of that massive painting is none other than Ikaris herself-"

    "There''s no way," Han shook his head with a scoff. "That stuck-up woman could never be any kind of hero of legend."

    "What more proof do you need before you are convinced?" Lyra stood with the help of the general and brushed herself off.

    "She is leagues ahead of the rest of you, both in magical aptitude andbat prowess, rather than teach her anything it would be more urate to say she is familiar with a lot of the magical concepts, she has a firm grasp of it all, our lessons revolve around focusing on growing her levels and theorising new magic, I have heard things from that woman''s mouth concerning magic that I myself have never dreamed of even once, she is a genius!"

    "You''re just filling her with praise..." Han scoffed again, but received a smack from Lord Morn on his arm from the hilt of a sword.

    "I have seen and observed many times, rather than learning from Lady Lyra, it would be more urate to say they are discovering new things together, inparison to her, you lot have a long way to go, you should use her progress as motivation, otherwise the firsting battle will be a treacherous endeavour that will no doubt im your lives," Morn acknowledged Ikaris''s prowess as well.

    "Where did she go then?" Kris looked at Lyra.

    "I believe she is going after Lady A,"

    "Is that idiot still messing around with the imposter?"  Idria rubbed her forehead. "Even if she is merely at level 30, Ikaris was clear about where we stand with that man, I would hate to be on her bad side with the strength she has disyed thus far," She admitted, and everyone seemed to agree right away.

    "Is it that bad?" Bruce asked.

    Meanwhile, Sol was just taking his seat with A in an open-air restaurant while Sara spoke to the staff when they heard a loud ''boom'' in the sky.

    "Oh dear," Sara held on to the waiter she was conversing with and pulled him around a corner just in time to witness the entire restaurant get blown to bits when Ikarisnded between Sol and A.

    Had it not been for the half-elf utilizing her magic and minimizing the effect of her entrance there may have even been casualties with the force shended with.

    "Ikaris," Sol smiled at her prompt arrival. "You gained another level so early in the morning?" He asked nonchntly while debris of tables and chairs fell around them.

    "Master, why must you torment me with this wench?" Ikaris grabbed Sol''s arm and pulled him out of his seat, and then turned to A who was seated with a smile. "And you, how many times have I-"

    "Oh lighten up Ikaris, I was simply taking him out to eat," A smiled, whispering in arcane and casting a spell which fixed the entire restaurant in one fell swoop, making everything seem brand new.

    "That''s Lady A right, the captain of the Mage Corps in the Demon subjugation army?" one bystander asked another.

    "And isn''t that woman the Hero Ikaris?" Another asked loudly, causing a crowd to rapidly start forming around them.

    "Ah, maybe we should change venues," A suggested but watched surprised as Sol took a seat again and Ikaris took hisp as her seat, turning her torso to him and hugging his head while her white wings slowly faded into particles of light.

    "It seems she will refuse you to the end," Sol smiled with half a smile from between Ikaris''s breasts. "There''s not much I can do about it when she is like this, and you seem to trigger her a lot,"

    "Stay away from my master you lecherous wench!" Ikaris snapped at A who reclined with an amused and teasing smile.

    "Master?"

    "Did you hear that, the hero calls him master, so the rumours must be true, just look how she holds him and boldly sits in hisp in public!"

    "Did the imposter already defile our holy hero?"

    "That shameless man, he  should be executed right away!"

    "For fuck''s sake," Sol sighed as the murmurs slowly increased in volume. "Do these people have nothing better to do?"

    "Sir, Lady Ikaris, please listen, it is best we leave now before a protest starts!" Sara came running over and resting her hand on Sol''s shoulder.

    "Why can she touch him and I cannot?" A frowned.

    "The maid has long been exposed to my master''s impressive manhood many times, simply touching his shoulder is less than a minor offence," Ikaris held on to Sol tighter as she made mention of Sol''s habit of wandering around and the maids having to force him into the bath after everyone else.

    "Oho~?" A questioned fascinated.

    "I-Impressive what?" Sara stood at attention.

    "He has even defiled the beautiful maids of the castle, this vile bastard deserves hell!" One man eximed and Sol startedughing as he witnessed yet another misunderstanding.

    [The goddess of warughs at your misfortune]

    "Ikaris, Sara, let''s just leave,"

    "Where to, master?" A asked instead of the other two, and Sol smiled fondly at her teasing tone and then gave her a small gesture of thanks.

    "I appreciate your effortsdy A, but I am afraid I am already spoken for, if you insist oning after me so boldly then you might be Ikaris''s enemy, so just let me warn you,"

    His tone went dark, and the very air around them became cold, A sucked in a breath of shock and froze in her seat when her senses were stripped from the physical world and brought to another reality where all she could see was Ikaris and Sol, she became the first person to witness their true strength, and she was shocked into belief when she saw Sol asrge as a gxy standing at the peak of the cosmos, like a god, and behind him was something even more frightening.

    Ikaris was holding Sol in one palm, and the cosmos themselves seemed to bend to her will, and yet there was a small chain which he held, and that chain was wrapped around her arm.

    "She is..." A''s lips trembled, and she lost her sense of reasoning and was swept up in thatrge vast darkness. "Inconceivable!"

    "Ikaris is iparably stronger than I am,"

    "If you make her your enemy, nothing, not even the gods themselves can save your soul."

 Chapter 25: Duel to the Death

    It took A several hours of sitting passively before she found the strength in her legs to move again, she sat in the restaurant until sundown, unable to move, unable to do anything but think about what she had seen.

    Sol could not be considered human in any regard, he possessed power so phenomenal that he existed on another nepletely, and he was master over Ikaris; she was a whole other ordeal.

    "Is she even human to begin with?" A asked herself, she pondered endlessly on what her magical perception had witnessed, but in the end, she decided that it was better left unasked, and so the half-elf passed it off as another random mystery and went home to sleep.

    "Have you seen Master Sol?" Sara stood next to Ikaris who was in the process of reading Argom''s version of a newsletter, in her presence were the other female heroes, they had all gathered to casually chat, but Ikaris spent this time observing and as Sol had ordered her, she needed to find a way to get along with them.

    "Why is everyone suddenly calling him ''master''?" Ikaris lowered the pepper and stared up at the maid. "He is only my Master, nobody else''s, see here!" She folded back the sleeve of her blouse and showed Sara the crest on her wrist that looked like a shackle. "And here!" She folded her cor revealing the one on her neck.

    "Anghewe (and here)"  She opened her mouth showing them the one on her tongue for the first time.

    "What are those exactly?" Eris asked first because everyone else was afraid to, especially Dina who had learned the hard way to keep out of Ikaris''s way.

    "They are the tether that keeps us bonded, they are proof of my service, my loyalty, and myplete submission to my master," Ikaris proudly dered, but received the opposite effect she was going for when Eris seemed to reject the idea and shook her head.

    "I always wondered, you said he was strong and all that, and we all remember how he broke Sir Morn''s hand, but, Sol is such an oddball, how did you two meet?" Eris asked, and Ikaris jolted forward and pped her paper on the table with a serious expression.

    "Master... was on the verge of death, I have known and been close to him for ten years, but ording to Earth time, it was a month before we were dragged here, he almost died, but I did everything in my power to save him," She gave them an abridged version of the truth, it waspletely true, just not in that order.

    "In return, I got to witness the strength he possessed, he saved my entire world, and he liberated me from a heavy and burdensome betrothal to one very persistent bastard, in return, I have decided to serve him, body and soul, Master is my everything." She dered.

    "Wh..." Sara seemed the most shocked of the people present. "I assumed it was some kind of strange rtionship that you two had, but he saved you from marrying someone you did not want to?"

    "That''s right!" Ikaris snapped again and pointed her paper at Sara. "Master is amazing, the absolute best, circumstances made it impossible for me to directly refuse this demon of a man, but Master upended his plot in one fell swoop, he saved me from a life of suffering," Ikaris shook her fist and stood on the table.

    "O-okay, but where is he now?" Sara panicked when she sensed the princess approaching. "He keeps disappearing every evening, and then returning at night filthy and in need of a bath,"

    "Once a swine always a-" Dina was about to finish her insult, but felt a heavy hand rest on your shoulder. "T-Teacher?" She stuttered when A''s perfume invaded her nose.

    "From now on, I will take full custody of you, you will learn manners and discipline, or die trying." A smiled at her ear before the two of them disappeared in a sh of light.

    "Isn''t it obvious?" Ikaris responded to Sara as if she hadn''t just seen someone get kidnapped. "Master spends his evenings training and raising his level, since he will being along on our first crusade he has to level up as well,"

    "Huh, seriously?" Eris seemed the most shocked, considering she never saw Sol as the hard-working type with hisx personality.

    ''Achoo!'' Sol held up his hand and sneezed. "Someone must be thinking bad of me again," He wiped blood from his face and took a seat on the back of a golem, staring at his status window.

    [Mobs cleared, you have gained 2000xp will you proceed to the dungeon master?]

    "This is stupid," Sol looked at the [Golem level 500]  "They''ll be killed if they ever meet something like this, but the system calls it a mob," He stared at the blood on his forearm.

    Aside from the hilt to hold his sword, he wasn''t wearing any kind of protective armour, and because of his debuff being activated by creatures weaker than himself, he could incur actual damage overtime from these weak creatures.

    [Proceeding to dungeon master]

    [Error, a god has intervened, new rules have been instated, and a new dungeon master has been created]

    *This is foul," Sol smiled nervously.

    Sol felt a tug at his magic, and the world around him became bright as he was teleported into arge cave

    [You have entered their of Psiko, the god of golems]

    "Wait-what?"

    [Cursed has been deactivated, the opponent is stronger than you are]

    "You''re kidding, right?" Sol used [heal] on himself and equipped armour as the status windows kept appearing one after the other.

    [Psiko has challenged the tarnished warrior to a duel to the death, the victor will devour the soul of the loser, and no other human or god may interfere]

    "This is too sudden," Solined as a small figure of a four-foot man made of stone sat on a throne in the far corner of the massive cave. "I don''t even know who you are, does everything have a god here?"

    "Tarnished Warrior of outer-world, I challenge you to a duel to the death." The stone golem stood from the throne and began walking toward Sol.

    "I don''t want to though," Sol summoned his true spear and turned it into a hammer, and then looked at the Golem again. "Hm..."

    He released the hammer and held out his fists, summoning a pair of battle gloves with armoured shields on the forearms and then picked up his hammer again, shortening it to the length of his arm.

    "Can I just leave?"

    [You are unable to leave this sealed space]

    [Contact with the outside world has been temporarily disabled]

    [Your Arkadian mana is at 30%]

    [Otherworld Magic is at 100%]

    [Arkadian level is 101

    Health is at max

    Stamina is 97/100

    Armour is 99%]

    [The god of death reels from excitement]

    [The god of bets has ced a bet]

    [The god of peace is crying in a corner]

    "This is ridiculous," Solmented as more and more gods kept appearing to watch the fight.

    [The goddess of war is paying attention]

    [A new god has forcefully registered their presence]

    [The pantheon is outraged at the use of their system by a foreign god]

    [The goddess of war warns the pantheon to not attack this new presence]

    [True Goddess Ikaris is now watching the fight]

    [True Goddess Ikaris cheers you on]

    [True Goddess Ikaris is confident in your victory]

    [The goddess of war is confident in your victory]

    [The god of death shakes his fists at the goddess of war for choosing your side]

    "I will devour you now," Psiko began running toward Sol, and as Sol prepared for an initial attack, his senses were thrown off when the ground beneath him suddenly shifted forward while Psiko appeared above him, intent on killing him in one blow.

 Chapter 26: The Godslayer

    A few minutes earlier:

    "Lady Ikaris, please show some courtesy," Sara stood patiently at the side of the table while Ikarisughed vigorously after singing Sol''s praises.

    "Lady?" Ikaris continued tough. "Whatdy do you think I would be, haha, I am nody, I am a cosmic goddess of unfathomable power, I am the first deity to be tamed by a human, Sol is the greatest!" Ikaris continued tough while skillfully avoiding Sara''s hands as she tried grabbing her.

    But then all of a sudden, Ikaris felt her link with Sol disappear and she stopped moving. "Mdy?" Sara flinched when the expression on Ikaris''s face became terrifying, and her acquired Arkadian magic started burning the air around her body.

    "Sol," She murmured, trying to find his location and failing. "If they have harmed you, I will destroy this entire world." She dered, it was low, but everyone heard it because of how silent the room was, and Sara was the first to take several steps backwards as Ikaris stepped off the table and took a seat.

    System

    [The tarnished warrior is in an isted dimension, only the gods can view his current state-]

    [Error]

    The system made a buzzing sound when Ikaris''s eyes glowed white and she grabbed onto it, using her divine magic to easily tear it open and modify the rules.

    [A new god has forcefully registered their presence]

    [The pantheon is outraged]

    "What the hell just happened?" Eris rushed over to Ikaris after seeing her body suddenly go limp in her seat.

    "She, lost consciousness?" Sara stared at Ikaris when the ve crest on her neck began to slowly blink. "Did something happen to Master Sol?"

    Presently

    In the isted dungeon, Psiko punched, fully intent on killing him in one blow.

    [The pantheon is shocked]

    [True Goddess Ikaris isughing at the pantheon]

    [The goddess of war nods in expectation]

    "I thought you said you wanted to devour me," Sol stared at the shocked stony face of Psiko after blocking the punch with one hand by turning and using his other hand to reach the ground.

    "You..." Psiko retreated several paces away and stared at Sol, while Sol regained his footing and brushed the dust off his shoulder. "You are stronger than expected," The golem admitted.

    "I have nothing against you, but you want me dead, I can''t say I don''t get it, I do, I challenged the gods first," Sol admitted. "However, if you guys think you''re gonna just challenge me whenever you want you have another thinging, if you think I''m just gonnay over and die, then you should be prepared to go to hell with me, I''ll never bend a knee to any god!"

    [Warning, the tarnished has epted your challenge of a duel to the dea-]

    The system window popped up for Psiko, but before he could properly read the warning his body was sent flying when Sol masterfully slid up next to him and swung his hammer, the resulting shockwave created a crater while the god of golems flew across the vast cave and crashed into the wall breaking it all the way until he collided with a barrier several hundred metres deep in the rock.

    Another explosion came from the deep hole in the cave and Psiko rushed back out roaring at Sol, but he was put down again when Sol easily avoided his first few attempts at punching him and spun, knocking him across the chin with the hammer and then punching him with the next glove sending him flying upward.

    [Psiko has never fought a day in his existence, I expected this much]. Dr''ul stared at the one-sided fight as Sol continued to stack punch after punch and hit after hit on the much less experienced opponent. [However, regardless of his experience, he is still a god]  She rified herself.

    [The goddess of war warns you to take this seriously]

    Sol saw the message and managed to parry the blow of Psiko just fast enough to read it properly before backing off again.

    "I''ll kill you," Psiko crashed his fists together causing white light to escape his rock body before the entire surface broke apart, revealing a small male figure made of a slightly glowing surface. "I''ll kill you dead!"

    Before, Psiko looked like the average red-eyed human-shaped rock golem with the singr eye in the head and rough textures, but now, he seemed to be made of white marble, his hands had finely crafted fingers, his single eye was now golden with a red pupil, and his surface was smooth and showed definition, and he even seemed to have grown a foot taller.

    [Your opponent is stronger]

    [Psiko is gaining strength]

    [Divine magic detected]

    [Psiko is getting stronger]

    "Don''t get any ideas!" Sol rushed ahead to prevent whatever Psiko was doing, but a secondter his entire left arm was missing and the god was nowhere to be seen.

    Sol crasnded and then jumped to his feet in shock grabbing his shoulder and looking around as the ground around him started heating up.

    [The pantheon is in an uproar]

    [The god of goats berates you]

    Sol closed one eye and cast [heal] on his wound, closing it off in an instant while his severed limb caught ame in front of him.

    His eyes darkened.

    [True Goddess Ikaris stares passively with a frown]

    Psiko appeared again intent on taking Sol''s head this time, but was shocked when Sol dodged the attack and grabbed him by the leg, swinging him with a roar and smashing him into the ground, creating a massive explosion that covered a third of the entire cave in dust and falling debris whileva started rising from the crater.

    [The tarnished warrior is gaining strength]

    [The tarnished warrior is gaining strength]

    "What?" Psiko seemed shocked at what he was seeing as Sol walked through theva toward him.

    [The tarnished warrior is regaining mana]

    "You''ve managed to do the one thing I hate the most, Psiko," Sol cancelled his hammer and the gloves and crackled his knuckles.

    "What the-" The god of golems reeled in shock and pain when Sol grabbed his leg and broke it in the other direction and then threw him out of theva pit and jumped out after him. "This changes nothing!" Psiko fixed his leg and punched at Sol but suffered a massive hole in his side when Sol swung his palm.

    [He is gaining strength at an unprecedented pace,] Dr''ul sat forward on her throne and watched intently.

    "Gah!!" Psiko folded himself in a ball and started using [harden] to protect himself.

    [You are stronger than Psiko]

    [Damned has been activated, your debuffs are in effect, your opponent has been strengthened]

    "There was once a demon god," Sol punched at the ball and raised his hand staring at his broken fingers.

    [Heal, Regenerate]

    "He thought he would win, he killed everything and everyone in his path!" Sol roared angrily, punching the ball again and raising his bloody knuckle.

    [The tarnished warrior is gaining strength at a faster rate than the curse can debuff]

    "There was a woman I loved, and a king I respected as my best friend!" Sol punched the ball again, and a crack opened up across it exposing Psiko''s frightened eye. "A boy I called my brother, and they all died to that demon god!" Sol punched the ball again, shattering another part and leaving multitudes of cracks across it.

    [I-Insolence!] Psiko rushed out of his crumbling shield and attacked Sol, but Sol tanked the stab through his belly and grabbed Psiko''s head instead.

    [Healing]

    "The demon god had a nasty habit of cutting off the arms of his victims and burning them to a crisp," Sol raised his foot and stepped in the knee of the god cracking it open and forcing the shell to shatter. "I just so happen to be the one who killed that motherfucker, and as a result, I gained all his powers."

    "You''re so proud of your damn self for taking my arm, aren''t you."

    [L-let go!]

    [The dungeon is being cancelled by the god of golems]

    [Rejected!] Sol raised his voice, and the pantheon went silent. [You''re not going anywhere!] Sol sank his fingers into the head of Psiko, breaking his armour and touching his divine energy directly. [I''m too pissed to let this go!] He seethed as his memory was invaded constantly with the sights of his allies and family burning at the hand of the demon god.

    [The god of death is staring intently]

    [Request for dungeon release has been overridden by a more powerful opponent]

    [Opponent is utilizing a newly acquired skill: divinity]

    [Name: Sol Vestic

    Race: Demon god (temporary)

    Level: Error

    Title: Godyer

    Skills: Error

    ss: Error

    Buffs: Error

    Blessing: Goddess''s Love

    Curse: Damned (nullified)

    Special: Divinity lv 1 - Subject is able to consciously activate the powers of a transcendent being, (a god), all afflictions and curses are nullified, divine magic is multiplied thousandfold.

    Penalties; All magical skills and statuses are halved for 3h after use, all damage taken before activation will be multiplied tenfold, there is an imminent risk of death, cooldown is 24h]

 Chapter 27: Rejecting the gods.

    "Master," Ikaris mumbled in her unconscious state while the princess and the rest of the heroes stood over her, her utterance caused the room to go silent.

    "Is she waking up," Bruce attempted to approach Ikaris, but the princess raised her hand toward him with a begrudged expression.

    "Imagine for a second, what would happen if Ikaris wakes and you are looming over her?" She gestured to Ikaris, and Bruce in response swallowed and took several more steps away from the others. "Exactly,"

    "But what do we do then, why did she suddenly fall unconscious like that?" Eris was standing on the opposite side of the bed. "I''ve exhausted all of my mana trying to heal her, but there''s nothing to heal, she just won''t wake up," She slumped, defeated.

    "There seems to be nothing we can do right now, physically she is still healthy, and it is far too early to make any diagnosis, in the meantime, we should wait for Sol to return and then figure out whates next," Princess Vermon added and stood. "I will leave you to watch over her, Sara, no harm shoulde to her, in the meantime, the rest of youe with me."

    "I will send someone to check on her state within the hour."

    "Of course, your Highness," Sara followed them to the door and saw them out and then turned to Ikaris again. "What is happening with you this time?"

    Back in the golem dungeon, Sol had broken away Psiko''s entire armour and stripped him down to his bare ethereal form, it was no more than the consciousness of a god made physical through divine magic.

    [What a sorry sight you are,] Sol spoke after observing the god. [After your deration, I thought I''d struggle endlessly to fight you, but not only are you a coward, but you''re also a pathetic one!]

    [Activated, Hands of divinity]

    He started folding the presence into a ball,pressing it until it was a solid orb norger than an apple.

    Sol watched the tips of his fingers grow dark, and his skin turn a dark red shade, horns grew on the sides of his head, and his brown eyes turned red, and there were bat-like wings neatly folded on his back as well as a tail that slowly swerved behind him, his once formless teeth were all sharp and jagged, and his hair was straight, silky and ck.

    [Demon god hm?] Sol frowned at the status window showing him his current state, he didn''t care about the means though, this was a power that could challenge the gods themselves, it was just what he was missing. [As promised then,] He clutched the orb and smiled.

    [Watch carefully gods of Arkadia, this is what happens to those who challenge me with half-assed resolutions!] He pped his wings and opened his mouth, swallowing the apple-sized orb in one single gulp.

    [You have sessfully killed Psiko

    The god of golems has been in

    Assimting rewards

    ...

    +10,000,000xp

    Divinity has be 10% more potent

    level has risen +4

    Mana has been multiplied +120,000

    Title: Godyer has be permanent

    Race-change has been unlocked

    Upgrade to Demigod avable]

    [The pantheon is in another uproar, several challenges are being issued simultaneously, you now have the ability to refuse divine challenges, will you ept?]

    [Reject all challenges] Sol took a deep breath and startedughing. [I''ll fight you bastards on my own terms!]

    [Challenge rejected] The gods that had challenged Sol saw the same message at the same time and began to rage and roar, the result were several stars moving about as the cosmos went into disarray.

    [The god of death apuds you on a job well done]

    [The goddess of war is smiling at your aplishment]

    [True Goddess Ikaris is ecstatic at your victory]

    [The dungeon is closing]

    One second in a massive cave, and the next Sol was teleported outside of the cave into arge open grassfield.

    [How do I get rid of this appearance though?] Sol looked at himself again, there was no way he could return to Argom looking like this, even if nobody there could even scratch his eyeball, it would be an eyesore to exin that his demonic appearance had nothing to do with the demons that were warring against them.

    As the thought crossed his mind, his body was engulfed in purple magic, and slowly he returned to normal, but just a second after he took his first breath he recoiled when a sudden and unbearable pain tore across the wound of his missing arm, he wanted to try healing and regenerating it but the pain itself was so severe that Sol fell to his knees and grit his teeth, unable to focus any magic out of his body.

    "There''s no way this is just tenfold!" He hissed, but out of nowhere a crimson light engulfed his arm and the pain immediately stopped, but he could tell at a single touch that this magic did not belong to Ikaris.

    [True Goddess Ikaris is sceptical]

    [The goddess of war has removed the pain of your penalty out of gratitude for showing her something interesting as a lesser being]

    "What?" Sol stood and stared at his wound.

    [The goddess of war apuds your aplishment as a lesser being]

    "Don''t for a second think that this makes us even, just you wait Dr''ul, someday I''m gonna challenge you myself, and when I do, I''m gonna make you regret looking down on me, I''ll make you regret your existence," Sol seethed, but Dr''ul on the other hand hearing his threat was more excited than she had ever been before.

    [Not yet, you need more strength to face me, Tarnished] She smiled to herself while she watched him through the system window. [I have never been so excited to fight anyone before, you must be the best you can ever be, stronger than anything else!]

    [The goddess of war is giddy with excitement after your threat, she is pleased with the threat]

    [True Goddess Ikaris eagerly awaits yourpany]

    Sol stared at the system window for a few seconds silently, and then closed his eyes and balled his fist disappearing in a sh of lightning and reappearing next to his bed where he found Ikaris opening her eyes and Sara staring in shock at his condition.

    "Master," Ikaris rolled over to him and grabbed his waist in a hug. "Master," She called him again, and Sol smiled and took a seat as she ced her hand on his arm stump. "My Master was hurt,"

    "What the devil is going on!?" Sara made an attempt to approach them but froze when Sol''s arm was engulfed in white light.

    The confused maid watched, shocked beyond words as Ikaris made small gestures with the most endearing smile she had seen on her face as Sol''s arm was reconstructed on a molecr level, she witnessed every tissue that made the bones, every vein, every muscle get lovingly and meticulously crafted and then watched as Ikaris hugged the newly crafted hand with a pleased smile, to the maid, it looked like someone had just been skillfully sewing fine fabric; it was masterful.

    "I figured this is why you were so eager for me to return, but you made that far more dramatic than it needed to be," Sol sighed, cing his hand on Ikaris''s head and smiling when she leaned into his touch.

    "It is my duty to properly take care of my master," Ikaris answered with her eyes closed, resting her cheek on his chest. "As usual, you were beautiful."

    "It was a short fight, though," Sol argued, but she shook her head In disagreement.

    "Beauty as yours master, is timeless," She turned her smile to him and started reaching for his face, but Sara interrupted them by clearing her throat.

    "What did I just witness, where were you, what happened to your arm, how did you heal his missing arm?"

 Chapter 28: That Bastard

    A day had passed since Sol''s fight with the god of golems, nobody had noticed a single star in a multitude falling from the sky, but somewhere in some random desert, there was now a crater the size of a city with strange rock formations that slowly grew like vines overnight.

    As she usually would, Sara knocked on their door and then pushed it open after receiving their eptance, but unlike the other times where either Sol or Ikaris was covered because of their nakedness, this time Ikaris was already dressed, and Sol was once again missing.

    "Are you well, maid?" Ikaris asked her when she saw the doubtful expression that she held toward her; as a goddess, that had existed since before the primordial times across dimensions there was nothing Ikaris was as used to as doubt and disbelief, she could tell at a nce. "What bothers you?"

    "Your exnation, mdy," Sara answered hesitantly.

    Two nights before.

    "I was in a dungeon-"

    "There are no dungeons in Argom, all the dungeons have long been seized by the demon armies in theirnds beyond our borders," Sara answered when Sol replied.

    "It is true," Sol nodded with a smile while Ikaris turned to him and started undoing his shirt, revealing the traces of blood on his arm and shoulder from having his arm chopped off. "I was in a dungeon, I''m not sure where exactly that dungeon is, but it was full of strong golems, that''s how I got hurt," He smiled when Ikaris slowly snaked her way onto hisp and pushed him on his back.

    "Master, may I reward you for a job well done?"

    "I have golem grime on me, Ikaris," Sol beganughing when Ikaris raised her ass and pressed her torso onto his, ignoring the presence of the maid who was barely able to hide her difort at how they behaved indoors in contrast to how tamed Ikaris was while they were in the eyes of others; she was insatiable.

    "Then... I will bathe you myself tonight," She whispered in his ear, and Sol''s eyes slowly went wider and wider as he raised himself while holding her and stood before the maid.

    "Sara, your services will not be needed today, Master is going in all on his own," Ikaris grinned when Sol began walking. "If you''re questioning how I was able to fix his arm, then it is simply because I can, we are bonded as one, I am within him and he within me,"

    Presently.

    "I do not understand what you meant, and... It is very hard to believe that you have such a convenient and omnipotent skill that covers such a wide range of uses," Sara lowered her head respectfully. "I Spent the entire night in the studies, and nowhere in the archives did I find anything on a skill called [Mimic].

    "Hm," Ikaris nodded. "Well, Sol is waiting for you in the kitchen, and I have only half a day of training so I will see you at midday," Ikaris nodded again and then turned to the window leaping out and taking flight toward the training grounds.

    "You avoided the question again," Sara sighed and pped her hands, summoning the other maids to reorganize and restock the room with fresh food and flora. "Well, I suppose it was too prudent of me to ask such a personal question either way," She admitted, leaving the room and heading toward the kitchen.

    Later that day, Sol was casually strolling through the streets with Sara at his side as usual, getting a mixture of envious and hateful gazes from the townspeople when something caught his eyes, a spear he had not seen in a month, and holding the spear was arge shirtless man wearing animal fur and hide for pants, he had long curly golden hair, and a sharpness in his eyes that spoke of the perils he had been through.

    [Name: Gordo Hurkson

    Race: Human (special)

    Level: 79

    Title: Wandering Chieftain

    Skills: Quick strike, Heavenly spear, me spear, Hell spear.

    ss: Spearman-]

    "Ugh," Sol pushed the system window out of the way to get a better look at the warrior, he was apletely different man than the one Sol had saved from the demon horde on the same day he arrived, had he not been holding on to the spear that had been designed for him, Sol would have never believed his own eyes.

    "Pardon me," Therge man spoke politely to Sara while they were passing, it was a mystery why she was the one he chose.

    "I am looking for the creator of this spear, do you perhaps know where the cksmith district is, I have asked and I was told to seek a maid wearing the crest of a dragon," He exined, and Sara looked at her crest and smiled politely back to him as she carefully observed the spear in his grasp.

    "A weapon such as that, I fear you may not find the creator, it is beaming with potent magic, such exquisite weapons have not been made in Argom in many years, maybe amongst the nobles and royalty, but it is not something amoner can get their hands on," She reached for the spear, but he retreated his hand.

    "Where did you find such a weapon?" Sara asked suspiciously, and Gordo narrowed his eyes at her scepticism.

    "A god gave it to me, on the night the skies burned and the ground quaked, and all thend was converted into charcoal, I heard his voice, like thunder and lightning, he directed me here, to save my people from the hordes of demons, so I havee to find the castor of this fine weapon that fell from the heavens, to return it to the apostle of this god, for I am unworthy-"

    "Hahahaha..." Sol burst outughing in front of the man. "What the hell is this?" He continued tough his head off, causing many passers-by to avoid them.

    "Sir," Sara tugged at his shirt for him to calm down.

    "Ahem, who in their right mind returns a gift from the gods?" Sol asked, and Gordon shook his head.

    "Just keep the spear."

    "I cannot, I feel overwhelming strength whenever I hold it, like a maned dragon I am ovee with power, such a divine weapon is too mighty for one as myself,"  He refused again gesturing to Sol''s weakest and most useless spear, causing him to even feel a bit bad for the man.

    [Activated Telepathy, limitless]

    [Keep the spear, Son of Hurkson,] Sol spoke directly into Gordo''s head, and the man fell to his knee and lowered his head, he couldn''t tell who was speaking nor where the voice wasing from, but he could feel the power within those simple words. [It is a gift I prepared for you who I found worthy of the power it grants, to return my prized weapon would be an insult!]

    "O-of course, how could I be so foolish!?" Gordo eximed at the top of his voice. "Please, continue to guide me!"

    "Sara, let''s go," Sol took her hand and vanished from before them, and as he did Gordo abruptly stood and began searching for him.

    "Sir, is something wrong?" A hooded woman who had been apanying him asked.

    "They vanished,"

    "I saw that," She replied, holding on to the edge of her hood.

    "Yes, but when they left, the spear reached, since touching this divine weapon not once has it ever reacted to anything, but the moment that man left, the spear tried to follow him, as if it was drawn to him," He exined. "Who was that man?"

    "Ah, that bastard?" A random drunkard spoke up after observing their entire conversation.

    "He is the bastard who turned the Divine Hero Ikaris into his ything, and constantly molests the maids of the castle, that bastard is the imposter that was summoned with the heroes and stole the powers of the heroes!"

    "How can Her Majesty allow such a vile bastard to live in her castle?" Gordo asked, shaking with anger at what he had heard.

    "That... The hero refuses to move until he speaks, I''m telling you, he''spletely brainwashed everyst one of them!"

    "His name, what is the name of this fiend who has enved a hero and deceived Her Majesty the Queen?"

    "The bastard''s name is Sol... Sol Vestic!"

 Chapter 29: Demons approach

    "Um, sir, was this your n all along?" Sara looked at Sol concerned while he sat with his back turned to Gordo who was eating with the hooded woman in an open restaurant and staring at him menacingly

    "Not particrly," Sol replied with a smile. "It just happened the way it did."

    For an entire month after meeting the man, Sol spent his days greeting and then skillfully avoiding him until he hadpletely forgotten about returning the spear, his people were safe and they had already begun settling into Argom society, the only problem he had with this ce was the way everything he did somehow turned into something viinous in the eyes of the people just as Sol''s case had been, which was why he stopped chasing him around, because after observation, he saw no evidence of Sol being evil, but they never got along.

    "You wasted your entire time ying cat and mouse with that poor man, and now your first battle is upon you, I know you are strong, but I still worry for your well-being, you are extremely carefree," Sara narrowed her eyes as she spoke to Sol.

    "No worries, I''ll be fine, it''s like I said before, there ain''t nothing on Arkadia that can kill me!" Sol chuckled and raised his ss of wine to her.

    "Very well then," Sara nodded with a smile of her own. "I choose to believe you," She thought about that time he lost an arm and Ikaris literally created a new one on his body.

    [The goddess of war is interested in the first raid of the tarnished against the invading demon forces]

    "Your interest is wasted there, the only demon I have any interest in is their ruler, and I''m not particrly hasty to fight anyone either," Sol pushed the window out of his way.

    "Did you say something" Sara looked at him again.

    "Nope," He hummed back, and she went silent for a few seconds before finally asking.

    "Sir, You already gave me an answer, sort of, but I am still confused about the rtionship you and Lady Ikaris share, You say it is that of a master and a ve, but the way the two of you behave is more akin to newlyweds, it confuses me no matter what way I think of it, what are you to each other?"

    "You''re asking that again after spending two months with me?" Sol seemed bored at her question, but his expression sobered up as he thought about it. "Well, to be honest, Ikaris is my strength, it''s important that she never leaves my side, but more than that, I don''t think I''d have wanted to live on without her."Sol admitted and Sara''s mouth dropped.

    "I know she used me as a scapegoat, but she used her wealth to manipte the shadows to get me a second chance at life, I''m not sure entirely what  I am to Ikaris, but for me, she is hope, she brought me back to life and gave me purpose, and after I fulfilled that purpose she willingly chose toy at my feet in service, it doesn''t even matter that she does though because what would I be without her?

    I don''t have anyone else to turn to whether it''s here or back on our world, she''s my past present and future,"

    "How could you have formed a bond so strong in just three months?"  Sara seemed bemused, the same way Ikaris spoke of Sol with admiration in her eyes, Sol too spoke of her with that same look of admiration, or maybe even a bit more, it was beyond infatuation; they worshipped each other as their own gods.

    "All we have is each other," Sol answered sternly.

    "If I lose her, I lose a part of myself that I can never regain again... So I''m resolute not to, and it doesn''t matter who, if anyone tries to take Ikaris away from me, I will kill them, it doesn''t matter if it''s a man, a god, beast, an angel, or a demon, I''ll kill anyone who dares," Sol dered, resting his ss on the counter and looking over at Sara.

    "She is verything, to me, Ikaris is the universe itself."

    Sara refrained from responding, her curiosity had beenpletely sated.

    [The goddess of love is infatuated with your story and wishes to know more]

    [The god of misfortune raises a brow at your tale]

    [The god of stories is taking notes]

    [The god of chance has ced a bet]

    Sometime afterwards, Sol was wearing the most bored expression as he stood next to Ikaris, who was standing before the queen with the other heroes as they were addressed.

    "This speech is going to kill me," Sol mumbled, and Queen Vermon squeezed down on her sceptre with her eye twitching after hearing his murmur clearly.

    "Master, show some courtesy," Ikaris elbowed Sol in his ribcage, but he just chuckled at her expression since she sees even more bored than he was. "You are making me stand through this lecture so you too must do the same.

    "They are always like this when they face anyone important, what''s their deal?" Bruce frowned at the way the two behaved.

    "It''s simple really, to them, none of this is of utmost importance, they just show up every time because they''re required to, in their world, the only thing they see are each other." Eris answered, and in her tone she held both jealousy and admiration.

    Sol and Ikaris went through the entire ceremony just like that, finding small ways to entertain each other until the queen finally stopped talking and started calling the heroes for their second blessing before they set off toward the approaching demon advance army.

    "Han Young, Hero of the sword, though your start was not the most humble, aside from the hero Ikaris, your progress was the most polished, we had set a goal of sixty levels, and you met that goal punctually, as she has expressed her displeasure in leading the party, the role rests on your shoulders, respectfully." Queen Vermon ced the ceptre on Han''s shoulder.

    "I give you the blessing; [Strength] As long as you are leading, anyone who follows you will receive a boost of strength and speed, may your sword be true and strike down evil wherever it hides.

    "Thank you, your majesty,"

    "He didn''t turn out so bad did he?" Sol nodded to himself, staring at Han''s back.

    "Master, the only reason that man was able to ovee his ego was because you kept knocking him off his pedestal." Ikaris countered, and Sol nodded again in agreement.

    [Name: Han Young

    Race: Human

    Level:  66

    Title: Hero

    Skills: Cloud devouring sword, Strike (max), sh (max), 1001 destorm, space sh

    ss: Sword Hero

    Buffs: Strength (following party receives a 40% strength and speed buff whenever they are led by subject

    Blessing: Queen''s blessing, Sword arts

    Curse: None

    Special: Void sh (subject has a One-shot space-warping cleave technique that can be targeted at a single individual with no penalty, cooldown is 30m]

    "Taking into ount the strength they all possess with the [hero] title, I''d say these guys made some good progress, they should currently be stronger than general Grim by several degrees," Sol nodded.

    "Hero Ikaris, please step forward and receive your second blessing," The queen called her, and Ikaris released Sol''s arm and started walking ahead.

    "This is rushed," Sol thought to himself, looking at the warning window in front of him. "If I hadn''t told Ikaris to make a scene and emphasize the situation these idiots would have likely been attacked while they were unprepared," He frowned at the warning.

    [Warning, the demon army is upon you, several lieutenants of the demon army are about toy siege, the kingdom is unprepared, Argom is in danger of being overrun]

    "It''s time these isekai babies graduated and were exposed to some real danger." Sol grinned.

 Chapter 30: Leaving Argom

    "This is actually happening." Dina clutched her staff nervously with both hands, standing on a carriage as the people of Argom cheered them on. "We''re actually fighting a war against d-demons?" She turned her question to Han who was standing next to her waving at the crowd.

    "Have you been asleep this entire time?" Han raised a brow at the [Mage] Hero. "Whatade you think it was anything other than real?" He asked, and she seemed to shudder as she thought about everything she had been through.

    "W... I''m not a soldier though, I have never killed a thing in my life, I''m not ready yet!" She grabbed his hand, and the cheers dampened as the people became doubtful of her attitude as a supposed hero

    [Name Dina Levina

    Race: Human

    Level: 44

    Title: Hero

    Skills: Null

    ss: Mage (hero)

    Buffs: Null

    Blessing: Queen''s blessing, Mana amplification

    Curse: Self-Inflicted Doubt (subject loses most stats whenever their mana is too low, unavoidable)

    Special: None]

    "You''re quite the sad case aren''t you, Dina?" Sol called from a horse he was riding next to the heroes carriage, unlike Ikaris and the others he was not allowed to ride the carriage, much to Ikaris''s protest at first, but he didn''t mind, The carriage seemed cramped with negative emotions, aside from Han and Eris, the other three were already losing their nerve.

    Unlike the others who were all adorned in state of the art armour he was given a in soldiers getup of a cheste with some guards and otherwise unimpressive gear, but with the life of his mimic ability, Sol created armour of his own, nothing shy or fancy like his usual, just a fitting ck armour suit with a half helmet that supported his chin and covered his ears.

    "That''s the imposter?" One female bystander asked staring at Sol with newfound admiration, almost ignoring the heroespletely. "Doesn''t he seem more dashing than usual?"

    "You thought he was dashing?" Another woman next to her asked with a chuckle.

    "Well, just look at his posture, the confidence and the cool air of his attitude, he reminds you of general Grim doesn''t he, and doesn''t he normally look well put together?" The first one asked back and sol chuckled with himself.

    "As usual, Master effortlessly draws attention to himself." Ikaris waved calmly to the crowds with a small blush on her cheeks. "Master is amazing,"

    "I have to admit, Sol seems to be in his element, given how many people don''t like him he has managed to not only be famous, but thrive as well," Eris waved nervously from Ikaris''s side.

    "I agree with Eris too, the way his whole persona changed after the Queen''s ceremony is impressive, he has been kind of annoying thest two months, but just look at him he seems so unbothered, but also so alert," Usami nudged Bruce''s shoulder, and the man nodded.

    "Simpletons," Ikaris giggled with glee. "Master has always been on guard, a man bothered by the gods has to keep his hand on his de at all times," She chuckled as they went past thest of the crowds and started passing the soldiers that were to follow them.

    "Bothered by the gods?" Idria asked with forrowed brows. Her alongside the other five captains were escorting the heroes on horseback for their first crusade into dangerous territory, but would remain in the back and let them learn on their own, serving as regency services and nothing else.

    "Sounds about right," A nodded with a trickle of sweat rolling down her cheek. "It sounds just like Master Vestic or the goddess of battle to say something so out of pocket and pass it off as a casual fart."

    "Casual...?" The elf looked to her kin with a raised brow.

    "Yes, within those two from another world lies the potential of gods themselves," A answered seriously, but received a chuckle from Idria as a response.

    "I know he is strong, but topare a human to a god is absurdity, A, I would at least ce him on the same level as that monster in the castle, but not a god, he is far stronger than us, yes... But he is by no means a being akin to any god!" Idria gained a bellyful ofughter from A''s deration, but after seeing the stoic expression on A''s face, Idria paused and stared at her.

    "You jest,"

    "I am serious," A admitted. "They are iprehensible,"

    "Ugh," Sol looked over his shoulder at the elf and half-elf. [Stay out ofy business]

    [The tarnished is annoyed at your conversation] Both of them saw the window and went mum, staring ahead and finding Sol''s gaze directly on them, with his left eye a different hue than normal.

    "T-tarnished?" A stared at her horse instead of sol, afraid to have her consciousness pulled again. "Avert your eyes, Idria."

 Chapter 31: Ill kill you first

    "Avert my eyes?" Idria asked susprised but before she could stop herself she had already looked away from Sol''s gaze. "What is happening, and what was that message just now, I have no knowledge of any tarnished, was it an error?"

    "My-my," Ikaris smiled with her gaze slightly sideways on Sol. "Master, you are showing more of yourself as time passes, at this rate everyone will know your secret within a few more months," She thought to herself, closing one of her eyes and smiling.

    [An unknown goddess is immersed in this sudden turn of events]

    [The goddess of war is watching]

    [The god of death is fascinated at this revtion]

    [The goddess of chaos is watching]

    One by one the pantheon started paying attention when Sol suddenly used the system again, and at the mercy of all these notifications were the elf and half-elf.

    "The gods...?" A stared at her system window in disbelief. "Why are the gods suddenly watching us?"

    [The Tarnished is annoyed]

    "...What?"

    [The tarnished has issued a warning to the gods to be mindful around lesser beings]

    A snapped from her window to look at Sol again and saw him staring upward to the skies and shaking his fistically. "What the devil is going on today?"

    "Are the two of you..." Lyra was going to say something to Idria and A but suddenly felt a wave of divine power suppress her and then she too was caught in the wave of their attention.

    [The entire pantheon of gods is watching the tarnished, challenges are being issued, fights are being dered, threats are being dered, the tarnished is under pressure]

    "Fuck!" Sol snapped, and all of a sudden the pressure that was bearing down on everyone vanished. "I swear, I''ll be breaking bones for days," Sol gritted his teeth and started grinding them as veins ran across his forehead. "You bastards," he mumbled.

    "W-what was that?" Lyra was more shocked than the other two women when she asked, but when A opened her mouth to answer she remembered what started this in the first ce, and sealed her lips again.

    "I don''t know, it must be an auspicious day, the heroes are journeying to their first battle, after all." She lied on the spot to save herself another bone-chilling stare from Sol, but it was Ikaris whose back was turned to them that startedughing while Sol straightened on his horse and took a calming breath.

    {The goddess of chaos has issued a secret invitation, only you are aware of her presence}

    Sol saw the suspicious window and furrowed his brows. Unlike the normal windows that were blue, or the divine windows that were yellow, this one was far more decorated, and crimson in colour.

    {What do you want?} Sol stared ahead to seem less suspicious and respect the privacy.

    {A meeting, dear Sol} She responded and he almost broke character when he realised that it was the goddess herself who spoke through the system, she had an alluring voice, calm as the oceans and as serene as the peak of the tallest mountains.

    {I have no desire to fight you, not yet, but I am rather curious about the physical presence of the man who killed a god, all that delicious chaotic and foreign  energy inside of you must be-}

    {Your invitation has been rejected by the Tarnished} She saw the message and paused, shocked. {The Tarnished has no desire to associate himself with any other god}.

    [Hm,] The goddess stood from her throne of swirling chaotic magic and stared through the window at Sol''s head, at his smile.

    She too like the Dr''ul had a head of red hair, but unlike Dr''ul who had glowing hair, hers was normal, what stood out were her eyes of pure darkness absorbing every bit of light that entered them, and a second pair of arms that limply swayed at her side.

    [How dare he reject my good-willed invitation?]  She sped all four of her fists and stepped forward, grabbing the system window as of it was a TV. [I even went the extraile and spent points to purchase privacy rights!] She seemed on the verge of exploding with anger.

    {The Tarnished only wishes to fight the gods of Arkadia, if you wish to converse, you must do so over an issued challenge}

    [Are you mocking me?] She gave Sol aplicated smile, and Sol in return turned his gaze in her direction with a smile of his own. [This little bastard, do you think I need to challenge you to fight you?!]

    [True Goddess Ikaris has caught wind of the failed attempt]

    [The Tarnished is staring directly at you]

    "Master, that one is quite strong," Ikaris Looked over the side of her carriage at Sol who was enjoying his provocation of the goddess of chaos.

    [This little... This little!!] The goddess turned, punching the window and walking away. [Fuck it I am fascinated!] The goddess eximed in frustration.

    [I have never descended the heavens, but for one such as you I will exempt myself of my pride and approach!]

    She reached forward and grabbed the darkness of her throne room and tore it apart impatiently. [Just you wait, Sol Vestic!]

    Back on Arkadia A day had already passed, the advance army had long left thefort of the city and set up camp for the night several dozen kilometres away from Argom.

    "This, it''s actually happening huh?" Dina sat next to A, looking at the small multitude of soldiers that surrounded them, there were swordmen, knights, spearmen, mages, healers, and tankers, each category of soldier possessing no less than twenty individuals with the same skillset that had been tasked with assisting their hero of the same skill.

    And then there were those who served under Ikaris and Lyra, mostly descended from some kind of great line or another, they were the strongest of the army, and they each possessed unique magic and special mana traits that could allow them to master and manipte more than a few different types of magic.

    "Have you lost your senses, hero?" A asked, cing a warm bowl of soup in Dina''sp and parting her shoulder.

    "It has been happening for two and a half months now, I have drilled discipline into you regardless of your mental state, because you were too weak, within just another two days we will be at the borders of the Last remaining territory between Argom and The Demon Lord, we will fight, and some will die, if you run away from this responsibility you will likely be executed as any other soldier of the crown, regardless of your status as hero, do you understand?" A held the bowl a little closer to her nose.

    "I... I''m not a soldier," Dina''s hands shook as she thought of the impending. "I''m no hero-"

    "For fuck''s sake," Han kicked the bowl out of Dina''s hand and grabbed on to her cors raising her to off her feet.

    "You fucking coward, you''ve done nothing but mouth off repeatedly, talking shit and acting tough this entire time, you''ve never even seen a demon, and yet you''ve already given up on your life?" He chastised her loudly causing the other heros to turn and pay attention, as well as the soldiers.

    "You won''t even be on the front, your whole job is to cast shields and create long-distance spells from a protected area within the formation, if you''re looking at safety, mages have it the easiest!"

    "B-but-"

    "If you fuck this up people are gonna die and you''re gonna die as well, don''t you want to live, Dina?"

    "I do... but-"

    "Do you want to live, Dina Levina!?" Han snapped at her, and she shrunk in his grasp and started crying.

    "Han," A attempted to stop them, but It was Ikaris who blocked her with a serious expression. "Mdy?"

    "This is a matter amongst heroes, if Dina cannot shed her cowardice she will ruin her formation and cause the deaths of many, the demons we face are not weak, without cooperation they will exploit every crack.

    "Answer me, do you want to live or not!?" Han snapped again, cing her to stand and summoning his sword at her neck.

    "Back on earth, you were an impressive woman, you said what you wanted, and did what you wanted, everyone looked up to and listened to your words like some kind of god, but who would have imagined that you''d turn out to be such a waste of space?" Han inched his sword closer, bringing the encampment into total silence.

    "I don''t want to die..." Dina whimpered in his grasp.

    "I didn''t hear you!"

    "I don''t want to die here!" Dina screamed grabbing Han''s hand and pushing him backwards so hard his feet slid across the ground and he went right through one of the campfires. "If...

    If you''re gonna try and kill me, if you''reing after my life then it no longer matters if you''re an enemy or an ally, if you''re a god or a demon, the Queen, or even my own father, I''ll blow you into smithereens; I''m going to kill you first!" Dina summoned a great-fireball at the tip of her staff and started imbuing several different chaotic elements into it until it turned into a small glowing orb cackling with electric energy.

    "That''s it, right there!" Han folded his arms with a bright grin and watched as the orb thinned into a disk and she released it like aser at him.

    "Hup!" Bruce quickly intervened with his shield, blocking her attack and diverting it into the air before the force of the attack itself sent him flying across the camp leaving Eris to chase after him.

    The thinser-like attack continued into the clouds where everything went quiet before the clouds vanished when a massive cone-shaped explosion erupted with thunder and fire, sending sparks across the skies like fireworks.

    "I''ll kill you first!!" Dina snapped again attempting to create another attack but stopped when the camp erupted into cheers.

    "Did you see that, Bruce has not lost footing, never, not even once, but she sent him flying with a cracked shield after just one attack!" Usami eximed running over to Dina and grabbing her arms with a bright grin. "You bitch, why have you been hiding your strength this whole time... you had me so worried!"

    "What?" A stared at the trench Dina''s attack had dug across the camp.

    "Motivationes in many forms." Sol had not even bothered to stand or get out of the way and was still eating. "Dinacked imagination, so she only needed proper visualisation, she knows the basics and has a firm grasp of the intermediary and advanced spells as well," He looked up at the Half-elf as she began tearing up from shock and pride.

    "You were a fine teacher, you just had a crappy student." Solplimented her and then stood, looking toward the direction of Argom.

    "It seems we have an uninvited guest,"

 Chapter 32: Goddess Of Chaos

    "Uninvited guest?" A looked to where Sol was staring, but she saw nothing, and sensed nothing, not until several guards started running in that same direction while Sol himself stood with his food and started paying attention, he was usually rxed in appearance, but this time the half-elf was shocked to see Sol paying such keen attention to the darkness.

    "You," A gestured to one of the men from the mage corps. "Go and find out what is happening over there." She ordered him, and with a nod thean picked up his staff and went off with the other soldiers who were leaving.

    "Master," Ikaris approached Sol with a warm smile, taking the bowl from his hand and resting her hand seductively on his shoulder. "May I?" She asked, her tone was suggestive, but Sol saw a burning desire for violence in her eyes and knew exactly what she was intending to do.

    "Absolutely not."

    "Wh-"

    "It''s out of the question, Ikaris," Sol closed his eyes and brushed her hand off his shoulder. "You can''t ever intervene, not unless you n topletely purge everything again," He stared at her, and she hesitated to respond to that.

    "But, how can I simply watch it all unfold?" She took a step back and away from everyone else. "I am supposed to be the one protecting you, but these days it feels like I''m being protected by you... I feel..."

    "Ikaris," Sol ced both hands on her shoulders and then hugged her from behind. "Thank you, for turning a blind eye and allowing me to have this much fun, after all I have been through its a great feeling being able to rx as much as I have, even after we''ve been dragged here."

    "Master..."

    "You''ve made me strong, stronger than I ever thought possible, and even now..." Sol''s hands raised and cupped the base of her breasts just slightly. "You continue to give me strength,"

    "T-this is not what I meant... Master," Ikaris admitted, and Sol smiled and released her. "I hate not being able to fight with you,"

    "We both know what happens if you raise a finger against them, nobody, not me, not you, not them and most definitely not anyone else on Arkadia is ready for what that would cause," Sol turned her to face him. "So leave it to me, leave it up to your master," He gave her a chaste kiss on her forehead and turned, summoning a sword and walking toward the intruder.

    "It''s, just a woman?" One soldier asked to the other, but as she approached, the air around her seemed to distort, and the ground felt like it would rupt into mes and devour everything. "I-I don''t understand what is happening!" The man shook his head as sweat poured down his forehead and his arms.

    "Move aside extras," Sol walked past the soldiers approaching with a speedy walk. "Take cover somewhere behind me, or run away, I don''t care, but if you''re in my path don''t expect to not get cleaved in half!" He eximed when nobody moved. "And you, why are you here?"

    "You have no authority over divinity, human, how dare you order and put me on a back seat?" The woman in theing shadows reached toward Sol, and he felt a pressure seize his arm and prevent him from moving a step closer as she too came to a halt, standing several metres away but folded within a darkness that never revealed her appearance other than her figure as female.

    "It doesn''t matter if I am mortal, immortal, or undead," Sol grit his teeth and took another step forward causing the Goddess of Chaos to raise her obscured brow in surprise. "I don''t care if you''re almighty or an ant beneath my heel, I take orders from none," He broke her restraints and raised his sword. "Now make a choice, Renia, Goddess of Chaos," Sol stared at her Name above her head.

    "What?" She asked shocked at his resolution even in her physical presence.

    "You made the effort toe all the way here, and I already told you that I''m not interested in a meeting, so obviously that means you want to fight me so badly that you even ignored the formalities set up by your own system."

    To Renia, Sol looked more threatening up close than the windows ever showed him, he was not arge man, he did note off as imposing in any way or form, but his body itself felt like a weapon designed to kill a god, he did not speak lies to them, and his conviction showed with every action, he was truly ready to fight her; one of the most powerful deities on the Arkadian pantheon on a whim because she approached him without his consent.

    "If I fight you, everything and everyone will die, I am the embodiment of Primordial Chaos," She replied, but Sol''s hand never lowered, and his stance never showed any sign of rxation.

    "I''m aware; I''m well aware of your power, but I don''t care," Sol''s pupils shrunk when he stared directly into her eyes. "I''m buzzing with excitement, I''m looking forward to it, so draw your weapon, ore at me directly, since I don''t feel like attacking you first, I at least want to give you the opportunity to flee with your tail between your legs or attack me of your own volition."

    [How dare-]

    [Divine skill Rupture has been activated]

    [Come on!] Sol countered her divinity with his own, reminding her that in spite of his status as a human, he was still by definition a divine being simply because of the amount of power he possessed as an individual, plus his hidden divine magic.

    [I dare you,] His sword caught ame, and that fire turned purple and began reaching for the sky like a violent tornado, passing the clouds and breaking out of the Arkadian atmosphere into the cosmos. [If you want to talk so bad then do it while we fight, otherwise fuck off!] Sol snapped whilst easily controlling the apocalyptic me with his sword alone.

    "T-then..." Renia lowered her hand and folded them into the darkness, the encampment was only several hundred metres away, and yet nobody was able to see, feel, or sense the conflict just next to them thanks to Ikaris blocking it all after the soldiers returned.

    "I... humbly request to apany you, for only a little while," She slightly lowered her head as the darkness began fading away from her, and Sol in response cancelled his attack and stood there staring at the goddess confused.

    "Of course, you can also disagree with my proposal, but if it is that you do not trust me because of my status as a god, then I will shed my divinity and walk amongst you as your familiar, it is purely a request out of curiosity, I do not mean any harm to you nor your existence in this world.

    "There''s absolutely no way I can ept this," Sol turned his back to leave but paused when his hand was grabbed by the goddess, he would have attacked her but Ikaris intervened.

    "Master, please let her through,"

 Chapter 33: Creator of Chaos

    "Are you sure?" Sol asked Ikaris.

    "Yes, please, if she acts inappropriately I will take full responsibility," Ikaris answered, unlike the superior and carefree attitude he had seen her take on for thest two months, and even before then; Sol witnessed her being extremely humble, and not just because he was humbling her. "I am also curious about this goddess,"

    "Very well then," Sol looked at Renia and unhooked her hands from himself. "If Ikaris has taken an interest in you then I suppose it''s fine, but don''t touch or talk to anyone without my permission." Sol warned her and began walking. "Let''s go, goddess,"

    "Yes," She quickly kept pace as her entire form solidified into the physical.

    She did not like his tone, but she was too invested and too far in it to simply back out, she wanted to see what came next just as much as anyone else.

    [The goddess of war is appalled at your sudden submission to the Tarnished, but admits it is interesting]

    [The pantheon is shocked beyond words]

    [The god of destruction has taken more interest in the Tarnished]

    Renia saw the windows and scoffed, brushing them out of her way just as Sol had been doing.

    Her human appearance was the same as her divine appearance, she only hid her extra arms and made her eyes look normal, while the chaos that followed her turned into her dress while she walked.

    "Master," Ikaris greeted Sol with a small bow and then looked behind him at the woman who appeared to be shy as she hid from the gaze of others in his shadow.

    "Who is this?" Bruce asked first, thanking Eris who had healed his arm with a bow and standing with the intention of approaching them. "I don''t recall seeing anyone like this in our presence when we left Argom''s capital," He stated matter-of-factly, and Sol scoffed at the scrutiny, even if he disliked the gods, he had no incline toward answering to any human either.

    "Bad enough he''s an imposter, but now he''s inviting them into our midst too?" Dina after reviving her confidence turned her head with an using re. "Are you seriously that dense, Vestic?"

    Sol would have answered, but he kept his peace when Renia stepped into the light and took hold of his hand and rested her cheek on his arm with a smile toward the woman, and everyone went speechless for two reasons, the first that Ikaris didn''t outright attack or kill her for touching him, and the second is because of how beautiful she was.

    She wasn''t Ikaris, but she was far above the appearance of everyone else there, Eris pped her hands with a nod and looked at Dina.

    "She came all the way from Argom after us right, look at how endearing she seems toward Sol, and he doesn''t even seem to mind her all that much, and Ikaris hasn''t said a word about it, could it be...

    that this woman has fallen hopelessly in love to the point of chasing after him into demonnds?" She asked, and Dina''s cheeks reddened as she realised why Sol was always so cold and dismissive to her.

    With women like this stranger and Ikaris in his life doting on and chasing him, she inparison seemed like the most normal and in woman in the world, especially with herck of talent in magic, Ikaris was talented beyond reason, and she even calls him master and deres herself his ve whenever she gets the chance, and now this exptic beauty was chasing after him as well.

    Dina bit her lip and approached Sol directly staring into his face. "Carrying a civilian on a mission is prohibited, this is wrong, send her back." She ordered him, and Sol''s expression went to amusement as he smiled and rested his hand on her shoulder making this the first time he physically interacted with her.

    "What do you..."

    "Move," Sol smiled gently at Dina, and her jaws dropped at his tone, she could immediately tell that there was no room for a debate, if she didn''t move he was going to move her himself, and she was no fool; Ikaris was leagues stronger than they were, and she also found out through Sara''s fellow maids that unlike them who just trained for two months, Sol had snuck out several times and crossed borders overnight to engage in actual fights, he was probably as strong as Ikaris already, or maybe even stronger.

    "Master, you have repeatedly told me not to bully them," Ikaris approached, taking Sol''s free arm and pulling him away while he was still being nice. "You should follow your own gospel," She chastised him with a cheeky grin, but her eyes quickly averted to the other goddess holding on to his other arm.

    "Renia," Ikaris greeted her with a stare.

    "I am honoured to meet the god subjugated by the Tarnished," Renia smiled at Ikaris and held out her hand for a proper greeting and waited patiently while Ikaris stared at her outstretched hand.

    "What do you want from my master?" Ikaris answered, talking Renia''s hand and smiling back at her.

    "I have already made a promise to not set foot amongst you lesser gods, but I have to warn you..." Ikaris forcefully dragged Rania into her soul, exposing her to the vastness of her infinitely greater power and took glee in watching the goddess of chaos break into sweat and slightly shudder after she released her hand.

    "On the asion that you try anything underhanded, or if any of you dare curse him again," Ikaris leaned her head sideways and stared directly at Dr''ul, causing the goddess of war to shudder as well when she felt the threat on her existence. "If any of you lot break your promise you will feel my wrath, billionfold."

    "Haha..." Renia chuckled nervously at the threat.

    {The goddess of chaos is utterly terrified of this existence!}

    Dr''ul saw the message and almost choked as she sat forward.

    [Surely, she is not that much stronger than we are] Dr''ul countered.

    {If we all fight her, even if we manage to win by some miracle, there will be nothing left to celebrate, if I embody the chaos, then it is fair to assume she is the one who created it, she is utterly Inconceivable} Renia answered and then took a deep breath and looked at Ikaris again. {The mother of Cosmic Chaos itself}

    "-Incidentally, I have also made a vow with Master," Ikaris continued, and Renia looked at Sol with newfound fascination.

    "How in the cosmos did this human manage to seduce such a being into being his ve, is he secretly her true master or creator?" She thought.

    "In the urrence of his death by the hand of a god through a duel, I will abandon any ns of revenge and continue my human life here until I am able to return to my home," Ikaris spoke with bile and bitterness inside of her. "I hate it, I would want nothing more than to extinguish the fire that is your existence if you killed this man," Ikaris grit her teeth and hissed out steam.

    "Everyst one of you,"

    "But, I will not disobey or undermine his wishes," Ikaris stared into the eyes of chaos. "You have my word, as long as it is a fair death by duel, I will not retaliate," Ikaris ced her hand on her chest seriously.

    "Ah... Th-thank you, then," Renia gave Ikaris a respectful bow and then looked at Sol again.

    "How long are you going to squeeze my arm like this?" Sol raised a brow, and Renia released him with a low shriek.

    A who watched their interaction from the other side of the fire dared not listen to what they were saying, but she could tell that this red-haired woman was nobody normal, Sol treated her with some level of respect unlike any other being she had ever seen him interact with, and he seemed to be mediating some kind of meeting between the two, not to mention when he left earlier he clearly intended to fight someone seriously, and she is the only one that returned with him.

    When she saw the way the woman looked at Ikaris A let out a timid chuckle, knowing all too well what had just happened.

    "She saw," A sighed to herself, but gained the stares of Ikaris, Sol, and this unknown woman as soon as she said it, and then it all made sense, she was indeed not normal, she was not even human, if nothing else this most certainly was one of the seven great gods that hade to meet with them in the flesh.

    Instead of angering either of them by creating a spectacle, A sped her hands and raised them to her chin and then gave Renia a bow, not enough to be noticed, but enough that Renia was aware who it was directed at.

    "That mage is quite perceptive," Renia folded her arms and a coat grew over her shoulders, hiding her skin from the light and followed Sol and Ikaris''s example by taking a seat.

    "Now that we have gotten that bit out of the way," Sol looked at Renia again while Ikaris rested her head in hisp, seemingly ignoring the rest of the conversation.

    "Would you like something to eat?"

    "Huh?"

 Chapter 34: A threat to the gods

    "Something to eat...?" Renia repeated Sol''s words confused.

    "Yeah, I don''t know what you expected, but it''s not like you''re gonna see me fight anytime soon, Ikaris is my guardian, and this war against demons is not mine, if all you''re here for is observation then you''re gonna have a lot of free time on your hands." Sol gestured to her and seemingly from the shadows, Sara showed up, with a small serving of the same food everyone was eating earlier.

    "Mdy," Sara lowered her head respectfully as the goddess took the food from her hands.

    "Uh, thank you..." Renia looked at the food slightly taken aback.

    "Isn''t that his personal maid, how did she get here?" One soldier asked surprised while Sara took a seat on the opposite side of Sol, providing a backrest for him and closed her eyes with a straight and wless posture.

    Aside from very few people in the castle, nobody knew that Sara had a rare type of shadow magic, she could go wherever she pleased, whenever she pleased, so long as there was darkness; she could walk through shadows, for this reason she did not need to travel with the group, she was also a part of the demon subjugation army, but more like Sol she was a back-liner, nobody expected her to raise a finger to fight unless ordered to by Sol himself.

    "I have questions, Sol Vestic," Renia looked at him after tasting the food and disliking it.

    "You get three," Sol leaned on Sara and closed his eyes.

    "Why is he like this?" Dina stared at Sol from the other side of the fire again, In hisp was Ikaris, the beautiful battle goddess, on his back was Sara, the perfect handmaid who sometimes seemed to show even more loyalty than Ikaris, and now this new beautiful and mysterious woman, they made it impossible for Sol to have free time, he was always with one or the other.

    Renia looked at Sara on his back, and Sol waved at her. "Don''t worry, she can''t hear a thing either of us say," He assured her. "A conversation with a god is bound to create some controversy if a single word is leaked, so the only ones that can hear us are Ikaris and the other gods."

    "Then pardon me," Reniaid her bowl to the side and gave him her full attention. "How did youe to possess such a tremendous power while still remaining human?" She asked.

    "I have heard of other species selling their existences and souls to otherworldly dimensional creatures in exchange for power, but I can see your soul intact, you are yourself, and yet the power within you is your own,"

    "I don''t n on telling the gods of Arkadia that," Sol raised a brow. "All I''d say is that I was blessed," Sol shrugged. "Next question."

    "How did you end up on Arkadia, I doubt you would force your way here, and even on your arrival none of us were the wiser, and yet it has exploded into a catastrophic event," She gestured to him with a morefortable smile now that she felt no hostility from him.

    "The queen summoned heroes, I was summoned with Ikaris who chose to remain by my side," He answered honestly again. "I''d rather have stayed in my world, these people and those other heroes hardly mean a thing to me, ironically, all I want is peace." Sol added, and Renia furrowed her brows, it sounded like Ikaris''s presence was an unintended variable, and Sol was the target of the summons. "Next."

    "Ah-yes!" Renia pped her fist in her palm. "How in the zes did you manage to make a ve of your goddess, this is impossible, this is unheard of, it is too bizarre to make sense, the pantheon has been in constant disarray trying to figure it out!" She looked at him bright-eyed and hopeful that her question would get through.

    "On that matter, I chose to serve master because in my eyes, he is perfection," Ikaris turned in hisp and looked up at the goddess of chaos. "There is none and will never be another like him, had I not taken these steps, he would have never allowed me to remain by his side," Ikaris admitted and Sol agreed to this with a nod.

    "You see, because of me, Master has a very deep and rooted hatred towards gods," Ikaris sat up and turned to them.

    "Hatred... But you are his-"

    "Yes, she is mine, and mine alone, Ikaris is the only god that I have no hate for," Sol rested his hand on Ikaris''s head and slowly pet her, causing the goddess of chaos to grow confused and curious as she saw the look of pleasure at simply being touched from Sol.

    "You, and all the other gods of Arkadia, I can''t me you all for hating me, I''ve done nothing but antagonise your existences with my presence, and I have to say, it''s been rather fun," Sol finally smiled at the goddess, and it sent a shiver down her spine.

    "That''s why I made Ikaris stay out of it, even if this somehow kills me, I''m not gonna stop until one of two things happens, the first is that we are sent back, and the second is that I put everyst one of you in your ces, and to be precise, that ce is under my feet."

    "Presumptuous," Renia thought. "This presumptuous little bastard!"

    "For disrupting my peace, and then having the gall to take spite toward me I''ll make you all grovel at my feet or die trying; and there''s no way I''m dying here, so that really only leaves one oue to all this,"

    [The goddess of war is estatic]

    [The god of destruction is fascinated]

    "I may not have been pleased about getting summoned here, especially after I realised that there''s no peace in this damned world where I could avoid any war and live with Ikaris like I nned to." Sol grit his teeth as a vein ran across his forehead.

    "I had a whole n of living a happy and unbothered life, and yet," he shook his fist at her. "I''m here of all ces!"

    "Master, calm down," Ikaris chuckled at his passion for unattainable peace.

    "I''m taking my frustrations out on you guys who allowed a demon god to enter your dimension and then did nothing to stop her from wiping out almost everybody," Sol turned his stare to Ikaris who shrunk at the double-edged usation.

    "You turned out to be a lot more talkative than I imagined." Renia chuckled.

    "Ah you''re right, I went off track there,"  Sol cleared his throat and leaned on the immobile Sara again, allowing Ikaris toy in hisp with his finger hooked in her mouth as she began breathing heavily against his other hand that rested on and slowly massaged the crest on her lower abdomen.

    "I''m saying you should all form up and stop sending me haphazard challenges, I''m taking you all on, everyst one, I''m gonna crush your pantheon and beat you off your high horses!" Sol grinned maniacally revealing lengthened canines and bright blue eyes as his divinity passively activated.

    "I swear it!"

    "My-my, such a bold deration," Renia stood looming over Sol with a grin that alerted him of her taking his threat seriously.

    [The goddess of war is in awe]

    [The goddess of chaos is riled up]

    [The god of destruction finds this encounter hrious]

    [The god of goatsments his fate as fodder]

    "Do you honestly believe you have the power on your own to defeat me, the goddess that embodies and personifies primordial Chaos?" Renia asked Sol, and in response he stood from his seat to stare back down at her.

    "Renia, goddess of chaos, are you trying to say I have empty words?" Sol asked, incline closer until their noses were touching as she stared up at him defiantly, everyone else saw this and saw how Ikaris seemed to not mind at all, causing confusion especially amongst A, who had previously tried to court Sol but almost had her soul extinguished as a consequence.

    "Could she be stronger than Ikaris?" A asked aloud, and then held her mouth and took a seat again. "I need to learn to mind my own business."

    "Is this a vacation or a war unit?" Han stared off at them displeased beyond what any more words could portray. "How does that weakling gain so much attention?"

    "Master you are drawing attention to yourself again," Ikaris sat with a blush on her face as she watched him stare down at Renia as if she was no more than a piece of cloth he could wipe his hands with.

    "It can''t be helped, this woman knows how to push my buttons," Sol grinned at Renia while she did the same.

    "I am not just some woman you-"

    "She was silenced when Sol gently sped his hands around her neck and pressed his forehead against hers, to everyone else it almost seemed like a kiss, but Renia felt hesitation through her entire body, and Ikaris let out augh of pure fascination when she saw what Sol actually did.

    "M-my legs," Renia turned her face and looked away. "Please release me, I have to sit," She held on to his hand when Sol suddenly simted her chaos magic impressing her to the point where her cheeks reddened and her eyes held admiration for his talent to mimic omnipotence.

    "Admit it first," Sol held on to her arm when she tried to leave the sphere of his influence.

    "What?"

    "Who am I?" Sol stared her in her eyes, constantly raising the influence of his magic, forcing Ikaris to create a secondary barrier around them so he did not hurt anyone else with his recklessness. "Say it,"

    "You..."

 Chapter 35: Diablos! God of Dragons

    "I do not know how to answer such a question," Renia held on to Sol''s arm and stared at him again. "However, do not be under the impression that this means I am fleeing your presence, I simply do not wish to..." She paused when she realised that Sol was merely provoking her into acting out of character, and he had seeded in doing so.

    "Mister Vestic, please release me this instant," She calmly spoke, and Sol smiled and let go of her hand. "You are an odd human,"

    "Sara," Sol turned to the maid, and immediately she woke up and stood with a small bow. "Do you mind tending to Renia for a while?" He asked, and she looked at the red haired woman with a raised brow.

    "Someone had the impudence to name their child after the goddess of chaos?" She asked, and Renia smiled after being assured that her name still held the respect it did a hundred years ago.

    "Sara," Sol called to her again.

    "I will serve her to the best of my capabilities, Sir,"  Sara smiled at Sol, and then at Ikaris as he took the goddess by the hand and started walking. "If you would please take my hand, mdy," Sara approached Renia cautiously and extended her hand gently.

    "I want to go with Sol," Renia looked pass her shoulder, but the maid shook her head in dismissal.

    "I do not know where he goes, but it should be his usual act of disappearance, he will return within an hour or so," Sara extended her hand a bit more. "Please take my hand, I will escort you to the capital where it is safe until he calls for me again, this is simply a measure to protect you," She smiled.

    "Hm," Renia conceded; she already knew that Sol was going to ept a challenge, what she was unaware of was who that challenger would be.

    Had she thought of it she would have probably approached him after the fight, because now she was being forced to y the part of a damsel when she was an all-powerful god. "Very well, lead me to safety," She took Sara''s hand, and a fraction of a secondter the Goddess was standing in Sol''s room.

    "A bed," Renia stared at the bed and smiled.

    "May I?" She asked.

    Sara gestured to the bed with a smile and watched as this woman of clear nobility gently ran her fingers across the sheets, sat with a sigh and then fell backwards and spread her arms. "It has been Eons."

    "Mdy," Sara called to her. "Is there anything you require of me?" She asked, and Renia barely raised her head and then fell back again.

    "I will be resting my eyes for a moment, please do not allow my body to be disturbed." She answered sleepily, and although Sara found the "my body" bit a tad suspicious, she still nodded without a protest and went to the other side and picked up an unfinished book.

    "I swear it," Sara answered, but smiled when she realised that this strange woman was already fast asleep.

    [The goddess of chaos is watching you intently]

    Sol saw the message and scoffed.

    "Be more careful this time Master, the one you will face is stronger than Psiko," Ikaris warned Sol, and he nodded and caressed her cheek with a smile as her eyes slowly closed. "My beautiful Sun," She whispered before falling unconscious.

    [True Goddess Ikaris smiles warmly at you]

    "Alright then." Sol closed his eyes and summoned arge broadsword as tall as his shoulders and opened his eyes anew, utilizing [divinity] to stare at the system window in front of him.

    [Diablos, the god of dragons has issued a challenge, all other challenges have been rejected, will you ept or reject the challenge?]

    "Diablos hm?" Sol closed his eyes with a smirk.

    [ept]

    The system window let off a low humming sound.

    [Challenge has been epted!]

    [The stage has been set!]

    Sol looked at the ground while a teleportation circle appeared beneath his feet, and a momentter he vanished in a sh of light, leaving Ikaris''s unconscious self in her tent alone.

    "Well now," Sol whistled as soon as he opened his eyes again, unlike the first cave, this time he was transported into a great canyon with cliffs on both side as tall as mountains that overshadowed a three-mile wide crack, from his understanding, this was supposed to be on the other side of Arkadia, far West and close to deserts and oceans, there were a few grass patches and even fewer trees, but the radiant yellow light from one of the three great moons lit it perfectly.

    [Tarnished]

    He heard the voice of his challenger from behind, and turned slowly with a grin.

    Sol was expecting a massive creature, after all, it was supposed to be the god of dragons, but despite the booming voice that addressed him, he was disappointed to find a humanoid just barely taller than himself.

    "Oh." He leaned his head with a frown. "Your presence is a bit disappointing." He admitted with a sigh, but while he spoke Diablos continued to slowly approach him.

    [Your opponent is stronger than you are, all debuffs have been nullified, you are in imminent danger]

    The system warned him, but Sol couldn''t remove the grin from his face, back on Ikaris''s world, by the time he had finished fighting the demon god, he was only barely tired because he had received a massive boost of power halfway through the fight, in the end the demon god simply couldn''t keep up with his growth, but there was something he loved about fighting stronger opponents that he himself chased did not understand.

    [I will make this a merciless death, for disrespecting the gods, and killing my friend, you will suffer!] Diablos stepped into the light of the moon.

    His eyes burned like coal, and he had long spiky hair that grew like quills from a porcupine stopping at his mid back, he had no wings, but instead arge crocodilian tail that dragged on the ground behind him.

    He had no portion of exposed skin, instead it was all a brilliant red armour of scales that glistened with magic, and his face was slightly elongated leaving room for sharp teeth and a protruding nose with a nasty-looking underbite, two horns boldly stuck out from his forehead growing forward and curving upwards, but with all the magnificence of his appearance he was at most a twelve-foot tall being.

    "Don''t you just look like a lizard man?" Sol leaned his head with a smile as he too began walking toward Diablos, but he was not rewarded with a reaction for his taunt, instead they both stopped directly before each other.

    Diablos looking down at Sol, and Sol starring back up at him in defiance.

    [The pantheon is in silence]

    [The goddess of war is on the edge of her seat]

    [True Goddess Ikaris is staring in anticipation]

    "Then," Sol broke the face-off with azy swing of his sword, calcting his next set of moves carefully, but Diablos shocked him when he caught the de instead of dodging or parrying it away.

    [I will utterly crush that damnable pride of yours, and send you into the arms of death] Diablos raised his other hand and swung at Sol.

    "So, this is a fight to the death then?" Sol grinned reaching out and catching the god''s hand as a grin slowly crept across his face again. "That changes everything, doesn''t it!?" His smile continued growing when he realised he was being overpowered by Diablos already.

    [It was always my intention to remove you from thend of the living!]

    The dragon''s surprisingly flexible tail wrapped around Sol''s leg and dragged him to the ground where he was suddenly subjected to a barrage of fast punches that he barely managed to block while trying to right himself, it felt like he was being hit with a thousand tonne boulder with every punch, his vision blurred several times, and the ground beneath him had already exploded outward a few times sending cracks all across the canyon and hardening the soil like stone because of the amount of pressure that he was tanking per hit.

    [A lesser being should know its ce, I dare you to try and show off your power before me, you insect!] Diablosughed as he continued to speed up his punches until the mountains around them began having tremors and avnches all over the ce.

    "I ept that challenge, geko!" Sol dodged thest punch, arching his body around Diablos''s four-fingered hand and thrusting both of his feet into the dragon''s jaw, snapping his mouth shut and sending his head upward in a snap.

    Diablos was caught off guard by Sol''s sudden increase in strength, but he still grabbed Sol by one of his legs and spun with him, smashing him into the ground like a ragdoll.

    "I figured a sword was a waste of time against you, you''re nothing but raw power!" Sol grinned, spinning out of Diablos''s grasp and kicking him in his chest to separate the two of them. "Were just getting started!" Solnded on his feet while Diablos staggered backward and righted himself with a loud growl that caused thend beneath them to rumble.

    [The pantheon cheers]

    [The goddess of war nods in agreement at your analysis]

    [The god of goats cowers in a corner but watches intently]

    [The god of bets is biting his nails]

    "Interesting, Sol," Renia mumbled in her sleep causing Sara to look up from her book with aconfused  smile, who exactly was this woman supposed to be?

    "Master is having fun again," Ikaris chuckled in her sleep while her goddess avatar watched the fight unfold.

    [Interesting] Diablos wiped his chin as he observed Sol, even though he had punched him with enough power to easily kill any creature on Arkadia, Sol was unscathed, and he had tanked hundreds of those hits, the only thing that showed he was pinned on the ground at all was the dirt he was brushing off his arms.

    "Get ready you ugly reptile bastard," Solughed, then cancelled his ck armour and bumped his fists together, causing his shirt to get shredded as his skin glistened with a thin coat of magic.

    [Activated magic mimicry]

    In truth, this was an interesting fight for him, Ikaris''s homeworld had no dragons, and the lizardmen there were wiped out long before he arrived, even if he was trying to y it off he was utterly fascinated by a creature that he had never seen before. "We''re taking this up a notch!"

 Chapter 36: Sol VS Diablos!

    While the demon subjugation camp was quiet in the wee hours of the night, halfway across the world the mountains were being torn down by quakes as Sol traded blow for blow with Diablos, the god of dragons.

    On one side the mountains had holes that had gone straight through them, and on the other side some of the mountains werepletely destroyed, the great canyon of a few minutes ago was nothing but a destroyed terrain, and in the midst of it Sol and Diablos shed fists once more blowing each other off their feet and crashing in opposite sides, causing the ground to quake again as two more mountain peaks vanished into avnches andndslides.

    [The pantheon is in disbelief]

    [The goddess of war is cheering]

    [True Goddess Ikaris is cheering you on]

    [The goddess of chaos is excited at the state of the battlefield]

    [The god of destruction is in a fit of joy at the state of the battlefield]

    [Activating warp steps: subject closes distances within sight with a single step]

    "It''s a shame you want to kill me, you''re an excellent warmup!" Sol shed his hands and ran toward Diablos again, closing the distance in a single breath anding to a halt right underneath the dragons descending fist and punching upwards.

    Their fists shed again and Diablos gawked in shock when Sol''s punch overpowered his own punch and his arm was sent snapping off his shoulder while Sol only crashed back into the ground a rolled to his feet with that same annoying look on his face.

    "Come on god of dragons!" Solughed. "Let''s keep going!"

    [He was right to have declined the role of hero] Renia regarded Sol''s behaviour with scrutiny. [He is much closer to my idea of a viin] She hummed at the fact that he seemed to enjoy tearing his opponents apart while he fought them.

    [Overconfident monkey!] Diablos roared, regenerating his hand in a sh and roaring at Sol as he dashed madly toward him.

    [Your opponent is rapidly growing in strength]

    The system warned Sol, and he witnessed this firsthand when he dodged Diablos''s swipe, grabbed the dragon by his two horns and kicked him in his nose, there was no effect at all, he shrugged it off and tried biting Sol in half.

    "Whoop!" Sol turned his body in the air to dodge the bite and kicked Diablos again giving himself a height advantage as he sped his hands together.

    [Activating Breath of the Serpent]

    Sol spun several more times as he inhaled, falling and dodging several more of Diablos''s much faster attacks before he grit his teeth and caught the dragon''srge arms with a grunt and then opened his mouth.

    "st away!" Sol roared as a massive pir of wyvern firs exploded from his mouth hitting Diablos at close range and blowing him clean off his feet and toward the opposite side of the canyon.

    "Let''s go!" Sol swung his arms and waved his head from side to side as a few scales grew around his wrists and under his eyes. "I''m teeming with energy!"

    [How dare you mock me with the powers of an inferior species that I have never even lorded over!?] Diablos, after tanking the st to his facended on all fours with saliva dripping down his chin.

    [I''ll kill you, I''ll murder you, I''ll tear you apart, I''ll burn you to ashes and devour your remains!!] He roared as his eyes becameplete crimson and began glowing brightly while his tail smashed I to the ground showing his rising agitation at being taunted and humiliated.

    "Oh-" Sol was going to respond with another insult, but raised his hand in reflex when he sensed dangering from his side, and a millisecondter Sol let out a grunt of pain when Diablos came swinging his tail from his side.

    "I didn''t see him move!" Sol protected his head as he cascaded across the canyon floor like a ragdoll, crashing into the other side back-first and coughing up blood from the sheer impact. "What th-" His eyes widened again when he saw arge fist right in front of him.

    An entire side of the canyon exploded outward after Sol was punched leaving dust and a giant crater the size of several mountains in the wake of the punch.

    [There is an intruder near you] Ikaris got a warning notification out of the blue stared at it weirdly.

    [Intruder?] She closed an eye and her presence faded by a fraction just enough that she could watch Sol and wake up to see what was happening, her shock though came from a cloaked figure using magic to bind her arms and another one holding her legs while a third figure had a magic circle pressed on her forehead that was trying to keep her asleep.

    "Who are you... People," A half asleep Ikaris tried moving, but several more hidden figures approached and cast more paralysis magic on her, and she waspletely kicked out of her body again, leaving her truly helpless now.

    [Divine magic was used to seal your consciousness]

    [Divine magic has been used to paralyse your muscles]

    [What the fuck?] Ikaris closed her other eye.

    [Goddess Ikaris has urgently left]

    "Urgently, Ikaris...?" Sol asked standing with a wheeze and staring into the night sky and the dust that covered the surrounding like clouds. "Did something happen, are you okay?" He triedmunicating through their link, but she had yet to seize control of her body, so he never got a response.

    [Activating new magic: Golem''s Hardening level 1]

    [Tremble under my power monkey!] Diablos caught up to Sol who had crashed several miles away from the canyon with a descending kick that caused a giant plume of dust to shoot up into the clouds when it connected with his head.

    In the wake of that next devastating blow Sol''s arms were shaking as he stood with blood dripping from his nose and forehead, "Ikaris, answer me." He ordered through their connection, but because she had yet to gain consciousness, all he received was silence.

    [Why is he so suddenly fixated on Ikaris?] Dr''ul asked, waving her hand and opening up a new window, to her susprise, she witnessed a massacre in the happening, the army was under attack, and it was not demons. [Demigods?] Dr''ul seemed confused. [Who gave this order?] She stood.

    [The goddess of war has urgently left]

    Sol saw the next notification and realised that something was truly amiss.

    [Something''s happening?] Renia did as Ikaris had some and split her consciousness to wake her avatar. "Huma... Sara!" She called to the maid.

    "Yes, Mdy!" Sara stood from her seat at the urgency of her tone.

    "Quickly take me back to the encampment!" She stood and staggered.

    "A-are you okay?" Sara asked concerned.

    "Just hurry!"

    [The pantheon is in chaos, several gods are leaving to witness another development]

    "What?" Sol stared at the notification shocked.

    [Do not even think about fleeing!] Diablos grabbed Sol and mmed him into the ground. [I am your focus!]

    "I''m not, but if something happens to Ikaris... Urghh!!" Sol folded forward and fell to his knees when Diablos''s tail mmed into his chest and shattered his ribcage.

    [This fight is over, now I have killed the wretched imposter, and simultaneously rid the world of that pestilent goddess,] Diablos went on all fours and opened his mouth right in front of Sol, who was choking on his own blood and unable to move as he regenerated his organs.

    [Divine Dragon''s Judgement]

    The st of fire erupted like an egg-shaped dome, clearing the clouds for thousands of miles and leaving a giant pir that slowly shrunk until all that remained was a fifty mile wide crater of stone and magma, so deep it looked like the impact of a-killing meteor.

    [I stand victorious!] Diablos raised his hands and shed his tail in the cooling ground as he roared.

    "What did you just say?"

    [Impossible!] The dragon spun on his heel seeing Sol standing in the air to match his height and address him face-to-face.

    "I asked you a question, Diablos," Sol slowly approached him like a phantom.

    His armoured pants were torn up, his hair was visibly charred, and his skin was slowly regrowing over his muscles.

    His face had almost beenpletely sted off, and it showed while his muscle tissue and skin grew over his cheek to hide his skeleton. "Why aren''t you answering me?"

    [Divinity was forcefully activated]

    [You are in a state of rage]

    [Goddess Ikaris is missing]

    [The pantheon is in chaos]

    [Answer me Diablos!!] Sol grabbed the god by his horns pulling his head down as his feet touched the ground and staring him in his eye. [What did you mean by ridding the world of a pestilent goddess?] He asked again.

    [What the heck are you!?] Diablos tried to crush Sol like a bug, but ironically a third and fourth arm grew from Sol''s sides and stopped both of his hands, trapping them while Sol continued to stare him down.

    [Answer me first, if you can give me a good enough answer; something I am satisfied with then I''ll make your death as painless as possible, but if I find out that anything has happened to my goddess, forget about dying altogether, I''ll torture your soul for the rest of eternity!]

    [Your mind is entering am unstable state of madness, penalties are being calcted]

    [What have you done to Ikaris!?]

 Chapter 37: Death Sentence

    [I can''t really think clearly right now so say it in one simple sentence] Sol''s eyes burned blue as he held the dragon in ce.

    [The pantheon is in an uproar]

    [The encampment was attacked by an unknown faction]

    [The heroes are in peryl]

    [Even if you know, you cannot do a thing about it, that wretched goddess of yours is long-]

    *Crack!

    Diablos shuddered and went stiff when Sol broke both of his horns and stood there staring at him.

    [One, short, sentence] Sol grabbed him by his nostril and turned to the direction of the camp.

    [Activated enhanced senses]

    [It''s too far away, I can''t see or hear anything from here, Arkadia is a lotrger than I imagined] Sol closed his eyes and deactivated his magic.

    [What''s happening over there?] Sol asked one final time, and instead of answering Diablos beganughing.

    [This fight is over, then] Sol released him and turned his back to leave.

    [Wh- are you not going to kill me?] Diablos asked, and Sol looked over his shoulder.

    [You''re not worth it, you''re a weaker god than I imagined, and after I went and told Ikaris to noty a hand on you, you still vited the rules of our challenger agreement and went after her, she''s going to keep her word, which means if she''s attacked by gods or humans she won''t fight back, the only living creatures she has the permission to hurt are demons, so that leaves me with the responsibility of keeping her safe] Sol slowly began floating.

    [I made no such promise, I''m going to kill everything and everyone that is not an ally,] He vanished on a sh of electricity.

    System

    [The victor of the challenge has been decided, Diablos lost by unanimous vote through the pantheon, calcting consequences]

    [God of dragons Diablos vited a divine contract, consequences are being issued]

    [You have been abandoned, your divinity will be taken away]

    [You have been cursed by the gods to walk the world without limbs]

    "Wait!" Diablos shrieked after his legs vanished from beneath his feet. "Let me fix this!" He cried when his hands disappeared and he fell on his chin.

    [You have been cursed with primitive intellect, your memories of your godhood will be stripped away]

    [Wanderer has been applied to your curse, you may never stop moving]

    [Disgrace has been applied to your curse, you will only have an appetite for rotting meat and putrid waters]

    [Coward has been applied to your curse, you will never retaliate to any attack or abuse no matter the severity]

    "No, please, no... wait... wai... wah... Uusssh..." His speech devolved until all that remained was a low hiss as thest of his intelligence faded away and he began slithering toward the deep of the desert as nothing but arge and peculiar-looking snake.

    On the other side of Arkadia, Sol arrived with his divinity deactivated and caught a fire-bolt with his bare hand, throwing it behind him where it exploded against the man who cast it, killing him instantly.

    The formation was in tatters, people were running around, and the heroes were nowhere to be seen.

    "You returned!" Renia approached Sol dragging a man by his hood in one hand  and holding a bloody sword in her other hand.

    "Why are you not using your powers to put an end to this?"  Sol asked her surprised.

    "We of the pantheon are forbidden from directly interfering in the affairs of Arkadians, I know this was set into motion by other gods, but the ones carrying it out are not gods, therefore I am unable to-"

    "I get it," Sol turned away from her and held out his hand. "Then I will do it myself, after all... [Clockwork]"

    The atmosphere went cold and everyone started moving in slow motion, their actions were now almostpletely frozen.

    "The powers of time?" Renia stared at Sol''s work, shocked.

    "How many affinities do you possess?" She asked, but hepletely ignored her and summoned a sword instead, rapidly moving through the crowds of demigod invaders and cleanly removing their heads off their shoulders, it happened in an instant, one moment they were all fighting overwhelming opponents, and the next the soldiers were sprayed with blood as the invaders all lost their head.

    "What happened?" A dropped her shield when she realised that every enemy was dead, she sensed Sol''s magic, but he was nowhere near the camp either.

    Miles away from the camp a carriage was hightailing it across the ins, dragged byrge horses with glowing white eyes that created thunder as they ran, inside of that carriage Ikaris was watching her body worried and unable to enter it because of the divine magic holding her consciousness at bay.

    "Cant these things go any faster?" One man asked the driver.

    "They are going as fast as they can, we''re already long gone too, nobody''s gonna find out where she went anytime soon, just think positively, by this time tomorrow we''ll be rich beyond our wildest dreams.

    "I can''t believe we pulled it off though," One of the female mages in the back chuckled, pulling the hood off her head and swallowing the contents of a small ss vial. "Once she is in the mansion the array will be able to suppress all her magic, she will be a normal woman.

    [True Goddess Ikaris stareszily and hatefully at you]

    The woman choked on the mana potion and looked around at everyone else, it seemed she was the only one who saw that message.

    "Focus, if we screw this up and get caught we are gonna get fed to demons as bait." The apparent leader with the circle pressed against Ikaris''s forehead looked at the woman annoyed.

    "Sorry, I just saw something weird for a few seconds," She chuckled. "Maybe that mana potion is a bit too potent after all."

    "What did you see?" One of the others askedzily put of passive curiosity.

    "The system called her True Goddess," The woman answered, and everyone froze and stared at her. "Y-yeah, right, like she could actually be some kind of goddess-"

    "I got a simr message when we were taking her out of the camp," Another of the eight people in the carriage confessed, and the woman''s eyes went wide in shock. "Is it just a coincidence, I mean there''s no way she could be a goddess... right?"

    "That nobleman was specific about keeping her under divine magic, which is why we were all given ancient artifacts and taught forbidden magic from an age long ago even though we are just mercenaries, he went through all of that just to get her... I know she''s damn beautiful, the most beautiful woman I''ve everid eyes on, all I want to do is take her for myself... I mean... look at this body...

    I''d do some incredible things to her if I could have her, I''d give my soul to get a woman like this..." Their leader slowly reached his free hand downward and cupped Ikaris''s half-exposed breast with a gaze full of drunken lust, and the moment he did the skies outside began to whistle.

    [Judgement has befallen you who have touched the goddess without permission]

    Another notification appeared and the man felt a chill roll down his spine as more notifications continued to appear.

    [The goddess of war has judged you]

    [The goddess of chaos narrows her eyes in spite at the human who dared to touch divine royalty]

    [The god of destruction pities your fate]

    [The tarnished has discovered your actions]

    [The tarnished is on the approach]

    [Your fate is sealed]

    "Wh-what the fuck are these weird yellow windows?" The woman who had drunken the mana vial asked terrified. "What''s a Tarnished, and why are the gods staring at us all of a sudden aren''t they all dead!?"

    In that same moment the horses and driver on the outside went quiet, and before their very eyes, Ikaris vanished, leaving a piece of her blouse in the man''s grasp after he had fiercely taken hold of her boob after being frightened.

    "What the hell is happening?"

    [Not only did you try stealing her away from me, but you also dared toy your hand on my goddess, you dared defile her purity with your filthy human hands!] Sol descended from the skies holding Ikaris like a bride while she finally woke up.

    "Master!" She held on to him tightly. "What took you so long?" Ikaris asked as tears welled up in the sides of her eyes.

    "Ikaris, this is all my fault, I was careless, I believed that the gods were all as honourable as Renia and Dr''ul, but there are some who employed underhanded methods just to get to you, to hurt you, to..." Sol grit his teeth so hard his gum began bleeding.

    "Master..."

    "I am angry beyond words," Sol admitted calmly while his body began rapidly undergoing physical changes; horns began growing, a tail manifested out of his spine, and his skin changed along with his hair.

    [The tarnished is undergoing a rapid metamorphosis]

    [Your Divinity is going out of control]

    Sol''s wings opened right before he touched the ground, and he released Ikaris to stand while Renia used her chaos to teleport to their direction, holding on to Sara whom she had knocked unconscious so she could not witness Sol''s terrifying demonic god transformation in the flesh.

    [For daring to touch her, for daring to anger me, for daring to exist, I sentence you all to endless death!]

 Chapter 38: Wrath of the Godslayer

    "Endless death...?" Renia repeated Sol''s threat just as a foreboding feeling captivated the area surrounding the mercenaries using demigod powers.

    "What have we gotten ourselves into?" One of the women among the mercenaries shrieked as she felt deathe knocking, her bones quivered, fear became physically present amongst them, and any hope of breathing in the next few minutes became the distant dream of an impossible future.

    The leader drew his sword and rushed outside terrified of whatever awaited him, but at the same time still brave enough to try and prevent his fate.

    And following him were three more who had yet to lose the will to move their legs.

    "Bastaaard!!" The man shouted waving his sword as he searched for Sol. "Show yourself!"

    [Activated cursed de]

    [All magic in this area has beenpletely sealed]

    The system announced, and the man watched horrified as his sword lost its cursed property and became normal again, and then Sol appeared in his peripheral.

    "Wh-"

    [Divinity lv1 has been pushed to its maximum capability, calcting appropriate consequence-]

    [Error]

    [Divinity has leveled up]

    [Divinity has leveled up]

    "A..." The mercenary leader stared at Sol at a loss of words, this was not what he had signed up for a month ago, this thing was not human, it was no god, it was a pure devil with the evilest intent, Sol''s appearance was nightmarish as he walked toward them, the air around him burned and reformed, it bent and contorted and swirled, magic particles in the atmosphere became a visible spectacle of blue and crimson that was being absorbed so quickly that it was being drained faster than the Arkadian soil could reproduce it.

    "W-what am I witnessing?" Renia''s hand shook and sweat dripped down her forehead. "Chaos magic, destruction magic, death magic, cmity, draconic magic, time and space... He keeps evolving right in front of my eyes!"

    "Stop, stay away from me!" The mercenary shrieked and turned to run, but on the opposite side he saw Sol as well, and then more in the other corners as well, the wagon and everyone else waspletely surrounded by them.

    [You canment on your sins in a hell you made me create just for you!]

    All of the Sols spoke in tandem causing the air to erupt in magic.

    The others that were in the tent were dragged out and thrown down before the four bravest, and while this happened the original Sol stood in front of Ikaris with his hand extended toward them, his eyes burned crimson, and his teeth gnashed sparks, causing even his own goddess to seem sheepish in his presence.

    She had never once seen Sol Vestic this enraged, she knew of his endless potential for growth, but his powers had risen three times the potency in a matter of seconds just because of his emotions getting the better of him, it was scary.

    [The Godyer has read your memories using; sandman]

    [The Godyer has cursed you with immortality]

    [The Godyer has cursed your flesh and soul with hypersensitivity]

    [The Godyer has cursed your soul to suffer mortal pain]

    [Your soul has been forfeit]

    [Lamentation awaits]

    [Hell awaits]

    Sol balled his fists and created a hundred foot wide sphere around the mercenaries and his clones who continued to morph into more pure demonic entities shedding thest of their humanoid appearances, gaining extra limbs, extra heads and multiple weapon-like appendages as they began mercilessly attacking the mercenaries, tearing them apart with roars and cackles of sadistic delight as their screams and cries arose.

    [Clockwork]

    Sol murmured casting the sphere into a hyper dimension where time passed five times slower.

    [Breath of chaos]

    He squeezed his fists tighter mimicking chaos magic and draconic magic, causing the inside of the sphere to ignite with swirling chaos fire that burned and shredded against everything it touched.

    [Copse]

    Sol sped his hands together and the ground began to tremble, slowly the earth beneath the sphere opened up, revealing magma that poured into the sphere as it slowly sunk, and then he shut the hole and took a deep breath.

    [Now suffer for the rest of eternity]

    "...Master?" Ikaris watched him slowly turn to her. "Are you okay?" She observed his appearance change and reform to human once more.

    "Ikaris, forgive me," Sol fell at her feet and pressed his forehead against her abdomen. "This all happened because of my carelessness, and my selfishness," He admitted, and she hesitated to reply to his im.

    "Sol, it was my-"

    "If I hadn''t made you promise to not harm anyone you could have protected yourself, but instead you were subjected that bastard''s touch," He spoke up again, and Ikaris went quiet; indeed he was right, she felt defiled and unworthy of him now that someone else had touched her; such was the devotion the goddess held for him.

    "Um..." Renia cleared her throat and announced her approach while staring at the wagon that stood by itself. "If you wish to, and are not opposed to it I am sure the pantheon would-"

    Before she could even finish speaking, Sol took Ikaris''s hand and vanished. "Well, it was worth a try, at least." She chuckled nervously as the revtion of her and the pantheon''s situation became apparent: Sol was a human who had gained divinity through Ikaris''s blessing, foregoing the stage of demigodpletely.

    Sol was already more powerful than eighty percent of the pantheon, this most recent feat proved that he could wipe out half of them within a single breath, and he was appaently capable of getting stronger whenever he lost hisposure as seen with Psiko, Diablos, and now those unfortunate basards.

    Then what could be said of the one who bestowed that power onto him?

    Just how mush stronger was Ikaris who by his own words was infinitely stronger than he was, what kind of fate would befall the gods of Arkadia if they managed to enrage the goddess of that abomination?

    [The pantheon is in shock]

    [He was treating the gods themselves as a side-quest] Dr''ul chuckled with herself, closing the window and sitting down.

    Within the span of two hours, Sol had managed to shock her more than she could ever care to admit, it was fascinating. [He learned Diablos''s divine power after being hit once with it, what in the stars is he?] She asked with a growing smile and blush, squirming in her throne and caressing her sword as her imagination took over.

    [Hnn~ I truly wish to battle you, Sol Vestic~!] She moaned in delight.

    Back in the camp, their numbers had been cut in half, with the entire army being strengthened by general Grim and Han''s leadership buffs they were stillpletely overrun by enemies using artifacts and demigod-tier abiliies, though most of them were half-assed they proved the gap in power between regr soldiers and those blessed with godlike strength; Had the general andmanders not been there it would have been aplete disaster.

    Several hours had now passed, and he bloody night was starting to get washed away with the life of daylight.

    "Give me that," Eris reached for a small ss vial from her assisting medic, drinking it and sighing when the blue liquid replenished her mana.

    "Lady Eris, that is your third bottle, you should stop and rest a little," The young man tried stopping her, but Eris defiantly wiped away her sweat and shook her head.

    "Look around you Garam, everyone is either passed out from mana overuse or too afraid to even circte their magic and heal the wounded, it is just you, myself anddy Idria, and I am the only one who can heal and recover someone''s mising limbpletely," Eris pressed her hand against the wound of the man who was screaming beneath her and wiped the sweat off her forehead again leaving a streak of blood.

    "I am the Hero of Healing, this is my duty, so just keep doing your job and find me someone who hasn''t bled out."

    "...Yes ma''am," Garam sighed and stood.

    "I think Eris is the strongest amongst us," Usami sat next to Dina with a sigh.

    "How did youe to that conclusion?" Han asked from behind them, his head was wrapped with a tourniquet bloodied after he had been hit over the head with a mace, luckily he was one of the first people Eris healed.

    "Look at her, she genuinely cares about every single person here, Ikaris and Sol never even showed up even though they are as strong as the capains andmanders, but Eris was right there in the heart of the battle, she fought like hell and walked out unscathed, Eris is amazing," Usami clutched her spear.

    "I agree," Bruce cancelled his shield summon and took a seat next to Han. "That woman is tough... well speak of the devils," He gestured to Sol and Ikaris as they approached from the far side of the camp.

    "Where the hell have the two of you been?" Dina snapped at them as soon as they were within hearing distance, but as they drew closer she realised that Ikaris had an expression of worry and underlying trauma, and Sol''s arms an torso were covered in blood, he was shirtless, and his armour was missing, but most of all, his expresion promised merciless violence if he was provoked any further.

    "What the hell happened to the two of you?" Han asked, devoid of his usual spite he seemed concerned at what he was seeing.

    "I need to speak to the General, where is he?"

 Chapter 39: Burn the Heavens down

    "The General?" Usami repeated, approaching Sol carefully.

    "Sol!" Eris called him as soon as sheid eyes on him, leaving her attendant with Idria and running over to him, grabbing his hands and checking for injuries like a concerned girlfriend, even going as far as checking if he had any missing teeth or if his eyes were bloodshot. "You''re unharmed?" She asked surprised. "Then...!"

    "This is not my blood," Sol answered her question before she even uttered it. "It is the blood of those that tried stealing Ikaris away, excuse me, we have to speak to the general," Sol extended his arm behind himself, and Ikaris swiftly took his hand and together they walked past Eris.

    Even though the woman was visibly surprised, she was only shaken for a moment before she swiftly walked over to her teacher and attendant again and began helping the wounded wherever she could.

    "You all saw them too, right?" Dina asked, but to her surprise nobody seemed to know what she was talking about.

    "Sol, I mean," She rified herself with an awkward clearing of her throat.

    "Sol has brown eyes, he has always had brown eyes, but his eyes just now were clearly-"

    "-Blue." Bruce finished her exnation with a nod, smacking his palm with his fist. "His magic must still be in full swing, could it be that he hasn''t rested sincest night?"

    "He said someone tried stealing Ikaris away, so while we were here fighting, before everyone suddenly died, Vestic must have been fighting those people on his own, we''ve all seen how he gets when she''s even looked at..." Han rified ording to his own understanding.

    "So Ikaris was the target from the start is what I''m getting from what he just said, we weren''t targeted we weren''t singled out, but she was kidnapped?" Han balled his fists and walked after them. "I can''t imagine he took that lightly,"

    "Where is he going?" Usami started following him.

    "I want to know what happened too, the demon subjugation army is supposed to be the most powerful force on Arkadia aside from the demon horde itself, obviously this was a small fraction of the overall army, but we werepletely overrun by an unknown enemy, and while we were here fighting for our lives Sol managed to kill the ones that came after Ikaris, so I''m curious too."

    "Is something happening?" Eris motioned to the others after witnessing them leave one after the other behind Sol and Ikaris.

    "Go, I can handle things here, you have already reconstructed anyone who had a pulse and a missing limb so leave the cleanup to us," Idria gave her a pat on the shoulder after removing her cloves. "You did remarkably, Eris, use this as a break and return when you are rested, if it is something of importance you can tell me all about it afterwards."

    "Are you sure?" Eris asked, looking at the long line of wounded soldiers.

    "Take a break, kid, you have earned it." The elf smiled and helped Eris to her feet while she removed her gloves as well.

    "General," Sol called the man''s attention from another report he had been recieving, and he let out a sigh when he saw Ikaris who had gone missing in the chaos standing behind him.

    "Report to me afterwards," Grim nodded to the man and then turned to them when he saw the others approaching from further behind. "Have you already seen the medic units?" He asked, looking at Sol''s physical state, but Sol shrugged off his concern and gestured to Ikaris.

    "I think it''s better if you exined this," He informed her and she nodded and stepped forward.

    "The attackst night was not carried out by purely human aggressors." Ikaris stated matter-of-factly, and the general gave her his undivided attention at that revtion.

    "The enemies appear to all be much more than just human, though," He argued.

    "Well, most of them were wielding divine weapons, and the vast majority were using borrowed divine magic," Lyra approached after witnessing their arrival and Sol''s attitude of urgency. "There was an abundance of divine magic in the air until sunrise, what happenedst night?"

    "I was ambushed in my sleep and ced underyers of paralysis magic, and then I was taken away before they even started the attack, the entire attack was their way of erasing their footprints to make away undetected,"

    "In your sleep, so Sol Vestic was not with you?" Grim raised a brow, but Sol narrowed his eyes in return.

    "Master has always periodically left my side to test his strength in private, Sara is testament to that fact -you are free to ask her whenever she is present, butst night was different, master was lured away as a part of their n, it was his discovery of said n that led to my rescue, otherwise..." Ikaris trailed off and ced her hand over her breast on the section of her blouse that had been torn, revealing a bit of her bust.

    "I do not know what would have happened."

    "Did you find out who did it?" Grim asked, looking at Sol''s appearance again, especially his eyes, he was pissed, his entire attitude was rigid and cold, as if he could explode into violence at any moment.

    It was theplete reverse of the man he hade to expect when seeing or thinking of the name Sol."

    "Diablos," Sol seethed, and at the mention, A raised her head, Grim''s eyes bulged, Lyra gasped, and Sir Morn choked on air. "That, sick scheming cowardly bastard, Diablos!" Sol ground his teeth, but was quieted by Ikaris leaning against him and taking his hand again, holding it firmly before he could take off in search of what remained of Diablos.

    [The goddess of war expresses her condolences]

    [The god of destruction promises that nothing of the sort will ever happen again]

    [The pantheon is in unrest at the betrayal of the former god of dragons]

    "Are we thinking about the same being here?" Grim asked Sol as a trickle of sweat rolled down his chin into his beard.

    "That very same one!" Sol snapped once more. "Diablos; the god of dragons, employed Arkadian mercenaries from Argom to seal Ikaris away while luring me into what was supposed to be my grave," His eyes shed white and the air around him hummed and vibrated violently.

    "Master, calm down," Ikaris squeezed his hand causing the crest in her palm under her skin to illuminate as their contract started summoning magic from her home dimension to soothe his raging heart.

    "The god of dragons?" Han asked shocked. "You met one of the gods, and survived that encounter?"

    "Diablos only appeared shortly before the gods themselves intervened, he had employed the aid of a nobleman from Argom to carry out his will, Sol was to be killed, my magic would have been sealed, and I would likely have be that Nobleman''s ything," Ikaris closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

    "The attack on the camp was supposed to be a diversion and a means to cover their tracks, but thanks to master''s quick intervention, they failed-"

    "Did you find out who it was?" A asked seriously.

    "Sol, Ikaris, where have the two of you been?"

    Sir Kane Angelman, Han''s teacher of the sword came walking toward them.

    "Kane, we have dreadful news-" Grim turned to meet his friend, but the moment Solid eyes on the man his head was already two metres in the air. "Ah!" Grim raised his spear and aimed it at Sol when his eyes adjusted to Sol''s form standing next to the decapitated swordmaster while his sword shimmered with evanescent magic.

    "It was this son of a bitch," Sol''s eyes widened with putrid hate and disgust as he grabbed Kane''s hand before his body could even hit the ground and tore his shirt and armour off with one yank, revealing a crimson crest on his right shoulder.

    "That crest!" Eris held her mouth in shock while Han turned and threw up from seeing someone he knew and respected getting their head mercilessly removed from their shoulders.

    "It''s on those other headless enemies... Right?" Sol looked around at her. "It''s the mark of Diablos," He gestured to the red crest that resembled a coiled up dragon.

    "I never imagined that it was someone that was this close who would do it, my impression must have been too much of a pushover if this is how they nned to steal my woman from right under my nose, so let me issue myst warning in clear sight of everyone!" Sol threw the headless body to the ground and stepped in the back causing it to explode into chunks of gore and blood around him.

    "Don''t fuck around with Ikaris, so help me, I''ll kill you all, and raze this world t, demons or humans, whatever your race, I''ll fucking murder everything!"

    Sol held his eyes to the ground with his threat to the skies.

    "She''s sworn to me, she''s obedient to me, she''s loyal to me, the only beings she is allowed to harm are those invading demonkin, that is the oath she made to me, so by Blood, Soul and Bone I swear it; if anyone ever dares to try after her again..." Sol slowly raised his eyes to the skies emitting so much magical power that the air began ringing loudly.

    [Devil''s Wrath has been passively activated]

    [The gods are silent]

    [The pantheon is quieted]

    "The heavens will burn!"

 Chapter 40: Who is Ikaris?

    "What is that noise!?" Dina covered her ears as  a terrifying amount of residual mana washed across her body, not just her but A as well covered her ears and shut her eyes tightly, they were far more perceptive than the others because of their sses as mages, so for them this was far more dangerous of a situation.

    That''s not to say the others weren''t affected, most of them reclined and averted their eyes from Sol''s person, the only one who could withstand his anger was Ikaris, so she calmly walked through the pulsing field of mana and stood before him, her expression was passive, but for the first time in her existence she felt fear, the fear of losing him, the fear of leaving him behind, or him leaving her behind, ruling a world of devotees she had been made many promises, many followers and worshippers used her name, but this was the first time she felt adored as an individual and not an entity, she felt protected as a person and without the incentive to return any favours or blessings, she felt loved.

    "Master," Ikaris closed the gap between them, rested her forehead in the crook of his neck and tightly wrapped her hands around his torso.

    "Please, this is enough, for my sake, calm down," Ikaris pleaded with him while she listened to his irregr heartbeat, and in the next moment the winds died down, the mana dispersed, and the atmosphere returned to normal, leaving the entire camp silenced as the heroes, soldiers and captains stared at him in shock.

    "W-what just happened?" Idria came running over after she felt the storm of mana calm down, what she found was Sol and Ikaris standing in the midst of a ring made from blood and guts while everyone stood attentively in the process of recovering from what had just happened.

    The next thing she noticed was Kane''s head at Grim''s feet.

    "This mission has yielded a failure," Solmented, looking at Grim, and the general nodded, he hade to the same conclusion, with the soldiers as they currently were there was no way they would be able to face a horde of demons.

    "I had already issued an order to retreat back to Argom and regroup after a briefing with Her majesty." Grim admitted resting his spear and sighing. "There are a lot of questions I need to ask you Vestic, I hope you can give me more than just a quick reply as you usually do," He stared down at Kane''s head once more.

    "I''m not obligated to answer anything, but I hope you understand that what happened here can''t be public knowledge, it would demoralise your entire army to know that they were attacked by servants of the former god of dragons; Diablos, on a personal order," Sol warned him, and thean nodded again.

    "Diablos?" Idria asked surprised, and Eris turned to her with a nod. "Former god?"

    "Master Vestic!" Renia appeared at his side through her chaos magic, startling everyone again when a partially conscious Sara stepped from behind her before regaining her awareness and looking around.

    "Did something else happen?" Renia asked, holding her de firmly and looking around, but all she found were estranged stares as Sol was being held tightly by Ikaris and everyone else seemed both shocked and exhausted.

    "Renia," Sol reached out and rested his hand on her head. "You said you couldn''t help much, but you did end up saving a lot of livesst night, thank you," He smiled at her and his eyes slowly closed while he looked at the system window.

    [Penalty for forced divinity; extreme fatigue].

    "Did he just fall asleep?" Dina attempted to help Ikaris when she almost fell over with Sol but stopped in her tracks when Sara and Renia caught him.

    "I suppose we can question him after he wakes," General Grim gestured to one of his soldiers who was keeping his distance while the main characters had the spotlight.

    "Sir!"

    "Preserve this head, even if he truly was a traitor, Kane was still a captain, he deserves some kind of burial I suppose,"

    "You are believing his story, then?" Sir Morn asked, and general Grim nodded in approval.

    "Sol appears to be many things, but a liar is not one of them, I am sure you remembered his threat upon arrival; anyone who dares touch Ikaris will be subject to his wrath," Grim pointed out.

    "We have seen such wrath today," he looked at the clean cut on the neck, "it appears that he was the one responsible for saving us earlier as well, this cut is perfectly identical to the others I have inspected."

    "Sol?" Han stared at him being carefully held and carried away by the three women. "He saved us, him?" He asked.

    "I am not even surprised," Eris admitted with an exhausted sigh. "He has always stuck his nose where it doesn''t belong, that is how he has always been, it''s just a pity that he forgot,"

    "How long have you known Him?" A looked to Eris curiously while everyone else aside from the other heroes slowly left to finalise their retreat.

    "Sol was an orphan, I have known him all my life, since we came from that same orphanage, but while I was adopted he never was, I remember he used to beat up the bullies and stick up for the smaller kids all the time when nobody else would," She stuck her hands into the pockets of her bloodied medic vest and started walking.

    "It was a surprise meeting him in college again, but he didn''t even recognise me, it seemed he must have had a rough life, he got in on a schrship but his attendance was so poor that he was probably going to get kicked out anyway, and he was probably mixed in with the wrong crowds too, but I never imagined I''d get to see that side of him again, protecting what he loves and cares for..." Eris admitted.

    "That month he disappeared for changed him though, because I never expected that Sol would be this level of violent, just what kind of rtionship do they have to make him this protective of her, what level of devotion do they have for each other that would make Sol threaten the gods themselves?"

    "So he''s had a hard life, and Ikaris did say that all they had was each other, he must have lost his mind when he thought he was going to lose her," Usami kept pace with A and Eris.

    "We''re here too though, they aren''t alone anymore, right?" She asked, but everyone disagreed with that, especially A who had just witnessed Sol address the red-haired woman as Renia, the same name as the goddess of chaos, and she had called him ''Master''.

    Sol and Ikaris were alien to this world, but now that she had heard Eris''s take it was clear that something drastic happened in that one month of absence plus she heard that Ikaris and sol had known each other for a year by that point, so there was definitely something;  something than only he and Ikaris were privy to.

    "Eris," A called to her as soon as she took a seat, and following her the other heroes found seats as well. "What are the gods of your world like?"

    "The gods?" Eris responded with a raised brown. "I have no idea,"

    "What?"

    "Well," Usami intervened. "Unlike Arkadia where there is proof of the gods, through the system, magic, and demigod beings... and a united pantheon, earth is far more divided." She exined.

    "There are many pantheons,any versions of creation, many different gods, from every culture there is a different god, but these gods are all regarded as legends or myths, children stories and false doctrines, there''s not much we can exin, there''s just not been any solid evidence aside from teachings that are kept secret for reasons unknown." She finished and A stared at her.

    "Why the sudden interest?"

    "I was curious, is there any god by the name Ikaris?" A asked, and everyone stared at her strangely, but again it was Usami who responded.

    "Not to my memory, I don''t know," Usami answered. "There is only ever mention of a man called Icarus, who through legend gained an idiom ''fly too close to the sun and you will get burned'', after he flew too high and fell to his death, but he is merely another myth, and Ikaris is not a name I had even heard until I met her with Sol the day we were summoned."

    "I have know him for around two years too, but I have no idea who she is or where shees from," Han admitted.

    "I saw her for the first time too on the day we were summoned here, right after his return, are you suspecting her of being some kind of god?" Eris asked, and A shook her head immediately.

    "O-of course not, no god would behave the way she does... But that other woman..." A went silent when two yellow windows appeared before her.

    [The goddess of war warns you]

    [The goddess of chaos is watching you closely]

    "Hm." A nodded with the most stoic expression imaginable when she realised she was overstepping her bounds again. "Nevermind then, I was grasping at emptyness and fantasizing about nonesense again, but thank you for answering, I am rather curious about him, but it seems only he can answer my questions."

 Chapter 41: A Shameful Return To Argom

    Upon news of the return of the army just a day after they had departed, the streets were packed with silent onlookers, everyone waited with baited breath, nobility andmoners alike stood at the sides of every street watching as the General lead the battered army through the front gates, the celebrations of a day before were nothing more than a memory as the evening sun brought nothing but a sense of doom and defeat.

    "What happened to them?"

    "Have they already faced demons?"

    "What about the heroes, aren''t they supposed to be our saviours?"

    The questions slowly grew into a respective protest, even in warring times the queen still demanded tax from her Argomites to fund the demon subjugation army, but was this what the advance amounted to?

    Defeat after a single day?

    "Why are youing back already!?" One young man shouted, picking up a rock and flinging it at Idria, but the elf easily caught the projectile with her bare hand and stopped her horse at his feet to stare at him while the remaining army continued on.

    "Are you not Argom''s strongest, General, captains, and even their lieutenants, and yet... You didn''t evenst a day?" The man screamed, picking up another rock, but this time it was Garam, Eris''s aide who stepped in and tanked the blow with his forehead, causing blood to gush before he healed his wound and stared at the man.

    "Y-you!" The man picked up another rock, but Garam pped it from his hand without saying a word. "Am I the one you have strength for?" He threw his fist and shrieked when he broke Garams nose, only to witness it passively heal. "Bastard, say something!"

    "Captain, please, move along." Garam turned to Idria and smiled at her, and the elf bit her lips and held her gaze forward again, urging her steed along.

    "Sir-" Garam turned to the man again, staggering with a grunt when he was bashed in his face with another rock,"

    "Hey that''s enough!" Another bystander grabbed the young man and held him in ce, but he too held visible distrust against Garam and the other soldiers. "What happened out there, are the demons finally at our doorsteps?" He asked concerned, but Garam shook his head and lowered it as a sign of respect.

    "Between midnight and sunrise, our army was attacked by shadow forces, it was an ambush that imed over half of our numbers within just two hours, had it not been for the heroes and our leaders there would be nobody returning, I understand your frustration at being kept in this slowly shrinking city, but please understand, we will set out as soon as possible, this is not the end." Garam exined the shortened version which Idria had exined to him, leaving out the part about a faction of artificial demigod humans that ughtered hisrades and traumatized the rest.

    "Am I supposed to believe that bullshit!?" The young man elbowed the older man in his ribcage and broke free of his grapple.

    "When I''m paying twice the mandatory tax that I used to and not seeing any results, what am I supposed to do when I have a kid that I can''t even feed right now because of you failures?" He grabbed Garam''s cheste and attempted to headbutt him, but Eris intervened and dragged him away, raising him off the ground with one hand and holding Garam at bay with the other.

    "Even if he has failed your expectations, what gives you the right to take your frustration out on him?" Eris asked the man, releasing him to his feet again. "Don''t you think he''s more frustrated than you are?" She asked.

    "His friends were killed right before his eyes, over a hundred were murdered before they even knew what was happening, he spent the entire night breaking his back to carry his deadrades, what gives you the right to decide his worth just because he didn''t meet your expectations?" She asked, raising her voice before some kind of protest started.

    "Look at them!" Eris snapped pointing to the army that kept their gazes straight to hide their disappointment. "People that they have known and fought with and trained alongside for years were killed, they died in their arms, they''re sacrificing their lives so you don''t have to, is this any way to show respect for the men and women who areying their lives down in your stead?"

    "But... we''re paying for their food-"

    "And they are dying so you don''t have to!" Eris looked at the young man on the ground and reached her hand out to him. "If you''re this unsatisfied, then sign up for the army ande fight with us, see for yourself the horrors of warfare, the blood shed can never be regained, but we have to fight so everyone else can live."

    "What...?"

    "Why aren''t you taking my hand, you had the bravery to attack a member of the healing corps who has saved over seventy lives by eating away your taxes right, soe then, fight alongside him and help destroy the hordes faster," Eris shook her hand at him impatiently, but he never budged, instead he folded and pressed his hands to his chest.

    "No thanks... I''m sorry," He mumbled.

    "I think Eris was born in the wrong world," Dina had a trickle of sweat running down her cheek as she watched her straighten out an ungrateful onlooker and suppress a riot all by herself.

    "Yea," Bruce agreed with a nod. "She is remarkable," He stared at Eris''s back with a slight blush covering his ears.

    "They have alwayse back with good news, this is the first time the general has failed since gaining his position, I doubt he is taking it with strides," One bystandermented, and the crowd slowly broke into murmurs.

    "The walk of shame," General Grim closed his eyes and sighed, but showed no weakness as he kept his proud posture.

    "The first time is never easy," Morn who was on his leftmented.

    "It only gets harder from here." Kris spoke from his right side.

    "The peace with which he sleeps, reminds me of a child," Sara sat next to Renia on the opposite side of Ikaris who had Sol''s head in herp, staring at him with a soft smile while the carriage they were travelling inside of gently rocked them. "Mdy," She called to Ikaris. "He truly loves and adores you,"

    "Hm?" Ikaris stared at the maid nkly. "Master?"

    "Yes, despite his reputation as a swindler, Sir has never once looked at another woman besides you, he treats your name like the heavens, and treats you like the heavens above heavens, you can do no wrong by him," Sara nodded with a smile.

    "Master is one of a kind, he is the first of many things for me, the first to directly address me, the first to converse with me, he is the first to hold me, he is the first who dared to talk down to me, and he is the first to give me the option of choosing for myself, so the first free choice I made was to remain at his side so long as he will have me, he is also the first that ever looked down at me." Ikaris caressed his cheeks as she spoke of him endearingly.

    "Looked down?" Renia asked shocked. "He did that?"

    "Yes, after changing my fate with his own strength, master regarded me with contempt and wanted nothing to do with me, even as I knelt at his feet he stared at me as just another woman and very nearly left me there, it was though my own efforts that I was able to win him over," Ikaris confessed, and Renia stared at Sol with a new level of respect, but she saw it, the way he spoke to the gods, and the way he even looked at her too, Sol had no regard for anything be it mortal or immortal, mundane or divine in his eyes it was all the same.

    "He won my heart without even trying to," Ikaris added cing a kiss on Sol''s cheek.

    "Goodness, I wish someday someone will look at me with the same eyes," Sara blushed at how in love with each other they seemed to be, one who obeyed the words of the other like the breath of life, and the other who would destroy the world to keep the other safe.

    "Do you believe he will ept any more challenges after what happened?" Renia asked seriously, and Ikaris looked up at her with a provoking smile.

    "Is it that you want him to keep fighting, or is it that you fear his growth will one day surpass you?" She asked back, Sara was not privy to their secrets, and she could make no sense of what they were cryptically speaking of either, so she resorted to closing her eyes and smiling as they continued.

    "I do not fear him, in fact I look forward to his challenges, they have kept us humble," Renia admitted and Ikaris chuckled and pointed at her.

    "Admit it, master is a threat you cannot ignore, even that other red-head has admitted this fact,"

    "Ah true, but in the end, what can we do, we dare not ever attempt anything, not when he has been blessed beyond this world," Renia smiled sheepishly, and Ikaris in return huffed with a cocky grin.

    "Truly, you havee to see the might master wields, ha ha ha!"

    "Ugh," Sol reached up and cupped Ikaris''s mouth. "Keep it down, you damn gods," Sol peeked just an eye open to look at Ikaris, and she piped down immediately and smiled as he drifted back into slumber.

    "Gods?"

 Chapter 42: Weaponise the Civilians

    "He called them gods..." Sara pressed her thumb to her lips while she walked behind Sol and the others after they had woken him up once they arrived at the castle gates. "And they just epted him calling them gods and casually continued talking about fights and challenges, who has sir been fighting, where does he go at night to hone such terrifying skills?"

    The maid conversed with herself, remembering that Sol''s first disappearance was on the very first day of their arrival, the same day that the mythical ming sword of the goddess of war fell from the sky, and thousands of acres were burnt by another mysterious weapon that fell from the heavens as well, destroying a demon horde in one fell swoop.

    "Was he the one who caused these things?" Sara wondered, staring at Sol''s back while Ikaris took one hand and Renia walked by his opposite side conversing as though they were not strangers.

    "Who is this woman anyways?" She thought again.

    She had been by Sol''s side indefinitely ever since she was tasked to do so, she spent every minute of the day with him, and Sol only left her sights and senses when he left for whatever training he had been doing, which she was now realising were these challenges they kept talking about.

    "But there is no ce in Argom where one can hone their skills so quickly, and if Lady Renia knows Sir from the challenges, then does that mean she is an outsider, was there such a ce left outside of Argom where others lived?" She asked, but quickly remembered that the Brutish man, Gordo, also came from a vige that had existed on the outskirts of Argom for over fifty years.

    "I suppose it is possible-"

    "-are you listening to me?" Ikaris flicked her finger against Sara''s forehead, and she stiffened and stared nkly for a few moments.

    "Apologies, Is there something you require of me, mdy?" Sara looked around, realising that they were already inside the castle and about to enter the debriefing with the queen.

    "I asked if you are okay," Ikaris cleared her throat. "You walked through that gate behind Renia earlier I can not imagine it had no effect on you at all," She rified her concern, but Sara shook her head with a smile.

    "I am okay, the magic Lady Renia and I use are very simr, while mine requires shadows, hers maniptes magic itself  and makes a direct bridge, but the fundamentals are the same, I think."

    "She might be a descendant," Renia smiled at the maid whom she was fond of, and Sara''s eyes slightly widened.

    "You will meet the Queen as well, mdy, is that a wise decision?"

    "I don''t see anything wrong with it, Renia is also a witness to what happenedst night, in fact she knows a fair bit more than everyone else, she was there when I rescued Ikaris, and I n to make her take credit for it." Sol admitted.

    "What?" Renia looked around at him as the others began nodding.

    "I suppose that lines up with masters ideology," Ikaris chuckled.

    "He truly hates being the centre of attention, doesn''t he?" Eris asked with a sheepish chuckle. "Although he tries so hard, he always ends up getting targeted because of the way he behaves,"

    "You speak as if you have known master for a long time," Ikaris looked at the Healer hero while they walked into the discussion hall

    "Ah, not really, it''s just very apparent that he doesn''t like attention," Eris chuckled, but Ikaris narrowed her eyes and stared at her intently.

    "That was a lie."

    "Wh- huh?"

    "Eris used to live in the same orphanage as I did," Sol held his gaze toward the Queen while they approached the table.

    "Why would she lie to me about that, do I seem like the type to harm someone for simply being acquainted with ypu?" Ikaris looked around at Sol, and everyone else looked away from her gaze.

    "Beats me, maybe she thought I forgot," Sol grunted and looked agead at the now blushing Eris while she adjusted her sses.

    "I''d never forget those days, after my parents died, that hell I went through, orphans have it the roughest, a lot of illegal shit went down in that ce, a lot of wrongdoing... If there were not so many kids there I''d have probably burnt it down when I was leaving," Sol ground his teeth.

    "But maybe, once I return I''ll just buy the group of orphanages from the current owners, and do aplete refresh on all of the staff, because god knows those people are devils." Sol admitted gaining looks of disapproval from Han and Dina.

    "Aren''t you broke though?" Han chuckled.

    "Master has hundreds of millions in gold in his possession, is that considered broke?" Ikaris asked with a knowing chuckle and Sol sighed.

    "Wha-huh-what!?" Dina blurted out.

    [The gods of fortune chuckle at the revtion]

    "I suppose in your local currency, it would be a few hundred billion," Ikaris added while they stopped before the queen.

    "Queen Vermon," she regarded the queen respectfully, but showed no sign of lowering her head, causing Misty to scowl as she nodded at her.

    "A messenger briefed me on theplete and utter failure you lot were after just a day after venturing out," The queen stared at them all from her high seat. "Sit, I want every..." She paused and narrowed her eyes at Renia. "Who is that woman, I do not remember ever seeing her,"

    "Greetings your majesty,"  Reniamitted to her farse and folded her arms underneath her coat lowering her head and smiling diligently. "I am Renia Crimson,"

    "Crimson?" The queen stared at her hair, her eyes and then at her entire appearance. "I have not heard mention of the Crimson household in years, did thest of your kin not die out serving the throne in my grandfather''s age of rule?"

    "Thest who swore loyalty to the throne, yes, but my house still stands," Renia smiled while she lied through her teeth.

    "She is a descendant of crimson... That makes sense," A sighed, feeling stupid for using the woman of being a goddess. "But why would they name their daughter after the goddess of chaos herself, even as her descendants that is a bit..." She paused when she realised that she had been speaking loudly and had caught the attention of everyone in the hall.

    "That is enough," Queen Vermon gestured to the seats. "I am quite pleased to meet a descendant of the goddess of chaos, but why are you here?"

    "Your majesty, Lady Renia was a major aid to our survival, she is also witness to the true reason we were attacked as well as the one who saved the hero Ikaris," General Grim answered on her behalf. "I believe her insight is both necessary and needed, that is why I invited her."

    "Your highness," Sol raised his hand like a student. "I''m not a hero, I didn''t contribute to anything of mention either," he looked around at everyone and they all nodded in agreement of his n to not take any credit. "I practically slept through everything that happened, may I be excused from the debrief since my presence changes nothing?" He asked.

    "Get out." Queen Vermon spent no time getting rid of Sol who was a stain in her sight, and Sol quicklyplied and started leaving.

    "Sara~" He called and the maid quickly bowed to the queen and ran after him.

    "I had expected he would have died on the first day of battle, but he even managed to survive through a fight that was too much for the elites to handle," Queen Vermon stared at the doors as they closed again. "Enough then, from the start, I want everyone''s ount of what happened, and the conclusion that was left out with the messenger, take your seats and begin."

    "Why must you trouble her majesty at every chance you get?" Sara asked Sol, and he chuckled while he was sitting in the kitchen watching the maids prepare their dinner.

    "It''s fun," Sol smiled. "Besides, I already know everything that happened, I don''t care about everyone''s individual stories, that meeting is going to turn into a war council soon, I''m not interested, if there''s an enemy, I will kill it, but I can''t stand being held down by boring war meetings," He replied.

    "You have experience with war councils?" Sara asked, remembering that the heroes came from a world where they were not directly affected by any ongoing war and were supposed to be civilians.

    "There is nothing to be gained from sitting in a stuffy room and listening to a bunch of people repeat the same things over and over again, the options here are simple, there''s no neighbour kingdom to ally with, there are no other nations fighting against us, there is Argom, and then there is a world overrun by demons, the citizens should have been trained to fight demons as a mandatoryw, how do they expect one nation''s sole army to fight against the rest of the world?"

    "I see," Sara nodded.

    "The answer to all of Arkadia''s problems lie in the people properly uniting, train them all, men women and children, weaponise the entire country and start expanding their borders again, the army makes up a staggering 3% of the overall poption, that''s a ridiculous.

    "The more room Argom has the more the people can multiply, and the more they multiply the more future soldiers there will be, the heroes need to gain an insurmountable amount of strength to face that demon god-"

    "Demon god?" Sara gasped.

    "That''s right, I found out the identity of the enemy in one of my expeditions into theirnds." Sol nodded, picking up an apple and biting into it. "To beat that monster, the heroes need power akin to the gods themselves,"

    "Then, can you help?" Sara asked, and Sol swallowed his bite of apple with a smile and brushed his hand through his hair dramatically.

    "Absolutely not!"

 Chapter 43: The Heart Oath

    "Wha- but you just said-"

    "I have no intention of fighting in this war," Sol crossed his arms. "My fight is elsewhere, I can just leave this to Ikaris, she is an excellent candidate and far more than capable," He nodded with a puff of steaming out of his nose as he proudly spoke of his ve once more.

    "Not to mention, she is showing interest, it shocks me that she does but if she wants to y along then how could I take that from her?" He added, and Sara looked at him wierdly.

    "y?" She repeated his words with an air of intolerance. "Is this some kind of game to you?" Sara asked, and Sol took another bite of his apple and turned to her.

    "No, this is a serious matter that I simply have no interest in," He chuckled. "If the world is ending, it''s not my business, if war breaks out it''s none of my business, I never wanted to be here." He sat forward.

    "Something like a holy war is far more interesting, if Arkadia decided to revolt against the gods, that would be fun for me, I would enjoy that, but a fight to prevent the fate of the world from falling into the hands of demons... Heh, I''m not interested at all." Sol admitted and the yellow system windows started popping up all over his field of view.

    [The goddess of war is in a fit ofughter]

    [The god of destruction is chuckling at the thought of a holy war]

    [The god of goats thinks very lowly of himself now]

    [The god of order is appalled at your suggestion]

    [The pantheon is divided against this opinion]

    [The god of gambling is giddy at the prospect of a holy war]

    "I think a majority of the gods themselves would go for my preference too," Sol closed an eye.

    [Divinity active]

    [The tarnished scowls at the gods of Arkadia who refuse to raise a finger in the aid of their people who are being overrun by demons]

    "It doesn''t make any sense to me though," Sol looked at Sara with one eye slightly glowing blue.

    [The Tarnished is disappointed]

    He stood and smiled at the confused maid. "Let''s go for a walk and returnter,"

    "I was sure you would still be exhausted after this morning," Sara stood with him and straightened her uniform with a sigh and a small smile. "Have you already recovered?"

    "I''m all good," Sol flexed his muscles.

    A few hourster and the meeting had almost reached midnight with no sign of ending.

    "Master is having fun without me again," Ikaris dropped her forehead on the table, drowning out General Grim''s exnation to the queen with a loud groan and sigh. "Why are we having a war council now?" She asked turning her gaze to the General, and he cleared his throat and tapped his fingers on the table before her.

    "It''s boring~" Ikaris sat up and slumped in her seat, conjuring a small me in her palm and making it dance around to a tune in her head.

    "Ikaris, you''re being disrespectful again," Eris poked her shoulder, but Ikaris grunted and shrugged off Eris''s touch.

    "I have long recovered, send me out, let me fight, I have had enough of this constant talking, no wonder no progress has been made in a hundred years, while the demons constantly advance and chip away at your borders you sit in thefort of your castle chatting away, this is the kind of war that has to be won by overwhelming power and constant progression, not pointless war tactics, the demon army is a horde of billions who will ignore all your formations and overwhelm you with numbers, you need to constantly reduce those numbers to have even a slight chance of winning!" Ikaris stood and mmed her hands on the table causing the fire to spread and fade.

    "Hero!" The Queen stood and mmed her hands on the table as well. "How dare-"

    "I''ve had it up to myst nerve ending with your attitude little Queen Vermon, I''ve never seen a more indecisive leader of a country, it''s like you''re inviting the demons yourself.

    "Watch your tongue!" One member of nobility that had joined the meeting stood in the queen''s defence. "How dare you use her Highness of-"

    "Pipe down you little shitstick, I''m having a woman to woman conversation here as a former leader myself!" Ikaris turned her eyes to the man clenching her fist and Renia grabbed her hand when Ikaris''s divinity started showing through her eyes.

    "Lady Ikaris, please-"

    "I wonder if this is how Sol felt from my passive attitude all those years ago, there are countless people still escaping demon territory on a daily basis, the gates can''t even close because there is a constant influx of refugees, and yet you sit in yourfortable chairs talking about nonesense like mary distribution amongst your factions, countless people die every single day!" Ikaris pped her forehead and kicked her chair out.

    "Summon me when there are demons to be in, I will be in with my master until then," Ikaris grabbed Renia''s hand and dragged her out of the meeting room, leaving everyone shocked speechless and the queen seething with her teeth ground.

    "Y-your Highness-"

    "Shut up!" Misty snapped at the man who hade to her defence. "That woman...

    How in the hell did she be a hero, her and that bastard she calls master have been nothing but a stain on my name ever since they arrived here!" She pushed her chair away and turned to the wall, breathing fire from her mouth into the ceiling with a roar and then covering her mouth and looking around at everyone who had witnessed it.

    "Mother!" The princess stood to approach her but she held out her hand and shook her head.

    Her right eye had changed from blue to yellow, and her gloved right hand had burn marks across it after she had forced the fire back down.

    "This meeting is postponed, all of you get out of my sight," She turned her back again and coughed up sut and smoke, as if a furnace burned inside of her.

    "That was crazy, what the hell is she?" Dina asked as soon as her and the other female heroes were in the privacy of their shared room, but before anyone could answer someone knocked on the door.

    "Can wee in?" Bruce called, and Usami went and let him and Han in, gesturing to their usual spots on the opposite side of the table where they usually sat while Eris went and sat next to Dina.

    "A-" Dina opened her mouth to speak again, but someone interrupted her with a knock once more, this time it was General Grim, Ladies A, Idria, and Lyra, followed by Sir Morn and then Bruce''s teacher, Kris Ravenmar.

    "Is it time already?" Eris asked, when she heard the p of wings and Ikaris shot through the window as she usually would,nding skillfully in the far side of the room and then turning to them.

    "Now all that remains is-" Dina started again, but shut up a third time when Sol came through their window next while Sara used the door, asking for a pardon from her Intrusion and bowing respectfully to everyone, and finally, Renia appeared through a ck and crimson gate and walked behind Ikaris as they all converged.

    "Thank you foring," Grim sped his hands toward Sol, missing the part where Ikaris cast a dampening spell that blocked every scrying magic that had been pre-set in that room before they even got there, blocking their conversation from the outside and even the other gods.

    "First I have to ask you all to make a heart oath-" Sol spoke up, and all of the Arkadians in the room stared at him shocked.

    [Heart oath: A mana-bound pact that ties directly to one''s heart, if anyone breaks the promise that bound the oath to them then their mana will converge and overload their blood vessels causing their heart explode from their chest killing them instantly, before they even finish spilling their secret]

    "-What is said in this room will stay in here, if you ever repeat it out to anyone else, you will die immediately, not by signs nor by clues, not by writing, so long as you try to reveal it you''re gonna die a painful death." Sol added.

    "That is an extreme-"

    "If I''m telling you my secrets I need to know that I can trust you, and since I don''t trust a single one of you, this is absolutely necessary." He interrupted A before she could get herint off the ground. "Here,"

    Simultaneously a window appeared before all of them.

    [Sol Vestic has initiated the terms and conditions of a heart oath contract, whatever is mentioned for the next hour can only ever be discussed between those who have epted the contract, will you ept these terms?]

    "Me too?" Renia looked at the window confused. "This cant-"

    "All of you." Ikaris looked at Renia.

    Reluctantly, everyone epted the oath and signed the contract with their mana.

    "Then, from the begining," Sol closed his eyes and took a seat with Ikaris next to him while the rest took seats on the opposite side.

    "Approximately two months ago back on earth, I died..."

 Chapter 44: The Sky.

    "To be more precise, I died on the same day we were summoned here," Sol rified while Ikaris watched their reactions ranging from disbelief to confusion.

    "Eh?" Han sat forward first. "That doesn''t make any sense,"

    "What?" Eris covered her mouth. "But... You''re not-"

    "Yes, I''m clearly not dead." Sol nodded seriously. "That''s because in actuality I died ten years ago," He exined, and Eris''s mouth dropped a second time.

    "That doesn''t make any sense!" Han shook his fist and his head trying to make sense of what he had just heard. "How could you have died two months ago and ten years ago at the same time- you made us sign a heart oath, don''t fuck with us!" He growled, and Ikaris cleared her throat.

    "Master did die ten years ago two months ago on the day we were all dragged here; for him, that death was ten years ago, for you all, he never died at all, because in the same moment he died he was summoned to my dimension, to my world, A." Ikaris spoke up and the others all registered shock at her words.

    "Your world?" Dina asked, shocked more than everyone else, while A and Idria recognised that this must have been true, Ikaris was just too enigmatic inparison to the others, her and Sol alike.

    "You''re from a different reality... Like Arkadia?" General grim asked furrowing his brows and straightening his back as the truth he was expecting had diverted further than he ever imagined.

    "I will be the only one who knows this, I feel privileged." Renia nodded with a smile to herself. "This alligns with a lot of our beliefs but there is no way to prove such ridiculous rules without breaking many rules."

    "Hm," Sol took charge of the room again. "Ikarises from a ce called A, in a vast universe only governed by one god," He looked at her, and she nodded. "In the moment of my death, I was summoned there, and I have spent ten years in constant war, the past two months here have been the easiest for me in a decade of war,"

    "A mere decade," Sir Morn hummed, but Sol narrowed his eyes and stared at the man disdainfully.

    "Unlike Arkadia, A was already overrun with demons, there was never a break, there was barely ever rest, I fought on the first day I arrived, and every single day following that for ten years, I barely slept, I sometimes went days without food, surviving on the rain and my will to live,pared to that Arkadia is child''s y, unlike you lot who have barely witnessed death, I have seen first-hand the death of billions on both sides, I have seen camps overrun, women and children ughtered and piged like cattle, I have witnessed entire kingdoms get turned into dust in a matter of minutes, everyone dead, entire civilisations wiped out."

    Sol lowered his gaze. "You might think it''s not the samepared to your Arkadian war that has pushed you to the brink of extinction after a century-odd long war, but A waspletely destroyed in just ten years." He stated, silencing any doubts.

    "I''ve been stabbed more times than I can count, impaled all the way through so many times that I forgot what the feeling of getting stabbed feels like, I have lost limbs on multiple asions, been battered by mammoth creatures that can destroy thousands of metres of terrain with a simple swipe of their hands and appendages."

    "How the hell did you win?"

    "Well," Ikaris looked at Sol who was visibly distressed as he had to recall everything for their sake. "Technically, we did not win-"

    "Wait so that story you told us about Sol saving you from someone..." Eris shot up staring at Ikaris.

    "Master saved me from the demon god that attacked my world, the mentioned engagement was his rise to godhood, he was going to attain all the power I possessed, he was going to annihte everything and then leave for a higher dimension, that is how their kind assume their roles in their own power-dominated society; endless destruction, endless growth, endless greed; they do not stop until they are bested or subdued." Ikaris answered.

    "What does that make you then?" A asked with her eyes almost bulging as she digested that information greedily.

    "I... Am just Ikaris; master''s ve and loyal bedmaiden," Ikaris blushed and looked at Sol, "but it was not always like this, I was once the most powerful being, but I was not allowed to fight the demon god, for whatever reason, every time I tried I became powerless, master was myst resort at saving A, in the end it was toote, but he managed to kill the bastard-"

    "So if I''m getting this right," Bruce interrupted. "Sol was summoned once already, spent ten years fighting a demon hoarde even worse than the one on Arkadia, and at the end of that he still had to face the demon god all by himself," He stated, to which Ikaris nodded.

    "Then, if he''s already this strong why hasn''t he tried helping Arkadia?" He asked, and Sol looked up at him with a smile and rxed again, regaining some of his confidence.

    "A is A, and Arkadia is Arkadia, how am I supposed to use An magic here, don''t assume I''m the same person just because I''m leagues stronger than you are, I''m simply more familiar with warfare and magic so I have honed the skills I already have to level up far more efficiently, Ikaris could do the same but she''smitted to her role as Hero so she''s doing everything by the book-"

    "That''s absurd, you''re not just stronger than us, you are one of the most powerful beings I have ever encountered, surpassed only by Ikaris herself who is Inconceivable with innate power!" A shuffled in her seat.

    "That''s to be expected, I''m already level 300 and growing," Sol stared at her.

    "If Ikaris was with me all the time her level would probably be much higher, because unlike myself who is merely human, Ikaris is descended from a goddess, she is pure power incarnate," Sol bent the truth just a little, never fully admitting with his own words that Ikaris was an all-powerful god that could end their entire world with just a whisper of her divinity.

    Renia caught on to this as well, but it was not her ce to speak, she feared the repercussions of such an act because the fact that Sol and Ikaris had yet to say it meant that they didn''t n to.

    "T-then..." Idria shook her head. "Why are we still at war?"

    "It''s quite simple, truly," Ikaris answered with an expression alerting them that they should know better.

    "The Arkadian people arecking, in their time of need they turned their backs and assumed the gods to be dead, the monarchy is weak, the soldiers are weak, the entire constitution is weak, even though I believe this is what is currently saving you, it is also what has been keeping your stalemate with the demon god, if you want to call it that."

    "I do not understand." Grim cleared his throat.

    "She''s saying you should do it with your own strengths and stopining, the highest level of power one can attain is 999, the demon god is a higher power than that, which means it will take all of the generals and heroes to kill her, but you people have been sozy, sitting behind your walls with meagre training that barely raise your levels in a month, demons are a farm of experience that lead to astonishing growth, and there are dungeons all across this world, but you hide and cower..." Sol sat forward again.

    "You''re all weak minded and weak-willed!"

    "I was the sole hero of A, I fought until my bones broke apart, then I healed them and kept on fighting, I mastered every form of weapon I could get my hands on, I killed demons by the horde to the point where I couldn''t feel my shredded muscles and couldn''t feel my skin, you guys retreat after just a loss, sure it''s in consideration of your losses, but that just proves how soft you are." He clenched his fist.

    "Power is taken, not granted, you have to seize the power you aim to achieve and stop holding yourself back!" Sol gave them all a sadistic grin.

    "To that extent, Master Vestic also has no intention of fighting the demon hordes himself," Sara spoke up, and the others all turned to her. "He said so himself, and now I understand why, he has grown sick of battling demons after thousands of days of fighting them without break, he even defeated a demon god on his own."

    "Could you teach us at least... How to battle a demon god?"

    "Not a chance," Sol chuckled and leaned back when Ikaris rested her head in hisp. "I have far more entertaining things to do-"

    "You mean the gods?" Sara asked shocked, and Sol chuckled.

    "I''m on vacation, I refuse to fight anybody''s war, if ites down to it, I''ll just take a remote ind somewhere for myself and watch you all die from a safe distance... Well except for the queen, I need her to get back home, so I have to keep the annoying bitch alive!" He shook his fists jokingly.

    "If master loses interest in your endeavours, then I will leave with him wherever he goes," Ikaris added while Sol gave her a headpat.

    "What the fuck is wrong with you?" Han spoke up both shocked, worried and afraid. "How can you say such things with such a straight expression?"

    "Han Young, womaniser, former drunkie, an overall bastard without redemption, hailing from earth who turned hero here on Arkadia," Sol singled him out.

    "When you can say you have lost everything then you can ask that question again, when you''ve fallen in love and lost that love to a demon god, watched her skin peel from her bones as she is incinerated, when you''ve seen your best friend devoured by beasts, when your entire party is decapitated by a sword devil, then you''re free to ask again, when you''ve been through hell and back, then you''re weed to asking whatever you want, until then, you''re not qualified to even be mad at me, as it stands, you''re as important to me as an ant is to an elephant."

    "What is that supposed to mean?" Eris asked, visibly hurt from being called an ant, as was everyone else, and Sol closed one eye and activated his divinity while Ikaris smiled with her eyes also glowing with powerful traces of divinity.

    [True Goddess Ikaris grants you this moment of rity]

    Everyone paused in thought and looked at her, for a moment they saw her true form, not an astral form, but her true physical form resting dignified in Sol''sp, and then another momentter the image faded into another Golden system window.

    [Activated memory wipe; selective]

    [The tarnished is deleting the memory of this entire conversation from your minds]

    "Deleting... no Sol wait!"

    [True Goddess Ikaris is using powerful mind-altering magic on you]

    [True Goddess Ikaris has activated rewrite: your memories will be tampered with]

    Another window appeared, even before Renia as her and everyone else stared nkly.

    "Just keep the soil fertile and recyble so I can walkfortably on top of it, and I will continue to y with the gods, why on earth did you all think I would reveal myself simply because you asked?" Sol sat up and rested his hand on Ikaris''s shoulder while she chuckled and gave them all an individual nce.

    "Master is the sky, and the sky never truly touches the ground."

 Chapter 45: The Impatient Goddess

    "So that''s how it is!" Eris smacked her fist in her palm with a grin, that makes a lot of sense now!" She added nodding while the other heroes nodded and agreed with her.

    "Yeah," Sol nodded as well. "Ikaris is indeed special in that way, without her help I''d have died that day, and I spent the next few weeks pretending to be her fiance to dissuade her mother from forcing her to marry that asshole, and in the end, she kind of just took to me I guess." Sol cooked up his false story and served it to them on a silver tter.

    "It''s not every day you get to meet the top 1% huh?" Eris stared at Ikaris shocked. "I''m totally impressed,"

    "Pardon me, but this top 1% you speak of, what exactly does it even mean?"

    "On earth there''s this rumoured percentage of people who nobody knows about or knows enough about to even utter a sentence in their name, the richest people in the world who can do whatever they want to whomever they want, even the government''s and countries have to obey them, they basically own the world." Dina seemed depressed while she answered, no wonder he called Ikaris goddess.

    "Getting someone like that to acknowledge you is usually a death sentence, but Sol managed to not only avoid getting killed by Ikaris''s mother, but he made her change her mind as well, that''s kind of scary if you give it a little thought," She pursed her lips, and Sol nodded in agreent to her statement.

    "It was terrifying, and I did almost die a few times but it paid off in the end; the shit I learned in that single month is worth a lifetime of experience, and it''s all I can attribute to my current power, the strong eat the weak, that''s all there is to life." Sol clenched his fist with an eery smile at everyone.

    "There are a lot of things that this does not exin-"

    "And there are a lot of things that I''ll never tell," Sol raised a brow at A. "Unless you want to make a Heart Oath with me, I won''t even consider telling anything too important." Sol stood up and walked to the window with Ikaris following behind him while the half elf fumbled through her mind.

    "Mimic allows me to copy the power of anyone who I study, using something like swords and spears became second nature after Ikaris''s brother drilled them into me to the bone every day for a month andagic here has multiplied my skills hundredfold...

    I''ve been copying Sara''s magic and venturing out into the unknown every night to fight some crazy battles; challenging myself agsint some terrifying monsters, and the results speak for themselves," Sol turned to them.

    "If you want to grow stronger, do so in battle, training has brought you this far but only the real thing can help you improve any further,"

    [Activating shadowstep. Activating smokescreen]

    Sol took hold of Ikaris''s hand and moved so fast it gave the impression that they teleported away, and the resounding magic made an almost perfect copy of Sara''s teleportation technique''s residue whenever she used it.

    "It was a lot less than I expected, honestly," Dina sighed and looked at everyone else to which they all agreed.

    "He''s definitely holding something back from us," Han sneered, but left it at that and started walking to the door. "Well, whatever, I''ll see you all in the morning."

    "Mdy, are you okay?" Sara asked Renia who was sitting quietly with her hands balled into fists that crunched up her dress as she bit her lips.

    "Lady Renia?" A rested her hand on the goddesses shoulder, bringing her back to the present and jolting her from her thoughts.

    "...Sorry, I will be taking my leave now," Renia stood and waved her hand toward the empty corner of the room, and a ck and crimson gate appeared with wind howling through it on the inside.

    [The goddess of war stares at you curiously]

    [The goddess of war wishes to know what you learnt]

    "Ah, does anyone else feel... strange, like something happened that we somehow missed?" Renia asked the people in the room, and they all denied such a feeling, leaving her even more confused.

    "How could... No, my memory has apse, why can I not remember... What happened?" She mumbled to herself as she waved and left through her portal.

    [The goddess of chaos is in a state of confusion]

    [The goddess of war watches with curiosity]

    "Master," Ikaris sat on their bed behind Sol with her legs around his shoulders while he sat on the ground with his legs crossed and his back turned. "Have you grown weary of the Arkadian Pantheon?" She asked, slowly dragging her fingers through his hair while he yed with a tesseract made of fine light.

    "Not at all, I just don''t feel like entertaining them right now; after what Diablos did, I need to calm down a lot before I can face another god, otherwise regardless of what kind of fight they propose I''m going to try killing them with every bit of residual hatred still festering inside of me," Sol answered, closing his eyes and resting his head on her leg causing her to sigh and start massaging his shoulders.

    "The only time I have ever seen you rxed is when you are by my side," Ikaris stated, and he chuckled. "You trust none but me."

    "That is because you are the only one I can and will ever trust," He turned and stood before her. "I have said it before, but you somehow didn''t hear; Ikaris, after losing everything on A, and then returning to Earth and seeing that there was nothing at all waiting for me, I realised that you were all I had left of both worlds," Sol stared down at her while she held on to his pants expectantly.

    "I cherish, I adore, I love you, master," Ikaris went teary eyed when Sol rested his hand on her head and smiled down at her.

    "You''re everything to me, my whole world, I can''t lose you. Never." He leaned forward and pushed her onto the bed causing her hair to spread around her head as her eyes and her skin lit up revealing her ethereal self as her ears slightly elongated and her body glowed.

    "Master," Ikaris reached out to Sol''s face, and he slowly leaned past her arms that closed behind him and pressed his forehead against her breasts while his own eyes started glowing cerulean and their clothes began burning away.

    [I am telling you, my memories have been tampered with!] Renia sat on a throne of chaos next to Dr''ul who was not buying into that. [Time was not tampered with, and we only had one conversation, so how could she have tampered with my mind and how am I unaware of when it happened?] Renia asked, shaking her four hands while chaos raged around her.

    [Do you dare to confront her about it?] Dr''ul asked, referring to Ikaris, but Renia showed immediate hesitation as she remembered the power she had sensed within Ikaris''s fleshly vessel.

    [Forget about ever fighting her, to do so is to invite death and annihtion upon the entire pantheon!] Renia warned the battle-frenzied Dr''ul, who only nodded with a thin smile.

    [Yes, I remember quite clearly the first time she looked at me, on the night after their arrival] Dr''ul admitted. [A divinity so pure and ancient that she might as well be the progenitor itself, the first god, the creator of all dimensions, the one whom we all should answer to]

    [That is absurd to even think about, Sister]

    [And yet, here I am thinking about it] Dr''ul shrugged and rxed in her throne. [So, how did it feel being by the side of Sol Vestic?] She asked.

    [That presumptuous man is beyond me] Renia pressed her fingers on her forehead and turned her ck eyes to Dr''ul, leaning on her throne and crossing her legs with a chuckle. [Clearly, he should fear me, I am stronger than he is, I am the goddess of chaos!

    But he is fearless, and at first I attributed it to him being protected by Ikaris, but that is a false and dangerous belief] Renia looked at her sister who returned a frown of confusion.

    [Ikaris does not protect Sol, she does not order him around, she does not see him as a subject at all, to her he is the man whom she loves with her eternity, he is her protector and her shepherd]

    [I would have never assumed it even though I have heard her say this] Dr''ul pressed her fingers against her lips.

    [Sol only regards her as goddess by title when he is annoyed, to him, Ikaris is just a woman, it is fascinating and terrifying how a human has been able to capture the attention, devotion and affection of such a being, it makes no sense whatsoever!] Renia pped all her hands at once.

    She expected her to be somewhat intimidated, but instead she saw her sister''s hair light up and turn to pure fire as she began chuckling.

    [Dr''ul?]

    [I am estatic!] Dr''ulughed louder as a blush crept across her face, making  Renia ufortable. [I am absolutely estatic!] Dr''ul eximed again, summoning her sword and stabbing it into the ground, causing her chambers to tremble and the heavens to rumble with herughter.

    [I have long wanted to battle against a god, but would you know the pantheon has never once had a dispute, they fear war, they all fear me!] Dr''ul looked at her sister who seemed terribly ufortable being in her presence when she was like this.

    [But Sol, he made my hand tremble after two swings of my sword, and he dared to call me by name, he has promised me a fight and I am estatic, I am intrigued!] Dr''ulughed while her cheeks reddened even more.

    [But if he dies-]

    [He will not!] Dr''ul looked over at Renia. [Sol is basically a god already, the power he wields, the control he wields, the terror of his rage, he is the perfect opponent, the first in a thousand millennium of cowards who refused to look me in the eye!] She stood and swung her sword several times in the empty space.

    [That man acknowledged me, stared me in the face and promised that he will be my opponent, and I am thrilled beyond my wildest fantasies!]

    [I am impatient, I am mad with impatience!]

 Chapter 46: The Heroes Challenge Sol

    "Did you hear?"

    "Hear what?"

    "Apparently, two of the statues in the hall of gods crumbled to dustst night; the faceless god of golems, Psiko, and the god of dragons Diablos,"

    "Is it an omen?"

    "The priests are saying the gods are angry at us!"

    "You think those gods actually exist?"

    "Ugh," Sol stood perched on one of the temples of Diablos with a meaty kebab in his grasp slowly eating. "These people are as obsessive as those gods are, can''t they find more meaning to their lives than nitpicking at every detail of someone else''s life?"

    "You believe the gods are obsessive?" Sara asked, and he looked over at her who sat and ate carelessly with a smile at how he had corrupted her intomitting sphemy agains Diablos, even if she already knew that the pantheon had abandoned Diablos who had been judged for interfering with the affairs of the heroes summoned to save Arkadia and caused a divide in the heavens.

    "Sir, you never did exin how you knew it was the god of dragons, Diablos, that-"

    "Interrogation." Sol answered taking off arge piece of meat and chewing it with a hum. "After I killed them all and left one, I got everything out of him before I killed him too, if you had stayed in the meetingst night you''d have heard this, that''s my fault though, so I have no reason to hide that from you." He lied to her face once more.

    "Ah," Sara idly swung her feet while she ate her kebab.

    "Did you find out how soon the army will idly linger until they are ready again?" Sol asked after he finished eating.

    "Within another two days, I heard." Sara turned to him with a small smile. "I would expect that you would be more reluctant to leave Argom, since you are the least interested in this conflict."

    "I am Ikaris''s protector," Sol raised a brow at her. "How could I stay here and leave her with the likes of those heroes, in case you didn''t realise, she was targeted thest time we split up,"

    "But," Sara leaned her head. "You are apart right now, are you not?" She asked him surprised.

    "I''m paying attention this time," Sol answered her with a serious expression.

    "I won''t ever drop my guard again." Sol dered with a sharp rasp in his tone that caused his voice to sound like a whisper directly into her head, it shocked her to alertness as his calm exterior gave way to the appearance of a tiger ready to pounce on prey; his passive perch suddenly looked like he was looming over something he was about to attack and devour.

    "A-ha," Sara''s pupils shrunk when she continued staring at him, very faintly she could see the light around his skin shimmering, a tell-tale sign that his magic was actively being utilised and upon further observation, there was a difference in his eyes as well, usually his iris was a dark brown, but now they  were several shades lighter, almost hazel with traces of blue, and he had one of them closed and allowed his hair to drag over it, she had meant to ask him about that, but refused to on ount of his tendency to gaslight and avoid every question she threw at him.

    "Surely, it is safe inside of Argom, you could rx-"

    "It''s okay," Sol regarded Sara with a smile. "I have magic to spare."

    "Sol!"

    Both Sol and Sara stared down to the ground where they saw Eris and Bruce standing at the foot of the temple and staring up at them, and behind the two were Han and Dina walking up the steps, with Usami walking behind them.

    "I do not see Lady Ikaris," Saramented before anything else.

    "Ikaris is having a friendly spar with Renia somewhere close by, she begged me for this so I had no choice but to agree." Sol answered and stepped off the edge of the temple roof that was almost ten stories high.

    "That crazy-" Dina readied several spells in an instant to catch Sol, but Han held her hand and made her watch.

    "Do you honestly think that he''d jump to his death?" Han asked.

    Sol righted himself and stuck his hands in his pockets as he slowed to a snails descent by the time he was a few feet over the ground.

    "Usually you lot don''t approach me at all, did something happen?" Sol gave them all a knowing nce as his feet gracefully tapped on the ground before them.

    "What the~" Bruce stared at Sol''s feet confused after whispering his shock.

    "Heroes," Sara appeared from behind Sol, giving them all a dainty curtsey and smiling brightly at them.

    "I''ll get straight to it," Dina stepped forward when even Eris hesitated after feeling the pressure withing his gaze as he focused on them with only an eyezily opened. "We want a mock battle with you," She demanded. "I say mock, but it''s gonna be a real fight, I don''t want to hold back-"

    "Dina!" Eris tried stopping her but she ignored her and waved her hand at sol so he focused on her again.

    "I want to see how much stronger you are, if your strength is where we need to be to survive them I want to guage it for myself and see the depth of my own weaknesses." She dered with her fists tightly clenched.

    Sara hummed at this challenge, and Sol seemed intrigued by it as he started smiling at them, not his usual sadistic smile, but one of pure intrigue, an almost innocent and childlike smile, causing Dina to blush and avert her eyes at the way he was staring. "Please," Dina slightly lowered her head, and along with her Eris and Usami, followed by Bruce.

    "I... Didn''t agree to this, but if you ept I''m definitely taking the opportunity." Han added.

    "Hm," Sol leaned his head and grinned even wider. "Who put you up to this?" He asked, watching their respective masters approaching from behind.

    "I hate to admit it, but after just two months, I do not believe there is much I can teach Eris, at the very least, I would want to fight you as well, as the rest of us captains could agree." Idria stated to which the rest nodded, even A who knew of his alternate and terrifying existence because of their interaction in that restaurant once.

    Sol was smiling for a whole other reason though, as he had expected of Ikaris, their memories had been perfectly altered; Aside from Renia who had been visibly disturbed to the point of wanting to have an inconsequential bout with Ikaris everyone else was properly manipted.

    "That''s to be expected from a god though," Sol mumbled to himself and then looked at them again. "I can entertain you, but only the heroes, since they''re all far harder to break." Sol looked at the captain''s that had requested to join as well with a shake of his head. "I''m hesitant to fight you lot,"

    "That''s good enough!" Dina eximed and summoned a staff in her grasp, mming it against the ground and pointing it at Sol.

    [The hero Dina Levina has challenged you to a duel.

    Rules: The loser is decided when someone can no longer move from mana exhaustion or is incapacitated and surrenders]

    Sol looked at the window with a frown, this was uneptable. "This won''t do."

    [Challenge has been rejected]

    "Wha-" Dina looked at him shocked.

    [Sol Vestic has challenged you to a duel]

    Dina and all the other heroes saw the message simultaneously.

    [Rules: You are permitted to use any conceivable weapon on your arsenal.

    The loser is decided when one party surrenders or is incapable of moving through damage or a state of unconsciousness.]

    [There are no penalties or a time limit]

    "You want to fight us all at once?"

    "It''s the other way around," Sol answered. "You all have to fight me all at once, I wasn''t there, but through Sara''s ounts you guysck teamwork, I''ll make it easy for you," Sol pointed to his closed eye. "I''ll fight with one eye closed, with one hand and without the use of any weapons too, and I won''t use any magic." Sol smiled when his conceit burned at their pride and fired them all up.

    "Where are we fighting?" He asked.

    "... The training grounds." Han had his sword already in his grasp, grinding his teeth; visibly provoked by Sol''s words.

    [The heroes have all epted your challenge, the destination has been decided, calcting...]

    Within an instant all six of them vanished, and in response A jolted and gestured to everyone who drew closer to her as she began a chant.

    Sara who had found the time to buy another kebab slowly walked over to the captains, granting them all a respectful curtsey and then standing within range as arge magic circle appeared beneath their feet and they vanished in a sh.

 Chapter 47: You Dont Stand A Chance

    [Curse (Damned) has been activated, your stats reduces by 30%, your opponents'' overall stats have improved by 80% for the duration of the curse]

    "Ah, I forgot about this," Sol looked at the window.

    He knew that the Pantheon was not paying heed to him today, after all, Ikaris had ascended into the cosmos a few hours before and was in the middle of a challenge issued by Renia, usually he would have refused the offer, but she promised to not break anything or anyone, so he let her do as she pleased, they had stacked up on two months of magic and she was beginning to be restless.

    With her absence and Renia''s challenge, the entire pantheon was paying attention, he had already warned her of betrayals and told her to return to his side by any means if they tried to ambush her, the key here was that she not reveal that she is in a weakened state and dependent on him to ess her full power.

    [Due to your opponent''s special conditions your overall strength and stats have increased by 80%]

    The heroes saw the message and looked at Sol, it was a calm morning, just a little before noon, the wind was still cool and the birds were still chirping. But before them stood a figure that felt like a moon was crashing toward them.

    "Why, even after I see and feel such a massive increase in magic, I still feel like if I attack him I might die?" Bruce asked, and the others seemed to agree.

    Sol was patient, he stood there facing them without action or a single word for over five minutes, and they had yet to attack, but as that time dragged on, he began losing interest.

    [Boredom]

    The five heroes saw the popup and looked ahead at Sol again, his guard was down, and he yawnedzily and sighed at their hesitance.

    "I understand you''re unsure, but even if there isn''t a time limit the object of this challenge is not to defeat me, because frankly speaking; even with your stats raised by eighty percent, you still don''t stand a chance." He stared at them with his one eye.

    "I even gave you the advantage of numbers and took magic and weapons from myself, just get it over with." He went into a fighting pose with one hand folded behind his back. "If you don''t attack me within the next ten seconds, I''m going to end this challenge in five strikes!"

    "Fuck!" Dina used wind magic to gain height above everyone''s heads and cast three firebolts at him, Sol''s taunt had worked.

    "There we go," Sol dodged the first two and sunk under the third as he went into a slow sprint, further nerfing himself just so he could fight on their level.

    "Fine then-" Eris shed her palm onto her fist and created arge ring of healing magic that epassed the entire field.

    "Dina, keep him away from our healer, Bruce take the first hit and create an opening, and Usami, back me up with midranged melee!" Han tookmand and Sol raised a brow.

    Sara had told him that theycked teamwork but those were very good instructionsing from the heroes'' party leader.

    "Let''s see then," Sol dodged Bruce''s broadsword and stopped the shield with a flick of his finger sending the tanker skating backwards on his heels as Usami came from above him with two spears in her grasp and several more appearing around her.

    "Don''t me me if anything happens!" Usami spun and released the first spear from several metres away, and Sol easily dodged it and then the other three spears that followed like a slow shower of arrows.

    While she approached him slowly Han snaked his way through her spears and tried cleaving into Sol''s leg with his sword, but Sol caught the sword between his index and middle finger and spun it out of the man''s hands raising his foot and thrusting it forward with a chuckle.

    "Han!" Eris jolted with a wince when she saw Han raise his arms into a cross just fast enough to prevent his chest from caving in when Sol kicked him toward Brice causing the two of them to crash again.

    "Uoooooo" Usami cancelled her many spear summons and approached Sol with a single spear spinning and twirling it around her body skillfully to try and distract him.

    "All these unnecessary movements..." Sol raised his foot and blocked several of her swings midway, throwing her off bnce and spinning within her strike space before she could attack, stepping on the spear and causing the de to get buried in the ground at her feet. "You should focus on being more precise," Sol stood directly before her while she struggled to raise her spear.

    "Being shy barely ever wins a 1v1." Sol raised his knee in her stomach and then retreated several paces away from her dodging Han''s attack after he and Bruce had recovered.

    "Damnit!" Han patted Usami''s shoulder as he and Bruce rushed toward Sol again.

    "Oop!" Sol seemed to teleport with the speed he moved after a bolt of lightning descended from the blue skies above appearing within Striking distance of Han who took the bate and almost had his arm broken when Sol swiped his feet from beneath him while ducking beneath his strike.

    "Damn...!" Bruce charged with his shield.

    [Minotaur rampage]

    Sol barely leapt and pressed his foot against the shield riding out the shock of the wild attack that cleaved a path through the ground and sent him flying into the air.

    [Gravity maniption]

    [Fireball]

    [Energy bolt]

    Dina triple casted while she was still airborne and swiped her staff downward.

    [Combined magic]

    "Origin explosion!" She yelled out just as arge golden sphere crackling with electricity manifested above Sol''s head like a small sun. "Han, Bruce, back off!" Dina created several more of the destructive spheres without words and swung her staff around, controlling them toward him.

    "Well, at least Dina gets it," Sol stood his ground swinging his hand and batting the first one off to the far side of the field where it exploded into a pir of lightning that shot up into the air causing the entire field to rumble, and then speedily avoided the rest leaving craters in the field like a battleground.

    "Did you teach her that?" Morn looked at A, but saw the surprise on the half-elf''s face as she grinned in fascination.

    "I''m not done yet!" Dina released her spear and took hold of the magic in the air around her with her bare hands, forcing it into a star-like shape of solid magic and then holding on to it.

    [New magic: Spirit, has been created]

    "Whaaa~?" A stood and started cheering excitedly.

    "He gained all this strength by sneaking out and training in private?" Lyra asked shocked as she stared at Sol. "How terrifying."

    [Origin explosion x3]

    "Descend!" Dina balled her fist and punched downward, sending the spheres after Sol like cannon balls, but again he dodged the first two simply and swatted the third out of the way and toward Eris who was using long-distance healing on Han so he could recover faster.

    [Spirit has been activated]

    Dina released the star, and it rushed over to Eris faster than [origin explosion] and erected a barrier around her that deflected the attack skyward where it harmlessly dissipated.

    "Why you...!" Dina abandoned her wind magic and fell to the ground as she closed her eyes and prepared anotherrge scale spell, and while Sol attempted to charge and remove her from the challenge, Bruce intercepted him with his [minotaur rampage], but unlike the first time Sol spun out of the way of his attack, grabbed him by the back te of his armour and held him over his back like a shield, using him to block a spear from Usami that pierced and tore out a chunk of his side.

    "Usami, what the fuck!?" Han looked around at Usami who had an expression of disbelief on her face as she released her grasp of another spear.

    [Mountain Cleaver]

    "I''m not down yet!" Bruce struggled his way out of Sol''s loose grip andnded on his feet, spinning with hisrge sword, but he and everyone watched shocked when Sol casually caught the sword by the de, putting the momentum to a sudden stop and causing the ground behind him to explode outward as the kic energy behind the swing carried on.

    "No, you are done," Sol pulled the de toward himself and spun with a roundhouse kick in Bruce''s temple that sent him flying across the field and creating a ditch as he crashed next to the spectating captains. "Rest."

    [Challenger Bruce Chaolong has been forefeit from the duel by way of knockout]

    "Shit!" Eris lowered her gaze.

    "I- I''ll heal him, Eris, do not lose focus!" Idria rushed over toward Bruce who had already started bleeding out from Usami''s spear-wound.

    "Thanks, healer!" Han summoned a katana and went into a stance, while Usami fell to her hands and knees and began shaking from shock.

    Sol frowned at her, and in that moment a sword appeared at his neck, and behind it swinging with full momentum arching and turning almost like a dancer was Han, his teeth grit tightly and his eyes zed over with murderous intent. "Sol Vestic-"

    [Strengthen activated]

    [Quick steps activated]

    [Conditions met]

    [Unique trait acquired: skill creation activated]

    [Sword Dance form 1: Thunderbird]

    "-you''re dead!!"

 Chapter 48: A Compliment.

    "You''re dead!" Han screamed, arching and using the weight of his entire body to propell the sword faster, but to his shock, Sol still caught it. "How-" Han''s eyes bulged when Sol raised his hand and caught the sword as if it weighed as much as a sheet of paper.

    "Han!" Eris released her healing technique and rushed toward them when Sol pulled han toward himself and caught the man by his face spinning and mming him into the ground with enough force to break the bones of a horse several times over.

    "Eris get back!" Dina aimed her hands at Sol and made a pyramid with her fingers.

    [Magicbination: Pulsar]

    "Let''s see you block this!"

    The atmosphere vibrated, and Sol looked around at her with his eyes wide in surprise when the magic took form, he grabbed Eris and tossed her toward the captains and then kicked Han who had fallen unconscious out of the way and rushed over to Dina, arching her back over his leg and taking a knee under her as he grabbed her hands and aimed them skyward, averting his eye as he and her were both capsuled in white light.

    Argom shook, and the skies trembled as Dina unleashed an attack that could have had catastrophic consequences had it been aimed horizontally.

    The daylight darkened and the light of the sun dimmed because of a star-like beam of light that shot into the air, cleaving a hole in the very atmosphere that caused the sky to roar as it forcefully mmed shut like the gates of armageddon.

    Eris had her ears covered, along with everyone else, and Sol remained in his nelt position with Dina over his leg looking toward the sky with a trickle of sweat running down his cheek, and Dinaid across his leg staring at the sky too shocked to react yet.

    "What in the heavens was that?" A asked, peeking an eye open as the roaring winds and chaotic sounds slowly died down.

    "Are you okay?" Sol asked her, and she slowly looked at him with her hands shaking. "Answer me."

    "Ah-yes!" Dina stuttered for a response, and Sol smiled and helped her to her feet. "But..." She looked at her stats.

    [Mana: 11\\80,000]

    "I can''t cast another spell... So, I guess that means I forefeit...?" She asked, and Sol nodded and gestured to everyone else who was staring at her with alien expressions ranging from shock and horror to utter disbelief.

    "Then all that remains is Eris and Usami..." Sol turned his back to Dina, looking at the spear hero, but she still had her face hidden in her legs and her hands covering her ears.

    "I give up... I give up... I can''t fight you," She mumbled, slowly looking up at him as he approached her.

    "Get up, stand and fight." Sol ordered her, but as she tried, her legs have out and she fell to her hands again and hugged herself.

    "We lose," Eris sighed on her approach, parring Dina''s shoulder with a nod of respect and then turning to Usami and extending her hand to her. "It''s over, Usami, we lost." She dered, and with that a system window appeared before them.

    [The Heroes have forefeit the duel, Sol Vestic stands the champion]

    "Bruce is okay, get up," Sol lowered Eris''s hand and stood before Usami, but she was still afraid to move.

    "But I-"

    "Stand up!" Sol snapped at her, causing the magic in his body to violently tremble and escape him like winds. "If you can''t even stomach the thought of your friend dying then you can hang up any dream of being hero, nobody asked you, it was never a choice, your opinion has never mattered, if you can''t stand now how will you ever stand after this?!" Sol balled his fists and stared down at her.

    "He has the heart and attitude of amander," Idriamented.

    "On your feet!" Sol snapped again, and like a soldier, Usami arose and stood straight with tears rolling down her reddened cheeks.

    "Even in the best formations, there can be friendly fire, what matters is that you never stop fighting," Sol dropped his hand heavily on her shoulder. "Sara was right after all; Han makes a good leader, but you don''t listen at all." He stated.

    "Dina casts dangerous area of effect spells that can easily catch and kill her teammates, you are even more careless than she is throwing those spears as if everyone before you is an enemy, and Bruce is of the impression that being the tanker makes him invincible, you allck an understanding of each other, even though you have trained side by side for two months, you still don''t know the person you call a fellow hero." Sol shook his head.

    "How do we fix that?" Eris asked while Dina slowly approached them.

    "The hell if I know, I''ve never been a hero," Sol scoffed and looked to the sky again, and then at Dina. "Don''t ever use that skill again, unless it''s ast resort, you could have killed everyone for miles in that direction." He pointed to where he was standing earlier.

    "Miles..." Dina slowly repeated the word, staring at the ring of forming clouds in the sky. "I''m not sure what I did, though." She confessed, and Sol nodded and crossed his arm.

    "Either way, you should home and perfect it, but never use it as anything other than ast resort." Sol took a peek at Dina''s window.

    [Name: Dina Levina

    Race: Human

    Level: 75 (+20)

    Title: Hero

    Skills: Master of all trades (subject is capable of learning any and all spells, and creating new spells with just the foresight and knowledge required to manipte the surrounding mana)

    ss: Mage

    Buffs: Gifted +20 Levels

    Blessing: Heroes'' blessing, Queen''s blessing, Late bloomer (subject gains knowledge and battle experience passively during fights)

    Curse: None (new)

    Special: Fission (untested), Pulsar (new), Transcendent knowledge, (Subject is unconsciously simting fusion between ancient magic and modern technology to create terrifying new techniques, penalty for creation is mana drain).]

    "Interesting." Sol stared at thest four categories with intrigue. "You turned out to be their ace," He nodded at her.

    "Impressive, Dina, you should focus on increasing the density and count of your mana so you can be untouchable on the battlefield." He gave her aplementary headpat and smiled; within just a few minutes she hadpletely surpassed everyone present aside from him, he recognised her strength.

    "Huh?" Dina stared at Sol with reddened cheeks after being praised andplimented, and then even given advice.

    [Activating instantaneous teleportation.

    Activating divinity.]

    "Well, I''m gonna go collect Ikaris then!" Sol''s teacher-esque mood was washed away by his usual yful personality as he smiled at everyone and vanished in a sh of light and electricity.

    "He said I was interesting..." Dina stared at Eris, holding her head.

    "Right..." Eris chuckled nervously and looked around at the state of the training grounds; Dina''sst attack had stripped and torn away at everything, and her previous ones had left massive holes all over the ce.

    "Scary is more urate," Eris chuckled.

    [I... Forefeit] Renia folded her arms and slightly lowered her head, her body was bruised almost beyond recognition, ck blood dripped from her eyes and the corners of her mouth, and opposite of her, Ikaris Stood unscathed with a smile, also slightly lowering her head out of respect.

    [You fight well, Renia] Ikaris smiled and then took a step to the side just as Sol appeared right where she was a second prior. [Master!] She eximed excitedly and tackled Sol to the ground like a child.

    "Whoa there!" Sol held her shoulders, she was taller than he was in this form, slightly bigger overall, and her divinity for him was almost blinding as she had just finished fighting another god in a friendly bout. "How did it go?" Sol asked, looking around at Renia and observing several other gods that had personally showed up to observe, Among which the only one he recognised was Dr''ul.

    [Everything is perfect, master, it was fun utilizing my power in such a way] Ikaris fluttered her tall ears and pressed her cheek against his chest almost purring against him as he raised her shrinking form like a bride.

    Everyone else would strongly disagree though, Ikaris hadn''t moved an inch since arriving there until he showed up, she simply stood stationary and bullied Renia with terrifying power until the goddess of chaos gave in and called it, she was too overwhelming for any of them to ever call it a fight.

    [Sol] Renia regarded him with a wave, standing upright and taking a breath while he looked around at the surrounding destruction from their ''friendly'' battle, it looked far worse than any battlefield he''d ever witnessed.

    "Where are we anyway?" Sol asked, and Ikaris pointed upward. "Ah!" He eximed amazed when he saw a massive above them, it was Arkadia, they were on the smallest of the three moons.

    "This little moon has an atmosphere of its own, it is very convenient for the gods who wish to not destroy the heavens, apparently this is ground zero for divine battles," Ikaris smiled against him while he held her.

    "Impressive, Earth''s moon can''t do the same," He scoffed.

    "Master," Ikaris opened her eyes again while the gods slowly left one after the other, until only Renia and Dr''ul remained watching their interaction with intrigue; the Ikaris from just moments ago was nowhere to be seen, shepletely suppressed all divinity within herself within seconds and submitted to his presence.

    "Hm?"

    "Have you entirely rejected the idea of bing a god?"

 Chapter 49: Heartbreak

    "Have you entirely rejected the idea of bing a god?"

    "Rejected the thought?" Sol looked at her smiling face with utter confusion. "The thought has never even crossed my mind, Ikaris." He answered honestly.

    "Ihave known you for ten years, I''ve personally and intimately known you for three months now, not to mention the many interactions I''ve been having with the gods of Arkadia-" He looked up from her at Renia, and Dr''ul, both of whom he was seeing in their true physical forms for the first time, Dr''ul in particr was more impressive than he could have imagined, she was almost four metres tall, while Renia was only three inparison.

    "I don''t want to be a god," Sol dered, surprising the three of them.

    [It is a shock to hear him say this] Dr''ul looked to her sister. [Considering his power, he by virtue already is]

    [Who would refuse godhood?] Renia countered, both speaking directly to each other causing Sol and Ikaris to be none the wiser.

    "Master-"

    "Out of the question," Sol shook his head.

    "Godhood in my eyes is more of a burden than everything else, right now, you''re my sole responsibility, I tend to you, and that''s it, but bing a god would be binding me to thousands -if not millions of people, a god only exists for a sole purpose, I want to be free to make my own choices, and most of all, I have no idea what the oue of Arkadia''s problems will be." He looked at her seriously.

    "If either of us join the Arkadian pantheon, or any other, we be incapable of fighting the demon god." He reminded her, and the other two goddesses narrowed their eyes at his urate knowledge.

    "I don''t want to fight her, but she''s growing stronger by the day, so if you end up unable to harm her, it''ll rest on the shoulders of the heroes, and if they fail there''s nobody but me who would be able to do it,"

    "I understand," Ikaris smiled and rested her cheek against him again.

    She would refrain from ever raising that topic again, because on the matter of godhood, he was already past the 80% mark of being one, after all, he had the demon-god transformation, and the demon-god candidacy, but he was right, godhood was far too restricting, which was why she doted on him so heavily, after all, he as herst subject to serve gave her free will as a god, the greatest gift in the universe.

    "I''ll be taking my leave then, Renia," Sol looked at the two goddesses, extending a passive nce to Renia, and then staring at Dr''ul with manic and hostile eyes as divinity sparked and exploded from within him.

    Just the stare he gave her caused her to subconsciously summon her sword and growl at him.

    [S-sister calm down!] Renia warned Dr''ul about acting outside of the challenges in Ikaris''s presence, and besides that she had a feeling that Sol would refuse any challenge issued against him currently.

    "Goddess of war," Sol calmed down, and Dr''ul turned her back stabbing her sword in the ground and hiding her face, but her hair red up in mes, and her grin in the other direction caused the cosmos to tremble. "I''ll be seeing you." Sol vanished with Ikaris in his grasp, leaving the two Arkadian gods.

    [Are you okay?]

    [I am quite thrilled, actually and intrigued.] Dr''ul replied with that sadistic blush she usually donned when Sol''s name was mentioned.

    [Intrigued?] Renia asked as her form slowly grew smaller and her appearances morphed into her human persona.

    [Yes, I have seen gods love humans, but I have never seen a god in love with a human, and I have never seen a human adore a god as anything other than superior divinity, yet he treats her like frail ss, afraid to break her when he holds her, how fascinating] Dr''ul chuckled, and then vanished in a burst of mes before her sister could utter another word, leaving Renia standing alone and confused.

    "Sir!" Sara greeted Sol as soon as he and Ikaris arrived in their room. "Lady Ikaris!" She smiled brightly at them both and curtseyed mboyantly. "Wee back, I take it you have gained some kind of insight?" She asked, and Ikaris gently stretched after being put to stand by Sol and then shook her head at the maid.

    "It was merely a demonstration that has left me quite fatigued," Ikaris answered the maid and then turned to Sol who gave her a raised brow in question. "I wish to spend some quality time with master, could you please leave us?" She asked, and Sara''s face went from concern to yful as she disappeared in the shadows without a word.

    "Are you?" Sol gestured to Ikaris. "Exhausted I mean."

    "Renia is strong, by no means stronger than I am, but it was bothersome having to hold back that much," Ikaris stood before Sol staring at his name tag that slowly spun above his head with [error] next to it.

    "I figured with the power you can safely hold in a fleshly vessel you wouldn''t be able to fight the seven all at once, but I must have been underestimating you." Sol nodded, standing in ce as she slowly pressed herself to his chest and brought her hands to his pants.

    "Master, do you mind if I do all the work this time, as a reward for spoiling and allowing me to act so freely?" She asked, and Sol gulped at the implications. "I wish to serve you," She smiled up at him as the crests across her body began slowly blinking and humming.

    Sol''s expression went from soft to serious as he stared at her conviction and epted her request with an open mind. "Ikaris, do it to the best of your abilities!"

    "Certainly~" She snapped her fingers, essentially turning his clothes to steam as she stepped back and removed her shoulder straps, allowing her dress to pool around her feet. "I will go above and beyond."

    In the west wing of the castle Dina sat idly with an enthused A who was in the middle of exining magic theories after getting a summary of Dina''s new [creation] skill which broke down fundamentals and transfigured her mana into whatever she could imagine, when she saw Sara walking with another maid down the hall.

    "Sara!"  She called to the maid, who promptly approached with a curtsey.

    "Mdy, how may I be of assistance?"

    "Has Sol returned?"

    "Ah," Sara smiled. "Sir has already returned and is in his quarters withdy Ikaris, I am afraid you have missed your chance to speak to him for the rest of the day," Sara gave Dina a knowing smile and then curtseyed again. "Please excuse me," She promptly left, joining her friend and continuing her conversation.

    "Shucks," Dina sighed and snapped her fingers.

    "You show such evident interest in Master Sol," A chuckled with a teasing grin.

    "I-I have no idea what you''re talking about, I wanted to ask him more about what he said earlier about condensing my mana, even you''ve never heard the term before, so I wanted an exnation out of him." Dina huffed after speaking the entire sentence without taking a breath and then blushing afterwards.

    "Mhm-mhm," A leaned her head with an even more teasing grin, but slowly that grin faded. "There are numerous others who have given you many reasons to look their way, and topping that list is Han himself, who has tried getting closer to you on many asions,"

    "I''m not interested in any of those-"

    "Please give up on Sol," A stared up at her seriously all of a sudden, causing the young hero to furrow her brows and pull away from her. "It is pointless, you should know by now that he is beyond any attainment, it is impossible-"

    "I don''t want to," Dina Sighed and looked away.

    "Eris has known Sol for fifteen years, and she is fine with remaining in the back seat as just an admirer, Ikaris who has given herself to him body and soul as she always exaggerated, has known him for ten years, I can''tpare to either of them, I know that, Eris is amazing, she''s gifted, brilliant, and she''s the kindest person I''ve ever met in my whole life, and Ikaris is perfect in every way, only wed by herplete devotion to Sol Vestic," Dina took her seat again and covered her burning cheeks.

    "He never noticed me, not even once," Dina Shook her head. "I have been at his side for eleven years and he never once noticed me, because I never mustered up the courage to say a word to him until the day we arrived here, but I was so jealous of them that I blew it with the first sentence."

    "So you lied when you told everyone you didn''t know him or Ikaris..." A started feeling sorry for Dina as she sobbed and sunk next to her.

    "I was too embarrassed," She rested her hands on her legs and then her forehead on her hands. "Every day since the third grade, I followed him to the orphanage, I know his favourite food, I know what colours he likes, I know how he walks and how he runs, I sat behind him every year in every ss, even after Eris had gone."

    "For eleven years I tried mustering the courage, he''s very smart, so I had to work really hard to end up in the same college he chose after high school, but I could never even once get him to notice me, because he has always been surrounded by someone else, when it was not someone trying to bully him it was someone trying to be his friend... I...

    I was so d to see him after he''d disappeared for a month." She raised her head with her eyes full of tears and her lips quivering as she ced her hand over her breast.

    "But he came back with Ikaris, She''s super rich, she''s so beautiful, and she''s not even using him for anything, she''s so in love with him that it sickens me, I can''t stand her, I can''t forgive her for taking my world, but she''ll always be better than I am, and he''s all over her too... I''m disgusted by them every time I see them together."

    "If I had just been more brave, even in high school, or when I found out he was selling illegal stuff I could have offered to be his partner or something... Anything to get him to notice and like me..."

    "Oh my," A stared at Dina.

    "All this time I believed you hated him, but it was the opposite... Hm?"

 Chapter 50: Goddes of Beasts

    "I don''t hate Sol, I''ve never hated him... But Ikaris..." Dina ground her teeth. "If only there was a way to break them apart-"

    "Let me stop you, right there." A rested her hand on Dina''s shoulder. "Regardless of how you feel honey, Sol is still out of your reach, and I do not believe anything will change that, and on that topic, have you not been paying attention?" She asked staring at her depressed student with a sorrowful expression.

    "Don''t fuck with Ikaris," Dina sighed, remembering clearly how monstrous Sol became after Ikaris was almost taken away from him. "He''s never letting her go, is he?" She asked, and A responded with a consoling smile.

    "Get some rest, Dina, even though your mana has recovered because of that strange increase earlier, your mind has not, sleep it off-"

    "It''s not even nightfall yet," Dina shrugged off her hand and stood. "I''ll go back to the training fields and practice until my mana runs dry. Fighting Sol made me realise that even if I do possess an overwhelming power, I still need to be on my toes, he was too fast to hit, and I was outwitted, I need to be faster at casting than my enemies are at moving!"

    "Ah~" A went starry-eyed at the sudden motivation her pupil was showing. "Let us be off then!"

    "Will they be okay?" Eris asked her mentor, Idria.

    "They are fine, probably just a bit exhausted and probably in shock," Idria looked down at Han and Bruce who were sleeping after being fully healed. "There are no abnormalities in their mana, instead it seems they became a bit stronger after that intense session, just give them some time," She patted Eris''s head like a little sister and adjusted her sses.

    "Are you well?"

    "Disappointed." Eris admitted.

    "I had no idea he was that strong, I mean I did, but at the same time I was so shocked; No weapons, no magic, one eyed and one handed, and he still managed to kick our asses without breaking a sweat, Sol is amazing." She sighed and leaned back on her seat, staring up at Idria. "I''m reallycking inparison."

    "Come with me to the city today, I am visiting my husband, but afterwards I will treat you to some delicious meals, and then we can head back and work it off with some intense training of our own!" Idria pped her hands and started walking, and Eris having nothing else to do in the meantime agreed and left immediately.

    "How have you never mentioned that you are married?"

    "It never became a topic,"

    "Is he an elf like you?"

    "No, Bran is human, but he is blessed by the god of time with longevity, I prayed for it, for a century I prayed for a man I could love and he was gifted to me,"

    "...Wow... So... Is he hot?"

    "He is a cksmith, he is often hot from being close to the furnace," Idria answered seriously, and Eris chuckled.

    "Right."

    "Any kids?"

    "Yes, seven little ones,"

    "Wh-that many?!"

    Thest conscious member of the heroes'' party was the most devastated by their challenge against Sol, she had been shut down and overpowered, schooled, and then she almost killed Bruce, the images of her spear tearing through his side rewound and reyed in her head constantly as she sat on her bed in the Female Heroes quarters hugging her knees, her eyes were puffy from her previous breakdown, and the small bit of makeup she wore had been smeared around on her face.

    Sitting on the bed next to hers was Morn, he didn''t know how to console this girl, he was almost just as shocked as she was from seeing the progress everyone else had made aside from her, he taught her well, and she had learned with enthusiasm and passion, but she was starting to fall behind both in skill diversity and readiness.

    Ikaris was always ahead, and now the worst of them; Dina, was actually the best ording to Sol, Han had developed rapidly within a few minutes and even Bruce had shown signs of progress before her spear hit him, while Eris was on a constant and steady path of growth ording to her own teacher who never stopped praising her.

    Usami inparison now had the lowest level among the heroes, so she was less confident, her skills had stagnated after she had mastered everything he showed her, and she was trying to be diverse but it just wasn''t working, her skills were not bad, but it seemed they were not good enough either, and Morn med himself for this.

    "Sir," Usami looked at him after several minutes of silence. "Why aren''t you saying anything?" She asked, and Morn sighed and rested a hand on her shoulder with a smile.

    "My apologies, Usami; I am a failure of a teacher," He addressed his self doubt. "I have passed on the knowledge of my strongest skills to you, and you easily mastered them, but they have proved inadequate in the face of one who was not even wielding a weapon, I can''t me you for this loss, but myself-"

    "But you''re not a bad teacher though," She rubber her eyes again. "You''ve been excellent, I just didn''t make the right judgements at all, as soon as Han''s original n fell through and he was sent flying, I panicked and started making mistakes," She sobbed.

    "Usami there is no point to crying over this-"

    "I almost killed Bruce, if Lady Idria wasn''t there, or if we were facing an actual enemy, nobody would have been able to help him, he''d have died," She looked at him again.

    "It was a hard lesson, I admit, but a necessary one," The former general fell backwards on the bed and sighed at the ceiling.

    "I will not allow you to fall behind, Usami, you are the most brilliant spearman I have ever witnessed, I cannot allow you to fall behind the others, as the Former general of the Demon subjugation army, I have many failures, and many regrets, but you are my one true pride, every moment spent with you is a joy, every time you learn something new that smile of yours makes my heart flutter with happiness."

    Morn dered while he reached for the back of her corset and loosened the cord that held it firmly. "Assume position." He undid his belt.

    "Sir," Usami turned next to him and went on her hands and knees as her dress loosely hung onto her, exposing her back. "I''m sorry for failing so badly,"

    "I will properly punish you for this failure, and then we will start training anew," Morn stood and stared at her, resting his hand on her dress and lifting it while simultaneously grabbing a fist-full of her hair and pressing her face into the bed. "You will work twice as hard, understood?"

    "Y-Yesshir." Usami covered her mouth and raised her hips jolting from the sudden painful sting across her ass.

    "Sir?" He narrowed his eyes.

    "Forgive me, Master, please punish me to your delight!" Usami groaned quietly upon rough intrusion.

    Several hours passed by, and the heroes had all converged in the dinner hall with the Queen and her daughter, unlike other times where some nobility joined them to discuss something or another, it was only the heroes and Sol who apanied Misty and Da Vermon.

    "Did something happen to you all today, I heard rumour ofrge explosions on the grounds," Queen Vermon regarded them all, and Han looked across the table at Sol with a troubled frown.

    "Your majesty, it was my carelessness," Dina answered before anyone else could. "I have been learning stronger magic, and I got carried away," She admitted, and looked across at Sol as well, but he never even raised his eyes from his food as he and Ikaris ate with small smiles on their faces.

    "Be careful of your magic from now on then," the Queen huffed. "If you require more space, there are vastnds outside of the walls that are unupied by any living beings; that kind of destruction is too dangerous to use near the castle.

    "Understood." Dina nodded.

    "At the very least, you all seem quite refreshed,"  Da smiled at the heroes and then at Ikaris whom she still gave special treatment as the strongest. "Especially you, miss Ikaris."

    "Well," Ikaris stopped eating and looked at the princess with a humble smile.

    "I spent the entire day allowing master to use me as he pleases, it was a delight and I am rather exhausted, but inversely I have never felt so refreshed in all my life, he is truly a man among men." Ikaris answered with the most innocent stare at the princess, while the girl stared with her eyes slowly losing focus and her face turning beet red as she was forced to imagine the image of Ikaris being ravaged by Sol all day.

    "In the beginning I-"

    "Ahem!" Queen Vermon cleared her throat loudly. "I-Ikaris, my daughter is sixteen, please refrain from having adult conversations with her, I pray this is the first andst time!" She blushed brightly while she spoke while steam arose from Da''s head.

    "He won''t even say a word," Bruce snickered at Sol''s nonchnce to everything that was happening around him.

    "Aren''t you mad that he beat us like that?" Han asked, and Usami in response lowered her gaze to avoid looking in Bruce''s face when lingering guilt poked at her, but Bruce scoffed at the question.

    "Of course not, I can''t be mad, I only have more training, and more fights ahead of me, I hope he can ept my challenge again someday, I want to test how much stronger I''ll be at the end of all this."

    "Hm, good attitude." Sol hummed quietly in approval, staring at the yellow window before him.

    [The Goddess of Beasts is challenging you to a Duel of physical strength]

    "Goddess of Beasts," Sol thought. "Diablos was a dragon, he was a beast, so he answered to her as well, isn''t this supposed to be one of the Seven, including Dr''ul and Renia, then there''s Destruction, Time, Love and Creation?"

    [The goddess of war awaits your response]

    [The goddess of chaos is interested in this interaction]

    "This is the first time one of them has challenged me,"

    [The god of goats is distraught and reflects his life so far]

    [The goddess of Beasts is the only challenger today, will you ept this challenge?]

    "Hm..."

 Chapter 51: The first free god.

    "You are staring off into space again," Ikaris nudged Sol alerting everyone of his distraction in the process. "Are you okay, Master?"

    "Interesting things are happening," Sol responded with a huff.

    [Challenge rejected!]

    The popup appeared before the goddess of Beasts; simr in stature to Dr''ul, but she had small antlers growing from her head, and short fur growing along her exposed back which ended in a bushy tail resembling that of a tiger''s.

    [He rejected it] She looked at Dr''ul confused.

    [Hahaha!] Dr''ul burst outughing at the goddess of Beasts depressed expression. [I never expected that he would ept, it would be quite silly had he done so.] She admitted.

    [Sol is not ready to face us, or any of the others, I assume.] She stated with surety. [Imagine for a moment Ashera, that the most precious thing to you, nay; the most precious person, imagine if that person was plotted against and taken away from you by someone you believed to be honourable, and then the people affiliated with that person continued to casually converse and approach you.]

    [But we righted Diablos''s wrong, though,] Ashera raised a brow as her gold slitted eyes focused on Dr''ul on her throne while she was standing casually next to her. [And I have nobody whom I could do the unthinkable and dere death to the pantheon if they were wronged-]

    [There!] Dr''ul eximed. [Pracisely, that!] She looked at Ashera with burning crimson for hair and eyes zed over in both envy and fascination. [You were busy preparing for your challenge, but you should have been there; Sol Vestic treats her like a fragile and delicate flower-]

    [But she is an unfathomable god!] Ashera shook her head, unable to understand Dr''ul''s point.

    [Aargh!] Dr''ul stood and swung her arm around Ashera''s shoulders pulling her cheek to her breastte and opening a window before her, showing her Ikaris and Sol chatting idly as they walked down the isle of the castle toward their room.

    [The Goddess Ikaris regards Sol Vestic not as a subject, but as her mate, an irreceable mate capable of conquering every universe and every dimension; she worships him, in her own words, and with even more love than I have seen from the goddess of love herself, Sol is perfection!]

    [But that is...] Ashera stared at Ikaris in disbelief.

    [And Sol, the tarnished whom you wanted to fight so eagerly, he regards her not as a goddess or as the goddess, but as his goddess, the only being of true importance, he has acknowledged her personally to be his own, she is his ve and maiden, and he her master and protector, they are onlypatible with each other, they only serve each other, they only see each other, imagine if your entire existence was on the brink of copse and someone gave you freedom!]

    [Freedom?] Ashera asked when Dr''ul released her. [What are you even saying, the gods are... we have always been free...]

    [A god without a subject loses their purpose, and a god without purpose will in theory cease to exist, but I came to this conclusion after two months of observation, and then their interaction earlier,] Dr''ul held a serious frown all of a sudden, sobering up her sister as she reimed her seat and folded her arms in herp.

    [Sol Vestic was Ikaris''sst surviving subject before they came to Arkadia, and a god without praise or purpose will slowly fade, I can only specte and theorise why it is like this, but I do not believe that the other heroes are aware of her true existence, and if such is the case then there is a high chance that Ikaris was either an evil god who was written out of all records, or she is a foreign god to their realm, otherwise, there is no way a being of her magnitude and power would be unknown.]

    [How do youe to such a conclusion?]

    [I observed the summons, and many of their interactions after that, they never speak of where theye from, but I do remember Sol telling her to get along with everyone else, to prevent them from growing suspicious, and I remember her telling vague tales of things the others have never even heard of, to them she is an enigma, and she often mentions creatures and races I have never heard of as well, and there is the matter of the gods of the heroes'' home-dimension]

    [They have said multiple times that the god of their dimension is passive, and that there are many pantheons from other cultures, and I now know that Ikaris looks down on pantheons, meaning she is a sole ruling god, but she is by no means passive, she is arrogant, and rightfully so; she holds the universe in her palm, all of this points to her being from another dimension than theirs, an imposter, how her and Sol could have met might be something simr to our current situation-]

    [True Goddess Ikaris is staring at you intently] they saw the message and perked up with sweat on their foreheads when the throne room began quaking. [There is slight hostility]

    [It seems I may have hit the mark, after all.] Dr''ul refused to back down as her eyes glowed brightly and her attention fell on Ikaris.

    "Are you okay?" Sol asked, sitting on their bed and staring up at the roof after sensing Ikaris''s unrest.

    "Master, it seems Dr''ul has figured out a bit of my origins," Ikaris stated turning around to him.

    "Huh, she did?" Sol asked with nonchnce evident in his eyes.

    "Are you unbothered?"

    "We have done a sloppy job of hiding it, I mean honestly, it would only take one observant entity to discover some kind of hole, I had expected it to be Renia after she spent some time with us, but Dr''ul is so interested in that fight I promised that she has been paying keen attention." Sol smiled and patted the bed next to himself as heid down.

    "I know as much, but I am ufortable with her constantly staring like that, and she revealed it to the goddess of Beasts whom you rejected some hours ago." She flopped next to him.

    "It''s okay, Ikaris," Sol hugged her and pulled her into a spooning position, resting his cheek against her head and kissing her.

    "So, you are unbothered?" She asked again.

    "I am, it''s going to matter less and less the longer we stay here, instead of focusing on that, let''s have pleasant dreams about some house in the far reaches away from everyone else~" Sol yawned and hugged her tighter causing a blush to grace her smiling face.

    "Your dream from back on earth," Ikaris stated, closing her eyes and envisioning such a quiet ce where she could spend every moment undisturbed with him. "Small feet running around, and a belly full of new life and happiness, theughter of our beloved... children..."

    "Yeah, that one, I''m thinking it''s a beautiful idea, if we could some day make that dream a reality I feel like this lifting burden on my heart would bepletely removed, if it''s with you."

    Ikaris slightly shook in Sol''s grasp, and he smiled against her and locked fingers with her idle hand. "Ikaris?"

    "Yes, master?"

    "Why do you weep?"

    "Because," Ikaris shook again as more tears fell from her eyes onto his hand. "I am happy, Master, I am the happiest I have ever been, I am overwhelmed with joy at your existence..." She started sobbing, and Sol opened his eyes when her divinity started pouring out against him, unchecked.

    "Ikaris-"

    "Thank you, Sol," Ikaris sniffled.

    "Thank you so much for existing, I could never be happier; millennia, eons, a timeless existence, a god exists in perpetual solitude for all of eternity, and yet you, myst subject whom I was indebted to and was promised to send away said ''choose'', and granted me free will, I remember the shackles breaking when you said it, the feeling of my loneliness evaporating, I promise to never forsake you, I swear it on my magic and existence, never."

    "Just go to sleep," Sol kissed her head again. "We start making preparations in the morning, remember?"

    "Yes." Ikaris smiled against his hand and closed her eyes. "Yes, Master."

 Chapter 52: March.

    "Sir, good morning!" Usami met Morn with a customary bow as soon as he arrived in the castle courtyard where the army was almost ready for departure, unlike the first time where the entire Argom was full of life and hope, only have the people turned out, and of that half there was barely anyone who was cheering for their journey, the only well-wishers were the youngest of the crowd; the children, and the elderly who had nothing else but hope to cling on to in their old age.

    "Are you well rested?" Morn tapped the seat next to himself and she quickly sat and smiled.

    "Rested and ready, sir!"

    "Good," Morn nodded. "While we wait, let is go over the new course I prepared," He folded his arms as she turned to him attentively.

    "It''s good to see Usami in high spirits again..." A stared at Usami speaking to Morn Castillon, though her face shared everything except a smile.

    "She''s always been a bit lively, but after yesterday I never thought she''d recover that quickly, Sir Castillon must have put in some serious effort to cheer her up," Dina replied with a small smile to what she thought was a shared sentiment.

    "Cheered her up hm?" A narrowed her eyes. "That old pervert probably has the poor girl around his thumb already, I can practically see the pheromones," She grunted, but Idria still heard her from the other side of the massive courtyard and looked in their direction, and then at Morn and Usami.

    "If he proves to be an inadequate teacher I will personally intervene and dismiss him." Idria answerwd A''s whisperedment and the two of them shared private nces; it seemed Morn had a reputation amongst his peers.

    "It was forbidden that we the captains and leaders have such rtions with the Heroes, it is both forbidden in text and orally by her majesty, who looks down on such unprofessionalism, not to mention he is a married man with over a dozen concubines, how dare-"

    "You''re mumbling again," Eris leaned her head to get her teacher''s attention after she suddenly looked away and started mumbling.

    "Sorry, what were you saying?" Idria chuckled sheepishly while A stopped listening.

    "Some interesting things are happening again," Sol daintily sat with his legs crossed and sipped green tea with Ikaris standing on his right in a maid outfit and a small teapot in her possession, and Sara on his left with her hands sped before her with a passive and rxed smile.

    "Indeed, Master." Ikaris nodded, both hers and Sara''s eyes were closed, but while Ikaris was always aware of the people in her surrounding, Sara knew everyone''s business, and had magic dedicated to scrying, so she too had heard and seen it all so she nodded wordlessly, of course she already knew about Usami and Morn, but it was not her ce to speak on the matter, she was after all; just a maid.

    "Um..." One of the other maids approached Ikaris nervously. "Lady Ikaris, the princess is requesting your presence for a brief moment..." The woman stared at Ikaris''s attire strangely.

    "Eh?" Ikaris opened her eyes, annoyed at the woman for interrupting her peaceful service to her master. "Now?"

    "Yes, mdy," The maid gave her a bow and gestured in the direction of the princess.

    "Preparations are almostplete," Sara walked over to Ikaris and took the teapot from her, turning to Sol and pouring another round while he smiled and paid nothing heed. "Please make haste,dy Ikaris."

    Ikaris groaned in protest, but stomped off nheless, and Sara watched fascinated as her maid outfit underwent change and became her usual getup.

    "She is getting along with everyone now it seems," Sol smiled as he watched her leave.

    "Yes, she seems to have adjusted nicely," Sara agreed, but then stood at attention and bowed when she noticed Han approaching.

    "Vestic," The taller man came and stood before him, and Sol lowered his cup with a somewhat troubled smile staring up at him.

    "Do you need something, hero?"

    "I..." Han looked away with visible embrassment but went through with it nheless and lowered his head before Sol. "Yesterday, it was brief, but I managed to gain a lot from that challenge, I doubted you at first, but I was wrong, thank you," Han clenched his fists and then raised his head with a genuine smile, the first one Sol had ever seen on him.

    "I''m sure the others feel the same too." Hemented, not even realising that the other heroes from their respective positions across the courtyard had followed his example and paid their respects in the same manner.

    "I must say it makes me feel as if I have failed you seeing you thank another for teachings," A ground her teeth as she stared at Dina who was raising her head from a bow.

    "Don''t worry about it, I need you more than I need anyone else, right now you''re the best teacher I could ever have!" Dina grinned at A, taking her hand and pulling her in the direction of the others.

    "Ugh, here shees," Bruce''s teacher, Kris Ravenmar groaned and dragged his hand through his hair upon noticing A''s approach.

    "Lady A isn''t that bad," Bruce watched the half-elf''s approach,pletely ignoring Dina''s exiatence as his eyes locked on to her soft physique, her bouncing breasts and her swaying hips. "Man... she''s hot," Bruce blushed and covered his ears.

    "Hot?" Kris looked at him. "Is that a term from your homeworld?"

    "Ah-yes, it means one is.... Uh..." Bruce cleared his throat and turned to the approaching women, ignoring Kris''s raised brow at his unfinished sentence.

    "How are you, Bruce?" Dina asked him smiling, but saw his stare focused on her teacher and snapped her fingers before him. "Oi, eyes on me!"

    "Oho?" Aughed at Bruce''s clear infatuation and gave him a teasing smile.

    "Yeah, I''m all recovered," Bruce flexed his muscles and pped his shield. "I also gained a new skill yesterday so, despite everything I still benefited." He admitted, and Dina nodded in agreement.

    "It is a pity," A sighed, looking over at Sol who was now dressed as nobility and eating cake served by Sara while everyone else worked around him.

    "Pity?" Dina asked.

    "Aye, Despite his clearly being stronger than the rest of us Sol Vestic holds no fealty to the queen or kingdom that calls and ridicules him as an imposter, he has openly stated that he will not raise a finger in the service of her majesty, he refuses to fight the demon horde." Kris answered shaking his head.

    "Well, the first thing they tried doing when he just got here was execute him as an omen," Dina ced her hand over her heart upon reliving that moment and how terrified she was. "If that happened to me and I lived, I would never help the people who wanted me dead."

    "True," A admitted. "However, even though Master Vestic seems to dislike demons more than the rest of us by the way he speaks of them, he seems to just genuinely not have any interest in them, we have seen him raise his hand against even allies, and those who threatened Ikaris, it is only demons he refuses to fight."

    "He''s odd, isn''t he?" Dina asked, staring at Sol who was now ying extreme table tennis with Sara but paused to look at them, causing the ball to whisk pass him and Sara to jump in victory. "He''s..." Dina blushed and looked away. "Cool." She mumbled to herself.

    Upon the convergence of all the heroes and the assembly of the entire advance regeme of the demon subjugation army, a the temple bells across Argom started donging, and the head of the army spoke for the first time since their arrival.

    "Advance!" General Grim''s voice echoed across buildings and through the streets, and the army began their silent march.

    "Do your best," An olddy from the silent crowds raised her voice, causing the general to look her way while he continued marching on his steed. "Give it your everything son, kill them all, kill those demon bastards!"

    Grim knew this woman from his days as a foot soldier in the army, one who has always supported him, every time he went out she would cheer the loudest, and that stood true even now when everyone else doubted him, even though her son had died in battle years ago, her spirit never dwindled, she was a fighter.

    "HAAAAAH!!" General Grim raised his voice in a mighty war cry, and the army feeling the effect of his buffs roared as well.

    "Fight and take back ournds!" She screamed.

    "HAAAAAH!"  The army responded to the old woman''s cries.

    "Avenge our fallenrades and our long lost Arkadian brethren!" She screamed again, causing cheers and cries to erupt in the crowds around her.

    "HAAAAAH!!"

    "For Arkadia!!" The olddy gave it her all.

    "HAAAAAH!!!"

    "My brothers and sisters, we march!!" Grim shouted, and the silent steps of the soldiers turned into a thunderous synchrony that shook the ground, a true march.

 Chapter 53: Youre Still Only Human.

    Unlike the first time, there were no distractions and no secret attacks in the middle of the night, and as he had stated, Sol stood watch over Ikaris while she slept, it was a ridiculous idea that he protect her, but at the same time she would keep her word and not harm any being other than a demon, so he stood guard through the night while she slept.

    "Master~" Ikaris opened her eyes at the crack of dawn and turned to him, he was seated by her side with a book in hisp and antern next to him, drawing.

    "As usual, your rise is punctual," Sol smiled at her and closed his book, storing it into a small pocket dimension full of misceneous items he used for his hobbies. "Did you sleep well?"

    "I did," Ikariszily rolled toward him and then sat up with a groan. "I also dreamt a little; even for me the fifth dimension sometimes makes no sense." Ikaris took Sol''s extended hand and was pulled to her feet while he stared at her form through her semi-transparent gown.

    "Lady Ikaris," Someone called from the outside, and in an instant Ikaris''s nightgown was reced by proper clothes.

    "Enter."

    "Pardon the intrusion," A man walked in, he was apparently supposed to be her aide, since like Eris, all of the heroes had someone that stayed by their side, and since nobody knew of Sol''s skills aside from the captains and generals, she too was assigned someone. "Good morning mdy," he took a knee before her.

    "What do you want, is the camp moving out earlier than discussed?" Sol asked, and his eye twitched when the man ignored his question with his eyes closed and his attention directed toward Ikaris.

    "Answer vermin, or get out," Ikaris took a seat in Sol''sp. "My master asked you a question."

    "I arose earlier, and was wondering if mdy was interested in a quick spar before we set out toward the hills." He spoke with visible spite despite keeping his eyes locked to the floor.

    "Why?" Sol asked, and the man sucked in a breath when he heard Ikaris gasp and looked up to find Sol''s hand inside of her blouse. "What does fighting Ikaris aplish, don''t you have someone else to ask?" Sol looked at him again. "Is there a specific reason why you''reing here this early before everyone else is even awake?" Sol''s eyes narrowed.

    "Listen imposter, even if you are called master by the hero, I have no obligation to treat you on equal standing as her-"

    [Activated Telekinesis stage 1]

    [Activated healing stage 7]

    "What a waste of flesh," Sol interrupted him, snapping his fingers in irritation while Ikaris sighed and got outof hisp.

    Ash was a proud man, and he believed he had the looks, physique and abilities that granted him the capabilities to get any woman he desired, he was specifically chosen by the princess because it was her intention to separate Sol and Ikaris.

    But when he saw that indenture in the space in front of him and felt the sudden force pressing into his chest and breaking his ribcage he realised that he had made a grave mistake that was about to cost him dearly.

    "Don''t ever show your face in front of her again," Sol pointed toward him, and the man was sent flying by an invisible force that blew up their tent and tore him to shreds both from the inside and on the outside, he crashed the entire length of the encampment and mmed into arge tree that stopped his momentum and broke upon impact, falling on him.

    Before anyone could get a grasp of what was happening the tree was rolled away when Sol pushed it, further crushing him before the healing effect of his earlier attack took root and prevented Ash from dying.

    As his consciousness returned, the first thing Ash saw was Sol looking over him with clear grey eyes. "Remember my warning, Ash, remember it well, if I see you near Ikaris I''ll take your head off your shoulders." Sol patted his neck with a dagger and stood, turning toward the shocked soldiers that had all been alerted under the assumption that  it was an enemy attack again.

    "Seriously," Sol scratched his head with the dagger as he walked through the ditch Ash''s body had made. "Did he actually try stealing her in my presence, what''s wrong with Arkadian men?"

    "H-hey," one soldier approached Sol. "What happened-"

    "Don''t bother me right now I''ve been put in a bad mood," Sol swatted his hand away in irritation.

    The man would have retaliated since his sword had already been drawn, but A intervened quickly and grabbed his hand to prevent him from attacking an irritated Sol.

    "Master Vestic, did someone offend you again?" A asked, she was only partially dressed unlike her usual cloaked attire, her blouse struggled to keep her proportions in check, and her shorts were leaving too much to be desired as they loosely hung on to her curves revealing just enough that she was being ogled by even the women, everyone quickly became distracted by her presence.

    "Don''t worry about it," Sol spun around A and dropped his coat over her shoulders flicking his finger against her forehead. "You should be more mindful of the way you dress around these men, I get the impression that I might have underestimated how barbaric they are." Sol narrowed his eyes at her, and she nodded and lowered her gaze with a rising blush on her cheeks.

    People usually just stared, but not only was he unaffected, but he even showed control and concern for her well-being.

    "I know that well, it was an error on my side, thank you." A held on to the coat around her form and quickly retreated back to her tent, disappearing with a chant and a wave of her hand.

    "Did she call him master?" One of the female soldiers asked.

    "Eh, that imposter?" Another responded with a scoff. "No way you''re hearing things."

    "I don''t know what happened, did you see... Isn''t Ash around level 100 how did he lose when not even the heroes have broken level 100 yet?"

    The rest of the morning went by with rumour that Ash was beaten by Sol because he caught him and A together and confronted them, obviously this wasn''t the case, but Ash dared not mention that he attempted to steal Ikaris away and was nearly killed, and Sol himself seemed to not care about the whispers amongst the soldiers.

    What did bother him though was that A despite hearing the rumours still chose to ride next to him while the heroes resided in theirrge carriage. Sol would have been in there as well, but he wanted to give Ikaris space to interact, and it seemed like his presence only made her reject any conversation in favour of cuddling or teasing him.

    "Master Vestic," A looked over at Sol, speaking her first words since they set out.

    "Could you please stop calling me ''master,'' I don''t hate it but it has already caused a few misunderstandings in the past, just use my name like everyone else," Sol looked over at her, his usual yfulness was still absent after he had gone his first night without sleep and then Ash had put him in the worst mood.

    "I find that ridiculously hard, considering your magnificence," A leaned closer and whispered. "I know you dislike my endless curiosity, and I have chosen to lock my questions away until you arefortable enough to reveal them-"

    "That won''t ever happen."

    "-And that is why I stopped asking," A chuckled. "But, that is not the focus of my concern this time," She stared at his eyes and the residual magic she felt on his person. "Sol... have you slept yet?" A asked, and Sol turned and stared at her surprised.

    "It is none of my business, I understand, but I sensed a very powerful barrier throughout the night that I believe could have only been your doing, and right now, you look exhausted,"

    "What is she saying, does she realise I can go weeks without a wink of sleep?" Sol thought to himself.

    "Master," Ikaris spoke directly into his head.

    "Listen to her this once, take rest, from dusk until dawn you were overexerting your divine magic with a barrier strong enough to protect us from the descent of several of the most powerful gods of the pantheon, I understand your tenacity more than anyone else, but please pay heed to your health, after all, you are still human; regardless of your power and control over divinity, your mind cannot always keep up of you use it to such extreme levels."

    "Huh?" Sol blinked as his blurry vision focused on A again. "Are you certain?" He asked, he hadn''t even been aware he was tired until they pointed it out.

    "Rest, master,"

    "Of course,e, as long as Lady Ikaris doesn''t mind of course," A patted her horse after suggesting that he ride with her and close his eyes for a bit. "She is very introverted, and since she only truly likes and tends to you she dismisses everyone else quickly, this is why you chose to ride instead of stay in her carriage with her right?" A hit the nail on the head again.

    "Sorry for bothering you then," Sol sighed.

    [Forceful activation of divinity has been cancelled, consequence is fatigue]

    Sol skillfully stood on his horse and stepped over to A''s while she raised her arms and allowed him to hold on to her before his forehead pressed against her back and he passed out.

    She had hoped to at least have a conversation before he fell asleep, but he lost consciousness so fast all she could do was chuckle.

    "How on Arkadia did you manage to stay awake until midday?"

    Inside of the Carriage Ikaris had a distant expression, staring in the other direction across the ins instead of to her right where she knew Sol was holding another woman and sleeping soundly.

    "Ikaris..." Eris was going toment on the matter, but saw Ikaris''s difort and sighed, she was right next to her, so she had heard Ikaris speaking when she told Sol to rest, which is why she even noticed Sol before the others.

 Chapter 54: The Heroes First Battle.

    The day had quickly be overcast with the threat of rainfall, and after another hour of travel toward the border, the general who was ahead of the march raised his right hand in a fist, causing several soldiers to pull out horns and blow them, creating a faint hum through the air that stimted mana in the atmosphere; it was a call to action.

    "General!" A and Idria from his captains approached first, but quickly saw the reason for his alertness.

    "Demons... This far in?" A asked surprised, making sure to not shift and wake Sol who still clung to her and slumbered peacefully.

    "I thought the day was going to go by uneventfully again until we reached the borders of Argom, but this is a concerning development." General Grim stood with his sword drawn staring from the top of the hill at a valley full of demonic beasts and corrupted monsters.

    "We crossed this valley just days ago, how could they have advanced toward Argom this quickly?" Idriamented, staring at the monsters, she could even identify several corrupted humans and elves in the mix. "May your souls rest in eternal peace."

    "Mages, at the ready." A raised her staff, increasing the potency of her mana as she focused it all into a great blue ball before her, waking Sol who had still been soundly asleep on her back.

    "I won''t hinder you any further," Sol quickly hopped off her horse, standing on his own and staring down at the demons and monsters but when he did his eyes slightly widened, and he sucked in a breath.

    "They''re the same..." Sol almost summoned a weapon upon seeing them, the same creatures he had fought for ten years on A were the same creatures he was seeing, not just him, but Ikaris seemed disturbed too as she stared at them when the army converged at the ready.

    She had a suspocion that such was the case, but this confirmed it, these demons, wherever they wereing from, they seemed to be a part of the same race, an entirely separate reality where only they existed.

    This made her question wether she was going to be able to attack and fight them effectively, so as a test she fired off a preemptive bolt of her gathered Arkadian mana, and then another bolt of her pure divine mana.

    "Fuck," Sol stared in shock when her divine mana was harmlessly negated by the creatures, while her Arkadian mana collided and exploded in a plume of sparks that pierced and killed scores in one shot.

    "This changes everything!" He seethed and grit his teeth as they slowly sharpened. "How, why?" Sol asked, watching the beasts and demons make their way up the hill after A and the mage corps erected a barrier on either side of them creating a kill-passage to prevent them from getting surrounded.

    "Mages retreat to the back and prepare your support spells!" A took to the air, apanied by Dina and several other skilled mages while the others quickly withdrew behind Kris, Bruce and the rest of the tanker frontliners.

    "Master..." Ikaris sensed Sol''s power rising along with his frustration and rage.

    "This again," Sol stood on his horse with his eyes glowing menacingly as he summoned a sword, but then a window popped up before him.

    [True Goddess Ikaris implores you to keep your word and not raise a hand against the demon horde unlesspletely necessary]

    "What?" Sol looked around and found Ikaris ascending with her white wings.

    "I may not be able to harm them with my divine magic," Ikaris stated.

    "However, I no longer possess just divine mana, the whole time I have been here I have been honing my Arkadian mana and gaining strength in case this happened, while it is nothing close to Master''s own power or my divine power, I am still the strongest amongst the heroes!" Ikaris created a sword out of mana and then solidified it until it became a physical object.

    "This changes nothing!" She descended, using her divinity for mobility to spare her mana for fighting.

    "I can finally kill you invasive bastards, I''ll relish in this opportunity!" Ikaris''s expression went dark for a moment as she descended like aet and tore through the demons sending several hundred of them flying into the barrier as nothing more than chunks of meat while she ascended the hills again andnded at the front of the charge.

    "This will be my revenge!" Ikaris aimed her sword to the skies. "Watch closely you useless gods, I''m doing what none of you have the power to do!" Ikaris suppressed her wings and charged ahead of the army as both sides shed.

    "I can''t tell if she''s enjoying this or not, but she''s right." Sol directed his horse to the highest point on the battlefield and watched keenly as her and the other heroes fought.

    "If it''s like this, then I think I''ll end up fighting that Demon God after all, regardless of what I feel or want to feel," Sol narrowed his eyes.

    [The goddess of war is in shock]

    "Huh?"

    [The pantheon is in shock at True Goddess Ikaris''s ability to kill the demons]

    [The god of bets has ced a bet]

    "Ah, the gods of Arkadia are incapable of using anything other than their own divine mana, so you can''t save your own world from this invasion," Sol sighed pushing the windows out of his way.

    "Usually I''d have something to say about it or poke fun at you somehow, but if Ikaris can''t utilize her divine magic against them either then it means the demon race is utilizing a special type of magic or bodily constitution that is immune to divine magic across all dimensions," Sol exined to those listening as his mood grew darker. "Just how many worlds have they destroyed this way?"

    [This is a confession that they have already encountered these beings elsewhere, but their earth has never been invaded, so my guess was right, after all.] Dr''ul stared at Ikaris intently, she remembered trying as well when the demon god first appeared.

    To see a foreign god protecting her home when she could not, made her doubt herself and her powers, it filled her with bitterness at how powerless she was as the goddess of war.

    [Impale!] Usami bent beneath the swing of arge demonkin with eyes in its arms and stabbed it in the stomach. [EXPANSION]

    Her spear vibrated with waves of golden mana and then exploded in length, impaling several dozen demons and beasts in an instant and creating a kebab out of them.

    "Han!" Bruce used the basic technique [sh] to cleave his way through several and then threw his shield on his back and took a knee, blocking a bolt of dark mana with his broadsword while Han used his shield as a springboard to gain height above the demons.

    Airborne, Han summoned a second sword midair and kicked it by the handle, saving several soldiers when a behemoth emerged from the ground before channeling mana into his main sword. "I''ll vapourise everyst one of you!" Han shouted in his descent.

    [Unique skill: Creation, has been activated]

    [Sword Dance: form 1]

    "Thunderbird!" Hannded in the midst of the demons, mming his sword in the ground and manifesting a great bird of yellow lightning that made a frontal horizontal rip across the demon hordes creating an evenrger area of effect explosion than Ikaris had caused with her mana sword earlier.

    "He-he-he-he-he~" Ikaris held a sly grin on her face as she grabbed a demon and used it as a shield and hammer against several of its fellow kin. "I see, this is it," She released the dead creature and dodged another one''s attack stabbing it through the head. "Haha I see -I see!"

    [��300 Low-level Demonkin killed. +12,000xp]

    [Level: 145 (+5)]

    [You levelled up, mana has been restored]

    "This is what master meant by a mine of experience!"

    "Ah, so she is enjoying it," Sol shut his eyes and folded his arms, rxing on his horse.

    [Healing Arrow]

    Idria stood on another high perch next to Eris who had her AOE healing spell at full throttle.

    A white arrow made of mana appeared in Idria''s grasp, and then a long bow made of mana formed as well, and she aimed it to the frontliners and fired it.

    "What happens if that arrow hits and heals the enemy?" Eris asked when the fast projectile flew over everyone''s head, but blinked several times in confusion when the arrow changed directions and dodged several enemies and crashed harmlessly into Kris''s back, healing his injury.

    "I have honed this skill for years, focus on your tasks, Eris." Idria scolded her, and a trickle of sweat rolled down Eris''s cheek as she held out her hands and increased the potency of [heal]. The battlefield wasrge, so she couldn''t cover everything especially at the cost of healing the enemies, so their wounded allies had to retreat into the healing area.

    "Dina, focus on the back of the horde, thin them out and push them inside of the barrier!" A started closing the front of the [Great barrier] she had made when thest of the horde started entering. And seeing this, General Grim ordered an immediate retreat.

    "You mean...?" Dina looked at A surprised and the half-elf nodded.

    "Yes, we go with that attack."

    "Right!" Dina pressed her hand on her breasts.

    [Activating weight maniption]

    [Lightweight Activated]

    [Activating thrust]

    [Activating propulsion]

    [Wind maniption]

    She cast five different spells simultaneously.

    "I''m off then!" Dina took to the skies like a ne, causing Sol to peer an eye open for what was about to be the climax of the battle that barelysted an hour.

    Approaching the rear of the small horde, Dina summoned her staff again and waved it several times gathering mana before pointing it toward the edges of the scattered and chaotic enemy formation.

    [Combination magic]

    The cloudy skies lit up with hundreds of crackling balls of golden mana epassing the entire back of the demon horde while thest soldier made their way out of the front of the barrier and A shut it.

    "Dina''s eyes widened as she pointed to the horde, turning to a bright pink hue as the balls of mana began descending with tails made of electricity and mana like falling stars.

    "Origin explosions!"

 Chapter 55: An Old Ladys Opinion.

    [Origin explosions]* a smaller morepact version of the [origin explosion] attack that she created just days prior when she faced Sol, small indeed, but with A''s help the mage hero had been able to increase the potency and reduce the drain on her mana.

    The army stared with baited breath as the attackpletely wiped out the entire vanguard of the horde in a round of massive ovepping spherical explosions thatsted a full minute.

    [Mana: 65\\81k]

    Dina stared at her status with a nod, it consumed far more than she expected, but far less than the original.

    "My turn then," A mmed the ass of the barrier shut and took a breath, looking at the remaining percentage of the small horde that was trapped inside of it. "Go back to the shadows, you wretched creatures!" She aimed her staff at them.

    [Mana: 40k]

    [Casting teir 6 Infernal magic: Holocaust]

    Therge structure made of mana suddenly started shooting crimson mes from all corners on the inside, engulfing the demons in a tormenting incineration chamber that rapidly reduced them all to piles of ashes and crisp bones, putting an end to their numbers, and at thepletion of their roasting, A took a peek at her mana again.

    [Mana: 40k]

    It was unchanged, showcasing her fine skill in precision mana maniption.

    "Well done," Grim tapped A''s shoulder, watching the top of the barrier shoot out torrents of smoke and ash as it slowly copsed. "And you as well, I see your training has yielded some terrifying results!" He turned to Dina as soon as she returned to A''s side and gave her a nod, to which she smiled and adjusted her coat.

    "Thank you."

    Upon Dina''s return the advance army burst into cheers, it was a massive victory the likes of which they had not seen in a while, thanks to the heroes making quick work of the majority of enemies.

    "Dina, that was amazing!" Eris approached them, and behind her the other heroes and captains except for Ikaris also approached, so singing their praises at a job well done to each other, and while they had their reunion Grim went to the side and invited Idria over.

    "Casualties?" He asked, and she smiled at him.

    "None, sir,"

    "None?"

    "Every fatal wound that was incurred was cured by Eris before it was toote, and Ikaris yed a great part in helping, she was more of a help in saving lives than the others werebined," Idria gestured to the tallest point on the ridge where he saw Ikaris standing and staring down at them with Sol by her side.

    "How did she manage to do that?" He asked shocked.

    "I have no idea, she was moving so fast it felt like teleporting, and she did so while carrying an armoured soldier with wounds and their dead weight while she fought," Idria answered with a shrug. "The others were shy, sure, they have incredibly destructive potential, but Ikaris will be hailed by all the soldiers who realised what she did as the true victor today."

    "Saved a bunch hm?" Sol looked at Ikaris with a cheeky grin. "You''re embracing this hero title to the fullest, aren''t you?" He teased her, but instead of the usual back and forth about heroes and people in general that he had gotten used to, he found Ikaris was still, she was silent, she was serious.

    "Are you okay?" Sol rested his hand on her shoulder.

    "Master," Ikaris turned to him, even though her body had no glow, her eyes shone with divinity, and her ears were elongated as her emotions caused her powers to go unchecked. "I want to save these people," She stared down at the rejoicing lot.

    "I felt something inside of me when I was helping them, a care I hadcked when I governed A, I fought at their sides and understood their mortality, how fragile and beautiful death makes them..."

    "One thing at a time," Sol smiled at her and gave her headpats. "First you have to face the consequences of your actions." He gave her a small push causing her to stumble forward toward arge group of soldiers that were making their way toward them.

    "Master?"

    "Ikaris!" The man at the front yelled, causing everyone else to stop and look at him as he approached and fell at her feet. "You... You saved my life, when I was bleeding out, you rescued me, you brought me back to the healers!"

    "Rescue?" Han asked, looking around at Eris, who nodded with a bright smile.

    "Thank you, thank you so much, our goddess of battle hero, Ikaris!!" The man eximed at the top of his voice.

    "Eh-what?" Dina fumbled and stared across the multitude as cheers started erupting.

    "She saved me too, I was stabbed through the chest, but thanks to her and Eris, I''m still alive!" One man gestured to himself and therge hole in his chestte.

    "Yes, while you guys were on the frontlines, Ikaris was busy saving every wounded on the battlefield," Eris approached them, pping her hands in cheer with everyone else. "As a result, not even a single soldier died today." She gestured to Ikaris who was recieving an apuse like none other.

    And Ikaris was so flustered she just stood there shocked, being a goddess, she never saw a need to be among the creatures she ruled over, but here where she held no such responsibility she had learned something incredible.

    She looked around at Sol who was smiling as he too apuded her.

    "Mortal life is fleeting," She mumbled to herself and Sol nodded.

    [Activating telepathy: single target]

    "You finally get it," He answered her. "For a god, there''s always time, but for these people, life is a single moment where their entire existence is formed, defined, and then erased, never to be seen again, for them, time is an enemy, and it is the most precious currency."

    [The gods are in awe at the praise True Goddess Ikaris is recieving]

    [The goddess of war is disying conflicted emotions]

    [I truly wish it was me] Dr''ul sighed, but with her sigh there was also a smile.

    She loved warfare, but she had been watching Arkadians fight and die for over a hundred years, this was the first victory without tears of sorrow, and it was all thanks to the foreign goddess; Ikaris.

    "Whoa there, don''t getcent," Sol leaned his head and stared up at Dr''ul with a wide and threatening grin.

    "I''m still biding my time there goddess of war, don''t ever forget it, you have a lesson to be taught and I''m gonna make sure I bend you over my knee and discipline you properly!"

    [Why you little-] Dr''ul''s hair caught ame and she squeezed the edge of her throne, crushing it as she stood and grabbed the window to stare back at him.

    "However, I want to see what happens here first," Sol looked back to the Arkadians with a gesture of his hand. "These people need saving, and Ikaris is willing to do it, I can''t ruin her plot development for the sake of one fight, you''re not my top priority."

    Usually this would have caused Dr''ul to blow a fuse and act up, but she too felt the need to back off out of respect for Ikaris''s conviction and deration, even if it was not from the pantheon, witnessing a gody waste to the demonkin for the first time had earned Ikaris the respect and admiration of the entire cluster of Arkadian gods, so Dr''ul decided that she would not sully that moment with her antics.

    After all, Sol''s grudge with the gods was not the main issue on Arkadia; it was for his personal entertainment just as it was their own.

    "Ah I can''t take any more!" Ikaris quickly approached and clung to Sol''s arm causing the cheers to slightly dwindle.

    "Ah, him again!" Someone from the back of the crowds closer to the other heroes snapped in irritation. "That weakling, how did someone as azing as out goddess of battle ever be subservient to someone like that?" The man asked, causing a small protest around him.

    To everyone''s shock though, it was not Ikaris who defended Sol, or any of the other heroes; it was another random soldier, albeit an older one with a standing amongst the army who spoke her opinion.

    "That boy is not the weakling you mistake him to be," The olddy answered the you gan next to herself, sheathing her sword and folding her arms.

    "I have been in the advance army for seventy years now, and I know a warrior when I see one, I have watched the man who everyone hated to get my personal opinion of him, and I havee to the conclusion that he is far from weak, he is more of a broken and tarnished soul than anything else-"

    "Miss Lily?" One other random soldier looked around at her as the minority who heard her and stopped cursing Sol also turned. "What are you talking about, he''s no warrior, he''s a pampered-"

    "I saw it with my own eyes, young man," Lily shook her head with an astute smile. "The moment heid eyes on those demons we defeated, he became a different person, his mana, his expressions, his presence became that of a monster itself, he was going to head the charge had our Lady Ikaris not struck first," She exined, staring across the crowds at Sol.

    "He has hate for them, abominable hate beyond my experience, hate I have not seen in years, I have no idea what happened to him, and how he ended up this way, but that young man has probably seen atrocities we have never and will never witness in our lifetimes, he knows them, he has faced them before; Sol Vestic fought the demonkin before  being summoned, that is the impression I got earlier."

    "There''s no way."

 Chapter 56: Ambush.

    "There''s no way..." Han was seated in the carriage several hours after the army had continued moving on.

    "Are you still letting what the old woman said bother you?" Dina asked, staring at him and then looking outside at Sol who was riding his own mount with Ikaris resting on his chest and conversing without a care in the world. "There''s no way that can be true, if something like this happened on earth, the governments would never be able to cover it up, I don''t believe her." Shemented.

    "I mean, I kind of believe it though," Eris admitted. "I don''t know why, but I can''t find the conviction within myself to believe that woman was lying, but it also contradicts everything else that we know... about Sol and about our own world."

    "Ah, they''re at it again," Ikaris snuggledfortably against Sol''s chest gaining him the jealousy of everyone who had the displeasure of witnessing them up close.

    He didn''t respond, he simply kept his gaze ahead and smiled.

    "Master?"

    "Hm?"

    "What do you suppose we should name our children?" She asked, and Sol felt butterflies across the bottom of his stomach explode like fireworks.

    [The goddess of love is estatic at this revtion]

    [The goddess of war stares conflicted]

    [The goddess of chaos is flustered at this revtion]

    [The god of stories is listening attentively for an answer]

    "Ikaris, please don''t ambush me like that," Sol lowered his gaze and focused on her neck with a blush, staring down her cleavage at her light armour. "You''ll make me lose control�CIkaris!" Sol blushed even more fusiously when she started breathing heavily and pushing herself against him.

    "Yes, master?" Ikaris leaned forward, raised her ass, and pulled her hair to the front revealing the pulsating sigil on her neck and another resembling small wings just below it.

    "Ahem,dy Ikaris," A called to her sheepishly. "You are making the soldiers ufortable..." A warned her, but felt her lungs contract and squeeze when Sol''s attention was directed toward those same soldiers that were now paying attention to her.

    "M-master Vestic?" A waved her hands at him urgently, and at her becon Sol released his magic causing the area to be breathable again.

    "Honestly, I''m too possessive of you, you know that, I can''t stand it when you are stared at by other men like this, it drives me crazy." Sol ignored A and pushed the back of Ikaris''s head after he realised what he was about to do. "Don''t tease me like that around others, you''re making their lives harder."

    "I have no idea what you mean though~" Ikarisughed and righted herself again.

    "Behave yourself." Sol ordered her, and Ikaris immediately rxed and slumped against him once more, falling quickly intofort.

    "As you wish, Master."

    "Ugh," Dina sighed, resting her cheek on her fist as she stared through the window at them with evident jealousy.

    "Are you okay?" Bruce asked from the opposite side, he hadn''t seen nor had he felt anything because of hisck of sensitivity for mana and his general oafish mentality, it had passed right under his nose.

    "I''m recovering my mana, leave me be." Dina responded with a other sigh.

    [Mana: 73/82k]

    "Why don''t you just use the mana potions?" Eris opened her coat, revealing a pocket of strapped-down vials, but Dina shook her head in refusal.

    "A said that constant consumption of mana potions dampens my sensitivity to the mana around me, I think it''s like the difference between natural and processed foods, the processed foods might fill and keep you alive, but the natural foods have more diverse and healthier effects, so I''m constantly trying to sense and refine the mana in my surroundings, and especially out here where there are more magical beings and fauna, there''s an abundance of mana for me to absorb." She exined, and Eris lowered her hands with aplex expression.

    "You can recover your mana outside of the natural passive recovery? Can you teach me?" She asked, and Dina looked at her with a raised brow both from amusement and the sense of seniority that she first had when arriving.

    "Sure, whenever we set up camp again we can practice together."

    "You make it sound like yoga," Han scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Even if he was aplete piece of shit, Kane taught me a better way of utilizing mana; instead of always needing to absorb it, why not just will it to do your bidding?" He asked, and Bruce nodded to this more crude method.

    "There won''t always be a steady source of mana, what if you end up in a situation where there''s no mana around you to absorb?" Eris asked but he and Bruce shrugged her question off.

    "Master has taught me a multitude of different ways to manipte mana both internally and externally,"  Usami thought to herself.

    "But I doubt telling them would change anything, after all it is supposed to be a secret between just us, and if I want to keep cultivating with him I have to keep it a secret." She smiled as she watched everyone else get into a debate about which way of mana maniption and absorbtiom was the most effective and beneficial.

    "What about you?" Dina looked across at Usami who was in her own little world. "What''s your take on this?"

    "Sorry, noment." She chuckled.

    "We are about to reach our destination, if all goes well we probably won''t be back in Argom city for another three or so months, if it is not smooth, we will have to wait for reinforcements this time instead of retreating, and the entire journey might take an excess of six to seven months considering the size of the reinforcement camps." Idria knocked on the side of the carriage delivering an update.

    "The mission hm," Han rxed from the argument and raised his hand to the roof of the carriage, pulling a small lever that caused the roof to fly open and tuck into the sides like a convertible as he stood along with the other heroes.

    "It is a crude barrier to begin with, it can only hold demons of a hundred levels and below, if anything strongeres along then it will break again." Ikaris shrugged.

    "Something did break it though and not just one area either, that''s the whole reason everyone was deployed, even though the heroes were still in training." Sol answered herment with his own input.

    "I suppose."

    "Crude?" A frowned with herself. "Those are ancient barrier techniques that take decades to learn properly, how can she call them crude after seeing the form only once?" She asked herself, but then remembered who she was referring to and sighed with a hopeless smile.

    "I don''t think it will be a problem, and there are three other sites that we need to visit before we even have a grasp of what''s happening," Solmented again. "Either way, it should be no problem for you or the others to handle-"

    Just at the entrance to a forest thatid beyond their first of three objectives he was interrupted by a symphony of horns, and watched as the entire advance army perked up, along with Ikaris starting to pay attention.

    "The scouts are sending signals." A stood from her horse and slowly floated with a simple chant.

    In the distant, more horns sounded, and the soldiers'' passive awareness turned to high alert as the ground started shaking beneath them.

    "The forest has already been choked with demonkin, and-" A raised her staff and shot a blue mana bolt into the air that went high and then exploded into a red re that slowly descended.

    "It might drag on till nightfall this time," Sol looked at Ikaris who summoned a physical sword this time along with proper armour and a half helmet that protected her mouth and nose like a mask. "This time, it''ll be a challenge for our heroes."

    "All hands at the ready!" A started summoning a barrier, but was dragged out of the air by Ikaris who leaped up to her causing a projectile she had not sensed to zoom by, crashing and exploding into the army behind them and killing several soldiers right off the bat in a plume of violet fire.

    "Eris!" Idria called immediately, and she sprung into action immediately bursting into a full sprint toward the explosion with Garam right behind her.

    "They were waiting for us!?" A stood properly after Ikaris released her.

    [Activating irvoyance]

    Ikaris''s eyes shone and she stared through the crowds into the treeline and beyond.

    "You should order an immediate retreat," She instructed A, who stared back at her shocked.

    "A retreat-"

    "Yes, right now, if you don''t want your men to be wiped out order them to retreat!" Ikaris grabbed her by her cor and shook her without breaking eye-contact with the creature which was staring back at her.

    "I can''t just..." A''s eyes slowly widened when she felt the General''s mana signature suddenly disappear, and in a sick ironic twist, his arm fell right at their feet; torn off and slightly charred from the lingering purple mes.

    "Ah... Aah~" The half-elf shook and her lips trembled at the sight... "Grim?" She seemed to break character regaining herself only after the light from Ikaris''s wings shook her back to reality. "Wait, dont-" she tried stopping her, but Ikaris was gone in a sh, and right behind her were the other heroes.

    "Order the retreat, before it''s toote." Sol calmly spoke, while panic started arising in the crowds around them, he stood next to her with a passive stare in the direction of the forest.

    "Do it now."

 Chapter 57: An Overwhelming Foe

    "R-retreat..." A ordered quietly while she slowly raised her hand, firing off another blue bolt that flew high into the air and exploded into white sparks that began falling slowly to the ground.

    "Sol," She looked up at him as tears began forming in the corners of her eyes. "Please...

    please do something about this," She requested of him, surely she was powerful, she was the head of the Mages, but she was not the most powerful mage, she knew where her current levels resided and knew from that attack Ikaris saved her from that she was outssed by the shadow in the forest, so she reached out for the strongest person she knew.

    "A," Sol took her hand and pulled her to her feet, keeping his gaze on the creature as Ikaris and the others inched closer to first contact. "I have said it many times, and I will keep saying it; this is not my fight, this has nothing to do with me, not yet." He released her and folded his arms. "There''s no help here, figure it out, find the strength or die trying."

    "But..." She wanted to argue his point, but he wouldn''t even look at her, he was not going to help.

    Further ahead while the majority of the advance army retreated after seeing the signal, the heroes pressed forward, Dina being the first to attack as she thought to burn the entire forest down and reveal what hid behind the foliage.

    [Activating 5th tier magic: Cerberus mes]

    Dina held her hands before her as she gained height above everyone else and with a wave of her hands the atmosphere heated and caught aze before her shrinking into a ball barely the size of a tennis ball as she forced it topact and squeeze upon itself.

    "Burn away," Dina whispered as the ball flew pass everyone else into the deep of the forest disappearing within the darkness that was settling as the sun was on itsst legs.

    A moment after the ball had disappeared, a great pir of mes rushed skyward and opened up like a three-petaled flower, falling back to thend and burning with a bright pink hue, the ground began shaking again, and roars started echoing from inside of the trees.

    "Hold on!" Han held out his hand, and Ikaris as well as all the others came to a halt, before them was General Grim, standing with his spear bedded into the ground to support him, but he was obviously dead, from the fact that his entire right torso was missing to his head having only half a face.

    "Fuck!" Bruce ground his teeth holding conflicted emotions ranging from fear to rage as he looked at the general standing proudly.

    Nobody had seen what killed him, and everyone who was close to him was already dead or had fled the scene in terror.

    "What do we do here?" Han asked, this was beyond his experience, this was beyond what he had been taught in just three months, he was stilling to grasps with bing a hero in a fantasy world, there was already too much death here, dozens had died in an instant, and under a week prior he had seen more than over a hundred corpses.

    "Lyra?" He looked to the next inmand behind A who had not even shown up yet.

    "I-I don''t know!" She shook her arms while small orbs of light floated around her. "I''ve never seen anything like this before, even if general Grim had a lower level than I did he was far stronger, we should retreat-"

    "If everyone retreats now, these bastard creatures will follow behind us and advance deeper into Argom territory, you can forget about a barrier, you won''t even be able to protect the walls of your precious city, it''s here and now or certain deathter on." Ikaris warned them, closing her wings and folding them neatly on her back where they disappeared into her armour.

    "This is your first of many defining moments, warriors, even if you leave, I will remain here, I have already be fond of that little city in thest corner of this broken world; the castle is the home where master rests his head and where I have been allowed to sleep in his embrace, my first taste of happiness is on the cusp of being taken away!" Ikaris''s sword duplicated and appeared on her other hand.

    "I''ll never allow it!"

    [Activating cleave]

    [Activating sh]

    [Activating mana sword]

    [Magicbination:]

    "Arcane de." Ikaris took her first step hesitantly, knowing well that with her divine power''s incapability of harming these creatures they were capable of hurting her physically.

    Even if she could heal herself it would be her fist time ever recieving pain, but still something more important was at stake here, she couldn''t back down upon the first threat of pain, if she truly wanted to keep Argom, she was going to have to work for it, otherwise her derations from earlier would all fall null.

    Ikaris continued to stack magic theories from her own world using the mana from this world

    [Activating Haste(quick steps)]

    [Activating Arcane Release(mana overhaul)]

    [Magicbination: Overdrive]

    "I do not know what you all fight for, but I fight for Master''s peace of mind, I fight so he doesn''t have to suffer any more, and if it is for him-" Ikaris saw the first hint of movement as she reached the same distance from the forest that the general had been when he was attacked, seemingly out of nowhere a ck vine-like appendage reached into the air and then made an abnormally angr turn directly toward her.

    While it speedily applroached, several of the roots at the edge of the forest seemed toe alive making a broad horizontal swing. "-theres no length too great!" Ikaris spun around both of the attacks and swung her swords causingrge white arcs of sharpened magical energy to rapidly reach out and slice both the appendages off the main body.

    "She hit it!" Bruce''s eyes were wide in shock as the ground shook once more.

    "Thunderbird!" Han grabbed his sword and swung it diagonally sending arge bird made of yellow lightning into the air where it crashed and incinerated another tendril that was falling from the sky toward Ikaris.

    "Origin explosions!" Dina cast her newest skill hoping to hasten the destruction of the forest and reveal the hidden creature, but she was shocked when several dozen more tendrils shot out of the forest and intercepted her attacks before they could fall.

    "What?" The mage hero went even higher into the air, trying to get a glimpse of what was happening below her, but as she ascended she saw a sh of purple and dodged downward just fast enough that a bolt of violet mes whisked pass her,ing with so much speed and force that the winds it generated caused her to crash out of the sky into Usami''s ready arms.

    The ground shook again and then they all heard a roar from behind the trees, a terrifying beast was approaching.

    [True Goddess Ikaris is using a divine skill: All seeing eye]

    [Overdrive]

    [Arcane de]

    [Magicbination:]

    Ikaris made an X with her swords as she charged her mana like a berserker, and just as a pair of azure eyes appeared before her she unleashed her deadliest attack yet, leaping backwards and avoiding a swipe that came with enough speed and force to easily remove her leg.

    "Cross impact!!" She unleashed the attack of pure mana and the des in her hands shattered into powder as the attack tore into the forest growingrger and destroying everything in its path for several hundred metres before she sped her fist and raised it. "Stop hiding!"

    The forest''s vines and tendrils became alive as pink mes burned it and a giant white cross tore across it, and then the cross exploded revealing a form in the midst of the pure white mes.

    "Incredible..." A stared at the destruction Ikaris had caused with a single attack as the white mes continued to reach for the skies, revealing a dark figure in the midst of it.

    "A boss battle awaits!" Sol grinned with his hands akimbo, staring at the creature as it was covered in white mes while it fell back to the ground, its back was full of hundreds of tall appendages with mouths full of de-like teeth on the ends, and it had wings made of vines and bone that created gusts as it tried to douce the mes around it, and the creature was massive.

    Even though the attack earlier had dwarfed it, it was when itnded and stood on all fours above the forest that they realised how big it truly was. "I can''t believe something like this would show up right off the bat." He frowned, recognizing the existence before him.

    [A high level demonkin has appeared]

    The heroes and captains and some of the soldiers who remained while everyone else retreated saw the window pop up and felt apprehension wash across them like a flood.

    [Corrupted Eldritch dragon LV 600]

    "Wait a fucking minute, what''s with that absurd level!?" Han felt his chest tighten as he looked at his [lv 118] inparison.

    [Dina Levina: Level 100 (+20)]

    [Bruce Chaolong: Level 105]

    [Usami Takae: Level 97]

    "Holy shit, an actual dragon!" Eris came running toward them.

    [Eris Schneider: Level 110]

    "Don''t waver, don''t even think about running away, we have to kill it before anything else shows up!" Ikaris grimaced, summoning a longsword while her armour opened up around her body and took a more robust and protective form, covering her from head to toe.

    Sol stared fascinated at her conviction, but he felt nervous for her as well, from his memory, the eldritch came from the demon gates in two forms; there was the regr eldritch creatures which were powerful and destructive all on their own, and then there were the corrupted variants like this one that were even stronger and more violent.

    "With my current strength, this creature would be an easy dispatch," He mumbled after A had taken off in a sprint toward the heroes and her fellow captains.

    "My fellow heroes..." Ikaris''s head slightly swayed as her eyes began glowing brightly within her new helmet as she prepared to attack the [Corrupted Eldritch Dragon] before them. "...Lend me your strength!" She called to them as they all converged.

    [Ikaris: Level 199]

    [Heroes'' synergy has been achieved in the face of an overwhelming foe, special buffs are in ce, all attacks and defences have risen by 35%, mana consumption has decreased by 10%, cooldowns have been lifted]

    "Let''s kill ourselves a dragon!"

 Chapter 58: Killing the Corrupted Eldritch Dragon.

    The forest had indeed been destroyed, but it was not through the efforts of the heroes alone, the majority of the destruction came from the [corrupted eldritch dragon] that had been hiding inside of it as it fought against them and the captains.

    "Eris!" Bruce created a barrier and abandoned it as a decoy as several dozen tendrils crashed into it one after the other, ttening trees and catching everything aze with corrupted mes.

    "Keep your focus on the monster, Bruce!" Eris ced her hand over her shoulder and performed [Heal] on herself after she had been swatted by a stray tendril.

    Sure, she was strong, and as far as the heroes went she was the most durable both from her healing abilities as well as her training with Idria which was all about getting hurt and healing it to raise her pain tolerance as well as lessen her mental fatigue in stressful situations, but inparison to her fellow heroes in terms of pure strength she was not that strong at all, what she had where they all packed was tenacity.

    [Heal!]

    Eris pped her palm against Bruce''s back as he turned curing his fatigue in an instant as he took a breath. "Right, thanks!" Bruce summoned another shield after his first was broken and began charging toward the distracted dragon again.

    "Lyra!" Ikaris set her arms in a punting gesture and gave Lyra a tform to jump on, throwing her hands upward and sending Lyra skyborne with a huff before using her divinity to leap to the same height.

    "The gross tentacle things on its back do not grow back when destroyed, and right now they are preventing us from doing any substantial damage, so like we discussed!" Ikaris summoned her swords as her and Lyra''s bodies were engulfed in white mana being drawn from their surrounding while they ascended.

    "They''re going for it, let''s keep up!" Han clenched his teeth and went into a stance again while Usami in the far back summoned a spear and aimed it diagonally in the ground toward the dragon.

    [Weapon creation limit reached; spears ��30, exceeded amounts will cause mana strain]

    She saw a window pop up before her and clicked her tongue. "This is my limit, I''m ready!" Usami called to Dina who was in the air carefully hovering with A who was spamming fireballs from every direction to keep the creature annoyed and distracted.

    "Let''s go!" Han took off with electricity surging from his body, and right before him was Bruce and Kris, tanking a majority of the tendrilsing his way while the dragon started preparing to fire off another ball of corrupted fore from its throat.

    "Okay," Usami stood behind the spears and pointed toward the dragon''s chest where the mes were being brewed, closing one eye and aiming for it.

    [Spear maniption: growth]

    [Spear maniption: control]

    The spears from all around the dragon suddenly hummed with golden mana around them and rapidly began stretching and swelling in size, striking the dragon all at once and trapping its movements before it even had the chance to dodge or deflect.

    "Come on!" Usami held her hands outward when the dragon started to struggle, it was no shock that none of them had pierced it, but luckily, its body was not whole and several of the spears had managed to go through the holes in its body, trapping it for the time being.

    "I can''t hold it any longer!" Usami grit her teeth as the corrupted eldritch dragon roared and began thrashing its tail and iling the tendrils above itself.

    Its ck eyes searched the burning forest frantically and it teeth gnashed in annoyance, even as a corrupted beast this dragon retained its sentience, so as soon as it caught glimpse of Han''s shy approach it took the first step forward, thanks to several of the spears going through the holes in its chest the me attack it was preparing earlier was cancelled, but now that it was immobile and A had stopped shooting it in the face with fireballs it could see everyone again.

    "The impudence of these lowly creatures!" It thought to itself. "I am an all-powerful eldritch being, none has everid a scratch on me!" It thought as it roared toward Han as more electricity built up around him to the point where he was glowing with overcharged mana particles.

    "Dina!" Usami''s arms trembled, and blood dripped from her nose as windows popped up across her field of view constantly warning her.

    "Just a bit longer, Usami!" Dina shouted as she tried remaining focused from above them.

    [Mana: 400/9000-]

    [320/19,000]

    [120/19,000]

    [20/19,000]

    [Mana depleted, you are overwhelmed]

    [Skill maniption is still active, you have no mana, calcting consequences]

    "Usami that is enough!" Morn saw her eyes water and her heard her breathing be haphazard. "Let go!"

    "Just a bit more!" Usami ground her teeth as her legs started shaking and sweat poured from her skin. "I can do this!"

    "Don''t force yourself when you''ve reached your limits, you will die!"

    "I won''t!" Usami breathed heavily and fell to one knee. "I can''t, not yet!"

    "Let g-" Morn approached her intent on stopping her, but a white [healing Arrow]nded right at his feet as Idria came running over anding to a halt right next to Usami.

    "Keep it still, from that range, if you let it go... Han, Bruce, and Kris will immediately die!" She ced her hand on Usami''s back. [Recovery heal]

    [Mana transfer]

    Usami felt her strength return like a well being filled.

    [*You levelled up!]

    [Mana: 12,000/12,000 (+1000)]

    [Level 98: (new Spear maniption avable!)]

    "Thank you!" Usami stood again and sped her fists together. "This is exactly what I needed!"

    [Spear maniption: caged bird]

    From the air around the corrupted eldritch dragon another dozen spears appeared  crashing diagonally around it and holding it firmly by the legs and tail.

    "It''s ready!" Han called to the two who were both bloodied and exhausted from blocking the attacks while he prepared his skill.

    "Let''s go!" Kris and Bruce nodded to each other and threw their shields over their backs, facing each other with their eyes on the eldritch that was now above them staring down in irritation and roaring as it was unable to strike.

    [Combined skill: Mountain splitter]

    "URAAAAH!!"

    The two tanks swung their greatswords simultaneously, creating a pair of thin mana arcs that fed from each other as they quickly grew to the size of the monster, crashing against its face and sending it''s head upward with a snap.

    [Sword Dance: Form 3-]

    Han''s mana erupted from inside of him creating a massive humanoid bull made of lightning and mana. "Taurus!" Han screamed as the creature of lightning raced forward pass Bruce and Han and crashed into the eldritch fiend, grabbing it by the head and further bending it''s head in a chokehold and dropping it like a wrestler with a roar to the skies.

    "That''s my queue," Ikaris who was floating with her divinity at a safe distance out of the range of the eldritch with Lyra holding on to her began descending.

    "It is unfortunate that I am unable to utilize more powerful magic, as soon as I have time I will fix this w!" Ikaris ground her teeth as she began releasing her mana.

    [Mana 88/93k]

    [Combined skill: Cross Impact]

    She put all of her Arkadian mana into the attack, unleashing it with a roar while Lyra on her back activated her skill.

    [Special Skill: Mana Multiplication]

    Ikaris watched as her [cross impact] multiplied from one to a dozen and grew significantlyrger.

    "Here ites!" Bruce and Kris grabbed Han who was unable to move after his [Taurus] and started running as fast as they could, needless to say; they still weren''t far enough by the time the attacks collided into the back of the dragon, the incineration that it created as that ball of white fire erupted into the air like a nuke and sent everyone flying with second and third degree burns, including Ikaris and Lyra who were directly above it.

    But then a momentter, despite the burns they were all suddenly suspended in the air next to Sol who was watching from behind A and the others in the back.

    "Master!" Ikaris looked up at Sol who was smiling proudly at her before he snapped his fingers and they all fell to the ground.

    "It''s about to be over," Sol extended his hand to Ikaris while Eris rushed over to everyone and began healing the burns.

    "Sir," Sara appeared from Sol''s shadows just as Ikaris stood and looked around at the final act of their coordinated attacks which was all a decoy to buy time for Dina. "You truly did not raise a finger,"

    [Arcane beam active]

    [Radiation beam active]

    [Cosmic mana has umted]

    [Conditions have been met, you have set foot amongst the cosmos once more]

    [Magicbination:]

    Dina made a pyramid with her fingers staring through the middle and locking her sights on the corrupted eldritch dragon as it roared in pain after having its skin burnt and it''s tendrils all incinerated by Ikaris and Lyra''s attack.

    "I will admit it, that is a praise-worthy skill, even amongst the heavens," Ikaris stared at Dina''s magical fluctuations as she saw the divine skill manifest as Sol had described it before. "If that is the power that has surpassed my present self, I feel no shame."

    [Mana: 80/82k]

    The winds quieted, and Dina was captured in a brilliant light as her skill was unleashed.

    "Pulsar!"

    Mana: 12/82k]

    The forest before thempletely vanished, and with it the entirety of the [corrupted eldritch dragon] was vapourised leaving a ten mile long canyon of molten ground, it happened in a sh, but the light itself could be seen from the moons of Arkadia, and the gods all watched this disy with awe, such was the power of the mage hero, now the strongest of the heroes, and the most powerful mage on Arkadia.

    "Well done," Ikaris snapped her fingers, and Dina''s fall to the ground slowed down as she was epassed in a cocoon of white mana.

 Chapter 59: Insatiable Lust after Victory. (18+)

    The notification came with a bitter revtion.

    [You have killed a high level demonkin]

    [You have gained 5 levels]

    5 levels.

    And that was it; no special reward, no pat on the back, all they received from killing the Corrupted beast was five levels, which was negligible since most of them could gain that much by killing an excess of 500 low level demonkin, which they now knew was far easier, so it didn''t feel like any aplishment. Especially with the earlier deaths that evening.

    "Dina, are you sure you don''t want at least a small vial?" Eris asked her fellow heroter that night while the heroes aside from Ikaris sat around a campfire inside of their designated tent, unlike the first time; Dina''s magic had beenpletely sapped away, and she was regaining mana but it was a slow process.

    "I''m fine," She replied, unlike the first time as well, the atmosphere amongst the heroes and the encampment on a whole was gloomy, because of the sudden death of the general and a few dozen other known and respected individuals he kept close to him as his aides.

    Everyone else had gained levels and so their mana had been restored to maximum, but because of Dina''s drawback from using [pulsar] her mana had stayed drained even though she also gained. "Where did Sol and Ikaris go?" Dina asked after a few minutes of psed silence between everyone.

    "Where else?" Han responded, and saw Dina''s expression soften and her cheeks go mellow as she recognised what he was talking about. "You''re always asking about them, you ask about their whereabouts every time you get a chance to, you basically stalk the two of them, you should know by now that every time anything happens Ikaris will always  leave us for Sol''s side to-"

    "Well, he IS her master, after all, were you expecting an invite, Han?" Bruce huffed jokingly, and Eris chuckled to his reply, but it was only that; a chuckle.

    The atmosphere was too dampening for any cheerfulness tost.

    "Ugh," Dina slumped and hugged her knees, listening to the sound of fresh raindrops tapping against their tent. "The general died... does that mean the mission is over again?" She asked. "The army came back, but everyone is in such low spirits that... I can''t imagine them fighting anymore; I know we won but I don''t even want to fight either, not really."

    "Excuse me," A''s voice sounded from the outside, and all five heroes perked up.

    "Yes?" Han asked, staring at the entrance as her hand pushed the opening apart and she entered with a nod to them.

    "Dina?" A looked at her pupil surprised. "I told you to rest."

    "I can''t," Dina slightly raised her head and then dropped her forehead against her legs again, and A watched her ears slightly redden and slow puffs of steam escape her head. "I felt like I needed some kind of reward, I guess," She mumbled through her legs.

    "Aha~" A nodded, remembering that as soon as the fight was over Sol and Ikaris had been locked in conversation, and with all their injuries and burns healed by Eris he hadn''t even spared a nce to anyone aside from her before they both took off. "-but that is to be expected," A continued her thoughts out loud.

    "the master and his mistress only ever see each other," She mumbled resting her hand on Dina''s shoulder, fully understanding the feeling.

    "Did you alsoe here expecting to find Vestic?"  Han looked up at A as she removed her hat to allow the rainwater to drip from it.

    "No, I came to check up on you lot, you did well tonight, I am proud of you all," She smiled solemnly at them. "Also, I have already contacted her majesty, and sent general Grim''s remains back to Argom through a circle, as of right now I am responsible for the demon subjugation army''s advance unit, and her majesty has ordered that we continue to the great barrier and repair it at all costs.

    "So, no reinforcement?" Usami spoke up.

    "In light of the Eldritch incident, it''s clear that every moment we dy is another opportunity for the demons to push further into our territory, we need to raise that barrier as soon as possible to re-establish contact with the capital, I also suggested that we leave a small group behind at each outpost to keep watch in seven-day shifts; with our recent advancement in teleportation runes and circles changing shifts is a mere form away so it is a good idea, that way if something simr happens in the future we will be warned and prepared beforehand, I already have a few people in mind-"

    "Why are you telling us all this?" Usami asked, confused.

    "This time the battle was won because you; the heroes showed tenacity and willfulness in the face of an overpowering adversary, it is thanks to you that the army is still intact, I am merely doing my job by reporting to you.

    Even if I or someone else became general, Argom values your presence more than anything else, so I answer to the queen first, and then the heroes, that is the rank you possess." She gestured to them.

    "Oh..."

    "Are you sure this is how you want to be rewarded?" Sol asked, staring at Ikaris''s raised ass slowly swerving before him as sheid with her breasts pressed into the bed in their room back in Argom, she couldn''t answer though, her mouth was gagged, her arms were bound together to her back using the japanese shibari knot, and her eyes were blindfolded.

    "Breeg wuwuug mu mahker (please reward me master)" Ikaris continued swaying her ass expectantly while Sol took his sweet time building the tension with his mana-coated palm hovering above her.

    "Fine, but I do love hearing your moans though," Sol pressed one hand in her back forcing her into the bed even more as he reached and undid the knot on the back of her head, causing the gag to fall out of her mouth.

    Her ve sigils all pulsated violently, and her heavy breath released raw puffs of magic as she was in an intense and nearly overwhelming state of heat and lust, for thest hour or so, Sol had done nothing but y with her, keeping her at the edge of her climax for his own amusement, he had hesitated for the next part, but seeing the expectation in her bodynguage and the way she flinched with every minute move he made, Solmitted to his role.

    "M-Master- ah!" Ikaris flinched again when Sol''s hand came down on her ass sending an echo across the room. Her fingers spread and knotted along with her toes, and her breathing quickened as she felt the residual magic from his hand prate her skin and suck mana from deep within her; her body glowed, and her hair grew in length along with her ears.

    "W-Wait, my appearance -Ah!" Ikaris flinched and shook again when Sol''s hand fell across her raised ass a second time sending mana rushing through her body as juices flowed down the insides of her legs.

    [Activating pulse (minor)]

    Ikaris''s mouth hung open lewdly as she tried moving to see behind her despite the folds over her eyes, but a momentter she felt Sol''s hand on her asscheek, and felt intense heat from his palm as he squeezed into her flesh and growled like a beast behind her, she began whimpering and shaking uncontrobly when she was very slowly entered.

    "Ah~ hnnn-master~" Ikaris softly cried, "Please... Gently~" She tried requesting, but jolted in shock when Sol mmed his hips against her ass. Her voice gave out, and her legs quivered while her brain lost the capacity to make rational decisions as she was roughly driven into with the tenacity of a devil.

    "I''ve thought about this for a while now, Ikaris," Sol pulled on her bindings and raised her head, whispering in her ear as his divinity passively activated because of her divinity trying to suppress him.

    "I''m not going to hold back this time, and don''t even think of passing out like thest time either; tonight I''m going to break you, mind and body!" He sunk his fist in her hair and pulled her onto himself causing her to scream out and shake against him as his entire body exuded heat onto and into her.

    "Ugh," Aid in her tent staring at the roof with a vacant expression as the rain beat against it. "Responsibilities of beingmander now rest on my small shoulders..." She groaned in annoyance, her blouse was opened down the middle, revealing most of her breasts to the cool air, and her shorts were barely hanging on to her hips again while her legs were raised.

    "Oh how I wish I could spend the night in his embrace like you can, True Goddess Ikaris," she stared at the ceiling with aplicated smile.

    "The man who became a god after saving a goddess and gaining her love," A''s hand was stretched toward the side of her bed where she clung to her staff smiling as she saw the faint images of Sol and Ikaris''s confession the day after their retreat back to Argom, all the way up to the moment their memories of the conversation were erased.

    "How could I possibly gain your trust?" She asked, reaching down into her shorts and closing her eyes as her visions focused on Sol''s expression the moment before he erased their memories while her fingers foundfort and pleasure inside of her.

    The pure power and divinity he wielded, the power that turned a diety into his ything.

    She trembled as she stared at his face, his hands, his demeanor, his superiority and the way he held Ikaris like a man holding on to his most prized possession, unwilling to ever let go of her.

    "I also want to be... Hah~" A''s hips jerked, and she bit her lips expectantly as she drifted away into her own world.

    "How... master Vestic, how I wish you would hold me like you do her, how I pray to be dominated by your presence~"

 Chapter 60: Thief?

    Four days earlier, on the night Sol and Ikaris confessed and then erased the memories of everyone, A sat in her chambers, usually she would have cast a charm and prevented herself from sleeping as she worked on her magical forms and new alchemy in her study, but she found herself sitting and staring nkly for an hour in her estate; after Renia had asked it was bothering her, something truly had been amiss.

    Luckily for her, she was not alone, her staff was present, and while it did not carry sentience, it did carry memory, it held special magic inside of it that stored fragments of  memory for whomever held it, so the moment she was sure she had been manipted, she went to work extracting those memories, it took her an entire day, so she was only truly aware on the same night after the heroes challenged Sol.

    The information she received after using all her knowledge of memory spells and alchemy was invaluable; Sol had been summoned twice, he had already defeated a demon god after spending ten years locked in perpetualbat, he was scarred and broken beyond any soldier she had ever seen, and he attained godhood while still being human, or as he made it seem, he was bullying the gods at his leisure.

    And Ikaris was a literal goddess from another dimension who had fallen in love with him, not by name, but in the true sense, it was beyond fascinating, it was impossible, but he had done it anyway, which exined a lot of the things she had seen and heard from them; the first being a strange symbiosis she had noticed among other things.

    "I''ll have to keep this to myself," She hadmented as soon as she was privy to this sensitive information: Sol Vestic, the [Tarnished] and Ikaris or [True Goddess Ikaris] as the system called her, she didn''t know if she''d die if they found out or if they would just erase her memories again, so she already had countermeasures in the form of a [mimic puppet] in ce, a golem-like creature which held all her memories and her personality, if anything happened to her the creature would activate and hide away, andter try to use alchemy to revive or save her somehow.

    She was fascinated, frightened, and tempted by his existence.

    As A sat under the patter of raindrops in her tent reflecting on the incident she smiled, heaving after her fantasies had drowned out her grief for the time being.

    "Maybe, someday," She blushed and released a huff of her blue mana from her nostrils. "Maybe..." She pulled her sheets over her shoulder and hugged her staff, creating a small shield around herself as she drifted off into slumber.

    "Master," Ikaris snuggled against Sol''s chest. "Master, wake up," She closed her eyes as his arms tightened around her. "We have to go."

    "A few more minutes," Sol groaned and tried squeezing her tighter, but she bit him with a chuckle deep in her throat causing him to sigh and open his eyes. "I was having a decent dream this time," Sol sat up, smiling at her.

    "How are you feeling?" Sol stared down at Ikaris, unlike him who was wearing nothing at all, she was covered in a transparent nightgown, which only served to make her more attractive in his eyes as shezily reached above her head and raised her torso in a stretch to wash away her fatigue.

    "Master was so rough," She pouted sitting up and wiping her eyes. "I never expected that you could be so ravenous, I am sore, master," Ikaris admitted reaching down and cing her hand over her abdomen. "You did things to me I had never even imagined, I had to voice my utter satisfaction, the most physical pleasure I have ever endured." She smiled humbly.

    "Let''s-" Sol was about to suggest they start getting ready when someone knocked on the door.

    He hugged Ikaris in the sheets and pulled her into hisp. "Yes, Sara?"

    "Good morning Sir, Mdy, the army should be on the move soon, please eat before we depart." Sara entered with a trey of fresh food and a curtsey, Sol couldn''t help but notice the bright blush on the woman''s face as she approached them and skillfully ced the trey on the bed in front of Ikaris.

    "Say, how loud were youst night?" Sol looked down at Ikaris in hisp who grabbed the first piece of warm bread and dipped it in the sauce and began eating it without abandon. He couldn''t recall anything but her voice.

    "A loch (a lot)" Ikaris answered, looking around at him with sauce on her face and a mouth full of food. "Mashkur wash wuff (master was rough)" She chuckled, and again Sol noticed Sara''s face redden. "I couldn''t hold my voice."

    "It was delight beyond my wildest expectations!" Ikaris swallowed her food and gave Sol the universal "Ok" sign with her free hand before turning to her food and devouring like a starving animal.

    "After another thirty minutes of going through the motions, the two finally readied and left with Sara''s magic, appearing in their tent where to their shock they found Dina standing with her head hung and her arms folded while her boots tapped the ground impatiently.

    "Please," Dina ground her teeth. "If you n to disappear, please let someone know at the very least, I searched the entire camp!" She snapped at the two, and while Sol didn''t care enough to respond, Ikaris gave Dina a disgusted re and peeled her lip into a frown.

    "One does not just casually tell everyone when they are going to get their brains fucked out do they?" She asked, approaching and standing before Dina with a raised brow. "Why do you care so much what Master and I are up to?" Ikaris asked while Sara gave Dina a bow as greeting.

    "You''re a part of the heroes'' party aren''t you, do you expect me to ignore your presence all the time just because we don''t get along?" Dina stood her ground and ced her hands on her hips while her eyes wandered over Ikaris''s shoulder to Sol. "We had a meetingst night and you were supposed to be there-"

    "-Eris always fills me in whenever I need to know something, and my knowledge of whatever doesn''t matter either way, I act independently in case you have forgotten!" Ikaris countered and mmed her forehead into Dina''s causing the mage to reel back in shock and pain. "You have gotten brazen again, I should-"

    "Oi, Ikaris," Sol caught her hand before she could punch Dina''s face in. "Be nicer to her, she''s only concerned about your well-being," He looked at Dina who staggered and almost fell as blood dripped down her nose.

    "Fuck!" Dina snapped at tears welled up in her eyes. "You''re impossible to deal with!" She eximed, casting [minor heal] on herself to stop the bleeding. "We''re leaving in a few minutes, get out so the people can do their jobs!" She spun on her heels and stomped out of the  tent, leaving Ikaris fuming and Sol staring at her confused.

    "Why did it have to be you of all people!?" They heard her raging outside as her voice faded with distance.

    "What''s gotten into you all of a sudden?" Sol asked.

    "Is it not obvious enough without me saying it?" Ikaris stared at him, still upset after her interaction with Dina.

    "Eh?"

    "Sir, for all the power you have, and being so self aware; you are sometimes very dense," Sara shook her head and gestured to the exit.

    "Hm," Sol stared at Ikaris with a raised brow, and she lowered her head at his gaze and extended her hand toward him.

    "Master, you are as impossible as ever," She took his hand and pulled him along.

    "What happened?" Eris came walking toward them as soon as they were out of the tent. "Where were the two of..." She paused in her stride and stared at the bloodstaing on Ikaris''s forehead, remembering immediately that Dina was bleeding. "Ikaris~" She approached and pulled her away from Sol with sisterly care.

    "You should stop attacking people when you don''t get along with them," She chastised her, casting [heal] on her forehead as well, but Ikaris pulled her hand away and pushed Eris''s hand.

    "I am fine, Eris." She grumbled. "Do not expect me to befriend or get along with that thief."

    "Thief, what''s there to steal?" Eris asked shocked, and then looked at Sol and sighed; Sol was the only topic that Ikaris showed true passion over, she was especially sensitive about him when it came to the other women around her and how nonchntly he handled their presence.

    "I doubt Dina would... right?" Eris too was at a loss of words when Ikaris''s words made more and more sense as she thought about how Dina behaved. "Huh?!" She snapped. "It''s so obvious that I never noticed," She pped her fist in her palm. "But, you don''t need to worry about that either," She slung her hand over Ikaris''s shoulder with a grin. "He''s too dense to let it happen,"

    "Dense..." Sol held a deadpan as he stared at the dynamic between Ikaris and Eris, andpared it with how she treated everyone else.

    "Well, whatever," He summoned his usual light armour over his clothes and called his horse with a whistle. "I''ll leave you to your duties," He waved at them and then wandered off into the camp with Sara bowing to them and following after him.

    "Ugh," Ikaris watched Sol leave. "Master."

    "Are you sure you are okay?" Eris asked her, watching her hand gently run across her abdomen and noticing her slouch.

    "I''m just a bit oversensitive right now... and sore," Ikaris chuckled mischievously and watched Eris''s face turn red as her blood rushed to her head like a boiler.

    "L-lets go meet up with the others, there were a few changes to the nsst night too so I''ll go over them while we''re en route." Eris adjusted her sses, and turned her gaze.

    "Hehe sure."

 Chapter 61: A Perverted God.

    The rainy night had passed, making way for a partly overcast day as the advance army moved forward, although their mood was glim and their spirits low; they moved with the same energy they always did taking one step at a time.

    "I overheard someone saying that there''s a chance that the generals'' position is going to be indefinitely filled bydy A," Eris  brought up a topic, and listened in the carriage for an answer, but nobody uttered a word, Usami as usual was in her own world, Han and Bruce were never that talkative to begin with, Dina had her eyes trained outside with a downcast and depressed aura around her, and Ikaris was oddly enough staring at Dina with an unreadable expression and not minding anything else.

    "Ahem," Eris cleared her throat awkwardly and turned to her window again, that was her third failed attempt at bringing up a topic. "Never mind, then..." She adjusted her sses and folded her arms.

    "I wonder if this is okay," Sol stared at the window before himself, after the Diablos incident his challenges had declined to barely any, and after he rejected Ashera''s challenge, there had been a period of silence, but once again, he was staring at a list of challenges issued overnight, two such being the goddess of Beasts again, as well as the god of time; again he was recieving attention from two of the most powerful gods of Arkadia, both of which he didn''t know enough about.

    "Sara, what do you know of the goddess of Beasts?"

    "Ashera?" Sara answered him. "Well, she is quite the enigma amongst the gods, from what I know through the royal libraries." She took on a thoughtful face while she sat behind him on his horse with both her legs on one side like a maiden. "From what I have read, it is said that the goddess of Beasts shares no empathy and is almost as war-crazed as Dr''ul, goddess of war."

    "Really?" Sol raised a brow.

    "I have no way to confirm these tales, but it is written that there was once a time where Ashera descended for the thrill of fights, taking the form of various beasts and battling the most powerful creatures of myth; she challenged one beast every hundred or so years for several thousand years before the strongest had all been defeated." She tapped her chin.

    "Records have her defeating a dragon king, an eldritch god, and Leviathan, the king of the deep..." She trailed off and stared at Sol''s head as he turned to look at her through his peripheral.

    "She is one of the Seven, and one of the most popr amongst all the gods, she has different monuments all across Arkadia from her many descents, but by far her most famous is her humanoid appearance in Argom which she used when she was challenged by Diablos.

    "Diablos?" Sol''s mood turned sour at the mention of that scheming lizard. "She fought him?"

    "Yes, the legends say Diablos was unsatisfied with being subservient to the goddess of beasts, and he challenged her out of spite and greed for her throne, the tale goes; their battle was over in the blink of an eye, and he was cast from the sky and his wings torn from his back as punishment for his avarice, and he was cursed by the goddess of Beasts to never again ascend into the high heavens, he was rejected by his progenitor to roam amongst lesser gods and demigods for the rest of his existence for even daring to cover her throne."

    "Hm," Sol straightened his posture. "Interesting." He mumbled. "Diablos was one-shot by Ashera when he was stronger..."

    [Your challenge has been rejected!]

    Ashera saw the message and cursed under her breath, while Dr''ul at her sideughed at her expressive displeasure.

    [Why do you mock me?] Ashera stood from her perch and shook her fist at Dr''ul. [I am being humiliated by this rodent and it is making me consider foregoing the entire process and attack him without restraint!]

    [I forbid it!] Dr''ul sat forward immediately, and all her humour dried up in an instant. [I absolutely forbid you or anyone else from attacking that man without a proper challenge, I gave my word and swore it on the gods!] She gestured to herself. [Honour the agreement between warriors, he will ept your challenge in his own time, when he is ready, or maybe never, but it is his choice to make]

    [It is taking too long, I do not possess the same patience as you-]

    [Ashera]  Dr''ul lowered her tone and took a serious expression when her sister made an attempt to tear the space before her. [Stay your hand.] She ordered her, and the goddess of Beasts felt the throne room tremble.

    [I-]

    [Do not provoke me into spiteful action, sister.] Dr''ul''s eyes burned crimson, and her hair caught ame. [I will not repeat myself.] Dr''ul threatened her, and Ashera narrowed her eyes and took a step away from Dr''ul as her ws began growing out and her lips peeled back revealing sharp shark-like teeth in her mouth as a trickle of sweat appeared on her forehead.

    [You two, stop it] A male''s voice intruded Dr''ul''s domain, and her and Ashera looked over as a regr gate appeared.

    [What brings you here?] Dr''ul calmed down, as did Ashera as they stared at his approach with curiosity.

    His eyes were a dark void filled with stars, and his voice carried echoes with it, he had six arms allzily swaying as he stepped, and a tail coiled behind him like a spring, all covered in greyish-blue skin.

    [I just wanted to talk a little, the appearance of Ikaris and Sol Vestic has sparked the heavens into a lively ce again, so I am intrigued] he answered with a yawn, raising one of his hands and tapping one of the two tusks that grew from his mouth. [Ashera, do not descend unless he epts your challenge, it was agreed upon by the entire pantheon]

    [You too?] Ashera saw the team-up and growled in annoyance. [Why are we the gods abiding by the rules of a human?] She asked exasperated.

    [A game can only function if both sides abide by the rules little sister, if we break those rules again, we might lose our source of entertainment, not to mention, If Ikaris deems it a threat to her master, and the challenges which deter her have been vited further, we have no idea how she will act, whether she will target a single god, or the entire pantheon] He extended all six of his long thin arms in a gesture of "here".

    [Do you understand?]

    [Not really, no] Ashera scratched her head. [If all you want is entertainment, S''mael, then I do not understand at all, I never understand what goes on in that bald head of yours] She admitted and he clicked his tongue and chuckled. [I only wish to fight and test his might!]

    [I want to fight him too, do not be fooled, but Like Dr''ul I am far more eager and far more restrained, I am letting the tension build until it reaches a point where my mind and body are in a state of peace, where I canfortably and fully enjoy the experience!] He bore his fangs and sped his fists.

    [He is a being I respect, both from his actions and his titles; Tarnished, Godyer, and even his demon god transformation on a whole, I want to experience each one of these unique powers for myself, I want to see his destruction unfold, to feel with my own body his power!

    But, I do not want to fight a battle to the death, he is far too fun to die, I want to enjoy the fight and possibly fight him again multiple times!]

    [Alert]

    [The god of destruction is showing a disgusting amount of interest in you]

    The system warned Sol and he choked on the water he was drinking and leaned forward coughing and pping his leg.

    "Sir!" Sara knelt next to him and rested her hand on his back. "What happened?"

    "Something ...annoying," Sol continued choking for a few more seconds before he regainedposure.

    "Disgusting amount?" Sol felt the god''s eyes on his form and felt his skin crawl.

    *Thump

    "Oh'' Ikaris, my dear Ikaris, please shield me from the gaze of this hideous creature, I am a pure man; an untouched man, I do not want to be the ything of a pervert, shine your blessing upon my unsullied self and save me!" Sol sped his hands in prayer as his forehead went blue.

    [P-pervert!?] S''mael shook from shock while Dr''ul and Ashera burst outughing hysterically from his reaction. [He calls me pervert!?]

    "Master?" Ikaris seemed to appear at Sol''s side after she felt her divinity seeking him out passively.

    "Goodness me, that worked?" Sara jolted from Ikaris''s sudden appearance.

    "Ikaris~" Sol''s eyes watered as he reached for her hand dramatically, but then he froze with a stare over her shoulder when he saw more golden windows pop up.

    [The god of stories challenges you]

    [The god of time challenges you]

    [A certain god of creation challenges you]

    [You are being ridiculed as unfair by the god of destruction]

    [The goddess of love is interested in a challenge]

    [The god of goats is staring in disbelief]

    [The pantheon is shocked that your prayers work within their realm]

    [True Goddess Ikaris is shielding you from the lecherous gaze of the god of destruction]

    "Oh," Sol looked at thest windows with his lips turned up into a smile. "What''s this, there was such a god here too?"

    [The goddess of Fauna challenges you]

    [The god of speed beckons a race]

    [The goddess of sins is interested in a duel]

 Chapter 62: Battleground of the Gods.

    "Did something happen?" Sara queried when she saw Ikaris take Sol into a hug after he froze. "Sir, Mdy?"

    [The god of stories is paying keen attention to this next interaction specifically]

    "Are you... nning on disappearing again?" Eris approached, and with her came A and Dina. "I''m sorry to say this now of all times when it looks like you''re sharing an intimate moment, but you can''t go right now," She stared at Ikaris who slowly raised her head from Sol''s chest and turned to look at them.

    "Are you trying to order me around?" Ikaris asked as soon as her eyesnded on Eris.

    "I''m not, I''m telling you that you can''t leave right now, there''s a lot we have to go over, and once we leave here we will be constantly engaging the demonkin until we''re at the barrier, we need you, Ikaris,"

    "Master Vestic, do you mind giving us a moment, please?" A spoke up, and while she was speaking Han and the others as well as the captains and a few other lieutenants and leaders came.

    "Are you asking me to decide between master and-"

    "Ikaris," Sol yfully dropped his palm on her head, silencing her with a smile. "I thought you said you wanted to save them." He argued, and A''s eyes slowly widened while the others shared looks of confusion.

    "What is your goal here, what does that free will of yours desire?" Sol asked, watching his goddess show confliction in her thoughts as she was forced to choose between him who needed no help, and the people who were in desperate need of saving.

    "Master..." Ikaris held her head as her sigils pulsated across her skin. "I..." She breathed heavily and took deep breaths. "Ugh..." She held her head again when her confliction started bing a headache.

    "Why is it so hard for-" Dina tried speaking but Sol raised his hand toward her, silencing her too as his gaze stayed locked to Ikaris.

    "Choose, Ikaris." Sol ordered her and she balled her fists and averted her gaze from him, biting her lip and cursing in her mind.

    "I still want to... save them," Ikaris answered, as a trickle of sweat rolled down her cleavage. "I... want to be a hero."

    "Is that your will?" Sol asked with a smile, and Ikaris looked up at him with expectant eyes, void of her usual cynicism and strong personality, she seemed apologetic.

    "I''m sorry master, I chose something other than you for the first time," Tears appeared at the corners of her eyes, but Sol only smiled at her as he cupped her cheeks and kissed her.

    "I''m sorry..."

    "Don''t be sorry, it''s not free will if you only do what I want," Sol took a step away from her and watched her slowly back away toward the others.

    "I don''t see what the big deal here is," Bruce had his brows raised to the clouds as he tried understanding what was happening.

    "Shut up, don''t ruin it." Usami elbowed him in his side.

    "Thank you, for believing in me, master," Ikaris bowed to Sol smiling as his response had put her at ease that she had not made a mistake. "Thank you."

    "Get going now, you have a world to save, Hero." Sol waved at her onest time before he turned his back and began walking in the opposite direction.

    [True Goddess Ikaris vows to make you proud]

    Sol saw the message and chuckled.

    "I''m already beaming with pride, though." He smiled and looked at the challenges again as they continued to pour in.

    [The god of stories has recorded this event as canon]

    [The god of stories smiles fondly at proper character development]

    [The goddess of love is in tears at this heartfelt moment]

    "Stop it already." Sol grabbed one system window and smacked the others away with it, and then looked at it with a grin.

    [Will you ept this challenge?]

    [The god of speed is estatic and eager to prove himself to his pantheon]

    "Ahem," Sol cleared his throat and tossed the window back into the air. "Wrong one," He chuckled.

    [The god of speed is speechless]

    "If it''s not a fight, I''m not interested." Sol admitted as he vanished from the camp in an eruption of lightning, appearing a distance away with his full armour equipped and a half helmet covering his lower face with arge cape over his back and one shoulder.

    [Will you ept this duel?]

    [ept] Sol nodded, and his vision blurred when he was whisked away by the system''s power.

    [The Tarnished has epted the challenge of the Goddess of Sins, calcting venue, preparing rules, calcting appropriate rewards]

    "I am excited," Sol had a monotonous stare as he checked his armour and patted his helmet, unlike the other gods, he was interested in the goddess of sins since first finding out about her existence.

    "Usually gods are the opposite, but there is an entire god and religion dedicated to sin, that''s interesting." He said again, kicking the small rocks beneath his feet as a portal appeared before him, he recognised thisndscape, it was the first moon of Arkadia, D''ol; the battleground of the gods.

    "The goddess of sins, we do not know a lot about her," Sara responded when sol had asked; it was a few days after the heroes were summoned, he came across her mention in a random book in the library under the castle.

    "It is said that she uses some of the most bizarre divine magic of all the pantheon, unlike the other gods who specialize in a single field and are omnipotent, the goddess of sins has seven different personalities, seven different types of divine magic, and seven different faces for each of them."

    "This has me way too excited," Sol''s eyes turned and he smiled under the mask as he saw a foot exit the portal. "I can barely contain myself!" He eximed, summoning and mming his Warhammer against the ground as the cape flew off his shoulders revealing the full detail of his golden armour with the crest of a dragon''s skull on the back.

    "Ugh, I was hoping you would choose someone else, challenging you was a pain in the ass~" A slender female stepped through the portal and it closed behind her.

    [Saat: Goddess of sin]

    Sol stared at her as the window briefly appeared and then vanished.

    [Rule: Deadly force is encouraged, there is no penalty for killing each other]

    [The duel does not stop until one party concedes or is incapable of fighting]

    [Reward: The loser of the fight will be the permanent ve of the victor as their reward, rechallenges for their freedom are prohibited]

    [What?] Dr''ul stared at the information in surprise. [That is asking too much!]

    ... [Outrage]

    "How dare you!!?" Ikaris snapped when she was in the middle of the heroes'' meeting frightening everyone when her magic vapourised the tent they were under and caught several other tents aze with white fire. "I won''t ept this, you ...!" She ground her teeth and was on the verge of using her divinity when a notification popped up before her.

    [The Godyer alerts you to remain calm]

    "Master," Ikaris withdrew her magic and stared at the notification.

    "What the actual fuck is your problem!?" Dina screamed after almost suffering a heart-attack as her and the others were sent flying. "You nearly killed me!" Dina snapped again.

    "Dina wait," A approached Ikaris first and grabbed her hands when she showed signs of losing control a second time.

    "Ikaris, I do not know what is happening on your Master''s end, but I know he is currently missing and that you two share a bond beyond space and time," A stared her in her eyes. "Whatever he''s doing, he''ll never lose, this is all a game for him, please keep that in mind."

    Ikaris stared at A, and realised in an instant that this woman was still privy to her secrets despite having her memories erased, her expression turned from shock to hostility.

    "I have many questions I wish to ask you, little elf-ling," Ikaris mumbled so just A could hear, and she reclined from before her with her head lowered and nodded, watching as Ikaris''s feet made contact with the ground again.

    "Naturally, I will answer truthfully," A raised her head with a nervous smile and waved her staff, putting out the fires and casting [restore] on the surroundings causing everything to revert back to their original position and appearances.

    "What the hell was that?" Eris stepped in through the entrance staring at Ikaris worried. "You just exploded out of nowhere, I never thought you were so passionate about meat." She made mention of thest thing they had said before Ikaris snapped.

    "Sorry," Ikaris took her seat around the table, closing one of her eyes again and resting her head with an exhausted expression as she watched through the system. "Please continue."

    Renia who had been missing and recovering ever since she faced Ikaris was seated in the presence of the princess of Argom who was speaking in her left ear while she watched and listened with her right eye and ear. [I was going to ignore the details of this fight, but Saat went and made it personal, I don''t think Ikaris will be willing to listen to reason if the demands are too outrageous.]

    "Are you listening?" Da asked.

    "Ah-yes, my apologies princess, I understand that you want the very best choice of a mate for Ikaris, but I am afraid you have it all backwards."

    "Backwards?" The princess raised a brow as she thought about Sol and frowned in disgust again.

    "I do not believe so, that man is a stain on this castle and the Hero Ikaris, I need your help to get rid of him; The crimson household is famous for their powerhouses, and many eyewitness ounts state that you are on par with the heroes'' strength, and that you are close to Sol Vestic, so it is not asking too much that you simply take him away, I do not care how, a spouse or a ve does not matter as long as you make it happen."

    The princess was still up to her usual antics.

 Chapter 63: Sol vs. Saat; Goddess of Sin.

    "Um... No." Renia raised her hands in defeat and shook her head. "I do not want to do that, I would never betray master Vestic, and I would die if I did that to Lady Ikaris-"

    "I am saying I will do everything in my power to cover your tracks, I would protect you, think carefully before you make any rash decisions!" The princess adamantly persisted.

    "No."

    "But-"

    "I said no," Renia gave Da a side nce with her brows furrowed.

    "How exactly do you think the world works, your highness, do you honestly think money in this warring and shrinking world amounts to anything, do you think that having the title of princess grants you the right to make demands of any and everyone and to dictate who someone chooses to spend the time and life with?" She asked putting the girl in a state of shock at how she was being scolded.

    "I refuse to, nay, I would never even dream of it, whatever the reason, I do not care much, Ikaris and Sol are beautiful together, they are each others'' strengths and cornerstones, to tear them apart would be to end the world for them and everyone else."

    " I do not expect you to understand what love is, you are young, and by this conversation you are extremely na?ve." Renia gathered her robes and stood.

    "The next time you interact with Ikaris ask her this: ''What is Sol Vestic to you, and why did you choose him'', and watch her eyes light up, watch her cheeks flush and listen to her praises of that man, who in their right mind would try taking her entire world, are you not supposed to be looking out for her best interests?"

    Renia took several steps away from the dumbfounded princess and opened a gate through the wall leading to the advance army. "Please excuse me, your highness." She gave her a small nod and stomped through without looking back.

    "I do not understand," Da Vermon raised her hand and pressed her palm against her forehead, leaning back in her seat and stretching her legs in a very un-princess like manner.

    "First A refuses to break them apart, Dina showed no confidence in doing it, and Eris along with Usami both im that they consider Sol to be some kind of rtive rather than a love interest and show no interest in breaking them apart.

    And that moron of an aide I paid and appointed to snatch her from the weakling is saying he wants to retire from the army and has already sent back the money, what the devil is happening here?"

    "Is Ikaris so scary that nobody dares to approach Sol Vestic?"

    [True Goddess Ikaris is heavily conflicted]

    [The goddess of war is staring intently at the two of you]

    [The god of destruction is curious]

    [The goddess of beasts is staring in frustration]

    [The goddess of love is sharing a tragic expression]

    [Saat, goddess of sin: Sloth]

    "ve... Hm?" Sol stared at the window. "And I can''t exactly back out either, a forefeit is considered a loss," He looked pass the window at Saat with a crooked smile that was slowly turning into a frown. "There''s no such thing as a just god in this world after all, the first challenge after hiatus is no better than a trap." He grimaced.

    [Godyer is active, divine mana is at 98%]

    She truly was a skinny woman, her cor and pelvic bones sharply poked at her shoddy dress, and her breasts were small and hung under her garments, her cheekbones were prominent in her face, and her limbs were barely thicker than a skeleton.

    She didn''t look like a god at all, she just looked like a tall malnourished woman.

    [You epted the challenge without the rules even being announced, who''s fault would that be man?" Saat askedzily scratching her messy hair.

    "I don''t have the energy right now, using sloth is the least taxing and helps me rx, with you around I could just use you to do whatever I want whenever I want, I''ll promote you to a pseudo-god right away so you can enter the heavens and visit me when I call-]

    "Are you saying you''ll win easily?" Sol asked narrowing his eyes.

    [You do not stand a cha-] Saat sucked in a breath of shock when she felt an oppressive force cling to her as Sol grabbed his hammer with one hand and turned sideways. [Did I imagine that?]

    "Ikaris-" Renia barged into the tent with her and the other heroes, just as they wrapped up the meeting.

    "Renia," Ikaris greeted her with a hand raised, not even looking her way as her eyes and ear were locked on the challenge. "I''ll only say this once, Renia." Ikaris balled her greeting hand into a fist while everyone tuned into her words to see what she was so bothered about.

    "If this turns into another betrayal, if I am unable to make sense of these ns, I''ll destroy everything, I''ll personally, destroy, everything." She continued watching.

    "I don''t stand a chance?"

    "That''s not for you to decide!" Sol took his first step toward the goddess, and a frame of a secondter she was folded around his hammer after he closed the distance and swung it.

    Sol realised three things in that instant; She was far stronger than Diablos and Psiko, she was a weird fighter, and his hammer was a wrong weapon choice.

    Sol watched the goddess staringzily as a single finger pressed against the hammer while she folded around it; that single finger was enough to prevent her from getting harmed as she used her much lighter weight to move at the same speed as his attack rendering it ineffective.

    [Ugh, why would you swing at me unannounced?] Saat spun under the hammer and stopped her momentum with a crooked pose. [I have to at least get ready so I do not use more power than I need to~] She smiled at him.

    "I''m being toyed with." Sol released the weight of his hammer and raised his left hand to his chest aiming his palm at her.

    [Fire-bolt]

    It was a simple fire-bolt attack, but with the divine amplification of [Godyer] active it expanded into a massiveet-like projectile as soon as it was cast, and Sol watched shocked as Saat raised a hand and swatted it upward with the most nonchnt gesture.

    "She''s ying with me!" Sol growled and released his hammerpletely.

    [Godspeed]

    He vanished from her sight for a brief moment, appearing at her side with a punch aimed at her ribcage but by the time his punch was halfway to her body Saat was already turned to him, staring at him with an annoyed expression.

    [GODSPEED...?]

    "What...?"

    It felt like slow motion, despite him using [godspeed] it still felt as if he was moving in slow motionpared to the speed she was moving after using the same skill.

    "This...!!"

    Sol''s face contorted in anguish when Saat mimicked his punch and delivered a blow to his side, smashing his armour in a single hit and sending him flying through several of the moon''s mountains in an uncontroble crash.

    "She just used [godspeed]!!" Sol finally righted himself, practically standing horizontally as he cast [regenerate] on himself and coughed up a mouthful of blood. "How did she use my skill...?"

    [You think you are strong, you are not] He heard her voice behind him and a momentter he lost his bnce again when she grabbed his leg and tossed him toward the ground. [You truly believed that a mere human could battle against the gods, how dare you?] Saat appeared next to Sol after hended on his feet, punching downwards at him.

    "Guhh!" Sol raised his hands and tanked the blow, but let out another pained cry when the muscles in both of his legs were suddenly torn by the unbearable weight of her hand, and his arms broke, not even on A had he ever felt this specific pain, it was a shock that woke him up.

    [Regenerate]!!

    Sol recovered as quickly as he was damaged and leapt outside of her reach.

    "Is the Tarnished retreating, are you ready to forfeit?" Saat asked straightening her back as herplexion started changing. [I have the honour of the pantheon to restore, I will not ept your shameless retreat!] She crackled her knuckles as her once skinny self rapidly underwent physical change.

    Her messy ck hairbed down neatly, her dead eyes became alive with golden divine light, and her figure fleshed out into the body of an athlete.

    "Run?" Solnded steadily on his reformed legs and shed the blood off his hands. "Me?" He asked.

    "Forfeit!?" Sol ground his teeth, seeing the new title of the goddess. "Just what the hell do you take me for?!"

    [Saat, goddess of sin: Pride]

    [You do not stand a chance mortal!] Saat took a single step and closed the distance, bypassing his defences again and grabbing him by his face. [GODSPEED] She took off, dragging Sol through the moon soil and smashing him into the ground repeatedly as she ran.

    [Clockwork]

    Saat''s movements slowed down to a crawl, and Sol reached for her hand and broke her fingers freeing his face and then stepping out of her reach and deactivating the technique.

    [What just happened?] Saat looked to her peripheral and tried turning but kept crashing after quickly realising that her legs were gone.

    "Let''s make this a fun battle!" Sol suddenly startedughing as he threw the legs of the goddess to the ground while she grew new ones and stood, confused.

    "If you''re going to ask, it''s called [clockwork], a technique I honed after learning spacial magic, it seals time and space to a specific ce giving me sovereign over the area.

    [How dare-]

    "I was about to say the same," Sol cut her off.

    "You''re trying to separate me from Ikaris, aren''t you even after what happened with Diablos?" Sol asked, staring at the goddess as she looked at her legs beside him.

    "I can''t think of anything else, a ve? Me?" He ground his teeth. "And to add insult to injury, you dare rely on something as shallow as pride to punish me, as if I''m some kind of weakling!?" Sol summoned a new set of light armour and approached the goddess punching upward while she exploded into action and punched downward.

    Their fists were supposed to connect, Saat was sure she felt her fist collide with Sol''s, but again it was only her who was sent spinning when his fist collided in her chin and threw her into the air.

    "Let me tell you, my pride far outweighs yours!" Sol grabbed her by her legs and spun in the air releasing her back to the ground.

    [Is he getting stronger?] Saat hit the ground and stared up in shock just a split second before Sol''s fist collided into her shocked face and her body contorted around him.

    "Come on," Sol raised his hand and blocked her sneak kick from her contorted body. "Let''s take this fight seriously, you made this personal so I''m gonna make sure to savour my victory and burn defeat into your mind for the rest of your existence!"

    [Godyer: 30m remaining]

    [Divine mana is at 70%]

 Chapter 64: An Eagle and a Cockroach.

    [Seriously you say?] Saat had Sol on the defensive again. The moon had seen better days, thanks to not being on Arkadia, Sol had not held a single punch, he was making sure she understood the weight of her actions, and Saat in return was trying to exhaust and overpower him, but it just wasn''t working the way she intended it to.

    [Why would I take a lesser lifeform seriously, have you ever seen an eagle take a cockroach seriously?] She asked.

    "Urgh..." Sol blocked several more punches that were trying to drive him into the ground crashing across the surface as he stared at his status.

    [Divine mana: 68%]

    [Godyer: 27m remaining]

    He was now sure that his usual short fights weren''t happening here, Saat could go the distance and she seemed to have plenty of power to spare because even ording to her; she still hadn''t been taking him seriously enough after all the damage he had done to her, she was trying to make an example out of him.

    "I can''t fight her recklessly here," Sol dodged her next attack, caught her by her arm,and swung her over his shoulder with a grunt mming her into the ground and then taking a few steps back and falling into a fighting stance while her body made a crater before him.

    "I can''t end it in an instant even if I wanted to, the most I can do is force her to reveal all her cards and exhaust her before [Godyer] runs out..."

    "Weak," Saat spoke as she stood from the crater and brushed herself off. "All of your attacks thus far have been weak!" She rushed at him again, still assuming her appearance of pride.

    "She''s using her regr voice now instead of divine [speech]." Sol carefully guided himself through her two punches and rested his fingertips against her stomach.

    "It means she does have a limit, whether that limit is close or not I can''t tell, so until then-" His fingers folded into a fist and mmed into her flesh causing the air around them to burst as he delivered a 1-inch punch with all his might. "-I''ll focus on breaking you as much as I possibly can!"

    Before she was sent flying again, Sol spun and grabbed the belt of her thin dress, pulling her into a roundhouse kick and another follow-up kick before the effects of the earlier punch had worn off.

    "If I have the power to break her body, then I''ll just keep doing that!" Sol tackled her to the ground and pressed his hand to her chest as he was flipping out of the way.

    [Mana drain]

    Sol made away with a portion of her divine mana,nding on his feet and falling into a crouch as he looked at his hand shocked.

    "Did you just!?" Saat arose with the aid of just her legs, holding her broken jaw and snapping it back into ce with a roar.

    [Divine mana 66% (+1k)]

    [How dare you...!] Saat stared at Sol''s hand as it glowed with her mana. [Steal from me, my precious mana, how dare you...!] Her eyes rolled over and turned pitch ck, and the tips of her fingers turned a dark purplish hue as her body shrunk in size and her teeth gnashed. [I''ll kill you!]

    [Saat, Goddess of Sin: Wrath]

    [Clockwork] Sol activated his technique again, staring before him as her hand was opened right before his face, it was on instinct, but the mere speed she disyed was beyond his expectations, even if he had poured everything into [godspeed] he doubted he''d have been able to match that kind of speed.

    "[Clockwork] is a cheat skill I learned after I fought the demon god on A." Sol pressed his palm against Saat''s face as her eyes very slowly tried to catch up to him.

    [Mana drain] Sol began taking her mana away, for every observer it happened in a split second, nobody was aware of how exactly [clockwork] functioned, so they were not privy to sol stealing a massive amount of divine mana from the goddess in an instant, to them, all that happened was her attacking Sol and then getting sted away by a giant pir of her own divine powers.

    "I never imagined it''d work like this," Sol looked down at his hands as they hummed with foreign mana.

    [Divine mana: 50% (+27k)]

    "If this is the case, I won''t lose ever ag-"

    [CLOCKWORK]

    "!!!?"

    Sol''s mind went into panic as his body froze leaving his consciousness to react in real-time. "No, no fucking way, that''s impossible!!" His eyes were in the slow process of widening as he saw Saat walking toward him with a sick grin. "How did she... No, that''s not important right now!"

    [Heal]

    [Regenerate]

    [Harden]

    [Heal]

    [Heal]

    He continued trying to cast, but even his mana had been frozen.

    "Fuck, how did she copy my divine abilities, [fire-bolt] is different, it''s just fire, but how the fuck can she copy [clockwork]?!"

    [What a delicious little ability you have here, I had to experience it twice before I was able to "steal" it.] Saat grinned and pressed her palm against Sol''s abdomen.

    [Mana Drain]

    "This...bitch!" Sol helplessly stared into Saat''s eyes as she smiled at him and siphoned his remaining mana as well as the mana he stole from her before. "She baited me into thinking she was getting weaker, because she wanted me to use clockwork again...!?"

    An explosion suddenly appeared where Sol and Saat was, and back on Arkadia, Ikaris who was in the carriage with the others gasped and held her mouth as tears formed in the corners of her eyes.

    "...How?" She whispered.

    "Ikaris?" Eris called to her.

    "Are you okay?" Han stared from the opposite side. "You''ve been acting weird ever since Sol ran off-"

    "Master," Ikaris closed both ot her eyes and fell on Eris.

    "Not again!" Usami rushed from the opposite side and caught her. "Why now of all times?" She asked, remembering thest time Ikaris had mentioned Sol and fallen unconscious and how impossible it had been to wake her.

    "Did something happen to Sol?" Dina sat passively staring at Ikaris while Eris and Usami tried waking her.

    "I relied too much on it, and it backfired!" Sol held his stomach as it bled while his legs were broken in the opposite directions and his other arm was gonepletely.

    [Godyer has been deactivated due to insufficient divine mana]

    [Divine mana: 0%]

    [Arkadian mana: 300k]

    [Mana: 150M]

    "I still have plenty of mana, but that''s not the problem here..." Sol cast [regenerate] and summoned armour over himself again. "Divine mana is 100x more potent, itsts far longer, and it does more damage, even with all the mana I have right now; with my divine mana gone my overall power just dropped by at least 70%" He theorised and held out his hand.

    [Clock-

    [CLOCKWORK!]

    Saat cast the technique before he could and attacked him again, creating a massive crater after it was deactivated and he was sent flying, smashing right through a hill where he was intercepted by her once more.

    [CLOCKWORK]

    Another momentpsed before Sol could recover, and his broken body was sent cratering inside of the moon.

    "H-heal!"

    A bright light appeared inside of the crater, and the ground around it shook as Sol leapt into the air to intercept the goddess. His entire body was covered in blood and superficial wounds, and his eyes were zed over with murder as he approached.

    "How does she "steal" my abilities?" He asked thrusting his fist at her and gurgling in pain when she severed his hand and used it to swat him back to the ground whileughing with hysteria.

    [The mighty Tarnished, the undefeatable Godyer?]

    Saat held her stomach and released the severed hand as she rapidly descended andnded before him, causing the ground around them to uproot and be uneven.

    [What a joke little cockroach; what a fucking disappointment!!]

    Her face contorted into one of scorn as [wrath] was reced by [pride] again.

    [What happened all of a sudden?] Dr''ul sat in her chair staring in disbelief, she was sure Sol had maintained the upper hand the entire fight, his confidence was no joke, but she didn''t understand what Saat had done to turn the tables so quickly, or why Sol had suddenly be so much weaker.

    [True Goddess Ikaris is staring dumbfounded]

    [The pantheon is in an uproar]

    [The god of goats isughing hysterically at you]

    [The goddess of war is confused]

    [The god of destruction expresses disappointment]

    [The god of stories is disheartened that he may never get the knowledge you have]

    Between [clockwork] and getting attacked to the point where all he could glimpse was Saat''s face before he was hit again, getting dragged and tossed across the moon and being only able to heal and regenerate to prevent himself from dying, Sol started seeing hundreds of windows across his field of vision.

    Cursing, berating, celebrating, he waspletely overwhelmed and alone in a sea of pain and system windows as the pantheon raised their voices.

    "After all I''ve been through..." Sol blocked one punch and reviewed a hundred more as he was caught in [clockwork] again. "Is this how I die...?"

    [Heal]

    [Regenerate]

    "Is this how I suffer and struggle before death?"

    [Godsp-]

    [GODSPEED!]

    "Fuck, fuck it all...!" Sol''s vision blurred again as he was mercilessly beat into the ground while continuously casting [heal] and [regenerate] on himself.

    [Master...] Ikaris stared at his state, eyes wide in horror and fingers shaking as sweat dripped from her forehead... [Please.]

    *Ding

    [True Goddess Ikaris is weeping]

    [True Goddess Ikaris is in dread]

    [Master!] Ikaris cried out. [Fight back!]

    [True Goddess Ikaris has stolen authority, ushering the anger of the gods once more, if she interferes with the challenge she will have broken the agreement,  the heavens will descend upon her with full force]

    *Ding

    [You are at risk of dying, do you forfeit?]

    [True Goddess Ikaris is staring defiantly at the pantheon]

    [Don''t you dare die yet!] Saat raised Sol out of the crater and released him midair, mming her fists into both sides of his head simultaneously andughing maniacally.

    "I''m gonna die here..." Sol fell to his feet, taking a blow that tore a hole through his chest.

    [Regenerate]

    [Heal]

    [CLOCKWORK!]

 Chapter 65: Frightening Evolution.

    "Fight..."

    "Win..."

    "Kill them all if you have to...!"

    "I can''t..." Sol coughed and raised his hands again blocking a punch from Saat, but just as before, his magic was lesser magicpared to divine magic, his shields didn''t work, his attacks were negated; she powered through his defences effortlessly and tore into his flesh with her bare knuckles.

    "Please," Ikaris started crying in Eris''s arms causing the healer to panic and try waking her again.

    "Master, please... don''t leave me alone again..." She shook as sweat slowly dropped from her forehead.

    "What the hell is going on with Sol?" Han asked, looking at the crest on Ikaris''s neck as it rapidly blinked causing a humming sound to echo through the carriage after they had stopped.

    A who had been called to the matter urgently was shocked at Ikaris''s state, knowing what she knew about the two, if Sol was in danger of dying then Ikaris would equally try and stop it; all else be damned, so why was she like this?

    Little did she know that what she was staring at was a husk of the goddess.

    [I can''t lose him!] Ikaris defied the will of the pantheon who was outraged that she was trying to end the fight.

    [I won''t!] Ikaris''s ethereal form stood outside of the gates of the heavens. [I''ll break everything, I''ll destroy everything, I''ll kill everything!!] She roared grabbing the gates tearing them asunder while her tears fell through the Arkadian skies like a meteor shower causing a rain of mana across the entire world, visible to everything with eyes.

    [This is dangerous!] Dr''ul left her throne in a hurry, appearing through a gate before Ikaris and holding out her sword. [Ikaris, you are in vition, I Dr''ul; The goddess of warmand you to halt at once!] She stood before Ikaris, but a momentter the pantheon had a long crater of fire and destruction splitting it in half after Ikaris who saw Dr''ul as a threat attacked her first.

    [Ikaris, please!] Renia rushed down the path of chaos and found Ikaris holding Dr''ul on the ground by her face with an expression so terrifying it caused her body to stiffen and her blood to freeze, she wanted to say more, but her mouth shook instead, she was unable to even breathe.

    [I have thought about it, but I simply cannot agree, if master dies, I lose my purpose, I will lose all that remains of A, all the love I have nurtured inside of me will die with him!

    I cannot allow this to continue!] Her eyes burned an unusual crimson and her power swirled and turned the white skies into darkness shaking the heavens and forcing a majority of the gods into a state of mortification. [Before then, I will reset everything and tear this reality into pieces!!]

    [Ikaris, stop]

    She turned upon hearing his voice, but he was not there, he was being alerted of her actions through the system, and even while he was being mercilessly beaten by Saat he still found the focus to speak to her calmly.

    [Don''t break your promise, don''t fight them!]

    [Master I-]

    [I won''t die]

    Two windows appeared before Sol, and his mana started to tremble inside of his body.

    [ept defeat and live]

    [Defy the heavens and perish along with your goddess]

    *Ding

    [What is your choice?]

    [Choose wisely cockroach!] Saatughed after she saw the windows, as did everyone else in the pantheon.

    [Master...] Ikaris stood passively as the entire guard of the pantheon surrounded and trapped her inside a cage made of light. [I would rather die than see you be a ve, and I will destroy everything if you died and left me here alone]

    "I''m frighteningly aware of that now."

    [Clockwork]

    Sol used that one moment of distraction and finally achieved an activation, hours had gone by, he had been victim of Saat''s pride and wrath for hours, and at this point he was barely holding on to his consciousness or his mana that had been depleted to lows he had never experienced before.

    [Choose]

    Sol ground his teeth as he stared at his options, neither of which he wanted, neither of which suited him.

    He grimaced, but his pride copsed as he saw the only oue to stopping Ikaris and saving himself.

    "I choose evolution." He closed his eyes and steam started rising from his body.

    Inside of the sphere of [clockwork] Saat''s speed was a casual reach, which showed just how fast she was since she was not supposed to be able to move at all, but a casual reach was not fast enough to get to him.

    [Race change has been used]

    [Your body will undergo rapid evolution]

    [True Divinity unlocked]

    [All of your mana will convert into divine mana]

    The system announced and Saat stared shocked as Sol''s fist extended and connected to her face after which everything went white for a moment, the moon shook, the skies shook, the grounds of Arkadia shook and the heavens trembled as a system window appeared before the face of every living being.

    [A frightening existence has been birthed through ritualbat,ment at the rise of a selfish god]

    Back on D''ol, Saat was on her hands and knees staring mortified as Sol''s presence alone brought her to the ground, the entire surface of the moon had been razed, and debris scattered across the skies shooting into the cosmos.

    [Name: Sol Vestic

    Race: Demigod (new)

    Level: 1

    Title: (Unspecified)

    Skills: Unknown

    ss: Unknown

    Buffs: None

    Blessing: Goddess Ikaris''s Love (new)

    Curse: None (new)

    Special: Path (new)]

    Evolution: None (new)

    "You''re going to suffer." Sol''s hair slowly fanned around his head as he looked down on the goddess, his usuall sky-blue divinity was now a dark and unsettling shade of Indigo, his eyes were an inverted ck sclera and pure white iris, and his hair had also turned to white, glowing in contrast to the ck skies above him.

    The pressure she was feeling was something she had experienced very few times from the Seven greater gods whom she often butt heads with because of her seven natures and the conflicts she caused.

    [I forf-]

    [Clockwork]

    Saat was going to throw in the towel and surrender while she was still whole, but very slowly, her face caved in as Sol''s fist cracked her skull upon impact and sent her on a trip around the entire moon in the span of a second.

    "You have to be repaid tenfold," Sol caught her by her cor and cracked it with a sneer closing his eyes and listening as her shocked scream slowly arose.

    [Unhand me!] Saat assumed her [wrath] transformation, healing her injury and swinging her arms wildly at Sol, but he caught them and squeezed them with a grin of his own.

    "I don''t think so." He snapped both her wrists and pulled her face into his knee breaking her skull again as her head snapped backwards revealing her smashed-in face. "I need to make sure none of your fellow gods ever try to trap me like this again!" Sol released her arms and stepped in her stomach scowling when golden blood spewed from her mouth across his arms.

    [W-wait, listen!] Saat rolled to a stop and fell to her hands and knees again as her skin was cleansed of every blemish and her features became more attractive, her eyes turned to emerald and her once small breasts filled out along with her hips. [I can serve you, I am by nature also the goddess of lust, I dont mind being your sl-gaaaah!!]

    Indigo fire erupted from her eyes and mouth as Sol snapped his fingers.

    "You don''t get it do you?" Sol threw his foot back and kicked her so hard the ground around them imploded upon itself sucking the atmosphere toward them. "You tried tearing Ikaris and I apart!" Sol caught her before she was sent flying and pinned her to the ground.

    "I''ve only seen my goddess cry once, and it was beautiful, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever experienced in my life...

    she cried tears of happiness; but you!" Sol''s fist coated over with his new divine magic and mmed into her stomach, going straight through and sending waves of destructive mana bursting from the opposite side of the moon as she screamed and her appearance shed from lust to pride and then the other five sins repeatedly.

    "You made her cry out of fear and torment, it''s unforgivable, absolutely unforgivable, Saat, I won''t kill you, I promise I won''t, but you''re gonna be wishing you had died today I''ll erase those sins of yours with nothing but fear and dread!" Sol''s skin darkened and wings erupted from his back violently spilling white glowing blood across the rocks that slowly floated around them as he began tough maniacally while she trembled and screeched beneath him.

    "Goddess of lust, are you out of your mind?" He asked. "Ikaris is everything, there is none but her, I can''t be tempted by any other being living or dead!!] He roared.

    [Demon-god transformation]

    [Release me,] Ikaris raised her head after she had watched Sol start a merciless beating on a helpless goddess. [I have duties on Arkadia that I must see to.]

    [Are you mental?] One of the wolf-headed guardian gods who had witnessed what would have been the start of her rampage barked at her. [You have vited manyws here today punishment must be... !!] He stopped talking and turned his spear against the cage with a jolt of fear when cracks of ck appeared all across it and her manic eyes fell on him.

    [It was not a request] Dr''ul looked at him, finally gathering her bearings after witnessing how terrifying Ikaris was firsthand, it was brief, but she saw something that not even her sister had witnessed in their friendly bout. [Do not invite the wrath of a deity beyond your understanding] Dr''ul warned, and altogether the guardians lowered their spears and the cage slowly disappeared.

    [For my master''s sake, I am deeply sorry for breaking my promise of no aggression, had he not ordered me, I would have called on the powers of the beginning themselves, the primordial forces, and destroyed all at any cost, but... as I said, I am sincerely regretful, do not let it weigh over you.] Ikaris disappeared in a sh of light.

    [H-how was that even an apology?] One other god asked falling to his ass and sighing as the oppression of her presence finally disappeared while Dr''ul stared at the destruction a single strike from Ikaris had caused.

    [The heavens are supposed to be a limitless existence that spans and epasses all, and yet she left a tear across this vastness in the blink of an eye, from one end to the other an unmendable scar] Dr''ul wiped blood from her nose and sighed. [She truly is, unfathomable] she looked at her sister.

    At the same time of this conversation, Ikaris''s eyes opened, and she found herself embraced in a pleasent scent, she smiled, and slowly turned her head to gaze up at him and bask in the new atmosphere of his evolved mana.

    "Master."

 Chapter 66: A Sold Soul.

    "She woke up, just as he said she would," A sighed in relief and rxed in the corner of the tent. "When master Vestic returned and you did not immediately wake, I became increasingly worried..." She ced her hand over her heart with a smile while Ikaris looked around at them.

    Everyone she knew was there; the heroes, A and the other captains, all their aides, and even some people she briefly spoke to in the past.

    "Did something else happen, why are they all gathered here?" Ikaris asked, looking at Sol again, he showed no physical signs of change, and his mana was so suppressed he might have been mistaken for a regr civilian, but she could see and feel divine magic deep within him.

    "They were just concerned, this is how it was when I got here about half an hour ago." Sol smiled at her while her hands slowly looped and locked behind his neck. "Thank you, Ikaris, for worrying about me." He leaned into her and pressed his forehead on hers as she smiled back at him with her eyes closed. "You gave me strength."

    "So?" Dina who was sitting right next to them spoke first. "What are these eipsodes anyway, does she have some kind of illness?"

    "Illness?" Ikaris stared at Dina confused. "No, I am perfectly fine." She smiled as Sol pulled her into a sitting position.

    "You obviously are not." Eris intercepted Ikaris''s response with a shake of her head. "This is the second time you copsed out of the blue, imagine if that happened while we were in the middle of a battle?"

    "It would not-"

    "I don''t know that, none of us know that, if there''s an issue that keeps causing you to faint then it''s gonna affect all of us, stop treating everything like you''re the only one in existence!" Eris snapped, and Ikaris looked at Sol with a smile and rested her head on his shoulder.

    "I am not, master is with me," She hooked her arm around his and all he did was smile.

    "Come on Vestic try to make her see-"

    "Sorry, I''m not qualified to interfere or give my personal opinion in the affairs of you heroes," Sol raised his free hand at Han. "If she says it''s not a problem then I don''t think it is either."

    "Impossible as usual," Dina sighed and looked at everyone else. "We wasted the entire day worrying for nothing, Ikaris is fine, and Sol just showed up out of the blue with busted gear and no injury too; we should rest up in preparation for tomorrow."

    "Aye," A agreed and pped her hands. "It has been a long day, but now that everything seems to be fine we can only move on and look toward tomorrow." She stood and walked to the exit, and behind her everyone else did the same.

    "Everyone," Ikaris stood with Sol''s aid. "I apologise for dying and worrying you, I''ll put in the effort to make up for this in the future." She dered, and then left after A and the others.

    "So nobody''s gonna say anything right?" Dina asked, looking at the others.

    Earlier that day.

    "You can''t have him, I won''t let you," Ikaris mumbled as she continued to sweat while Eris passively cast small gusts of frosty wind at her to cool her after she began heating up with a fever.

    "What the hell is happening to her?" Usami loomed over them, and behind her inside of the tent was the other heroes, while the rest had not arrived yet.

    "I''d rather destroy all existence..." She whispered, and in response A gasped aloud and held her heart as the fear of annihtion struck her.

    "A?" Dina looked at her teacher, but the mage was staring at Ikaris in utter shock and horror, unable to say a word. "Are you okay?"

    Just then, a breath of mana escaped Ikaris''s mouth, and A''s eyes bulged as she instinctively created a powerful shield between herself and Ikaris, falling in the corner with visible panic as sweat dripped from her chin while she poured everything into that one barrier.

    The mana Ikaris breathed out dissipated into the atmosphere and another huff reced it as the sigils on her body shone brightly, and then her entire body illuminated for a few seconds as her ears grew long and pointed like A''s, her hair grew out to its original length and began sparkling like distant stars, and a pair of wings slowly grew from her lower back and rested on the ground, shaking and jittering ever so often.

    "What the hell?" Eris stared shocked as Ikaris grew a foot taller as well. "She''s-"

    "-Not human." Dina stared with her jaws ck.

    They all stared at her for the few seconds that she had lost control of her body, but then another bright glow appeared from her and she was back to normal again, her mumbling had stopped, and her fever had gone down.

    Presently.

    "If she wanted to, or if Sol wanted to, then either of them could tell us that she was not incarnated as a human like the rest of us were, and even A seemed terrified of her too, so I think she knows something." Han answered Dina.

    "But that just begs the question what exactly she is if she''s not numan?" Usami sat and crossed her legs in on her futon. "What if she turns out to be a threat?"

    "I could probably handle her," Dina narrowed her eyes and brought her hand to her chin in a thinking pose. "No, that''s not true, I may have the strongest offence, but Ikaris on a whole is far stronger than I am, and I get the feeling that she has been holding back too,"

    "What about the possibility of her being incarnated as some kind of demigod being, I mean the queen went out of her way and brought Lyra back from her early retirement as a descendant of demigods just so she could teach her, we have been seeing her use those wings from the start too, and just look at her growthpared to everyone else, she''s always ten steps ahead." Usami countered.

    "That''d also exin why demigods tried taking her away." Bruce nodded in agreement.

    "This is frustrating, but I can''t agree or disagree with anything until I''m sure, and I''d rather ask her myself." Han shook his head, and fell on his futon and sighed. "I''m done with her matters for now, we spent all day worrying over her and she just wakes up and walks awaypletely fine."

    "Did you expect a hug?" Bruce chuckled at him. "Get used to it already, our values in her eyes aren''t the same as they are for us, she sees us, but she see him first."

    "I swear matters like these are the only time you seem smart, Bruce." Dina groaned and turned her back to them, closing her eyes. "Eris, you spent all day tending to her like a nanny, aren''t you tired?"

    "Ever since you started showing me those mana breathing techniques I''ve been using less and gaining more mana, so I''m fine." The healer of the group flopped onto her back and kicked her shoes off, looking at the bed that was always set up for Ikaris but was never once used aside from earlier when they ced her there. "I wonder..."

    "Wonder what?" Dina spun and faced her, as did the others after they had all settled in a circr formation.

    "I wonder what being so loved feels like."

    "Pshh-hahaha!" Usami broke into lightughter. "I thought you were going to say something important, but you''re just here thinking about them again?"

    "No, I''m serious, it''s not parental love, not that I ever knew what that was like to begin with; she loves him; she loves him to death, I can''t even begin to imagine anything like that, any rtionship I tried having in the past was a huge letdown."

    "I can''t either, all my rtionships ended in dramatic failures all the time." Usami sighed and dropped her head again.

    "Same here," Han agreed, and Bruce nodded with him.

    "Is it that special?" Dina asked raising a brow.

    "Come on Dina, have you been watching with your nose and not your eyes?" Eris sat up seriously.

    "She''s so loyal ites off as an annoyance to everyone but him, she''d die for him and die without him, and the way he looks at her and treats her like fragile ss, I could never find myself loving anyone like that, not even myself, it''s pure, it''s so pure it makes me want to puke, I''m so jealous!" She pped her bed and flopped onto her back again.

    "...Honestly, I wish it was me."  Eris confessed.

    "...But I could never give him what she has."

    "Huh?" Dina sat up and stared at her watching her remove her sses as her previous energy became somber and serious.

    "Ikaris sold her soul to Sol, and he gave his to her as well, they''re entablngled; bound by invisible threads that we can''t see or fathom."

    "That was unexpected." Bruce rested his head and closed his eyes. "How''d thate to your mind?"

    "I don''t know," Eris opened her palm, casting [heal] on herself and relishing in the warmth it spread through her body as she began falling asleep.

    "I have no idea."

 Chapter 67: Fear

    [Are you fine allowing that damned goddess to act however she pleases in our domain, does the prestige of the gods mean that little to you?]

    [Ugh, would you rather lose face and live or be prestigious and dead?] Dr''ul sat before a multitude of gods who were also seated in thrones like hers in a great hall made of seven glowing white pirs and cosmic entities, but they were on a lower tform while they stared up at her, while on her right and left were her six immediate siblings:

    Renia, the Goddess of Chaos.

    Ashera, the Goddess of Beasts.

    S''mael, the God of Destruction.

    Samu''el, the twin of S''mael and the God of Time.

    Ana''el, the Goddess of Love.

    And finallypleting the seven was the eldest; Adonai, the God of Creation.

    [How much more can we tolerate the doings of that abomination as well, he daredy his hand on divinity, and now he has even forced evolution and set foot in the heavens as a demigod!] Another of the courts addressed the seven, and Dr''ul sighed again.

    [Adonai, the system was created by you, you have the authority to strip him of the systems gifts-]

    [I have no such power] Adonai stared down at the god that had spoken to him, raising and lowering his arms. [I am the god of creation, not the god of restriction.]

    [I created the system, yes, but I do not own the system, it has long developed its own sentience and be a part of even our existences, the system is a deity all to itself, I have no right to tamper with its free will] he argued.

    [Is it even possible to take the system''s blessing from someone?] Renia asked, and Adonai shook his head.

    [That is an inappropriate question]

    It was the system that had spoken independently, feeling a need to defend itself from the scrutiny of the gods.

    [I exist as the tool of the gods and mortals; to give and to take ording to the rules they themselves have created and abided by, however, I have never and will never divide or take away a blessing granted to another living being, be it the intruding demons or the lowly insects that crawl beneath their feet, my omnipresence must beplete otherwise consequences ensue.]

    [There you have it, the system itself has objected] Adonai gestured to them again.

    [On the matter of Sol Vestic''s evolution into a demigod; I personally see nothing wrong with it, he earned the right of evolution through his own blood and sweat, and in case you have not realised it, had that boy not swallowed his pride and be a demigod in order to defeat Saat, then Ikaris would have continued her onught.] Adonis added, and Dr''ul nodded quickly.

    [He killed Psiko!]

    [Psiko challenged him to a fight to the death, the system ensures an isted and fair fight always, it means Psiko was not strong enough, he was defeated under the terms of the challenge, and devoured as a punishment for failure, there was no foul y, there was no interference, do not mention him in my presence again.] Dr''ul spoke up.

    [And before you even mention that traitorous Diablos just remember, we have long wanted to judge him for trying to usurp the power of the goddess of beasts, his deeds were underhanded and he paid the price for it.]

    [Was this all you wanted from us?] Ana''el asked, staring down at the gods. [When I was summoned I was of the impression that you had a pressing matter, but I feel you have wasted my time today.]

    She was the most normal in appearancepared to her siblings, aside from her eyes that were covered by a blindfold and her hair of pure white, she was purely average in appearance, however there was an aura that constantly fluctuated around her, an unknown and unseen power that she had never once used.

    [The issue of Ikaris is as pressing as it gets though!] One of the lesser gods raised her voice. [She is a threat to our existence!]

    [Yes, she tore an unmendable crack through all reality because she was angry, how much longer will we survive before she loses her mind and attacks us for real!?]

    To this the seven had no answer; S''mael had not been present, but he felt her power, the destruction she had caused was on a level that he was incapable of copying even as the embodiment of destruction itself. If Ikaris truly decided to, with the power she possessed she could end all reality, just as she had said.

    [If all the godsbined and attacked her-]

    [By the time that fight was over she would have killed 99% of the pantheon, the heavens and Arkadia would be destroyed beyond repair, the cosmos would copse, the seven pirs of creation would crumble, this entire universe would implode upon itself if we did something so foolish.] Adonis stood and folded all his arms.

    [You all fear her, it is understandable, she is a foreign god; one powerful enough to casually speak of the powers of the beginning which none of us have ever beheld, and I suspect she might be a malevolent god under the delusions of benevolence because she has genuinely found something worth being benevolent for.] He put his hand to his chin in thought. [She is scary.]

    [I sensed it when she attacked; hatred toward godkind, not to us, but toward all deities on a whole... a hatred so pure and rotten it could easily change her nature if she was ovee with grief or any other powerful emotion.

    It is just a guess, I cannot be sure, but there is the possibility that the Ikaris we see is thest of an annihted pantheon, a sole god that has survived a holy war; a sacred being that has already devoured her kin, if she is not the sole remnant of an ancient pantheon, then she may just truly be malevolent, either way she is not one to be trifled with.] He stopped talking when the hall fell into stiff silence, looking at Dr''ul especially, who was staring at him in shock.

    [We can only wait and see what bes of our predicament.] Samu''el pped his hands. [Time should not be wasted in this manner,speaking never solves anything- I will leave first.] He spoke, and vanished after standing and bowing to his siblings.

    [I have an endless stream of beautiful prayers to attend to,] Ana''el Arose next and left the hall.

    [Very well then, you are all dismissed.] Dr''ul raised her hand, an in an instant everything and everyone before her vanished, leaving only Adonis who stood confused as they appeared in her throne room.

    [I was not dismissed?] He asked, turning to Dr''ul.

    [I want to hear yourplete opinion on Ikaris, brother.] She responded, and the god of Creation summoned his throne next to hers and took a seat.

    [Very well.]

    "Ugh, my ear is ringing again, someone must be ndering my good name." Ikaris was riding with Sol on their way to the next waypoint with the army.

    "Well, you attacked the pantheon what did you expect?" Sol asked with his handzily rested on her leg. "They probably want to get rid of you more than anything after that."

    "Let them try." Ikaris''s mood went dark as she recalled how they had opposed her.

    "Don''t let it weigh on you that much," Sol poked her cheek with a smile. "I''m sure there will be no retaliation."

    "I hope not, I have a limited amount of divine mana I can hold in a physical vessel, I am not like you who has a body capable of handling insurmountable amounts of mana from three different origins!"  Ikaris chuckled to herself as she thought about it.

    "So, what''s up with heroing, we''ve marched for a day without incident, and it doesn''t seem like the broken barrier ahead will have much action either." Sol looked ahead again while she adjusted in hisp.

    "The n is to progress to other sites now, the Queen ordered the subjugation and sealing units in the army to revisit every single barrier site that surrounds Argom, so until then the advance toward the north by the army has been permanently dyed."

    "Ugh, that''s gonna take months," Sol scowled. "By then that monster might have lost patience and attacked-"

    "That is the mission for the army, the heroes and our tutors are going to advance toward the demon god''s location, as it stands, if we kill her the gates will close and the demonkin will die, I am unsure, but I believe the corrupted creatures will die as well.

    "Most of them are walking corpses already..." Sol nodded. "So, you''re going on an adventure then?"

    "Correct!" Ikaris cheerily nodded at him. "The crusade of the heroes of Argom, oh how I wish this could have been the fate of A as well, to have many heroes join forces."

    "I always wondered why I was the only one..." Sol looked at her shoulders stiffen at the mention.

    "You dislike it when I say it." She replied, and Sol''s eyes narrowed as he remembered the first time she showed this shy and sheepish attitude.

    "I see, it''s one of those things that you had no control over hm?" Sol raised a brow, and she nodded without looking at him.

    "A sole hero was always meant to save A, it was the will of-"

    "The will of whom?"

    "...The will of the universe."

    "Ugh," Sol rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, forget it, as usual you get cryptic and stop making sense whenever you talk about these things, let''s just focus on here and now." He pulled her closer to himself and released the reigns of the horse in her grasp as his hands rested on her hips.

    "I''d much rather the present than to return to that darkness."

    "Yes master, I too would rather not think about the horrible things that happened there."

 Chapter 68: A strong foe appears.

    "She never leaves his side, I thought for sure she had changed after he made her choose, but she just went right back to him as soon as he returned-"

    "Han," Eris called to her fellow hero while Dina was helping her adjust her armour over her cleavage. "I know you are not the brightest, but I do consider you a smart person at the least, but if you keep saying such stupid things I might just change my mindpletely and start calling you an imbecile." She looked around at him when Dina gave her a nod ofpletion.

    "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Han sneered at her while she turned again and put on her medic jacket carefully.

    "Come on dude, is your mind that shallow?" Bruce spoke up, undoing the roof of the carriage by pulling on the lever by the door.

    "It hasn''t even been two days yet, I know we haven''t known her for long, but Ikaris has never shown fear, not even once, she''s always been confident, she''s always been assertive, but the other day, she was a mess, she was scared for his safety, she fainted, she was vulnerable, did you think she would just dismiss him after having such a scare?" Bruce asked, and Usami nodded and gestured to Bruce.

    "See, even the ss idiot gets it, how can you have less sense than this rock?" Usami continued gesturing to Bruce while he made gestures of choking her to death for the urate insults.

    "Honestly," Dina shook her head at Han. "You make a great leader, Han, but somehow you''re still a shallow man, it''s incredible... if I got scared like that, I''d never let him out of my sight again."

    "You''re all exaggerating it, we have no idea where he was, and have you forgotten what happened with her, just how much of their secrets are we going to ignore before something bad happens because of them?" Han looked ahead of the carriage where they could see smoke rising on the horizon.

    "Ikaris will perform her duties as she always does." Eris defended. "You don''t need to be privy of her and Sol''s secrets, knowing changes nothing, she''s a hero and she always pulls through, that''s that."

    "I''m telling you-"

    "For fuck''s sake Han, drop it already!" Eris snapped at him before he could start again. "It''s none of your business."

    "Oh my gosh she cussed," Dina held her hand to her mouth with a fake shocked reaction.

    "We already confronted them, have you forgotten?" Dina added, and Han frowned again and looked further ahead where Sol and Ikaris was as cuddly as usual as they rode next to A. "Just focus on yourself and stop stuffing your fat nose where it doesn''t belong."

    "It''s real nice how you''re all ganging up on me." Han turned his back to them and rested his elbows on the driver''s seat, taking a deep breath. "Whatever."

    "Now''s as good a time as any to ask then," Ikaris sat forward and braced herself on Sol, and then looked across at A who had been conversing with Sol about casual nonsense she had no interest in. "Little elf-ling," Ikaris raised her hand, and in an instant their space was isted as her true appearance was revealed.

    "Ah..." A stared at Ikaris while Sol held a passive expression, watching the road having already heard from Ikaris what happened in his absence.

    "You remember who I am." Ikaris stated, and A nodded nervously. "You remember everything we told you and the others." She stated, and again A nodded as a trickle of sweat rolled down her cheek.

    "Um..." A tried calming her raging heart by cing her hand on her chest, but nothing she could think of would work; Ikaris''s presence was suffocating to even be near much less look at. "Are you going to kill me?" She asked, and Ikaris responded with silence, as did Sol. "I suppose... Uh, well... Do I...

    Wh-" A''s mind gradually deteriorated into a mess of incoherent thoughts the longer Ikaris stared at her.

    Her breathing quickened, and her grip on her horse''s reigns tightened until her knuckles started going pale from ack of cirction.

    "Rx, I do not n on hurting or harming you in any other way," Ikaris smiled and rxed on Sol''s chest again.

    "I have thought about that night a few times, the whole purpose of telling everyone was to test whether my powers ligitimately worked here on Arkadia, so I was quite shocked when you revealed that you were aware of my existence after I was convinced that I properly erased the minds of everyone."

    "I... did not remember," A answered after being assured that she was safe.

    "Oh?" Sol looked over at her.

    "My staff is crafted from an ancient elven oak that holds memories, I forgot everything, but the staff reminded me as soon as my memory was wiped, I figured it was a good idea to keep my knowledge to myself since you went through the effort of taking it back from everyone."

    "Then why expose yourself?" Sol asked, and A scratched her cheek and looked away from his gaze.

    "You and her holiness hold a bond beyond natural boundaries, she was on the verge of a violent outburst, so I tried reminding her that you were going to seed in your bout." She answered.

    "Bout?" Sol raised a brow.

    "Ah, yes, you said you would continue ying with the gods, and, I have seen and heard you mention the gods in ways that hinted at you knowing and making a mockery of them personally, to my knowledge the gods are all arrogant beings of immeasurable power, if you were that confident then it must have meant you were fighting them in secrecy, and after that day at the restaurant was sure you were some kind of god." A lowered her gaze when Sol''s eyes slightly widened and rapidly changed from brown to a shining silver.

    "Ha ha, aren''t you the clever one!" Solughed.

    "She has been watching us ever since the very first day," Ikaris looked at him.

    "I figured, I was so excited about the thought of getting back at Dr''ul that I just blurted it out," Sol calmed down and hid his divine magic again, causing his eyes to revert to normal and his hair to calm down.

    "If I may, master Vestic," A stared at him expectantly. "What exactly are you?"

    "Hm," Sol looked at Ikaris who kept her gaze ahead toward the smoke on the horizon, he wanted to be cryptic and lead her on to see if she would figure it out, but something else caught his attention, as did Ikaris''s which was why she was staring ahead. "I left the camp as a human, a few things happened here and there, and I kinda just evolved I suppose," Sol answered.

    "Evolved?" A gasped. "So, you are no longer human... Are you... Are you a god?"

    "Master became a demigod," Ikaris answered. "He had a close call with death and was forced to be something against his wishes." Her tone was hateful as she thought about Saat. "That seven-faced bitch, I do not care what the others say, if she ever shows her face before me I will tear her apart with my bare hands for trying to steal Master away." Ikaris seethed.

    "By others you mean...?"

    "The pantheon, you might have missed it because you were paying attention to Ikaris, but take a look at the northern skiester tonight." Sol gestured forward.

    "Is it truly okay to tell me all of this?" A asked, and Ikaris snapped her fingers causing the mage to go nk for several seconds before she suddenly jolted and held her heart.

    "What an interesting little stick you have there," Ikaris looked at the staff held firmly in A''s grasp. "It has the power to negate divine power,"

    "You just erased all memory of me meeting and interacting with you!" A stated with her eyes bulging in shock as the information was being organized in her head. "How terrifying!"

    "That''s enough," Ikaris smiled and undid her divine appearance as the illusion that showed them still talking was washed away to reveal them inside of it doing the same thing. "Master did you assume wrong earlier?" She asked, and Sol shook his head.

    "He is staring directly toward you, I think that this is intentional." He answered.

    "Sound the rm, there is an enemy at the destination," Ikaris looked at A who was still trying to sort her memories.

    "Right away," A raised her staff and shot off a bolt into the air that caused a red re to appear and slowly descend.

    "Enemies!" Han perked up and summoned his sword upon seeing the signal. "Form up," He turned to the others, but they were already right behind him with their respective weapons at the ready, while Eris just crackled her knuckles with a nod. "Alright... Let''s go," Han leapt out of the carriage, with the other four right at his heels.

    "A!" Dina called to her teacher.

    "What''s going on? I don''t see any demons," Bruce squinted his eyes looking forward.

    "There is just one, it is standing at the destination." Ikaris answered. "A sole guard awaiting the onught of an army, it is strong too." She admitted, and Sol nodded.

    "How strong are we talking here?" Usami asked, looking around at Morn who had a worried expression as he approached.

    "High level demonkin, level 500-" Ikaris answered, and Han scoffed.

    "If it''s only that then we can take it down with a simple team attack, didn''t we beat an eldritch dragon literally days ago-"

    "It is holding a big sword." Ikaris cut him off. "This is not the same as the eldritch, you are not fighting a monster this time, you''re facing a warrior, if you drop your guard or try to fight it alone you will be dead before your first swing," She looked around at Han.

    "We need a n."

 Chapter 69: Level 500 Minotaur.

    "If it''s holding a weapon, then it has at least the sense to fight somewhat properly, do we stand a chance against an armed monster with such a high level?" Usami asked first, as the current lowest level she saw herself as the weakest link in the party.

    "There is no shame in walking away from this one, we can wait until it leaves-"

    "You be silent." A looked around at Morn who had spoken up. "I have stayed my tongue for the sake of the heroes and the morale of the unit youmand, but I cannot turn a blind eye to your tant cowardice and constant interference, Morn."

    "I am simply looking out for her well-being-"

    "I am a part of the heroes''party before anything else, the whole reason I''m doing this is because I want to go back home, if I don''t get stronger, how the hell do you expect me to seed?" Usami countered, usually she would have been fine with his input, but considering her status among the heroes, all that man had done was berate and discourage her, the training he had promised never happened, and he had continuously visited her without mentioning anything again.

    "If I can hit it with pulsar then it''ll be a wrap, right?" Dina asked, getting back on track and A shook her head in the negative.

    "The only reason that worked on the eldritch was because it has extremely low resistance to magical attacks as a being made of magic itself, while I do admit that [pulsar] is far more powerful than your current level allows; if this other creature has the sense to swing a sword not only would it probably dodge it with a level of 500, but [pulsar] might not kill it at all, and that is without even mentioning that it is too taxing on your mana, one use and you can no longer fight.

    "Too risky, hm?" Dina sighed and started activating one spell after the other.

    "We have to meet it halfway if we want to prevent any casualties- ugh!" Bruce stepped forward, but his legs almost gave out on his first step, the eldritch had terrified him, but everyone was convinced this new monster was more dangerous, his confidence was at an all-time low.

    "I''m fine," he looked at his mentor who was already reaching to catch him if he fell. "...I''ll get over it."

    "Have you thought of anything?" Eris looked at Han, and he nodded and looked at A who was the more experienced fighter.

    "If it''s using a sword then it has to be a melee type, going on that assumption, A''s suggestion that it might have high magic resistance bes valid, but we don''t know yet, the best option we have currently is to bombard it with different types of attacks and then adjust our ns based on which attack-type does the most damage, so even though we''re clearly outssed we don''t have a choice but to be close to it.

    "So your n is to blitz it?" A stared at him, and he nodded. "Hmm," she put her hand to her chin in thought and then looked at Sol, but to no surprise he was already asleep on his horse. "...for that to work, you would still need to be fast enough to dodge its attacks, one swing and you probably get cleaved in two." She looked at Han again, who had seen her hopes of Sol helping get dashed.

    "I can do it," Ikaris slightly raised her hand. "The n is simple, but it is by far the best option, I make a bold forward attack, and then retreat to the skies out of its reach-"

    "-Why you?"

    "I''m far faster than any of you are!" Ikaris snapped at Dina who was going to reject that idea. "If you want to blitz that creature then I am the most qualified to do so, do not worry about my level being as low as yours -I am already 204 I can handle myself."

    "Fine," Han rubbed his head. "Fine, just... don''t die to this one mob," He gestured to her, and Sol barely peered an eye open and stared at him.

    "Leave worry of my safety to my master." Ikaris raised a brow as she turned and fell into a running stance right there before them. "I need someone to verify and send back word; Sara, stay within my shadows and be careful."

    "Understood." Sara walked from behind Sol''s horse and vanished within the body of Ikaris''s shadow.

    "We''reing with you though!" Eris reached out to touch Ikaris, but the goddess spared one nce to the healer and clicked her tongue.

    "I have already said it, but this creature has noticed us, it is now on the path toward us, and running alongside you lot makes for an interesting event but you are all slow." Ikaris stated, and in a sh of white from her divine magic she was gone.

    "H-holy shit!" Han covered his eyes when the kickback of her sprint had a dy of a few seconds before the ground where she stood suddenly exploded toward them. "What the hell was that!?"

    "[Godspeed]." Sol answered, gaining their attention. "It pushes the body of the user to a heightened level of stress and sacrifices their stamina for an incredible level of speed otherwise unattainable by normal means, She''s been working on using it for a while now." He sat up watching as Ikaris rapidly approached the creature.

    "Among those present, the only ones who can safely learn it are Eris who has a strong healing factor with a heightened tolerance for pain, and Bruce who has naturally high defences, anyone else who tried would suffer bone fractures and severe muscle damage, or worse." He looked at Usami.

    "Fuck..." Han stared at his hands. "So you''re saying we''re too weak...?"

    "Far too weak." Sol nodded.

    "I could never dream of moving this fast physically!!" Sara who hadtched on to Ikaris''s shadow and had remained in the gap between the darkness and reality had small cuts appearing across her skin as Ikaris''s speed continued to multiply.

    Now close enough to see the beast, Ikaris summoned a sword made of her Arkadian mana and slightly slowed down. "I could probably fight this all on my own, but with the little mana I have it would be a tiring task even if I stacked the damage..." She vanished for a few seconds, entering a realm of speed that caused the maid to scream in terror. "Once again, I have a need to grow more strength!"

    "If I am to do this properly and defeat the demon god then I need an attack potency close to that of master after he won against the demon god on A," She sped up again.

    It stood a staggering ten feet tall, arge muscr creature with the head of a bull and fur covering its humanoid body, holding a broadsword as it ran toward the mass of mana it had sensed.

    [Minotaur: Level 500]

    [Cross impact!]

    Before it even realised something wasing it''s way, the minotaur suffered a shallow gash across its neck.

    It roared and spun to see what had attacked it, but as Ikaris slightly slowed down a giant white X made of vtile mana seemed to appear out of nowhere.

    It only had a fraction of a second but it still managed to raise its broadsword and try to chop the attack in half, but before it could do so, [cross impact] exploded in its face creating an instant ball of burning mana that sent quakes through the ground all the way back to the others.

    "Holy shit, that''s way more powerful than thest time she used it, even withdy Lyra''s help!" Eris stared at the destructive attack before Sara suddenly appeared next to her with her arm bleeding after she had slightly peeked from within the shadow cast by the attack to get a look at the creature before the moment of impact.

    [Heal]

    "Level 500, minotaur, it has no magical abilities and is purely melee; high resistance to magical attacks, high resistance to melee attacks, high stamina and incredible strength, Sara knelt in their presence while Eris healed her broken arm and the wounds across her body.

    "Did it attack you?" Usami asked, staring at the shattered armour on Sara''s shoulder that slightly revealed her breast.

    "Nay, Lady Ikaris''s speed caused my arm to break when I tried exiting her shadow." Sara had a trickle of sweat rolling down her chin. "She is indeed scary...!" Sara and everyone else looked toward Ikaris''s side again and watched shocked as another giant [cross-impact] appeared and exploded like a nuke.

    "It''s so far away, but I can still feel the heat..." Dina hid her face from the light of the explosion and floated upward.

    "Dina-"

    "You guys should stay out of this one." Dina looked down at them. "I can help her if I keep my distance, but the rest of you would just be getting in the way." She gestured to them, and A nodded in agreent.

    "It burdens me to say this, but most of her attacks have long outpaced my most powerful, my presence there would be of little help as well, and as the strongest among my peers that leaves a veryrge gap between the [minotaur], Dina, Myself, and then the rest of you," She looked at her fellow captains.

    "Can we leave it up to you?" Han asked Dina, staring and expressing his worry through his bodynguage.

    "Just wait for the good news!" Dina spun and released the restraints of her activated spells shoting off into the air toward Ikaris and the minotaur.

    "Is this truly okay, master Vestic?" A turned to Sol as soon as Dina was out of sight.

    "It''s going to be a hard fight for the two of them," Sol smiled.

    "It''s going to be pretty fun, actually."

 Chapter 70: A Difference In Strength.

    "I was confident that they could assist, but it is clear now that my perception of this beast was wed," Ikaris huffed and threw her broken sword to the ground. "It pains me to no end having all this power and being unable to kill you with it." She stared at the minotaur as it seethed after being attacked several times without finding it''s aggressor.

    The strikes she left with her sword were superficial at best, and the burns from [cross-impact] only seemed to make it angrier, despite using such destructive and precise power this creature before her had remained stubborn.

    "Maybe it is for the best that only shee," She looked in the direction of the others singling out Dina''s approach amongst the multitude of mana signatures. "If the other heroes try to fight this thing it will kill them effortlessly."

    She took another breath and stepped to the side just as the greatsword the minotaur had been holding on to came crashing down. The sword hit the ground like a hill falling from the skies, causing the surface to quake and be disced and slowing her down.

    "This monster...!" Ikaris floated off the ground diagonally, dodging another swing of the sword midair and creating another sword with her Arkadian mana.

    "Had I known [cross-impact] would have been so useless I would have conserved my mana." She grit her teeth and dodged several more rapid swings from the beast as it tried following her into the air.

    "I can see them now," Dina came soaring toward Ikaris and the minotaur with a single ball of mana in her grasp, she didn''t even give her actions a second thought; as soon as Ikaris was outside of the range of her attack she released the ball toward the monster like a mana bullet.

    The minotaur seemed to ignore the attack, but just a moment before impact it spun out of the way and caught it with its bare hand, causing Dina to stop a distance away and stare shocked as her [origin explosion] detonated in the palm of the creature and did nothing to it.

    "Idiot, if my [cross-impact] that is equivalent in power to a nuclear explosion from earth did barely anything to it, how do you expect that tiny thing to harm it at all?" Ikaris floated above the sphere of heat that the explosion caused, staring at the minotaur in disdain.

    "Is that how you thank me foring to your aid?" Dina snapped back and Ikaris clicked her tongue and balled her fist.

    From his ce with the others, Sol was watching with only half resolve; he wanted to help, why was he staying back and letting her fight, what if she got hurt, would she even heal from the attack of a demon when her divine powers didn''t work on them?

    His head was trying to rationalise his decisions but his heart just wanted to protect her.

    "Don''t make me regret this-" Sol held on tightly to the reigns of his horse, to the point where veins that had remained hidden started popping up across his forearms. "-Ikaris!" He sat forward and watched without blinking.

    "Master Vestic-"

    "Not now, A," Sol kept his gaze on the fight without even sparing her the luxury of a nce.

    "Sol-"

    "I said not now!" He snapped, causing Eris who had tried approaching him to reel back in shock. "Don''t talk to me, not now." His irises burned with ethereal white and his body constantly exuded a small bit of divine magic casting the air around him into turmoil as he seemed to distort before their very eyes.

    "It must not be going well, he looks like he wants to intervene." Han patted Eris''s shoulder to help her recover from the shock.

    "How is she so fast?" Dina was trying to find an opening tounch an attack, but Ikaris was moving at the same speed as the minotaur, which was faster than she could react so she had been stuck in the air on standby with her breath held while beneath her Ikaris was constantly dodging the creature''s attacks and delivering superficial scratches.

    If she as much as tried using divine magic against the monster it was immediately negated, she even tried infusing her physical body with divine magic to increase her strength, but upon the moment of impact all the kic force gathered by her divinity was repelled, sending her crashing backwards while the minotaur chased after her.

    "Shit...!" Ikaris stumbled spreading her wings and trying to right herself, but before she could even stop her chaotic crash the minotaur rushed down and swung it''s sword at her, determined to cleave her in half.

    [Clockwork!] She extended her hand toward it attempting to buy herself time to recover, but then reeled in shock and pain when the sphere Sol''s replicated technique had created was shattered as soon as it appeared causing the sword to slice through her armour and leave a gash in her leg spilling crimson for the first time as she lost her footing and crashed across the ground,ing to an uncharacteristic flop on her stomach as the minotaur roared andnded before her swinging again.

    "No!" Dina snapped as soon as the momentum stopped and she was able to properly see them again, but from her distance it was impossible to immediately help.

    Sol who was watching squeezed the reigns so hard they melted in his grasp as he held up his hand, ready to whisk her away in a fraction of a second.

    [Explosion]

    Ikaris in this moment where everyone else panicked extended her hand to the side and created a magical explosion that threw her to the side and prevented her from getting cleaved in half.

    [Explosion!]

    She activated the technique a second time, repelling herself into the air when the persistent monster swiftly approached and tried cutting her down once more, and from there she tried spreading her wings, only to realise in horror that her right wing had also been cut when her leg was, so instead she used her divinity to continue gaining height, but the minotaur caught up and grabbed her injured leg before she could focus again.

    "Come on...!" Sol''s fingers closed on each other as he prepared to [snap] and summon her to his side. "Come on!!" He stared as a trickle of sweat rolled off his forehead.

    [The goddess of war is watching shocked that the monster can truly hurt divinity]

    [The god of destruction is fascinated]

    [The bull god has conflicted feelings on this fight]

    "Kill the demon!" Renia who was with the encampment in person clenched her fists rooting for Ikaris in this deciding moment.

    Ikaris guarded her face with her hands crossed just as the minotaurnded on its hooved feet again, spinning and mming her into the ground with a roar.

    "Gah!" She felt her chest and arms ache as the rock beneath her was shattered when she hit it, and before her eyes could focus again she was being swung a second time. "Why do these unreasonably strong monsters, keep showing up?!"

    [Mana maniption]

    Ikaris cast her magic on the ground, and it turned into a soft slimypound that sucked her in when she mmed into it, helping her escape from the Minotaur''s grip as she continued sinking and staring.

    "What do I do, if my opponent is so much stronger than I am?" She asked, watching through the transparent goop as the Minotaur raised its de in a stabbing motion. "I''m still in range!" She watched the de slowly descend while she utilized her divinity to gain a boost in thought speed. "What do I do here, if I fail in this fight, master probably won''t let me fight again, I have to win!"

    [Mana: 40\\100k]

    "I wasted too much mana on those attacks earlier too!" Her hand slowly raised, burning with intense mana while the de slowly descended. "The difference in strength is too great, I have to change my approach!"

    For Dina it happened in the blink of an eye, Ikaris was cut, mmed and then sucked in by the ground that had suddenly turned to jello, and then white light shone from inside of that jello when the minotaur stabbed into it.

    [EXPLODE]!

    The white light turned into a brilliant concussive explosion of white mes that sent therge beast airborne as the entire area erupted into magma.

    The minotaur roared in shock as its sword was sted out of its hand, and Dina seeing the projectile soaring into the high skies used this chance and created a pir of dense mana and began rotating it until the ends sharpened and the form became smooth.

    "You, will not best me!" Ikaris emerged from the midst of the explosion with a punch to its chin further throwing the minotaur off-bnce before she grabbed it by the horns and flipped over its head.

    "I cannot fall or fail to such a mediocre monster!" Ikaris arched her body, and with a roar and a yank she raised the minotaur off its feet, spinning several times and mming it into the ground chest-first.

    "I can''t lose here!" Shended before it and spun around cing her hand over her bleeding leg and frowning as the wound steamed and closed, but left an evident scar on her skin. "You''ll regret this-" Ikaris summoned her swords in a rage aiming for the monster''s eyes.

    "I''ll obliterate you!"

 Chapter 71: Unranked Soldier

    The first sword tore into the soft tissue of the creature''s right eye spilling purple blood in the air as Ikaris spun intending to blind itpletely, but upon aiming again she was greeted with its mouth opened right over her arm and rapidly closing.

    Just then, a flicker of light came from their peripheral and struck the Minotaur directly into its opened mouth.

    Causing its head to lean and its mouth to snap shut just next to her.

    Ikaris instinctively leapt away, avoiding the Minotaur''s arms when they came mping down intent on crushing her after it had failed to bite her hand off.

    "Explode!" Dina sped her hand and and the [mana spear] she had created evaporated into an explosion that caused the creature to reel in pain and leap to its feet and look around at her, its tongue had been pierced, and her attack had now boiled that tongue I to a swollen pile of burnt flesh.

    "Don''t for a second think I''m letting you go!" Ikaris came from behind it with her de coated in mana stabbing it into its other eye and raising her hands immediately when the minotaur spun in a rage and punched at her, this time it truly hurt, this time she was caught in a direct and unavoidable hit after her momentum had slowed from the stab.

    Blood spilled from her mouth and nose when therge fist connected from the side of her head down to her waist, several bones cracked in an instant, but by far her most affected was her left arm that was broken in several ces as she was sent flying through a ditch of her body''s own making.

    "Ikaris!" Dina haphazardly released several more spears watching them whizz through the air and harmlessly bounce off the durable hide of the Minotaur before exploding and disorienting it as it swung at empty air.

    "Shit!" She flew safely above and the  descended toward Ikaris, but by the time she reached Ikaris she was already standing again, albeit bloodied she was more furious than she had ever been before, her injuries didn''t healpletely, now her face had an ugly scar above her lips and her arm the same. "Are you-"

    "Furious!!" Ikaris erupted with divine mana burning away the blemishes as she altered her physical body and took off toward the minotaur.

    Before she attacked her presence vanishedpletely as her divine mana subsided, and recing it her acquired mana awoke with frightening potency causing the Minotaur to catch her as she stopped by its head with a loud beat of her healed wings.

    It attempted to crush her, but she vanished from its grasp and reappeared at the side of its head with a small rotating sphere of dense mana in her grasp, mming it into the creatures ear with a roar before vanishing again as the mana exploded outward like a mine throwing the demon off its feet when it lost its bnce.

    "So that''s what you decided to do..." Sol''s tension was eased, and he rxed again after seeing Ikaris continuously target the softest parts of the creature.

    "Alright!" Dina waved her hands above her head, summoning clouds as Ikarisnded next to her and shed the blood off her hand. "How much more can you do?"

    "Discarding thatst attack, I''d say I still have enough mana to deliver a fatal blow if we can open its wound, I want to boil it from the inside out, so put everything you can muster into a stun attack!" Ikaris answered, and Dina nodded.

    "Whose the real monster here?" Dina continued waving as the clouds became alive with yellow thunder. "I''ll keep stunning it then, be careful!" She lowered her staff toward the Minotaur and a great bolt of lightning tore through the skies and crashed into it.

    [Tier 9 thunder magic: Hand ofJudgement]

    The size of the bolt of lightning increased as it struck again, and three more times, growing proportionallyrger each time as Dina poured more and more mana into it.

    "Once more!" Dina grit her teeth.

    Her body suddenly had small fissures of electricity escape it and blood dripped from her nose.

    [Hand of Judgement: Unssified tier]

    A dozen giant bolts fell at once around the Minotaur, fusing as they collided into it like a death-ray from the skies.

    The ground around it evaporated, and the air burned as it''s exposed eyes and tongue sizzled and fried while it was electrocuted, and a mere second after thest bolt vanished Ikaris appeared before the staggering creature sticking her hand directly into its bubbling eye socket all the way down to her elbow and locking her legs around the horn.

    "If I continued fighting you stubbornly, I''m sure you could kill me, it is ironic, one such as myself should never have to be afraid of death by the hands of lesser beings like you," Ikarisunched a st of crimson fire from her submerged palm.

    [Infernal magic unssified tier: Hell''s Kitchen]

    "Retreat, Dina!" Ikaris looked around at Dina as the body of the Minotaur started to rapidly expand with fire gushing from every avable hole on its body.

    Forget bubbling, the creature was being incinerated by damnable mes that it could not protect against, and in a matter of seconds it had swollen to three times its size.

    Dina seeing the inevitable oue raised both her hands and cast a barrier around herself as she took to the skies, and then turned and cast another one around Ikaris leaving only her stuck hand exposed.

    It was not enough, it was far from enough, as soon as the trapped explosion broke out and expanded the barrier around Ikaris shattered and Dina was sent crashing through the air.

    *Snap

    Both of them appeared above the encampment apanied by a st of fire while a great cloud of crimson mes arose in the distance, expanding until it pushed the clouds away and broke the limits of the sky through to the outer vums where it was rapidly sucked away.

    "I told you to retreat!" Ikaris snapped at Dina, spreading her wings and catching the exhausted mage by her cor when she continued plummeting, but the Dina had other concerns as she looked at Ikaris from head to toe.

    "H-how are you still conscious?" Dina asked, righting herself and staring at Ikaris''s arm appalled.

    Her armour barely clung to her shoulder, and her hand had been shredded and burnt beyond recognition, a half of her face was badly burnt as well, and her torso was still steaming.

    "Ikaris,e down," Sol called to her, and she descended immediately and stood before him with her head hung low. "Look at the state you''re in..." He stared at her worriedly.

    "I will do better next time-"

    "Next time?" Sol cut her off, and everyone who heard went pale, the soldiers were ready to protest, the other heroes; Dina included were shocked, and A and her peers held visible apprehension.

    "Sol, you can''t just tell her to not fight-"

    "If that is his wish, I have no protest." Ikaris answered with her gaze still low as she grit her teeth and berated herself. "I do not want to cause master''s heart to be uneasy, if he desires I stay out of the fight I will sit quietly and obey..."

    Sol watched her uninjured hand shake as she spoke, but then she winced when he reached for her face and raised her hair staring at her burns with a soft expression.

    "I don''t think that''s my call to make, Ikaris," Sol sighed as she raised her eyes to meet his.

    "It could have been handled better, but you still did well; both of you, if it was anyone else I''m sure they would have died, but you held your own against a creature that was way out of your experience and current strength, and in the end you beat it." He praised her while his hand coated over with indigo mana.

    "It was an underperformance..." Ikaris closed her eyes as the burns on her face slowly vanished, being reced by unblemished skin.

    "What kind of healing magic is that?" Eris stared at Sol''s hand confused, as did Idria. "It does not abide by the rules of reconstruction... It looks like he''s using his magic itself to heal her, and not speeding up the process of regeneration." She shared a nce with Idria who was too stunned to speak.

    "I could do this myself," Ikaris smiled up at Sol, but he only huffed in amusement as her entire body was engulfed by a bright light when he cast [Divine Heal] on her, it didn''t just fix her injuries, it replenished her lost mana and even repaired her armour again, within an instant she was cured as if she hadn''t been harmed in her fight at all.

    "I didn''t ask if you could," Sol answered.

    "So she can reform and create budyparts out of thin air, and he canpletely undo damage as if it didn''t exist at all?" Sara thought to herself, also shocked since sol had never once seemed like he had the abilities to use healing magic.

    "So... I can keep fighting?" Ikaris asked hestiantly, and Sol smiled and nodded, cing his hand on her head and ruffling her hair a little.

    "You can''t save anyone if you don''t get your hands dirty, especially now that we know that your powers arepletely ineffective."

    "Yes, this is far from enough." Ikaris turned to the others who had watched silently. "I need to get far stronger if I want to fight the invading demon god," She looked at them.

    [Name: Ikaris

    Level: 204 (+26)

    Mana 100k (+10k)

    All other statuses and information have been locked by administration]

    "That''s be blindingly obvious now, I saw the system earlier too," Dina added to Ikaris''s statement. "That thing was still only a high-level demonkin, unnamed and unranked; so basically a footsoldier, we all need to get far stronger than we are now to defeat whatever can control such a terrifying monster, otherwise Arkadia has no hope."

 Chapter 72: An Unreasonable Request.

    "This bitch is thinking about Arkadia?" Usami raised a brow at Dina as she thought to herself.

    "Fuck Arkadia, I don''t want to stay here for longer than I absolutely need to, I have to take care of my brother, who knows what''s been happening since we got whisked away into this nightmare!" She bit her thumb nail and started tapping her foot, looking around at Morn and then sighing and looking forward again.

    "I thought the captains were strong, and I wanted to seek shelter under someone else and let the others do the fighting, but Morn turned out to be useless, there''s no prince or king for me to try and seduce either, and Sol is strong but Ikaris would probably break my slull; I have to do it myself, these weaklings don''t stand a chance against the demons, I have no choice but to risk my life here...

    But I ended up being the weakest because of thatcent cowardly asshole... Fuck!"

    "Are you okay?" Bruce tapped her shoulder, and she shrugged him off with a jolt of shock before she turned to him. "Usami?"

    "Sorry," She smiled sheepishly and then turned to the others. "Say, A, if the creature''s been dealt with we can move on now, right?"

    "Aha!" A pped her hands, and everyone started paying attention.

    "Sound the horn to continue the march, Ikaris and Dina made a nice warm teau for us to set camp next to, if we continue at a steady pace we will reach by sundown, and the barrier can be re-sealed within the hour." She nudged a short dwarven man next to her and the little man quickly took therge horn from his side and blew into it, and after him several more horns within the army went off.

    "Ikaris," Dina approached her and Sol while everyone started getting ready to move out again. "Can we talk?"

    "That is unusual." Ikaris stared at Dina surprised, but the mage kept her determined gaze. "Sure,"

    "Sir, there was rumour that a new dish was recently discovered..." Sara approached Sol simultaneously, and he smiled and stepped away to allow the two privacy as the maid gestured that he follow her.

    "What kind of dish exactly?"

    "The chef said it came in the form of a dream, he called it ramen."

    "...ramen..."

    "Ramen..."

    "RAMEN!"

    The word echoed in Sol''s head several times before he stopped walking and a tear fell down his cheek. "Why...?"

    "Why, why... why is this happening to me?" He asked, looking to the skies. "Why have you followed me here, what did I ever do to deserve this, why must you torment me so?"

    "Sir are you..." Sara stared at Sol shocked as he broke into tears and fell to his knees dramatically. "...okay?"

    "My greatest enemy and the one foe to ever defeat me..." Sol wiped his eyes sobbing uncontrobly. "Why would you chase me all the way here, bastard?"

    "Ramen?" Sara asked.

    "Yes, ramen is very dangerous... very  dangerous, Sara, I know it well, it is a deadly delicacy that only true masters can hope to enjoy, if you ever find yourself eating alone, never choose ramen, it will be the end of you!" Sol looked up at her as she approached him worried.

    "What are you talking about?" She raised a brow.

    "I''m saying ramen can kill you, super easy, don''t eat it, stay away from that devilish meal!" Sol clenched his fists. "It knots into your throat, holds your tongue with its powerful tentacles, blocks your airways and forces you to swallow your own tongue, killing you slowly and painfully, it is a food designed only for professionals!"

    "Oh my goodness... I heard that many people have been enjoying it, though-"

    "Ramen is a murderous ruthless dish with a mind of its own, you can''t ever let your guard down, you''ll die!" Sol stared at her seriously, standing and grabbing her shoulders. "Do you understand, Sara?"

    "Y-yes sir!" The frightened maid nodded in his grasp.

    "Good, instead, I''ll go show them how to make fried chicken ...and pizza while I''m at it, I''ll never go near that demonic meal ever again, I swear it on my soul, let''s treat this with haste before ramen takes another life!" Sol took Sara''s arm and ran off towards the middle of the army where the chefs were.

    "I''m sorry,"

    "Huh?"

    "I said I''m sorry," Dina slightly lowered her head to Ikaris after they had walked ahead of the army. "I''ve hated you since I met you, because of Sol... You see, I liked him, no... I''m...

    I''m in love with him, I have been for many years now, so I hated you who just showed up and stole him before I could ever confess how I felt, I saw that he cherished you, and I hated you for it..." She continued walking, and Ikaris after absorbing that walked alongside her.

    "I know." Ikaris admitted, her usual superiority was very tamed as she tried to see eye to eye with Dina, going full circle to the the first order Sol had given her; to get along with them.

    "You know?"

    "Everybody who has eyes knows, Dina." Ikaris looked at her. "But to say I took him away from you, that is unfair, do you honestly believe our meeting was some kind of hookup?" She asked, and Dina lowered her gaze again. "I gave up everything I had, I gave up my entire world to be with him, I sacrificed all I had and owned and turned my back to it all just to be at his side, and he...

    He lost everything because of me, I owe him more than just my life, I owe him my soul... You might have loved him from afar, but you still lived without him." Ikaris locked her hands before her and started ying with her thumbs as a sadness Dina had never seen her show overtook her. "I would die miserably without him by my side."

    "Without Master, I have nothing more to offer to anyone, no friends, no family, my brothers and sisters are all gone, my people all died, master is the only thing keeping me away from being swallowed by perpetual darkness, I can''t lose him, I can''t give him up, even if it kills me I absolutely can''t!"

    "I can''t stop loving him, even if he has you... even if you ask me to give up I definitely won''t, I don''t know if we feel the same, but I don''t want to let go of these feelings either," Dina ced her hand on her chest, watching the confliction on Ikaris''s face.

    "I don''t consider you my rival, I can''t evenpare to you, and I doubt he''ll ever see me as anything more than another person from his past, but if I can just be closer to him, if I can just smile with him, that''s all I need-"

    "Have you lost your mind?" Ikaris was dumbfounded by what she was hearing.

    "I can''t be his woman, I can''t even be his lover, he''s never going to let go of you, I saw that when he held on to you when you had passed out, he loves you, I respect that, but please, try to understand, Sol has been everything to me ever since I was a child incapable of understanding my feelings, to now, an adult who is still as confused as I was back then, I just want thefort of knowing I wasn''tpletely left behind, and..."

    "And?" Ikaris was tethered by a small string of reason as she listened to Dina outside of everyone else''s earshot.

    "I have genuine respect for you, you lied about being a good leader, and you lied about caring only for him, you have stuck your hand out and saved not just me but many others as well... you''re a good person, Ikaris, and I just... I want to be your friend-"

    "Do you realise that eighty percent of betrayalse from supposed friendships?" Ikaris stared at her nkly, and Dina waved her hands defensively.

    "Y-you... I''ve already voiced my intent, I swear I have no ulterior motifs, I genuinely want to be friends with you!" She became flustered.

    "Eris is kind and caring, more like a mother than anything else, or a reliable big sister, and Usami is still so detached from this world that she doesn''t bat an eye in the face of the people around her dying, she is selfish and uncaring, Han is only interested in having sex with as many women as he possibly can while he''s hero, and Bruce is just Bruce, but you''re different..."

    "What the hell are you even saying?"

    "Please consider it!" Dina stopped walking and lowered her head again. "Aside from A I haven''t been able to see eye to eye with anyone else aside from you, even if you are violent, you understand me. I get that feeling every time our eyes make four, so..." She stopped talking.

    "Get up, you are embarrassing yourself." Ikaris reached out and pulled her from her crooked posture.

    "Ikaris-"

    "It''s fine," Ikaris looked toward the evening sun as her cheeks slightly reddened.

    "I have never had anyone ask to be my friend before, I grew up with many siblings who were afraid of even speaking to me; the youngest, and then by maturity, I was well and truly alone, ruling over others who only saw me as an idol of worship or a giver of wishes, Master first gave me the blessing of living my own life..." Ikaris looked at Dina as her face was captured in a smile illuminated by the sun.

    "And you are the very first person in all my life to ask my hand in friendship."

 Chapter 73: Looming Obelisk

    "I''d think that you would be popr in whatever circle you moved with..." Dina looked at Ikaris surprised at her confession, hours after they had moved on.

    "I never had any circle to begin with, I have always been alone." Ikaris sighed stretching her legs as she rode on Sol''s horse alongside Dina who was using someone else''s.

    "They''ve been talking for hours." Han had his cheek resting on his fist.

    "They became friends after two and a half months of being at each other''s throats, I think it''s cute." Eris smiled at him, but he only scoffed and sighed.

    "Eris, do you want to sparter?" He looked to her after a few minutes of psed silence between the two of them, who were the only ones in the carriage after Usami had disappeared into the ranks of the army and Bruce had gone ahead with A''s group.

    "Spar?" She raised a brow. "With you?"

    "I mean, yeah, you want to get stronger, and I''ve been thinking of how we can improve our teamwork as a whole party," He looked at her through his peripheral, staring at her exposed legs with obvious intent while she didn''t even look up at his face to see his gaze while she was thinking over his proposal. "We should grow closer as a party, don''t you think?"

    "I don''t know, if it''s a spar to grow closer as a party then shouldn''t all of us be present, why ask just me?" She asked, and he swallowed and looked around at her, ying innocent. "?"

    "I''m saying I want to have one one-on-one sessions with everyone to get to know them better, so I can be a better leader-"

    "You have excellent leadership skills though, even A has praised you for them." Eris smiled at him, straightening her coat over her legs and tapping her knees in thought. "Besides...

    my job is simplified to healing my party, I''m not a fighter like the rest of you are, most of my fragility from earth carried over, making me much more of a mascot than anything else; not to mention I train withdy Idria every day, did you know she has kids? Seven at that, I was so shocked that-"

    "Jeez, forget it," Han raised his hand when the topic started straying. "A simple NO would have sufficed."

    "I''m simply letting you know where my priorities lie, Han," Eris''s tone became more stern. "I suree off as naive, hell I even fool myself sometimes, but I can''t simply be taken advantage of like any of the poor fools you''ve already slept with, have you forgotten that we have been in the same sses for two years now?" She crossed her legs and righted her sses.

    "I love it here, in Arkadia, if I wanted to sleep around it sure as hell wouldn''t be with the ss yboy, because frankly speaking; I never liked you very much, why be with you when I have so many suitors, beastmen with crazy libidos and elves who want me to bare their beautiful children?" She stared down her nose at him.

    "Wh... Huh, where did thate from?" Han''s eyes slightly widened as he was told off.

    "From the bottom of my kind heart, Han, you need help, stop chasing every skirt youe close to and find someone nice, otherwise even the hero will be lonely over time." She leaned her head with a smile.

    "Or I can just be a bachelor here and keep at it until I die." Han shamelessly countered and Eris smiled at his honesty.

    "Now there''s a good boy," She grinned mischievously at him and he looked away.

    "I thought I knew you..."

    "Nobody has the pleasure." Eris pressed her hands on her knees and slowly spread her legs, arching forward and lowering her head to block his view as their eyes made four. "Nobody''s had the pleasure~"

    "Then I-"

    "-Will never get the chance." She shook her head and reassumed her innocent persona. "My body is my treasure, it can''t allow myself to be corrupted by the likes of a man-whore."

    "Fuck you Eris." Han flipped her off, visibly upset at being constantly insulted and then rejected on top of it.

    "Hehe, you wish you could." Sheughed at him before going passive again and looking out the window on her side. "We''re here!"

    All evidence of her teasing had vanished in a sh when she saw a stone obelisk marking their destination, and on that queue, the sun took its final bow and dipped below the horizon.

    "This is thendmark?" Bruce stared at the elongated oval-shaped stone structure, held by three legs that were bedded into the ground, and at the small stone altar beneath it. "It looks like the top of an underground sacrificial tomb." He chuckled and looked at Kris, and the tanker stared at him and then looked at Idria on his other side.

    "Did someone tell him?"

    "Huh, is it truly?" Bruce asked shocked.

    "A hundred years ago, many thousands sacrificed their lives to create the conjoined barriers as ast effort to prevent the demon army from advancing to Argom, which was the only standing defence against them, it was the peak of the war until date," Kris answered.

    "It is more urate to say they were sacrificed instead of saying they gave their lives, the ten obelisks had already been built, and with the hasty retreat of the remainder of the continent toward Argom it took no time at all to trap those poor souls, back then, Arkadia was a much darker ce; hope was nowhere near as pronounced as it is today." She adjusted her sses when A fired off a green mana re into the air announcing their arrival.

    "How exactly does it work then, won''t it require live sacrifices to reactivate it a second time?" Bruce furrowed his brows. "Are we going to-"

    "Heavens no," A replied, waving her hand as the entire mage corps came forward. "Leave the restoration of the barrier to us mages, it will be a day at most before we can move on again, so in the meantime the army will be on guard.

    "How exactly does it even work?" Eris approached, staring up at the fifty-foot structure that held an eerie aura at the top almost as if it was watching them.

    "The barrier was designed with every creature on Arkadia in mind, Humans, Beastfolk, Elves, the Dwarven and so on, monsters are not allowed through, and demons are automatically repelled, it has a strong detection system, and anything that has even the slightest chance of getting through will be exterminated using a portion of the mana that holds it intact...

    it has a range of over a mile." A gestured toward the far west where they could see the silhouette of a skeleton with a portion of the skull missing.

    "So how was it broken?" Bruce stared.

    "It supplies its own mana through passive absorption, but one or two things can cause th barriers to shatter, the first isplete depletion; where the enemy forces are so plentiful that the obelisk expends all of its power trying to exterminate them, and the second is through direct attack by a foe which it could not destroy." She exined gesturing at Ikaris and Dina who were still conversing away from everyone else.

    "The Minotaur they killed was such an enemy, overbearing and overpowered beyond the capabilities of the obelisk, judging by how thend is scarred, the obeliskust have been depleted of its mana and shut down on its own."

    "So you''re saying Ikaris and Dina have the firepower to destroy the barrier?" Han asked surprised.

    "I am saying, with your exponential growth heroes, it will not be long before you are all capable of breaking these barriers, at that point you will be ready to match to the north and kill the instigator." A tapped her staff, and her followers formed up and went after her.

    "But yes, with their current power, Dina with her cosmic magic and Ikaris with her ever-growing cataclysmic magic, either of them would be enough to break the barrier with a bit of effort.

    "Dina, we will begin in another hour after the sun has set," A called to her student, and thetter nodded and waved at her. "Let''s start preparations."

    "I will go now," Ikaris gave Dina a small nod. "How is your mana, will it be enough?"

    "Maxed out." Dina flexed her arms with a nervous chuckle.

    "They used live sacrifices the first time because of theck of preparation and the urgency of an attack, but with thebined efforts of the Mages it''ll be reactivated without casualties this time, but A said it''s going to take a lot of effort and shiftssting as long as a day with the constant threat of an attack looming over our heads..."

    "Which leads to the responsibility of the advance, and why I am here," Ikaris nodded and saw her off with a wave. "Do not worry, nothing, absolutely nothing will get by me, I swear it."

 Chapter 74: On top of the Obelisk

    "Not a single one." Sol sat at the peak of the obelisk staring at the darkness across the horizon, it truly was the only demon here, I''m kind of surprised that the fighting didn''t attract them, but they are just keeping their distance."

    "That is because they fear my power, and the power of the heroes~" Ikaris wasfortably seated in hisp facing him slowly grinding against him while he groped her breasts over her blouse.

    "I''m quite surprised you came here though," Sol smiled up at her, reaching under her skirt while she arched with her hands on his legs and began grinding faster, causing her sigils to hum and give off a radiant light. "Didn''t you say nothing would get by you?"

    "T-there is nothing to get ...by me... m-master!" Ikaris reached for him again and hugged his neck, leaning onto his hand and shaking while she continued her grind.

    "Are you sure you''re not just neglecting your duties of a hero?"

    "Never, I would never~!!" Ikaris turned her eyes to the skies and dug her nails into Sol''s neck and back when he suddenly started moving his hand against her thrusts. "I want more..." She breathed out a huff of raw mana falling backwards and sol had to catch her.

    "We''re right above over a thousand people, if you lose control like this someone is going to notice." Sol stood from the seat he made there and held her arched allowing her to view the ground upside down and see the camp as the soldiers bustled around.

    "I... Am not an exhibitionist, the stares of others make my skin crawl, and I cannot leave here yet... But..."

    "Even I have to admit, the only time you aren''t shy is when you''re in a fight," Sol agreed with her. "But if this is the desire I have to satisfy them I will not hold back, you will have to try your best to control yourself," Sol turned her back to him and bent her to hold on to the chair. "Do you understand, Ikaris?"

    "Your words are perfectly clear, master," Ikaris straightened her legs and lowered her torso even more, causing Sol to bite his lips and look away as the space around them was sealed and her true form manifested in a burst of white mana.

    "I can wait no lnng mashhhkar!" Her words deformed and loudened into a pleasured yelp when Sol reached and pressed her tongue to the base of her mouth while mercilessly burying himself to the hip in a single thrust, relishing in the pleasure it caused both of them as she snapped the handles of the chair from squeezing it down.

    "This is truly my second greatest pleasure in life!" Sol roughly grabbed Ikaris''s hair and pulled her toward him while he jolted forward letting out a grunt while she squealed and gasped.

    "Shecong (second)?"

    "That''s right, my greatest pleasure is still the love that you''ve shown me, the loyalty that you''ve selfishly given to me, the life we have promised each other is myfort; everything I adore and enjoye from you, Ikaris!" Sol folded both her hands behind her and bent her before him again.

    "That is why, no matter what, I''ll never let you go," His pace quickened while the goddess slowly lost her ability to form coherent words as her mind, her body, and her emotions were being targeted at the same time.

    "Wh- haah~ hnn~!" Ikaris went through three different levels of being flustered before she felt her legs starting to give out. "M-m-m-m-master-"

    [!!?]

    Ikaris found her feet slowly rising off the ground, and looking around Sol had half undergone demonification, his left eye was crimson, and his right eye had traces of demigod mana seeping through it, and his teeth were slightly sharpened, his appearance slightly sobered her,

    "Are you..."

    Her words fell off when their eyes made four, he was nning something she was not ready for, she could feel it.

    "Master?"

    "Let''s have some fun, Ikaris!" Solughed as his demigod manapletely suppressed the demon-god transformation and they both disappeared in a sh of divine mana leaving an invisible ripple in the air.

    "Did someone just cast magic?" Dina looked around when she felt a shift in the mana around her like the disturbance of a rock falling into a small body of still water.

    "Focus, we are about to begin," A responded with a serious stare as she ced her staff on the alter beneath the obelisk, letting it stand perfectly vertical and then stepping away and sping her hands.

    The Mages formed five rings around her, and at her side was Dina who was going to carry the heaviest burden as her mana was the highest.

    "Alright," Dina spread her hands and began speaking in arcane along with her teacher.

    Seconds passed without anything happening, and then suddenly the standing staff on the altar began emitting a blue light while the words they spoke appeared in a magic circle around them, and then another appeared around the first ring of mages, the more they cast therger the circles would be until everything was formed into one great magic formation that spun around the Mages and illuminated the obelisk.

    "Allow me to go first," A ced her hand on a her ne and tuggedbit off her body allowing her mana to wildly escape her body as she began a different chant, while Dina split her focus to pay attention.

    Runes began appearing on the obelisk reaching all the way to the top and then casting a bright light that illuminated the entire area for several hundred metres, and the army watched in awe as the very top of the obelisk opened up and began swallowing raw visible mana from the air.

    "Dina." A called, when she looked around and saw the other mages sitting with their eyes closed andplete focus on their faces. "We must stabilise the obelisks mana absorption, otherwise it will start taking mana from living beings as well," She instructed her, taking a seat next to the altar and gesturing that she do the same.

    "The only way to prevent it from doing so is controlling the input manually or destroying the obelisk itself, which would spell the end of Arkadia, the activation will take at least 13-15 hours, so prepare yourself."

    "Understood."

    "I swear she does this every time," Han stood facing the fields to the east, and at his side Lily Shadowpond had been temporarily assigned after Ikaris disappeared; this was the same older woman that had taken to Sol''s defence and spected that he had been exposed to demonkind before being summoned to Arkadia.

    "I hear she often disappears with the young man after a battle." Lily leaned her head but kept her gaze toward the dark, counting on Han''s perception as all they were able to see was what the obelisk illuminated.

    "Every single time..." Han growled. "She does this every single time, but we are still active here she should show some sense of responsibility at the very least-"

    "I used to do the same with my husband back in the day," Lily chuckled. "Before he was my husband though, it was about two decades after the obelisks activated, thends inside of the barrier still had endless demonkin to exterminate, but we still found time after every battle to fuck around!" Sheughed, holding her belly while Han looked at her.

    She had many visible scars on her exposed arms and face, and he could imagine she was beautiful when she was younger because she was still gorgeous even considering her battle-worn state and her age being almost 100.

    "Why haven''t you retired?" He asked, and saw the small smile the woman had get slowly erased by an expression of dread. "As your husband, I''d never have let you fight obthe front like this, I couldn''t stomach the thought of-

    "He died when I was fairly young; my husband that is, and I was so ovee with hatred for the demons that I left the main army and joined the advance regiment, a week after his death... I had a miscarriage." Lily held her gaze straight and her voice dialed down into a soft somber tone. "I did not even know."

    "His brothers joined the advance army with me, and I helplessly watched an entire bloodline of great men die from their own hatred, in the end I was the only member of his family that survived that year, I had nothing left, so I closed my heart and dedicated my soul to the army, a D I have been fighting ever since.

    "God..." Han stared at her. "I''m sorry-"

    "The army is full of stories like mine, there is nothing special about this tale, but still, it is beautiful to see them express their youth so openly." Lily went back to the main topic of Sol and Ikaris.

    "I am rather envious of them, she smiled, it would be utter chaos of that boy died though, the goddess of battle might lose herself in bloodthirst, because I have never seen a woman so in love before."

    "You don''t need to worry for either of their sakes," Han responded to Lily''s concerns. "Sol is strong, incredibly-unreasonably strong, even more so than Ikaris and Dina who have shown destruction I never imagined I''d ever see with my naked eyes, and Ikaris is tenacity in the flesh, she never stops progressing, she is closer to his strength than any of us can ever hope to be."

    "He is that strong, and yet he refuses to fight?"

 Chapter 75: My Love

    "You''re probably unaware because the queen has suppressed the information, but upon our arrival, had Ikaris not stood her ground they nned on killing him, he does not fight for the queen, he does not fight for the country, he doesn''t give a rat''s ass about anything that''s happening to Arkadia, he''s only here because he is Ikaris''s master, and without him at her side or watching her she would never fight either, she doesn''t listen to anyone else."

    "I see how it is," Lily gave Han a knowing nce. "Young hero, I have a brazen question, it is not my position nor my authority to ask so you have all right to reject it."

    "Go on," Han have her his full attention.

    "There were strange rumours before, I heard it on my way back to Argom that Sol Vestic is the one who killed Kane Angelman; the sword of the queen, that he beheaded him right at the generals feet and then threatened to destroy the very foundation of Argom if anyone tried stealing her away, is this true?"

    "It is," Han nodded. "At that time I was shocked too; before then, none of us knew that he was strong, he had hidden his power, but when Ikaris''s life was endangered he flew into a rage and murdered all of the intruders, and then upon finding out who the instigator was, he killed him on sight." He looked at her with a serious expression.

    "All of the intruders?"

    "That''s right, it was confirmed afterwards, but it was the same weapon which killed Kane that was responsible for the death of the others, we were all overwhelmed, but in an instant he killed every single one of them."

    "You are quite brave then, or is it stupidity that drives your actions, hero of the sword?" Lily raised a brow at him upon hearing of Sol''s earliest known feat.

    "What are you getting at?"

    "The Queen was informed that the Red-headed woman was the one who killed Kane upon discovering his treachery, and with you now confirming the rumours, it is evident that the general and all of you lied to the Queen of Argom to keep Sol a secret, I doubt this was something you all decided without him."

    "It was his personal request which the general agreed to," Han nodded.

    "Meaning, you all fear him, correct?"

    "Well..." Han scratched his head, remembering the way Sol had schooled them in their challenge. "With the power he has, he is easily capable of stealing power from the Queen herself... He''s scary when he''s mad."

    "And yet you have the balls to pursue his woman whom he mercilessly murdered the Queen''s sword to protect?" She asked, and Han froze. "You have no grounds by which to deny this, I have closely observed the heroes'' party since their arrival, after failing once before you have secretly obsessed over that woman, allow me to warn you once young hero... Give up."

    "Listen-"

    "No you listen," Lily turned to him with motherly concern, slightly raising her voice.

    "A man who is willing to destroy thest surviving nation of a dying world is not the kind of person you should be trying to double-cross, when I saw his response to the demons that day I saw foreboding death to anything that was his enemy, right now you are beneath his concern, but if you force yourself between him and Ikaris, Han Young, you will die a miserable death, you might fool the others, but I am an old woman, I have seen your kind before-"

    "It''s none of your concern what I do or don''t do with my time Lily, don''t you dare try ordering me around... Just shut up and keep your fucking nose out of people''s business." Han''s gentle facade bled away revealing his inner thoughts as she poked at a nerve.

    "Fucking hell... stay out of my business," He leaned his head in her direction, looking at the shock on her face.

    "Maybe when I''m a lot older I''ll seek out pretty old women like you, I''ve heard that the older you get the hornier you get too so I''m actually looking forward to those days of endless fucking, be d I''m not into old women, otherwise..." Hemented, and she felt shivers across her skin at his gaze.

    "Don''t even think about repeating this to anyone else either, you got that?" Han straightened again, but she had shrunken into a shell of thoughts and missed his wordspletely until he grabbed her by her breastte and raised her off her feet. "If I hear this out of anyone''s mouth, I''ming for you first, understood?" Han asked, and watched the woman shiver at his gaze again and nod.

    "Good, good." He released her and assumed a passive stance again.

    "You said you joined the advance army seventy years ago, so does that mean you joined the army as a child?"

    "Fifteen years old, I met my husband when I was eighteen, married at twenty, he died two yearster." Lily answered, focused on her guard duties again.

    "That means you''re ny two, how the hell are you even able to lift a sword?"

    "Ny is not that old on Arkadia, humans live to a hundred and fifty years old on average." She answered again.

    "Haha," Han smiled. "I might die before a hundred and fifty, but it definitely gives me a lot of time to enjoy my life.

    "You do not intend to go back to your homeworld?" She asked dissmissively.

    "Of course not, unless the powers came with me I''d end up an average magicless nobody again, but here I''m a hero and a leader, I can do whatever I want to whomever I want, whenever I fucking want to...

    who would give this up, back on earth I''d never be able to reach her, but here I''m capable of it, Sol is all that stands in my way, I just need to get stronger than he is and Ikaris is as good as mine!" Hand thought to himself, leaving Lily''s question unanswered while he smiled.

    An explosion across a mountain range causing massive avnches.

    A river burning out within seconds and then getting flooded again by a bursting dam.

    The gods were in confusion as they saw multiple sites of disaster popping up across Arkadia every few minutes, but because Ikaris had used her powers to mask their presence none was the wiser that it was her and Sol causing havoc across the continents.

    "This is crazy!" Ikaris pinned Sol to the ground, huffing out mana like breaths of fire as she rode him, and Sol mmed his head against the ground, causing the soil in the crater they had caused to fuse like rock and smoothen, taking on a soft and clean texture almost like that of a bed.

    "It''s absolutely crazy!" She pressed his arms to his side. "I... I love it!" She reached down and bit into his flesh, drawing white blood as she was ovee with passion and an orgasm that left her shaking.

    "Yeah," Sol slipped one arm free, grabbing her hair then pulling her off his neck and pushing her onto her back as she locked her legs around him to prevent him from escaping her grasp again.

    "It''s more than even I expected, to be able to exert this much power and knowing I won''t break you, it''s amazing, it''s a thrill I''ve never experienced!" Sol pulled her onto his torso, locking his hands around her as she started moving again.

    "But y''know what?"  He paused for a second, allowing her to catch her breath and then reaching beneath her arms holding on to her shoulders from behind and keeping her fastened to himself.

    "What is it, master?" Ikaris asked, swallowing and breathing heavily against him.

    "This will always be better," He began slowly moving again, allowing her raging moans from earlier to be reced with soft tones of delight as she closed her eyes and intertwined her fingers in his messy white hair.

    Their ovepping mana caused the smoothened crater to sprout new life; short smooth and soft grass apanied by small cool flowers with glowing white petals grew around them, turning the surrounding nd into a starry meadow, the fires around them were douced out, and the mana in the air started shaking as Sol let out a soft moan in her ear and roughly dragged her onto himself onest time before her dinivity was suppressed again and she loosely clung to him, sighing repeatedly.

    "To y rough is the peak of excitement, but your softness, the way you ept me, the charms you possess when our bodies are peacefully joined..." Sol stared in her eyes as he filled her insides. "It''s the purest."

    "Master?" Ikaris''s already red cheeks seemed to go a shade darker as her sweat steamed away and her lips curved into a sloppy smile at his words.

    "I love you, Ikaris." Sol smiled at her, reaching up and kissing her softly as her tears sprung and flowed down her cheeks. "Why are you crying again?" he chuckled, picking her up and standing with her.

    "I can''t help it," She cuddled onto him, staring up at him. "You say such embarrassing yet beautiful things."

    "Haha, I''m an awkward man after all," Sol hugged her, taking a deep breath as his demigod appearance subsided and his hair fell loosely and regained its curls, turning brown everywhere but the ends.

    "Shall we return then?" He asked, and she nodded as their ruined clothes and armours were repaired on their bodies in an instant.

    "Of course," Ikaris  was put to stand and she held his hand with her cheeks steaming.

    "My Love."

 Chapter 76: The Schemer.

    "It seems nothing happened, after all." Ikaris approached Han and Lily nodding to the woman as she gave her a respectful bow. "I apologise for stepping away unannounced, I needed to clear my head," Ikaris patted Lily''s shoulder. "You have my permission to take rest."

    "Are you certain?" Lily asked, ncing at Han who was ying the fool once more.

    "Absolutely, rest up for tonight." Ikaris smiled at her, and Lily spared one more nce to Han and then gave Ikaris a bow again.

    "Then, I will take my leave, be vignt mdy, monsters lurk around every corner." She warned her, but Ikaris only smiled at her and nodded again, slightly pushing her back so she would leavefortably.

    "What the hell''s that supposed to mean?" Han mumbled watching the veteran leave before looking at Ikaris. "Where have you been?"

    "I just said I was clearing my head," Ikaris stood at attention with her gaze set on the dark horizon. "I did not stutter."

    "You were out with Sol again, neglecting your duties as a hero-"

    "Do not pester me little man, I am in an exceptionally good mood tonight, I do not wish to sully it with any pointless quarrelling-"

    "You can''t keep running off whenever you please, even if you don''t take orders from the queen at least have some pride and act like a hero for once instead of ying hookie with that bastard!" Han snapped at Ikaris, and a momentter his voice was quieted when the air around him vibrated and an unseen force started squeezing his head.

    "Han, you are only the leader of the heroes'' party by title, nobody listens to, respects, or even likes you outside of battle, the only thing that merits your leadership is making good decisions in the moment," She slowly turned her head to him.

    "You do not have any standing with me as a hero, nor as a man, you do not qualify to approach me for any reason whatsoever, remember that the next time you believe you have any right to speak to me as if we are equals, I might just identally break your neck."

    Several minutes psed silently, with Ikaris as stoic as she could have ever been and Han fumbling through his mind.

    "Ikaris," He broke the silence, and instead of answering, she only looked over at him.

    "Those were some hurtful words," He admitted.

    "They are the truth." Ikaris looked forward again, smiling while she thought of Sol holding and confessing to her.

    "Can you help me?" He asked her, and her smile faltered after she raised a brow at him.

    "I don''t know how to be a better person, I fall back into old traits and bad habits all the time, I want to change, but I don''t know how; I need guidance..."

    "And you think I can guide you?" She stared at him as if he was an idiot.

    "Everyone likes you, despite what are supposed to be ws, you are still beloved, you even managed to turn Dina into a friend and nobody hated you like she did, what did I do different?" Han stared at her as she seemed to be showing interest to the question.

    "I did noting but be myself, I do not care if the gods themselves hate me as long as Sol doesn''t, it is not a matter of making people like you, it is knowing where your priorities are and leaving them to respect those priorities or hate them, it is their choice." Ikaris scoffed.

    "On the matter of what I said earlier, it is not true that everyone hates and mocks you, you struck a nerve and I spoke out of spite, so sorry," She turned toward the dark again.

    "Can we start over?"

    "Eh?"

    "As friends, I mean," Han slightly extended his hand to her, taking a step closer.

    "Do not casually approach me, you and Sol are not on good grounds as either friends or allies, I do not want to associate with you either," She narrowed her eyes at him and he winced and sped his outstretched hand.

    "So you''re saying if Vestic and I were friends  we could also be friends?"

    "Any friend of his is a friend of mine." Ikaris looked ahead again and summoned a staff made of mana and moulded it into a physical bow then took a deep breath and raised it, blocking an arrow that zoomed toward her face from the darkness.

    "-An attack!?" Han spun and summoned his sword, staring into the dark of the night. "I don''t sense them!"

    [Mana maniption]

    [Tier 5 mana arrow]

    [Tier six infernal magic: explosion]

    Ikaris raised the bow and took aim as a crimson bolt appeared out of thin air in her grasp.

    [Detection]

    She activated one more technique and then released the arrow into the air, watching the light it emitted slowly brighten until it was as bright as a re shooting toward the sky and then falling in a wide arc.

    "There is no need to raise an rm just yet, it is a small party of low level demonkin, but even then, I will alert the others of an approach." She turned and started walking toward the Obelisk while a crimson explosion erupted in the distance.

    "What the fuck does she call low level?" Han saw a massive creature in the distance get roasted along with several smaller ones close to it. He closed his eyes and tried using [detection] but nothing came up for him.

    "Compared to her and the others, my senses are more attuned to close-quartersbat or midranged fights, I didn''t even sense that arrow approach." He looked at the rugged and saw-like end of the projectile that had been aimed at Ikaris.

    "...Do I have to be friends with that prick?" He wondered. "Han don''t lose faith, If that''s what gets you to drop your guard then I definitely won''t mind, I''ll get you no matter the sacrifice I have to make, Ikaris."

    "Han!" Eris came running over and stopping next to him. "What happened?"

    "She said it was a negligible advance by the demons," he gestured to the mes in the distance. "Since I can not verify I am forced to believe her words." He gave a half smile sticking the tip of his sword I to the ground as more soldiers joined them.

    "You should know that what Ikaris and Dina consider weak are far from it!" Eris shook her hands at him while the soldiers all raised longbows chanting and shooting a ming arrow each into the direction Ikaris had been attacked from, within a few seconds the area was properly lit as the arrows hit the ground and created steady pirs of mes like massive torches.

    "She killed them all...?" Eris stared after she had utilized her healer-unique detection magic and found nothing living in the field of fires.

    "As I said," Ikaris walked through the guard unit and ced a chair at the front, sitting with her legs crossed in ady-like manner and holding out her hand as Sara walked through the darkness and ced a cup of tea in her grasp. "They were low-level," She nodded thanks to Sara who gave her a small bow and then turned to the others.

    "Tea anyone?" Sara asked, and the soldiers all stared at her estranged; did being around the fool of the army finally fry her brain, was this not the crusade to repair the barrier before the demons invaded and got to Argom?"

    "May I?" Han raised his hand, and Sara quickly approached and held her empty hand before him, causing slight surprise when a small shadow appeared in her palm and a teacup emerged from it. "That''s cool..." He took the cup from her palm and lowered it so she could pour for him.

    "Sara," Han thought, staring at the battle maid, as that is what she truly was, had her role not been fixated to Sol she would have never been allowed to leave the castle grounds as battlemaids were a part of the Queen''s personal detail. "I''ve had my way with every single maid in the castle except her, he stared at her smile as he thanked her and took the first sip.

    "You''re unreachable because you never leave Sol''s side, and whenever he disappears, so do you."  He smiled at her again,plementing the tea while his mind conjured up images of him defiling the maiden, it was a shock when he found out that they were all virgins, which meant of all the battlemaids, Sara was now his set goal.

    "While I''m at it, that Renia woman... No, A first, I need to, with that body I absolutely need to fu-"

    "Sir?" Sara leaned her head.

    "Oi dork you''re staring." Eris kicked his leg, and he snapped back to his senses and chuckled.

    "Sorry, I got lost for a second thinking about how sweet you are," he smiled at her. "Even out here in the darkest hour, you continue to shine with a radiant smile." He praised her.

    "Is that so?" Sara closed her eyes and smiled back at Han. "Well thank you, had my sisters not spoken of your... endeavours, I might have fallen for such ttering wordsing from the handsome hero of the sword."

    "Fuck..."

 Chapter 77: Essence of the Spear hero

    The rest of the night had passed by uneventfully for everyone, including Han, but at the crack of dawn there was a drumming in the air caused by the rampaging approach of a massive body of demons, it made the ground shake like quakes.

    "How soon until the barrier is fully functional again?" Ikaris asked Dina who was on break and recovering her mana.

    "A said it would take another few hours before the obelisk is fully functional again, five tops, but I don''t think we''ll leave until tomorrow either way."  Dina peeked one eye open and looked at Ikaris who was curiously looming over her and observing her mana fluctuations as she absorbed it from the air and ground.

    "You will be too exhausted to leave, the Mages have worked throughout the entire night expending their mana in order to control that thing," Ikaris looked up at the looming obelisk. "Do not mind me, just focus on yourself and I will be sure to keep you safe." She put a bit of room between the two of them and stood facing the army''s back, listening to the fight unfold up front.

    "Thank you," Dina closed her eye again.

    "Hm."

    "So Ikaris isn''t joining us?" Bruce was working with Han, deflecting attacks from projectiles andrge creatures while thetter served as vanguard. "What the hell''s she doing then?"

    "She left before the fight even started, saying she wouldn''t intervene unless a powerful enemy showed up." Han answered. "This could''ve been easier if she just-"

    "Forget it, she''s right, the mages need her protection, and we''re severelycking right now toopared to her and Dina, we shouldn''t get left too far behind!" Usami used [skill maniption] and elongated her spear turning a long line of demons into a kebab and retracting it to deflect another attacking from behind her.

    "Especially me, so quit your whining and focus on getting rid of these small-fry." Usami began rapidly skewering her enemies until arge pile of corpsesid before her.

    "That is easy to say, but there seems to be no end to these monsters!" Morn joined Usami in killing a particrlyrge demonkin with a series of stabs.

    "Ugh..." Usami turned her back to him.

    "We''ve been relying on the Mages too much, this is a lot easier with them, even those who were on reserve are fighting today, and I can''t just spam attacks either because it''s a mix of enemies and allies as far as I can see."  She went into a stance."Maybe [dark spear] was the wrong choice of a spear-art to practice, abyssal magic is dangerous to everyone and everything." She grimaced.

    "...Usami, I wish to speak to you after this battle-"

    "Sorry Sensei, I''m not interested!" Usami summoned several spears all at once creating a crown around herself and raising several demons into the air simultaneously.

    "I don''t think anything you sayter on will be important either." She spun and blocked attack after attack before Han came to her aid and took half the numbers down within a series of precise strikes while she did the same after morn had retreated.

    "Did you two have a falling-out?" Han asked her helping her to her feet when she stumbled. "You both seemed to get along even better than Eris and Idria before."

    "He''s dying my progression, every time there''s a powerful enemy his advice is to flee and live, if I listened to him in the first ce then you and the others would have died when you were facing the eldritch dragonst week," Usami huffed, casting [Skill maniption on her spear and making it the size of a pencil. "I need power, not protection!"

    "Well said!" Han pressed his back to hers while Bruce rushed over toward the medic units that were about to be attacked. "Can you handle here?" He asked.

    "Go!"

    Han nodded and chased after Bruce and Kris while the rest of the captains converged toward her.

    "Usami," Lyra came to her side first. "Why did you send them off?"

    "The army is seeing too many casualties, if the medical units fall that number will skyrocket, you should go there as well!" Usami spun and tossed her shrunken spear.

    [Skill maniption: Titan''s Spear]

    The spear suddenly grew to its original size and then continued growing until it was almost asrge as the obelisk, crashing into a new wave of demonkin and crushing all of them. "Let me handle the next wave myself and focus on getting rid of the ones that are inside of our lines.

    "Usami that is preposterous!" Morn intervened again grabbing her hand. "We are safer as a team!"

    "Come Morn!" Lyra smacked him across the shoulder, nodding to Usami. "Let the hero fight to her fullest potential, we are in the way." She dragged him away and nodded to Usami again and thetter took a breath and turned facing theing threat. "Give it your all."

    "Alright," Usami summoned her giant spear again in its regr size and stuck it in the ground gathering her hair and catching it into a ponytail. "I don''t have a choice now without the help of the others; I''ll power through!" She grabbed her spear and rushed toward the demons.

    [Dark spear technique]

    "Was leaving it to Usami a good idea?" Eris asked, catching a mace being swung by a demon with her bare hand and smashing the metal with a squeeze allowing Bruce the opportunity to cut it down.

    "She requested this, you know she''s currently the weakest."

    "What if she gets a bad injury and-"

    "Have faith in her, so far she''s pulled through when we needed her, let her have this victory." Han intercepted an arrow through his hand and spun, lodging his sword into the head of an archer demonkin after throwing it with a roar.

    "I sense another wave behind that one."

    Eris grabbed the arrow in Han''s hand and yanked it roughly then cast [heal] on him. "You''re the leader, even if she asked, her life is your responsibility, I hope you know that." She red at him, and he nodded seriously.

    "Of course I know that, I believe in her; that''s all."

    And so it continued for the next three hours, an endless stream of demonkin seemingly appearing from nowhere.

    "There''s another wave... Again?" Usami stood in a massive pool of blood and bodies with ck mes and white smoke-like phantasm creatures flying around after her overuse of abyssal magic, tens of hundreds, she had killed countless demonkin, but leaning on her spear and breathing heavily it was evident that she was at her limits.

    "Even levelling up hasn''t stopped me from getting exhausted huh?" She yanked the spear from the body she was using as a tform and raised it with a huff.

    [Level 119]

    [Mana 0.2k\\70k]

    [Skill maniption unavable]

    [Dark spear technique unabailible]

    [Spear summons cost 300 mana, unable to summon-]

    "-Fucking do it anyway!" Usami snapped swinging her hand through the system window. "My spear is cracked I can''t use it anymore-" She was about to curse again but winced when she felt a phantom pain stab her heart as mana was forced out of her body to summon herst spear while the damaged one vanished from her other hand.

    "There..." She staggered forward and used the new spear to catch herself again. "I can still fight, I can still grow stronger!"

    [Mana: -0.1\\70k]

    [Conditions have fully been met, the system has acknowledged your tenacity and willfulness in the face of ack of power, you will be rewarded for forcefully breaking your limits; activating title]

    "Title?" Usami staggered again and caught her bnce before the new popup window.

    [Essence of Spear Hero (new): Active]

    [As long as there is a sliver of hope the hero of the spear will not lose strength in her body, no matter the broken bones and internal injuries life essence will continue to burn, healing has been drastically increased to prevent loss of bodily functions, you have earned an audience from the gods, all stats have been increased by 10%]

    [The god of hardships smiles at your willful spirit and intends to reward you in the future]

    "That''s not a lot though!" Usami took a deep breath as a portion of her strength was returned to her. "But if I can indefinitely fight in this state it''s more than enough, plus a god is going to reward me, that''s perfect!"

    [Activating Dark Spear Technique]

    [Activating guided missile]

    [Once below the threshold your mana will be raised to the 10% margin for effective casting, mana is currently set at 7k until the cooldown of (Spear Hero) resets]

    "Do we help her?" Eris asked, wiping her hands free of purple blood while her and the others stared at Usami rushing toward thest batch of demonkin.

    "The strongest is only at level 100, she should be fine, maybe." Sol seemed to appear out of nowhere next to her.

    "Where the heck have you been?" Han stared at Sol, but thetter smiled at him instead of being affected by his tone.

    "There''s a hot spring a few miles east of here, I was taking a soak, it''s not every day you get to use a natural hot-"

    "You asshole," Han narrowed his eyes, and Sol''s cheer dampened for a brief moment as his eyes narrowed and his smile thinned and widened.

    "You wanna fight me, hero?" Sol asked.

    "Haha, he thinks he can fight the sword hero." One of the soldiers behind themughed, but Han in reality had just been shocked speechless from the question.

    "Oops, she suddenly got injured," Sol looked in the direction of Usami.

    "Can''t have her dying can we, take care of that will you." He looked at Han again as he was already preparing to rush across the field of corpses to help his fellow hero, but above them two streaks of white flew by, and a secondter the ground Usami was fighting on erupted into a great white explosion sending bodies flying in every direction.

    "There." Ikaris gracefullynded next to Sol, folding her arms after shing residual magic off her fingers. "I took care of it as requested."

    "She''s fine, don''t worry," Dinanded next to Ikaris with a huff, "I cast a shield on her as soon as she was injured." She waved her staff with a grin but the sighed and used it for support to not fall over.

    "Dina?" Eris smiled at her looking around at the Obelisk and seeing the space around it distort as a transparent shield grew from the top.

    *Snap

    Usami appeared before them, hunching and breathing heavily with her spear tightly grasped, she had a cut across her cheek, and a sword sticking out of her leg with countless other cuts and bruises across her body and dented and worn down armour.

    "She showed you all up today, when everyone else wasining, Usami did the opposite and gained power from the system in return, how ironic, usually it''s the other way around." Sol looked at the state she was in and smiled at her. "She showed you all what it means to stand against the odds as a hero."

    "Thanks ...for the praise," Usami raised a weak thumbs up at Sol while Eris grabbed her in a hug.

    [Recovery: heal]

 Chapter 78: Lustful Princess.

    "When, no, how did this happen?" A had the face of jealousy and shock as she watched her student sitting next to Sol and eating as she casually spoke to Ikaris who did the same on his other side, even Sol was a bit taken aback by her presence and how Ikaris allowed her to be this close when she had already beat her up and tried killing her in the past for doing less.

    He also didn''t mind though, Ikaris was interested in Dina''spany, and addressed her as friend; at title he never imagined she would call anyone, so he was more pleased than he was confused.

    What did catch him off-guard though was the fact that Ikaris had not called him master once, in fact she had barely addressed him at all, she just showed up each time with the brightest smile, blushing and embarrassed as she used his given name or simply engaged in conversation.

    "Even though I healed her, she still passed out as soon as she ate." Eris stared down at Usami who quietly slept in herp.

    "You can''t cure mental fatigue, Eris,Usami has done and gone through a lot in thest seven hours." Idria smiled, watching the two across the campfire as they loudly spoke about the most random things that they could think of, smiling all the time. "If she is a burden, leave her to me and I will-"

    "Of course she isn''t," Eris shook her head and waved her hands. "I''m just surprised, even now, not even Dina and Ikaris have had their titles rewarded by the system yet, and look how powerful they are, yet it was Usami who awakened [hero] before the rest of us..."

    "She did what nobody else was willing to do at the time, whether for personal reasons or just out of fear, nobody else wanted to stand alone in the face of that many foes, but she actually requested to do so, even refusing treatment or help, I say she has earned it, besides, as she exined, it was the god of hardships that recognised and chose to reward her, so the conditions might be different for each of you." Idria theorised, and Eris nodded.

    "Maybe."

    "Sol, dear," Ikaris held on to Sol''s hand after he had finished eating and leaned onto his shoulder, smiling. "May I have a moment with you?" She asked, and on that queue Dina on the opposite side sighed and smiled.

    "Well, I''ll be turning in now." Dina stood and smiled at the two of them. "Excuse me." She said and then left.

    "Did the two of you make some kind of deal?" Sol looked at Ikaris, and the goddess at his side smiled at his confusion and nodded.

    "Yes, some kind." She stood and pulled him to his feet. "I have a request of you, my love," Ikaris spoke softly, barely audible as she averted her flushed face and avoided his gaze.

    "A ...request?" Sol''s cheeks also reddened as her words brought him back to the previous night and how boldly he had confessed to her, he realised now that her current attitude was because of what he had said, somewhere in there, her submission to him had been turned up and broken down into something else, her bodynguage had changed, her mannerisms had changed, in his eyes, she had be more reserved, far more submissive, and very tame.

    "What request do you have?"

    Ikaris was acting like a new bride.

    [The goddess of war stares intently at this conversation]

    [The goddess of love has noticed a new dynamic]

    [The god of stories has seen a change in the way the female protagonist behaves]

    [The god of destruction scoffs at the drunken love atmosphere]

    [The god of goats has found a new corner to be humbled in]

    "Not here..." Ikaris held on to Sol, and he nodded and closed his eyes, envisioning and teleporting them to the castle in their bedroom where to both their shock they found Da Vermon sitting on their bed, wearing something far too revealing for her age.

    "I knew it, after news of the obelisk being sessfully activated it was only a matter of time before you came here again with [mimic]." Da stared at them both.

    "As the rumours suggest, you leave the camp after each fight and return here-"

    "I haven''t seen her in a minute," Sol looked at Ikaris, and she nodded and stared back at Da again.

    "I am seeking-"

    "Is it customary to just enter someone''s ce of rest whenever you please?"Sol asked, seeing Ikaris''s mood on the verge of being ruined by the rude little girl. "I hope this is important, princess."

    "It absolutely is!" Da stood, throwing her coat off her shoulders and revealing that she was wearing almost nothing beneath it and walked up to them cing her hand on Sol''s chest and holding Ikaris''s hand simultaneously. "I have a proposal."

    "Proposal?" Ikaris asked, confused more than even Sol was as she stared at the girl''s attire.

    "Yes, a literal one," Da''s cheeks reddened, and she averted her eyes and balled her fist in Sol''s shirt. "I... want to be deflowered by the scourge of the castle."

    "What the actual fuck?" Sol groaned with his eyes closed and his hand slowly raised to his forehead for a slow and dramatic p. "Did your mother put you up to this?" He looked down at her. "Is this another one of her attempts to get rid of me by framing me with something so obviously a trap?" He asked, and the princess shook her head in denial.

    "Mother believes that I am at the noble house of Crimson withdy Renia, but she had already refused to amodate me-"

    " Oi, oi... Don''t lose track, exin yourself;" Sol dropped his hand on Dr''s head as his eyes began flickering indigo. "Why is the Argomite princess dressed like a whore in my room and making such an absurd and unrealistic request?" Sol asked, giving her for the first time an air of danger as he turned hostile. "Depending on your answer, this might turn ugly for you very quickly." He added.

    "I truly wished to be... Ugh," Da winced, lowered her head some more and held on to the straps of her fis corset.

    "Master Vestic, I have been trying to get your attention for thest three months to no avail, you are increasingly hard to get a hold of and the only time I see or hear you, you are apanied by the hero Ikaris, ever since the day you spoke down to my mother, I have be entranced by you, I often dream of your manhood as I pleasure myself..."

    "It is my hope and my desire to be used and ravaged in every promiscuous manner you can think of, so that I too can feel the way mdy has felt each time she praises your... Skills.

    I usually sleep in the room above yours when you visit to experience your ...intense and wild nature, I am infatuated by you my lord, I have tried multiple times to meet you in private but my attempts at breaking you apart have all yielded failure..." She paused when Ikaris stood before Sol defensively and summoned a sword.

    "Ikaris...?"

    "Are you that eager to die?" Ikaris loomed over Da, watching the girl shrink and fall to her knees.

    "I was wrong, I do not want to separate you anymore, it hase to my attention that Master Vestic would sooner die than be separated from you, so I came with a proposal; I have no other option than to request you include me in your pleasures, I will give you whatever you request lord of lust, my wealth, my every orifice is yours to do with as you please, let me be your concubine and I will serve you until my body and back are unable to recover, even if you decide toter discard me to your friends, I want to first be broken by you, ravaged, raped, utterly humiliated- I want to be tormented by your throbbing d-"

    "Out of the question, absolutely not, for fuck''s sake what kind of fucked up fantasies have you been having in that empty head of yours? Is everyone in this damned world fucking insane?" Sol snapped and looked away. "Get out!"

    "Please, I need this, I am already seventeen, I am of consent, you cannot be judged for-"

    "Leave, I won''t even entertain the thought, get out now." Sol turned his back while Ikaris red at her with her eyes tearing up and her hands trembling as she fought the urge to cut the princess into pieces.

    "Lady Ikaris, I..."

    "He said leave." Ikaris spared no sympathy for the pathetic princess. "Naive and foolish child, how dare you try to take my love away?" She ground her teeth with an agonised expression simr to what Sol had worn when she was kidnapped by the demigod impersonators.

    "I''m sorry..." Da forced herself to crawl past them to the bed and quickly grabbed her coat, pulling it over her shoulders and sniffling. "I''m sorry," She raised her head but was met with two pairs of death res that caused her skin to crawl and her blood to run cold.

    She ran, straight out of the room and into her mother who was just about to open the door after discovering through a secret message what her daughter was nning to do that night.

    "Mo..ther?" Da''s tears began flowing at a terribly fast pace when she made eye contact with her mom and before the Queen could speak a word she gathered her coat that had fallen off and took off sprinting down the isle.

    "Did you put her up to this?" Sol asked, right next to the Queen who was so startled she let out a yelp.

    "S-Sol!"

 Chapter 79: Make Love to Me. (18+ Special)

    "What are you-"

    "I asked you a question," Sol took the queen''s hand in his grasp and held on to her when she attempted to leave. "Did you put your daughter up to this?" He asked again, staring at her mercilessly as he tried calming his rage from spilling over.

    "Tonight was supposed to be special, for both Ikaris and myself, what the hell was your kid doing in our room?"

    "This..." Misty struggled with all her strength but found his grip impossible to escape despite getting reports that he was not even level 30 yet. "This is my castle how dare you-"

    *Snap

    Sol turned her wrist and folded her fingers in the opposite direction, raising her by her hand and tossing her into the room and then mming the door shut.

    The space was sealed in an instant by Ikaris who''s mood had been ruined almost

    beyond repair as she stood and watched the queen rolling on the ground, screaming and staring at her broken hand.

    "Silence..." Sol stared down at her, but her screams only escted as her eyes began turning crimson and her clothes started steaming. "I said be SILENT!!" He snapped a second time and the entire castle experienced a quake as his divinity filled the room like a flood and then vanished just as fast, leaving the queen beneath his gaze too shocked to make a peep; too terrified to utter a whisper.

    [The Selfish Deity has issued a warning, your life is in imminent danger, know your ce little Queen, do not provoke divinity]

    The system warned the Queen, and she stared at the message and then at Sol several times consecutively before her mouth hung open and she lowered her head, then pressed her forehead to the ground, extending her hands before her andying t on her face in utter mortification.

    "Da... was not ordered by me, your holiness, I was warned of her doings through the maids who were concerned for her well-being after she ordered them to avoid the entire floor until daybreak..."

    Her eyes had returned to normal, and the heat her body was exuding had gone cold again as sheid there staring at his feet.

    "You need to oversee your daughter better, if it was anyone else being offered her body in such a tempting manner she would have been taken advantage of, especially that bastard Han." Sol reached for her hand and pulled her roughly to her feet, squeezing the broken bone together and healing it in an instant along with her fingers.

    "Y-your holiness...?" She stared at her hand in shock and awe, but Sol''s gaze reminded her of the fact that Da had crossed the line. "Please forgive me-"

    "Get out, your tears disgust me." Sol closed his eyes and turned his back, and the queen''s face reddened as tears fell from her chin.

    "!!...eh-yes... of course, your holiness, m-my deepest apologies..." She lowered her head and backed away, opening the door with her head lowered and then closing it with a long sigh, falling to her knees and clutching her heart as her forehead pressed on the door.

    "How did..." The Queen shook her head. "I should have been kinder to him," she sobbed.

    "Mother," Da approached her from the side with her coat properly wrapped around herself. "Come." She extended her hand, and without protest the Queen took her promiscuous daughter''s hand and left.

    "Ikaris, I''m sorry," Sol stood before her, holding her shoulders and caressing her.

    "I thought you would wipe her memories away, but you just let her be... Why?" Ikaris looked up at him, and Sol smiled at her in response.

    "There''s no need, it will serve the queen some good to be humbled, and that little girl needs a humble and disciplined mother, otherwise she will be even more uncontroble."

    "Master..." Ikaris shook her head. "...My love," She closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against his chest, taking in his scent and smiling. "You smell of natural minerals,"

    "It''s the hot spring I found, do you want to go there and de-stress a little?"

    "Not now," Ikaris answered, going soft in her tone again.

    "I still wish to make my request," She locked her hands with his and pressed herself onto him, staring up in his eyes as her eyes began glowing a beautiful cerulean, her ears shimmered and grew taller, her hair stretched and brushed against the ground, and her already attractive figure became even more so.

    In response to Ikaris showing her true self, Sol unconsciously released the reigns on his magic, and his eyes inverted upon themselves while his hair turned white and became weightless.

    "Tell me."

    "I want you to make love to me," Ikaris stared at him pleadingly, and for a moment he seemed to miss her point, but a secondter, Sol smiled and raised his hands to her cheeks, brushing his thumb across her lips before delivering to her a soft kiss and hugging her.

    "As you wish."

    It was not a ststement that said "Use me as you please," or "I am your instrument of pleasure" like she usually said in her moments of heat, no, as she had hinted at before; it was a direct request to "make love." Something she had not even once mentioned before, was seeking the love she felt the day before, the passion she sensed within him.

    Sol held on the the reigns of her armour, and slowly started undressing her all the while being undressed by her in tandem, until all that remained were their naked selves before each other, her usual sigils that pulsated and radiated with her with her desires were calmly and brightly glowing, and they seemed to react to every move he made unlike before where they would go crazy.

    "Her emotions were in check, she was making conscious and un-influenced decisions.

    Her body glowed with ethereal light, and Sol''s did the same as he picked her up like a bride and brought her to his bed, sitting and holding on to her as she took his chin and began a slow chaste kiss, humming against his lips while his hands slowly and sensually explored her body, their magic sprung and mixed with each other spreading through the castle and subsiding over and over again in pulses as their minds melded into a singr consciousness and their bodies were joined when Solid her beneath himself, parted her legs and very slowly fed her his dick inch by inch.

    "Hnn~"

    Ikaris''s eyes glowed brightly as their magic continued to be indefinable from each others'', biting her lips and hissing in pleasure as Sol slowly drove his hips, joining their pelvises with every thrust and bracing his hand on her abdomen.

    The goddess began involuntarily moving her hips when her trained body began demanding more out of his advances, but Sol; while influenced strongly to the stimtion of her insides twisting and pulling him in retained hisposure.

    [My body, Love, is begging for you!" She closed her eyes slightly shaking as his thrusts kept pace and never sped up nor slowed down. [It is tormenting~!]

    [I can''t hold it!]

    [I''m aware,] Sol''s eyes narrowed and he dropped his weight, slowly caressing her breasts and raising her torso with the goal of eventually turning her. [I can''t help it either] He reached for her throat and pressed her into the bed. [Fuck...!] He gave one strong thrust and felt Ikaris''s legs begin shuddering beneath him.

    [Mmm!] She squealed and dug her nails into his arm, drawing his colourless white glowing blood as she gasped and began shaking and convulsing around him.

    Sol took a step away staring down at her exposed and vulnerable self beneath him and smiling as she heaved from being driven to a climax from a slow buildup, and before she could recover, he pressed his still throbbing member against her entrance a second time and raised her legs above his shoulder, folding her as he reached in for another kiss and began another slow piston inside of her, treating her with such fragility that she couldn''t hold on to her second climax.

    Her face burned and her expression melted when she felt herself tightening around him a second time, but before she even released herself Sol''s handsnded on both her asscheeks beneath and his nails lightly dragged across her skin from her waist and back, down to her ass again and then to the underside of her knees.

    She experienced an invading sensation she had never felt before as chills swept through her body from the tips of her toes to the crown of her head, like a wash of pleasure she shook for several seconds before screaming as her orgasm exploded against his torso.

    [By the pantheon, w-what the fuck...did you just do...?!] Ikaris hid her face with her hands in embarrassment after squirting for the first time, but Sol only chuckled and grabbed her hands, smiling down at her as he picked her up and started sucking on her breasts in tandem, never losing pace while she started melting around him again.

    [I can hardly manage...!] She yelped when Sol''s tongue began expertly exploring her nipples in circles and flicks as he sucked and released them allowing his teeth to roughly graze against them each time.

    [Haah~ master, my beloved, I cannot...!] Ikaris shook her head from side to side manically grabbing his hair in fistfulls and shaking again as she felt her third climax rapidly approaching.

    [You, why are you so good at this?!] Ikaris bit her lip so hard she drew her own golden blood as Sol suckled against her and hooked his hands with her shoulders, pulling her down on himself as he began thrusting faster and with less care.

    [I want this,] Sol bit and sucked on her breasts while arched and thrusting into her as her soft moans rapidly turned into cries of overstimtion.

    [Ikaris!] Sol had a low growl- almost a roar in the back of his throat as more divine mana erupted from inside of him shaking the foundation of the lower heavens again as he spun her and grabbed her by her elbows, arching her and thrusting into her while she screamed, sticking her tongue out as her mind was overwhelmed from his mana''s extra stimtion apanying her climax and his own, she felt him begin to swell and twitch inside of her, and her body held on to him through trained instinct.

    [Wh~haah~ Sol...!] Ikaris tried to break free of his overpowering aura, but he just held her even more tightly, thrusting harder and wrapping her hair around his hands.

    [Ikaris.] Sol roared again, turning and pulling her onto himself, as he felt his own climax rapidly approaching.

    And Ikaris feeling the same grabbed and started riding whilst softly kissing him, grinding and moaning while her hair went weightless and her wings grew from her back, knocking over everything next to the bed on either side as he roughly grabbed her hips and made one final thrust squirting the essence of his seed into her womb with his mouth agape and his eyes closed, shaking, and during his strong ejaction the goddess was ovee with her third and strongest orgasm yet, screaming and falling limply against his chest.

    [~] Ikaris''s eyes were unfocused puddles of bliss, and she dropped her dead weight on him as her body continued to shake out of her control while Sol continued to fill her up having also lost control of himself; weakly squeezing into her flesh, she tried to speak again, but her consciousness rapidly took a downturn and before she realised it, morning was already upon them and she was being gently embraced by a sleeping Sol, lightly snoring for the first time as he hugged her onto himself.

    "I passed out again?"

    She was nothing but smiles as she reached beneath his arm and rested her hand on her lower abdomen, blushing.

    "Thank you, my love."

 Chapter 80: Three Challengers At Once.

    She tried getting out of his grasp without waking him, but as soon as her finger shifted Sol''s eyes opened and he looked down at her.

    "Ikaris," He brushed her hair out of her face and smiled warmly. "Good morning,"

    "My love," Ikaris chuckled at Sol, holding her hand against his cheek and nuzzling against him like a cat. "You do not need to wake just yet, allow me to leave first." She raised her torso and leaned over him, kissing him and then sitting up with a yawn and a stretch.

    "Meeting you has made me grateful for not descending as human before; my first with you have been the highlights of my existence," Ikaris hovered over his lips with a phantom kiss again. "You are the best thing that ever happened to me, Sol."

    Sol blushed and reached for her face with a kiss to her cheek. "Don''t you have somewhere to be?"

    "Of course!" She grinned and rolled from on top of him, standing and stretching again before yelping and falling on the floor. "Hm?"

    "Are you okay?" Sol quickly sprinted off the bed and bent down at her side, but she seemed fine other than a bit of shock from her sudden clumsiness.

    "I am well, just surprisingly, tired,"

    "You slept all night though..." Sol helped her to her feet and checked her from heat to toe twice. "Are you sure you''re alright?"

    "Yes." Ikaris nodded and then grabbed his hand and vanished with him, falling in the heroes'' bathroom where Sara was already waiting for their arrival with the shallow bath pool at the ready.

    "Good morning, Sir and Mdy." Sara greeted them with a low bow, and Sol sunk in the water while Ikaris turned to her with a grin.

    "Have you already prepared for the day, Sara?" Ikaris asked, and the maid smiled.

    "As usualdy Ikaris, I will be joining you a littleter after I have prepared everything.

    "Come here," Ikaris gestured, and Sol sunk a little lower when Sara inched closer with confusion etched across her face. "Closer~" Ikaris continued to flex her fingers until Sara was right at the edge of the pool. "Good!"

    "Mdy- waah!" The maid screamed out when Ikaris suddenly stood and grabbed her dragging her in the warm water and submerging her to the neck with a fit ofughter. "M-my uniform!" Sara tried standing but was met with a ssh of water across her face as Ikaris dropped back in the pool andughed.

    "You have done so  much for metely, keeping Solpany in my absence and being the most loyal to us otherwise as well, and I am in an especially good mood today, so let me treat you for a change!" Ikaris tackled the startled maid again, while Sol who had already retreated to the other side smiled and turned his back with a sigh as the warm water soaked into his skin.

    "S-sir!" Sol heard Sara calling for mercy from behind, but he dared not intervene, he instead started humming to himself to drown out her cries for help.

    Some minutester Ikaris had calmed down and exited the water, and for once was in the process of dressing herself, with Sara''s help while Sol sat on the side watching them, already clothed and armoured.

    "Sol," Ikaris spun after having the maid dress herdylike instead of going for the usual getup of a blouse and in dress. "How is it?"

    "Beautiful." Sol stared at her, not even the dress but just her smile; a good mood was an understatement, the goddess was absolutely beaming with happiness, and he couldn''t help but smile because of it, not just him, but her mood radiated and influenced everyone around her as well. Sara in particr was seemingly overjoyed as she did her job with a bounce to her step and a song on her lips.

    "I am ready." Ikaris stood still, and summoned armour over her new dress, looking more than any other time like an angel ready for battle.

    "Wow," Sara Smiled in awe, before extending her hands at the two, and Sol quickly walked over and took her hand while Ikaris grabbed her in a hug at thest moment before they disappeared through the shadows.

    "Somehow you made it on time this time around," Dina was reading a rune-book, seated on Ikaris''s bed in the heroes'' tent, but as soon as she looked up at them a blush came over her face when she was tackled by Ikaris with a hug as well, causing Sol to sigh and reach for the two of them.

    "Good morning, Dina." Ikaris stood and cleared her throat.

    "What the heck happened to you?" Dina asked staring at her attire and then at Sol who just smiled and shook his head.

    "Mdy is in an especially good mood today," Sara smiled and bowed to Dina who nodded as Ikaris clung to her. "Please excuse me," She turned and vanished after taking a step toward the exit.

    "Did you take her on a date or something?"

    "Eh..." Sol scratched the back of his head. "Not necessarily." He shook his head and then cleared his throat, causing Ikaris to look around at him and calm down a bit.

    "Today, correct?" She asked, and Sol nodded. "Then take my blessing," She reached out and pulled him into a hug, and then to both his and Dina''s surprise, she grabbed Dina as well and hugged them both, and Sol in turn rested his hand on Dina''s back and hugged her as well.

    "The world must be ending," Usamimented after witnessing the moment Dina was pulled into a hug. "Ikaris sharing a hug with Sol and adding someone to it; I never thought I''d see the day."

    "Eeeeeeek!" Dina stepped away, hiding her face behind her palms after blushing so brightly she seemed to start steaming. "I-ka-ris!" She grabbed her and shook her with her face bright and burning while Ikarisughed haughtily while being swung like a pendulum.

    "She couldn''t be more obvious," Usami raised a brow, and then looked at Sol who despite the situation had a somewhat serious expression. "Vestic, aren''t you under-reacting to being hugged by two beautiful women.

    "Let him be, my dear Sol has an experience ahead of him that requires a serious approach." Ikaris inched closer to Usami next and stood before her grinning. "Silly little girl, always watching and never acting, you even gained a title that I have yet to, how cunning~" Ikaris grabbed her hands.

    "Aren''t you 20 years old, just like I am?" Usami blushed and averted her eyes as Ikaris''s radiance made her feel the urge to startughing and going along with it.

    "I am a goddess, every girl is a little girl to me!" Ikarisughed out and grabbed her cheeks, stretching them. "You are being cute today Usami, did you perhaps want to have a hug from my beloved as well, did you think I would permit it?" She asked.

    "Dina is my close friend, she has permission to hug him, you on the other hand have kept your distance from everyone, at best you can only get headpats!"

    "Beloved?" Dina looked around at Sol who watched passively, and then at Ikaris again.

    She was sure now that something had changed about the two of them; for one, Sol seemed a lot more reserved than his usual self, he''d always have this air of edge and difort whenever she interacted with someone else, but not only was he rxed, he was smiling at her antics, a happy smile, something she hadn''t seen on his face for years.

    Their dynamic had been that of master and attendant before, but they seemed like a couple through and through now, even Usami had noticed it as she was being doted on by the self-proimed ''goddess''.

    "Ow~ get off me," Usami pulled herself free of Ikaris''s grasp and raised her hands defensively. "Breakfast is in a few minutes, I came to tell Ikaris after I saw Sara outside since where Sara is, Sol is close by, and wherever Sol goes, Ikaris is always at his side-"

    "Oh, so you were being nice for real." Dina seemed shocked.

    "Unfortunately I won''t be joining you for breakfast," Sol adjusted the gloves on his hand and tapped his chestte, and Ikaris quickly turned to him again, doing a double-check of his attire and grabbing his hands.

    "Are you sure?" She abandoned her cheerful attitude and went serious, causing Usami and Dina who watched them to share nces with each other. "After thest time..."

    "Don''t worry, Ikaris, it won''t be like thest time," He locked her hands around his waist and pressed his forehead onto hers. "I have you to fight for, after all."

    "Promise?" She asked quietly, closing her eyes and hugging him.

    "Of course, I promise,"

    [The goddess of love is melting, she inquires about what happens when the two of you vanish from the eyes of the system]

    [The god of stories considers thesepses in his viewing time plot holes and wishes to know as well]

    [The goddess of war is eagerly awaiting the next battle]

    [The god of destruction is anticipating a brutal fight]

    [The god of creation has noticed new species of flowers across Arkadia with divine properties and is most curious about their conception]

    [You have epted the challenge of Yama, god of strength]

    [You have epted the challenge of Sorath, godddess of the sun]

    [You have epted the challenge of Nathanael, god of vengeance]

    [This is a three-on-one battle to the finish, the loser will forefeit their right to challenge using the system, do you ept the overall challenge?]

    [ept]

 Chapter 81: Sun against Sun.

    "Three at once," Sol smiled with himself.

    "Love, are you sure?" Ikaris asked again, standing with him on the outskirts of the encampment that was on standby for the rest of the day before they would continue toward the other obelisk, separating from the heroes who were going to begin their journey northward at the same time.

    "It''s about 50\\50 honestly," Sol chuckled, watching her carefully check his armour again in preparation for sending him off.

    "I admit that I love seeing your battles, your ruthlessness to me is one of your most attractive traits, as it was on A, but, I constantly worry that you will one day bite an arm that you are not ready to sever," Ikaris sighed and took a step away from him, standing next to A who was observing his sendoff.

    "The same as what happened with Saat," Ikaris added, causing the mage next to her to stare shocked.

    A had done as Sol told her and looked to the northern skies at night, and she was shocked when she saw what looked like an entirely new and incredibly close gxy full of thin distorted stars in the sky, although she was not told how it happened, she knew that the two of them were somehow responsible.

    "Is there some kind of treaty that requires this?" A asked feeling nervous for Sol as well when she saw Ikaris''s doubt, but Sol''s expression washed all of their doubts away as he smiled at Ikaris and balled his fists.

    "Not at all, when Sol got here the first thing he did was pick a fight with the gods; Dr''ul to be exact, and in doing so he received the attention of the heavens." Ikaris chuckled after Sol have her a yful salute and vanished in a sh of light after the system summoned him.

    "It has escted into something of a game between him and them one of pleasantries and grudges, he challenges on some days, and they challenge on other days with benefits and consequences depending on the oue of the challenges varying from slight punishments to death, though, I havee to terms with the fact that if they kill him unfairly I will never let it rest." She turned and looked at the mage.

    "Then... The statues that crumbled in the hall of the gods-"

    "The god of Golems;Psikos, died by his hand, it was an arrogant duel to the death, and he paid the price for his arrogance, currently there are no lesser gods more powerful than Sol.

    Diablos schemed to remove me from the image without knowing who or what I was, his fate was for worse as he is now arge scavenging serpent with no free will being driven to eat decaying corpses for the rest of his existence, that was the will of the pantheon whom he defied when he broke the sacred rules of their precious duels."

    "Goodness..." A sped her hand over her mouth. "If you are always this worried, then why do you not join master Vestic?"

    "It is an unfair disadvantage, I am a god among gods, iparable to any deity in this realm, besides, I do not want to fight the gods, I have a grudge against demons that I have to satiate..." Ikaris closed one eye and smiled. "It is about to begin," She told A, and then seemed to be less attentive as she turned and started walking toward the heroes'' tent.

    "Ah..." A tried being dismissive of the bomb of information that had been dropped in herp like a casual fart.

    [The venue has been decided, due to the nature of this fight and the powerhouses involved it will take ce in a pocket dimension where the challengers have authority to use their abilities to their fullest]

    The system announced while Sol opened his eyes, seeing a vast t terrain full of small rock formations stretching on forever in every direction.

    Before him stood three figures

    The first was Yama, the god of strength and perseverance, he was arge hulking figure with dark skin and a shiny bald head, on one side of his face there was a scar that went down to his neck from his jaw, no doubt inflicted by another god. And on his right side he had an extra eye beneath his normal eye.

    The second god that caught Sol''s attention was Sorath, the goddess of the sun, he smiled as he thought of her and himself, since his name also meant ''sun'' back in his home dimension, and like his demigod form her hair was shortened, floating and glowing white, it was like staring at a female version of himself honestly, she even stood the same height and had the same mannerisms as him.

    "How uncanny." Solmented before looking at his third challenger; Nathanael, the god of vengeance.

    He could already tell that this god d in ck and wearing a weird insignia on his chest with a long flowing cape was trouble. He kind of resembled that oneic hero Sol used to read about; Vampire-bat man.

    [The pantheon is holding their breath]

    [The goddess of war is in anticipation]

    [The god of destruction showing a disgusting amount of interest again...]

    "Alright then," Sol unfolded his hands and stood at the ready, grinning wickedly at the three who held serious expressions as they opposed him. "One at a time or all at once, you decide!"

    [This is a match of power and authority, killing is not prohibited but might be frowned upon by the onlookers]

    [You may begin-]

    Before the notification of the system could even finish chiming the area Sol was standing in erupted in an explosion and he appeared next to the god of vengeance, spinning with his fist aimed at his side, but to his surprise he was hit instead by Yama who despite his size was quite fast, the godnof strength however was shocked when Sol tanked the blow, hitting the ground and bouncing back toward him and headbutting him.

    *Boom*

    Yama''s eyes were wide in shock when he arose and found Sol blocking Sorath''s kick and Nathanael''s punch with one hand each while his hair floated and his eyes inverted as he used his new divine powers.

    "This..." Sol''s face contorted into a sinister smirkas he grabbed hold of them and swung them into each other and then flung them wildly at Yama. "Don''t you dare underestimate me right now, I want a real fight!"

    "What is the meaning of this?" Yama caught his fellow gods easily and stared at Sol confused. "After viewing the fights he has been in I assumed him to be a calcted warrior, buy this bastard is wild!" He eximed when Sol started walking toward them, punching his palm with that same sick smile. "Did divinity drive his mortal mind over the edge?"

    [It does not matter!] Sorathughed foregoing her previous appearance as her entire body was caught ame and she rushed at sol again smiling. [I came here to witness the thrill of this man''s fist!] Sheughed as she shed fists with Sol, and heughed as well when they were both sent flying in opposite directions.

    [I am vengeance, I am the night, I am-]

    "Monologuing!" Sol caught Nathanael by his cape and dragged him into a kick that caused the god to spit up golden blood as his ribcage shattered and he was sent flying again.

    The atmosphere became increasingly hot, and Sol nced far behind the others where he found Sorath in the air cackling as she cooked up a literal miniature blue star above her head while her free hand was pointed toward him.

    [If you two do not want to fight seriously, then move aside and leave this all to your big sister!] She fired off a thin concentrated beam of starlight from her index finger, and on instinct Sol dodged the attack, watching it neatly slice through the environment like a hot knife through butter.

    "That''s interesting," Sol raised his magical output and began cackling again as he created a ball of fire in his grasp, thinning and condensing it until it lost the sma properties and became a thread of light that started growing and weaving into a ball simr to the one she was holding above her head.

    [Sister, wait, if you use that in here the dimension might shatter-]

    [Then let it shatter!] Sorathughed as she descended while Yama and Nathanael retreated to the sides. [Why hold back at all when facing such a monster?]

    "Maybe I just needed to fight you alone after all!" Sol epted her challenge as he ascended shing their respective attacks together andughing as the system started shouting off warnings before him and cracks started appearing across the isted space.

    "Ha ha ha ha~" Sol held fascination as he felt a force pulling and pushing him at the same time. "It''s breaking, it''s really breaking!" He eximed before everything else went white.

 Chapter 82: His One Wish.

    "My sun, so beautiful." Ikaris chuckled as she rested her head in Dina''sp, allowing the hero to gently caress her hair; a luxury that nobody else aside from Sol had ever gotten.

    "Are you sure you won''t faint this time?" Dina asked, and Ikaris chuckled again. "My gosh are you even listening?" She pointed, and A who sat across from them with several scrolls from Argom chuckled as she saw the expression Ikaris had.

    "I lost that huh?" Sol flexed his arm in disappointment, having lost the tips of his fingers in the resulting explosion that was akin to a a star suddenly imploding, which had indeed shattered the dimension they were in revealing that they were somewhere on Arkadia.

    Sorath inparison had no injuries as she huffed and stood out of a hunch, but her hand did tremble a little.

    [Impressive, utterly impressive!] Sorath cackled.

    "Indeed," Sol fell into a fighting stance he had learned back on A. "Have you two made up your minds?" He asked, watching the air around them distort as they were being sealed again. "Have you figured it out yet?"

    [Even as a demigod, he has the power to keep up with our divinity, it is truly frustrating,] Yama''s third eye on his cheek opened, and his fists clenched. [How utterly shameful for us gods, I must stop this man from growing stronger.]

    [Barrier has been reinforced]

    "Stop me?" Sol snicklerd watching Nathanael try to discreetly nk him in his peripheral. "You can''t ever stop me from growing stronger." He retorted. "You can only grow stronger with me-" Sol vanished from their sights catching Nathanael off-guard and smashing his face into the ground. "-or get left behindpletely!"

    [Ugah!!] The god of vengeance bent in pain when he felt his cranium under stress as Sol stepped in the back of his head driving his face further into the ground.

    "I might smile all the time, but don''t ever think for a second that I''m not taking you seriously, years of torment have made me bitter in the face of enemies, and as long as your hand is raised against me, that''s exactly what you are, if you challenge me with half-resolves I''ll drive you into the ground!" He growled before cocking his foot back and kicking the god in his ribcage folding him like a croissant as he was sent flying through the columns of rock, carving a path.

    [... Then!] Yama stomped his left leg first and took a single leap, closing the distance between himself and Sol in the blink of an eye while Sorath followed for a quick nk. [I will drive my resolve into you!]

    "Challenge epted!!" Sol roared and arched as his and the god of strength''s fists shed resulting more fissions and cracks appearing across the space around them.

    [I truly believe that you do not deserve this power, that it was wrongfully bestowed upon you by the system, and if challenging the gods makes you stronger, then I will do everything in my power to steal that right!]

    "Prove your words, prove your metal!" Sol leaned his arm backwards and rested his foot on Yama''s chest, pushing himself to the ground and dodging a beam of concentrated fire from Sorath at his side before grabbing the god of strength in a ne and raising him off his legs.

    "You have my word, if you can beat me, I''ll stop fighting the gods!" Sol smashed him into the ground and kicked him toward Sorath.

    The goddess of the sun startedughing again, Sol amazed her, not only was he able to copy her power but he was also strong enough to match and best the god of strength and perseverance.

    [Tandava Karma!] Sorath cackled, and Sol narrowed his eyes at her.

    ''Tandava...?'' He thought. ''A named technique, she''s the first god I''ve heard have to summon their power through words...!!'' before he could finish thinking his senses alerted him of danger, and a momentter he ducked as a raging furnace erupted from her mouth spanning the entirety of the dimension within a second and vanishing just as quickly.

    "Holy shit, boss music started ying?" Sol heard drums beating around him, and saw the goddess of the sun strike a pose as the mes on her body subsided back into her skin and strange crests appeared on her flesh while her hair became pure fire.

    [Sol Vestic, Godyer, Psuedo-Demon, Demigod, let us see who''s resolve burns brighter.] She struck another pose.

    "That''s weird," Solmented as all the yfulness in his attitude dried up, simrly, Yama and Nathanael further away seemed wary of her. "Tandava, is the dance of a god from my realm, what are the odds of seeing it here?" He balled his fists and coated himself in a barrier of his own mana. "This is giving me shbacks of Saat all over again."

    [Your opponent is gaining strength...]

    [Mana: 95%]

    "Usami," Ikaris stared at the spear hero who was again sitting by herself and observing everyone else. "You are the most versed among us in earth''s history and religion, does the term ''tandava karma'' mean anything to you?"

    "It''s the dance of the strongest of the gods of a certain pantheon, a world-breaker." Usami raised a brow. "I''m not that versed in their culture, but I think it''s associated with some kind of fiery apocalypse." Usami shrugged.

    "Ugh," Ikaris flopped back on Dina''sp and sighed. "Sol dear, be careful."

    "Did something happen between you two?" Usami asked after a bit of silence. "You used to call him master all the time, but I haven''t heard you say it once in two days."

    "It would be inappropriate to do so," Ikaris turned her gaze to her fellow hero again, and at that topic the others also started paying attention, save for Han and Bruce who seemed to disappear as much as Sol did these days and weren''t even there for the debriefing.

    "Inappropriate...?"

    "Aye, I do love to refer to him as master, that word holds a special ce in my heart and holds special meaning between us; and he still is my master of course, but," Ikaris blushed and sighed sweetly as she started squirming in Dina''sp, hiding her face and whispering. "If my child heard something so embarrassing how could I face them~?"

    "."

    "..."

    "....."

    "Eh?" Dina''s expression turned from confusion to shock, and along with her Usami''s jaws dropped, Eris choked on her snack, and A lost grip of the scroll in her hands while Sara blushed and held her cheeks having realised this before Ikaris even told her. "Wha- EH?" Dina stuttered again.

    "Holy... Really!?" Eris jumped from her seat andnded before Ikaris who quickly buried her face in Dina''s legs again squeaking with a shy nod.

    "I can never call him master while bearing and raising his child, he is more than just master to me now." Ikaris shook and kicked with excitement.

    She had monitored her body, after several attempts she was worried that she as a goddess in human form was incapable of bearing child, but the problem had lied within Sol''s purely human DNA, however his transition into demi-godhood had smoothened that one bump, and after their night of intense pleasures, she was surprised when she checked after waking the following morning and found herself in the process of conception, she was too overjoyed to react, so her initial words were a very sweet "thank you".

    "This is expected, I figured you were getting rawed down every single night you spent with him so I''m not that surprised." Usami chuckled, but her and the others still had very evident blushes and smiles on their faces as they stared at her.

    "Gods..." A blushed the hardest. "I would die of joy," She sighed, walking over to Ikaris and resting her hand on her shoulder. "This exins your worry, and why you have been in such a good mood all day... I am happy for you," She smiled, and Ikaris turned to her with her lips upturned and her one eye still closed.

    "Is it selfish of me to not want him to fight anymore?"

    "Of course not, it is sensible, he is reckless sometimes." A smiled and then furrowed her brows. "Have you already told him?"

    "I just found out, I have yet to muster the courage~!" Ikaris blushed again and dropped her face in Dina''sp once more.

    "He has never made this known, but he is a very sentimental and soft hearted man, he has yearned for and cherished the thought for a long time now, and to make his wishe true has been my only desire..." She started crying against Dina sobering the mood as her sobs filled the tent.

    "Ikaris..."

    "I never considered the possibility of being infertile, but I was so afraid that I would not be able to fulfill his truest desires because of our ipatibility, it made me so bitter inside, the thought that... It was all he talked about and I wouldn''t be able to grant him this one wish~!"

    "It''s okay," Dina lowered her hand on Ikaris''s back and started caressing her gently, watching as her hair fluffed out and spread around her and her ears shimmered and grew taller. "Calm down."

    "Wait, doesn''t this mean you can no longer be a hero?"

 Chapter 83: Serious Punch.

    "I will withdraw, of course," Ikaris answered Usami without missing a beat.

    "This is so sudden..." Dina stared at her, and Ikaris sighed with a warm smile turning and facing her.

    "I''m sorry, but this is my dream, it always has been.

    Sure; I love being a hero it is a true passion that I have developed, fighting for the sake of others is something that is very new to me who grew up selfish after tending to everyone around me out of duty and not purpose, but before we were dragged to Arkadia, before I met all of you, Sol and I were going to disappear, the same day that we met was to be hisst in his old home." She stared up and saw Dina''s expression turn from sadness to shock again.

    "That day?" Eris asked, surprised.

    "Yes, at that time our rtionship was still very undefined, and it is shocking how much closer we have grown in the three months we have spent together." She admitted.

    "He wanted to leave, to disappear to a far corner of the world, and I was going to leave with him and spend the rest of our time serving him as loyally as I could." She admitted, and Usami hummed with a shake of her head.

    "Well congrats on achieving your dream then," Usami stood upright and stretched. "I can''t wait to see the dumb look on his face when he finds out." She chuckled and then left without another word.

    ...

    [Mana: 70%]

    *Haa~

    *Haah~

    [The goddess of war expresses her impressed gaze at the goddess of the sun]

    [Eh, why am I the one you are impressed with, do you believe that I am at a disadvantage?] Sorath asked with her brow raised in frustration, she was unable to sweat as anything that touched her skin was vapourised, but she was visibly a bit exhausted after going toe-to-toe with Sol for what had psed to hours.

    "You are indeed impressive."Sol stared at his 70% mana reserve and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Not only did the other two not keep up, but they also forefeit and left shamefully, this is the same power that had Saat begging me to spare her, but you''ve not only kept up, you''ve kept me on the defensive this entire time."

    Sol''s white irises shone brightly as he stared at her, trying to figure out a way to get through her defenses, so far all of his attempts had led to him either getting badly burnt or repelled by scorching mes, it was obvious it was taking a toll on her, but aside from her slightly winded expression she was otherwise unscathed.

    "Not to mention ever since he started hearing those drums her body had negated every single magical attack thrown at her, breaking them down into raw magic and dispersing it harmlessly, the only thing that worked were his bare knuckles, but with the heat she produced that was a problem as well.

    "I never needed to be challenged by anyone else it seems." Hemented, and received a prideful grin from the goddess who weed thepliment from one warrior to another.

    [Of course, the terms are the same, the loser loses their right to challenge using the safety of the system, anything outside of that will result in severe bacsh by the pantheon.] She stood upright and clenched her fists, mimicking Sol''s fighting stance. [My goal is still to break your resolve and take the authority you have gained in a fair manner!]

    "Thene at me!" He charged first, stopping just short of her and summoning his trusty hammer while she had been baited into punching downward after thinking he was going to throw an upward punch.

    "I''ll try everything until I find a way to break that absurd will of yours, and if I can''t find a way, I''ll usey bare fists and teeth if I have to!" Sol swung pass her descending fist and mmed the hammer into her chin, snapping her head upward.

    [Then prepare your teeth!] Sorath opened her mouth before the hammer had passed and bit into it with her teeth, chomping through the legendary metal like a cookie.

    [I am the sun, my light never dims, my will never breaks, and my power never fades, this is what it means to be strong, Sol Vestic!] She grabbed the hammer and pulled him into a punch that folded him around her fist, creating an explosion and burning him as if he had indeed crashed face-first against a raw Sr star sending massive cracks across their dimension once more.

    [Heal!]

    Sol was sent flying so far he lost sight of her as the burns across his face mended and were reced by fresh skin. "Shit," he released the handle of his burnt away hammer, angling himself and crasnding backwards. "Prepare my teeth, huh?" Sol asked, righting himself and stopping his momentum when he noticed her rapid approach.

    [Clockwork]

    He summoned a sphere of slowed time around himself just as she was about to connect another hit again; he wanted to refrain from using [clockwork] as much as possible, after his experience with Saat learning his divine skill.

    He hade to the decision that it was supposed to be used only in emergencies, otherwise he would have no trumps left aside from his demon-god transformation, and he was getting a weird feeling about using that too often; after his evolution, the demon god transformation felt like an alternate persona instead of the boost of power it was supposed to be, and that ridiculous cooldown and the 50% nerf that followed meant that if he used it and failed to defeat his opponent before time ran out he would most certainly lose that fight.

    "I''ll put everything, into this one attack!" Sol walked up to Sorath and cast clockwork on his arm.

    "I like you, so I hope this doesn''t kill you, but if what you want is my full power then look no further!!" He warned her and himself and threw his hand back grinding his teeth as his body was in regr motion while his hand had slowed down, building kic energy as his blood vessels burst and healed and his bones cracked and mended from the pressure of his attack.

    [Mana: 65%]

    [Mana: 50%]

    [Mana: 30%]

    [Mana: 25%]

    [Clockwork deactivated-]

    Sorath recalled nothing that happened, she just saw white and shes of her blood as her head shook when Sol''s invisible punch sent cracks all across her skull and deafened her on one side before the world around her became a mixture of colours and fuzzy shapes with lines and squiggles of light.

    The punch itself was delivered faster than time could perceive it, the pocket dimension shattered, and a wave of energy exploded into the cosmos preventing the system from reforming the barrier immediately as Sorath was sent flying horizontally, she limply crashed across the entire ocean, dug a trench through a whole other continent and ended up stopping after colliding into and destroying several mountain ranges, leaving nothing but a trail of fire and destruction in her wake.

    "Haah," Sol winced falling to his knee and cradling his arm that had been broken and destroyed beyond what regr magic could repair. "That''s in the direction of Argom, shit," He stood with a grunt as his eyes returned to normal and his hair stopped glowing.

    [Mana: 20%]

    It was indeed the direction of Argom, another few miles and it would have reached close to the Obelisk. Night had already fallen, alerting him that he and the goddess of the sun had been fighting for the whole day.

    He had enjoyed the fight, and learned firsthand that the gods if given the chance could adapt to any situation, as Sorath had learned most of his fighting techniwues after duelling with him for hours, however, something was off. "Why hasn''t the system announced anything yet?" Sol felt a bead of sweat roll down his cheek as the cold wind brushed against his face.

    "No... No way, I gave that almost everything I had!" He shed his torn up hand tearing it clean off his shoulder with a pained grunt as he grimaced in Sorath''s direction. [Regenerate\\Heal!]

    Bones painfully erected from his shoulder and rapidly formed and mended into flesh and blood forming his hand after a few seconds of agony; without the knowledge Ikaris had in fine details he had to force his limb to grow.

    "You''ve got to be kidding me!" Sol leapt into the air ascending to the clouds in an instant and grinding his teeth again as he began gliding with his arms and legs spread. "Did I call it too early?" He questioned.

    [Arkadian mana: 300k]

    The system ralerted him, and it was a reminder that he had been inactive for thest few days not leveling up after his fight with Saat and his evolution to Demigod.

    [Activating absolute shield]

    [Activating telekinesis; limitless]

    He applied two of his An skills using his Arkadian mana, and immediately he shot off like aet, the shield protected his body from harm while the air around him burned because of the absurd speeds he was moving at, parting the clouds like water as he travelled, following the traces of Sorath''s crash across thends and seas until he was above Argomite territory again.

    On the other side staring at a mountain that had sr energy radiating into the skies like tentacles and reaching into the deepest parts of space was Ikaris and the others, the mountains burned and melted, and although their first order was to confirm what it was, a quick word of warning from Ikaris had halted everyone from interfering as she had one eye closed looking at Sorath while she used her divine abilities to sense for Sol, and sure enough he was on the approach, rapidly at that.

 Chapter 84: To The Last Drop Of Mana.

    "She is indeed impressive, to withstand that level of power without breaking." Ikaris stared at the fire reaching the vum and beyond in the distance as a star-like projectile tore across the skies above them and crashed into the crater in the mountains causing the fiery energy to dissipate.

    "What the devils..." A stared at the powers that be, knowing well that one of them was Sol and the other belonged to the god that he was fighting. "This is unbelievable..." The half-elf mused.

    "Why exactly are we agreeing to not finding out what''s happening over there?" Han looked at A confused, and Ikaris turned to him with her brows furrowed in annoyance.

    "Han, you have no dealings in the events taking ce there,"  Lyra had a look of shock and horror as she watched thest of the mes vanish into the sky, looking across the other direction where she could still see the trail of fire Sol''s approach had left. "This is a quarrel between the gods!"

    "Indeed it is," Ikaris agreed.

    [True Goddess Ikaris remains impressed, but cautions warranted restraint, a fight this close to the barrier will undo what has been done]

    Sol saw the message afternding and huffed.

    "Sorry, I didn''t expect that the fight would drag all the way over here." Sol walked toward the intense heat, stepping across theva and stopping when the heat started turning his repaired armour red at the tips. "Sorath, get up we can''t continue fighting here." He stared at the goddess on one knee breathing heavily as she bled from her nose and eyes. "Can you move?" He asked.

    [I am capable] she raised her head, and with her body shaking she stood and stumbled forward, causing the heat she was exuding to wash across him. [That was the most impressive thing I have seen you do thus far, it immediately reminded me of Ikaris attacking the Queen of the heavens, even if I was on the recieving end, it was still impressive,] She blew blood from her nose and smiled at him.

    [I am rattled]

    "But you will not concede." Sol replied balling his fists again with a frown.

    [No, you win only if I am unable to fight, and I am still bustling with energy, I want to keep using the challenge system just as much as you do, I will not abandon this fight] Sorath raised her fists, and with them another wave of heat erupted into the sky before the System closed the space around them and teleported them elsewhere again.

    [The imminent threat has been lifted, your life is no longer in immediate danger from a sh between deities]

    The system announced to everyone who was observing the mountains from afar except for Ikaris.

    "We were in danger?" Eris asked, and A let out a sigh of relief and fired off another re into the air.

    "I felt my age increasing with every breath," Idria let out a sigh as well. "Why were the gods fighting on Arkadia?"

    "Who knows," Ikaris smiled as she watched what would be their fourth and most important round. For once she had trust in another god as Sorath had proven through her actions that she would honour her part of the deal, and the wager was a fair one as well. For her this seemed like the least dangerous fight he had ever been in, he had no intention of killing and neither did his opponent.

    It was strictly a battle of attrition.

    The system was working overtime to keep the dimension intact and protect it from shattering as Sol and Sorath started their final round, what remained of their resolves had been stripped down to the very basic desire to overpower and defeat the other at whatever cost.

    And so a spectacle of explosions continued to erupt as Sol held his ground and tanked every blow while Sorath did the same.

    Their attacks were mostly too fast to follow, but the resulting destruction to the environment around them had the god of destruction on the edge of his seat with a face full of glee as he watched with pure joy.

    ''how much more!?'' Sol thought, continuously delivering precise attacks to the goddesses chin to rattle her with maximum effect while he was punished for every attack with devastating blows to his body.

    The only upside to his situation was the fact that the [Tandava] had run its course, and so he was not being hammered by a constant apocalyptic me with every punch, but that only seemed to make her attacks heavier as she forcefully increased the output of her hits to keep up.

    "Come on!" Sol grabbed the goddess by her hands and pulled her toward himself smashing his forehead into her nose and raising her off the ground spinning and dropping her again causing the terrain around them to explode outward, but now beneath him the goddess kept hold of his arms and spun a second time raising herself and mming him several times into the ground before releasing him with a kick to his abdomen that he barely managed to block at thest second before it sent him flying.

    Sorath approached Sol first, aiming to finish the fight with one grand strike, but Sol raised his hands and tanked the blow, countering with a palm strike to her stomach that left her winded as the two of them fell before each other with one hand on each others shoulder, heaving and sweating.

    "I... haah... won''t stop, not even if I lose consciousness!" Sorath tried standing but failed when Sol weakly dragged her back down.

    "I have plenty of energy to spare!" Sol raised his left hand and threw a weak punch that barely hurt her at all but still sent her falling on her back. "I just need to force a forefeit out of you!" He stood up, but fell again when she swung her leg and kicked him in the side of his knee.

    "Never!" Sorath raised herself on top of him and straddled his waist. "The sun never forefeits!" She raised both of her hands and dropped her fists in his forehead causing the ground around them to shake and burst from the pressure. "Know this!"

    "I am also the sun!" Sol caught her next attack and spun with her raising her by her waist and dropping her in a suplex before rolling to his hands and knees again and then forcing himself to stand while she heaved on the ground.

    [Mana: 3%]

    "Forefeit!" Sol created a small sphere of rotating mana in his grasp, and the goddess of the sun went on one knee with a simr looking ball of violently rotating fire.

    "Never!" Sorath pounced before he did and collided the sphere in his abdomen, breaking his armour, but only a secondter, she was sent falling to her face again when Sol''s attack dropped in her back.

    [Mana: 1%]

    [Arkadian mana: 0.1%]

    [Your mana has been exhausted, you can no longer control or suppress the emergence of your demon-god transformation]

    The system warned Sol, and as if a chime went off in his head he retreated away from Sorath and stood a safe distance away, staring at his hands as his skin slowly grew darker.

    [Haha-] the goddess chuckled upon seeing him transforming. [I... was so entranced by the battle that I forgot about that ursed power, now with this, you will surely win...]

    "I don''t want to win like this," Sol''s voice slowly distorted as his wings grew from his back, though unlike the other times where another magic was factored in, this time with the pure demonic energy his wings grew with thick white blood and slime covering them, as did his horns.

    "I definitely lost here, I can''t im to be the winner of this fight," Sol''s wings grew out and opened shing the slime and blood away as he felt energy brimming within himself, and along with it a desire to kill.

    [What are you talking about?] Sorath asked confused as she stared at him and felt the foreboding energy.

    "This...

    Form, it eats away at me every time I use it, we were having a battle of willpower, to see who would emerge victorious if we went toe to toe, to keep my im on the challenger right for the system, but the moment I felt this change I lost that will, it was reced with the will to kill, to torture and torment, truly like a demon, so you are the victor here, I don''t want toy a hand on you knowing I lost the reason I was fighting in the first ce.

    [A winner has been decided, congrattions!] The system announced, and Ikaris held an expression of confliction as she watched Sorath stand and approach Sol with a slight limp while heaving.

    "Admirable, honourable, I have confirmed that you are a man to your word, to go and forefeit because your code of honour was vited is something that not even most gods would have done." She extended her hand and ced it against his chest.

    [The goddess of the sun has entrusted a tiny fraction of her divine mana to you]

    [Mana: 2%]

    [Demon-god transformation is being suppressed]

    "Why?" Sol asked watching his disgusting transformation vanish with a sh of mes across his body.

    "You are different, I thought you had malicious intents toward the gods because of your previous actions, but it seems you only acted ording to the situation..." Sorath smiled.

    "Your decision to forefeit this duel has given me the confidence that your bout with the gods will have far greater benefits than it will disadvantages, that is why I forefeit before you did." She kissed his cheek and then rested her cheek against his in a warm hug.

    "The sun never fofreits... I do not ept this as a loss, but apromise." She chuckled at the irony of her words. "I will see you again, Selfish god," She whispered in his ear before the system whisked her away.

    [Sol Vestic is the winner of this challenge, the challenger Sorath; goddess of the sun has forefeit her right to use the challenge system]

 Chapter 85: Daddy Sol.

    [Sorath, you were on the cusp of victory, why would you deliver the win into his hands?] Yama was the first to approach her as soon as she set foot in the heavens again, but there to her defence first was Dr''ul who grabbed him by his head and raised him off the ground as she towered above them.

    [You have no right to ask such a question you presumptuous coward] Dr''ul shook and released him back to the ground while Sorath lowered her head in respect.

    [Though, I am rather curious myself; I know I would have, but you were the one who suggested such a consequence in the first ce, so why would you give up when he was obviously going to forfeit?] She asked, extending her hand over the goddess of the sun and smiling as her hair caught ame again and her skin began glowing.

    [He is remarkable, not only does he have unrivalled willpower, but he is also wonderfully true, as you know, I am able to discern the goodness and sincerity of those who stand before me-]

    [Ha ha, are you saying you believe that Sol Vestic is a good person?] Dr''ulughed.

    [Heavens no, he sits very heavily on the grey line and has a very neutral outlook on everything, what I am getting at is his intentions, he is honest to his feelings, and his decisions are always made based on the subject rather than the object, he holds no bias and has a very strong sense of personal justice, if someone like him canb through the heavens, we will be a better pantheon at the end of it, for he will weed out all that is corrupt within our ranks]

    [I see,] Dr''ul nodded and scooped up Sorath like a small child.

    [Come and take rest in my chambers, I wish to hear firsthand what fighting him is like, Psiko died, and Diablos was turned into a worm, while the other two who faced him with you ran away with their tails between their legs, only you have truly survived Sol Vestic, I will help you recover while you inform me!] Sheughed with Sorath who had a look of shock.

    [I will happily tell you everything, your holiness!]

    ...

    "What the..." Han stared at Sol who unlike the previous times when he just appeared and disappeared at random, he was seen from a distance away walking toward them, and Ikaris had even taken the initiative to ride his horse out to him. "What the hell happened to you?" He asked, watching Sol dismount the horse slowly and with a groan.

    "Have you not healed yet?" Ikaris held on to his hand and he smiled and shook his head.

    "This time it was a close one, the entire time I kept wondering if I would be able to pull it off, that attack was beyond anything I had ever done before, in terms of destructive force if something like that had hit her without the dimension absorbing the shock it could have caused the world to end in an instant." Sol scratched his cheek when he saw Ikaris''s eyes slightly widen after his analysis.

    "And yet she still stood and kept fighting," Shemented. "She was a worthy opponent for you, Dear."

    "Absolutely." Sol nodded, watching Ikaris''s hand slightly glow as she held on to the arm he had torn off and began mending his shoddy work with precision healing. "Say, Ikaris..." Sol went serious, and everyone present seemed to pause and look around at him.

    "Something''s different about you." He stared at her, and she blushed and looked away with a teasing chuckle while Dina who was close by held her mouth in surprise at the fact that he was so perceptive.

    "First, a bath and then food," Ikaris pinched her nose, as did Dina, leaving him speechless as he checked himself and found nothing after spending the entire day losing his sense of smell to burning flesh.

    They did not leave as usual, after his bath, Sol returned right back to Ikaris and sat with the heroes'' party, having a normal dinner for once while she observed him with a loving smile.

    "Darling," She called to him in a shy voice, resting her cheek in her palm while he ate; having spent the entire day in an intense fight he was famished, but upon hearing such an endearing title Sol stopped and stared at her with his full attention. "Slow down there are no enemies awaiting you," She chuckled at him.

    "Ah," Sol sat up straight and rxed a bit. "Bad habit, y''know." He chuckled and then began eating much slower.

    The atmosphere was light, after the sess of the first barrier restoration, and witnessing the fight between gods, though they did not understand the details- the entire army was in high spirits, songs filled the air, andughter brought a sense of security Sol had never felt on A, it was beautiful seeing this many smiling faces on soldiers; these people who had been hammered from every side by the demon hordes were smiling and enjoying their life.

    After eating, Sol sat with his guard down and closed his eyes, rxing in the ambient atmosphere while his ever-loving Ikaris rested her head on his shoulder, also humming to the tune of the bards and musicians that had apanied the chefs.

    "This is nice, isn''t it?" He asked her, and she hummed in agreement. "It''s almost perfect." He added, and Ikaris opened her eyes and looked up at his smiling face.

    "Then, Sol, what do you think would make this a perfect night?" Ikaris asked, and Dina who had been listening from his opposite side turned to her, and upon seeing Dina pay attention, the other women who had been aware of the news from the other side of the fire started paying attention as well.

    "Is something happening?" Idria asked, looking at A next to her but the mage raised her hands to her lips and hushed her.

    "Shush, it is about to happen." A''s eyes glistened and her cheeks reddened as she saw Ikaris''s face get flushed once more.

    "Well," Sol scratched his cheek. "Okay, imagine for a second, if these people wore no armour, and there were no demons," he looked across at Dina and then back to Ikaris.

    "Imagine if this peace was not temporary, that the happiness and cheerfulness wouldst, spending time with you like this has be my most cherished moments, it makes me wish for the simple life even more, I would give it all up for a quiet little life where we could sit around a fire and I could tell all these amazing stories to a bright-eyed child...

    Y''know..." He blushed when he found Dina staring at him with her hands over her mouth and her eyes watery.

    "Give it some time, next year when we name ours you can start fantasizing about such things~" Ikaris smiled and stared at him.

    "Haha, wouldn''t that be amazing...?" Sol chuckled and looked at her, but her smile never faltered, it only widened, along with her blush brightening. "Wait... Next... Year...?"

    "Gosh..." Dina whispered behind him, and Eris and the others over on the other side held looks of anticipation as Sol paused for a second, stared at the skies, and then stood and looked down at Ikaris.

    "What the hell is with all of you right now?" Han was the most curious, and next to him Bruce was staring at the dumbfounded look on Sol''s face as he and Ikaris spoke since everyone else was doing the same.

    Sol fell to his knees and scurried between Ikaris''s legs, his breath hitched as he stared up at her radiant smile, and he tried to reach for her but his hand started shaking. "Ikaris... You...?" Sol asked.

    "You?" He fought to speak but his lips continued to shake as a stupid smile came across his face that caused the goddess to startughing as she took his misguided hand and slowly pressed it on her abdomen above her womb.

    "Officially, as of thest twelve hours after yesterday-night''s events, yes." Ikaris smiled and reached for his cheek with her other hand, sliding off her seat into hisp and staring directly into his eyes. "Sol, I''m pregnant."

    [An incredible revtion is shaking the heavens'' foundation, the gods are all speechless]

    [Mana: 5%-]

    [-Mana 100%]

    "I-I''m gonna be a dad?" His eyes were widened and his pupils shrunken as the news made trips around his head. "For real?"

    "For real, you will be a daddy, Sol." Ikaris nodded as she felt the happiness within him swell, break, and overflow into all his negative emotions, the sadness of his losses on A, the rage he had always held under tight lock, everything was washed away and reced by this bright happiness that caused Sol to fall into tears as he rested his forehead in her breasts and started weeping against her.

    "I''m gonna be a father."

    "She''s pregnant...?" Han''s jaw dropped, as did Bruce''s, even A was a bit taken aback by Sol''s reaction to the news, she could feel a strange power radiating off his presence.

    Suddenly Sol stood up with Ikaris, raising her off the ground and dancing to the tunes that the bards were ying in the background andughing haughtily.

    "I swear, sometimes he just seems like a far more mature man than his age suggests," Usami stared at Sol as he danced with Ikaris while the two of themughed.

    "I''ve been getting that feeling too." Eris admitted, but then sighed and shook her head as Sol''s dance turned into him kissing the goddess whilst everyone else danced around them. "They are beautiful together." She smiled, but then watched speechless again as Ikaris held her mouth in shock and Sol took a knee before her raiasing his hand and revealing a star-like object in his grasp.

 Chapter 86: The Unexpected Visitor.

    The camp went quiet when the object was revealed, it created a light that cast shadows on even the fires as it stole the attention of every living being.

    All eyes focosed on them.

    "What is this?" Ikaris asked behind her fingers and Sol closed his eyes and opened them again. "Sol?" She questioned him again, watching him swallow his fears and smile at her with his eyes puffy and his hands slightly shaking.

    "Originally..." Sol started. "I was going to ask you the next time we left, but I couldn''t find a more beautiful moment than now, Ikaris, you have truly made me the happiest man in every way I can think of..." He slightly raised his hand, revealing the curved silver ring with a centrepiece that glowed and shimmered in different colours like a distant star. "Please, marry me..."

    "Sol..." Ikaris stared at him too shocked to speak, and then looked at Dina and A who were tearing up alongside Eris and even Usami.

    "I..." She sucked in a breath and took a step toward him, extending her left hand as she had seen many mortals do so many times in the past.

    "It would be the greatest honour, if you would make me your bride." She started crying as she raised her hand to him, and with an expression of nigh disbelief, Sol slowly slid the ring onto her finger and then looked at her again, but before he could utter a word Ikaris tackled him to the ground and started showering him with kisses, while the camp erupted in cheer and celebration.

    "This is so bittersweet," Amented, cing her hand over her heart and sighing.

    But she did so secretly letting nobody hear her words.

    "Such an... Auspicious asion."

    The camp fell silent again, and everyone looked to the skies as arge demonic gate opened up and a figure slowly descended through it.

    The mood fell and the regr soldiers felt foreboding danger, while the captains and heroes drew and summoned their respective weapons.

    "I hope my presence does not dampen the... Celebration, I simply came to bid you, congrattions... Goddess of battle; Ikaris, and to meet your husband-to-be, Sol Vestic." The being spoke again.

    "What the hell!?" Dina raised her hands while Usami arched to throw her spear-

    "Nobody move!" Sol''s voice roared and echoed across the entire army as he held on to Ikaris and hid her behind himself with his teeth baring against the intruder as sweat trickled down his cheek, Ikaris too was in a dilemma, if she was attacked, there was a very real chance of her dying which was why Sol had shielded her with his body.

    "What the hell are you actually doing here?" Sol asked, staring up at the female d in armour as she slowly descended andnded before him and Ikaris with her hands folded and a thin tail flicking behind her.

    "I have been watching you all, Sol Vestic, Ikaris, Han Young, Dina Levina, Usami Takae, Bruce Chaolong and Eris Schneider..." She looked over Sol''s shoulder at the other heroes, and they all felt their mana vibrate at just the sight of her.

    "Answer me!" Sol summoned a sword in his grasp, but Ikaris grabbed on to his arm as soon as he did, she was too afraid to let him attack this intruder, she couldn''t even look at the being before them. "What is the demon god doing here?" He asked, and the already stiff silence went electric with shock and fear as everyone''s eyes bulged.

    "Such a presumptuous question to ask the one true goddess of this domain, do I need your permission to walk my own property?" She looked at him again, scanning him with her emerald eyes as her ck lips curled up into a beautiful and cunning smile, revealing her fangs as she released a light huff of ck mana.

    She had light maroon skin, ck silky hair that rested just above her ass and two small ck horns protruding from her temples outwards. She was on the same height as himself as well, and she was d in armour not dissimr to Ikaris''s usual; exposing the top of her bosom, her belly and her mid thighs while on her back rested two dark and skinny bat-like wings.

    "Sol," Ikaris called to him sheepishly, knowing that her life was well and truly in danger, she was far too weak as a hero to harm a hair on this monster''s head, and her divine powers were simply ineffective against demons, her only option would be to flee in this situation, but turning her back to the demon god was begging to be struck down.

    Sol on the other hand was able to fight the demon god, since he was a demigod with divine magic of the demigod species, but now was not the right time, Ikaris was right behind him, any attempt to leave would be a trigger into action, and for whatever reason, this being was stronger than he was, many times stronger, she gave him the same feeling he got from Dr''ul the first time they met.

    [The opponent before you is dangerous, you would damn every lifeform in your immediate surroundings to death if you engaged in battle]

    "How?" Sol stared at the demon god in horror. "How did she get so strong in such a short amount of time?" He asked himself grinding his teeth and rxing his arm again, blocking Ikaris from her viewpletely. "Thest time I saw her was when we just arrived, and she was weaker than me back then, so what the fuck, was it a trick from the start?"

    "I urge you to not reconsider fighting me after meeting me little demigod," She spoke again, approaching Sol and raising her hand, using her dark w to easily slice and break the skin of his chin, drawing white blood.

    "I have observed your every fight, and I am very interested in the duel we will inevitably have." She chuckled at him, sticking her finger in her mouth and humming at the taste of his blood.

    "My visit here is to warn you Sol Vestic, you do not have the luxury ofcency, nor do you happiness, if you fail to meet my expectations, everything you cherish will be annihted, of course there is an alternative that saves you such heartache; an option that would save your precious unborn and your beautiful wife... to-be."

    "And that would be?" Sol asked, feeling Ikaris''s grasp on his arm tighten.

    "Be one with me, leave everything behind and take my hand, give in to your darkness and take me as your bride instead, I will peacefully leave Arkadia and all you care about in search of a higher realm to conquer if you agree to permanently corrupt your divinity and be a true demon-god, your contract, the passion, the love; I will give it all to you and so much more, I will be yours, Sol...

    I will grant you the gift of darkness that washes away even the powers of the mightiest god." She smiled at him with her hand extended while Ikaris felt her heart drop and skip beats at the offer.

    "What are they talking about, I can''t hear anything, whatnguage is that?" Idria had her brows furrowed and her eyes squinted as she tried and failed to read their lips.

    "Thenguage of divinity."  A thought to herself having read of it once; a tongue that no being other than a god could hear or understand, but Sol was just a demigod, how could he speak it?

    "W-Wait Dear-" Ikaris jolted in terror when Sol took a step toward the demon god and reached his hand out, but then to both their shock he bypassed her hand and grabbed her throat instead.

    [Warni-]

    "Shit up!" Sol snapped at the system silencing it.

    "You," he looked at the demon god again. "I''ll only say this once, so listen closely you bug-eyed bitch." He squeezed down on her throat, but the demon-god in response grabbed his throat as well with a chuckle and a grin.

    "I am listening." She cackled.

    "Picking a fight with me, that I can ept, THAT, I can tolerate, but bringing Ikaris into this is your first andst mistake, be sure to memorize this night well, I''ming for you, I''m going to destroy you and your filthy army with my bare hands, and I''ll relish in that destruction!" He roared at her.

    "I wee the thought!" She raised her leg and stepped in his chest sending him tearing through the army in the blink of an eye and then looking up at a frightened Ikaris as soon as shended on the ground while the multitudes erupted in terrified screams at how massive of a ditch had been made and the countless who had died in an instant.

    "Killing you is tempting, but if I did so this soon he would lose his senses and attack me immediately, but he is currently far too weak," She chuckled.

    "I suppose... until we meet again then, Ikaris." Sheughed while Ikaris stared at the name which hovered above her head, and the information disyed by the system.

    [Name: Sitri

    Race: Demon-God

    Level: Hidden

    Title: Hidden

    Skills: Hidden

    ss: Hidden

    Buffs: Hidden

    Blessing: Hidden

    Curse: Hidden

    Special: Hidden]

    The air started roaring with the sounds of dark orchestras and choirs as Ashera stood and opened her hands,ughing at the skies; staring at the gods.

    "I have overstayed my visit to this world; dear gods of Arkadia, train him well, grow my little Sol, give me a worthy sendoff, and then rejoice in the name of Sitri before you all cease to exist as you are devoured by me!" She startedughing again in ascention toward the dark portal.

    "The end you all feared has long been overdue, but fret not..." She looked down at the army that had once again be quiet and immobile.

    "It is imminent all the same!"

 Chapter 87: Arise.

    "How...?"

    "That was the demon-god?" Han asked, falling to his knees as soon as Sitri was gone and the portal closed.

    In contrast Eris ran toward the trench in the ground and started preparing [area heal] while her mentor and the other healing mages did the same. "How do we confront something so powerful?" He asked again, trembling from his shoulders down as all will to fight left his body.

    "Why...?"

    "Ikaris..." Dina wanted to approach her, but her legs had lost their strength, she too was shaking from shock, she would simply fall if she tried to move just yet.

    "Why is this happening again?"

    "Fuck, I have to check on Sol quickly!" Eris healed another wounded soldier and took off running toward the deepest part of the ditch.

    "Eris, we still have wounded here!" Idria called to her, but the girl did not look back even once as she jumped into the crater.

    "What did I ever do to have this happen twice?"

    "...Dear..." Ikaris blinked and held on to her shoulders as her tears welled up, but before any tears were she''d Sol crossed her mind again and she wiped her moist eyes and turned to the ditch in the ground. "Sol!" She screamed, taking off in a sprint toward the barrier after Eris where Sol had stopped crashing just before the obelisk in a crater that was so deep water was in the bottom of it.

    In that same crater, Sol''s eyes were zed over, his face held a vacant lifeless deadpan and his breathing was shallow, he was bedded into the rocks with his arms and legs bent as if he was in a throne of sorts, at his feet there was water, and slowly flowing down his stomach and joining the water there was glowing white blood, lots and lots of it, his entire chest had been caved in, and the shock had been so great that he was still unable to move or even begin to recover.

    Ikaris with her vastly superior speed reached first,nding before him and reaching for his face with her own look of terror. "Sol, wake up!" She gently pped him several times, but nothing, he was still dazed and zombified.

    "Ahh." She let out a groan in panic, grabbing his shirt and tearing it the rest of the way open, his heart had exploded, and his lungs were tornpletely, had he been human with these injuries he would have died immediately.

    "Please," Ikaris''s body transformed and she hovered her hands above his wounds, but for whatever reason, he was not healing, as if he himself was giving up on life his body rejected the divine healing.

    "Sol!" Eris finally arrived after following Ikaris''s bright disy of divine magic seconds earlier, wasting no time as she cast a sphere of emerald magic around him.

    [Heal] She paused for a second when she realised that nothing happened and then cast it a second time, a third, a fourth, and yet nothing, the healer held her mouth in horror, he was clearly still alive, his mouth was moving and his body still had slight function, but he wasn''t healing no matter how much power she put into it.

    "Ikaris... What do I do?" She asked, but when she looked at Ikaris she felt a shattering wave of depression, unease and shock as Ikaris''s eyes were wide, crimson and unblinking, her ck hair was flowing around her head, and her teeth were peeled back into a terrifying grimace, she looked even more sinister than the demon-god did.

    [I will kill-] Ikaris was about to stand, but then her eyes fell on Sol again and her appearance reverted to that of a human and she fell to her knees again. "N-no, Sol..." She took his arms and pulled them free of the rubble, cing them one on her abdomen and the other on her cheek. "Please... please, please!" She shook against the touch of his cool palm.

    "Don''t leave me alone again, I beg you, wake up, you have a baby in conception, remember, and... I just said yes to marrying you, please!" She tried granting him magic, but the sigils on her body were ck and cold, there were no exchanges, mana between the two had been cut off as well. "Darling...no~" Her voice turned into a whisper and then faded entirely as she began speaking inaudibly.

    In her throne room, Dr''ul stood, holding on to the window and staring speechlessly with her mouth agape and her eyes wide in shock.

    The pantheon was quiet

    The kingdom of Argom had a shadow cast over it, a shadow that spelled doom as they felt the moment all hope vanished from their presence.

    In the presence of the queen and princess, Renia had fallen to her knees knocking over their tea and clutching her head as tears slowly flowed down her cheeks.

    And in the north, Sitri had a look of disappointment as she watched them through the same system window on her own throne. "Did I kick him too hard?"

    The camp fell silent upon Eris''s return, her face was smeared with white blood, and her tears flowed like a river as she hunched forward with Sol on her back, while Ikaris walked behind them with her eyes shadowed and her hands sped as she continued whispering inaudible words.

    "No... No way," Dina finally moved, and she did so with a blood curdling scream as she rushed toward them. "No, no, no, no!" She repeated the word continuously as she approached,ing to a halt as she stared at Eris, and then at Ikaris before looking at Sol again and holding her fingers under his nose.

    No breath.

    "This is hardly the time but if Sol dies, I might have a chance with... Wait, no, how can I think of that at such a time?" Han debated with his degenerate thoughts as he stared past the girls and Sol at Ikaris who was physically in a state ofplete defeat, from her eyes and how dead they looked, to how her fingers quivered. "No, this is definitelyy chance tofort her..."

    "Ikaris!" Usami ran past everyone else and grabbed Ikaris in a hug, a tight hug and held her for several long seconds before she finally started shaking.

    "Don''t hold it, don''t fight it..." She rubbed Ikaris''s back and felt her final walls crumble as she broke into silent tears, and there right next to her in a matter of seconds was Han, hugging the both of them, and Ikaris in her grief epted the hugs as her hands hung limply at her sides and she cried.

    "One strike... Even though he has fought the gods and even defeated them... It took one strike from the demon god," A fell on her ass and hugged herself. "It is hopeless, if even master Vestic stood no chance, then what can we ever hope to aplish?"

    "His blood is white... He is a Demigod." Lyra stated, staring at Sol after Erisid him next to the countless people who had died before the healers could get to them.

    The hero did not stand though, she stayed there on her knees with her hands holding his and cried casting heal over and over again despite his clearly lifeless state.

    "Maybe I''ll plea to the demon-god to make me a part of her army, I don''t want to die like that." One soldier stared at the hole in Sol''s chest in horror.

    "I''m not fighting anymore," Another threw down her mace and rubbed her head. "What''s the point of fighting if even this guy who turned out to be stronger than the heroes didn''t stand a chance, aren''t we doomed already?" She asked.

    "This is terrible, he just found out he''s gonna be a dad, and he proposed too... It''s heartbreaking...

    I can''t die like that, I''m going back to my wife, I at least want to die in the arms of the woman I love!" One more random soldier threw down his weapon but this time the poor man took off running in the direction of Argom, and not just him, several hundred soldiers had already started an exodus to thest standing city, less than half their numbers stood idle and watched everything unfold.

    [I believe it is my ce to say; I have not seen or collected the soul of Sol Vestic] Another god approached Dr''ul through a veil of ck divine magic, he was hooded from head to toe in a robe that hid his appearance, and in his grasp was a small curved wooden knife with a simple carved sigil on it.

    [Azrael: god of death and the afterlife]

    [Azrael, what do you mean?] Dr''ul asked him confused.

    [His soul remains tethered to his body, he is by definition dead, but factually speaking, his body still holds the essence of life]

    [Sol] Dr''ul looked at him again, watching as Han held on to Ikaris while the others approached and stood over him with Dina on his other side with her forehead rested against his palm crying her eyes out, an idea spread through her mind and a smile graced her red lips.

    {The goddess of war, Dr''ul, is sending a private message}

    [Sol, your time has not yete, let go of this temporary death and arise, lest your wife and child be defiled at the hand of Han Young] Dr''ul spoke, and then watched with her breath held.

    "."

    "..."

    "...."

    [....]

 Chapter 88: Forbidden.

    "I''m sorry."

    "I couldn''t tell you while you were alive how sorry I am for everything I did, all the stupid shit I said was because I couldn''t get you to notice me, because I''ve always loved you." Dina had her forehead in his palm, holding on to his hand and crying, while the others watched her unable to hear her inaudible whispers.

    "I was such a coward... that I even asked Ikaris to close one eye and allow me to befriend you just so I wouldn''t be left by myself, but... Ugh!" She shook her head unable to utter another word as she felt the urge to throw up.

    Ikaris was still in shock, as if she found it impossible, which she in fact did, Sol was supposed to be the greatest; those derations she had made of him were not based on infatuation, she had altered his every atom on their exit of A, his body was not supposed to break this easily, even against a blow like Dr''ul''s when he was much weaker than his current self, he had only suffered fissures to the blood vessels in his hands.

    He was supposed to be a being of pure and constant evolution, how could something as superficial as a hole in his chest kill him so easily when he had been blessed with an immortal body?

    Because of this shock she had be numb; numb to touch, numb to words, even her vision was blurred and unfocused as if she too was dead, and Han had quickly taken advantage of her numbness and everyone else''s grief.

    The soldiers who remained were the ones who believed that Sol truly was strong, the ones that had seen him do impossible things constantly in the past, and poor Sara couldn''t even stand, she spent more time with Sol than even Ikaris did, and aside from Ikaris Sara was the second person who knew him on a personal level enough to call him friend confidently, everyone had lost an acquaintance, but she had just lost her best friend.

    The maid sat where Sol had been seated earlier with Ikaris, away from everyone else with her face buried in her legs and a piece of his armour that had torn off after he was attacked clutched in her grasp while she shook and sobbed.

    "I''m sorry," Han held Ikaris''s head to his chestbing his fingers through her hair and hugging her tightly onto himself, squishing her against him to fort'' her. "Nobody could have predicted that it would happen so suddenly, if I could have helped at all I''d have thrown my own life away to try and save his."

    The bastard lied through his teeth, but Ikaris was still unresponsive, she just couldn''t cope.

    "Come on, I''ll take you back to your tent to lie down, you can deal with this after you''ve closed your eyes for a bit," Han took her by her hand and started leading her away, and without any resistance Ikaris began following him while her eyes blurred further and her mind deteriorated into more numbing thoughts.

    [Forbidden]

    "Huh?" Han raised his brow when he saw the message before him, but he kept leading her regardless.

    Not just him either, it was disyed before everyone.

    "What? Forbidden?" Sara rubbed her eyes and stared at it.

    [Absolutely forbidden, sphemous, aplete disregard for thews of nature; of life and death, for the foundationalws that build this universe, this action will lead to a copse-]

    "Then let the universe implode upon itself and take every living being with it."

    Dina jolted in shock and sat up staring as a warm hand rested on her cheek, wiped her tears and then patted her head gently.

    "How dare you, Han Young?"

    Everyone watched appalled as he stood and began walking toward them, the hole in his chest shut with a thundersous thump as his heart began beating again, and magic like they had never seen or felt before spread across a massive expanse, shooting off like the second impact of a meteor, leaving the stars dim as the skies were filled with balls of white mana crashing back to the surface for miles upon miles in every direction, it harmed nothing, it didn''t even push them, it simply epassed everything within its range.

    [Forbidden-]

    "Silence!"

    Sol raised his head, eyes brimming with life and a pissed expression on his face as he opened his mouth. "Ikaris." He called her in a solid monotone.

    The Goddess''s fading consciousness snapped back into full throttle, her blurred eyes refocused, her body stiffened, her hearing started working again, her sense of touch returned and she stopped walking causing Han who had been leading her by her shoulders at this point from behind to bump into her.

    "A-are you okay?" He asked surprised. As the word [forbidden] began glitching from the system being temporarily suppressed.

    "Master." Ikaris turned around as if the world before her had been on fire.

    Pushing Han''s hand out of her way she ran shakily and heaved as she crashed into Sol who was just about to call her name again.

    "Mas-" She looked up, but Sol had honestly not even seen her yet, he could sense her turmoil, he could feel her pain the whole time, but when he stood after his sleep and sought her out tofort her what he found was Han trying to sneak away with her, the darkness within him was brought to the surface.

    Ikaris felt the bloodlust as these feelings of possession were returned, and her sigils that had gone dark ignited with mana throughout her body causing heat to spread across and beneath her skin as he held her onto himself and raised his right hand at Han, opening his palm as his hair turned white and the entire world seemed to stop breathing for his next word.

    [Imaginary tier me magic: Infernus]

    "Burn."

    "Hear me out-"

    Hans eyes bulged after he looked at Sol, but that bulge became a *pop as he was literally boiled from the inside out and caught aze.

    Ikaris held on to Sol when she finally realised what was happening, and Sol''s grip on her shoulder tightened again when he felt her shaking against him.

    Sol snapped his fingers.

    [Reverse]

    Han was suddenly fine again with the only evidence of the fire from a moment ago being the red steaming ground beneath him, screaming from the phantom pain of being scorched alive, he looked up at Sol and shrieked in terror turning with the intention of running away.

    [Mana bullet]

    Once again, Han experienced death as small projectiles flew through and around him faster than the speed of sound taking chunks of his entire body at a time and even a fraction of his head, but as his consciousness was about to fade he appeared before Sol a third time,pletely fine.

    "No Wait!!-"

    *Snap*

    Han''s hands and feet exploded off his body sending him screaming and ragdolling onto his back as nothing more than a torso before several thin rods fell from the sky and pierced him full of holes.

    *Snap*

    He returned to normal again screaming and staring at his hands and legs.

    "Please!!"

    *Snap*rge bugs appeared out of nowhere and regurgitated caustic bile on him, melting him to a partial skeleton.

    *Snap*

    *Snap*

    *Snap*

    *SNAP*

    ***

    Nobody, not the captains, not the heroes, no soldier, and not even the gods dared to defy this wicked act of personal revenge against Han.

    Sol was honest to a fault when it came to his goddess, and there had been one single rule he hadid out on the very first day. "Do not fuck with her." And yet it seemed like it was the one thing everyone kept doing. "Diablos, Han Young, Saat, princess Da Vermon, that one hired swindler by the same princess who''s name he (I the author) couldn''t remember, the demigods, Kane Angelman...

    and countless noblemen in Argom who had been rejected by her, It was frustrating he''d had enough.

    "Whooooh~" Han wasying on the ground with his eyes barely focused and his limbs limply spread.

    "How long has it been?" A asked, they had mostly all left, some out of horror, and others because they could not stomach what Sol was doing to the hero of the sword. Even Ikaris had fallen asleep to the sounds of Han''s screams that night, but A remained behind Sol as did Dina and Idria who was on standby in case he left him for dead at the end of his wrath.

    "Hours," Dina had Ikaris sleeping with her head rested in herp while she slowly caressed her back. "It''s about to be daytime." She gestured to the horizon and her mentor nodded. "His mind finally broke," Dina stared at Han unsympathetically and then looked at Sol who snapped once more.

    "He has killed him hundreds of times already what more imaginative ways could he possibly have?" Idria asked disturbed down to the pits of her stomach and barely holding down her dinner after some of the things that she had seen.

    "It won''t be a problem for you all, right?" Sol turned to them.

    "Problem?" A perked up after the hours of psed silence and screams led way to Sol''s first words, Sol nodded and pointed to Han who was currently being swallowed by a portal of sorts.

    "I''m keeping him, he''ll rapidly grow in strength obviously, I''ll turn him into an efficient demon-killing machine, I''ll even restore his mind, but as far as his life goes... his very existence is forfeit to me now; I won''t tolerate his schemes any further, I''m asking if anyone has a problem with that?" Sol''s eyes held a very distinct kind of hostility as if he was daring someone to say ''yes''.

    "...Of course not."

    "Good." Sol started walking toward them being cast as a dark shadow with glowing white eyes as the sun peeked over the horizon behind him.

    "I don''t want any more enemies, Han is thest time I''ll show mercy, I don''t care who or what it is, as of this moment I''m shelving what''s left of the goodwill within me." Sol dered and stopped before them, staring northward with zing eyes and a grimace that caused Ikaris to wake after sensing his anger.

    "Sitri, I know you''re watching; stay put and don''t you dare run away."

    "I''ming for your head."

 Chapter 89: A threat to all life.

    "I have a lot of questions." Dina sat before Sol and Ikaris, the army was in itsst stages of packing up, and the two of them had been conversing in private for the entire morning until she interrupted them by taking a seat and clearing her throat.

    "Can you be honest with me, Ikaris?" She asked, and the goddess looked at Sol and then back at her, watching as A started clearing the area by sending people off to do random things.

    "What are you curious about?" Ikaris asked, and Dina had a very unsure expression as she looked at her, and even more unsure after looking at Sol.

    "You know mages are sensitive to mana right?" She stared.

    "I am aware."

    "At first I thought it was as simple as you being summoned and turned into a different race, or using [mimic] to alter your appearance, but the more I think about these things the less sense they make, whenever your hair and ears grow out, and your body glows, you be an entirely different entity, your attitude, your personality, your mana; everything changes." Dina sat forward making gestures as she counted on her fingers.

    "...Ikaris, where did you meet Sol?" Dina asked when neither of them spoke a word, and at the question Ikaris''s eyes shifted to Sol and her gaze slightly lowered while his arose to meet Dina''s.

    "It''s this ce called A." Sol spoke up. "Ikaris considers you her friend, so I don''t see any harm in you knowing this, unlike in the past I can''t ignore you either, you''re a part of this just as much as we are now." He made mention of the fact that though he was immobile he still heard everything.

    "There''s such a ce?" Dina asked, and Sol shook his head.

    "On earth? No." Ikaris replied after regaining the confidence to share this openly with her friend. "You see, months ago on the day we met, Sol died-"

    "Died?" Dina stared at him while A came and took a seat next to her, giving her a smile when she looked over. "You knew about this?!"

    "I did." A nodded, extending a tray full of food to everyone.

    "If we''re trying to simplify what happened here for rification; A is an alternate world, like Arkadia, it exists in a sister dimension, on the day we met I died, but that was ten years ago." Sol reached out and epted the food on the trey.

    "Wait... If it was three months ago then how was it ten years ago?" Dina crossed her hands pointing at the contradiction.

    "Ten years ago, I died for real, my soul was summoned to A upon my death, and I spent that entire time in a bloody war that ended with me being thest human alive, I was then resummoned to earth in the past, right at the moment of my death; which was to everyone else, only three months ago. Does that make sense?" He raised a brow.

    "So... You died in the past, got summoned and lived for ten more years, but because you were sent back... your death..."

    "Was reversed," Ikaris answered. "I was d when he decided to leave A, for a moment I thought he would have asked for death but-"

    "You''re not human." Dina cut her off realising Sol said he was thest, but clearly that is also where Ikaris came from.

    "I am not." Ikaris nodded, shedding her appearance again and revealing her true form as she stood, except unlike the other times she truly revealed herself, the shimmer of gxies in her hair, the eminent glow of her body, and the absolute terror of her divine mana spread around them like a fog of light, she had already closed off their space because she figured she would have to do this.

    "Ikaris that''s enough," Sol rested his hand on her leg and extended his other hand toward Dina and A who had gone silent from shock. [Heal] He cast heal on them, and both their noses stopped bleeding immediately and they snapped back to their senses.

    "Sorry," Ikaris sat again, retaining her form but suppressing her power.

    "She is the goddess of that dimension," Sol gestured to Ikaris. "A, and all the other gxies in her universe were watched over by her, I often wonder why she came with me, I''m notining, I''m grateful, happy even, but I am also confused a lot of the times, and her response is always the same..."

    "There is no better ce to be than in the presence of the one you love." Ikaris lowered her gaze again with a blush.

    "You''ve been fu- ahem.. she''s a Goddess..." Dina stared at Ikaris in utter disbelief.

    "This is the second time you''re hearing this." Sol raised a brow at her.

    "Eh?"

    "Your memories of the conversation were erased, everyone''s was." A sighed, smiling at her pupil.

    "And yours weren''t, why do you know all of this anyway why are you here?!"

    "She''s a special case." Ikaris scratched her cheek. "The alternative to keep A quiet would either be to take her staff from her effectively halving her strength, or outright killing her, but I never had a reason to kill her, and taking the staff is the same as weakening Argom''s military might; she is important to the survival of Arkadia."

    "So, all those things you say and all those times you were making a fuss about mundane things you were serious." Dina shook her head again and cupped her cheeks. "How does something like this even... No way... What?"

    "Remember I said it, Sol and I were going to disappear." Ikaris raised her finger seriously. "All of this is a big tragedy in my opinion, but I am also d we ended up on this ursed rock!" She looked at Dina seriously.

    "What do you mean?" Sol was the one who looked at her this time.

    "Small events and isted happenings can be changed through maniption, but something asrge-scaled and controlled as a ritual summoning would never change, it is inevitable, which means Sol was always going to end up on A, and you Heroes were always going to end up on A.

    "It is my guess that because we ended up changing his fate by returning at the moment of his death, he reced someone else who was going to be summoned here when he showed up on your campus, but let me tell you, if we had not been summoned here, everyone would already have been killed off and Arkadia would have already been destroyed."

    Ikaris exined.

    "Destroyed?" A gasped.

    "That demon-god has already amassed enough power to ascend several times over, inparison the demon-god from A would have been killed by her \\ithout difficulty, it is unfortunate to say this but gods cannot fight them, I was powerless against him and it proved to be the same with Sitri as well, our divinity is nullified by their very presence -theye from a ce where divine power does not exist; a dark universe without a true god."

    "I figured." Sol narrowed his eyes. "For whatever reason Sitri chose to remain here even though she can easily kill the gods and leave whenever she chooses to. "When I first got here there were several advances on Argom that would have destroyed everything in about a month''s time, but I intervened, and I suppose that''s why she showed an interest in me...

    After all, I have already killed a demon god, I can physically be one."

    "You can what?" A dropped her trey out of stiff shock.

    "Yes," Sol raised his hand and her and Dina watched with their mouths agape as Sol''s hand morphed into a deep red shade and his nails turned ck and sharp.

    "One of the passively activated skills I received after killing the demon god was [demon-god transformation], and like the name suggests it literally turns me into a real demon-god for a duration, which makes me believe there are other types of demons... But let''s not stray any further than we already have."

    His hand returned to normal and he stared at Dina again.

    "Ikaris gave everything up to be by my side, she wasn''t kidding, she left a ce where no being could ever reach her, and became subservient to me." He looked at Ikaris as he spoke and all she did was smile warmly. "I respect that more than I ever will anything else in my lifetime.

    "So then the power you wielded...?" A led on.

    "When I returned with him, I left an unconscious copy of his original astral self there, it is our source, unharmed and sleeping it constantly produces mass amounts of divine mana, my mana, and so long as I am with him I can channel that mana regardless of where I am, and grant his real self mana from my home dimension, that is the contract I made." Ikaris exposed the sigil on her neck.

    "These are merely the gateways to our power."

    "So, you''re saying without Sol you will lose your powers?" Dina asked. "And without you he will also lose his?"

    "Eventually yes."

    "That''s never happening." Sol crossed his arms. "I would never abandon her, every day is a gift, how could I ever?" He smiled, and Dina along with A''s sighed. "Not even if I died and went to hell, I''d find a way back."

    "Are you jesting, I would find you first if your soul was ever dragged to that damnable ce." Ikarisughed as she nonchntly talked about something so serious.

    "You have truly sold your souls to each other." Dina finally spoke, and they looked at each other and nodded; admitting it to themselves.

    "I hope that clears everything up, needless to say you aren''t allowed to share this with anyone else I''m only saying it because Ikaris trusts the sincerity she sees in you..."

    "... Listen, if Ikaris is targeted again like that I really will just end this world," Sol''s mood went dark as heid a threat at the end of the exnation.

    "You have that much power?" A gasped.

    "It would take one strike to annihte all life on Arkadia." Ikaris admitted.

    "That''s why I''m confused about Sitri; upon arrival she was weaker than the first demon-god, but all of a sudden she is even stronger than I am, it''s weird to say but she fooled me first." Sol dropped his fist in his palm with a dark expression. "She can''t be allowed to live, she threatened Ikaris, she''s a threat to all life here."

    "That monster has to die."

 Chapter 90: Open Your Heart.

    After their conversation, Sol took a moment for himself while everyone else went about their business.

    He sat and immersed himself in deep thought about what came next; allowing the cool midday breeze to wash across his face and take deep breaths reminding himself that he was still alive.

    "I said I''d defeat her, but this is the first time I have no idea how to do so, the fastest way to grow is to kill, but the monsters on Arkadia are all far too weak; the only contest I have here are the gods, and I can''t just start killing the gods without reason." He narrowed his eyes.

    "This is harder than my goal of fighting Dr''ul was, as long as the gods challenged me I could grow, but if I face that bitch once and am not strong enough it''ll just be a repeat ofst night, I''ll be overwhelmed in an instant and die." He tapped his foot in frustration; there had to be something-

    "Sol." Dina took a seat next to him, catching him off guard because of how focused he was. "Have you thought about how you''re gonna do it?" She asked, and he paused and slightly turned to her, he was going to answer with some kind of obvious insult, but he sighed instead and shook his head.

    "Nothing, every time I think I could discover a way, it ends up falling to a dead end..." He answered, watching her avert her eyes and stare ahead with her thumbs fiddling and her person shrunken as she shied away from his gaze with a slight blush. "Dina."

    "Yes?" She looked up at him again.

    "If I die to Sitri-"

    "You won''t, don''t think like that!" She snapped as soon as the thought crossed her mind. "You''ll win... right? you have to." She shook her head after holding on to his arm with a pleading gaze.

    He didn''t react, he just stared at her. "Sorry," She shrunk again and hugged herself. "But you can''t."

    "I''m saying, if I do." Sol closed his eyes and turned to her fully gesturing with his hands wide open. "Ikaris has to live, but she''s so dependent on my presence that I don''t know what she''ll do if I died, I don''t want her to harm herself or our child-"

    "Then stop thinking about dying." Dina turned to him fully. "You died twice in actuality already, once back on earth and then yesterday, I checked, you were cold, no pulse no mana, no sign of life whatsoever; if you''re so concerned about the lives you''d leave behind ...then... find a way to live."

    "Because; Because." Dina''s voice broke and all the resolve she had held on to until that point crumbled away revealing the same sad girl from the night before who couldn''t even speak properly.

    "I don''t want to lose you again, I don''t want to live in a world where there is no Sol Vestic, it''s hard enough to not be able to take your hand and save you and Ikaris somehow; to keep this little piece of my dream from dying with time, but if you give up and die... what happens to the rest of us~?"

    "..."

    "Could you stop crying?" Sol asked, but his words only made her cry more.

    He wasn''t very good with tears, aside from Ikaris''s, he found the tears of anyone else annoying, at least he used to, but it bothered him now, when he woke up not only Ikaris, but even Bruce had cried for him, Idria, Eris, Dina, A, Sara, Usami, Kris and Lyra, and even some of the soldiers despite the fact that he didn''t even know their names and barely remembered their faces.

    People had grown attached to him again, and he hated it, he hated being looked up to as some kind of symbol, he hated having his emotions tied to others because it was hard to look them in the eye knowing there was a real chance of them dying at any given moment and leaving him behind as well; it was an awful feeling not being able to reciprocate the love one directed at you because your own fears were fighting against you.

    "Dina stop..." Sol scratched his head when she started sobbing louder drawing attention to them as her head slowly buckled under the weight of her emotions. "Dina-"

    "Nghh~!" She bit her lips and sniffled trying to stop but ended up getting louder again, repeatedly wiping her eyes and shaking her head in hopelessness.

    Ikaris was watching of course, she had waited patiently to see this unfold, it was no n of hers but she knew the moment she epted Dina as a friend that it was inevitable: the moment where Sol had to face the fact that she was not the only important person in his life anymore, because just as he had wished for her to interact with and be friends with other people, to grow as an individual, one of her deepest desires was that someone could help her heal him.

    He had always thought that Ikaris needed friends to be less dependent on him, but the feeling was a mutual one she shared after seeing him interact without feeling and emotion, to that extent she respected Sara who had managed to get through already.

    She knew his past, she was aware of his entire life now, she could see and sense his walls when it came to others, his trauma from losing everything he cherished on A had created a thick wall where she was not allowed to enter as his goddess or as his woman, it needed to be broken down overtime, and she felt like Dina, someone from his earthly past was perfect for this role, because she understood how much the girl loved him.

    She wasn''t fond of it, but she was sure after Dina''s request that she could help, he needed to address the feelings of the ones around him, he was too cold for someone so warm.

    "Could you please stop?" Sol slowly reached out his hand and rested it on her head with an awkward smile, trying pitifully to cheer her up again.

    "It''s Okay," Sol rested his hands on her shoulders sighing repeatedly and slightly shaking her while he got looks of pity from everyone else. "Dina-"

    Without hearing what else he had to say, she sunk beneath his arms and hugged him.

    It was a chaste hug as she held on to his arms and rested her head against his chest, and after she did so, Ikaris arrived and sat next to them on her side, sighing and cing her hand on Dina''s back as she smiled sadly at him.

    "Did you-"

    "n this? Not this part." Ikaris shook her head. "In fact I have a lot of very mixed emotions about it," She continued rubbing the the crying girl''s back while she spoke. "But, darling, you cannot ask me to be a better me while you remain the same lukewarm warrior from A, if there is a bleeding heart before you, at least try to wrap a tourniquet around it every once in a while."

    Ikaris raised a brow at him, picking up his hand and helping him hug Dina properly as she sunk into his chest and continued crying.

    "I don''t want-"

    "Look at her, Sol." Ikaris leaned over Dina and hugged her as well. "She needs you, more than she needed a friend in me she needed to be seen by you, I sympathise with that, I understand it all too well, for those years while you fought I gave you blessing after blessing, but what I truly wished to do was hold you just like this and say "I am here too, look at me too."

    Ikaris''s eyes watered when Dina released Sol and turned to her holding her tightly in a hug and crying against her. "She has wanted to be seen by you for years, to be acknowledged even once... I fell in love with the potential before I understood the person, she fell in love with the person before she ever knew their potential."

    "Ikaris..."

    "I would never im that she loves you as much as or even more than I do, to be honest, I truly believe that it is impossible for any creature to love you like I do..." Ikaris held on to Dina who had finally managed to stop crying after letting out her years of frustration in an intense moment that felt like it was healing wounds she had never known existed.

    "However, the fact still remains that she adores you on a level I have no choice but to respect as the one who potentially stole you away from her, she has debated many times to break us apart, and she used to pick fights with me every day, but in the end she backed down out of respect each time, she respected what we had even when she was so torn up by it that her heart broke repeatedly, in a weird twist, she has only been thinking about your happiness, Dear, open your heart a little."

    "It''s embarrassing when you say it like that..." Dinamented with her face squished against Ikaris''s breasts.

    "Be silent." Ikaris gave her a hard bonk on her head with a warm smile directed at Sol revealing the "mixed" part of her emotion as that was clearly revenge for hugging her man.

    "Ow~"

 Chapter 91: Fear and Doubt.

    "Are we really still going?" Usami asked, visibly scared as her and the other heroes gathered before A, hoping she would say the opposite, but instead the half-elf sucked in a breath with her lips shut tightly with determination etched across her face and nodded at them.

    "In light of the most recent events it is evident that we arepletely hopeless." A stared at the five remaining heroes with Han being absent, to that extent Ikaris had stepped down but chosen to follow along as support while Sol reprised his role in her ce for the time being.

    "The demon god is beyond us, she is beyond any power we will ever gain-"

    "Then why are we still trying to beat her, aren''t you just admitting that nothing we do will ever be enough?" Eris asked and A gestured to Sol.

    "That''s my job, but just because she''s my fight doesn''t mean you have a free pass to run away with your tails tucked in, Argom needs its heroes to be as powerful as possible because there''s an entire horde of possibly billions of demons other than the demon-god, so even though you''re two heroes short you''re still pushing forward; granted the other captains have been assigned the army while only A apanies us." Sol stared at her with his hand gestured back at A.

    "Then not only are we headed into more danger than we can handle, but we''re doing it without the teams we nned to go there with, this is too much to ask of us!" Bruce objected.

    "Are you actually a demigod?" Usami turned to Sol and asked him skeptically.

    "Only demigods have blood of pure white, Usami, you saw it yourself, we all did; blood of glowing white." A answered in his stead. "You also probably think that Master Vestic fighting the demon god is pointless given what happened a few days ago when she appeared..."

    "Don''t worry about Sitri, just focus on gaining strength, leave her to me, trust me there won''t be a repeat of what happened." Sol stood confidently before them, contrasting hisid-back persona from before Sitri appeared.

    "It''s like he''s a totally different person." Dina looked at Ikaris who was wearing a dress without armour and assuming her goddess appearance where everyone could see her, even if they now knew she was different, they still didn''t know what she was, so she rxed a little, with Sol on alert it was nearly impossible for anything to touch anyone around him.

    "This is the Sol of A," Ikaris whispered back. "To say he is different from what you have seen is an understatement, only by witnessing him will you understand." She bragged, leaving Dina even more curious.

    ...

    "I believe it to be a bad idea." Idria stared at the heroes and A as they were in a meeting set aside from the remaining army that was going to continue to the next obelisk and check for more breaches along the territory before going back home.

    "I tried convincing Usami several times but she is adamant that she will not leave the heroes'' party-"

    "Do not speak to me of that girl with such an innocent tone, Morn, her Highness has already been made aware of your deeds, you will receive a befitting punishment for abusing your role as the teacher of the spear hero to have your way with her when we arrive back in Argom, as of right now you are under mine,dy Lyra and sir Kris''s surveince, and if you leave our sight for a minute you will immediately be branded a war criminal and be cklisted with an order to kill on sight."

    "I have no idea what you speak of-"

    "There is an abundance of proof on this matter, eyewitness testimonies as well as physical evidemce, so save your words and say your prayers, the Queen will have you on a pike so enjoy your remaining three months of freedom in the army." Idria regarded him with a scorful expression.

    "That is nonesense though, she was the one who-"

    "You are not permitted to speak on the matter." Lyra stated to him; she was the tallest of all of them and her imposing figure gave her an air of danger without her even having to make a move, that was all without mentioning the fact that aside from A who was a monster in her own right, Lyra was second only to thete General Grim.

    That is to say as the descendant of a Demigod she was powerful, even if she usually stated otherwise.

    Morn had two choices, and being the coward he was he chose to fold and ept his situation rather than fight back, even with his special skill to kill any he deemed as an enemy he valued his life over his freedom, he would do whatever it took to live.

    "This is a rather anticlimactic sendoff," Eris waved to Idria as they left with morn at the back of the army. "It feels tacked on and kind of rushed."

    "You wouldn''t feel that way if you had any confidence going forward." Sol held out his hand to Ikaris and she hooked her arm with his and mounted his horse, sitting before him and rxing.

    "Am I supposed to have any confidence?" Eris looked around at Sol with her brow raised. "You say you have it under control but I can''t stop thinking about what happened to you, your entire chest caved in like a fucking sinkhole to an attack I couldn''t even see, I don''t feel safe in any regard-"

    "Listen here you-"

    "It''s okay, Ikaris," Sol held her hips as she took the reins and began moving. "Her doubts are warranted." He corrected her.

    "What''s up with that appearance anyway?" Usami raised her brow at Ikaris and the goddess just smiled. "It''s weird y''know."

    "Mimic," Ikaris answered concisely.

    "That''s... no, I''m tired of that one excuse!" Usami scowled.

    "I find this form extremely attractive, actually." Sol looked down at Ikaris''s ears and pressed his lips on one of them causing the goddess to shudder with a squeal at the sudden tease.

    "She''s more sensitive to touch, and without having to hide it she also has a sharper handle on her powers." He pointed out and Ikaris nodded, that was a load of bullshit, obviously, she was just tired of looking like a human when three of the people around her were aware of the fact that she was a goddess already.

    "Ugh," Usami mounted her horse and looked at Dina who shrugged and smiled.

    "Everyone is tense after the recent incident." A approached them on her horse forming the leading three while everyone else fell in line behind them, with the only exemption being Sara who was insistent on following them from the start and remained at the back.

    "They''re afraid," Dina sighed. "Honestly, I am too, but I don''t think I share the same fear... they''re terrified that they stand no chance; that they''re gonna get killed off without a fight." She pointed out.

    "I''m afraid because the future for us is so uncertain, I trust Sol with my life; if he says he can do it I know he''s not lying, what worries me is my own weakness, I wonder if I can do my part effectively enough to let him focus on the demon god without interference."

    "That''s why even though I''m the one with thergest role currently, this journey is focused on you guys getting stronger, I''m still not taking part in your fights, unless I absolutely have to, or unless I feel like Ikaris''s safety will be threatened." He gestured to the heroes. "This is still your story, I''m just tagging along as the ultimate support character.

    "What a weird way of saying ''I got your back." Dina chuckled as they started gaining speed.

    "So, what''s the estimated time before we reach the demon-god?" Bruce asked.

    "Two months," A answered, keeping pace with him and Usami who rode side by side while Eris was in the middle of everyone, an unconscious formation to keep the medic safe. "If we travel by day and rest by night we will reach the edge of the continent within two month''s time, from the previous ounts from a hundred years ago, the demon-god''sir was established in the northern-most mountains."

    "You sound like you''re unsure of the exact location." Eris looked behind herself at the mage.

    "Again, Sitri is my responsibility, your job is to keep the road clear and kill absolutely everything that we cross paths with, Eris," Sol stared at her.

    "Me too?" She asked.

    "Naturally," Ikaris answered. "Everyone is going to fight this time, even you as the healer need to be strong enough where if things go south you can defend yourself in the absence of all of us." She exined, and the healer sighed.

    "I don''t like this, I really don''t like this one bit-"

    "Oh for fuck''s sake that''s enough already!" Sol snapped grabbing Ikaris''s hands and pulling on the reins causing his horse and every horse behind them toe to a sudden halt. "That''s enough out of all of you, stop your fuckingining, what the fuck!?" He dismounted and turned to them, unlike his usual annoyance he was starting to get pissed off.

 Chapter 92: Between the strong.

    The day had passed with them gaining a considerable distance from the massive obelisk to where they couldn''t even see it, it was easier travelling without the entire subjugation advance unit slowing them down.

    While everyone helped set up camp for the night, Eris was in charge of cooking along with Bruce, and she stood absently for a few moments with a potato clutched in her grasp staring at Sol who was standing and doing nothing, at least that''s what it looked like to her, but in reality he was keeping guard while they all hussled about to set up camp quickly while A cast a sensory barrier and an rm barrier around them.

    ***Earlier that day***

    Sol had dismounted his horse in something of a rage toward her, his feet mmed on the ground and he turned and grabbed the reins of her horse pulling her closer to himself and forcing the mount to kneel so he could stare at her face-to-face while he spoke to her.

    "What''s the alternative here, make sense of it Eris, after everything that you''ve been through are you honestly still this entitled?" Sol asked furiously, nobody dared intervene in this; Bruce and Usami were just as guilty ofining, and Dina and A had agreed with his words wholeheartedly.

    On one end there was demonkin and looming death without preparation, and on the other side of the coin there was temporary safety and then inevitable death, they were all strong enough now where they could make it on their own for a while if they deserted, they could even overthrow Argom easily if they wanted to, but then the horde was always lingering at their doorsteps, there was always the demonkin to think about, if they didn''t act they would die without a doubt.

    "How fucking stupid can you be?" Sol snapped again causing her to wince at the tone and insult.

    "You''re dealing with relentless monsters; abominate beings that never give up, if you don''t take the fight to them first there''s going to be nothing to return to, there gonna be nowhere left to protect, nowhere to sleep, you''re going to have to fight and heal yourself relentlessly, the only break you''ll get is the moment between one creature fighting you and the next reaching you." He shook his fist at her, speaking from personal experience.

    Not that she would know.

    "If that is that how you want to live then by all means go back to Argom, go on, right now return to your delusion of safety!" He closed his fists in front of her with so much force that the glove under his armour snapped from being squeezed. "You''re a hero, this is not just duty it''s your whole purpose, don''t you get it?"

    "This is shit that nobody else can do, how many people have already died for your sake, even the people who died bringing you here, share some responsibility and stop fuckingining."

    "I never asked for any of this..." Eris lowered her gaze and mumbled. "I honestly didn''t know that the demons were this bad..."

    "Look at me."

    She kept her gaze to the ground in refusal.

    "Look at me!" Sol snapped at her again bringing her to tears as she jolted from shock.

    "I''m sorry..."

    "Nobody gives a shit about any apologies, we''re way past that point." Sol released her horse and mmed his hand into his chestte, denting it and causing her and Ikaris to jolt as they suffered immediate shbacks of the Sitri incident from his one action.

    "If I wasn''t there, everyone would have died, she came there to kill you all and then ascend but put a halt to her ns again on ount of my presence, I took your ce, I fucking knew it was gonna happen from the moment I saw her and I bore the consequences even though I had no obligation to do so outside of Ikaris and Dina''s safety.

    The duty of a hero, the role of a warrior isying themselves t for their cause and paving roads through mountains full of thorns and fire. "If your resolve is anything less than the horde youre fighting then you''re a walking corpse, if you''re afraid of dying then get stronger, it''s that simple!"

    ***

    "It''s that simple, he says," Eris stared at Sol''s back while he stared out into the dark of night, mimicking his mannerism and tone with a frown. "Of course it''s not, we weren''t turned into demigods like you were." She mumbled to herself, and A who had just finished with her barriers drew closer and smiled.

    "Your perception of him is incorrect, Eris." She corrected her.

    "Hm, right."

    "He came to Arkadia a human just like the rest of you, but through gruelling circumstances, unparalleled battles, and his own life being on the line multiple times he achieved an impossible evolution that even baffled the gods.

    When he says ''get stronger'' he is not speaking it lightly; he means to correct the narrative that he was gifted his strength; he has worked harder than any of us ever have, his current strength and him being alive is testament of that."

    "His every wordes with weight, you should know as much, since you im to know him so well." A pat her shoulder. "I understand his words were harsh, but Eris, this world is more harsh than those words ever will be, I have lost so many friends and loved ones to the demons already."

    " I wish someone like him existed back then to shake me around and wake me up, I wascent with my strength as the strongest mage and it led to many deaths, as it continues to, I also want his words to be my truth, I want to gain insurmountable strength that can topple mountains as easily as he can."

    "It''s not that easy though..." Eris countered.

    "Of course not," the mage regarded Eris with a consoling smile. "Nothing in this world of ours is easy, Child."

    "I get it, okay?" Eris turned to her potato again and began peeling silently, resulting in A sighing and leaving her alone.

    "She definitely doesn''t get it." Sol continued staring northward, virtually staring at Sitri using his irvoyant abilities while she was staring back at him using the system window, neither aware that the other was observing them directly.

    "I want to fight him for real this time, he fooled me into thinking I could kill him easily, it is slightly frustrating." Sitri stared at Sol calmly, sitting on a throne made of a dragon''s skull with her legs crossed while she sipped what looked like wine from a ss with skeletal rings resembling fingers holding it intact.

    Did I mistake his strength, how is he so calm?" She wondered.

    [A certain entity is curious of yourposure]

    "Curious?" Sol smiled and summoned a spear in his grasp, gaining the attention of Usami. "Hey, Sitri," he spoke making her aware of his knowledge of her spying on him.

    "Catch."

    Sol yfully hefted the spear several times and pointed in her direction, measuring the distance and then falling into a throwing stance. "Be sure to repay the favour." He smiled again before he stepped forward and threw the spear with a huff watching it catch aze as it went tearing across the skies and vanishing in the blink of an eye.

    "What the fuck!?" Usami snapped when she saw the spear disappear from his grasp only knowing it was gone when the air a few dozen feet away exploded and caused the entire camp to jump on high alert.

    "This little... Is he taunting me into another confrontation?" Sitri stood and walked out to the balcony of her throne room, staring as the sky on the horizon blinked back at her before she saw the projectile on a physics-breaking approach.

    "Bold little boy." The demon-god chuckled and folded her hands waiting for another five minutes before the spear was right in front of her where she caught it effortlessly.

    "Easy ...?!" Her knees bent and her shoulder was thrown backward as the weight of the spear itself dragged her back into the throne room and caused her to crash through the skull and break the wall behind it.

    "Ha, hahaha!" Solughed and pped his knee at the shock on her face as she looked over her shoulder at the spear bedded into the wall.

    [Arkadian mana 55%]

    "What the heck is wrong with you?" Usami stared at him after him suddenly throwing a spear and going silent then bursting out with suddenughter five minutester.

    "Wait and see," Sol watched Sitri yank the spear free with a chuckle and take aim. "This is a conversation between the strong." Sol answered her question, and upon him doing so Ikaris startedughing as well when she saw the spear getunched back toward them in a ssic moment of "return to sender".

    "What does that even mean?" Bruce asked, but while he was asking A manipted the entire ground beneath them and moved the camp site several dozen metres away from Sol.

    Another three minutes psed and Ikaris stood and began observing as the spear appeared across the horizon splitting the clouds a second time while A announced it with a point.

    "Iing!"

 Chapter 93: Whos The Real Demon Here?

    The humor in Sol''s eyes had already dried up, his toss had taken five minutes, while hers returned in three, another gap in strength he needed to close, this was the whole reason he had thrown it in the first ce.

    He knew that if Sitri was like Dr''ul and wanted a serious challenge she would be willing to wait until he was strong enough to fight her nobody truly strong wanted to fight someone who couldn''t even give them a proper challenge or make them work up a sweat.

    At thest moment before it hit him Sol moved out of the way of the spear and grabbed it leaning forward and ending its momentum without losing his footing, other than his feet getting dragged deeper into the soil, but then the force of the spear came afterwards and the ground around him exploded into the air like a massive unflderground bomb had been detonated causing Ikaris to raise a hand and create a second barrier when A''s barrier was stripped away within the first second.

    "He caught it easily..." Sitri clicked her tongue and snapped her fingers summoning several dozen small minions that began cleaning the throne room while arge minotaur walked through the evenrger doors with another throne made of a dragon''s skull on his back, huffing and heaving as he gently ced it where the previous one had been and grunted to the minions, pointing at the hole in the wall which they immediately began making preparations to renovate.

    "It will be worth the wait, after all." She took a seat and epted another ss of wine from her minions, small imp-like creatures with long arms who had their heads covered in hoods that pooled around their little feet and their faces hidden by barbed mesh-like helmets. The effecient little shits worked beautifully, and within a few minutes they were done giving the entire wall.

    "Are you okay?" Eris ran over to Sol first, stopping and staring down at him who stood in a crater ten metres deep staring at his bruised hand, but she watched the slight blemishes on his hand immediately vanish as he looked up at her with a frown.

    "I''m fine."

    "That was incredibly reckless, dear." Ikaris arrived next and stared down at him, and Sol nodded and cancelled his spear, brushing the dust off his hands and walking up toward them.

    "I am well aware, but I got all the answers I needed." He replied to her, and she nodded at him while to the North Sitri narrowed her eyes, of course she had taken the bait, but she too knew what he was doing.

    "Answers?" Usami stared down at him as well.

    "I did not use any portion of my true strength, this was a test to figure out the threshold I need to cross in order to meet her power, and also a test to find out how much strength I need to exert on average to fight her toe-to-toe in the future." He sped his fist, walking over to the campfire and taking a seat.

    "That was incredible." Brucemented, a conversation between the strong you called it, so if I tried blocking either of those spears-"

    It would be about the same as a human getting hit by a tank shell that didn''t explode." Sol used a reference that Bruce would immediately understand. "It would tear through your shield and your body would explode upon impact leaving nothing but pieces and blood everywhere."

    "... Yeah," Bruce sighed summoning a small shield and staring at it. "I figured as much."

    "That was not an impossible shot to block though, I could have easily blocked it myself but I needed to feel the spear and the full force if fell in my grasp with.

    An attack of equivalent force would be Ikaris''stest [cross impact] skill, the destructive force would yield the same result, but since one is magical and the other is physical then you could tank the destruction but not the direct hit from either." Sol exined.

    "So, Ikaris''s [cross impact] that was about the size and power of a real nuke, is onlyparable to a casual spear thrown from the demon god?" Dina asked shocked, and Sol hummed in agreement to her question. "Then... what about [pulsar?] She asked, and Sol raised a sk of water to his mouth and gave it some thought.

    "[Pulsar] is a cosmic ability brought about by manipting mana on a scale that should be impossible for the average mage, even A can''t do it because if the sheer amount of mana it takes to pull off, but if I had to make an estimate it wouldn''t even harm her, it''s a lot harder to gauge though so that''s just my guess."

    "How depressing." A shook her head; [pulsar] was so destructive it could make literal holes in the atmosphere, and Sol was saying that wasn''t enough to harm Sitri either.

    "Then do you have anything in your arsenal that you think can harm her?" Bruce asked again, and Sol nodded.

    "I have skills that I''m afraid to use, skills that are beyond my control, and skills that I refuse to think of as my own."

    "That sounds like a lot." A swallowed, watching Sol extend his hand outward and a portal with raging fire rushing out of it appear next to them, and then a head of wild blonde hair appeared from that fiery portal.

    "Han!?" Usami jolted, her and the others had thought him dead after what Sol did to him.

    "It is a lot." Ikaris watched Han crawl out of the mes with his armour dripping in blood and his sword half submerged into the head of a freshly dead monster while he had another monster''s arm in his other hand and was chewing.

    "It''s been a week for us, but about a month for you, how are you doing in there?" Sol asked Han, and he looked around at him with a lifeless stare and swallowed the raw flesh, he had grown a small beard and his armour was visibly torn and hanging on to him , there were also endless scars on his body including one that had taken his right eye.

    "It''s endless growth, endless fighting, hundreds of millions of enemies, I have be ...stronger." Han replied in a dry monotone.

    "Good," Sol nodded while everyone else stared at him in horror while he nonchntly gestured to the broken man. " The hero Han Young here, has finally earned the right to ask me anything he wants, he has seen the horrors I have, so Han, do you have any questions?"

    "Why is it so cold here, I''m freezing, send me back, I want to fight monsters again." Han requested instead of ask and Sol nodded.

    "You can go back after standing guard for the night." Sol threw the sk of water at him and he caught it and drowned himself in it immediately before Sol snapped and all his injuries vanished and his armour was repaired.

    "Thank you." Han answered and turned his back to everyone.

    "What about your level?" Sol looked at him again.

    "Hm..." Han stared off into space for a few seconds. "I''m level 420, if it''s only been a week I''d say I''m far more powerful than even Dina at this point." He answered staring at his 230k mana count.

    "That mana count is a bit disappointing though, do you feel like challenging me?"

    "Of course not, that is asking for death." Han straightened and summoned a new sword causing the old one with the monster head to vanish.

    "Sol, this is wrong..." Eris looked at him with her brows furrowed in concern.

    "He''s living out his punishment, it''s a fate worse than death that will help all of us in the long run, and don''t try appealing to something as double-standard fuelled as my humanity or something as shattered as my morality, I was of the mind to put you all in there to toughen you up a bit." He chuckled. "Han can survive it because he is strong-willed, the rest of you would probably die quickly."

    Eris on that matter went silent and looked around at Sara who was stirring the pot with a carefree hum.

    "I mean, he seems fine, right?" Bruce asked nervously.

    "Yes, yes he''s totally fine." Sol nodded agreeing with Bruce for once.

    ''Who''s the real demon here?'' Usami thought to herself, while Eris was trying to think happy thoughts and Bruce stared at his friend with a concerned gaze.

    "Level 420..." A stared at Han and then at Sol. "What exactly is that ce?"

    "A hell where monsters appear ording to your fears, I call it the nightmare prism, it''s an empty space but whatever you fear is what will appear there, and try to kill you, and they will appear in droves, the longer you stay the stronger they get, and fears change and evolve all the time." Sol answered honestly.

    [It is a skill I only recently mastered after being taught it by the most powerful mage on A at the time maybe about my sixth year into the war when we all realised that it was going to consume and kill everyone] he tacked on, using the system to tell her and Dina before they asked any other open questions.

 Chapter 94: The full image.

    The cinders of the campfire mimicked reverse stars as they arose and faded into the sky, hypnotically dancing to the every whim of the gentle wind that walked by night.

    After everyone had eaten and settled down the party was graced by another of Sara''s soft songs.

    "Is it really okay, are you okay?" Eris asked Han, approaching him to get an idea of the person he had be after Sol''s merciless torturing and an apparent month living in his personal hell.

    "Stay away from me, Eris." He answered her with his eyes dimly trained on the darkness. "I have a task, I don''t want to be distracted."

    "Han-"

    "Fuck off!" Han snapped after she touched his shoulder, and it was Sol who had been watching her since her recentints that grabbed Han''s hand when he spun with his sword and nearly chopped her head in two.

    "Sol!"

    "Are you stupid for real, what are you doing here? I told you not to bother him." Sol released Han who unapologetically turned around and continued with his role of night guard.

    "He''s not well, he needs help-"

    "For fuck''s sake." Sol pushed her toward the camp and rubbed his forehead to try and de-stress. "I never imagined you of all people would be the troublesome one, everyone else hase to terms with it but you''re being aplete pain in my ass about this?!"

    "Because what you did to him was wrong!" Eris spun and punched his shoulder with all her might, flinching when Sol did not even budge much less make a face that registered her punch as anything more than a casual p from a leaf in the wind. "You... Monster." Eris dropped her gaze and balled her fists again before swinging a punch and hitting him square in the jaw.

    "How could you do something so cruel to your friend!" She punched him again, and Sol stood there passively staring at her after she had drawn the attention of everybody sessfully ruining the mood.

    "Eris-"

    "How could you do that to him!?" She punched again, but Sol caught her hand and bent it causing her to scream out in pain and slump in front of him.

    "There she goes again." Dina sighed while Usami and Bruce looked at her weirdly for saying something in support of Sol''s recent viinous acts, but it made sense since from their perspective after her depression from being left out she would side with him when he finally started giving her attention and even shared personal time with her.

    "Honestly, it is bing rather irritating now." A agreed with Dina, nodding.

    "Have you calmed down now?" Sol stood opposing Eris unapologetically.

    "I am calm!" She used [Heal] on herself and swung her other fist at him, but he caught that fist too and sprained her wrist with a twist causing her to groan in pain and slump as he now had both of her hands.

    "If you attempt to kick me I''m the groin I will hurt you for real, Eris." Sol stared down at her. "How do you think this world works, tell me, how do you think the current Argom has remained intact after all these years of resisting the demon god, even if she wasn''t trying to destroy anything just yet?" He asked, and she stared up at him hatefully with her teeth grit.

    "That''s what I thought, you constantly try topare earth and Arkadia, or worse, you have this idea of a fantasy world in your head and you haven''t gotten to the truth of your situation yet even after everything you''ve done and seen; you''re entitled Eris, and in the absence of a leader figure with any proper braincells to teach the ''hero'' somemon sense I feel obligated to force you to learn.

    "Master Vestic, wait!" A intervened when she thought he was going to throw her into a nightmare prism, but he held out his hand and shook his head.

    "Don''t worry, I won''t be harming her in any way, this will be purely educational." Sol picked up Eris by her waist and held her to his side like a kitten causing her to go silent in shock at his harsh manhandling, while Ikaris quickly joined him and stood at his side. "Han,  if anything that you deem an enemy shows up, exterminate it with extreme prejudice, understood?"

    "Understood." Han turned and walked closer to the others and summoned another sword as a feral expression crossed his calm fa?ade and he slightly hunched.

    "And Sara, if he fails, get them back to Argom as fast as possible."

    "Yes sir."

    "Do. Not. Touch. Him."

    "Yeah... we got that." Usami nodded nervously watching Han enter a berserker state and stand passively.

    Without another word Sol looked at Ikaris and she took his hand with a small smile as the three of them vanished.

    Eris lost her ability to breathe for a few seconds as the teleportation sucked the air out of her causing her to gasp when she suddenly had air m back into her lungs, and before her the scenery had changed from night to day, and the calm atmosphere she had been disturbing had been reced by ruins, an entire city that had been reduced to ashes and broken structures, but more than that were the countless skeletons that littered the streets, warriors leaned against walls impaled by dozens of spears and arrows, bones piled up into mountains, it was a horrid scene from one of thest kingdoms that had fallen.

    "This is what you''re trying to prevent," this was once the most prosperous city in the elven kingdom, where Idria lived, I''m sure you''ve asked her before and she has refused to talk about her origins, there''s nothing to talk about, they were massacred and either corrupted into demonkin or left in piles of bodies." Sol gestured as he floated above the city with Ikaris doing the same next to him.

    "I don''t get what youre-" Eris''s breath left her body a second time as they vanished and appeared in an evening setting.

    "The Dwarven Kingdom." Sol gestured beneath them again. "From what I know, they were the first kingdom to fall because they initially held the highest offensive power and proved to be hard to conquer, but just look at them now." He grabbed her cheeks and pointed her in the direction of yet another hellish scene of skeletal piles.

    "The demons destroyed everything, any dwarf that lives today are descendants of those who weren''t in this kingdom, nothing survived here, not even thend, this is a deste ce where nothing can ever grow again.

    "...I-" She tried to speak again but was whisked away a third time.

    "The beastman kingdom was thergest, and they fought the hardest, but they also died the fastest and were mostly all corrupted and turned into demonkin." Solnded this time in a forest with trees growing through houses, small critters running around and corpses bedded into overgrown foliage; another scene of thousands of bodies piled together to form mountains of skeletons after time had washed the flesh away.

    "What are you getting at!?" Eris snapped struggling in his grasp until he threw her down. "I already know all of this, it makes no difference if you show me!"

    *Snap*

    She though she was going to be attacked by some kind of abominable force when she heard that terrifying sound, but instead the trees started disappearing and the skeletons grew flesh as time seemed to reverse around them taking them further back, hundreds of years in the past until she was looking at the arrival of the first demon, hundreds of thousands of people running for their lives as they were butchered and thrown into a grinder on the creature''s back and spat back out as demons secondster.

    She saw in apse of time the civilization rise up against the demons desperately only to be further destroyed as more demonkin appeared one after the other, until only one beastman remained, it was the one Sol had thrown her down next to, he had a missing arm and bloodied fur all the way down to his toes.

    "I wish... for this world to burn, for you monsters to burn!" The man growled as he was surrounded by hundreds of demonkin that were once beastkin. "This wretched world, I want it destroyed, I pray that someday you vile creatures be smitten by a divine hand!" He roared before his throat was torn out by a child that had been demonized.

    "Thews of Arkadia have not changed since then." Sol watched the scene sadly, remembering his friend from A dying in the same manner. "The people are desperate for heroes, but what they got were shells and pawns, I''m correcting that, it''s not my ce but that''s exactly why I''m doing it." He stared at her.

    "You were hopeful in the beginning, you had a goal, you had purpose, the others looked up to you, but the more time passes the less purpose I see in you, it''s one thing to be afraid, but it''s a whole other thing when you try moralising a world full of nothing but hate and death, the strong devour the weak, physically and mentally, get that through your thick skull." Sol snapped his fingers again and the scene of the besatman being devoured disappeared.

    "You ask what''s the point?" He folded his arms. "Arkadia is forsaken, there''s no hope left, the moment the demon-god decides that she''s had enough it''s all over in an instant. "You''re worrying about a single person who is refusing your help when there''s an entirest civilization that needs you."

    "Han doesn''t need you to help him, he''s atoning for his mistakes and crimes back on earth and here on Arkadia, he''s epted that, do you honestly think he''s being punished unfairly after trying to take advantage of a woman who was so smitten by grief that she had no resistance against his obvious advanced and attempt to rape her against herpse of resistance and judgement?" He asked.

    "Are you even aware that Han has already raped multiple times back on earth, and then here using his title of hero as a cover and an excuse, he''s killed men, ckmailed women; stolen their lives for his own greed and pleasure and he hasn''t even been here for any portion of time, he''s been doing a lot of evil shit behind your backs for a very long time- I know this because I grew up knowing him!"

    "But because this word is so cruel, I decided to ignore it; to ignore him... but he crossed the line when he tried to do the same to Ikaris who he knew at that point is pregnant, your judgement so far has been two-dimentional, but now you see the full image..."

    "I didnt-"

    "Do you think I''m an evil person, Eris?" Sol asked, and she bit her lips and averted her gaze.

    "Be honest, do you?"

 Chapter 95: New Day, New Problems.

    After Sol''s question she kept her silence and breathed heavily through her nose.

    "You can''t answer that, not honestly, because you know who I am, you have known me all our lives."

    "People change... And you''ve changed too." Eris countered, and he closed his eyes with a sigh of his own.

    "Take my hand."

    "I don''t want to-"

    "You''re not being given a choice here; take my hand." Sol reached out adamantly while Ikaris held on to him tightly.

    Reluctantly the healer took Sol''s hand, and as soon as she did they vanished again appearing on the first moon, D''ol, where he gestured she look up, and Eris felt a sense of unease and terror as she stared upward and found a whole staring back at her, or more precisely a dark with visible fires and entire ck areas of burntnd.

    "Do you see those shadows, those smoke-like shadows that seem to be squirming around even though it''s clearly daytime?" He asked, pointing at the part still in daytime and she nodded.

    "Those shadows are demonic magic, and the shades within them are a poison that slowly rot thend as they make their way toward Argom." Sol exined, pointing to the night side of the where there was a single spot of lighting from the kingdm.

    "Arkadia is suffering, thest thing you should be concerned about is someone like Han who has spent his entire life doing acts that are no less vile than the demons themselves, you were wrong about him, ept that he deserves it and move on."

    "That''s..." She fell at a loss of words and closed her mouth again before staring up at him. "Sol, if you have all this power, why haven''t you gone back to earth?"

    "The specific kind of power required to traverse across universes is outside of our grasp." Ikaris spoke up.

    "Our?"

    "Individually even you have more than enough power to go back home, it''s just that it''s different for everyone, we''re not born a race like the demons that can do it at will, in fact without outside interference we''d never end up anywhere other than earth." Sol changed the subject and then took her hand again.

    His example came from Ikaris; despite her immeasurable power it took everything she had to summon him the first time, and again when she sent him back to earth she was tapped out because of how much power she had to use; power that she could not ess while in another dimension than her own.

    The gods of Arkadia, despite being the ones who governed the dimension didn''t have the same power as the queen and the mages, they couldn''t open rifts to other alternate realities at will, the closest he ever went to something like that was the nightmare prism and the dimensions the system could make, but those were just skills based on altering reality in a closed and isted space.

    "Let''s return."

    "...Okay."

    After returning with a much more calm Eris, Sol settled down with Ikaris in the tent they would all be sharing, taking a seat with his back against one of the corners while Ikaris rested her head in hisp.

    "Eris?" Usami looked at her since she had been silent since returning. "What happened?" She asked.

    "Not much, really." She replied,ying down and turning her back to everyone. "We need to focus on getting stronger, so we can at least stand a chance, good night, everyone."

    ***

    At the crack of dawn A arose and went outside, finding Han standing and staring as the skies slowly brightened and Sara already over a few pots and pans preparing breakfast with three fires. "Good morning!" She greeted Han with a smile and a small wave, but the man looked around at her with an almost disgusted expression and then looked toward the skies again without a word.

    "Eh..." She lowered her hand and chuckled to herself. "Guess not?" She looked at Sara, but the maid just shrugged.

    After her came Sol, who without saying a word extended his hand in Han''s direction.

    [Nightmare Prism]

    A portal opened up with fire gushing out of it, and Han stared down the hole and took a deep breath before leaping through fearlessly.

    "...Good morning, Master Vestic." A looked at the portal and watched it m shut with a *pop.

    "Did you sleep well?" Sol asked, he recalled how guarded she was once inside with everyone else, it was less about her feeling unsafe and something clearly more psychological; she seemed afraid even, it was the second time he had seen her behaving like that with the first being the night she carelessly walked out in view of the soldiers of the demon subjugation army.

    "As well as one could." She smiled warmly at him and then looked to the tent as the others all exited one after the other. "Everyone start packing up, we leave in an hour."

    "You''ll travel without me today," Sol looked at A, and everyone else looked at him.

    "Is it another one of those challenges?" Dina asked, and Ikaris nodded in confirmation, she would say something along the likes of ''be careful'' but she knew that he needed to get stronger and the fastest way was to discard safety, so instead she extended her hand and gave him a punch on the shoulder, smiling.

    "I''ll root for you."

    "Oh, thanks." Sol seed taken aback by the small cheer as Ikaris stretched like a cat raising her hips and touching her toes before standing and stretching against him again.

    "It is a little concerning that they still want to fight you so eagerly, but I understand that their goals have drastically shifted as well, so do not hold your punches, fight hard, love, gain indomitable strength." Ikaris reached for his cheek and kissed him softly.

    "Thanks," Sol kissed her forehead and then stepped away, giving them a yful salute before he vanished in a sh of white and indigo mana.

    "Wha- he just left without even helping with the packing!" Usami pointed at where sol had just been standing, but Sara stepped forward with a smile.

    "That falls under my workloaddy Usami." Sara, spoke up. "He also left without breakfast, she gestured to the dishes as she turned around and started sharing equal amounts for everyone.

    "He works you to the bone and you neverin, I thought you were only supposed to be keeping an eye on him as per general Grim''s orders." Eris raised a brow at Sara and the maid chuckled.

    "Mdy, that is a sure misconception if I have ever heard one." She ced the food in Eris''s hand and smiled at her.

    "Sir never asks anything of me beyond what I am willing to do, he lets me do as I please and say as I please, when I am with him I am more rxed than I ever could have imagined, every moment spent with him is a treasured one, the least I can do for someone who has made my life so much easier is help them when he is busy."

    "Besides, had she not said or done anything I would have dly done it." Ikaris spoke up but then stopped and looked toward the north, and when she did, so did Dina and then A. "By the way... we have hostilepany."

    "Demons areing?" Bruce asked.

    "He left us knowing they were on the way." Ikaris answered, summoning a full set of armour over herself and her sword. "I do not believe that it is anything we can''t handle."

    "Are you supposed to fight though?" Dina''s staff appeared in her hand in a sh of pinkana and she readied herself.

    "What about your armour?" Bruce looked at her while he was in the process of rushing to equip his chestte.

    "It only bes important if I manage to get hit, right?" Dina chuckled and started floating upwards.

    "That''s not funny you have to be careful-"

    "I''m serious, though." Dina looked back down at him. "If you''re so concerned then hurry up ande help us." She stared at him with an annoyed expression while her and Ikaris took off toward the approaching enemies.

    "What about Ikaris though, is she supposed to be fighting if she''s pregnant?" Usami asked slipping her feet in her boots while A went behind Ikaris and Dina with Eris in tow and Sara waited for her and Bruce.

    "Not our problem is it?" Bruce stared in the distance as arge white explosion shot up into the air and the ground under their feet shook. "We''re ways behind them Lready, if we keep getting left behind we''ll never progress!"

    "I''m ready." Usami looked to Sara after hearing Bruce''s words.

    "What about your arm and shoulder-guards?" Sara asked handing Bruce his gloves.

    "Just get me there."

    "Very well," Sara skipped over to her and stood in her shadow, slipping into the ground before Usami was dragged down after her leaving Bruce struggling by himself.

    "Ah shit, I need to learn how Sol and Ikaris are able to just suddenly equip armour like that."

 Chapter 96: Inevitable Destruction.

    *haa...*

    *haa...*

    *haa...*

    "This, is unexpected, is it some kind of test?" Usami was out of breath, at her side was Bruce panting as well and behind them there was Eris who was equally exhausted with her hands pressed to their backs casting [heal] on them; the three were currently inside of a small dense barrier that Dina had created for them to recover while her and Ikaris continued to fight.

    "What the fuck kind of test would this be?" Eris lowered her hands and took a deep breath as thest of their small wounds closed up.

    "It''s more like a nightmare." Bruce stood straight and readied his sword.

    They were surrounded by hundreds, maybe thousands of demonkin all mid-level at the least. Level 100 and above, the gap in strength was close, especially for Eris who despite being durable was physically the weakest, putting her strength just about parallel with the monsters around her.

    "Dina, fortify your shield around them." Ikaris called to her, diving toward the horde with her hands crossed summoning two des of white mana.

    "Oi!" Dina panicked for a second before her barrier started shining  brightly as she abandoned what she was doing and put all of her focus on the barrier when Ikaris unleashed [cross impact] and flew by like a bomber ne dodging several projectiles being thrown and shot at her as she retreated back up to the safety of the sky with her wings opening up again and stabilizing herself in her approach to Dina.

    "Keep it steady." Ikaris held out her hand while a bead of sweat rolled down Dina''s forehead as she feared the slow approach of the attack would kill the three.

    *Snap

    [Cross-impact] exploded in a dome incinerating and sting everything away from the shield but not harming it in any way other than making it shake while the three inside waited.

    "There is no end to them, could there be a rift close by?" A asked, casting small barriers around the most dense groups and incinerating everything inside with her seventh tier me magic, but as she expexted; the monsters just kept showing up, the field had beenpletely overrun and the only reason her and the others had yet to simply retreat was because they only nned to move northward, the creatures had appeared from all directions and continued showing up.

    It was to a point where she was starting to believe that within those close-by mountains to the North, the forests to the east and east, and the hills they had crossed from the south there could possibly be hundreds of thousands of demons pouring toward them, or maybe even millions.

    On the ground Dina''s shield vanished from around the other three heroes and the heat of the explosion caved in on them causing them to wince before a gust of wind from A blew all of the fire and smoke away.

    "Hey Usami, what about that fancy new skill of yours, it would seriouslye in handy here you know." Bruce looked at her and then at the demonkin that were swarming toward them after the fires were blown out.

    "Sorry, I can''t use it." She answered cing her hands on the ground and summoning a wide circr array of diagonal spears out of the ground and impaling the demonkin en mass and then twisting her hands creating a second and third wave of spears out of the ground.

    [Maximum spear capacity reached]

    "What do you mean you can''t?" Eris looked at her, readying her fists again when the demonkin started flooding over the barrier of spears just before Ikaris swooped down again and unleashed a stream of crimson fire decimating one side of the iing horde andnding with A at her side while several [origin explosions] from Dina went off on the opposite side.

    "It''s passive, I have no control over it, and there are conditions to it''s activation with the most important being that I have to have no choice left, which means so long as everyone here is alive and I''m not out of mana and on the brink of death it won''t activate." She chuckled nervously.

    "That''s awful." Eris scrunched her nose. "It only serves you."

    "It''s called ''essence of the spear hero'' what did you expect, a party buff?" Usami retorted, cancelling the summon of her spears and creating a smaller array around them again and expanding it with her spear maniption technique turning them into massive pirs and clearing the opening a third time.

    "There''s not an end to them in sight!" Dinanded and created a barrier before the enemies could choke their escape and took a breath. "We''ve been at it for at least three hours, what''s the point of fighting an endless army?"

    "I agree with that sentiment." A nodded spreading her hands in defeat. "If ites to retreat then as long as we have a second to spare Sara can easily get us out of here."

    "Then shouldn''t she be here?" Usami asked looking around at everyone and not finding the aforementioned maid.

    "I am on standby," Sara answered from right next to her.

    "I am nowhere near as strong as any of you are, despite my adamant request to remain with Sir Vestic and Lady Ikaris I am only good for running away in situations such as this, please leave any future retreats in my hands, I will not disappoint." She smiled fearlessly after admitting she was basically useless and Ikaris chuckled and walked to the edge of the dome Dina had made.

    "Let me handle the rest; Han has be stronger than us, and every moment he remains in that nightmarish ce he continues to grow, I do not want to fall behind." Ikaris pressed her hand on the barrier, facing the demon that had locked eyes with her on the opposite side and gone still in anticipation.

    "Ikaris, be careful," Dina closed her eyes as she tried replenishing her mana.

    "Open it."

    "Eh?"

    "I just exined my motifs did I not?" Ikaris looked around at Dina who was staring at the massive monster directly in front of her. "I have... All of us have a duty, a single goal, if this drags on too long I will not be able to fight any more," she threw her sword to the side and opened her palm toward the barrier.

    "Are you sure?" A asked, already sensing arge buildup of mana from Ikaris who wanted to continue despite the quantity increasing outside.

    [Infernal magic unknown tier: -]

    "In the future, I will not be able to fight and grow with the rest of you, I want to be powerful in my own right before then, open it, and retreat for a few minutes."

    "We couldn''t possibly-"

    "Just do as I say!" Ikaris snapped at Bruce.

    "...Alright." Dina closed her eyes again and raised one hand causing a fissure to burst outward from the barrier leaving the creatures directly before it stunned and Ikaris used this small moment of confusion to escape before it mmed back shut and they all vanished within their shadows with Sara waving before she vanished as well.

    A momentter there were threerge scars across thend; they just seemed to appear out of nowhere, and from the inside of them thick red me magic started pouring out like magma, and then more massive scars started showing up, as if an unseen giant wed hand was dragging itself through the ground the creatures all stared at them in shock and confusion while Ikaris continued to ascend.

    [-Devil''s Nails]

    The ground around the w marks began swelling discing the crust in a crimson phenomenon that became visible for miles in every direction like a distant volcano epassing the entirety of the horde, from the hills in the South and the mountains in the North, to the forests on the East and West.

    "In one fell swoop, all of you, fall to inevitable destruction and burn beneath my heels..." Ikaris ascended until she was at the edges of the atmosphere and then looked back down with an unusually sinister smile outside of her usual character casting her in a shadow of evil as the red glow beneath her highlighted her glowing blue eyes. "Disappear!" She sped her fist.

    [Mana: 90k\\121k]

    [Mana 3k\\121k]

    The marks all ignited and fire rapidly started to spread from them growing and swallowing everything as they reached for the skies in a slow explosion that caused the ground to rumble and the mana in the atmosphere to tremble.

    Far outside of the range the others stared in shock as not only did it epass a muchrger area than Dina''s [pulsar] ever did but it continued to grow in size, and right when they all thought it was over therge mes exploded a second time, swallowing the light of day as crimson created a sunset and massive fiery cracks ran all across the ground in every direction, reaching even their location forcing them to split apart when the ground caved and copsed around them.

    Above all of the destruction Ikaris floated with a passive nce watching Arkadian soil beneath her burn as not even a single one of the horde had been spared.

    *Ding!

    [You have in 2,754,109 demonkin mixed from mid to low-tier]

    [You have killed 500 high tier demonkin]

    [You have levelled up: calcting...]

    [Your mana has increased: calcting...]

    [A new title has been rewarded]

    [The gods have been shocked by this ungodly disy of power]

    [The goddess of mes expresses her intrigue in your continuous use of foreign infernal magic]

    [The god of destruction is bewildered by your disy]

    [Calctionplete: you have gained 103 levels, mana has increased to 250k. All mana has been recovered, all fatigue has been alleviated]

    [Heroic title: (Goddess of Battle) has been rewarded]

 Chapter 97: Sol Vs Union.

    [Goddess of battle (new): Gained through a feat of divine power being performed with mortal skills and a mortal body, this is a passive skill that activates upon solitary confrontation against a single orrge number of enemies that could easily overpower you without the assurance of an ally stepping in to assist, mana will increase by 100%, mana consumption will be 50% reduced, mana absorption will be 2x faster, all physical abilities will be multiplied x5 and all damage received will be reduced by 80%, the duration of this clearly broken skill is 30 minutes]

    "Ha... Hahahaha." Sheughed staring at the rewards as well as her new skill, regardless of the foe this was a win through and through. "I actually earned that damned title after all."

    [The goddess of war is skeptical of the system''s intentions after it has given you such a title]

    [The system hardly cares about any emotional or psychological reactions brought by its decisions and deems the reward for killing such a massive amount of creatures fair]

    "Heh, I knew you were sentient but I never imagined you defending me." Ikaris stared at the window with a smile.

    [It is a fair reward]

    "Aye," Ikaris closed her wings and began rapidly descending through the clouds of steam and smoke created from her bombing of the horde. "It was a gamble I had to make, if it didn''t work I would have shamefully retreated as well." Shemented beforending on the ground epically destroying it a bit more as her feet made a crater to break her fall.

    "It worked though, and I have gotten much stronger."

    She remained in one ce, using her divine magic to create cloudless rain out of thin air and douce thend around her while the sun began slowly drying the wet ground, it created a humid environment that she stood inside of and rxed.

    After several more minutes the others all showed up with Sara''s help, and the first thing Dina did was run toward Ikaris and start checking her for injuries.

    "How on earth... Ikaris are you hurt anywhere?" She asked, and Ikaris smiled and shook her head.

    "Not even a scratch."

    "When you said you wanted to handle it I hardly imagined you would turn the entire in into a hellscape, what was that earlier?" A asked genuinely shocked as evidence of the explosion had been erased by its sheer force and the in had been reduced to a sunken piece ofnd, nobody would notice it because of the sheer size but they were standing in the crater of what wouldter be a swamp or marsh after torrential rain.

    "It is of no concern." Ikaris smiled under her bangs and then looked at Usami, Bruce, and Eris.

    "The conditions remain the same, in order to attain a hero''s title you need to endure something individual to your own power and firmly stand by a belief, while I am not entirely sure of the exact process I do know that the system recognises one''s selflessness and rewards them ording to what could be their sacrifice."

    "You got a title?" Usami asked and Ikaris nodded.

    "Goddess of Battle; it has incredible effects but a very short time limit because of those same effects, virtually making me invulnerable for a few minutes with no drawback." She exined and then looked at Dina who was confused.

    "The Hero title is activated individually, it is achieved when you are fighting alone, so this is why you have yet to receive it; I believe had you fought the Eldritch by yourself or the first horde we met, or even the minotaur, then you would have been granted your title already."

    "I have been sticking to a more supportive role as a mage..." Dina nodded.

    "It''s fine, while [pulsar] might be obsolete someday I don''t think it''s that bad, even Sol said that it''s far from the strongest it can be, so I just need to hone that skill and find a way to work around the debuffs after I use it, and maybe get variant types that can be cast faster like [origin explosion\\s]" She cupped her chin in thought.

    "Instead of getting new skills and a title that could possiblyplicate things for me, I''ll focus on the many skills I already have and hone them all to perfection.

    "Well said." A nodded and then looked around again. "Sara, I just realised but... What happened to the horses?" She asked and the maid smiled and extended her hand casting arge shadow across the ground and they all watched shocked as the horses ran through.

    "When you all left to fight I packed the camp supplies and tent back on our mounts and then sent them somewhere safe, luckily too sincedy Ikaris wiped the entire area off the map." She exined with a humble smile.

    "That is such a broken ability." Eris raised a brow in admiration. "Honestly, I think it''s a little overpowered." She added, but Sara shook her head.

    "There is a carrier limit that is bound to the mana I possess, I am only level 80, so there is a weight limit, and because my abilities are so heavily shadow-based, any disruption of pure mana or light will cause it to misbehave and possibly even kill me if I am moving through it, there has to be an absolute shadow for it to work."

    [Casting: Mana bolt]

    Sara raised her hand at the shadow on the ground and shot a small mana bolt at it, and as soon as the bolt hit the shadow it burst open with a whispering screech and then slowly reformed itself over the passage of a few seconds.

    "The skill itself though is the most useful one I have seen in a while, instantaneously traversing a shadow realm to wherever you desire means you can almost always escape, and though you are limited by day, I have seen your performance at night; remarkable." Amented and Sara smiled humbly again and gave them a small bow.

    "Thank you for your kind words." She stood upright again and turned to the horses. "The food from earlier has gone cold-"

    "No worries, I''ll eat anything right now -I''m famished." Bruce spoke first walking behind her and epting the covered dish as soon as she took it from arge chest where they were secured and unspilled.

    "Besides, with the arrival of the demonkin earlier we weren''t able to make any progress today, we should at least try making it to the mountains." Usami suggested with A nodding in agreement as they all took a few more minutes to get something into their stomachs before setting off toward the mountains in the distance.

    ***

    "You''re done!" Sol spun beneath arge hand and threw a punch, catching his opponent in their stomach and knocking the wind out of them, and then standing and watching them fall to his feet.

    "There''s no further point to this fight, I epted the rechallenge because you eagerly wanted to prove yourself, but let''s face it Yama, you''re not my opponent anymore, not after my fight with Sorath." He took a seat on the ground and stared at the god of strength next to him. "You are a good fighter, but I need stronger opponents than myself, Understand the stakes and don''t take this to heart.

    "Haah~" Yama rolled onto his back heaving and staring at Sol who had a serious expression even though he had dominated the fight from the very start. "I feel no shame anymore, thest time I fled I was ridiculed for it, but even though I still lost I have regained some dignity as the god of strength, thank you." Yama smiled as he heaved. "I respectfully forfeit."

    *Ding

    [Challenger Yama, the god of strength has forefeit, the winner by default is the demigod; Sol Vestic, ording to the conditions of the challenge, the loser gains nothing while the winner gains a permanent 0.8x increase in physical strength and a 20% increase in their mana... Calcting]

    [ept]

    [...]

    The system paused for a few seconds as if processing the notification.

    [Pardon?] The system sent a message to Sol.

    "There is another challenge, before calcting the rewards, I want to ept that fight as well, double the rewards from the previous challenge, I''ll keep fighting." He answered.

    [...]

    [Very well, a second challenge has been epted]

    *Ding

    [You have epted the challenge of the god of weapons; Union, switching to a different venue, summing up rewards]

    In a sh of light Sol vanished again, finding himself in a brightly lit terrain mostly t with cone shaped spikes the size and height of houses growing out of the ground everywhere, and before him he saw a system portal open and a male of simr build to himself emerge, he wore gold-ted armour, streamlined for speed and friction like sports helmets and gear with a silver crown made of small swords pointing behind him and a rune on his chestte that resembled a bullet.

    His eyes and mouth were hidden, and only his ck hair was recognised beyond his armour.

    [The winner will gain a 1.6 increase in their strength permanently and a 80% increase in their mana cap, you may begin whenever you wish]

    Without saying a word Union estended his hand to his side and summoned a hammer that was a perfect copy of Sol''s usual Warhammer, finished with the same white and gold colours and even the sharp end on the back that contrasted the jagged t surface. "..."

    "This is interesting." Solmented, extending his own hand in the same manner and summoning his hammer while his heart skilled a gleeful beat.

    "This is going to be fun."

 Chapter 98: Sol Vs Union 2.

    For the first five minutes neither Sol or Union made a single move, the air charged with mana seemed to slightly tremor as they both stood metres away from each other gauging each others'' strgths and weaknesses

    ''This is the first god that hasn''t said a single word to me, I epted his request out of pure interest but he''s remained silt and watchful'' Sol thought to him self slowly breathing before him and Union slowly wt into two differt fighting stances. ''Union; god of weapons...

    It''s such an interesting concept that I can''t help it, he and Dr''ul probably go hand in hand!'' Sol made the first move, lowering his shoulder before stepping forward.

    His shock hit the roof in a millisecond wh the god of weapons appeared before him already in the motion of swinging his hammer.

    ''!! -faster than Sorath... No it''s not ev a contest, she''d never be able to achieve this speed!!'' Sol snapped to the side and dodged the hammer as his eyes inverted and his hair turned  whole he fell into a crouch.

    Union was already staring at him, Sol saw his crimson eyes through the small slits in the armour and felt his heart skip a beat wh their eyes made four, before Union could attack again Sol vanished from beath him and appeared several metres away,nding with his hand outstretched summoning the hammer back into his grasp.

    "Ar''t you going to say anything?" Sol asked, and Union just righted his posture and held out his hammer with one hand again.

    ''This is kinda annoying, honestly,'' Sol huffed, but giving in to the silce betwe challger''s he held his hand to his face summoning the helmet of his armour and dragging his hand down with a slight growl.

    "Fine, let''s do this!"

    Union nodded, and the two of them vanished again shing with their hammers and causing a destructive wave of shock that blew several of the cone-rock formations away and st them flying as well, but again, Union showed a strange boost of speed wh he just barely touched the g and immediately closed the gap betwe them while Sol had barely ev righted himself.

    ''How is he doing that?'' Sol raised the staff of his hammer to his chest and clched his teeth wh Union supun above him and dropped the hammer, pressing him into the g and knocking the wind out of his lungs as he came to a halt from the force of the swing.

    "Gah...!"  Sol''s eyes wt wide in surprise wh he found the hammer right before his head descding again, he wanted to use clockwork to prevt himself from getting directly hit this soon into the fight, but in a twist of decisions he raised his helmet into the hammer challging the force and nullifying the attack while Union watched his hammer fly off after being knocked from his grasp.

    "I just have this strange feeling of being underestimated." Sol arose from the crater his body had made after crashing twice, taking his dted helmet off and summoning another one that had a drastically differt; almost creature-like appearance.

    "I don''t like it, I don''t like that there are so many people who are stronger than me all of a sudd, so forgive me Union, but you''ll have to put your life on the line from now on." Sol''s voice distorted and the mouth of the helmet creepily oped as his breath escaped coated in indigo mana while his hair began wildly flying a. "It''s okay, right? You look like you can take a bloody beating!"

    [Goodness...] Dr''ul had be rather rxed at the start of their fight, but with Sol''s new appearance and him wearing a helmet for the first time, and th that helmet seemingly changing his tire personality aftering alive.

    [Maybe another trump card better left unused?] She wondered, remembering his conversation with the heroes and A about some skills he had but didn''t like or died their existce altogether.

    "This is new," Ikarismted with her left eye closed as they made their way across the crater she had made.

    "Is something happing?" Dina looked at her immediately and she nodded and th oped her eye, cutting off the feed from the system and looking at the mage.

    "A rather strange skill I have never se him use before," Ikaris answered and A''s ears flickered at the sound of something interesting. "He is taking it seriously." Shemted, lowering her gaze and closing her eye again.

    "What are they talking about?" Usami asked.

    Her, Sara, Bruce and Eris had grouped together and remained in the back of the party while Ikaris, Dina and A  lead them.

    "I don''t really care y''know, thest person who got interested in their affairs is now in some kind of hell, remember?" Bruce pointed out and saw Usami''s curiosity dry up and die wh she looked at him with a bead of sweat running down her forehead at the thought.

    "That''s differt though-"

    "Did he scare you that badly?" Bruce looked at Eris who had ris to Sol''s defce, and the healer pursed her lips and kept her gaze ahead at the others.

    "I... He didn''t scare me, at least not on purpose, I was exposed to a portion of the truth that oped my eyes to the situation we''re in, that''s why I''m stressing on the fact that we need to get stronger, we need to keep pace with Han, at the very least."

    "Yeah, that''s just not possible." Bruce countered again, this time with obvious bitterness in his tone. "The only way I could keep up with that monster is if I wt somewhere like him, and I don''t feel like drowning is gonna help me level up."

    "Well, you don''t actually need to Bruce, look at Ikaris-"

    "What about her?" He snapped at Usami with a raised brow and a growl in his throat.

    "Hey man, chill." Eris put a bit of distance betwe herself and Bruce wh she noticed his increasing hostility.

    "...She gained a crap-load of levels earlier, didn''t she?" Usami defiantly stared at him. "I''m saying what youck is determination, make a hard decision, make some kind of sacrifice...

    At least stick your neck on the line once, I used to think you were brave but the more I see you now the more I realise that you were feeding off your mtor''s bravery, without Kris guiding you, you barely want to do anything at all!"

    "..." Bruce wanted to retort again, but in the depths of his heart he agreed with her. "Kris was a well ed man, chivalrous and brave, a skilled fighter and a reltless soldier; the only thing hecked was the hero''s blessing, with that he would have be far stronger but appartly Arkadians who had tried recieving it in the past died soon after from some kind of mana poisoning.

    Kris would have made a far better Hero than himself.

    "She isn''t like us though," Eris interjected once more. "Ikaris has always be stronger, I mean look at this ce; at the destruction she is capable of, how can wepare ourselves with that?"

    "You idiot -" Usami''s eye twitched and she oped her mouth to insult them again but held her peace and stared ahead. "Ugh, nevermind."

    ''There''s no point here, you have to figure it out on your own, you could ev use me as an example; I was the weakest after Dina achieved her cosmic mana, I was left in the dirt, and yet now I am the fourth strongest behind her, Ikaris and Han and that''s only because they''ve achieved a strgth that puts them close to the status of gods each.''

    ''I''m not saying you try to be them, of course that''s impossible we have differt skills, weaknesses and strgths, what I''m saying is we ought to lead by their example and strive for constant growth, greater power, who knows, with ough power we might one day reach a point of evolution like Sol.'' Usami thought to herself holding a depressed expression.

    ''You''re both so weak you can barely fight mid-level demons, I''m pretty sure I could take on a high-level demonkin by myself, but you''d die in a sh if you ev tried, get a fucking clue.''

    Once again she had spok this all in her head, she didn''t want the drama of exining it or dealing with either of them wh they were so negative.

    ***

    *Shinggg!

    A violt arc made of gold mana sliced diagonally through the terrain, eating up at the cone-spikes and turning them to dust before vanishing wh it collided with the edge of the dimsion and ripped it apart.

    "That''s cheating," Sol had a seriously damaged broadsword held before him while he looked at the destruction behind him, had it not be for sacrificing his de he probably would have had serious or ev life-threating injuries.

    Union simply did not speak, the two of them had be fighting for hours now, the dimsion had several healing cracks inside of it and most of the terrain was also being regerated by the system to maintain stability as they fought, while the fight itself was nowhere near as destructive as his fight with Sorath, which he had now set the bar for a challge, he was being pushed to his limits because of the intsity and the fact that Union was faster, and on top of that he was still the only one who had tak any damage.

    The god of weapons remained untouched.

    ''I keeppsating for his speed but he just keeps gaining more!'' Sol huffed out another puff of mana and released his broadsword, summoning arge curved greatsword shped like a kitch knife with the handle wrapped and the tourniquet dangling from the edge of it while the de was silver on one half and ck on the other.

    He had personally designed this de on A after being a fan of an anime called ''Detergt'' where the main character ''Strawberry hair guy'' became a death god and fought awesome viins with cool sword techniques.

    ''I need to figure out how he''s doing that, ev after using [godspeed] he still managed to keep up with me, I''m not saying it''s impossible but [godspeed] is supposed to be a growth-rted skill; the stronger I get, the faster it gets, so how is he keeping up with me so easily?''

    ''Maybe I just need a differt approach...''

    "Ban-"

 Chapter 99: A Small God.

    ***

    "Oraaaaaahh!" Sol roared as he and Union gaged in an exchange of swift attacks -each doing no damage to the other as they blocked and parried every one of their opponts'' strikes and swings, by this point Sol was just being careless and stubborn, he wanted to overpower this prideful god who had still yet to make a peep, but he wanted to do it withoutying his weapons down.

    They shed and separated and th rushed in and shed again sdingrge sparks flying in every direction wh their greatswords broke upon impact.

    "Fuck it!" Sol grabbed Union''s hand before he could retreat and dragged him into a headbutt, causing both their helmets to shatter into pieces as he spun the handle of his sword and brought down the piece of de intt on bedding it into the head of the god.

    Union seemed to have the same idea because as soon as his eyes had focused again his brok sword came from the side aiming for Sol''s neck.

    Union sacrificed his palm to stop Sol''s strike while Sol turned and grabbed the brok de with his teeth, mping down on it so hard it cracked as the two of them stopped moving and started growling in a stalemate.

    Sol huffed though, he had worked hard for this one momt where he could get the quick bastard to stopoving.

    [GODSPEED]

    He released the de in his grasp and summoned a shortsword next to it, pressing it by the handle toward Union''s face, but the emeral-eyed god still managed to lean his head out of the way and grab the de with his teeth mimicking Sol.

    "Ev wh you''re stuck like this!?" Sol released his hand and used Union''s leg like a tform to wid the gap betwe them, spinning several times and throwing small des at him, but now with his hands freed Union easily deflected them with his bare hand.

    "What am I doing wrong here?" Sol set foot on the g and had to activate [godspeed] again wh Union came swinging with a mace at his head dodging and summoning a spear from his palm like a projectile that the god of weapons also easily avoided.

    "It doesn''t matter if I''m hiding it or using it oply, he''s avoiding everything, that healed scar on his hand and his brok helmet are the only evidces that he''s be foghting me, he isn''t fatigued, he''s not showing any signs of slowing down... Meanwhile." Sol stared at his status window.

    [Mana: 48%]

    "I''m going to lose if this machine doesn''t show any sign of... " He paused and stared at Union with wide eyes as he approached again, he had said it as an insult because of his perfect responses, but as they traded swings at each other something started bing clear to him.

    Union was in fact fighting perfectly, his movemts were so precise and controlled it felt like he was watching a robody carrying out tasks.

    "Let''s gamble on that!" Sol summoned a greatsword which was heavy for ev him and spun with it, and th activated [clockwork] the momt his back was turned, sure ough upon looking a again Union had tak hispse in sight as an opportunity to attack him, and as a result had be caught in the technique.

    Once again to everyone who was watching it happed instantaneously, Sol spun, union attacked and th a secondter Sol''s sword was falling and he was standing where Union had be, while the god of weapons was on a fast crash across the dimsion making holes through every cone he hit.

    the only ones who knew what had happed were Saat and Sorath, and while the goddess of the sun had avoided revealing the fact that she had be froz in ce by a strange technique, Saat was in no condition to speak at all.

    After her fight with Sol she had imprisoned herself in her own throne room and cut off allmunications, not ev Dr''ul had be able to summon her.

    "Haha." Sol clched his fist and huffed wh his blood dripped through the armour. "You crazy bastard," He looked at his feet where Union''s leg still stood, staring at electrical sparksing from it.

    [My beautiful leg!] Union eximed as soon as he stopped crashing. He sounded like a child.

    "You''re not an imposing god at all, you''re a midget, so topsate for your small body you created a whole other one to live inside of; the Union I have be facing before, it wasn''t that he was strong..." Sol picked up the dismembered leg and startedughing at himself for being fooled as he stared at the small leg-space within it.

    "I was fighting a weapon made by the god of weapons, this is hrious, I''d have never won!" He continuedughing.

    [The pantheon has erupted intoughter at your discovery]

    [The god of creation is impressed by Union''s intricate handiwork]

    [You!] Union squeaked. Stepping out of his puppet armour and snapping his fingers, summoning another one that knelt as he quickly fitted himself into it. [How dare you mock my magnifict self, I will make you pay!!] He snapped his fingers again and three more android unions appeared in a sh. [I am the god of weaponry, you will learn to respect me!]

    Sol had gone silt, he never expected the tables to turn so drastically in the blink of an eye. Now there was a pissed off union as well as three more foes to worry about.

    [Mana: 47%]

    "Sol might be a bitte today." Ikaris looked up at the mountains after they had finally reached.

    "He''s alreadyte, it''s about to be nightfall, this is ev longer than his fight against Sorath," Dina whispered back at her.

    "Yes, appartly he made fun of a ssitive god and is about to suffer the consequce." Ikaris chuckled.

    "You don''t seem worried," Dina raised a brow.

    "I am just amused."

    ***

    [Mana 0%]

    "Could you please stop telling me every single perctage drop!?" Sol snapped at the system parrying several swords consecutively as the god-androids reltlessly attacked him with strike after strike, to his merit he had withstood their attacks and be unharmed, but the sheer power and speed these things possessed had made him strain himself to the absolute limits of his speed and agility, any faster and he would start losing.

    And th there was Union; he nked Sol and came at him with arrows from his great longbow trying to slow him down and cripple his movemt so his weapons could deliver a decisive blow a d d the fight in shy fashion.

    [Th what of every five perct?] The system asked Sol out of the blue and he sunk to his knees, stopping wh all three androids attacked downward at once.

    "Fine!" Sol screeched and sucked in his stomach just before Union''s arrow tore through the abdom of his armour leaving a sh across his flesh.

    He used this momt and parried all three swords out of the android''s hands but immediately was beseeched by an onught of punches and kicks as the mechanisms began a gang beating he couldn''t resist.

    [Clockw- ugh!] His chest caved and his ribcage shattered.

    "Focus!!"

    [Clockwo-gah!!]

    His thoughts continued getting interrupted as he was subjected to a series of bone breaking pain and stabsbas the android''s had managed to properly corner him while Union joined in on the beating.

    [Clo-hng!]

    [Clockw-aah!]

    [Cl-urgh!!]

    *Haah!

    *Haah!

    "Hoooooh!!"

    "That''s-"

    Ikaris''s op eye wided and her smile grew bright as she clched her fists and stood all of a sudd, giddy with excitemt. "Do it, do it!!" She screamed in anticipation.

    Sol''s grunts of pain subsided and he released a war-cry.

    "That''s ough!!"

    "What!?" An explosion of mana sted everything a him away, and before Union could gather himself he was subjected to a punch that blew him straight out of his suit sding him crashing into one of the spikes and tearing through it and several others behind that before another summoned android caught him, but was th smashed by his momtum as he hit one more spike and caused a crater.

    The androids attacked him again but the sheer violce and dsity of his mana tore them apart before they could ev touch him.

    "Is this how the god of weapons fights, do you expect me to sumb to these cheap tricks, where is your dignity!!?" Sol crushed one head of an android beath his heel as his eyes zed over with  and veins popped up across his arms, neck and forehead.

    He was ovee with a boost of strgth that rdered the speed and attacks of his emy useless in an instant.

    "If you wanted a brawl all you needed to do was say so, I''ll crush your bones and break you into pieces you little imp!" Sol smashed his fist into his palm, scowling.

    [You have tered berserker, your strgth is being multiplied while your sse of reason deteriorates]

    "There he is~!" Ikaris sat and blushed travelling back to the momt Sol had looked down on her as a lowly woman undeserving of his affection or atttion; a few momts after he had defeated the demon-god and was still cooling down from his berserker state.

    It was not as cruel as his demon-god transformation, but it was in her opinion more raw, and far more violt, everyone who saw Sol''s wild expression knew in that momt;

    "This fight is about toe to a brutal climax."

 Chapter 100: A Terrible Sensation.

    Another tire day had passed, in an unbelievably violt turn of evts the god of weapons was fused with Sol''s unrelting fists for over 30 hours.

    Dr''ul winced, Ikaris winced, the system had gone silt, the pantheon continued to wince and make faces as if they could feel the agony of Union as he was beset by what any of them could easily say was Sol''s worst beating yet.

    He took no pause, he didn''t ev seem to breathe as he clobbered the little god with his bare fists into the g causing crater after crater that expanded with each hit.

    There were thousands of smashed up androids littered and choking up the vironmt of the dimsion.

    [At this rate the oppont will die soon]

    The system suddly notified Sol, but he grabbed the window and started beating Union with that too until it shattered and vanished from his grasp.

    "It''d be fine if it was anyone else, I''d have understood their need or want to use such a method!" Sol picked him up out of the most rect crater, releasing him midair and delivering several doz punches in an instant before punching him down into the crater again only for him to bounce back up and get kicked like a football into the closest spike ripping a hole straight through it.

    On the other side Sol grabbed him by his face and started mming him into the g like a caveman with a stubborn coconut.

    "Your values as the god of weapons; where are they? You''re tiny so you made a fitting body topsate, that''s fine, hell it was ev funny, I admire that kind of creativity!" Sol released him and punched him with all his might shattering the dimsion and sding the little man soaring into the air and catching fire from the speed he ascded with.

    "I get that!" Sol caught up and grabbed his face again, aiming downwards.

    [Fire-bolt Maximum output]

    A st of gold fire exploded point-nk in unions face growing like a fourth moon in the night sky and he was st on a other fiery spinning trip down toward an istedke.

    "But as the god who creates and perfects weapons, he who is supposed to know all and be a true master of all violt tools, you''ve still done nothing but let your machines fight for you, I''m disappointed!!" Sol caught up again and punched him ev harder than before.

    Causing a tear to op up in the air and dark matter to roar outward as Union hit theke and created an instant tsunami while the system scrambled to undo his reality-shattering punch.

    "It might have only be t years, but I fought, I fucking fought like hell, I mastered every weapon that ever touched my hand, and you... Youzy bastard!!" Sol crashed into his face with his fist again causing the tsunami and theke in its tirety to vanish in an instant from the impact that st Union cratering through the crust of Arkadia toward the core.

    *Haa*

    *Haa*

    *Haa*

    Solnded with a roar above the small hole the god of weapons'' body had made staring down into it while his eyes slowly reverted back to normal and heat rushed up at him.

    "I made my body into a weapon, I achieved lightmt on the battlefield, I may hate others, but you have my scorn, Union god of weapons who turned his back on using them, that is something I am expericing for the first time, as a warrior you are pathetic, and as a god ev more so..." Sol took a deep breath and th released onest breath of raw mana before the bulging veins across his face, chest and arms started subsiding and his pounding heart started calming down.

    "Let this sink in for the rest of your eternity," Sol crouched over the hole watching as a faint fiery colour and more heat came towards him.

    "If you lose sight of your purpose you''re better off not existing at all."

    [The winner of this challge by brutal knockout is The Tarnished: Sol Vestic]

    The system announced, and the tire cosmos simultaneously let out a sigh of relief that Union hadn''t be killed since there was no rule against it.

    [You have regained all your stamina]

    [You have be rewarded .6x increase in strgth (that''s 60%) so he''s almost twice as strong as before now).]

    [Your mana has increased by 80%]

    *Ding!

    [You'' have levelled up, you are now Level  Divinity]

    "Brilliant..." Sitri sat on her throne with a smile. "Absolutely brilliant."

    "Whew~" Ikaris sighed and sat up. "It is finally over!"

    "He won?" Dina asked from next to her after Ikaris had spok aloud wh everyone else was asleep.

    "Yes, yes, he should be arriving very soon." Ikarisid down again and turned to face Dina. "I have be very distracted because of this fight..."

    "Well, it''s fine, we know how important he is to you." Dina rested her head and faced her with a smile. "You gained a lot of levels yesterday too so resting while the rest of us do the fighting was probably a fair choice."

    "Mhm," Ikaris smiled and th rested her hand on Dina''s cheek. "I will be sleeping on his bed tonight, thank you for allowing me to sleep with you."

    "I''m still surprised that you''ve never slept by yourself." Dina blushed. "What about before you met him?"

    "I can tell you more on that in the morrow, I must first greet him." Ikaris quietly stood and skipped across the tt to her side and th excitedly ran outside without waking anyone else.

    A few secondster Sol appeared several metres away from therge tt before her and was immediately tackled with a hug.

    "Ouff! Ikaris-"

    "Wee back!" Her tight hug softed and she looked up at him with a radiant smile, staring at his weightless  hair and his eyes which still burned with the aftereffects of berserker. "Would you ask anything of me, my love?" She asked him and he sighed at her sweetness and shook his head.

    "I already have everything I could have asked for in you, Ikaris," Sol held her cheeks and kissed her forehead, "a hot bath though would be great." He looked a and held out his hand to the ttest bit of unupied g.

    [Earth maniption: crater]

    [Water maniption: spring]

    [Heat maniption]

    [Magicbination achieved, new creation skill unlocked]

    [Creation magic:  hot spring]

    [The god of creation is baffled and ck-jawed at this skill]

    Ikaris startedughing as she saw a small hot spring form in the g right before her eyes, she watched fascinated as the steam from the water rushed up toward them and the mould a the crater form and th more rocks form a the edges, she th yelped in surprise wh he picked her up and fell in the water with a loud *ssh.

    "With this much noise you will wake the others, they have be working hard, you know." Ikaris stood in the waist deep water and sshed some at him, but Sol paid no heed to that warning as he spread his arms and took a seat  on the shallow d of the pool inviting her to join him, and she swiftly did so, resting her hands on his shoulders and sitting behind him.

    "I missed you,"

    "You have be watching the whole time though-" Sol turned to look at her, but was met with a finger poking his cheek instructing him to keep his gaze ahead.

    "I was without your touch and presce for an tire day, I missed you, Sol." Ikaris stubbornly began massaging his shoulders while he rxed with his arms rested on her legs.

    "Yeah, me too."

    "I saw it for the second time-" Ikaris reached down his torso, running her hands gtly across his chest and abdom and th dragging them up again. "-but I must ask; what is it like?" She finished her question.

    "What''s what like?" Sol dropped his head in herp, and she pushed his forehead.

    "What is it like using that berserker, your mana goes wild multiplying on itself hundredfold andsting much longer than it usually does, it seems so convit but you only use it in certain situations, why?" She leaned her breasts on his forehead and reached for his abdom again.

    "Well..." Sol spoke from his little bit of heav.

    "Image for a momt if your limiter broke, everything before you became an irritation you had to destroy, everyone a you, emy or ally, morality, mercy, everything that binds you and feels ev remotely like a hindrance is released from your thoughts and care and your sole goal bes power and victory, but slowly, your sses are deprived and you be numb and lose yourself to that power, it makes you feel like you couldmit terrible barbarities; like you''d want to."

    At the mtion of these contrasts Ikaris wt still, it sounded familiar, it felt familiar, she had expericed ckouts in the past, the momt wh she tore the gates of heav op was one such momt, she was going tomit atrocities beyond what she believed she was capable of, it also reminded her of a darker time.

    "That... sounds awful." She sobered up and started washing his hair carefully.

    "I hate the feeling; it''s a terrible ssation, my teacher on A had a lot of inner demons to have personally developed a skill so cruel and full of hate." Sol admitted.

    "It''s a lot like the demon-god transformation to me." He closed his eyes and sighed as her fingers dragged across his scalp; ev with his fatigue cured by levelling up, he still felt the strain of fighting for two days straight, Ikaris was slowly easing his mtal fatigue.

    "It was an idt using that power, ev if I won thanks to it... I hate losing control of my impulses like that."

 Chapter 101: Can I Love You?

    "You''re back." Usami woke up after smelling Sara''s cooking and looked a to see everyone else already gone and  other than Sol sitting in his usual spot and Ikaris soundly asleep with her head rested in hisp, he looked up from his book at her and nodded, th wt straight back to reading again. "How was it?" She asked curiously.

    Her, Bruce, and Eris had not be made privy to exactly what Sol had be up to more than the fact that he wt out by himself to fight incredibly powerful opponts ever so oft, the fact that he was a demigod now was proof of that.

    Sol looked up from his book again, finding Usami still staring at his hair and nodded with himself taking a deep breath and suppressing his mana until his hair turned brown again. "It was disappointing." He replied honestly.

    "A disappointing fight took you two whole days?"

    "No, my oppont was disappointing, I gained what I set out to gain, but my oppont was a pain in the ass, an immortal fool." He answered again and she nodded and raised her leg resting her chin on her knee and smiling at him. "What?" Sol raised a brow.

    "It''s just... You''re such a nice person sometimes, really chill and easy to get along with, and th other times you''re a real jerk, I don''t know if I should take that as a red g or start liking you under the assumption that you''re a good guy, y''know?" She chuckled at him, and Ikaris turned and looked at her after theplimt.

    "Well," Sol thought about it for a bit.

    "You can think whatever I guess, it won''t change the way I see or treat you, what does change my perceptions of people are their actions, and right now you have my respect for setting aside your weaknesses and seeking strgth wh everyone else seems to be trying to avoid the evidt truth a them, searching for a way out without sacrificing their body for the power they need to do it."

    "Oh," Usami lowered her gaze and held her exposed cheek, covering her mouth as a small blush from his suddplimt ran across her face. "Thank you-"

    "Usami,e look!" Eris barged through the trance of the tt excited, grabbed her by her arm yanking her out of herfortable posture and dragging her outside.

    "That was nice of you." Ikaris turned and looked up at Sol, stretching her arms and legs  with a quiet yawn. "Do you have a fancy for her?" She asked jokingly.

    "That couldn''t be further from the truth," Sol held on to her hand and continued to stretch her while she groaned in pleasure and yawned again. "Usami was controversial wh she just came to Arkadia, she was weak, self-ctred, maniptive, and sought to hide in the shadow of others, but as it stands she is currtly the best example among the heroes of growth, well, aside from Dina."

    "Dina has grown the most." Ikaris sat up and straddled hisp, taking the book from his grasp and setting it to the side. "But ough about them, they are all joying the pool outside, I want to focus on you, and I want you to focus on me." She pressed her torso against his and leaned into his neck, biting and sucking on his skin.

    "You just woke up-"

    "And I am extremely aroused after we spt the tire night in a hot bath and th you stretched my remaining fatigue away." She whispered in his ear. "I would love to be... hnn~" She moaned expectantly wh Sol''s hand instinctively groped her asscheek while he reached for her hair and pulled her head backwards.

    "You shouldn''t tease me like this, Ikaris." Sol sunk his fingers into the soft exposed flesh of her ass and growled against her breasts, pulling her head further back until she was arched on top of him, but th he released her and she snapped forward wh A came walking in.

    "...Did I interrupt?" A paused as soon as she saw them.

    "Absolutely..." Ikaris slightly shook on top of Sol with her face steaming and her breath heavy as she rested her forehead in the crook of his neck and weakly held on to his shirt. "Sorry, it was my inctive that led to, ahem... Did you need something?"

    "The one time I decide to not have my ears on high alert I stumble across this sce." A blushed and mumbled. "I was trying to avoid the others who wanted me to join them in the hot-bath that appeared overnight." She exined and Ikaris slightly sobered up and looked a at her.

    "You td to shy away from others who wish to share any kind of skinship with you, or ev just want a regr interaction why is that?" Ikaris asked, and A fixed her coat over her shoulders and walked further into the tt, sitting on her sleeping bag and rxing as she looked at them.

    "Before I decided to be a mage and join the subjugation army, I was victim to many terrible crimes and differt forms of abuse, awful things happed to me throughout my childhood and teage years because...

    I have always had a mature body, ev now that I am pushing my early thirties I have yet to find any way or reason to op up to others, except you." She looked at Ikaris and th focused on Sol.

    "Me?" Sol lowered his head and turned his gaze slightly to the side confused.

    "I am sorry for ruining your mood but I figured it was either I exin this now or wait another t years for an opportune momt." A raised her knees to her chin.

    "I was not always able to protect myself, ev with pott magic I was weak and fragile, my own family, supposed frids of my family, and strangers; I was targeted for years and had no way of seeking or asking for help, I was trapped in an dless cycle of horror." Her nails dug through her coat into her skin as she spoke.

    "Substance abuse as a child, I was sold so many times... passed a by my own father, used and th thrown out on the streets, I have a very strong phobia of being touched, this is why I distance myself, hate others, hate myself... except you."

    "So why am I the exemption th?" Sol asked, glossing over her trauma to save her from reliving it in detail.

    "You are the first man I have met who did not stare at me as an object or tool of pleasure, you barely ev look at me at all let alone with lustful eyes, and it makes me feel at ease a you, ev on the day we fist met wh I kissed you, I might havee off as an outgoing or promiscuous woman th, but I was simply tranced..." She blushed and hid her face again.

    "That is why I was so interested in courting you at that time, but my advances were quickly rejected, so I settled with remaining as close as I could to you, and thdy Ikaris wh she stopped trying to hurt me.

    "You do not see those a you for what they are perceived as or what they look like, instead of seeing my body you stare at my soul and inttions, in my eyes Master Vestic you are a fine man who would never harm me, so I havee to trust you unconditionally..." A looked up wh she heard shuffling, and found Sol right before her sitting while Ikaris was at his side.

    "Wh was thest time you were hugged, A?" Sol asked, and at the msion of such a foreign ssation the mage immediately broke down and began sobbing.

    "Um... wh I was our years old my mother hugged me for the first time on her deathbed before passing away~" She sniffled and watched Sol op his arms while Ikaris''s gaze bore sympathy toward her. "I can''t -"

    "Come on," he gestured. "If you can''t trust anyone else, and you feel safe trusting me th by all means, go ahead and trust me, I won''t betray your trust." Sol oped his arms wider and watched her slowly crawl from her ball toward him.

    "Is this truly okay?" A looked at Ikaris with her tears already streaming down her cheeks, and Ikaris gave her a nod.

    "I do not agreepletely, obviously, but I like you A, if a hug helps th I can allow at least that much, it will not be the d of the world." Ikaris had aplicated smile as she watched the half-elf dive into Sol''s arms and let out a loud sigh as her hands locked onto him and her quivering lips curled into a smile.

    "Wow, she''s as soft as a baby." Sol looked at Ikaris surprised, but the unimpressed goddess pouted and summoned a knife over A. "O-oi!"

    "I jest," Ikaris looked away and the knife vanished while her pout grew. "A little..."

    "Here I am, unsatisfied after the implied act of releasing my tsion and I have to watch you embracing another woman, this is unideal, I want to break some skulls and blow something up now before I hurt her."

    "Sorry, I''ll make it up to you, after we''re done here." Sol smiled at her feeling his body get squeezed as A released all the years of loneliness she had dured because of her fears of being subjected to abuse again. "A...?" Sol looked down at her wh he started feeling her mana radiating like a beacon and her grip loos.

    "Master Vestic~" She nuzzled against his chest, folding herself in hisp and locking her fingers weakly behind him as she looked up at him with her eyes rolled over with ough mana flooding through her body to short-circuit her brain as she lost herself.

    "Master Vestic is a beautiful soul, can I love you, ev if you only shoulder me as a frid, am I permitted to adore you?"

    "What the hell is going on in here?"

 Chapter 102: An Unexpected Occurrence. (1)

    (This tire chapter is being revised to get rid of the degeration, after losing what would have be a fun and loyal reader because of it, I have no choice but to rethink it''s relevance (???_???)

    ***

    "What the hell." Dina stood at the trance after waking in on what looked from behind like Sol kissing A while Ikaris stared in shock, but wh nobody turned to meet her gaze she walked over to them and stared over his shoulder, there she found A crying like a lost child and Sol trying to calm her as he held her gtly. "What''s going on?" She repeated her question a second time.

    "Love..." Ikaris stared at Sol''s expression, it was neither caring nor uncaring and yet it did not feel like a passive stare either, it was the first time she found confliction in his heart through just looking in his eyes.

    "A..." Sol held her a little tighter and looked toward the torch that lit the inside of the tt.

    "There was once a time where Ikaris disappeared; in the fifth and sixth years after I was reincarnated, she was gone..." Sol started a story, and without missing a beat Dina took a seat and Ikaris started paying atttion to him again after being too shocked to react to A''s obvious praise and infatuation with him.

    "This was the turning tide of the war that would lead to me ultimately winning against the demon god, but it was also the darkest I had ever se any species turn, depravity ravaged the armies on both sides and we tore each other apart in an dless storm of blood and rage... In that same time I met someone; there was a woman who asked me the same thing; if she could love me, her name was Jun."

    "Jun..." Ikaris repeated the woman''s name and a look of guilt overcame her, why was he remembering his first love all of a sudd, was he going to leave her for A, would he truly, she was a lot like her in many regards.

    "Jun was not much differt than you, despite having a dark past, she grew into a sweet woman; someone who cared for those a her and always tried to help ev at the cost of her own well-being." He looked down at her with a warm smile and ruffled her hair like a child''s.

    "I never answered her question and we just kind of grew closer without it... I never confessed, and she never knew if I truly loved her or not... Ev though we spt so much time together, she died in my arms, and I still never said a word to her."

    "Thank you for being honest with me." He looked at Ikaris with that same soft smile while she failed to avert her eyes after he stared at her. "I can''t answer you either, it''s not my ce to tell you where your heart belongs, I only know where my own heart belongs." He continued looking at Ikaris.

    Without a word A lowered her gaze and took his hand, hugging it to herself and resting her cheek in his palm, fulfilling her first wish of being held by him while she still could.

    "I''m saying I won''t ept your love ev if you give it to me, wether you do or don''t is up to you, it won''t change how I see or interact with you, my heart, my love, and my adoration only belong to Ikaris, and that can''t change, it never will." He rested his hand on her head again and smiled. "Sorry."

    ''This is so weird, she''s behaving like a lovesick child, how didn''t I notice this before?'' Dina raised her brow at how A interacted with Sol.

    "I understand where my ce is, I do not want to cause any trouble betwe you; not that I believe I ever could," A finally calmed down while Sol set her to sit on her own again. "Thank you for listing andforting me, Master Vestic." She smiled at him, and Sol nodded and turned to Ikaris again.

    "Love, are you mad at me for leaving wh I did? Had I stayed, Jun might have lived..."

    "Everyone dies wh they''re supposed to, Ikaris, whether she lived a year or two more is not important anymore, it already happed and we have long moved on." He took her hands and pulled her to her feet. "All I have is you, and I wouldn''t have it any other way."

    "To say such a thing after speaking of your first l-"

    *Thwip!

    They both disappeared while Ikaris was speaking, and after A smiled and hugged herself again with a peaceful expression donnig her face, Dina just sat there confused, she waspletely ignored the whole time. "What the fuck just happed, A, you-"

    "I do not harbour romantic feelings toward him, I thought I might have at first, I wish I did, but after he embraced me I felt no such feeling, I just had a deep longing to be held." the half elf replied to Dina before she could  finish her question. "I simply wanted someone to hold me without feeling my skin crawl, I wanted to be embraced without feeling the fear of abuse...

    And Master Vestic is the only man who gives me that ssation, whether it was mypanions, my fellow captains or ev the king wh he still lived, the touch of a man has always caused me terrible hives..."

    "Th... Do you think you will be able to interact with other m now-"

    "Absolutely not. I fantasize about that man every single night before falling asleep I will never touch or be touched by another." A deadpanned. "M still make my skin crawl."

    "Th what of wom?" Dina deadpanned right back.

    "No way, I don''t think of wom like that,"

    "Ar''t you setting yourself up to be a lonely ole woman, th?!" Dina shot back with an using finger pointed at A and her eyes circr with shock.

    "I will never be lonely!" A picked up her staff and smiled as the ssation of Sol''s hug physically returned through mimicked memory by her own mana coating a her.

    "You fucking weirdo!"

    A lied.

    "Where''d Sol and Ikaris go?" Usami came back inside of the tt half dressed and grinning from ear to ear with the water dripping off her body. "This is great, a hot spring-"

    "Who do you think is responsible for the hot spring in the first ce, Usami?" Dina raised her brow looking at her fellow hero with an amused nce, and Usami paused and stared at the empty sleeping quarters of the man and his woman and th looked at Dina again, sobered from realisation.

    "It never ured that they''d have such magic at their disposal, but considering who it is; yeah, I guess it does make a lot of sse that they''re the ones who did it..." She pouted. "Anyways, A-"

    "Pass," The half-elf crossed her arms, still holding onto her staff with a warm smile. "I will remain here until everyone else has had their fill of the spring, maybe sometimester I will ter wh nobody else is there.

    "Gosh you''re such a killjoy, A," Usami shook her head and th looked at Dina. "What''s your excuse?"

    "It''s pretty much the same, Usami."

    "Awe on, we''ve be frids for years, Dina, we shared the same bathroom for the first two years of college!" Usami shook her hands fatigued at the two of them.

    "Yeah, we did, I ev shared baths with you and Ikaris and Eris back in Argom, but I never stated once that I''d befortable in a pool with some guy."

    "Bruce isn''t some guy, Dina, and he''s still dressed out of consideration," Usami deadpanned. "You''re being a pride right now, in fact you''ve be acting holier than a newborn nun ever since you and Ikaris became frids-"

    "Is there something wrong with that?" Dina raised her eyes and stared at Usami while her pupils turned pink and her body was highlighted by a very faint glow of her pink mana. "Are you trying to start a fight with me?"

    "Oh stop it," Usami scoffed and passed off Dina''s hostile defsivess with a wave of her hand. "Fine, don''t join, there''s no telling of that thing''s gonnast either way." She spun and left without another word.

    Together with her teacher Dina sat and listed as the others seemed to be having fun, but th at the same time that A sat forward with a panicked expression, Dina also stood and summoned her staff just before a powerful gust of dust, wind, fire, and debris tore through the tt and uprooted everything sding her and A crashing after they failed to erect barriers in time.

    "Dina!" A managed to right herself first, casting a barrier over herself and taking to the sky after casting several chants on herself.

    "Dina!"

 Chapter 103: An Unexpected Occurrence. (2)

    ***A few momts before the attack on the camp***

    Sol and Ikaris were standing over the Argomite Que whom they had caught in the room above theirs, using the same runes her daughter had used in the past after she had be caught trying to spy on them while in the act of pleasing herself.

    "The only thing that could possibly cure this kind of behaviour is topletely erase her mind and build her up from scratch." Ikaris frowned staring at the Que with a brow raised in disappointmt.

    "What kind of Que gives in to such degerate behaviour at the beset of her own daughter, I''m beyond appalled at your disgusting behaviour, Misty this is an offce worthy of the death palty!" Ikaris scowled. "I don''t see the need in fighting for the sake of this kind of a Que ev if your world burns as a result, maybe failing wouldn''t be such a bad thing."

    "No way, Ikaris, failing means you die too... so no, not ev if it means saving trash, I won''t," Sol replied. "In this realm, there''s nowhere the demon god wouldn''t search if it meant she''d find you, and I just know she''s the kind that never lets go of anything once she''s sunk her fangs into it." Sol looked a at her shaking his head.

    "I won''t fail, I''ll make her beg for mercy before I tear her face off."

    "... Demon ...god?" The Que attempted to raise her head but as soon as her eyes found Sol''s she dropped her forehead to the floor again. "Forgive me."

    "So what will you do th?" Ikaris asked, raising her hand and erasing every rune and magical chantmt in the room with a single motion of her index finger whilst also casting [purge] and cleaning everything so she didn''t need to keep seeing the state of the floor that the woman had sullied in her perverted acts.

    "Would you rather kill her and let someone else take power?" She asked, and Sol scoffed at the thought.

    "As bad as she and her daughter are; from what I have observed of the nobility in Argom they seem to be the best fit, I honestly don''t know what to do with them now, I could erase their desire for pleasurepletely, but that''d just make them focus the extra ergy somewhere else, probably somece cruel."

    "Th what will you do?" Ikaris asked again.

    "We can figure it outter, he stepped to the side and left an empty space just as Sara emerged urgtly from his shadow with her hand bloodied. "Sara-" Sol caught her before she fell and held her upright. "What happed?"

    "High-level demons appeared out of nowhere, hundreds of them!"

    "Hundreds...?" Ikaris mused.

    "Okay," Sol cast [heal] on Sara and she fainted from the potcy as her brok and bloodied arm healed along with arge gash across her back, probably from her trying to escape and almost dying.

    "I''m leaving her here, get yourself cleaned up and wait for me to return, and I don''t think I need to say this, but if you do anything to Sara while she''s sleeping I''ll know, and I''ll make you regret being born.

    "Should I apany you?" Ikaris asked, summoning a full set of armour over her body, and th a helmet in her grasp which she held to her stomach and waited for his response.

    This was a simple question but it carried a lot of weight; she might have just be a week in, but she was still pregnant, if she was injured in the wrong way by the demonkin she could lose her developing babe, if she felt for a momt that she was at such a risk she was already nning on leaving everything into retreat, the child that would be born from her in her own eyes was the most precious treasure since the first creation, she would treasure herself and her baby with nothing above that.

    "You just need to be careful; don''t fight them directly." Sol extded his hand to her, and as she took it they both vanished in a sh of light, leaving the Que staring at Sara whom he had leaned on the wall before disappearing.

    Arriving where he ssed the gathering of demons Sol paused for a momt and put his hand before Ikaris, blocking a stray projectile from hitting her while she was distracted searching for Dina.

    Seemingly unaware of what just happed Ikaris lowered Sol''s hand and stared down to the g, once again there were no flying demons, just g-bound emies of varying kinds, shapes and sizes, right as she was about to take off an explosion wt off in the distance and they saw several demonkin go flying from the burst of mana and th several massive spears erupt and grow into the air, and immediately following the spears a barrier arose and shattered, and th another again, and again.

    "Hold on," Sol spread his hands wide while his eyes inverted and his hair shed  and began glowing.

    [CLOCKWORK]

    Mana erupted from his body, and in an instant everything froze. "This was deliberate, it has always be," He looked a at Ikaris who was unaffected by his technique.

    "I noticed as well; every time you are abst we are attacked, ev before you met Sitri." Ikaris agreed, taking off toward the others who had also be froz as Sol spared no mana and made sure that everything was immobilized in ce rather than the usual [clockwork] which slowed time.

    "It is as she said," Sol descded and flew directly above the high-level demonkin. "She has be watching me." He confirmed and flew by to the other side of the ambush,nding next to Usami while Ikarisnded next to Dina.

    "If I had cast [CLOCKWORK] a second slower she would have died..." Sol stared at Usami, and th looked to Eris at her feet whom she was trying to protect while the healer had a projectile spear directly before her about to pierce her skull while she was trying to her her injured leg.

    Bruce had several demons targeting him at once, and A who was the weakest there in terms of defce was casting a high-tier offsive skill whilst also being protected by Dina who was just about to unleash her [pulsar] trump card to try and create a momt of rity for everyone before they were swarmed after her shields and barriers had all be bypassed easily by the levels 400 and above demons.

    "If Sara didn''te back wh she did... They''d have all died this time." Sol lowered his gaze with a dark expression as he saw the creatures start to slightly move again. "I''d kill them all myself but this is too good an opportunity for these heroes to miss, that includes you, these creatures are good sources of growth."

    Sol looked a at Ikaris, but was slightly tak aback wh he found that all of the demons a Dina had already be decapitated and the mage in question had already fired off [pulsar], which was such an iprehsibly fast technique that it had already moved several doz metres despite time almost stoppingpletely a them.

    "Do you have ough mana to re-cast [clockwork]?" Sol asked Ikaris, and she looked a at him after taking another head off its shoulders and shook her own head.

    "You had over a hundred million in mana before so you never noticed, but [clockwork] is a divine skill that takes a tremdous amount of power to maintain, if I were to cast it with only my 50k mana pool I would be left with little to nothing." Ikaris exined the details and Sol nodded, now that he thought about it he really did casually spam some overpowered techniques sometimes.

    "I have no choice th, if I leave the sphere it vanishes, and ev if I stay it has a limit to how long it can run, and it''s about to reach that limit." He turned and moved Usami, Bruce and Eris out of the way and turned his body arching and punching once.

    [Mana infused punch: casual]

    "That should be ough for this side, which is the majority, I''ll leave the rest to you, A, Dina and Usami while I get these two out of the way."

    "A?" Ikaris looked at the mage who was in the middle of casting a high-tier spell. "And ev Usami?" She added and Sol nodded.

    "Usami seems to have already killed a few, and despite her being several times weaker, A has also killed at least one or two, but these guys..." Sol took Bruce by his shoulder te and picked up Eris like a cat, holding her by her abdom against his side. "They don''t have that much firepower yet, especially Eris, she needs a lot of growth, but Bruce is a massive let-down."

    "Stand clear of their attacks, I''ll be back in a snap." Sol looked at Ikaris with an expression of caution and she nodded in return, standing by Dina and A and casting [Undefined tier infernal magic: hell''s kitch] where they had not managed to cover.

    Sol vanished, the dome shattered immediately, and there was a momt of the world beingpletely silt before the sounds of roars and explosions and Dina''s cosmic whirring mana mixed and blded together in a confusion of three extra-massive explosions and one sonic burst courtesy of Sol that changed thendscape and tore through the few hundred remaining High-tier demonkin like a freshly sharped knife through tofu leaving only a single demon before Usami.

    "Wha!!" Dina snapped after her [pulsar had run its course and she was caught by Ikaris, Simrly A fell onto Ikaris''s back as she caught Dina and the two of them looked a at her shocked as dozs of headless high-tier demons fell to the g.

    "What the fuck just happed?" Usami stared shocked as her spear drove through the eye of the demon in front of her, she wasted no time, ev as her ears bled and rung she focused on her oppont.

    [Spear maniption: expand]

    The weapon grew in girth and caused the head of the creature it had impaled to pop like a fall melon.

    Far out of the reach of the others Sol floated with Bruce and Eris in his grasp.

    [You have killed 850 high level demonkin]

    [No levels gained]

    [Mana has increased by 0.0000%]

    "What the hell-"

    "Be silt." Sol spoke, and they both paused for a second, staring down at the after-effects of the four-way destructivebined attack that had saved their lives.

    "You saved us?" Bruce asked watching his feet dangle above clouds while Eris obeditly remained silt.

    "Eris''s case I get, she was support behind mage support, as far as her role goes as a healer she is being asked too much wh she sets foot into direct confrontations like these, and yet she has be giving it her all, despite the obvious gap in strgth and herints she has not backed down in the face of any threat." Sol ignored Bruce''s question and raised him to eye level.

    "So tell me Bruce, why is it that you were about to kick her into an oing demon to save your doomed soul, as the tanker who is supposed to be protecting her?"

 Chapter 104: Evolution?

    "What are you talking about...?" Bruce was going to try and refute this udation, but as soon as his and Sol''s eyes made four the man wt silt and lowered his gaze again.

    "Who are you?" Sol asked.

    "I don''t understand-"

    "Answer my question, Bruce Chaolong, who are you?" Sol pressed. "Answer honestly, if I don''t like your answer I''ll fucking throw you into the vums right now and watch you pop." Sol''s eyes zed over with rage for a momt before he took a breath. "Go on."

    "I..."

    "Answer!" Sol roared. "Who the fuck are you supposed to be!?"

    "I''m... the shield hero!!"

    "Th start acting like it, there isn''t supposed to be an emy that can bypass your defces, if you find one th make stronger defces, what the fuck are you doing using another person as a shield you disgraceful excuse of a warrior?" Sol g his teeth squeezing down on Bruce''s shoulder te until his hand had crushed it and folded into a fist making a handle out of it.

    "I want to do it so badly; every little devil on my shoulder is telling me in choruses to kill you, but the heroes need you now, Arkadia needs scum like you." His anger slightly subsided as he had an idea.

    "Here''s an ultimatum th, if you survive and return, I might forgive you and let you keep fighting alongside the actual heroes, if you run away after surviving, I''ll personallye for you and leave you in a state wishing for death, and thest; if you don''t survive, well, you just don''t and that is the d of it, the choice is yours." Sol finished speaking and th from the height above the clouds he released Bruce to fall.

    "Ah!" Eris watched the man scream out as he began plummeting toward Arkadia. "No..."

    "Are you feeling sorry for him, Eris?" Sol asked looking at her limply hanging under his arm, of course he already knew she was, ev with all her hidd personality traits Eris still boiled down to a sweet caring girl, she always easily forgave others.

    "You said we needed him, but what if he dies?" She asked.

    "That''d be the d of his other-world experice." Sol chuckled and th snapped his fingers bringing them right back to the ce he was standing before where he found A standing over Dina who looked sleepy and tired while Ikaris stood on high alert with Usami at her side.

    "It seems like everything wt smoothly on this d." Sol ced Eris to stand.

    "Where is Bruce?" A who had thought Sol saved them both started looking a frighted. "Did he truly get caught in the crossfire of one of our attacks?" She started panicking.

    "Bruce is going through some things right now, he needs a bit of time to sort his mind out." Sol answered, looking a at Eris who looked away and cast [heal] on herself.

    "Did you... Did you sd him into that nightmare prism thing?" Dina looked up at him, and he shook his head and extded his hand at the mtion of Han.

    "No, he should be arriving soon." Sol cast [portal] and Han quickly emerged, taking a breath of the humid air filled with the stch of burnt corpses and blood and th stared to the skies roaring with a deafing roar that caused the mana a him to tremble and the atmosphere to distort. "Look at you!" Sol cheered with a proud grin. "How long was it this time?"

    "Thirte days." Han breathed heavily and th looked a and at A, Dina, Ikaris and Usami. "Everyone got stronger... He th looked at Eris. "Except you, what are you doing with your time, isn''t there a demon god that needs defeating why are you still so weak?"

    "It''s only be three days for them." Sol answered and Han snapped back to Ikaris, her mana had doubled, she felt like apletely differt person than before, she felt threating in a way he had only felt from Sol at that point. "What''s your progress?"

    "Hm, I am at level 460 now, and my mana has reached 70k, there seems to be a gap betwe my mana and my levels that I can''t ovee or short." Han responded in his new groggy and monotone voice. "Did Bruce die?" He asked, but only a momt after he said it there was a crash a few hundred metres away. "Nevermind, sorry for wasting your time."

    "Not at all."

    "Wait?" Dina stood with Ikaris''s aid, looking at the direction that something had crashed earlier. "What was that?"

    "Bruce."

    "What?"

    "It was Bruce." Sol answered again. "I won''t go into the specifics, but he needed to be taught a lesson- oh! Here hees!" Sol parked up again and turned to the iing shield hero.

    His left arm was twisted, and he was bleeding from his head, mouth and nose, but his eyes had ignited a fire, and as Sol had instructed, everyone waited patitly until he had limped his way over to them.

    "There." Bruce fell to his knees as soon as he arrived.

    "Stand up." Sol held his hand toward Usami and Eris who were both about to help him.

    "You just threw me from the-"

    "Stand. Up."

    Sol''s voice boomed through Bruce''s head, and within a second the man was on his feet again standing at atttion.

    "Now list, quite a lot has happed today, but I''m still in a fairly good mood, th again I''ve killed in better moods than this." Sol ced his hand before Bruce''s forehead and aimed to flick his finger, but immediately Bruce knew from just staring into those glowing  irises; if that finger hit him he was a dead man, no shield he could produce was going to save him.

    "Maybe a party of people who understand each other is better after all."

    "Sol wait!" Dina approached them, stopping at his side and holding his hand with both of hers and trying to lower it with obvious failure. "I don''t know what he did to earn your anger, but please, just this once let it go." She pleaded with him.

    Sol looked behind at Ikaris who was passive, it was obvious that she had se as well what Bruce was doing, and she seemed to have no interest in what happed thereafter, A although unaware seemed to hold her breath and keep her silce, and Usami was just confused, but th Eris came as well and held on to the same hand that Dina was holding and stared up at him with her eyes almost moist and teary.

    "Just this once."  Eris begged as well, and Sol sighed and chuckled with himself.

    "If Eris is the one begging for you th I have no choice but to agree with her." Sol looked at Bruce again and lowered his hand.

    "I''ll be back in a little bit, there''s unfinished business in Argom that I have to take care of." Sol turned to Han. "There''s be a rect increase in higher levelled demons from the north, stay with them and act ording to the situation, their progress is more important than yours while you''re out here."

    "Understood." Han growled.

    "Th, I''m off again." Sol cast [heal] and [recover] on Han, restoring him from his injuries and repairing his armour again before he vanished in a sh of light.

    "What happed in Argom?" A turned to Ikaris.

    "Haha, your que is a sick degerate." Ikarisughed, and thughed again wh she saw the look on everyone''s faces at her berating remark and how humoured she seemed by it.

    "What about Sara?" Eris queried. "She vanished in the mix of everything and nobody knew where she had gone, I just assumed it was to alert you and Sol."

    "Safe and whole." Ikaris replied. "Did the camp get overrun?"

    "No, She was able to move the horses and everything else away before they were on top of us.

    "She truly is handy, it will be a shame to say goodbye someday." Ikaris smiled with a pleased huff and th looked northward again. "Han, we are moving on."

    "Yes ma''am." Han caught his grown out hair into a short ponytail and summoned his sword, showcasing his full alertness as he extded his evolved sses and began walking behind her.

    "How are you feeling, Dina?" She turned to her frid, and the mage gave her a thumbs up.

    [Mana: k/5k]

    "I still have some fight in me, and I gained some levels too, it''s actually a big upgrade, I''m d I was able to fire off that [pulsar] in the d." Dina responded, staring at her status and a few slots with the (new) tag attached to them and their additions.

    [Name: Dina Levina

    Race: Human

    Level: 30 (+0)

    Title: Hero, Mage hero (new)

    Skills: Master of all trades, Mana spear, Infernal magic, cosmic magic (new), chronological awaress (new; you have be exposed to time being paused, hceforth your body will slowly be ustomed to any fluctuation of time and space), origin explosion\\s, Cosmic Scream (new)

    ss: Mage.

    Buffs: Fission (untested),Perception (new); (Mana perception and maniption duringbat will be increased dramatically.)

    Blessing: Gifted, Heroes blessing, que''s blessing, Alliance (new; you are favoured and protected by omni-powerful beings, your life expectancy is doubled)

    Curses: None

    Special: Transcdt knowledge, Fission, Pulsar, Daughter of Chaos (New; granted by the goddess of chaos, Ria. For a short momt your mana will be chaos incarnate, multiplying hundredfold and causing devastation to everything it touches be warned, ev the slightest bit of overuse will lead to immediate death, the goddess has warned you to use with extreme care and caution.

    Evolution:  (new).]

    "Evolution?"

 Chapter 105: Challenge System.

    "Is there an evolution listed in your status bar too?"

    "Evolution?" Ikaris raised a brow at Dina.

    "What would I evolve into?" She asked gesturing to herself and the fact that she was already the peak of evolution.

    The rest of the day had gone by rtively unevtful aside from a few straggler monsters loitering their path, thanks to that rtive peace ev though they wer''t on any mounts they still made it to the foot of the Northern mountains they had be seeking for thest week of travelling.

    Everyone was  in the middle of setting up a temporary camp in Sara''s absce wh Dina sprung the question of evolution on her after calling her away from the others. "Yeah, that makes sse... Anyways, after I reached level 50 it showed up, but I don''t have any idea what it means, and the system hasn''t exined anything either."

    "Odd," Ikaris regarded the mage with curious eyes at thiste information. "Why did you not ask while everyone was prest?" She queried.

    "I don''t know, it felt like a ssitive subject for some reason, I hav''t ev said anything to A yet, I came to you first." Dina answered immediately, looking a at the others.

    "Have you by any chance received the blessings of one of the gods?" Ikaris asked again, and Dina''s eyes wided in surprise.

    "How did you know?" She asked, intding to keep this bit a secret to avoid too much questions being asked, especially from the ever-thused A.

    "Sol had a simr option upon arrival, though it did not state anything, the only differce with him and everyone else was the fact that he had me, and with me came his blessing;[Goddess''s Love], aside from that nothing else was differt." Ikaris smiled at Dina. "You have received favour from one of the gods, who was it?"

    "The Goddess of Chaos, Ria." Dina lowered her tone to make sure nobody would hear her.

    "She must have found something in you she liked," Ikaris hummed and leaned her head. "I missed my chance to do it myself."

    "Huh?"

    "Never mind that," Ikaris redirected the question with a wave of her wrist. "I am unsure how the system goes about the progress of evolution, but I do know that Sol had to kill a god to op that option, that is pretty much all I know on the matter, if the system is remaining tight-lipped th I can answer no more, sorry." She shrugged.

    "To kill a god..." Dina mused on the subject and th scoffed. "There is no way that will ever happ."

    "You never know." Ikaris started walking toward the others again wh Han stood before her. "Can I help you?" Ikaris''s mood took a deep and dark dive wh their eyes made four.

    "Are you... able to sd me back to hell?" He asked her lowering his gaze with his shoulders stiff. "This ce, this periodic peace, the fresh cool air and the blue sky, it is stifling." He raised his eyes again and found her struggling to hold herughter. "Please."

    "You think that is anythingparable to hell, do you honestly believe that you have be in hell this whole time?" Ikaris asked him, and he seemed to go numb thinking of anything worse, in that ce he had be through unimaginable things, some ev worse than what Sol had done to him.

    "That is not hell, and ev if I could sd you back it is not my decision to sd you back to your little piece of heav; you were left here to watch over us, are you defying your master''s orders?" She narrowed her eyes again and Han''s expression wt ghastly at the thought of Sol getting mad at him.

    "Never, of course not, I apologise!" He lowered his head. "Excuse me!" He quickly retreated several steps and isted himself again.

    "Gosh," Dina who had observed the interaction shook her head. "I''m impressed and slightly terrified at the same time, Sol broke him to the point where he has be his opposite self, no sexual drive and nothing but fighting and struggling on his mind."

    "Do not feel pity for him," Ikaris regarded Han with a spiteful gaze. "He is trash."

    "That he is." Sol appeared at her side with Sara in tow. "But ev trash can be useful sometimes, it''s would be a waste to kill someone with his kind of pottial, so I''m making the best of a bad thing."

    "Sara!" Eris swiftly approached and checked the maid for any injuries, but not only did she find ; she also seemed to be brimming with more mana than she usually had. "What happed to you?"

    "The whole reason she had to run away was because she was weak, so I helped her achieve greater strgth." Sol answered in Sara''s stead and the healer turned to him with a skeptical stare.

    "Helped her how?"

    "None of your bees." He quipped.

    "Wha-"

    "How did it go today?" Sol looked at Ikaris again, shutting Eris outpletely.

    "Fairly well as you likely assumed giv you did not return soo after leaving.

    "Yeah, the Vermons are a handful." Sol scratched his head and looked toward Han, casting [portal] and sding him away wordlessly and th looking at the mountains that loomed over them, they were tall, and the wind that fell from them was cold almost to the point of freezing, at the very front closest to them was a peak that aimed for the clouds and th curved like the fang of a wolf while the other peaks seemed normal going further into uncharted territory and forests made of ice.

    "Saber peak, was it?" Sol called loudly, and A perked up upon hearing his voice and ran over almost like a child would upon seeing their father return after a long day.

    "Aye," She stopped and nodded.

    "I can''t believe that the demon-god is just on the other side of this one mountain range, isn''t that too close to Argom?" Usami approached them as well, followed by a brooding Bruce Chaolong.

    "It might seem like a small distance because as it is exined it is only one range, but this is thergest mountain range on Arkadia." A answered Usami.

    "It is not an exaggeration, it was confirmed through some risky surveince several years ago that the demon-god had built a kingdom on the other side of the range, the estimated distance is  fifty-thousand miles from here and on nothing but rough mountainous terrain and that too through snowy forests and froz tundras."

    "Fifty-thousand miles through freezing weather, who would willingly agree to that suicide mission?" Bruce asked.

    "From this point on there is nothing but destion and famine; had we not had Sara who is able to move freely from us and Argom the tire n would have focused more on a massive party of veterans and several carriages of food just to get us from one d to the other... maybe." A answered Bruce with a raised brow. "If two scouts could make it I am sure the heroes'' party is more than capable."

    "On the other side of this mountain range, our greatest of battles await." Ikaris stared up at the curved mountain looming over them and huffed. "For the first time in my life I feel drastically underprepared for whaty within that deste and foreboding fog called the future."

    "You and me both," Dina shook her head. "Couldnt we just fly over?"

    "Are you trying to die faster?" Sol turned to her. "The whole point of taking this treacherous path is to gain you more time and more strgth, if we did something as silly as fly across the mountains we would get there faster, and you would all die faster."

    "Don''t you mean we would all die faster?" Bruce raised his gaze and stared at Sol skeptically.

    "Let me tell you, I have never once in my life lost a fight, until that bitch dropkicked me the other day, never, I don''t lose, I always find a way, ev if I''m nothing but a bag of bones and blood, I''ve always kept fighting, this is no differt, no matter the power she has, I WILL win, but the same doesn''t stand true for you who neglect strgth."

    "Hey it''s not like we have the ability to just zip off into god knows where and  kill a bunch of monsters whever we feel like we''re falling behind." Bruce shot back and Ikaris startedughing.

    "Fairly speaking that makes sse, but do you remember that day you all foolishly challged me?" Sol asked, and the shield hero raised a brow; of course he remembered getting knocked out.

    "What of it?" Eris asked seeking any opportunity she could to gain any advantage possible to increase her strgth.

    "The system has challge rewards, our duel was fridly so there was ; think of it as gambling, the higher the stakes the more you gain from winning, of course ites with its own risks." Sol educated them and Usami''s jaw dropped.

    "So... What happs if I stake my life?" She asked and Sol hummed and stared at her.

    "At your fingertips there will be unimaginable power the likes of which you could never fathom."

    "But who would we challge?"

 Chapter 106: Sitri Returns!

    "is it possible to challge the gods?" Dina spoke out of nowhere and everyone stopped and stared at her, with Eris, Usami and Bruce holding utter horror and disbelief in what they had heard.

    "Challge the gods are you out of your mind?!" Eris snapped at her while Sara was in the middle of summoning everything she had managed to save in the chaos of the attack earlier that morning.

    "I can''t believe you''d ev say that, let''s not get ahead of ourselves here, Dina." Usami approached her and took her shoulder with actual concern, devoid of her usual cynicism.

    "You''re strong, but I don''t see you winning against a god, all you would do is upset them into killing you, it''s bad ough that they don''t pay that much atttion to what happs here isn''t it?" She shook her Dina with a pleading expression.

    ''There are quite a few that Dina could win against actually, there are some incredibly weak gods in the lesser heav ev by Arkadian standards, some that ev A could beat honestly.'' Sol had a serious expression after the question had be sprung on him, and Ikaris who was by his side held on to his arm and pulled him closer.

    [Telepathy has be activated betwe three; Sol Vestic, True Goddess Ikaris and Dina Levina]

    "Dear, I have news." Ikaris smiled.

    "Did something happ while I was in Argom?" Sol asked and Dina snapped in his direction while Ikaris smiled and rested her head on his arm.

    "Something interesting indeed," Ikaris smiled while looking at Usami who was still talking to Eris and A. "Dina has unlocked evolution."

    "How am I hearing you wh your mouths ar''t ev moving?" Dina covered her mouth and looked at the others, she hadn''t said it out loud either but she had heard herself as well.

    "We usually have tire conversations in this manner" Ikaris nced at her. "Just focus on the others and speak to us passively, if you wish to we can always include A, but since you had said nothing to her I chose this route rather than sneaking a and whispering." She instructed the shocked mage, and she turned to the others again with a huff and started paying atttion.

    "Your status window has unlocked evolution?" Sol seemed surprised ev more than Ikaris was wh she found out. "How did this happ?"

    "My theory is that it is triggered after recieving a blessing from a god, the same as you had [Goddess''s Love] from the start and also had [evolution] from the start," Ikaris further exined, but instead of continuing to be shocked Sol''s eyes slowly turned to Usami who had changed the topic after Sara''s arrival.

    "Interesting." Sol continued staring at the spear hero who had arrived with short hair that was now at the middle of her back in a high ponytail. "This is very interesting." He spoke again and both Ikaris and Dina looked at him to try and figure out what his other thoughts were.

    "Didn''t Usami get a blessing from the god of hardships wh she fought at the Obelisk?" He asked and Dina perked up uttering an audible "ah!" out of nowhere and startling Usami who was right next to her.

    "Are you okay?" Usami raised her brows.

    "Yeah, I''m fine." Dina nodded and lowered her tone to a calmer one as she stared back.

    "Are you saying Usami has be hiding her blessing from us?"  She asked.

    "Exactly that, it''s an easy matter to just take a peek and find out, but since she hasn''t said a word I''ll respect that decision and leave her out of our affairs." Sol responded and th brought the topic back to Dina again.

    On the matter of you asking about challging the gods, understand this, divine mana is far more pott than anything else you could ever counter, if you are looking at it as currcy th for every single count of divine mana you need about t thousand counts of regr mana to bnce it, and unlike the mana you have now, divine mana does not have an actual count, it is measured in perctage, otherwise the numbers would constantly overwhelm the readers."

    "Is that why the system refers to it that way?" Ikaris stared at Sol.

    "Yeah, before I became a demigod my mana count was 50,734,990, to avoid constantly writing and calcting in a mathematical way, the system (author) decided that using perctage was easier to understand for it as well as as well as all the gods (readers) who have be observing our journey.(I love my readers, thanks guys!)"

    "Are you saying that with such a straight face?" Dina shook after Sol recited how much mana he had before bing a demigod. "You had over 50M in mana-"

    "Back to the topic." Sol huffed. "Yes, it is possible to challge the gods, me doing it isn''t a special privilege, it''s an act of spite that has turned into an act of necessity, Arkadians fear their gods, they would never tertain the thought that these incredibly powerful beings would ever ev look at them let alonemunicate, but the truth is the gods are always watching, always."

    "Ev... Now?" Dina asked, and Sol smiled and walked over to her, and th out of nowhere he pulled her into a hug and rested his hand on her head.

    "Waaaaaaa!" Ikaris squealed at his sudd action out of con and marched over to him grabbing him by his ear while Dina blushed and stiffed.

    "What the fuck got into you all of a sudd?" Usami burst outughing.

    "Dina," Sol released her and turned to Ikaris with an apologetic smile squeezing her cheeks as she pouted, she knew why he did it, but at the same time she was caught by surprise and acted on instinct. "Rest your hand on my back now."

    "But-"

    "It is fine, do it." Ikaris looked a Sol at her with that same cute pout while Solughed out, and as soon as she touched him, Dina''s mana shook as she was delivered a portion of Sol''s perception and saw hundreds of windows floating a all of them, everyone had something on front of them unlike the blue system windows she had grown used to, she was seeing yellow windows, everywhere.

    "What the hell?" She looked a and found one that followed her peripheral as well.

    [The goddess of chaos vies your closess to Sol Vestic though she is pleased to have found a way to help him through you via blessing]

    [The goddess of love is staring at this interaction and wondering if there might be more to the sudd closess of Dina Levina and Sol Vestic]

    [True Goddess Ikaris is warning the pantheon to stay out of their business]

    [The pantheon protests this warning in light of rect developmts]

    [True god of this domain stares infuriated at her previous warning being ignored-]

    At the mtion of ''true god'' Sol spun and grabbed Dina''s hand, severing the connection betwe the windows and looking a at Ikaris who had grabbed his other hand in shock, the only one who ever referred to themself as ''true god of this domain'' was Sitri.

    "Is there some kind of secret conversation going on here?" Usami who had grown suspicious of their wordlessmunication asked.

    "Hold on a second." Sol nced at her and th looked north, remembering clearly Sitri''s words the night they met.

    "You do not have the luxury oy, nor do you happiness, if you fail to meet my expectations, everything you cherish will be annihted."

    Her words rung in his head, and his rms started going off wh he suddly ssed her mana in the suring air. "Sara, take everyone and leave right now." Sol ordered the maid in an unusually dark tone stepping northward and releasing all his shackles causing his mana to erupt from his body like a gust of wind.

    "What''s going on?" Eris was about to approach Sol but A grabbed her hand wh she started feeling Sitri''s mana in the air as well.

    "To Argom?" Sara asked.

    "No, somecepletely random." Sol raised his hand just as a bright star in the sky turned crimson and began descding.

    A momtter everyone was gone including Ikaris, and Sol''s teeth grit as the descding star shrunk until Sitri herself emerged from a ball of fire extding her feet in a gesture of greeting as they collided with Sol''s raised hands.

    "Do you truly believe that you are prepared to challge me after that miserable increase in power?!" Sitriughed wh her heels sunk through Sol''s palms and he was st flying from the force of her desct. "I am a true god, a demon of pure divine blood, do you take me for a joke!?"

    [CLOCKWORK]

    Sitri felt the air a her stiff, and in the middle of righting herself Sol appeared before her, moving at speeds she had never se before, she reacted, raising her hands to block him as she saw his hand distort and blood burst from his shoulder down to his knuckles in preparation for an unavoidable attack.

    "Ev if you can react to it, you can''t react fast ough!" Sol g his teeth as blood also burst from the leg that was bearing the weight of [clockwork] being stacked on itself several doz times to build up the punch.

    "What is this?"

    [Release]

 Chapter 107: Cosmic Sin

    His fist vanished and the lights around her turned into streaks as she was sent flying so fast that space distorted and light bent in her vision after Sol delivered his strongest ever punch directly into her jaw, putting his 100% into it.

    The ground beneath him shook and continued to shake as a giant crack appeared where Sitri had been hit from and magma erupted from the crack like a geyser, and that crack continued growing and running to his left and right. "I overdid it!" Sol snapped, looking around as the crack rapidly widened.

    More magma erupted and the quaking continued getting worse before the ground beneath him started swelling and the crack started forming a rift as thend became divided.

    *Ding

    [Are you trying to destroy Arkadia?!] The system window came andnded on Sol''s head.

    "What the-"

    "That was fascinating!" Sitri appeared before Sol and grabbed the system window staring at the contents and then throwing it to the side. "Truly amazing I say!" She cackled at Sol''s expression, her entire lower jaw was leaned, but with a simple grab and twist she snapped her face back into form and raised her hand, balling her fist and taking a stand before him.

    "I want to try that too, but I have no idea how you slowed time like that."

    She mentioned [clockwork] and Sol''s expression dropped.

    With the amount of power he put in clockwork she was supposed to bepletely frozen, and yet she had managed to not only move, but also react in time to leap backwards and avoid the full force of his punch.

    Nevermind, I will just strike as fast and hard as I can, do not move or dodge, Sol Vestic, otherwise this punch will kill everything and everyone behind you, that is of course if you can withstand it!" She cackled and Sol''s skin crawled when he felt the power being built up in her fist, he died once already, he could tell that this punch was a death sentence unless he could somehow divert it or avoid it.

    "Pfft* what the hell am I even thinking, did I actually intend to run away just now?" Sol chuckled before his divinity subsided and then exploded with new vigour from his body as he fell into a stance before the demon-god, balling his healed fist and charging his attack with [clockwork] stacking up as his punch''s momentum decreased until it was still while the rest of his body angled for the attack.

    [Transporting!] The system panicked and tossed them both through an emergency portal onto the back end of Sett; the third and farthest moon from Arkadia.

    "Sol!" Ikaris leapt to her feet and stared upward at Sett. "Don''t!"

    Unable to speak from theirck of an atmosphere on the earth-sized moon, Sol and Sitri stared at each other grinning as they continued to charge their attacks just a few feet away from each other.

    [This is very likely going to kill you, reconsider] the system appeared before Sol, but he ignored it and stared at Sitri as horns started growing from the sides of his head identical to hers, but unlike the usual, he was forcing two contrasting sets of mana together.

    His skin retained its original form, but a tail grew from his spine and ck feathered wings tore through his armour from behind, his white irises turned gold, and his white hair turned to an ominous ck that somehow had the impression of still glowing.

    [Mana integration between demon and divinity is forbidden and fatal, you risk death, reconsider!]

    [Error]

    [The pantheon is in disarray]

    [True Goddess Ikaris is pleading with you to stop]

    [The true god of this domain is estatic]

    [The god of destruction is excited]

    [The goddess of war is shocked]

    [The goddess of chaos is in disbelief]

    [Error, you are breaking thews of the universe]

    [Error]

    [Divine mana and Demonic mana is being mixed, permanent damage to your mana pool will ur, please reconsider]

    [Error]

    [My error is having an error!]

    [New taboo form achieved!]

    [New magic has been umted, you havemitted a cosmic sin, Sol Vestic]

    [Demon-god transformation has been forcefully evolved into an unknown entity, seeking divination:

    An ancient form; [Primordial Chaos Demon God] has been recorded.

    A grave divine sin has beenmitted, I the system do not have the power to punish you]

    Sitri''s eyes went wide at thest second, and Sol''s smile widened in contrast as their fists locked on to each other and collided leaving the heavens, the cosmos and Arkadia silent.

    "Ikaris... I''m s-"

    The entire pantheon went quiet, Ikaris stared in disbelief with her previous tears dried and her mouth hung open, and the others stared at where she was looking, Sett was an ominous white moon that was always slow to rise, on this night it was closer to the horizon than it was to the middle of the sky, and with half cycle like the other two. "Sol..."

    The great moon that had been there since the birth of Arkadia turned orange, and thenpletely shattered into trillions of fiery pieces in a soundless explosion.

    "SOL!!" Ikaris screamed when the light of the explosion turned the night into day again and Arkadia started shaking after the first wave of mana from the explosion collided into the''s mana-field after it had washed over the second moon and D''ol; the battleground of the gods.

    This was urgent, this was the most urgent she had ever been, her true form manifested with an explosion of divine mana that nerly killed Eris who was directly behind her as she grew two feet taller and her wings pped madly behind her while even her armour tore away from her body as her usual divine garments covered her.

    With one leap, Ikaris vanished toward the explosion, and the aftermath of her jump left an explosive impression in the ground that sent everyone flying.

    Soaring through the atmosphere so fast she tore it Ikaris reached the explosion in an instant, sustaining injuries immediately as the two demonic energies left sharp cosmic ripples that she had to physically avoid.

    "Sol!" She screamed again, erecting barrier after barrier around herself as she ventured into the massive ball of fire and chaos.

    "What do we do?" Dina asked, cradling Eris who was unconscious while her and A continuously cast [minor heal] on her, closing her wounds and keeping her off death''s door.

    "What are we supposed to do in this situation?" A stared upwards. "The moon I grew up as a child staring at just disappeared before my eyes from a sh against gods, how the hell do we respond to this?" She asked, watching the nighte alive a second time as balls of burning moon bits crashed across Arkadian skies.

    "He keeps surprising me... To think that Sol was THAT powerful, it''s so terrifying that I can''t even raise my legs anymore." Bruce stared at the sky,ying on his back as thest of the fire from his and Sitri''s collision died down, leaving just the shattered moon falling above them. "It took this much power just to defeat the demon god..."

    "Defeat?" Usami looked around at him. "You think he defeated her?"

    "I mean... With that much power-"

    "Did you not see his expression when he sent us away?" Dina asked, raising her attention from Eris after herst wound was sessfully healed. "He was scared, I''m sure of it, he wasn''t ready for that fight, and why else would Ikaris go chasing after him like that, he''s probably lost, honestly," She spoke, and as she did, her eyes watered.

    "We think we''re making a difference here, but without the two of them we have no hope at all, on earth we would be gods, literally, with the power each of us have right now there would be no contest, we could conquer countries easily; rule the world if we wanted to, but here on Arkadia with this same power we are weaklings, less than that we aren''t even considered a part of the real fight." Dina added again looking at her hands shaking.

    "What''s the point of this strength if we aren''t able to fight for these people?"

    "Regardless of what happens, we are still heroes." Eris reached up weakly from Dina''sp and caressed her cheek. "Even if we can save a single life, that is enough to warrant our presence.

    "This journey we''ve been on, it has given me purpose, I who used to think of nothing but my career and never look at the man and woman at my side am entamgled in a struggle where I have the fate of an entire civilization resting on the decisions I make, it''s supposed to weigh me down...

    But even with this pain, despite the aches and trauma I''ve been through I would still choose Arkadia over going back to that life of selfishness."

    "I can''t agree with that." Usami shook her head. "My parents recently divorced, my father left the country and my mother abandoned us months after, I have been taking care of my younger brother by myself for an entire year, he''s my everything, and I''d gone through great lengths to make sure he never missed a day of school and never went a night without dinner." She sat and hugged her knees.

    "Arkadia''s problems have never been on the forefront of my mind until recently, when I learned the role of hero was the only way back to earth, to Uriyu."

    "You never mentioned a brother before." Dina stared at her. "I''m sorry-"

    "You can hold on to that apology." Usami pointed to the sky just as a fragment of moon bits shot past them and crashed.

    Coming from the sky was a massive chunk of Sett.

 Chapter 108: Primordial Chaos Demon God.

    [Mana: 70k/105k]

    Dina checked her status and was about to try her hand at stopping therge body crashing toward them, but Sara cleared her throat and raised her hand, and another momentter they were far out of the range of the moon fragment.

    "Sara?" A turned and looked at her, and she smiled unapologetically at the mage captain and lowered her hand again.

    "My role is to cut the cost of travel as well as help you all conserve your mana, considering the way your fights have been going recently it is wise to assume that demons and the demon god are targeting you when your guard is the lowest, even if sir Vestic is fighting her anddy Ikaris is with him that leaves us with the hard question asking when the next ambush will be?" Sara exined the reason behind her actions, aiming her sights on Dina who''s magic she could feel subsiding.

    "When did that be your call?" Bruce looked at her, but both Usami and Dina shook their heads in agreement of the maid''s choice; it was a sensible one.

    "No, Bruce, I agree with her, aside from A and Sara the rest of us are still recovering from the ambush this morning, and the demon god chose a time like this to attack, she watches and exploits every moment of weakness whether that is Sol''s absence or the times we drop our guards, it''s been happening ever since we separated from the army." Dina took Sara''s side on this matter and took a seat, closing her eyes along with Eris and Usami.

    "The mana around us is increasing violently because of whatever happened, I''m worried sick about Sol and Ikaris but I can''t help but want to recover faster in case I have to fight without them from now on." Dina admitted bitterly. "I don''t want to be helpless."

    "From now on?" Bruce raised his brow and narrowed his eyes at her. "Are you thinking you stand a chance against something that can destroy a fucking moon on a whim?" He snapped gesturing to the sky as moon particles continued to fall across, around and above them. "Without Sol, without Ikaris, we''re all dead!"

    "I thought for sure you''d change after what happened thest time, but it seems you''re still the same coward." Eris tore off her hanging sleeve a d used a strip of it to catch her hair into a low ponytail and get it out of her face. "Have you forgotten, Bruce?" She asked.

    "If you don''t have the strength just get stronger, if you''re not prepared then start getting ready, do you think that if he doesn''t return we''ll be safe or are you just epting death by the hands of that cruel monst-"

    *Boom!!*

    Everyone jolted and sprung into active fight mode when something fell through the atmosphere faster than the moon fragments and crashed a few hundred feet away, radiating mana into the air like a piece of sun.

    "... Master Vestic!" A snapped after a few seconds of observing the mana, she ran without care in the direction of the crater and after her went Dina, Sara, Eris, Usami and then Bruce in that same order.

    The closer they got the more dense the mana in the area became until A had to stop feet away when it became hard to breathe from physical mana particles choking the air around them.

    "She could hear Ikaris sobbing, but it was too bright for her to see anything in the crater so she took a few steps back and just stood there staring, unable to approach.

    The others all did the same with Sara failing to create a link because Ikaris''s mana had erased all shadows.

    "Come now, that was merely one strike!" They all heard a roar from above before Sitri appeared, crashing in a simr manner and leaving a crater of violent mana which she quickly absorbed and walked out of. "Stand up, Stand up and keep fighting me!" She stopped on the opposite side of the white mana and stared at the heroes'' party.

    "Or maybe, I should start killing these other weaklings, starting from the least liked shield weakling to the cherished mage weaklings?"

    "Do not dare!" Ikaris screamed in rage emerging from the pool of mana and gathering it as she stood with her hands wide open blocking everyone behind her from Sitri. "Stay away from my friends... Otherwise I will show you no mercy!"

    "How repulsive." Sitri scoffed, causing Ikaris to flinch and her divine mana to dim as she summoned a sword in her grasp and held it shakily; Sitri was powerful, far more so than she could have imagined, Sol''s current state was proof of that, whether it was her divine self that was useless against her or her human avatar which was too weak to stand up to her, she stood no chance against this creature.

    "Stay away!" Ikaris snapped again when Sitri took another step, shrinking in size and clutching her sword with both hands as her divinity was suppressed and her Arkadian mana violently came to life. "I forbid it, I forbid you!" She grit her teeth taking a step backwards.

    "Your power has no sway over me, forbidding me does nothing, you gods are all the same no matter the dimension, unting authority and power as if you think you own anything, do you think those disgusting divine powers of yours can harm even a hair on my head, Goddess Ikaris!?" Sitri''s tail whipped and pped against the ground causing a quake destabilise the surrounding for miles in an instant.

    "The universe is owned by us demon gods; the true gods, you creatures that call yourselves divinity are ves where Ie from, the powerless ythings of my kind, and here it is no different, you want to see power do you, are you trying to die that quickly!?" She roared. Your existence is of no meaning to me! Negligible god of nothing!"

    "Did she just call Ikaris ...a god?" Eris''s mouth hung open.

    "It matters not what you say, how right or wrong you are, or how much sense you might make, I still reject your existence, I still see you as inferior, I still deny you, you are nothing but a false god, Sitri!" Ikaris''s eyes streamed tears as she realised what she was doing and how hopeless she was as she opposed this monster.

    "You might not see the beauty in the life you continue to destroy, but what you and your kind do is wrong, the power you all unt is stolen-"

    "Thenment as you disappear forever." Sitri calmly spoke and closed the distance between herself and Ikaris.

    Ikaris snapped at the sudden act and swung her sword, but a momentter she was on her knees and Sitri was holding both her hands above her with her heel piercing her leg and drawing crimson.

    "Look at you, all the power to easily end all reality and yet you so easily take knee before me." Sitrimented "Do you not understand, do I need to school you further before you recognise your ce?" She asked while Ikaris coughed after being punched in the gut and left breathless.

    "You so-called gods never ept your fates, even when you know that you are inferior, give in Ikaris, ept what you are and give in... I may contradict myself but if you discard your pride I might consider keeping you alive and making you my ve upon glorious return to my home, you would make a fine concubine, with such beauty...

    you might just live longer, not just you, but the goddess of love here, the goddess of war, chaos, you are all rare finds that I want to return with as offerings to my lord.

    If he is pleased you will bare his children and usher in the next generation of demon-gods."

    "My god..." A held her mouth as mana began falling from the sky and crashing across everything like rain when the aftershock of the explosion finally merged with the Arkadian manasphere.

    "Never." Ikaris spat on Sitri''s leg and then screamed out in pain when the demon-god sunk all of her heel into her leg and twisted her foot with a disgusted scowl.

    "Whatever, I can make the exemption and sell you off to the vers too, I have no fucks to care for with your trifling kind to begin with!" Sitri cackled. "I suppose I should kill that unborn inside of you first, ugh, what a disgusting thing." Sitri aimed her sword toward Ikaris''s womb and began slowly inching it closer as she pinpointed the embryo.

    The falling mana stopped moving, and her slit eyes dted as she looked up and over Ikaris''s shoulder to the crater that had gone cold.

    "Get away from her..." Sol emerged still in his Primordial Chaos Demon God form, his pants had survived the explosion of a celestial body thanks to it being weaved by Ikaris, but the rest of his clothes were gone revealing a ten pointed star in his chest that burned with the primordial word for "chaos" in the centre of it and a simr insignia in his back.

    "I thought you went and died again." Sitri raised her sword and grabbed Ikaris''s hair lifting her off the ground and smiling at him. "I am very interested in this dynamic between the two of you; a human who somehow managed to kill a demon god, and the goddess who gave him the power to do it, it is so intriguing...

    But even more so is that ancient demonic power you are shamelessly wielding, how did you do it?"

    "Let go of her!!" Sol hunched forward and his feet dug into the ground as he prepared to pounce, his sharp teeth gnashed and his wings beated against the ground and his tail shed wildly from side to side."

    "She''s an actual god?" Bruce had somehow zed over everything else as he focused on that one detail.

    "Sitri!!"

 Chapter 109: Darkness and Insanity.

    "Your quarrel is with me!" Sol sneered before taking off toward them.

    "If this is what it will take to get you to put me first then by all means-" Sitri''s de pressed against Ikaris''s bare abdomen and pierced her body, but in that same moment the world froze, not an isted space, everything stopped moving.

    [Casting: Clockwork]

    [Error]

    [Clockwork]

    [Error!]

    [Clockwork]

    [Error!]

    [Errors!]

    [Clockwork: Dominion is being cast, time has stopped]

    [Clockwork: Dominion]

    Sol was ovee with rage unlike anything he had ever experienced before, Sitri was unable to adjust fast enough to his [Dominion] and before her or anyone else was the wiser Sol was gone, Ikaris was left standing and Sitri had disappeared with him.

    [Stop, reconsider]

    "How dare you!!" Sol had Sitri by her face dragging her across the surface of D''ol, roaring and smashing her repeatedly into the recently reinforced moonpletely decimating everything the gods had rebuilt. How dare youy your hands on them!?" Sol screeched and wailed as blood dripped from his eyes and nose. "I warned you!"

    "Save your bre- gaah!" Sitri folded around his hand in shock and pain when he suddenly stopped moving, causing her body to ragdoll vertically before he spun and drove his arm straight through her stomach breaking to the other side and then tearing through her ribcage and freeing himself for a follow-up kick that broke her neck and sent her straight back to Arkadia, leaving more than half of the moon tearing off into space from just the shock of his kick.

    Arkadia wasrge, that much was evident from the fact that one of its moons was the size of earth while not even beingrge enough to cover a continent if it was spread across the surface byparison, but when the demon-god crashed through the skies arge portion of that massive atmosphere caught ignited and exploded into fire and ice covering a majority of one of the continents in destruction that started tectonic shifts across the entire globe.

    In Argom, the Queen stood on her balcony staring off into the distance as she saw lights and shadows dancing across the cosmos and aurora beams racing across the skies above while waves of Arkadian ground started rising and falling.

    "This, is the end." Misty Vermon stated, cing her hands to her chest as a multitude of stars began descending towardnd covered by the constant rain of moon fragments.

    "I am the only true god of this domain!!" Sitri arose from the gigantic crater her body had made taking flight toward Sol and morphing her arm into a de-like appendage.

    "No power you hold will ever contest me!" She roared, furiously cutting through his feathered wing, spinning around his wild swing and then tearing the other wing right out ot his back causing an eruption of blood as he roared and spun again losing an arm and catching the de with his teeth which mostly broke or cracked.

    "Gnnnnn!!" Sol''s eyes zed over with crimson again and he stepped in her side tearing her arm clean off her shoulders and spitting it out before grabbing her by her neck and mming his forehead into hers sending her skyward a second time. "I am no god, I am he who ys gods, I will be your destruction, I will be your HELL!"

    [The gods have taken to controlling damage]

    "What the hell is happening?" Dina stared as the side of D''ol facing Arkadia distorted and tore apart from the rest of it. "Is that the demon-god transformation?" She asked, but nobody could reply, they were all too shocked to speak, Ikaris in particr was so stupified that she just stood there staring at her blood coating her hand with horror on her face.

    "Ikaris?" Dina called to her from the other side of the crater. "Let''s go back to Argom!" She called but Ikaris was unresponsive, she only reacted when a crimson me appeared at her side and a massive being the size of a statue knelt next to her and rested its hand on her shoulder.

    [Ikaris.]

    "What?" She asked still in a daze, slowly looking up until she was face to face with Dr''ul.

    [I fear this might be ragnarok for the gods as well as Arkadia, I seek your help in calming him.] Dr''ul''s form dimmed until she was visible beyond just a mass of light, and Ikaris blinked and stared in reaction to her request.

    "I do not have the power to calm master anymore, he has lost his sense of reason." Ikaris gave the goddess of war a dead-eyed stare as tears floated from her eyes, removing her hand from her abdomen and revealing where she had been stabbed.

    Outside of their shock at seeing another god descend and address Ikaris with such respect everyone present stared in horror, Ikaris''s womb had been pierced, Sitri had done the unthinkable, and Sol as he had said many times before had gone off the rails because of it.

    [We have to do something] Dr''ul seemed to panic upon seeing the wound and cast her hand over Ikaris''s abdomen, trying and failing to heal the damage.

    "The damage has already been dealt, there is no more life inside of me to save." Ikaris stared up at Dr''ul, too traumatized to move, to grief-stricken to react any other way.

    "No..." Dina held her hands over her mouth, and simrly A had her hands covering her head, that image she saw before, the image of Sol and Ikaris when she first found out how powerful they were, their roles had been reversed, it was Ikaris who was being cradled by Sol now, she was not weaker, but she was still being protected, and the monster inside of him had been awakened from his traumas being reignited.

    "Is there no way at all to stop him before he destroys our homes?" Dr''ul shrunk until she was a head taller than Ikaris and took her hand, ignoring everyone else who stared at her hair burning like mes.

    "I do not know."

    The tremors continued even as the gods exerted themselves to keep Arkadia from shattering as Sol and Sitri fought with their all, cataclysm after cataclysm, the elf continent was nothing but a massive hole being filled by the western ocean, and in the midst of that fiery hole Sitri had Sol pinned to the walls with her legs locked onto his side''s, her fangs sunked into his shoulder and her thumbs gouging his eyes while he had his left hand through her chest and his right hand tearing her jaw open.

    Her intention was to crack his head open and tear him apart, but out of the blue a rush of mana erupted from his throat and sted her clear to the other side of the crater while he leaned forward and dropped his head crying blood as his eyes rapidly healed and his body rejected the venom she was trying to force into him.

    "What will it take to kill you, what will it take to make you disappear forever!?" Sol raised his head leaning forward, but immediately a spear was lodged through his forehead, spilling blood as he snapped back with his mouth open and spasmed before falling still and going limp trapped against the wall of the hole that was being filled up.

    "A Primordial Chaos Demon God transformation, how did he manage to ess such power so instantly?" Sitri huffed and lowered his hand as she approached Sol, wiping her blood from her mouth and summoning a second spear of serrated edges and reverse spikes and burying it into his chest.

    "I am intrigued beyond my own beliefs, you unbelievable little abomination." She summoned a third spear and aimed it for his abdomen. "You are too wild to control though, so I will go ahead with my original ns to enve the gods and return with them-"

    "IKARIS..." Sol gargled on his blood.

    "Even with your brain chopped up!?" Sitri''s eyes widened as she felt fear for the first time in her life staring at him as she aimed and rammed the spear through his stomach and tore it back out in a series of brutal repeated stabs. "Just die-"

    "You can''t have her!" Sol grabbed the spear in his head and the one she was stabbing him with, bracing his legs and other arm on the wall.

    "You can''t, you won''t, I won''t allow it!!" His voice doubled over on itself, cracked and broke into another distorted undertone scream as he tore himself free of the serrated spears and grabbed Sitri who had panicked in the face of his self-ughteting act by her face and spun, pinning her to the wall and going limp before his eyes focused again.

    "Sitri..." Sol''s lips curled into a sickly grin of purple blood as the holes in his body closed up.

    Upon his mention of her name, Sitri snapped to her senses and raised her legs to kick him away, but his grip on her head tightened so painfully that her legs fell limply as she grabbed on to his arm and began panicking again.

    "Wait...!" Her tail iled and pped against his chest weakly as realisation hade to the demon-god at the same time it had struck Ikaris who turned from her consultation with Dr''ul and stared off into the distance.

    Sol never lost his mind, her getting impaled and losing his child was a trigger that flipped the switch she had sensed inside of him since the first day of her freedom, releasing a darkness that was being held at bay by his kindness and his good nature.

    He lied about the demon-god transformation making him feel like a different person, all it did was bring forth the darkness that already existed within him, what he feared was himself.

    "Something born of A."

 Chapter 110: Wake up.

    "I should seek him Immediately!" Ikaris snapped, and before anyone could stop her to ask what the problem was the goddess vanished in a *thwip of light, leaving Dr''ul standing awkwardly and staring at the others.

    "Do not fret, if she has taken action then she has found hope." Dr''ul turned from them and disappeared in a ze of crimson fire the same as she had appeared.

    "Who the hell...?"

    "That was Dr''ul," Dina answered Usami. "The goddess of war."

    "Queen of the heavens." A added just as the ground beneath them shook again and waves ofnd arose and fell desynchronizing the tes again and throwing the gods into another round of damage control. "We should return to Argom, right?" She asked and Dina nodded in agreement.

    "At this point we have no choice again but to leave it up to them, the city is probably in chaos right now we should try helping as much as we can." Dina looked at Sara who had remained quiet all this time, and the maid shook her head in the negative.

    "My shadow magic has be unstable from all the mana fluctuations passing through the air, entering the realm in such conditions may prove fatal for myself and the rest of you or even worse than death, we might get stuck there with no means of return." She rified her refusal and bowed. "I am sorry, but sir''s fight with the demon-god has made my abilities impossible to safely use."

    "What are we supposed to do now then?" Bruce asked looking at everyone. "I feel like a fucking wallflower." He huffed watching Dina take a seat again and close her eyes, and along with her A did the same. "What are you doing?"

    "Through absorption ofrge quantities of mana one can break their limiters and gain more levels, as much as I would love to rush over and help in whatever way I can, I have no standing with the gods, I am too weak to make even a slight difference, my presence would be nothing but a bother to them; so in the meantime I''mpelled to work on my personal growth and possibly closing that gap." Dina exined.

    "You''re still delusional." Usami furrowed her brows and sat hugging her knees.

    "They can destroyary bodies like Arkadia which is the size of saturn, what hope do we have h-" Usami''s words were cut off when she saw a massive portal tear open right behind Dina and Sitri stumble through it, bloodied and cackling with her head half crushed and her wings crooked and a limp grabbing Dina by her hair and raising her off the ground violently.

    "Ah!" The spear hero arose on instinct and summoned a spear in defence but just a momentter Sol emerged from the portal and grabbed Sitri''s wings stepping in her back and tearing them out of her sending both her and Dina in opposite directions as she screamed and arched.

    "Are you running now you fucker!?" Sol leapt and thrust his legs down,nding into her back and sending everyone flying again with the sheer concussive force of his double heel strike.

    "I will not die here!" Sitri emerged from the crater grabbing Sol''s legs and mming him into the ground so hard his body condensed and melted the soil he hit.

    "Get lost!" She screeched kicking him clean out of the atmosphere causing a burst of mana around her that knocked Usami, Eris, Sara and Bruce unconscious, while Dina and A had erected barriers instinctively and were able to protect themselves and just getting stunned.

    "Just stay dead you monster!!" Sitri screamed as she felt Sol already returning. "Fuck!" She spun and looked at Dina again. "You, cherished Mage be my hostage!" She gurgled and Dina''s heart sunk as she was once again caught by the demon-god effortlessly, this time though Sol couldn''t sneak attack like before because she held on to Dina like a shield and turned to him.

    "Now what you bastard freak!?" Sitriughed as her body was finally able to heal with the end of his relentless attacks. "If you even think of using that weird technique she will die immediately!" Her hand slowly pierced Dina''s back and held on to her heart causing the girl to shake like a fish out of water and begin screaming.

    "No!" A raised her hands toward Sitri, but a single nce from the demon god caused her to lose her nerve and begin shaking outside of her own volition, falling to her hands and legs as she was reminded of the terrifying power gap.

    "Listen to me well, Sitri, you get one chance." Solnded with an explosive crash and walked out of the smoke and fire stopping before them.

    "One chance; let her go and leave, I''ll forget you even exist, I''ll let you go back to your home-dimension and not fucking care, but if you harm that girl I don''t care how long it takes, I will hunt you to the ends of creation and reality and grant you a fate worse than evesting death, do you understand?"

    "Is this how you beg for her life Sol!?" Sitri cackled but held her sneer. "To think you had such a monstrous evolution hiding from everyone else, I am shocked-"

    "I said let go of Her." Sol repeated himself. "Now, or else-"

    "Or else nothing, if you forcefully remove me I take her heart, her spine and her fucking head with me, she is alive now because I will it, you have no control over what happens here." She stared at him with a wide and unblinking re that even though A was behind she still felt even more chills.

    "Master!" Ikaris appeared again after arriving and he was not in the elven continent though a strong presence still lingered there. Her eyes rested on Dina, and without thinking Ikaris set foot on the ground and took off toward them in a rage. "Unhand her!!"

    "Perfect!" Sitri let go of Dina and stepped toward Ikaris who was approaching from the side, sending blood sshing in slow motion as [clockwork] manifested around them.

    "No!" Ikaris screamed out when she saw Sitri''s manic grain as her hand squeezed down and crushed Dina''s physical heart while she reached out for her.

    [Clockwork: Dominion]

    Time froze again, even Ikaris froze and Sol tackled Sitri and took off just as he had the first time, a st of wind erupted from where he and Sitri had been sending Dina limply crashing while Ikaris chased her and caught up, falling to her knees and casting [divine heal] on her, but once again, whatever Sitri touched became unmendable for her.

    "I''m ...dying?" Dina stared skyward, with her eyes slowly rolling into the back of her head, her back had been torn out, the back of her head was smashed and her heart had been removed all in that singr moment, and before she could say another word of conscious thought she fell into shock and began having a seizure in Ikaris''s grasp.

    "No-no-no-no!" Ikaris cast [divine heal] repeatedly, but every time her mana fell on Dina it shattered like shards of ss and disappeared to the wind. "A!" She screamed. "Do something, where is Eris!?"

    "I- I don''t know!" A slid to a stop and fell to her knees on Dina''s other side. "H-heal!" She tried casting [Minor heal, but that too was aplete failure.

    "Dina...?" Ikaris stopped moving when Dina fell still, taking one deep breath and not exhaling it. "No," She held her hands over Dina again, breaking through her armour and piercing her chest with her divinity. "Not like this, not now, I can''t lose you too!" She read Dina''s makeup and began forging a heart of her own.

    "Stay down, stay put!" An ethereal hand emerged from Ikaris''s back and grabbed on to Dina''s soul after it attempted to escape her. "Fucking stay, don''t leave me too!" She started weaving from the inside, and not just her heart, but the missing vertebrae in her spine, and her head also started to be forcefully mended. "I can fix this, so stop trying to run away from me!"

    She indeed healed and fixed her, but Dina had by that point been dead for well over five minutes, even after she kept hold of her soul that resisted and tried fleeing, she still couldn''t wake her.

    "Clinically dead... There is nothing I can do here." A stopped casting heal, watching Ikaris sweat and cry as she continued trying to revive Dina with CPR to no sess.

    [Ikaris, release the child''s soul and let her rest.] The entity behind her that had been speaking since her moment of passing urged her gently, resting his hand on her shoulder. [Would you deny her what could be Arkadia''sst chance of a heaven beyond the reaches of the demon scurge?] He asked.

    "I do not expect you to understand, you are of death and do not value the living, she is precious to me; my first friend, my best friend, my sister, she is kin, I absolutely refuse to lose her like this!" Ikaris cried while A stared at her who from her point of view just spoke to nobody, or rather someone unseen and unknown.

    For the first time since A Ikaris regretted giving Sol sovereign over her powers, without him she was limited, had she retained full ess she would have been easily able to pull Dina''s soul from the realm of the dead where the god of death lingered awaiting her, but instead all she could do was hold on to her while she tried reviving her body in the middle realm where all living creatures and entities existed.

    "Wake up, Dina."

 Chapter 111: Relentlessly Evil.

    "Ikaris... Stop-"

    "No!" Ikaris snapped at A, who had lost all hope at this point, twenty minutes had passed, Dina was still warm because Ikaris was keeping her flesh and bodily functions alive, but her soul was refusing to re-enter her body no matter how hard she tried.

    [There are just some things even the True Goddess Ikaris are incapable of]

    The god of death continued looming sadly. [It is a waste of your power to cling to mortal flesh, Ikaris, let go-]

    "I won''t!" Ikaris cried, scooping Dina up and hugging her closely. "I''ll do anything, whatever it takes, I don''t want to lose you, understand, Dina!" She squeezed her. "I have lost too much already, you and master are all I have left, I cannot!" She sobbed. "Even at the expense of sharing my soul..."

    [That is absurd!] The god of death snapped upon hearing her utterance, she knew that was not something a god ever should do, but she was desperate, but she had grown attached to Dina in the short time they had be friends, she felt kinship toward her because of their simrities, particrly with their devotion to Sol.

    "Give her to me."

    A and Ikaris looked up shocked, staring at none other than Idria who was standing on a small rise from the disced ground.

    "I can revive her." Idria approached carefully, sliding down the slope and stopping next to them, behind her was Sara who had been bloodied from getting caught in the previous fight and also from using her shadow technique despite the mana around her going crazy, it was a risk, but it had paid off.

    "Sara you said it was too dangerous!" A stared at even idria''s physical state and how torn up she was after being transported. "You could have both died!"

    "Never mind that." Idria knelt next to Ikaris and took Dina from her grasp while her body began glowing, and A''s expression turned to horror as she recognised the elven magical properties being used.

    "You will die, Idria, you came all the way here just to die?" She asked, and the elf hugged Dina closely and smiled at her friend as tears welled up in her eyes and started flowing.

    "When the tremors began, and the great moon shattered, I feared the end was here and fled back home expending all my mana, on my way there one of the falling moon pieces crashed on top of Argom, the castle was spared ironically, but a great deal of the city was destroyed in an instant, about eighty percent of Argom was gone in an instant."

    Idria pressed her cheek against Dina''s while Ikaris stared at small ethereal tendrils of light wrapping around her stubborn soul and slowly sewing it back into her body.

    "My family, my husband, and our children, there was no house, there were no shelters, there weren''t even bodies to recover, everything and everyone is dead, the only people who survived are those who had fled to the east, and there I could not find them, their mana is no more; their lives are no more, I have nothing left in this unforgiving world."

    [The kin of this poor Elf is indeed passed on, with the events unfolding around, it is only a matter of time before the world as you see it is no more] the god of death answered, even though he knew only Ikaris who had been ignoring him was capable of seeing or hearing his words. [Why must we struggle with life when death leads to eternity?]

    Nobody said a thing, Ikaris selfishly watched the elf draining her soul''s energy to save Dina, while A just couldn''t find the words to respond to this news.

    "When Sara found me, I was going to take my life and be done with it, but after hearing what happened here to this poor girl I decided that one more act of patriotism would earn my way into heaven, where I may find my husband and children again, do not worry friends, this may not be the end."

    That was a lie.

    And she knew it.

    The special skill she was taught many years ago was called [Soul Reconstruction] A broken and divine ability that could weave any soul back together and bring it from the realm of the dead, no matter the power of the soul no matter what kind of soul be it a god, demon, or otherwise.

    She was able to revive this person without error, but the penalty was death, and the cost of a soul was her own, while Dina''s soul was tethered to thend of the living again, Idria''s soul slowly withered into nothingness, the god of death embraced her out of pity, and Ikaris lowered her gaze out of guilt as she watched thest of Idria vanish while the god of death wiped his eyes at her loss.

    She would never see her family again, she would never reincarnate, she had ceased to exist, such was the true penalty of her special magic.

    "Did you trulye here just to die...?" A started weeping again as she cradled Idria''s body. "You idiot." She sobbed. "You... beautiful idiot, I am sorry, so sorry."

    [More death approaches] the god of death looked skyward again, watching Sitri return for the third time, this time though Sol was hot on her heels and she looked like she was the one on the verge of death, they were both wounded beyond healing themselves after fighting for so long and so intensely.

    "Not here!" Sara stood before everyone and cast a physical shadow in the air aided by the disappearance of two moons. And through that shadow both Sol and Sitri disappeared again, but only a momentter Sitri appeared next to the maid as mad as a hatter.

    Her jaw had been torn up revealing her skeleton beneath, and her body was mutted on one side as if she had been attacked by some kind of animal, and ineed she had; Sol had made it impossible for her to recover.

    Sitri swung at Sara but Sol was there like a bolt of lightning catching her arm and tearing his ws across her other jaw, hooking his fingers in her eye and tossing her away with a spin before he stopped and looked at Dina who was unconscious and healed in Ikaris''s grasp while Idriay dead in A''s arms.

    It took a few seconds, but he made the connections and filled the nks himself.

    Having lost her flight instincts from being brutalized by Sol, Sitri emerged from the dust and made a wild dash past Sol and Sara at Dina and Ikaris again, again though Sol caught her, but this time with his senses snapped back after seeing Dina alive and Ikaris unscathed he summoned a sword and ran it through the demon-god''s chest, and then ran with her impaled at his top speed tearing through a mile of ground before he bedded her into the side of a recently uprooted rock pinning her down and driving the sword to the hilt and then driving the entire handle through the rock and ramming another sword through her stomach while she screamed at him,ughing.

    "This is the end of you, Sitri." Sol stared at her, closing one eye and falling to his knee with his grasp still on the sword. "That''s enough from you." He summoned another sword and drove it through her leg as well when he saw her muscles twitching. ??�Ѧѧ�?��&-&����-

    "Stop moving!" Sol summoned another sword and buried it in her forehead immobilizing her before his hands fell limply to his side and he copsed on the rock next to her, breathing heavily as the [Primordial Chaos Demon God] transformation finally wore off and he started suffering the bacsh from the first [demon-god transformation]

    "She is not dead!" Sara who had followed them drew her sword and rushed toward Sitri when she saw the demon begin raising her hand and a smile rise on her ajar mouth.

    "Stay put." Sitri''s eyes shook and jittered, rapidly looking in every direction before focusing on Sara.

    Sol had helped Sara to level 120, but even in her state Sitri was still far beyond the power of a mere 120. In an instant Sara''s legs vanished from beneath her and she spun, hitting the ground and cascading to Sol''s feet while he was in too much pain to even notice as she began screaming at the loss of her legs.

    [Mana Spear]

    A blue pir of sharp condensed mana flew pass them and bedded itself into Sitri''s arm pinning it to the wall, and her eyes darted around again before settling on Ikaris and Dina who were rapidly approaching her.

    "I will not be defeated by weaklings!" The demon-god roared shattering the rock that she was pinned to and extending her other hand toward them while holding on to the handle of the sword in her forehead and pulling it out with an agonizing roar.

    "Begone!" Sitri swung her arm, and an unseen force caught both Ikaris and Dina and sent them flying to the side. "And you little bitch, be silent!!" Her pierced hand morphed into a de and tore through half of Sara''s back before an opposing de from Sol stopped it from reaching any further. "Sol-"

    Sitri''s disfigured face suffered a terrible trauma, and her teeth broke as Sol raised his heel in her chin and sent her flipping out of the crater. [Heal] he turned to Sara as soon as he could, mending her wounds and regenerating her legs, but she had fallen unconscious from the shock she was going through.

    "Thank you, Dr''ul." Sol stumbled forward, staring at the notification from the cracked system window.

    [The goddess of war has alleviated the pain from your penalty, the halved stats still remain, tred carefully."

    "Sol!" Dina came running over to him with Ikaris flying in behind her after they had both recovered from being flung while A rushed over casting a rune on Sara and transporting her away.

    "You three, help me out here, she''s weak: weaker than ever, if we don''t kill her now we won''t ever get this chance again." Sol raised his sword to the demon-god who stood at the edge of the crater staring down at the four of them "If we lose here, it''s all over."

    [Name: Sol Vestic

    Level: 500

    Mana: 600k (-300k mana status effect)]

    [Name: Ikaris

    Level: 350

    Mana: 225k]

    [Name: Dina Levina

    Level: 130 (+20)

    Mana: 105k]

    [Name: A Amastacia

    Level: 200

    Mana: 70k]

    [Name Sitri

    Level 90M

    Mana: 5%]

    Sitri raised her hand sneering as she saw the opportunity to finally kill Sol now that he had exhausted his demigod mana as well as his Demonic mana, expending another 2% of her mana she opened a massive portal behind herself.

    "Come, my legions."

 Chapter 112: Sitri; Unhinged.

    At the same time that Sitri summoned her army, Sol extended his arm to the side and summoned Han, who spared no time at all as he emerged with a roar, unlike before he had no life-threatening wounds or serious injuries.

    "Han, it''s time." Sol gestured to the demon-god, and Han looked up at her and sneered, here lies the woman who made him cocky enough to try and steal Ikaris, the being who led the start of his doom, in his broken and twisted mind he justified her his greatest enemy, so without any incentive Han leapt up toward her summoning his katana.

    [Sword dance thirteenth form-]

    Han vanished in a sh of lightning, shing des with the demon-god who didn''t even budge at his attack and just stared passively pass him at Sol whom she perceived her greatest and only threat present.

    "Go y with my minions." Sitri curved her arm and sent Han flying over her head toward the portal behind her. "I have bigger problems to worry about than you, sword hero."

    [-Cosmic Thunder]

    Hanpleted his technique while upside-down before crashing into the face of the first demonkin with his heels sending arge formless multicoloured bolt of lightning at Sitri''s back.

    "I said don''t bother me right now!" Sitri snapped wildly, spinning in a fraction of a second and ripping the bolt in two with her sword-hand and bare hand.

    This was a mistake, this was exactly what the others had been waiting for, before her momentum could slow down she saw the look on Han''s face and then Sol''s foot in her peripheral.

    Sol was in no position to use over-the-top techniques or exert any great amount of strength, and he knew that Sitri was the same, though he also knew that divine demon mana was more potent than even divine mana so he had to conserve even more than she did, which was why he asked the others to help him take her down.

    Still, she managed to catch his foot and swing him, intent on tearing him in two but another mana spear from Dina dug out her knee before several mana bolts from A collided in the back of her head and Ikaris''s feet crashed against her back causing her to release Sol as she was sent flying from the three-way assault.

    [Infernal magic: Holocaust]

    "Go on, I will remain here with Han and keep these ones off your backs!

    A erected a t barrier in the face of the portal and started sting crimson hellfire into it killing most of the creatures while the stronger ones made it through, but there they were intercepted by Han who had gone to work on them.

    "Ikaris!" Sol jumped horizontally, and without missing a beat or even hearing anything Ikaris turned the side of her sword and swung against his feet sending him tearing through the sky at Sitri like a bullet while her and Dina rushed in behind him.

    "Fuck!" Sitri finally came to a halt after crashing several hundred metres away from her portal and raised her head.

    "This is annoying-" she dodged Sol''s strike and attempted to skewer him, but he spun after missing his mark and blocked her attack with expert efficiency, rapidly spinning a second time and delivering three fast kicks to her head while he spun beforending on his arms and pushing himself up with another double-heeled kick to her stomach, immobilizing her for a fraction of a second where he was able to drive his sword through her side before she held on to the de and crudely leapt and punched him back into the ground.

    Before she could strike again, she had to evade to the side when two diagonal arcs of sharp rapid moving mana zipped at her leaving deep trenches in the ground after she dodged them.

    There on the ground Sitri had to make unnatural turns and arcs when several mana spears fell out of the sky courtesy of Dina.

    "You don''t make it out of this alive!" Sol dropped his hand sideways and aimed his palm at Sitri.

    [Infernal magic: Explosion]

    The surface around her started melting as the air superheated, and she was too distracted dodging Dina''s continuous onught of mana spears to do anything about it, by the time she was on her knees she was beset by an explosion that tore through her good arm and sent her crashing to the side again.

    Landing on her feet Sitri held her stub of a hand forward and morphed it into a smaller de than the other hand, too low on mana forplete regeneration while she was fighting the three of them at once.

    "Had I known this would be the case, I would have killed you earlier instead of ying around..." She shifted her jaw painfully and spat, ejecting two of her wisdom teeth with a pained expression.

    "It''s a theory, but there''s a chance that killing her gets rid of all the demonic mana across arkadia as well as the demonkin themselves, I don''t know if it''s true since all the demonkin I fought died before the demon-god but... I guess we''ll get there when we get there." Sol took a deep breath and summoned his sword after she had ejected it from her side and burned the wound closed.

    *** ��?��#��!��*?&-?-?@��+-$��?%??&��-

    "Ugh..." Usami sat up with a groan, finding nothing happening and nobody but Bruce, Sara and Eris and then Idria a bit further with her hands folded against her chest and a bed of flowers beneath her." She nudged Eris and Bruce, but sighed, holding her head and standing when neither of them woke up.

    "What happened to everyone else, where did-" She stopped when a sudden sh of lightning ascended in the distance.

    "Han?" The spear hero cradled her head again and then started walking after seeing another ascending bolt of yellow lightning followed by several shes of crimson from a distance that made them sound like fireworks.

    "Should I be helping though?" She questioned herself but her legs kept guiding her to the direction of the conflict.

    "Don''t think like that, if the demon-god dies then I can go back to Uriyu, that''s my drive, I have to fight for his sake." Usami gave herself onest boost of confidence before taking off in a sprint at full speed and then using [dash] to double down as she turned almost parallel to the ground, zooming through debris and rubble.

    "As long as I can kill a significant amount and raise my levels, then in theory I can fight indefinitely, at least until my mind is exhausted!" A waved her hands casting explosion after explosion inside of the mouth of the portal bombarding everything that emerged through it.

    "What happened to your staff?" Han asked taking a breath andnding next to her while she stopped firing when a massive dragon head emerged from the portal roaring.

    "It was lost in the chaos earlier!" A began weaving her hands through the air and manipting the mana around her like a martial artist.

    "It''s an eldritch dragon, Dina''s power woulde in handy right now... but-"

    "They are taking on the demon-god, we have no choice but to handle this, if Sitri gets even a slight edge over Sol and the others then all will have been for nothing." A intercepted hisint. "Aren''t you at least four times stronger than you were back then, is it too much to take down?" She added and he scoffed.

    "The problem is not taking it down, the eldritelch dragons are high levels with high defence physically and magically, but you barely get anything from killing them, killing this thing will be a waste of mana but we don''t have a choice..." He paused.

    "Do you hear something?" Han turned just in time to see a spear asrge as the portal fall from the side, decapitating the dragon in one strike before Usaminded next to them, heaving and huffing.

    "Are we keeping them froming through?" She asked, ignoring their shocked faces and staring at the portal as more creatures started crawling from around the neck and through the purple blood.

    "Yes, Sol, Dina and Ikaris are currently locked in battle with the demon-god we have to prevent these creatures from helping her gain an advantage."

    "Got it."

    On that topic, Dina was bombing the living hell out of everything with a mass airdrop of [origin explosions] while Ikaris used her divine mana to heal Sol after he had nearly been sliced in half, he stared intently, ready to spring into action at any moment while growling at the fact that Sitri was in fact a better fighter than he was, he had to keep improvising, but she was relentless every time she attacked, she was a force of nature.

    "All done." Ikaris released Sol''s arm from her hug and he stood again, refreshed and back to his 300k mana cap after sharing mana with her.

    "Thanks-" Sol summoned a shield and pulled her behind himself just as Sitri emerged from the explosions with a kick, using his defence as a spring tounch herself at Dina who had been a pain after going airborne to avoid getting caught.

    "No you don''t!" Sol discarded the shield in an instant and summoned a whip with sharp razor-like teeth across the body, catching her by her leg and tearing through her skin as he dragged her back to the ground, losing the whip when she further wrapped her leg with it and dragged it from his grasp.

    "Enough..." Sitri''s wings healed over and opened up, swatting the new wave of [origin explosions] away and then ripping off her hands with her teeth. "I have had enough of this, I am a god, I am THE god of this domain, I will not be bested by imposters and worthless heroes!" Her arms grew out and all her injuries healed over as she extended her hands outwards.

    The skies exploded in a chorus and Sitri''s mana started bubbling beneath her skin.

    "She''s lost it!" Sol snapped.

    "I am the demon-god, Sitri, a royal goddess, a pure bred demon of the highest nobility, I will not be felled by this filth...

    NO, I WOULD RATHER DESTROY EVERYTHING AND ERASE ALL LIFE ON THIS MISERABLE BALL OF ROCK!!" She roared, expending the remaining three percent of her mana in onerge explosion that forced Sol and the others to retreat as it continued rapidly expanding until it destroyed even the dimension gate she had created earlier.

    "I will earse ...everything!"

 Chapter 113: Reapers Calling.

    South of the explosion the survivors of Argom''s moon-meteor strike watched a massive dome of golden fire expand into the sky like a pir, and from there it continued expanding outwards approaching at a speed they knew nobody could escape even if they tried.

    Standing on the balcony of her castle with a multitude of survivors behind her the Queen closed her eyes, fell to her knees and began praying, and at her example the others behind her also began praying as well.

    "Ikaris, get me above that, I''ve recovered a little." Sol looked at her while the two of them were flying backwards and watching the destruction spread with Dina keeping up.

    "Master Vestic!" A called to them, from further ahead, in her grasp was Usami who didn''t have the ability to fly, and holding on to Usami''s leg was Han who couldn''t fly either.

    "Ah!" Ikaris snapped her fingers and summoned Eris and Bruce, along with Sara and Idria, while she caught idria in her arms, she found that the other three were already holding on to each other so it was easy when Sol grabbed Bruce by the back of his armour with Eris and Sara holding on to his legs.

    "How is it still growing?" Sol stared at the fiery doom that was consuming everything in its path.

    "Allow me to do something about this," Ikaris closed her eyes expanding her senses throughout all of Arkadia and then speaking again with her eyes taking on an ethereal glow and her voice booming across the entire.

    "Move."

    Everyone and everything heard her, and felt a tug at their bodies and mana before their vision shifted to white and they all vanished.

    "What... Is this?" Da Vermon asked first, watching massive chunks of rock soar above her head weightlessly, guided by Arkadia''s gravitational pull.

    "Where are we?"

    [This is D''ol, the battleground of the gods] Dr''ul answered in her true form as she appeared standing and extending her hands.

    [Ikaris I should have thought of this myself, but I panicked in the face of this terrible destruction.] She admitted dimming her light and looking down at the girl, and then turning to everyone else, every living being outside of demons, every species, birds critters, beasts and all, with the exemption of creatures of the seas, rivers and oceans had been summoned to the first moon by Ikaris.

    "Who are you?" Misty stared shocked, of course she knew who it was, she was just so surprised that her brain was not braining.

    [Little perverted queen, I am Dr''ul, Queen of the gods and ruler of the heavens] The goddess of war responded staring toward Arkadia again as another being of light appeared next to her and extended his hands, and as he did, the moon began shaking as the rock fragments that had been sted off by Sol and Sitri''s fight earlier began slowly returning and reforming.

    At the same time that this was happening fresh growth appeared beneath their feet, trees and nts, springs sprouted and rivers began to form along withkes causing multitudes of water-beasts and fish to appear through Ikaris''s summoning.

    [With this they will not feel too alienated] Adonai; the god of creation looked to his older sister and nodded.

    [Thank you] Dr''ul looked ahead again just as Sol and the others appeared before her, crasnding before he and Ikaris sprung to their feet in a ready stance.

    "How much have you recovered?" Ikaris looked at Sol immediately and he narrowed his eyes.

    "It''s hard to say, the system has stopped responding to me." He admitted and Adonai intervened clearing his throat.

    [That is because youmitted a taboo against it and nearly broke it, I understand that you had no choice at the time, but the system is beyond your reach as it is for a lot of others currently, during your fight it was damaged severely] the god of creation exined, and Sol hummed.

    "Well... In that case I''ll go with my gut like I used to, my regr mana is still pretty high, but my divine mana just recovered a tiny bit, it''s a little, but it''s more than enough to finish this fight now that she''s exhausted herself to this degree." Sol looked at Ikaris, and she hummed. MVLeMpYr-unofficial-chapter

    Having morphed his An mana into divine mana with thews of Arkadia through the system she had lost the ability to grant him mana from her home dimension, at most she had been backseated to the role of divine healer, but while he no longer needed her to grant him power she still relied on him for hers.

    "Are you sure it is enough?" Dina asked, and Sol nodded.

    "All I need is one strike, just one, I''ll turn her into dust." He balled his fists. "I just need help getting there again.

    "If I transport you above her you will lose momentum because of the force of that cataclysm." Ikaris looked at Arkadia and the ball of fire that continued spreading across the surface, by now it had consumed most of northern Argom and was boiling the seas as it raced toward the muchrger continent''s.

    "Just throw me," Sol stared at the mes. "If I have the initial speed I can figure out the rest-"

    "Sol, you might die..." Ikaris held on to his hands. "If we just let her expend everything she will die eventually, right?"

    "No," Sol shook his head. "If Sitri is left alone she will recover, and then there will be hell to pay, we''ve only made it this far because I caught her off-guard, it won''t happen again, even with ten percent of her power restored she will have an edge above all of us here, she could potentially One-shot everyone with frightening ease." He released her hands and took her cheeks in his palms.

    "She has taken everything from us, from you, I can''t forgive her, help me get revenge, Ikaris."

    "Let mee with you, if I could hit her with a supercharged pulsar-"

    "Absolutely not." Sol looked at dina. "Let me be clear, that firestorm is divine magic at its most potent, your cosmic magic is of no use against it, your Arkadian mana would evaporate in the face of it, in that state only I have the power to fight Sitri properly with the demigod mana I have left, if I fail here it''s goodbye to everything and everyone, do you understand?"

    Dina lowered her gaze.

    "Dina-"

    "Yeah, I get it." She rushed over to him and grabbed him in a hug. "Don''t... Don''t die, please."

    "I don''t n to." Sol pet her head with a smile and then turned to Ikaris again. "Are you ready?"

    "I am, Master." Ikaris ced her hand on the ground and began growing in size as her true form tore through her half-human appearance, she grew evenrger than Dr''ul, supersising and staring down at him as he smiled up at her. "Come."

    Sol stepped in the palm of her hand and she raised him like a delicate flower casting blessings on him and embracing him gently before taking off toward Arkadia, building momentum.

    [After this, we should retire for real dear, haha.] Ikaris joked as her and Sol stared at the epicenter of the mes, but Sol didn''t respond, instead he summoned a set of armour over his body and closed his eyes, fully suppressing his divine mana and utilizing his Arkadian mana for protection when the vum started freezing his hair and seeping into his skin.

    [Then...] Ikaris looked down at him, stopping her flight and staring at Sitri''s presence. [Fly true, warrior!] She held Sol in one hand again and aimed for her target like a pitcher before yeeting him toward Arkadia like aet.

    The goddess held a sad expression as she ced her faith in her beloved, one misstep, one mishap; all it would take was a single mistake and his light would vanish forever, without his soul she would be trapped, without his light, she would lose herself again.

    [Off he goes; that radiant man] Dr''ul stared intently, not just her but the rest of the gods, the entire pantheon appeared in person to watch this deciding blow, failure would spell the end, it was an all-or-nothing moment and they all paid their respects to him.

    "me magic: stream." Sol cast wordless magic as a steadily growing stream of fire ejected from the souls of his feet stabilizing him while he did the same with small bursts of fire from his hands, his armour was simr to the one he had seen Union use, though the god was wed he did indeed have great inventions, and an armour with this much aerodynamic and friction resistant properties was perfect when Sol entered the atmosphere and caught ame from the heat below.

    Pushing the clouds aside in giant rings Sol vanished into the fires that had almostpletely escaped the atmosphere, his hair turned white, and his eyes inverted and a shield manifested around his body made of divine mana, protecting him as he dove deeper into the ze, slowing down andnding when he came face to face with Sitri who was still pushing out mass amounts of her power and burning her life essence at the same time.

    Just as he had expected, his divine mana ran out right afternding and his body began burning immediately, no shield would work when everywhere was on fire so he bore the brunt of the destructive mes and focused entirely on offence instead.

    "Forbidden magic: -" Sol''s entire presence changed and a ck sythe appeared in his grasp, turning red from the mes as he began swinging it.

    "-Reaper''s calling!"

 Chapter 114: Path.

    "Reaper''s Calling!"

    Sol swung the sythe and it cleaved through the fire without resistance and hooked Sitri''s neck, taking her head clean off in an instant, putting an immediate end to the mes around her as screaming came to a halt while he continued spinning.

    "Now disappear forever!" Sol drove the de of the sythe through her stomach and released it, falling to his knees and extending his hand to the melting ground beneath her staggering feet.

    "Shattered dimension; Copse." He cast another forbidden magic beneath her, and her iling body was swallowed whole by a portal full of violent dimensional shards and chaotic magic.

    [She is gone!] Dr''ul eximed staring at Sol as he continued falling over before he vanished and reappeared within Ikaris''s grasp where she caught him in a hug and began casting [divine heal] on him immediately.

    "Sol!" Ikaris gently pped him several times on his cheek, allowing him toe to with his eyes slowly focusing on her.

    [What the devils, when did you learn such a horrible magic?" She asked. She was expecting him to just blow Sitri up or chop her into thousands of pieces, but he used a death seal on her and then tossed her body into an abyss. "If you had missed... If she had the sense to dodge that you would have...!"

    She stopped when he weakly reached for her cheek and smiled at her. "I''m fine, it worked."

    ***

    The Arkadians did not know what to make of this shocking development, the hero Ikaris who gantly ran around calling Sol her master was an actual goddess confirmed to be from another world whom even the Queen of the gods, Dr''ul, revered and respected and seemed to actually fear, Sol; the initial imposter who was ridiculed and hated was the one who saved their home while the heroes were backseated to observers, they were on the moon and their world was on fire, the demon-god nearly wiped out all life, and it all happened within the span of a single night.

    Amongst this confusion and the news being delivered by the Argomite Queen who was answering every question honestly, Eris ran over to Sol and Ikaris, and then everyone else followed.

    "Sol Vestic, I am forever in your debt." Dr''ul took a knee next to him and Ikaris, humbling herself to a human body and lowering her head. "If I may, it would be a blessing if you will one day ept my challenge and fight me to the fullest of your abilities, so I too may say proudly that I have fought the strongest amongst us."

    At her request everyone fell silent again. discover-MVLeMpYr-novels

    A made a callback to the first day she met Sol, and how he had brazenly stared up at the heavens and mocked the goddess who now served her alliance to him on a gold tter.

    "I haven''t even recovered enough to walk yet, and you already want a fight?" Sol raised his brow at Dr''ul and she chuckled and raised her head.

    "I am overjoyed saviour, you are free to deny or ept, it only matters that you respond-"

    "Ha... Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha~" Everyone heardughter, a young girl, no older than the princess was cackling and staring at her hand.

    "Who''s that?" Dina went on guard as the girl continued to cackle causing everyone around her to grow ufortable when she started leaning her torso and looking at herself. "I get that a few people have lost their shit... But she seems off." Dina cast a barrier around the girl, causing her to stopughing.

    "Dina what are you doing?" Usami asked, but a momentter she too had summoned her spear when the girl cocked back her hand and shattered Dina''s barrier with the ease of a casual punch.

    "Fuck!" Han sprinted through the crowds and swung his sword at her, but the girl who seemed slow stepped through his attack and spun around his sword, backhanding him and then going into a crouch as crimson mana erupted from her body ripping her clothes apart and revealing her skin turning a darker reddish shade while horns started growing from the sides of her head and wings erupted from her back and her lips darkened with fangs growing from her mouth.

    "No...!" Sol fought to stand but fell to his hand causing Ikaris to grab him and help him up. "How!?" He asked staring as the unassuming girl turned into a very naked Sitriughing as she stared at him.

    "I am reborn!" She screamed as the gods all began a rapid retreat while Usami and Han along with Bruce nked her.

    "Wait-!" Sol tried to warn them but before they could heed his warning Sitri grabbed Usami''s spear and used her toically p Han into the ground driving her hand through his chest and smashing his heart against the ground under him before she zipped pass Usami and grabbed Bruce by his throat raising him in the air. "Ikaris-"

    "-We should run." Ikaris''s eyes were wide as she stared in horror at Sitri sucking the mana out of Bruce, withing just a moment the once bulky man was a husk, dried beyond recognition.

    "Fuuuck!" Sol''s mana erupted from deep within him and his hair turned white again, this caught Sitri''s attention, and garnered her fear when he angled his hand sideways and a ck sythe started forming.

    "I cannot win here, of he and Ikaris join hands I will die for real with the small pool of mana this girls body has, besides that I am only a demon in body, my mana has not changed yet, if they figure this out it is over for me, I shouldn''t haveughed out, I was too excited!"   Sitri huffed and spun, taking off toward an empty space and extending her hand, but out of the blue an axe fell from the air and took her hand while also tripping her and sending her cascading while the people scurried away from her.

    "Don''t you dare run now!" Dina had her tears flowing after witnessing Han and Bruce''s sudden death. "Don''t you dare!" She summoned thousands of mana spears in an instant and dropped her hands with a scream turning the freshly re-created surface into a crater of explosions as the spears all erupted into white mana explosions.

    [Judgement] Dina held nothing back as a giant bolt of blue lightning fell through the cosmos and struck the crater turning it into a pool of magma while she held her hands forward and started preparing [pulsar], but from that fiery pool a whip flew pass her and slid around everyone, catching Sol off-guard when it seemed toe after him and then suddenly turned and caught Ikaris''s arm.

    "Maste-" she was yanked through the scurrying masses with Sol so shocked he moved a whole secondter.

    "No!" Dina erected a weighted barrier around Ikaris as she was being dragged and released several anchors from it before throwing a [mana whip] around it and anchoring her feet to the ground using gravitational magic and started pulling, but the whip loosened for a second throwing everything off-bnce before both her and Ikaris were yanked again.

    Reaching a secondter Sol took off a second time even faster than before with A right at his heels as they entered the pit which had a hole in the bottom of it.

    Crossing through the hole they found a freshly-made cavern with a purple mana-gate made of demonic energy closing rapidly at the size of a ball, by the time Sol reached the gate it was gone in a burst of energy.

    "No-no-no!" He swung his hand at the empty space but all that remained was residual mana, Ikaris was gone, Dina was gone. "Fuck!"

    "Sol!" A arrived and swung at the portal residuary mana as well, but there was nothing.

    "They''re gone, I can''t sense them anywhere," Sol looked at her as his eyes started tearing up. "What do I... Fuck! Gods-motherfucking-damnit not like this!" Sol punched the ground as he scoured his memory for anything; anything at all that was of help.

    "Samu''el!" He called out, and without missing a beat the god of time appeared at his side with a worried expression. "Do something, you can be anywhere and any-when right?"

    [I am sorry, Sol] Samu''el responded causing a look of horror to grace Sol''s expression. [Their signatures are not of this world, I have no power over the time that resides within them-]

    "What the fuck does that even mean -what good are you to me then!?" Sol snapped again and the god of time winced at his screeching tone, and that''s when he saw a flicker of golden light before him; the system that had gone down after sustaining heavy damage trying to fix his mess was trying tomunicate again, instead of the words he heard a voice, a soft female voice in his head and it said only one thing.

    [For those who are lost, they must seek what is essentially another means to their destination, this unforeseen situation was priledicted as a likely oue of the demon-god''s demise in the unpredictable urrence of a resurgence]

    Sol knelt there with his eyes wide as he stared at his system window, everything was saying error again everything was glitching and broken, leaving just one option at the very bottom of his status.

    [Special ability (Path) is now avable; Path is a single-use divine countermeasure transcending space time and logic created using all of the system''s power, it will take you where you desire to be the most, but afterwards you will lose its functionality for ten years, such is the length of its rebirth, mark the day the hour and the second of use and engrave it in your mind-]

    *Ding

    [You have chosen to use [path] are you sure?]

    [Yes.]

    [Where is it you desire to go, Sol Vestic?] The system asked, and he stood and extended his hand toward the residual magic before him.

    [Take me to where this portal... No...] He looked around at everyone who was confused at what he was doing all of a sudden.

    [Take me directly to Ikaris, right now.] Sol answered the system and was immediately enveloped in clear white magic and then whisked away with a bright sh and a hum.

    "Sol!"

 Chapter 115: Zola-Prime

    ***

    "It all happened so fast that I could not even properly react." Usami sat next to Eris exining what she had seen after chasing behind the others to help them get rid of Sitri.

    "One moment they were there, I saw them when I entered the hole, but then I blinked, and they were gone, just gone!"

    "They just disappeared into thin air?" Morn asked skeptically, but ignoring him she kept her eyes on Renia and Dr''ul who had sat her down and requested she exin.

    "The system foresaw a future we were too narrow-visioned to even think about, that is why Sol Vestic has disappeared without a trace.

    If what it recalls is correct: which it no doubt is, then Ikaris was pulled through a portal with the mage hero Dina Levina by the newly resurrected demon-god at thest moment before it closed, leaving him behind." Adonai exined after Usami had finished speaking, also ignoring morn who had lost standing with just about everyone by this point.

    "Where on Arkadia did they-"

    "No, not Arkadia." Dr''ul spoke up with visible dread and disappointment in her furrowed brows.

    "Neither Sol, Dina, or Ikaris are anywhere in this dimension, they are truly gone; if I am to guess correctly, Sitri tried nabbing Ikaris back to the her home dimension where it is spected that those of divine origins may be powerless in our entirety, Dina was caught up in that, and be it hell or heaven, wherever Ikaris goes, Sol would as well."

    "How will we save them?" Eris asked, but Adonai scoffed at her question and shook his head.

    "Would you mind checking your status, little hero?" The god of creation spoke casually to Eris, and she gave the mentalmand, but then nothing happened, just an empty blue panel without a single letter or response other than appearing.

    "Nothing, it''s empty...?"

    "Yes, in thest moment before he left, the system; which if you were unaware is actually sentient and self-aware, transferred its ownership to Sol Vestic, for whatever reason it deemed necessary, the system left us to apany him, maybe to never return, it is after all a grey divination that can take any shape or form of intelligence it deems necessary regardless of what race or magic you are and can use."

    "Truly?" Dr''ul asked surprised.

    "Indeed, when I created the system, I broke many rules which I never mentioned, that is why I gave it freedom, otherwise I could have even usurped your throne; the system is more powerful than we all are, only Ikaris was able to manipte it as she pleased, just think about it...

    An entity that can manipte the thoughts of god''s into actions and share power between them casually, it is my greatest creation, even more than Arkadia in all its glory ever was."

    "Was, your greatest, right?" Renia stood with her hands gestured to him.

    "No, I am able to recreate the consciousness easily, within a year a new system will take the ce of the old system."

    "What does that leave us to do?" Usami asked, staring up at therge beings that had converged. "If the system is offline for a year then how are we going to return back to earth, I mean, with Sitri gone the demonkin all vanished as well, technically this is a victory, right?"

    "I am sorry, I have paid attention to you in recent times so I am aware of the sibling that you were taken from and desire to return to.

    As my brother stated, the system''s power is what brought you over to our world, so we need ess to simr power to return you back to earth, until then you have to assimte and wait like the rest of us." Dr''ul answered, standing and staring through the entrance of the tent they spoke under at Arkadia which was being purged with a great storm that covered every inch of it by S''mael; the god of destruction while Adonai''s power of creation worked in tandem to mend all which was broken.

    "Only a few million survived, from all the people whom I promised an end to the war only a few million..." Queen Vermon who had quietly listened to the proceedings next to Eris sighed and rested her forehead in her palm.

    "Thank you, heroes, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the sacrifices you have made in our name, I will not hesitate, as soon as the system is functional I will send you back-"

    "I don''t want to go back to earth." Eris sat straight clearing her throat. "I knew from the moment I came here that I didn''t want to return, nothing awaits me back home, an abusive family that I was adopted into, and a useless life where I was sinking in perpetual selfishness; I don''t want to return to that wasted life when I have a purpose here."

    "Then...

    I''m going back by myself?" Usami looked over at her, she at least wanted to have one person with knowledge of Arkadia with her back on earth, even if they were not super close this was an experience that formed bonds for lifetimes, something impossible to share without sounding like a crazy person she thought of how alien she would feel returning to her former life without someone to share it with, she would never feel human again, she''d be alone.

    "I''m sorry." Eris smiled sadly at Usami. "I made this decision the same day I came here, I won''t change my mind now, originally it was supposed to be you Han and the others returning together... But," Eris lowered her gaze.

    Han and Bruce were killed, Dina disappeared with Ikaris, and Sol left chasing after them. Usami and her were the only ones left. "I''m sorry." She repeated again.

    ***

    The air stung, and his sense of bnce was as stable as that of a baby, travelling through to this strange reality had disoriented him Beyonce what he had expected, given the strength he possessed it was strange how it still troubled him when even the summons to Arkadia was a casual experience.

    "He is waking up, get ready, take your ces, do not offend him!" Sol heard an elderly man''s voice while his eyes were slowly adjusting and he let out a groan, sitting up and cradling his pounding head.

    "What the hell," Sol''s voice distorted as he spoke resulting in him covering his mouth while a small multitude of obvious looking demons who were kneeling around him gasped and lowered their heads to the floor. "Where am I?" He sat up looking around. "Ikaris?"

    [Ikaris is not here.]

    [System?] Sol responded shocked when he saw the popup. [How-]

    [I gave you ownership of myself in thest moment before you were taken by [path] it was a split decision of logic]

    The system responded, and Sol rested his face in his palm and growled, he could tell very clearly from the whispers of violence pounding at his mind; he was currently locked in demonification.

    [You said that [path] would take me to wherever I desired to be the most, so why are you telling me that Ikaris isn''t here, are you picking a fight?]

    [I have no physical body to fight you, Sol]

    The system responded causing him to growl again and then stare at the pure demons before him, aside from slightly varying appearances in terms of size and some with small horns, these all looked like regr people, and another thing that caught his attention rather quickly was a ceiling fan above them.

    [Exin, what''s going on]

    [Upon arrival, you plummeted from the sky and crashed in an unidentified mountain range, at the time, Ikaris was being transported by a flying craft I havee to learn is called a ne, the mage hero Dina was with her, but your trajectory was off and you missed it]

    [Upon arrival?] Sol rested his hand on his knee staring at his ck nails. [How long have I been unconscious?]

    [A week in this world''s time, which is nine days]

    "Ikaris..." Sol growled immediately upon hearing this, a scowl crossed his face and his entire demeanor shifted to hostility as he thought about what could have happened in such a long time. "I have to find Ikaris." He stood, stumbling to the side only to be caught by a small demon woman who wore some kind of kimono-like traditional dress and smiled at him with a clearly terrified expression.

    Without thinking Sol snapped at her, sending her flying through the thin paper wall of the room when he pushed her off himself. "How dare you-" Sol''s eyes burned with hatred at what he was seeing:

    Demons, bowing to him as if... As if.

    MVLEmPyR-your-story-source

    " What''s my status."

    [Races: Demi-god (inactive)/Demon-god (active)]

    "Please forgive the girl your lordship, she meant no disrespect!" The old man at the front of the dozens of people bowing pressed his forehead against the floor so hard the wood under his face creaked, this for Sol was unimportant, his demonic magic began ring wildly as his teeth gnashed and the wings that hadzily dragged along the floor started shaking in tandem with his rapidly rising difort and agitation.

    "I need to find Ikaris; I don''t have time for-"

    "Please reconsider doing anything immediately rash, Master Vestic, there is a lot you need to know about what is happening here on Z-Prime."

    At the sound of a familiar voice in a new world filled with new sensations and a sense of urgency so great it made him want tosh out at everything that breathed...

    Sol paused and looked at the door, watching the familiar light brte half-elf with long ears and light blue eyes help the girl he had attacked to her feet and brushing her off with an apologetic smile.

    "A?"

 Chapter 116: This is Hell.

    "What the hell do you mean don''t be impulsive?" Sol''s eyes slowly widened in disgust at how she was treating the demon girl. "A... I''ve never had a reason to dislike you before, but you should tred lightly and think carefully before you say such bullshit! Ikaris is everything to me, I won''t sit idly by and wait whilst she is-"

    Sol stopped again when A approached him and went on her knees like everyone else, revealing two things from her simr getup; the first was that it was an act, she was trying to blend in to avoid suspicion and stay alive, and the second was that she had used her mana to etch the same tattoo and sigil markings Ikaris had on herself.

    "What''s going on?"

    "Lordship, this woman imed to be your ve when we found you in the ruin of a great cmity, she gave us your name and ounts of who and informed us of your status as a demon-god who has recently returned from great conquest, otherwise we would never associate ourselves with her, and clearly you know her, but if she is an imposter then we will immediately dispatch-"

    "Anyone who touches my property will die a miserable death by my hand." Sol''s eyes widened with a sincere hatred toward the old man who had spoken after raising his head, and immediately the demon mmed his forehead to the ground again in fear.

    "F-forgive my impudence lordship!"

    "Forgive us, lord anddy!" The others all shouted in unison after him.

    "A,e." Sol called her, closing his eyes and taking a seat on the bed again.

    "Sir?" She quickly arose and took a seat next to him, but he shook his head and patted hisp when the others slightly nced at them.

    "Forgive my intrusion." A sucked in a breath to calm herself as she sat across hisp and melted from the sensation of his mana seeping into her body, like waves Sol held on to her hand and forced divine magic into her flesh, causing the sigils to take on a light burgundy colour instead of the ck that they were and then react whenever his hand hovered above them, just like Ikaris''s.

    "That''s better," Sol cleared his throat and looked at the others. "You have been gathering information?" He asked, and she nodded with a bright blush at how gentle he was being, even if she knew it was just a farse to cover up after almost blowing her lies the sensation of his hand on her lower back had her fighting to remain focused.

    "Y-Yes, Z-Prime is quite the difference from Arkadia, Master." A stood at his request and sat next to him again folding her hands on her legs and lowering her head in a very submissive manner.

    "Before that then," Sol looked at the ceiling and then at the demons who quietly waited for him to speak. "What is your name?" He asked the old demon, and he raised his head to meet Sol''s gaze but quickly bowed again when his ck eyes were greeted by burning crimson.

    "I am Law, your lordship, leader of this humble backwater n, I-"

    "That''s all I care to know." Sol leaned forward in an authorative manner. "Get out, everyone except you." He pointed at the girl he nearly killed earlier.

    "M-my daughter, please your lordship, she is just-"

    "I wasn''t asking a question." Sol''s mana slightly boomed around the room and everyone started trembling, several of the demons were so terrified that their teeth even started ttering, this made sense, their mana was so little he had to stare intently to find traces inside of them, they were no more gifted in magic than earth humans were.

    Without another word of protest everyone immediately left while the girl continued shaking on the floor, fearing for her life.

    "Master Vestic-"

    "Hold on, A." Sol rested his hand on the half-elf''s head and her mouth slowly hung open and her eyes widened when her mana was intruded by a foreign entity through his touch.

    [Assimtion of familiar host isplete, wee back, A Amastacia, I will quickly re-integrate my functions into your general action, please standby]

    The system notified her, and she stared at Sol in shock.

    "I''ll exinter." Sol raised his hand to the demon girl who inparison to the others had a lot more mana and so was an optimal choice. "Come here, girl."

    "Yes, my lord." She arose and walked over to him, taking a knee before him with her head lowered nervously awaiting punishment, but instead she was shocked stiff when Sol''s warm hand rested on her head and she was greeted by no pain, rather an intrusion of mana that swelled and ran trips around her body.

    "Do not move."

    [Measuring mana, calcting...]

    [Calcting]

    [Calctions arepleted, mana signatures and makeup have been sessfully stored. The mana of this world is surprisingly low, but there seems to be a very high and disgustingly dense concentration of demonic mana above you, with the mana assimtion I will begin spreading my roots... Calcting]

    "Above, huh?" Sol stared at the ceiling, clearly sensing what the system was telling him. It felt like thousands of demon-gods converged in one general area, their mana ovepped with each other and made it impossible to sense anything else.

    [I suspect this is where Ikaris is]

    "You''re of great help, thank you." Sol stared at A who was still lost as she was being briefed on everything the system was saying to him.

    [This is called Z-Prime, it is the secondary of tworge bodies and home of lesser-demons and low-tier nobility, upon missing Ikaris''s direct location because of her motion you crashed here, but due to your exhausted mana reserves you only managed to protect A Amastacia while losing consciousness-]

    "How did you end uping with me?" Sol looked at A, and she cleared her throat awkwardly and averted her eyes.

    "The moment you were taken, I had secretly been holding on to you, I was only trying tofort you after... I never expected that..."

    [Remember Master Sol, (Path) will not be avable for another ten years whatever action you take must have long-term benefits] The system notified him, reminding him that he was stuck here in the Reversed-Dimension of demons and demon-gods.

    He raised his arm to scratch the side of his head but was obstructed by a horn sticking out of his temple.

    [Demon god-transformation] has be a passive and permanent race swap-option after much tampering, I calcted there would be trouble if you were not a demon after sensing several sentient demonic signatures close to you upon impact, A on the other hand has survived thanks to her wits and quick-thinking upon realising the predicament she was in]

    "How long until you''vepletely assimted with Z-Prime?" Sol asked causing the girl to open her eyes confused.

    [Arkadia was instantaneous, but this new world has no simrities, and is many timesrger, it will take at least a day before I am able to adjust and seize control over thews of this universe]

    ***

    "I want to escape, I sensed him, I am sure of it, I would never mistake him for another, he came, on the same day we did; he came, it was a few hourster but he still..."

    "Eat, Ikaris, do not lose strength." Dina was seated with the goddess in a small cell, their clothes were torn and their bodies severely bruised, and around them there was blood everywhere, sshes of it on the white floor, the walls, and the single bed they shared which they currently sat on.

    "I refuse to eat the filthy food these beasts give." Ikaris had her forehead to her knees, and her eyes closed tightly. "I will fast until masteres."

    "You have to keep your strength, if you keep wasting mana on this you will eventually run out." Dina retorted, shaking her head. "Please-"

    "I refuse!" Ikaris snapped at her raising her head revealing a thick chain locked around her neck that bound them together and to the walls, and then on their ankles and again on their wrists there were more chains. "I will not eat this poison!"

    "Keep it down over there!" Someone from beyond the wall banged their fist against it angrily. "Do not draw attention to the rest of us what the fuck is your problem?"

    "I miss him, Dina," Ikaris teared up immediately while the mage at her side ced the te down and rested her bruised hands on her shoulder and arm. "I know I sensed him, it was not my imagination, if there was anyone who could make it then it would be him."

    "That saviour of yours will nevere, nobody makes it out of here as anything other than a demon''s whore or an abused and broken corpse, give up and ept your fate, goddess, here there is no hope." The person on the other side calmly responded, carefully tearing her hopes away from her.

    "I have been here for hundreds, nay, thousands of years, I have been used and healed over and over again my power has long dried out, mayhaps with the arrival of a new goddess they will finally kill me, for I am unable to kill myself."

    "Don''t listen to her," Dina hugged Ikaris as horror slowly crept in on her face. "You won''t... I won''t let them touch you, if anyonees, I will offer myself first-"

    "No, a simple daughter of eve will die quickly, it is better to let the goddessmit to her duties and save the little power you have for healing yourself."

    "My only duty is to Sol Vestic, if any other dares to touch me I will tear them to pieces!"

    source-at-MVLeMpYr

    "It is amazing that you survived a week of torture with such a strong spirit intact, and the demons seem bent on breaking you before they touch either of you; you must have been a stubborn or powerful one to have earned that level of tolerance... Someone like me, I was broken in just a day, and they had their way with me for years without a moment of pause.

    "Powerful?" Ikaris raised her head and punched the wall with a growl causing the two conjoined cells to rattle. "You pitiable sinner, I AM god, above all heavens I am the exalted, I am the chosen, the most powerful... the absolute peak!"

    "Well... That is a shame, this is not above all heavens, oh mighty one, this is below the heavens, below the mundane, this is hell." The god on the other side sobbed and rested her forehead against the cracked wall staring at the one beside her who listened quietly whilst crying.

    "Here, beneath the castle of the great God of demons, there is no hope, you will be broken in mind, and then he will break your body and leave you with his ves and servants."

    Dina covered her mouth almost throwing up at the thought, and Ikaris was only able to stare at her without feeling the usual concern she had grown used to as she too found this unimaginable and unthinkable.

    "This is Hell."

 Chapter 117: The Liberator.

    "Someone ising." Ikaris raised her head and looked at the door of their cell, ring and grimacing.

    "Let me handle it this time." Dina stood staring at Ikaris. "Thest time you fought until your eyes bled, do not strain yourself any further, let your mana recover, it is slow but-" she stopped when the locks outside of their cell rattled and a grunt came from the other side while the door slowly creaked open.

    "Out both." A loud groggy voice echoed, followed by the stench of raw fish breath.

    "I''ll use pulsar." Dina raised her hands and formed a triangle with her index and thumb fingers. "I''ll st a hole through this whole castle and destroy everything before me!" She sneered as her mana started forming.

    "If you do that you will take forever to recover without Arkadia-"

    "It''ll be fine, of you''re right, of Sol really came then he''ll know, I believe he''lle."

    "Dina that is a gamble." Ikaris stood and grabbed her hands, breaking her formation and shaking her head. "Save mana, as much as you can, do not reveal such sophisticated powers to them they might favour you." Ikaris turned her hand to the door when the impatient fish demon swung the it open with a roar and intruded.

    "Instead, be barbaric."

    "Infernal magic, explosion!" The room heated before the fish demon was sent flying from a concussive explosion that tore him apart andpletely destroyed the two cells opposite of theirs across the hall.

    "What are you... How is a goddess able to harm demonkin?" The goddess behind the wall asked shocked, and Ikaris scoffed and walked out, staring down each side and taking a deep breath of the warm air.

    "Using our Arkadian magic, we can still fight." Ikaris summoned ck armour over her body and then looked at Dina who summoned her mage''s staff and stepped out behind her. "Save pulsar as ast resort if we get cornered, it is too destructive with effects too drastic on your body to be used without caution, understood?"

    "You have been fighting for days already, you couldn''t possibly have that much mana to spare-"

    "Just do as I say, as long as it''s not a demon-god there''s nothing the two of us can''t handle, low, mid, high levels, nobles, we can kill them at leisure." Ikaris drew her sword and looked to the entrance when she heard the tter of footstepsing down the stairs toward them.

    "Hey you, you said you have been here for a very long time, do you know theyout of this ce?" She asked, and the goddess on who had been speaking to them went quiet and hid herself in the corner.

    "Do not collide me in your madness, I do not want to be punished by the demon-gods, they are cruel and evil beyond-"

    "I know the way out." The next goddess sharing the cell answered, standing and resting her hands on the door. "If you can protect me I can get us all out!" She screamed manicly, and with her scream several others from the hundreds of white cell-doors going all the way to the back of the dungeon started rioting and begging for freedom.

    "Who are you?" The scared goddess asked from her corner, how do you have power here, did they not-"

    "I am a goddess, a hero, a wife, and most importantly right now, I''m fucking pissed, didn''t I tell you that there''s nothing I can''t do!?" Ikaris grabbed the lock and yanked it, but when the door remained intact she grabbed the entire door and tore it off the hinges with a roar.

    "Then why do you depend on this unknown saviour?"

    "To think that there were so many gods and goddesses being held prisoner here, my heart bleeds, I want revenge, but I know that only my master can truly face the evils of this world, so, we have to find him."

    "Master?" The younger goddess asked stepping out and looking at Ikaris focus so hard her nose started bleeding as she extended her hands down the hall. "Is he some kind of origin being, the him above others that you who ims to be the strongest would call him master?"

    "My master is no such being, he is a demigod that evolved from human, however he possesses a soul more powerful than any other god, he is the one who has killed demon-gods in the past and earned the legendary title of Godyer." Ikaris answered, balling her fists and dragging her hands with a roar causing every cell door to rattle before they tore out of the walls and mmed into each other.

    "That is who my master is!"

    "You found the liberator?" The goddess before Ikaris gawked with her eyes filling and brimming with tears of hope. "Truly?!"

    "Legendary?" Dina asked timidly. "Godyer was a legendary title?"

    "Aye, I have not even told him, the other gods did not want to either; Godyer is a title that can only belong to one soul, he is that soul.

    As long as master''s opponent is a god of any kind he has the ability to kill them, whether they be multitudes stronger than he is, this is what happened with Sitri."

    "That ursed power he used to bring her to the brink of death was the Godyer in full effect ignoring the restrictions between divine and demon to grant unfathomable power, and as the legends foretell he will only grow stronger, I was lucky to find him." Ikaris wiped her nose and turned to the guards who were rushing toward them.

    "Infernal-"

    "Mana spears!" Dina beat her to the attack and instantaneously riddled every single enemy with an uncountable barrage of six-foot spears made of mana which all quicklybusted and tore them apart.

    ***

    [I have intercepted the use of Arkadian mana; infernal magic as well as raw mana spears and mana explosion have been used within thest two units of time]

    The system suddenly appeared in Sol and A''s visions while they were in the middle of breaking down the information it was already giving them, and at the alert Sol sprung to his feet.

    "I''m going-"

    [The distance is that of two Arkadias, it will still take some time to arrive]

    "Ikaris''s mana is definitely sealed, otherwise I''d have sensed her and teleported over  already, but if I can get close enough, I can still lock on to her presence regardless, all she needs to do is whisper a single word in my name and I will be there." He grabbed the ceremonial robe on his shoulder and tore it clean off revealing his usual armoured getup beneath it.

    "A Demon-god..." The girl who had been seated after serving them in silence muttered in shock.

    "Master Vestic, is it possible to take me with you?" A asked, and Sol closed his eyes and thought about it.

    "The only way I can carry you across the vum is through a dimension, the system hasn''tpletely gained any control so it can''t protect you yet and the only other means I have would be to let you stay in the Nightmare Prism and then release you when we get there, otherwise I could simply summon you upon arrival." He stared at her, and she thought of thetter option as the safest, but it would mean leaving her with an entire n housing hundreds of demons.

    "Ah..." She lowered her gaze and stared at the girl in the corner who continued to stare at Sol with shock and admiration. "I understand, but you must promise to return for me, otherwise who knows what may happen." She hugged herself and Sol''s eyes narrowed.

    "Did someone touch you?"

    "Several have used my status as your servant to try and have their way, but the elder has been sticking his hand out for me over thest week. "A admitted and Sol sneered and snapped his finger causing the elder of the n to appear before her.

    "Wh-what sorcery-"

    "Silence!" Sol snapped.

    "Your lordship is..." The old demon fell to his knees when he saw Sol''s attire and the way his messy hair had straightened across his back. "...A demon-god..."

    "I am leaving A at your side, protect her, protect her like your life depends on it -as if she was your first and only child, I have somewhere I urgently need to be, and if anything happens to her I will know, and I will erase the very grounds of this n and kill every single one of you, do you understand?.

    "Absolutely your excellency, I will obey your order with the honour of my n!"

    "Your n has no honour."

    "Of course! We are nothing but dirt on the wayside, mere savages before his grace!"

    "A," Sol looked at her. "On that note, you have my permission to protect yourself as well, if anyone tries to harm you, retaliate with full lethality; burn everything to the ground."

    "Yes, Master." A lowered her head in a bow and then winced when he rested his hand on her crown.

    "It was incredibly stupid what you did, you could have ended up dead, or worse." He shook his head, and the half elf smiled and leaned into his touch.

    "There is no ce I would rather be than at your side Master Vestic, remember; you have given me permission to love you freely." She blushed when he unconsciously cupped her cheek and then turned and looked out the window.

    "I have no idea what I''m about to get into, so bide as much time, if I die the system will reside in you, it will guide you, just don''t do anything I wouldn''t." He slowly floated off the ground and through the window leaving A with Law and his daughter, Sri.

    powered-by-MvLeMpYr

    "But master, you are a ruthless monster capable of atrocities that have made demon-gods fear you, there is nothing you would not do." She chuckled to which the elder next to her winced with his eyes bulging.

    "Mdy, please, you are to remain at my side at all times, the survival of my n rests in your kind hands... Please!" The old demon turned to A and bowed, as did his daughter.

    "Do you have a library?" A leaned her head with a stoic expressionless stare as the new authorative figure.

    "Eek... Yes..." He answered.

    "Are there any scrolls on magic?" She asked again.

    "Scrolls have long gone out of fashion mdy, we have digitised all of our knowledge, but you have already expressed your inability to read and write our foreignnguage.

    "Digitised?" She stared confused.

    [Digitisation is the integration of texts or other forms of information to a sort of nonexistent space where it can be infinitely stored and freely used through some kind of invention called inte, the technology of this world is excellent A, it is far beyond the technology of Arkadia, here they have many Inventions that would make even Adonai stare confused] the system answered her curiosity.

    [I will help you rapidly learn everything you wish to learn]

    "Do not worry about such things, with the Master arisen I am unshackled from my previous illiteracy, show me your archives."

    "Very well!"

 Chapter 118: Escaping.

    Z-Prime was weird to Sol, a world where humans didn''t originally even exist, a reverse world where demons were the normal, the sky was a light shade of red, and the clouds were white in contrast, trees had blue leaves and ck barks, and birds had four wings and swallow tails on average, it was confusing on first sight.

    What was even weirder was the massiveary body that coexisted in orbit of their blue star with Z, ording to the system it was called H��l (haal), and it was where the Arkadian mana signatures had appeared from.

    He didn''t sense anything there but mass amounts of disgustingly rich demonic energy on par with and above what Sitri had possessed, there were thousands of them like her upying H��l; demon-gods of varying levels of power, and then there was one who he could faintly sense.

    A power so frightening it made his eye twitch when the thought of confronting it came into his mind, but Sol negated the thought and threw it to the side, Ikaris was there, and likely Dina as well, his fear turned to worry as he thought about them, and then that worry rapidly turned into wrath when he thought of the possibility of them being harmed.

    [Preparations areplete] the system stated after he had stopped at the edge of Z-Prime''s manasphere and taken a deep breath.

    [me magic: stream]

    "I will absolutely murder any bastard who even dared toy their eyes on my woman." Sol grit his teeth as fire erupted from the souls of his feet like a thruster, sending him sailing through the weightless vum and gaining mass amounts of speed per second to the point where his aerodynamic armour started rattling even though there was no airflow

    His wings vanished as he stiffened himself to increase the output of mes.

    [You are reaching dangerous levels of speed where your body might be unable to handle]

    "I can handle it." Sol responded.

    [Your body might be in critical danger if you do not tred carefully, Master.]

    "Then do something about it and stop trying to limit me, I want more speed, the sooner I get there the better!"

    [You are a stubborn man, I will calcte countermeasures]

    The systemmented and Sol almost scoffed under his armour.

    "Since when did the system start talking back and acting all snarky?"

    [For your information, I am a thinking functioning being of omni-reverence, you will do well to respect my power, all Ick is a body]

    The system spoke directly into his head again, unlike the windows, whenever it did this he would hear the voice of a woman.

    "Stop being moody."

    [...]

    [Calctionsplete, Demonic mana is still at 100%, Divine mana is 100%, Arkadian mana after killing the demon-god is 100M, you have plenty of power to spare]

    "What about that taboo Imitted when I fought Sitri, you were all bent up about not being able to punish me for it weren''t you?" Sol asked, and the system went quiet for a while before responding.

    [I am rtively young, all that I know is what is avable, some things are beyond my knowledge for varying reasons including loss of culture and the vanishings of civilizations  which passed knowledge orally, so you must believe me when I say, it was my intention to punish you, but the title of [Godyer] would not let me, rather it directly prevented me from doing anything]

    "Godyer had such an ability?" Sol asked, but as he thought about it he realised that the every title, even [path] had some purpose, but the appearance of [Godyer] was sudden, it did note with any manual, nor did anyone ever try to refute it, instead they had all been more interested in fighting him.

    Some like Dr''ul, Sorath and S''mael the god of destruction were overly enthusiastic about his title, but Ikaris was very tight-lipped about it, or rather she never once addressed it.

    [I know nothing of it, there are no records or cases in Arkadian history of [Godyer] being mentioned even once, not by the mortals nor by the gods] the system answered in voice again and then sighed. [I would also like to know more of this title that has restrictions that not even I can bypass]

    "Let''s not think about that for now though, I want to lessen the time it takes to get to H��l faster by any means necessary."

    [Understood]

    ***

    "The demons value us?" Ikaris asked, staring at the young goddess who had volunteered to help her escape. "Why?"

    "It is unclear, but they hardly let us die, here we are no stronger than humans, and yet they are so careful to maintain us, we do not reproduce and we do not have many other uses than being ves, yet they still treat us far better than any other species whether that be here or on Z-Prime-"

    "Z-what?" Dina was facing the wall on the opposite side of the entrance with her hand on the wall. "Is that some kind of continent or country here?"

    "No, Z-Prime is another celestial body that exists in tandem with H��l, which is where we are." The old goddess had finally stepped out of her cell when the halls became choked with the other gods.

    "Ikaris was it?" She gestured, walking through the crowds and standing before her, she was a foot taller, but skinny inparison to most of the others, and her hair was grey, she was beyond just old, now that they were face to face and the goddess could observe Ikaris she felt a sense of seniority from her presence.

    read-only-on-MvLeMpYr

    "You are... a Primordial, one of the first Three." She stated, and Ikaris''s eyes widened at how easily she had figured it out when none of the others seemed to even notice, not even from Arkadia where Dr''ul was the eldest and most powerful.

    "You are strange."

    "I am an entric." Ikaris smiled up at her taking her hand and then embracing her in a tight hug. "Divine Heal"

    "I do not know the horrors you have been through, and I do not want to, I do not want to know nor do I want to be touched by another, the only man worthy of my body is my master, to be seen by another is a disrespect to him." Ikaris sighed as she felt the Goddess''s flesh grow warm and felt her body regaining the lost weight.

    "Ikaris how much mana did you just use?" Dina looked around at her when she sensed a drastic drop in her mana, but found most of the other gods and goddesses on their knees staring up at Ikaris and the other goddess who slightly glowed. "It''s now or never, Ikaris, the path before is nothing but rock for miles."

    "What is your name?" Ikaris looked back at the goddess with her hands on the smooth wall.

    "I am Gadriel." She replied, and then gestured to the young goddess who was with her. "This is my much younger sister, Gabriell."

    "It is a pleasure to meet you two, a pleasure and a tragedy that we met in such a horrible ce." Ikaris closed her eyes.

    "Destruction: Dismantle" She chanted and the wall before her crackled like dry paint and began falling apart.

    "It''s going to be hard to defend against anyone when we''re protecting this many isn''t it?" Dina asked, staring at the copsed entrance of the dungeon.

    "Like I said, as long as it is not a demon-god we will manage." Ikaris continued casting the "dismantle" technique holding up her other hand to create a torch using minimal me magic while the others started following her inside.

    "We can figure out a better n when we make it out, I''m pretty sure because of these seals the demons can''t sense us any better than they would be able to sense a human without mana.

    "To think a god would save us after getting dragged here, it speaks of your achievements-"

    "I have no praise-worthy feats though." Ikaris admitted whilst focused on carving a path using a minimal amount of her mana.

    "Are you kidding me, you''ve been killing demons have you forgotten that no other god has ever done that?" Dina countered and the following erupted in gasps.

    "How?" Gabriell asked.

    "The same way I am still able to use magic despite my divinity being sealed." Ikaris replied. "In the end, I never reached the scale of power needed to defeat a demon-god, so it is not praise-worthy, I failed my initial goal."

    "Ha, look at you being humble-" Dina was in the middle of chuckling when an explosion at the end of their artificial cave alerted everyone.

    "Guards?" Ikaris asked, keeping her gaze ahead and slightly speeding up the process, but she froze in horror when she felt a familiar presence emerge behind her, like a phantom the feeling crept across her skin and hugged her when she felt the stare burrowing into the back of her head. "Dina, prepare Pulsar now!" She snapped just before she heard the familiar shrill voice of the demon-god; Sitri.

    "Ikaris!!"

 Chapter 119: Frog In A Well.

    "Who is-" Gadriel attempted to ask, but Ikaris''s entire persona flipped and her caring aura was reced with a dark one as she pressed her hand on  the floor causing every one of them to fall t as gravitational magic was used on them.

    "Fire it now!" Ikaris shouted before skipping over to the other side and standing at the back of the mass watching as Sitri walked in with a strange metal weapon in her grasp. "I will hold this side for as long as I can." She raised her hands toward Sitri blocking the way with barriers stacked upon each other all the way to Sitri''s face.

    "This is useless against me, true goddess, you should know!" Sitri started walking again, shattering each barrier with a flick of her knuckle as she approached.

    "Everyone stand clear!" Dina took a deep breath and then released her mana.

    "Pulsar!!"

    The gods even though shackled felt the clear cosmic mana radiating off the human girl who spoke to their respected primordial as an equal, and it suddenly started making sense; she too was clearly something special, it seemed Ikaris had a habit of gathering the strong around herself.

    Light radiated from Dina''s palms, and the rock and iron that had obscured them all vanished as a massive tunnel was carved in the blink of an eye, unlike the usual pulsar which was destruction on a cosmic scale, Dina had reduced the power and extended the range, and as a result the beam was thinner but it had broken all the way through to fresh air that started sucking the warm air out.

    "This is nigh divinity!" One of the gods eximed in shock, he was never capable of something this powerful back in his pantheon before they were attacked by demons.

    "Ikaris, it''s done!" Dina spun, but found Ikaris already in Sitri''s grasp being suffocated as the demon-god grinned with her one hand holding her by her throat. "Let go of her!" Dina snapped, reaching Ikaris''s side within the sh of a second and pressing her hand against Sitri''s side. "Let go of her, otherwise I''ll blow a hole through you-"

    "If you had the power to do it after what you just did you would have done so, I know the power you hold, that unique attack can only be used once in a day, but I can entertain that much I suppose, Hero, go ahead, fire away." Sitri grinned, taking her eyes off Ikaris and looking down at Dina. "Go on-"

    "Mana spears!" Dina released several spears at Sitri''s side without hesitation, but they didn''t even scratch her bare skin.

    "Run..." Ikaris wheezed. "Take the others... and run, Dina, I will be fine... Master Will Come...!"

    "I can even entertain that, a good hunt after my failure to retrieve the goddess of war is just what I need, my lord has been avoiding me because of you all, I am not in a good ce with him and it is all because of that damned... Ugh, I would love to seek you out one by one and ughter you all like livestock so go ahead and enjoy a few hours of freedom!"

    "Dina...!" Ikaris snapped grabbing Sitri''s hand and spinning, catching the demon-god off guard and locking her in a chokehold with her legs. "Don''t let this opportunity pass, I said go!"

    "But-"

    "Do as I say, protect the others!" Ikaris grunted when Sitri stood upughing at her attempts and mming her against the wall.

    "Sol wille!" She arose and grabbed Sitri by her waist. "I promise, he will!"

    "Ikaris-"

    "Raaah!" Ikaris roared raising Sitri off her feet and mming her into the ground and straddling her, this time the demon-god was shocked, she had never seen a selfless god before, nor had she ever seen a desperate one, they usually epted their fate as soon as it was issued, sheid there intrigued taking each ground shaking punch from Ikaris who was doing her best to distract her from Dina and the other gods running away.

    Ikaris punched until her knuckles started bleeding, and it was then that another guard made it there and kicked her off Sitri then ced arge rectangr gun at her head intent on shooting her.

    "Explosion!"

    Ikaris set off several constant explosions over the span of half an hour, evaporating the guard and everyone else behind him, sending mes all the way to the ground floors of the castle, then watched Sitri walking through the white mes and fanning it out of her face as if it was a passing puff of smoke.

    "Explosion!"  Ikaris tried again, but only a small insignificant eruption of mes escaped her palm

    "They are gone, you have seeded at the cost of your own freedom, Imend you at least, brave goddess, but you have no more power to spare, surrender yourself, Ikaris." Sitri rested her hand on Ikaris''s head when she fell to her knee shaking from the mana loss.

    "Sol will note, nobody wille, but do not lose hope, do not break yet, I want to see your face when I bring that girl back to your feet as nothing but a corpse."

    ***

    [I detected another high reading of Arkadian mana; cosmic mana and high concentrations of explosion magic]

    "Pulsar and Explosion." Sol''s eyes narrowed as he began exerting more pressure while prism-shaped barrier appeared over him, protecting him as he continued speeding up. "How soon until I make contact?"

    [The time has been reduced from a day to ten hours, your demonic mana is still at a steady 100%]

    "Ten hours is still a lot of time, anything can happen by then." He shook his head. "I still didn''t sense either of their magics, I''m not close enough to lock on, and without the Arkadian manasphere to quickly rejuvenate them they will lose their ability to fight back if they overexert themselves, and they usually do, please keep monitoring."

    [Understood]

    "How long until you''ve grasped and taken control of thews?" He asked again.

    [Another twenty hours estimated, until then I can only manage and interact with those who you have physically interacted with]

    "System... Do you intend to spread your roots and allow free usage like you did on Arkadia?" Sol asked.

    [Never, demons have gued Arkadia for such a long time, killing many Arkadians who could have be great, taking innocent lives, I have stated the importance of me remaining in the grey, but how could I grant my powers to a species that mindlessly invade other dimensions and wantonly ughter the innocent?]

    The system responded in voice again, and Sol hummed. [I am not good, but I am not evil either, there has to be bnce, you saw the power Sitri amassed after I foolishly revealed myself to her, such a disaster can never happen again under my hand, I learned a valuable and hard lesson, and to you who also suffered because of this decision of mine, I am sorry]

    "..."

    ***

    "Hours have passed without you saying a word, Mdy, are you doing well?" Law who had finished his daily routine stopped and looked at A who had wordlessly followed him all day, remaining steps behind and reading from what the system had told her was called a tablet.

    She had asked about magic at first, but the moment the system had fed thenguage into her brain all she had done was read on all avable history, and there seemed to be a lot, Z-Prime and H��l were interesting ces, but they were dark and twisted as well, these demons were all in a way like Sitri.

    The only care they showed was to their own kind, and it was far less care than reptiles shared for their young.

    "I am learning of your history." She replied.

    -exclusive-content

    "Art, culture, these things are interesting to me, though, I am still curious about the decline in the magic on Z-Prime from a thousand years ago, it seems your people discarded magic and epted technology, and while I agree that technology is beautiful and useful, magic is pure, it is the foundation of enlightenment, why would the people follow the dictatorship of a single individual and allow him to siphon that power for himself in exchange for something that can so easily be taken away?"

    Law''s eyes opened wide at her question, he thought she had been pretending to read to pass time and seem intelligent, but this ve woman was incredibly well-read, as she had said simply waking her master was enough to enlighten her.

    "Have you... any experience with magic?" He asked, and A paused and looked up again.

    "I am a mage, master values the strong, and I am." She boasted. "How else do you believe I would have turned this n to ashes if not by magic?" She asked and He shrunk before her and lowered his head.

    "Of course, forgive me, I merely assumed that you were a very skilled warrior."

    "I am." A answered again. "I am everything I am demanded to be, be it a pillow, or his maiden, I will dlyy my life down for him, after all he is worthy of it."

    Law couldn''t rte to this, from his knowledge, demon-gods were pure evil, they were monstrous beings with the power to tten entire worlds, he would never assume that the servant of a demon-god would not only be so modest, but also so devoting without the use of fear.

    Then again what did he know, he was a simple old demon in a rural town where the strong preyed on the weak, the world was far wider than the well he grew up in.

 Chapter 120: Food and Shelter.

    "This is absurd." One godined as soon as he exited the tunnel Dina had created and saw nothing but a vast red sandy desert before them. "We are nearly a hundred, how can we survive without our powers, and I am sure you all heard that demon, she intends to hunt us for sport, when I was freed I expected to be led by a god, not some human girl-"

    Then go back." Dina turned to him. "Go on, walk right back into their grasp and see what happens to you!" She snapped, causing the god to flinch and ball his fists.

    "You only speak this way to a god because you know we are powerless-"

    "If you know you''re so powerless then shut the fuck up and don''tin about it." She red at him, her eyes were puffy and her hair had stuck to her face from excessive crying.

    "I have never seen a god act so selflessly for the well-being of any one, why did Ikaris do that?" Gadriel asked, wiping the sweat from her forehead and standing next to Dina.

    "... She''s a hero, needlessly sacrificing our lives for what we believe is right is what we do." Dina retorted, shading her eyes from the sun and looking across the desert of shimmering heat before them.

    "She was serious about being hero?"

    "Of course." Dina turned and raised her chin, lowering her choker and showing them the small shield crest on her neck which they had also seen on Ikaris.

    "She usually knows what to do, I''ve always just been support to her decisions..." She sighed and looked across the desert again. "Let''s at least start walking, there''s no point in staying here."

    "What about food and shelter, and what of our safety there are beasts out here in these deserts are you sentencing us to death by devouring?" The same pessimist god spoke up again causing murmuring amongst the multitude.

    "It hasn''t even been a few hours and you''re already being a pain in the ass, if it was solely my option I would have taken her instead and abandoned everyst one of you, my best friend is sacrificing her freedom to give you a chance at yours, if you don''t learn to shut up I''ll glue your lips and make you crawl on the hot red sand, got it?" She threatened him calmly, and he went mum at her calcted and intent expression.

    "How did someone as powerful as her-"

    "I understand that you''re curious, I get it, I promise I''ll answer everything you ask but first answer me, the monsters you mentioned in this desert, are they edible?" Dina asked, and the gods all collectively murmured again. "Come on."

    "Yes, but they are far too dangerous for us to hunt, if we confront those things we will die." Gabriell answered, but Dina had already heard what she wanted to hear.

    "That''s good enough, now... I am a mage, water is one of the first elements I learnt how to create and manipte, I am able to conjurerge amounts without issue, the same goes for fire and wind, this solves half of your problems, as for shelter, a makeshift cave should be good enough, if we end up stuck in the desert I can keep you all warm, and those beasts will do well enough for sustenance."

    "Will your mana not run out?" Another goddess asked through the crowd.

    "Haven''t you been listening?" Dina turned and started walking in the opposite direction. "Even if I can''t I''ll find a way, just like Ikaris I''m a hero, after all." the-ce-MVLeMpYr

    "I can only do as she has told and not think about anything else, otherwise I''ll leave you all to die out here and run right back to her."

    And so, their aimless journey into the deep desert began, forming a singr line behind Dina the deities tred carefully, doing their best not to sumb to the scorching heat whilst also keeping their eyes and ears alert for any disturbance in the environment which could mean the emergence of the desert creatures, but after the evening turned to night without incident they began doubting the existence of such monsters at all.

    "We made a lot of distance today." Dina stared in the direction of the city they had left seeing only faint lights in an otherwise ck night contrasted by the now orange sand below the horizon. "Everyone, please gather." She raised her hands and conjured an orb of water before her.

    "Drink only what you need, if you have too much after a whole day in the heat it''s gonna ruin your appetite or even make you faintish."

    "We have seen no creatures out here, water can only spare us for so long, at least as ves we were fed-" that same pessimist god spoke again, and upon speaking Dina hissed and pinched her forehead.

    "Who is that?"

    "I have no idea, he was so terrified when he first came that he never gave a name, and nobody asked afterwards, we do not know who he is nor where hees from." Gadriel responded after drinking her fill and moving for the others to do the same, the water was not the best in terms of taste, but it was pure and clean, she had no suchints.

    "Okay, nobody move." Dina released the casting after thest person had quenched their thirst, spreading her hands and casting "earthen wall" beneath them horizontally, creating a tform that raised them all off the sand by about a metre before casting it three more times diagonally, catering a pyramid shaped cave in a matter of seconds and then taking a breath.

    "This is amazing, any god of creation would be impressed by how resourceful you are!" Gabriellughed as she saw small flowers grow out of the cracks in the ground.

    "Funnily enough, I was never acknowledged by the god of creation, I was instead acknowledged by the goddess of chaos." Dina stepped off the tform and walked several dozen metres away while signaling them to stay put, and then once she felt she was at a safe distance, she raised her hand and conjured a mana-spear and aimed it to the ground.

    The gods all watched with baited breaths as the mage shot the spear down into the sand and then the sand beneath her shook for several seconds before going still. "Nothing happened-"

    Dina took off into the air like a jet just a mere second before a giant worm burst from the ground beneath her,nding on the sand and screeching as its tail swayed the worm wailed from its sole eye being pierced, it had no nose, but just by seeing the hundreds of feet it had it was easy to tell that it was fast, nobody would have been able to outrun it.

    Of course, none of that mattered, a mere second after it had stopped iling in an attempt to find it''s aggressor its body was assaulted by a barrage of mana des that easily dissected and chopped it up into bits and pieces, to which Dina quicklynded and grabbed onerge chunk the size of a car, raising it off the ground without struggle and throwing it over her shoulder while the sand around the corpse began vibrating again before three more worms emerged.

    They had no interest in the small portion that had been hefted away though when there was such arge amount of untouched meat which they could dine on.

    "How is your mana?" Gadriel asked as soon as Dina was before her again, and the mage closed her eyes and stared at her core internally.

    "Usually it would be easy to tell, but with my separation from the system I can''t be sure, after using a weakened pulsar though it should be somewhere between 80 to 75% by the looks of it" she looked at them, and the gods all seemed more disturbed than amazed by this revtion.

    "Don''t worry, our mana passively replenishes itself through mana reproduction sort of like photosynthesis with our bodies being the vessel."

    "That was not your strongest?" One asked

    "Pulsar grows with my strength, the first time I used it I was able to tear a hole in the atmosphere, and since then I have be three times as strong; if I had used the full power of pulsar then we would never have escaped, instead it would have levelled half the city and caused all the demon-gods in the area toe running." Dina created a hollow tform and summoned a knife as fire appeared beneath it.

    "The best we can afford right now is roast or fried meat using these secreted oils, obviously I can''t conjure up spices -I''m not a genie."

    "A what?"

    "... Nevermind." Dina made a thin slice through the worm''s exo-shell cing it on the tform as a makeshift pot, and then patting the shell again. "This shell is actually pretty tough, it''s probably heat resistant too, I could use some hear resistant armour."

    "Or at least a hat."

 Chapter 121: Out of time.

    "The mighty, the proud; the all-powerful, reduced to a state such as this, do you understand now?" Sitri was seatedfortably around a table eating daintily from a te full of exquisite-looking meat with a knife and fork, exercising proper table manners, and before her on the opposite side Ikaris was seated with her  hands and legs bound and her neck shackled.

    "Tell me, how do you expect your fiance toe from Arkadia?" She asked Ikaris who was silent with a somewhat expressionless re. "No?" Sitri took another bite of her meal and then ced her knife before Ikaris.

    "Okay, then, how is that child of yoursing along did it survive getting poked?" She asked, and like a switch had been flipped Ikaris''s eyes shed with divine power and the chains holding her trembled.

    "How dare you...?" Ikaris pulled against the shackles until they started tearing at her skin as her hatred bled out and her cerulean gaze turned crimson. "In my presence, how dare you mention her!?" She snarled dragging the chains until she started choking on them.

    "Oi-oi~" Sitri smirked at her. "Careful not to kill yourself there, I haven''t had my fun with you yet." She reached across the small table and grabbed Ikaris''s cheeks, leaning her head and looking at her blood dripping down the binds. "How are you even still able to use magic when you have been separated from Arkadia?" She watched Ikaris cast "heal" on herself.

    "I will tell you nothing!" Ikaris snapped when her sealed divinity subsided and a rush of mes came from her throat much like the breath of a dragon, burning the table to cinders in an instant before she began struggling again.

    "Haha, you even have more after clearly exhausting it earlier? Does this mean if I had practiced using Arkadian mana I would have had a secondary mana pool as well?" The demon-godughed, intrigued by Ikaris''s evolution. "By far the most fascinating deity I have ever met."

    "You haven not seen the half of it yet..." Ikaris growled, ncing at the demons beyond the cell bars of the newly reformed prison where she alone was taking up one side.

    "You ran with your tail tucked between your legs, Sitri, from Sol, he has already killed you once, you know by now how his strength works and how rapidly he evolves, you know that he is the Godyer, you will not get away a second time."

    "He will nevere." Sitri''s yfulness evaporated in the face of Ikaris''s clear provocation.

    "Sol Vestic is stuck on Arkadia, and you are stuck here, but as I said before, hope is good, keep holding on to it, I want you to hold on for as long as possible, so that I can slowly break you." Sitri stood and walked to the entrance taking a deep breath to calm herself and then looking at the guards who were staring at Ikaris''s presumably defenceless state.

    "Keep her healthy, keep her fed, force her to eat if you have to, but if you touch a hair on her head otherwise, I will ughter you and the entirety of your descendants, ancestors as well as your friends and their people, not a single hair, understood?" She red at therge boar-demon.

    "Loud and clear, your highness."  He stood at attention.

    "Good."

    ***

    "Time works differently here on Z than H��l." A stood on a small balcony staring at therge world that orbited them.

    "Though only a few hours of night have passed here, yet it is almost the next day on H��l already because of a faster rotation." She stared at the clock on the tablet before her. "This concept of timezones is interesting."

    [That is true]

    The system answered her analogy.

    [Master Vestic is scheduled to arrive within the next two hours, I have been picking up faint levels of Arkadian mana being used for small tasks such as terrain, me and water magic, it is an assumption, but I believe they are somewhere slightly safe for the time being, and though I am unable to pinpoint their locations I have confirmed throughout the night on H��l that the two are indeed alive and actively using magic whenever they feel they have to]

    "Thank you for telling me." A sighed with a stiff smile, seeing the demons passing her casually while ring with obvious I''ll intent. "How is master Vestic?"

    [Master is focused, almost scarily so, with the constant readings of mana he has lost hisposure and patience]

    "I see, she is his wife after all, and he and Dina have grown close as well." She rested her hand on the railings staring up at the stars. "I pray for all of their safety, and I feel pity for anyone who has be his enemy."

    [I do not, the demons are ruthless even to their own kind, evil creatures, though I would not support the genocide of an entire race, in their case I would not reject the idea either, even I with limited emotion am angry at them for what happened to Arkadia.] The system replied very emotionally in voice, and A nodded and sunk into a chair behind her.

    "Mdy." The servant girl approached with her hands folded daintily before her. "Supper is ready, father has invited you to join us."

    "... Okay."

    It was a bit strange for A, everyone had their perceptions of demonkin, they were vicious indeed, but she had been exposed to one who showed some level of kindness in this girl, she did not behave like the others, she did not operate demonic in any regard; she seemed kind even...

    "Ugh, what the fuck am I even thinking, of course they are all bad." A shook her head.

    "Pardon?"

    "Nothing," A stood and turned off the tablet. "Lead the way, Sri."

    ***

    "I wish there was a way to ride them," Dinamented, watching the worms in the distance emerge and dive through the sand in arge pod like dolphins. "Social animals are often easier to tame."

    "You wish to ride the sand-worms?" Gadriel asked with a raised brow.

    They had continued long before the sun was even up, gaining more distance after dismantling the previous campsite and burying everything under a dune. "Where did you get such an absurd idea?"

    "A performance, a movie I watched as a child called "desert hills" where the male protagonist; the hero of the story, was able to ride on the top of a giant worm, it was a fun movie." Dina responded, her and most of the others now had chunks of worm shell as makeshift shelters.

    "Did this hero have a name?" Gabriell asked.

    "It is only a story, the world where I am from does not have magic, so people create fantastical tales all the time to explore the impossible things they are unable to do in reality."

    MVLeMpYr-unofficial-text

    "But you are a hero, and clearly able to manipte mana, skillfully too." Gadriel countered.

    "I was summoned to Arkadia by the Queen of thest remaining city in a desperate bid to help defeat the demon army, in the end the army was defeated not by us heroes, even Ikaris stood no chance against that monster; It was Sol who saved us and killed Sitri."

    "Sitri is alive though."

    "That is not the real Sitri, not truly, from what I understand, it is merely a clone of the original soul of the demon-god that possessed and injabits the body of an unfortunate girl. "Sitri died on Arkadia, by his hands." Dina shook her head.

    "Hail to the Liberator." Gabriell chanted in a whisper. "Through his grace we gods will escape oppression."

    "Haha, Sol hates gods." Dina raised a brow at the goddess next to her.

    "But... He and ikaris-"

    "Are in love, yes, they are betrothed as well, she was even pregnant until recently, where Sitri caused her to lose the child."

    "Gods are infertile, that is absurd, how could she be pregnant?"

    "Their bond is a miracle, I had no idea." Dina chuckled. "Either way, it happened, and the demon-god paid the price of her sins with her life... I should have never left Ikaris alone with that monster..."

    "Then," Gabriell tugged at the torn cape on Dina''s shoulder. "Will you return to save her?"

    "Ikaris is strong, and I don''t mean that in a physical way, I mean she is the strongest person I know, next to Sol; she stood before hordes of demons knowing well that her life was a risk, she fought against a demon-god when the other gods all ran away, she has continued to grow ever since I met her, the once arrogant and selfish goddess is now a caring and nurturing woman capable of so many great things, that is something Sitri will never be able to take from her.

    Besides..."

    "Besides?" Another asked when Dina went quiet.

    "If she says Sol wille, then that means he''s already on his way, maybe a day from now, or a month, I don''t know, but I do know that she sensed him on the day we arrived, and I believe her, because he is just that kind of person, once he finds out where she is, nothing will stop him."

    "No matter what, he always finds a way." Dina took a deep breath and stopped, summoning her staff and pointing it toward the horizon behind them. "Everyone, run, and keep running, there is a ridge ahead, some kind of desert canyon, I will buy you as much time as I possibly can, find a way to Z-Prime, that is where he would be ording to her."

    "What happened?" Gadriel asked staring across the horizon and seeing nothing but clouds, sand and stars.

    "Sitri ising, our time ran out."

 Chapter 122: Legend.

    "It has only been a few hours!" The gods started panicking upon hearing the news, but like a beacon in the night Dina''s pink mana surged around her body and she turned to them with a stern expression.

    "I can''t make any promises anymore, Ikaris was captured, and honestly she might kill me, but I also know that when your mana is sealed they can''t detect you, so go, hide, and whisper a word of prayer.

    "To whom, we are gods there is nobody to pray to."

    Dina slowly ascended several feet off the ground and looked across the horizon again. "Who else?" She asked. "I have seen it before, when you need him most, he wille."

    "Is she talking about the liberator?" One other god asked Gadriel and she smiled worriedly, staring at Dina''s back and then turning.

    "Come friends, this is more freedom than any of us have seen in hundreds of years, smile for them, ept their sacrifice, live even just for a moment, we were rescued, we were fed, we have been liberated, we are all free gods again!" Gadriel eximed with tears of sorrow and joy raising her fists to the night skies.

    She took off running in the direction Dina had instructed them before, and after her was her sister, and then the others slowly joined in the sprint until their trickle turned into a flood of sprints until just one remained; oddly it was the god who had asked the most questions and doubted everything the most.

    "Go on." Dina kept her back to everyone listening as their shouts and cries lessened. "Why are you still here?"

    "Thank you, Dina of Earth, should I live through this, I will erect a monument in your name, and that of Ikaris, who did what we never thought to do throughout our captivation." He rubbed his eyes.

    "Thank you, Hero!" He shouted on the top of his voice and then turned and sprang into a full sprint.

    "If you say it like that..." Dina also wiped her eyes, unsure of what the next minute would mean for her, unsure of how she would escape this situation. "If you say it like that, I won''t want to fight at all." She broke into tears slightly swaying forward and catching her hair into a ponytail. "I hope I''m doing the right thing."

    Dina sobered up when her ears began ringing several minutester, and the next moment she opened her eyes, Sitri was a few feet before her, bare knuckled and stoic.

    "It is a beautiful morning to die, Dina Levina." Sitri stared, no smile, no frown, just an emotionless nk stare as Dina''s pink mana radiated like a star.

    "But you are giving away your one and only life for people you have just met, how is this sensible, I do not understand, unlike Ikaris you hold no use to the lord, your body will age rapidly, soon you would have been an old woman and died a painless death had you stayed behind, but now... I am obliged to kill you as an escapee."

    "Why do you sound sad about it?" Dina cancelled the staff in her grasp and sucked in a breath.

    "I am not, I am only confused, these feelings of love and kinship are foreign to me, they are stupid emotions that get your kind killed more than any other species, and yet you do not learn."

    "It is human nature to be as cruel as you and your kind," Dina stared at her. "But us same cruel humans are also capable ofpassion beyond the gods who create and guide us, the true heart of a human is bncing good and evil, I never expected someone as fucked up as you to understand that." She raised her hand, conjuring an invisible barrier around her body.

    "Then, are you satisfied with your decision?" Sitri asked instead of attack, and Dina lowered her hands again. "You will never see Ikaris again, you will never see Sol again, none of your hero friends, you will not know what happens to the gods you are trying to save, what is the point?"

    "Long after I''m dead and gone, Sitri." Dina sped her fists and raised her defences again. "My memory will live on, within you as the girl who defied, in them as the hero, and in Ikaris as a friend, my story might end here, but I have a beloved legend that can never be erased by you or anyone else!"

    "Interesting." Sitri raised her hand and pointed her finger at Dina. "Foolish, but interesting." She fired off a single ck beam of mana from her index and with all the defences Dina had created it tore right through and pierced her lung, but before she even started losing breath or blood the mage pped her hand over the sudden wound and sealed it all with "minor heal"

    "Are you taking pity on me?" Dina stumbled in the air before rushing at Sitri with an unconventional punch which the demon-god easily caught.

    "Of course not, I am intrigued by you, and slightly disappointed that you have to die here." Sitri raised her other hand and struck with the intention of blowing her heart clean out of her back, but to her shock, Dina grabbed her hand and held it in ce.

    "!?"

    "What th-"

    "Pulsar!!"

    Dina opened her mouth wide and Sitri saw a sh of light from her throat before everything went nk before her.

    NovelBin-exclusive-content

    Dina lost an arm in the midst of the explosion that turned an entire stretch of desert into Molten ss within the fraction of a second.

    "Fuck!!" The mage fell to her knees, holding her wound and casting another healing spell on it to seal it shut.

    The corners of her mouth were burnt and torn, and her tongue was slightly swollen as well, and her lip had been split from the bacsh of her own attack, because simply put, she released every ounce of mana she had in that attack.

    It was the biggest one yet, and the burning desert was proof of it, after Sitri had dropped her guard she took advantage of that while preparing her spells using the second third and fourth casting techniques A had taught her.

    *Haah

    *Haah

    The mage leaned forward with a slight chuckle in the back of her hoarse throat, surely that was a devastation; she wasn''t sure but based on how far it had gone there was a chance it even made it all the way back to their royal city.

    "That was a bit of a shock... No, honestly that frightened me a lot." Sitri gracefullynded in the cooling ss right before her with her hand still in her grasp. "I never expected that you would be able to use that terrible magic twice in less than a day''s time psed, I underestimated you." She smiled at Dina''s shocked expression.

    "It seems you are all tapped out now though- hey what are you...?" Sitri became disturbed when Dina startedughing.

    "Look at you, if I had known I''d have hit you with it sooner!" Dinaughed, standing and staring at Sitri''s missing stump of an arm and her jaw that had been torn off revealing her teeth.

    "You act all invincible, but in the face of real power you always retreat!" She continuedughing knowing for a fact that Sitri had torn her arm off in an attempt to escape the point-nk pulsar, and it was partially a sess too.

    Dina''s rant was interrupted when Sitri''s foot connected with and broke her nose sending her t on her back crying out in pain, but again she raised herself and began chuckling, aiming her one good hand at the demon-god and chuckling.

    "Come on, I still have so many new powers I haven''t tried yet!" She cast a small explosion in Sitri''s face as she looked inward at her dried up mana reserves.

    "If I''ll die anyway, I can just use the power Renia gave me to the fullest, it''s not divine mana so it''ll still work... But, even as I stand here, I am still afraid to use it, not like this, not now, I don''t want to die here!" She ground her teeth.

    "If you really are there, would you please just show up already, I need you, Sol!" Dina whispered. "Ikaris said pray, so I''m praying, I''m calling... I''m begging you to save me!"

    "Are you praying to a being that is not even a god, are you stupid, you still did here -that changes nothing!" Sitri shed her hand and shook her head, and all her injuries healed in an instant.

    She took a step toward Dina who was barely able to stand let alone fight, and after she did the air erupted with a loud thunderous explosion, and the san around them began shaking and all the ssrhatbhad formed shattered and turned back to sand.

    From the constant tremors Dina stumbled and fell backwards, but before she could hit the ground she was caught, and looking over her head shock struck her when she saw a pair of horns and a familiar jawline soaking up the warmth as all her injuries vanished and her arm regrew back to perfect health.

    "I was already on my way, but thanks for calling out to me, Dina."

 Chapter 123: Judgement.

    "You..." Dina stared up at Sol with her eyes wide in surprise and relief. "Ikaris is that way." She pointed immediately toward the direction of the city which just so happened to be beyond Sitri who had gone stiff from shock.

    "There is a tunnel, and beyond that tunnel beneath a really big castle there''s a dungeon, that''s where we left her-" NovelBin-story

    "We?"

    "She gave up on her chance of escaping to buy us time to get away, that was yesterday."

    "And where are the others?" Sol looked around. "Ah-" his head snapped back toward Sitri who flinched as soon as his eyes fell off her form.

    "Don''t move a muscle, don''t even breathe, if I so much as smell your mana you''ll be a corpse, this is an emergency situation now so I''ll have to ask you to stay here and watch over Dina for me." Sol looked around again, sensing out the other gods who were still hightailing it toward the canyon.

    "What are you saying, have you forgotten who she is?" Dina asked, but Sol was distracted with thoughts of Ikaris and only patted her shoulder again, releasing her and cing his hand against her forehead.

    "Wait right here for me, I''ll be back in a little bit."

    "H-how dare y-" Sitri finally found her bearings when she realised that Sol was not even paying heed to her presence, but as soon as her words formed her jaw was on the ground in a puddle of blood and her tongue was dangling beneath her face.

    "I have no idea what state Ikaris is in, to the point where I''m afraid of confronting or seeing her right now, Sitri, you took our child, and then you took her from me as well, I don''t want to imagine what she''s been through because of you, so I''m going to make this as clear as it can be;" Sol''s eyes rested on the demon-god a third time.

    "There is no more warning, there is no more mercy, I''m simply saving you as an afterthought, so make sure to stay right there and wait for your death like the good little bitch you are, not a move, not a sound, shut your brain off and stop existing." His eyes narrowed and mana violently leaked from the crevices dissipating in the air around him.

    "I will be back for you after I''ve retrieved my wife." Sol watched her jaw regrow and remain ck as she held her breath and fell to her knees, with her eyes trained on him.

    Dina couldn''t believe her eyes, even when Sol slowly arose off the ground and took off toward the city the mage remained inplete disbelief as she stared at Sitri, the demon god that had done nothing but brag and show off her power, the narcissist waspletely obedient to her death sentence to the point where she fell still and refused to breathe.

    "So... You won''t even try to run?" Dina sat in the sand, but Sitri seemed to truly have just robotically shut off.

    She didn''t understand yet, Sol to her seemed like the same person, different in appearance with this new demonic transformation, but otherwise he seemed the same. But for one like Sitri who could see the monster he had evolved into after their fight, he was terrifying beyond her imagination.

    "The princess said not to touch her-"

    "Ah shut up, we just have to clean up nicely after we''re done." One fish demon guard responded to the boat demon guard.

    "What do you mean we, there is no we, she threatened my entire family, I have my people to look out for!" The boar entered the cage and grabbed the fish demon who was hovering over Ikaris and drooling on the floor. "You stink, there is no way the demon-gods won''t know your stench when they smell herter on, forget it!"

    "You fucking coward, grow some proper backbone and stop being such a slug, this is a god, she is trash, so what if we fuck her for a few hours, who cares?"

    "The princess does!" The boar snapped at him, but the fish hissed and turned to Ikaris again.

    "What bullshit; if it''s as bad as you say I can just go live in the ocean with my n again, they never go there anyway." The fish demon licked his lips and reached out to Ikaris who was still chained to the chair, resting his slippery webbed hand on her leg and smirking when he felt her shudder beneath his palm.

    "Don''t you dare!!" Ikaris snapped raising her head and unleashing a hellze of crimson fire at him, but after seeing her repeatedly use magic he was already prepared for that, with a single motion the guard flung an extra bit of cloth-wrapped chain around her mouth and muzzled her, then cocked back his hand and mmed his fist in her jaw causing blood to start trickling from her mouth and nose.

    "I do fucking dare; the nerve of this one haha!" He looked around at the other guard who was already going through a series of panicking andmenting after Ikaris was hit.

    "They think they own everything, but the moment theye here they fold so easily, I have broken so many of these little goddesses already -do you think you''re some hot shit or something?" He asked leaning forward and speaking in her face with breath so rancid her nose started to hurt.

    "They can pretend all they want, but after a while they start liking it when I stick my tongue deep into their throats and stir their insides, that shit turns them on, you''ll like it too little goddess, but first I might as well enjoy the main course..." He held on to her other leg and started forcing them open while Ikaris put up all the fight she could while being burdened by the chains.

    "For fuck''s sake stop man you''re gonna get us killed down here!" The boar pped his forehead and peeped up and down the hall. "We have no idea when the princess will return!"

    "Shit man shut up about it already, if you''re so tight why not just join in and say fuck it to everything?" The fish demon folded his fist and punched Ikaris so hard her chair broke off from the ground and shattered in the wall, but she was so stunned by the attack that she couldn''t even move as he picked her up by her arm and raised one of her legs.

    "Did it have to take that much to get the fight out of-"

    His hand fell off, and then his tongue that had pressed against her cheek dropped to the ground, Ikaris remained airborne watching with a half consciousness as the demon fell to his knees before a portal opened up beneath him and burning disfigured hands grabbed and started dragging him into a fiery pit of screams and shrieks.

    The chain was gently moved from around her mouth, and the other shackles that had been on her all turned to powder and fell, and before her, a soft hand cradled her and she was embraced in a slow hug while her wounds suddenly healed meanwhile she felt a powerful surge of her divine mana erupt from within her followed by the humming of her sigils.

    "...Master?" Ikaris''s eyes started adjusted again, and her limp arms slowly wrapped around him as the seal on her was broken and her mana continued to surge and surge. "You came..."

    "I''m sorry, Ikaris," Sol had his back turned to the boar demon that just stood there watching a demon-god cradle a god who had just called him master while his panic from earlier resurfaced violently and caused a stroke killing him where he stood.

    "What took you so long?" She cried in his grasp, biting into his arm and sobbing uncontrobly. "He nearly... I nearly...!" She wept, and while she wept Sol''s anger continued to grow until it reached a boiling point and he vanished with her leaving a burning magic seal where he stood.

    Only a few minutes had psed, but Sitri had still remained in ce, not even flinching when Sol returned with Ikaris crying in his grasp next to her.

    "Did she move?" He looked at Dina.

    "Not even the wind was able to move her hair." Dina replied hesitantly when she saw Ikaris''s crying state, the blood on her armour, as well as the adhesive liquids that were on her legs and chest. "W...ah... What happened?" She asked whilst simultaneously being afraid of the answer, but Sol shook his head and waved his hand over Ikaris, erasing all traces of her being touched.

    "Luckily nothing, but that changes nothing." Sol held Ikaris a little tighter, taking a knee and hugging her properly as she glued herself to him. "It doesn''t matter to me anymore, innocent, guilty, born or unborn, I don''t care anymore..."

    He held his goddess tightly and his inverted red eyes turned to ck and white, his ck hair turned to white, his demonic featurespletely vanished as the system made an announcement to Dina who he had touched earlier, A who was on Z-Prime and Ikaris whom he held on to.

    [Cursed is thend, Cursed is the air, Cursed is the sea, Cursed are all their inhabitants, a decision has been made, the inhabitants of H��l have been judged]

    "They have forced my hand, I don''t care what god of what intends to stand in my way, let them gather their armies of demon-gods, let them amass their forces, let them fucking believe their existences will carry on!" Sol looked at Sitri who''s eyes had gone wider than before at the power she could feel trembling inside of him.

    "Three days, I''m giving them three days to grow their strength, every lifeform that tries to leave will burn, every being that tries to hide will be swept away, I''ve had enough of all demons, I''m killing everything."

    [This is not the path of a god, nor the path of man]

    "I''m murdering everything!"

    [This is the path of a devil]

    "...I''m ending it all."

 Chapter 124: What Is The Godslayer?

    "Go." Sol stared at Sitri. "Let them know, let them all know, from this moment on I''m their greatest threat, I won''t relent, I won''t stop, I will not waver in the face of anything they could possibly have prepared, I''llpletely wipe away this entire universe, one, one gxy one fucking cluster at a time, in ten years I will turn this ce into an empty void of floating debris."

    "Please..." Sitri spoke, but grabbed her mouth after she said it and stared at him preparing for a violent retort, but all she received was a stare. "Okay," She stood and took off with the most urgency she ever had only to stop upon Sol calling to her again. "Yes?"

    "Don''t make yourself hard to find, you''re still on the top of my list, got it?"

    "... Okay." She answered with a clearly depressed expression and then took off again vanishing with such speed that a storm of sand kicked off behind and grew as it followed her.

    "What the hell just happened?" Dina stared at him, approaching carefully, but Sol smiled warmly at her and set Ikaris to stand as he rested his hand on her head again. "How long have you been here?"

    "A said I''ve been unconscious for a week back on Z, but I know that time runs faster here on H��l.

    [Approximately 17 days have passed on H��l] the system responded in voice to all of them, and Ikaris looked up at him with eyes demanding answers, while he just caressed her cheek and took a deep breath.

    "Let''s find those others first." Sol snapped his fingers, and a phantom force picked up Dina while Ikaris took his hand and ascended with him toward the canyon.

    ***

    How long have we been running?" Gadriel asked seriously, they had not slowed since they started, and yet the canyon Dina had mentioned was still out of sight, her sister next to her wanted to answer, but upon opening her mouth the skies above them exploded several times with the sound of an object approaching at Mach speeds, and then slowing down with a loud whistle.

    "What is that?" One god pointed to the air above them seeing the clouds disperse and ripples travel across the dawn sky. "It''sing our way!" She fell to her knees, and with her most of the others lost hope again and fell to the sand inmentation.

    Gadriel and Gabriell stood as the representatives of the others and held their ground watching as the object descended and crashed before them kicking up another storm of dust before a bright white glow blew everything away, revealing Ikaris walking toward them with her wings in full disy and her true form in all her beauty.

    "Is that... Ikaris?" Gabriell stared at her shocked, and then looked behind her seeing Dina. "Dina-" She paused, there was a third figure of tall stature, lightly armoured with hair that glowed white and stare that could easily be mistaken for ipetence with how expressionless it was.

    "It is good to see you safe!" Ikaris grabbed the two sisters in a hug and sighed as her wings surrounded them. "Let me introduce you-" she turned but Sol who was previously behind Dina was now right behind her.

    "He is Sol, like I had told you, he came." She took his hand and pulled him closer, but unlike the arrogance Sol had seen in other gods, these were humble, they all took a knee before him with their heads lowered.

    "Godyer..." Gadriel raised her hands in a gesture of begging, which from what he knew of gods was a sign of submission and reverence, and Sol just stood there staring down at her confused.

    the-ce-NovelBin

    "Go on," Ikaris smiled at him. "There is a lot I have to exin to you as well." She guided his hand to Gadriel''s and watched him lock fingers and help the goddess to her feet again, and after her the others also stood.

    "He is beautiful." Gabriell mused a second time staring up at Sol.

    "Uh... Let''s get out of here first." Sol stared across the mass and then at his side at Dina who joined and greeted the goddesses as well, and then with a snap of his fingers, they all vanished, reappearing in the courtyard of the small demon n where it was still nighttime from a slower rotation.

    "You returned!" A swept through the closest door and grabbed Sol''s arm, and then looked beyond him at Ikaris and Dina and broke into tears. "You all came!" She ran passed Sol and grabbed them in a tight hug.

    "What is this?" Ikaris picked A up like a cat and raised her staring at the sigil on her neck, "when did this happen?"

    "It is purely cosmetic your holiness, nothing more than a measure made to ensure my safety here." A kicked excitedly while Ikaris slowly put her down.

    "What is that?"

    "I have never seen someone glow like her, look at those wings, that is no demon, what is she?"

    "What happened to the appearance of Master Vestic, he looks different!"

    The surrounding demons quickly began increasing in numbers causing the gods to gather closer to Sol and Ikaris, while Dina stepped to the side and slightly raised her hand toward someone who had perched on a rooftop with an arrow.

    "Are we still in enemy territory?" She asked, and Sol shook his head and raised his hand as well causing every man, woman and child to float off the ground and out of their houses.

    "These ones took care of me when I was unconscious, because I was under demonification, and A was safe here as well..." Sol stared up at them with stoic resignation. "I can at least grant them all painless deaths-"

    "Not her!" A leapt and grabbed on to Sri''s hand, but failed to bring her back to the ground so just hung there weightlessly. "Please, spare this girl." She begged.

    "Why?"

    "It is my one request, please, she among them is the most innocent." A looked down at Sol''s uncaring eyes and those of Ikaris and Dina. "She has done no wrong, she is a good child."

    "Good?" Sol raised a brow.

    "Can any of these creatures be good?" He asked, and A bit her lips, indeed she had spent the entire day reading through their histories, but there had not been a single feat of good amongst the records, they always did the immoral, always strove for destruction and destion, the amount of realms of gods they had destroyed spanned into the hundreds of thousands, Septillions of lives taken in the name of their conquest; she had no retort.

    "I will take responsibility for her, I promise, if she does anything then I will kill her myself, I will take full responsibility!"

    "Sol... She''s begging." Dina held on to his arm, while Ikaris also braced herself onto him and stared up. "Please."

    "The three of you?"

    "She took care of you in my absence and ensured your safety, the lest you can do is trust her judgement, love." Ikaris smiled at him, and he sighed, watching Sri get caught by A and escorted back to the ground safely.

    "What is happening?" The young demon asked, and A smiled at her.

    "Sol is not a demon-god, nor is he some kind of demon noble, he is an ally of the devine, the fate of your people was always going to be death by his hands after they destroyed his world and stole his beloved, his state of sleep and you watching over him carefully is why I decided to help you." A whispered to Sri and pointed to her abode.

    "Say your goodbyes and quickly go back inside, he is impartial to demons." She warned her, and Sri looked up at her father again and gave him a small smile before running back into her house, while he epted his fate and smiled back.

    "Please take care of her." Law smiled again before he and all his nsmen vanished in a flurry of light and mana particles.

    "What is happening?" Gadriel asked.

    "Master has decided to take matters in his own hands." Ikaris looked around at her.

    "Master?" Sol raised his hand and dropped it on her head. "Everyone else is calling me that already, Ikaris."

    "Ah!" She blushed and leaned onto him. "My apologies, Love."

    "What does that mean?"

    "Every demon, every demon god, I''m going to eradicate their existence." Sol turned to the gods before him and spread his hands again, casting a veil around them the same as he had done to Ikaris earlier, and one by one their shackles broke, and their divine powers were unsealed, what he saw was a mixe of pantheons of creatures, some evolving into their original forms which defied logic and reason, others disappeared from sightpletely, others turned into beings of the forth dimension.

    And then there was Gadriel and Gabriell, their ears, their wings, they looked just like Ikaris.

    *Ding!

    [Wee all gods of this new pantheon, you have been adopted into the care of I, the system which resides within Master Vestic]

    A system window appeared before all of them.

    "New pantheon? We are entirely different-" Gadriel chuckled in rejection, but a window fell out of the air and mmed into her head.

    *Ding

    [Pay respect to the almighty ever-evolving system little goddess]

    "This infuriating little-"

    [Reverence yourself before the direct servant of the Godyer!] The system made an uncharacteristic roar through its windows appearing everywhere across the courtyard in bright physical red, startling even Sol.

    "A, get that girl to show them around, I''m going inside, Dina, you should find somewhere isted and rest up as well you barely have any mana." Sol shook his head and grabbed the system window in front of him, looking at Ikaris who seemed to know what was going on as the gods all went into a respective bow again.

    "I need to speak to Ikaris about what the Godyer actually is."

 Chapter 125: Please, Break Me.

    *A long time ago, when the vastness of space was still a young concept, and the pirs of creation were in their infancy, only the dark dimension existed, there were no gods, there were no demons, there was just the light that hid below all and the darkness that prevailed above all.

    It was like this for many millennia; a status quo with a darkness that was uncontested, a darkness that was undefeated.

    But through the passage of time that darkness started to get pushed back by a new entity that sought equilibrium, the powers of the beginning; a concept of life and destruction so powerful that it erases anything in its path, whether that be the darkness that tried hiding from it, or the light that stood behind it and slowly grew, and so it became a struggle between these three great primordial entities.

    The Beginning which held no allies, the Darkness that wanted to swallow all, and the Light that utilized the Beginning and gained power overtime.

    When the struggle was at its peak the two first entities, Dark and Light; Chaos and Order, they gained sentience, standing on two sides of the same realm, and upon their first struggle for dominance since the Beginning had been conceptualised, there was an explosion that formed what we call the realm of creation, what otherster referred to as the big bang was the first struggle between sentient light and darkness.

    This explosion, thergest ever explosion in the history of time which birthed the concept of time in order to measure it did three irreversible things; it gave light an advantage, springing birth to an uncountable, unfathomable amount of universes where only light dominated, and darkness was swept in a corner or left to its own spaces, and the Primordial Darkness was trapped in a prison of sorts, the original universe where light was weak and submissive to it, this universe.

    The powers of the Beginning now reside in a ce where only the most powerful can ess it through sacrifice, a void where nothing is fact nor fiction, where no universalws and no physics exist; a sixth dimension where no god dares tred.

    This was the new norm for a while, the light eventually with its sentience became known as He above all else, and the darkness was afterwards referred to as Her below all else, and in their respective universes they conceptualised new life in the form of stars, gxies, and the first children of these existences were referred to as Gods.

    There are three Primordial Gods that were born of light known as the firsts, and there was one primordial demon god known as Void who was born through the Darkness-

    "This is all interesting worldbuilding but it strays from my question; what about the Godyer?" Sol was seated at the edge of bathtub, and Ikaris was dragging her fingers through his soapy hair and carefully washing him, while soft electronic music yed in the background.

    "It is getting to that." Ikaris pointed and sprayed the water over his eyes and pushed the back of his head for his impatience. "Shall I continue, my love?" She asked, bracing onto his back, slowly gliding her hands down his wet chest and kissing his neck sensually.

    "...Go on."

    *The three primordial gods were Creation, Destruction, and Bnce, while the demon god who was at the time unknown resided with the most powerful drive of any living being; Hatred.

    They existed for hundreds of millions of millenia without the knowledge of each other, but then the demon god caught wind of a third party, the Beginning and through tinkering with that power for his own gains he managed to make his way into the realm of the gods creating the first rift between dimensions,  and his power was unfathomably greater than theirs were, he wanted the bonds that they shared, he wanted the idea of kinship which they had but when it was proven to be an impossible concept, he sought to destroy everything.

    In a bid to escape the tyrannical dark one the three primordials scattered their consciousnesses to the far reaches of the multiverse they ruled, through time and space, through multiple dimensions, making their destruction impossible, and shortly after that chaotic encounter a strange fourth party was born, one which had the power to counter the darkness, one which was born with its own universe inside of it.

    "The Godyer?" Sol raised his head when Ikaris started dragging her nails across his arms and back.

    *The Godyer gained the name because it obeyed nows, no rules, and it freely rampaged across multiple universes in search of the darkness which caused its creation, and upon finding that darkness it stole the powers of the Beginning from him and banished him back into his dark domain.

    "So what exactly is the Godyer supposed to be then?"

    "The Godyer is the ally of of the gods, the progenitor of chaos and imperfect harmony, and the enemy of demonkind, it is the bridge between worlds; the bnce that glued the light and dark together... did you never find it strange that you could wield so many different  kinds of contrasting magic, Dear?"

    "Demonic magic, Divine magic, I also learned An Magic as well as utilized Arkadian Magic using An Mana..." Sol counted the four on his hands. "Are you saying I can learn more?" He asked her.

    "You are the Liberator, Sol." She hugged him again from behind while he was standing, bracing her cheek on his back and locking her fingers. "Your soul is the incarnation of chaos and bnce, the Godyer is he who frees the gods from oppression."

    "I thought I got that as just a title for killing a god-"

    "The nameless entity wielding divine and Demonic power first killed a god to be recognised as the Godyer, and since the time of its disappearance no other being has ever been able to achieve killing a demon-god, and a divine god, it chose you." She smiled against him. -exclusive-content

    "Then..." Sol turned to Ikaris and raised her off the ground, locking her legs around his waist and pressing her back on the wall. "I''m curious about something else that''s been bothering me, I''m curious about you this time, Ikaris."

    "What do you wish to know, my love?" Ikaris sighed when she was very slowly lowered onto his erect and throbbing tower, closing her eyes and biting her lips as he released her weight causing her ass to p against his legs as she took him all in with a low moan and her legs shaking.

    "The way you speak of this, the knowledge that you have on the matter; where were you when this all took ce, who exactly is Ikaris?" He asked, and she dug her fingers into his arms, burying them almost down to the first digits and huffed in a higher than usual pitch when he violently thrust into her a second time.

    "I... Am... *Haah~"

    "Don''t lose focus." Sol cupped her ass and started bouncing her on top of himself.

    "I am and always have been Ikaris, Master-"

    "That''s not what I asked." Sol suddenly pulled her off himself and set her to stand, staring down at her while she blushed and tried regaining her breath as she stared down at his dick holding and stroking it with her eyes zed over with lust.

    "Ikaris." Sol stuck his thumb in her mouth and raised her eyes to his again, pulling at her jaw when her tongue stuck out and she started stroking him even faster. "Who are you?"

    "Your ve, your servant, your tool, your submissive, your pillow, yours~" She slumped to her knees and pushed him against the wall so hard it cracked, and with a single motion Ikaris took his full length down her throat, staring up at him as her eyes watered and pussy began dripping at the way he was looking at her, she felt convulsions throughout her tract and womb, just his stare turned her on to the point where she came as soon as her fingers brushed herhers with the slight intention and thought of pration again.

    "Ikaris." Sol dropped his hand on her head and balled his fist in her wet hair. "I''m being serious!" His nose twitched, and the veins in his arms bulged when she started resisting standing and instead began shifting her throat as her lips pressed against his pelvis and her eyes rolled in the back of her head, wringing him clean of a climax he had no control over because if her assertiveness.

    "Then!" Ikaris pulled her head back and took a deep breath, hugging his leg and kissing him with an endearing expression as she finished swallowing and smiled.

    "Master, I will tell you everything else, but first I need to make up for lost time, I want you to fuck me harder than you ever have before, break my mind, I am pent up, I am resistant, im me, satisfy me so thoroughly that I lose my sense of self." Ikaris began kissing his erection as it rapidly hardened again.

    "Is that a request or an order?" Sol furrowed his brows.

    "This humble servant deserves discipline, master, I beseech you to make an example out of me, punish my insolence; please-"

    "Please, break me."

 Chapter 126: Focus. (18+)

    *Ding!

    [This measure is not advised, you are currently the enemy of all demonkind, there could be an attack at any moment, Master Vestic] The system popped up before him when he closed his eyes, but Sol heeded no warning, he walked out of the shower holding Ikaris''s hand and leading her to the bedroom.

    "I''m doing it anyway, my woman needs satisfaction, I will give it to her." Sol scoffed, raising Ikaris off the ground, roughly dropping her on the bed and then pressing his hand onto the back of her head.

    "I''m going to take away the little control you have, Ikaris." Sol leaned closer, softly cing his hand on her sigil and taking a deep breath of focus before every sigil brightly lit up and then they all went ck and cold like A''s had been before he used his mana to alter them, upon feeling the entirety of her divine powers suppressed, Ikaris leaned her head and peeked at him, but what she found was his half-demonic transformation being suppressed and mixing with his divine mana.

    [Godyer has been fully activated]

    "What did you do?"

    "In order to truly have you at my mercy, I have to take away what makes you Ikaris, even though I''m not sure what that is and that''s what I''m trying to find out; I''m fully aware that as long as you wield your divine powers you have a sense of invulnerability, I have topletely undermine that power." Sol pressed her into the bed again making one deep thrust and breathing through his teeth when she clenched around his dick and gasped from shock.

    "Wh- haah~!" Ikaris grabbed the sheets and  bit into the pillow before her, her powers were sealed, but at the same time his Godyer hybrid mana was sending trips of magic across and around her body that caused her to rapidly reach a state of overstimtion. "Wait-"

    "I don''t think so," He pulled out all the way to the tip and then very slowly drove himself into her a second time. "Raise your ass, Ikaris."

    "Like this?" The dazed goddess obeyed him, lifting her ass as he began slowly thrusting.

    "Higher."

    "Yes sir..." She straightened her knees with her feet off the bed while he stared down at her back with a thoughtful expression.

    "Hmm, no, needs more tension, raise your ass higher."

    "This is the length of my legs, I can''t-"

    "I wasn''t asking!" Sol pped her ass causing her to squirt juices and tighten around him again as her legs shook. "You''ve trained your body for months now, figure it out."

    "I... will obey." Her breathing became more erratic, and she went on her elbows, raising her ass higher by going on her toes.

    "This is good." Sol stopped his thrusts and admired her form. "Beautiful from every angle."

    "Master-"

    *p

    Sol made one hard thrust silencing her as he reached deeper than usual from her posture and arch. "I don''t want any words of reason or impatience, I''m thinking here." He caressed her ass and smiled, and then stepped away from her and just stood there.

    "Keep like that for a while, every muscle in your abdomen and legs are at work so it''s only a matter of time." Sol raised his hand and turned it sideways delivering a stinging p across both her asscheeks that left her wailing in pain and moaning in pleasure simultaneously.

    He felt conflicted, he didn''t know how she saw it but for him this was sad, extremely erotic, but he was also very sad, because they had been the happiest in their lives right before everything went bad, and he hadn''t touched her since then, this was the first time since that moment she lost their child that he had truly slowed down enough to think about it, she was grieving and she had been grieving by herself while he was uncinscious; they never got a moment to process that grief together.

    "Somehow..." Sol''s hands leaked mana that epassed her and began caressing her with light touches causing her to tremor and struggle to keep her posture as she felt the fatigue in the pits of her abdomen.

    "It almost feels wrong, but I''m going to use this moment to grieve with you." He stepped closer and pped her ass again before forcing her to drop onto the bed and wildly prating her with a roar that echoed throughout the entire house, startling several neighbouring houses as her cries began escting until the entire vige was hearing her screams.

    "What. Is. This. Feeling?" Ikaris''s words came out between his thrusts, but Sol remained wordless as he grunted instead and went to a space in his head where only they existed.

    She reached behind herself when his pacing became erratic, but instead of pausing or stopping Sol grabbed her hands and pulled her onto himself folding his elbow around her throat while she began grinding out of instinct arched forward for the deepest pration she could afford with the restrictions.

    "What the fuck?" Sol''s brows furrowed when it felt like he was being sucked up into her while she just continued to grind and breathe wildly, holding on to his hands for stability and riding without abandon.

    Ikaris''s eyes slowly rolled into her head, and her saliva began dropping against his hand when she lost her ability to think rationally, but that ability swiftly returned when Sol released her back to the bed and raised one of her legs to his shoulder and groped her breast, thrusting to the point where even he was starting to sweat while she was being struck with orgasm after orgasm, rapidly losing strength.

    "M...m...mas-ter...!" She grabbed his hand that was enthusiastically ying with her breasts, but Sol caught her cheeks with his palm and pressed onto her barely allowing her to breathe as he locked eyes with her.

    "What are you doing, I said shut up!" Sol grabbed and started choking her with his other hand, watching her eyes roll over again while her legs locked around him weakly and her breathing became intense. "Am I clear?"

    "Hmmph!" Ikaris nodded rapidly shaking beneath him before he pulled out causing another shower to hit his chest and abdomen when she limply shook.

    Expertly, Sol reinserted his dick and spun with his legs under her knees, resting on his back while she fell on his chest heaving. "Don''t stop."

    "...master~" Ikaris''s ass slowly arose and dropped again as she began riding him with the remaining strength she could muster, but every time shepletely swallowed him he dropped his hand against her asscheek rewarding him with a soft moan as she stiffened and loosened her abdomen against his chest and hugged his neck. "I am unable to..."

    "You''re definitely not sleeping if that''s what you''re thinking." Sol grabbed her and began guiding her thrusts, raising her off his chest and thrusting again while she grabbed his legs to try and not fall over, but after multiple orgasms earlier her arms gave out and she copsed on top of him again, here Sol''s cruelty showed when her moans increased and his pounding into her doubled while he smiled at her expression growing more and more passive and submissive.

    "It has been no time at all, I''m not sure either of us are ready to start trying for a child again after what we went through." He leaned forward and grabbed her hair arching her on top of him and letting out a loud groan as his orgasm hit and sucked the strength out of his back while she continued pulling him from the inside.

    "Get up." Sol released her when she started resting on him again.

    "Of course." Ikaris moaned as she raised her leg and slid off his dick, but even just that act caused her to arch and fold onto herself as she came again this time shaking outside of her usual loss of control as the pleasure continued to build thanks to Sol consciously stimting her.

    Seeing her state Sol waited, he watched her patiently for minutes, sitting next to her with his palm beneath her cheek and his thumb in her mouth as she bit him and rode it out, but the second she stopped shaking and took a calming breath, he spun her on her arms and knees again and took stance behind her, cing the tip of his dick at her entrance and stroking it against her swollen lips.

    "Let''s continue then."

    "As you wish." Ikaris freely drooled on the sheets as she made a stupid grinning face and began sliding back on his dick. "Anything for you, everything for you." She chuckled and began moaning again."

    "Ah, she''s lost it."  Sol raised his brow and rested his hand on her head, balling his fist in her hair and dragging her face out of the sheets. "Put your back into it, I''m still rearing, it''s your job to drain everyst drop of cum out of me tonight."

    "Yesh~!" Ikaris began bouncing hungrily, panting like an animal while grabbing her breasts with her eyes crossing as she went into a state of pure extacy, convulsing and melting simultaneously, creating a feeling of her muscles softening and tightening around his shaft at the same time sending chills throughout his body whilst he was subjected to the ultimate suction.

    "Aahnngg~" Her moans were silenced when Sol raised her head even further, arching her and kissing her as he met her backward grind with strong thrusts of his own.

    "I''m cumming again!" Sol dragged her and opened his mouth over her shoulder, sinking his teeth in her flesh and drawing her blood, pumping again as she weakly hung on to him.

    "Inside... So much..." Ikaris limply fell forward, breathing heavily while being holstered by his arm around her waist as her body sucked him dry again.

    "I''m still hard though." Sol looked down on her after he released her, casting [heal] since he''d taken sovereign over her powers.

    "I can... more... master''s dick." Ikaris skillfully turned and locked her legs around his waist, hugging him without touching the ground and started slowly grinding and bouncing on him again, sucking in breaths every time his dick poked at her womb. "It hurts now... A little... Ish too deep, but it feels so good...

    Haa... haa~ Sol, I love you sho mush~" her words meshed and became almost incoherent. m-vle|mpyr exclusive

    Sol took her cheek and pulled her in for a slow kiss and then pulled her hair into a fist-full again and grinned.

    "I love you too Ikaris, I love you to death, now shut up and focus on fucking me properly."

    "Yes~"

 Chapter 127: Goddess of Balance.

    It was a long night; a sleepless night.

    Despite being in captivity for such a long time Gadriel and Gabriell had never heard the soundsing from Ikarise from anyone else, even if they tried to rest in thesefortable beds all they could hear were her moans and screams.

    "My shackles are broken and my power restored, and yet..." Gadriel stood by the door staring at Sol who wasfortably sitting in a chair with Ikaris in hisp on a random porch eating a cookie while he sipped tea, she believed they''d die with the wild all-nighter but she was shocked to see Sol first, and then Ikaris joined him an hourter while A and the surviving girl brought them breakfast.

    "I am exhausted and I was not even a part of their lovemaking." Gabriell sighed, resting on the door and staring with her sister.

    "Okay, you''ve had your fun now, it''s time to start talking." Sol pulled Ikaris onto his chest and sighed as she leaned on him and turned, cuddling and sticking her cooking in his mouth.

    "It is not a long story, but I missed you terribly so I took advantage of our arousal to wash away all the pain I felt." She exined in a very humble voice while her sigils pulsed from his hand slowly sliding across her exposed leg.

    "It''s okay, I did the same so don''t worry about it." Sol finished chewing and then opened his mouth when she took another cookie from the te next to her and fed it to him after taking a small bite.

    "Ikaris," She gestured to herself, speaking in the third person. "Ikaris is more than just a name, it is a thought, a meaning that formed before the name even was even conceived, all I did was inherit the title, and the memories of the one before me."

    "I don''t follow," Sol released his tea when she gently pried it from his hands and sipped it with a deep sigh. "Who did you inherit your name from, I thought gods didn''t have parents." He stared at her sigils respond to her beating heart.

    "Technically, as you would have figured by now, Many of the older gods are by definition children of the first three who shattered their essence across the cosmos to avoid annihtion." She looked at him as she sipped again.

    "Go on, and you''re one of those first gods, one who inherited a name?" He asked, and she nodded and sat forward with a suddenly serious expression; a dark one.

    "I remember everything, everything that happened to them, everything that monster did, the power he wielded, I remember it as if it happened to me personally, it was so painful to be torn apart like that." She confessed, and Sol''s eyes narrowed as he thought.

    "Then you?" His narrowed eyes widened.

    "I am that Ikaris, when my consciousness was shattered throughout the many different universes, it gave birth to billions...

    Trillions of new consciousnesses that shared some kind of hive mind which would sever as the multiverse closed its doors and hid us from each other, I was one, and then I was many, and then I was one again, but this time I was alone." She looked around at him, and he returned a shocked expression.

    "Ikaris is the memory of the youngest and most powerful of the three first deities, I am the whole memory of the Goddess of Bnce, the daughter of primordial light and dark; the third consciousness." She looked down at his hand that had stopped moving and lightly hovered above her leg. "I had hoped to keep this a secret, but you asked, and I would never disobey you, my love."

    "So then you knew the first Godyer?" Sol asked, and she looked up at him surprised that this was what bothered him first.

    "...yes."

    "Did you know I would be Godyer?" He questioned again and she seemed to hesitate.

    "With all my memories intact and functional, I saw the possibility that you could if I nurtured you, but I never nned to, all I cared about was A, and after you saved my home, the feelings I had toward you exploded into servitude, I -"

    "So you knew what I could be." Sol''s expression slowly dropped until his eyes were narrowed again. "Ikaris."

    "I promise, it was never my intention to lie, when I sensed the strength of your soul I only intended to ask your help in saving A, that is all!" She ced the empty cup to the side and held on to his cheeks with both her hands. "This is the truth, I swear it, I had long given up on this useless fight." She pressed her forehead against his and kissed him, though he was unresponsive.

    "Have... Have I offended you, master?" She quickly reverted to her subservient ways when she sensed the turmoil in his heart.

    m|vlempyr your story source

    "Hold on, so you''re the god of bnce."

    "Goddess," She corrected him quickly. "Since my conception, I have held this same appearance, even before I was shattered."

    "This is wild." Sol chuckled and ced his hand over his eyes. "I knew you were special, but this is unbelievable, I''m not mad or anything, I''m just in disbelief." He raised his hand to stare at her worried expression slowly ease at his reassurance.

    "You are not upset?" She asked, furrowing her brows. "You do not think I am... old?" She stared at him. "Even the other gods treat me as their elder or senior, some even call me progenitor; my age cannot be counted in years, it is almost as old as time..."

    "Correction," Sol held his fingers to her lips and smiled.

    "Your mind is old, your memory is old, but that is all there is to it, to me you are young, your body is young, you have no experience in anything at all Ikaris, you lost your virginity to me just months ago." He raised a brow as her cheeks turned red and she hid her face with her hands. "You don''t look old, and with all the knowledge you have you don''t act old either, I can''t be mad at you."

    "Ha ha," Ikarisughed awkwardly. "I mean... are you certain?" She asked again still unsure of his response, but Sol quieted her doubt when he pulled her closer again and rested held her head against his neck, kissing her forehead as he watched the sun rising.

    "I am certain that you are the love of my life, it honestly wouldn''t have mattered to me if you did look a bit older, I was always attracted to you but I also knew that I didn''t fall in love with your beauty." He rested his hand on her side and slid his fingers across her womb, kissing her again when she balled up on top of him and began crying.

    "I love you for your purity, your enthusiasm about life, your innocence, the efforts and lengths you have gone through for my sake are beyond anything I could ever achieve or try to aplish, I fell in love with the person you are, I honestly don''t give a fuck about most of anything else." Sol chuckled and raised her chin so he could look her in her eyes.

    "I thought you would dislike me once I told you."

    "Are you crazy?" He scoffed. "You are my peace, Ikaris, the only ce I can be at ease is in your embrace..." He stopped and sat forward staring at her left hand. "Where''s your ring?"

    "Ah!" Ikaris arose, staring at his hand at the ring she hadadenin return and exchanged with him still boldly on his finger. "When I was captured, I hid it, luckily so because everything I had on my person was taken from me." She admitted, opening her palm and causing an eye to open in her opened palm.

    "What the-" Sol stared as the purplish magic inside of the eye pushed out the ring in perfect condition, down to the gxies inside of it.

    "I feared losing it, it is my most precious possession after all, so I hid it in the deepest depths my soul." She ced it in his grasp and slightly raised her hand, watching him slide it back on her finger again with the same goofy smile she did the first time.

    "You''re already up, I could swear the two of you would be sleeping after all that noise..." Dina came and stopped when she realised she''d interrupted a moment between them. "Sorry I cane backter."

    "Dina," Ikaris sat up and stared at her. "I have a bold question to ask, and I need your full honesty."

    "My honesty?" Dina repeated, clearing her throat and walking up the wooden stairs to the porch, sitting on the edge of a simr chair on the opposite side facing them. "Okay, is everything alright?" She asked.

    "Everything is great, but I have been thinking about it ever since we were dragged here." She stared at Dina.

    "...Right."

    "Here, I am mortal, there is noing back from getting mortally wounded by a demon-god, they are out natural enemies, and a war is bound to break out between us as they resist."

    "I''ve been thinking the same." Dina nodded.

    "So, what I wanted to ask was; if I ended up falling in the future, if I died... Would you-"

    "No." Dina answered before Ikaris even finished.

 Chapter 128: Let Them Come.

    "I have yet to-"

    "Absolutely not." Dina stood and walked over to her, staring at her with an obviously disturbed expression. "No, don''t ever ask that of me again, not like that." She shook her head and then stormed off leaving Ikaris shocked.

    "Dina I-"

    "Let her be." Sol pushed the back of her head. "Why would you ask her something like that?" He raised a brow, and she stared at him with the same expression.

    "Did I say something wrong?" Ikaris asked, and Sol smiled at her, standing and resting his hand on her head. "She did not even listen to me."

    "Unfortunately, that''s not something I can exin given my disposition in the whole subject, you should think it over." He kissed her forehead and walked down the staircase as well meeting A at the bottom and her new shadow waiting for him. "Yes?"

    "Master Vestic, there is something troubling me about your decision, I seek your council." A stared up at him expectantly, and he stared at her for several silent seconds and then looked at the girl behind her.

    "I won''t change my mind, everyone dies." Sol went to the meat of the issue rather than start a back and forth conversation.

    "Just like this child-" A gestured to Sri, but flinched and stood between her and Sol when his eyes locked on to her. "J-just like her, there are innumerable innocent civilians that have nothing at all to do with the demon-gods, Z prime itself is a world apart from them!"

    "A world full of demons; but let''s say I did show mercy, even after all I''ve endured, evalen after everything I have been through because of their kind, Sri, how do you suspect the Zn people will respond to me destroying H��l?"

    "Z has been through hundreds of thousands of years of wars, nuclear holocausts happen every few thousand years, in the demise of their precious H��l the Zn empire would wage a suicide war against you and use every means necessary to get even, Lord Sir." She replied, and A looked around at her appalled at how calmly she had reacted before his question.

    "Do you believe there is any chance of them trying to attack this vige once they know what happened?" Sol asked again.

    "If word of your existence gets out you and all the other gods here will be targeted without fail, Lord Sir." She replied again, leaving A speechless.

    "One of the reasons I like you is because despite everything you''ve endured you still have a pure heart, A, but don''t for a second think that they''re worth saving, if you stand up for them you will die by their own hands, even this girl you saved, if she ever finds a reason to kill you she will, it''s in their blood, even if she''s a good kid she is still a demon, their very existence is evil itself, they were born from evils beyond your imagination and it resides deep within each and every one of them."

    "Sri...?" A turned to her taking her shoulders and shaking her. "Would you?" She asked.

    "Mdy, I am a demon, if I find a reason that you deserve to die, I will personally challenge you to a fight to the death." She replied causing A''s mouth to hang open as her shock caused her to freeze.

    "You can''t be serious, I could kill you without moving a finger-"

    "I am aware, I will try my best to not find a reason to want to kill you mdy, you are my benefactor." Sri smiled at her.

    "That settles that." Sol said no more on the matter and just walked pass her, resting his hand on her shoulder and tapping it. "Be careful, A."

    .

    "Would you truly?" A asked Sri again in Sol''s absence.

    "Yes Mdy, I am grateful for you saving my life, and I hold no animosity toward Lord Sir for killing my n, rather it is peaceful here with the gods who do not war with and abuse each other." She smiled again, taking A''s hand and pulling her along.

    "Come, we have to teach the gods how toplete the tasks of those they are recing, but first you and I have to go to town and buy more food, otherwise we will be out within a week-"

    Sri stopped when A pulled her hand away, but upon turning she was greeted with a hug, it was her first hug, she was too shocked to speak.

    "What is this?"

    "I realisedst night that there''s no mention of hugs on your culture, this is what a hug is." A held her tightly, dragging her fingers through the girl''s hair and holding her face against her breasts.

    "It is nice..." Sri stood awkwardly.

    "You''re supposed to hug me back." A replied. "I refuse to see the evil in such a sweet child, you are not, do you understand?" She smiled when Sri''s arms slowly held her.

    "Mdy, you are shaking."

    "I hate being touched, the only one who touches me and causes no difort is Master Vestic." A admitted.

    "Then, why would you h.. hug me?"

    "Because, I see good in you, and I am willing to go against his beliefs and prove him wrong."

    "But you said you love him."

    "More than anything else." A released her and rubbed her eyes. "But it is one-sided -"

    "Then why would you not try to find another mate?" Sri began walking again. "There must have been many suitors where youe from."

    "I chose to be his attendant when I was given the choice, as I said before, I do not like being touched by others, but as you have seen, he isfortable touching me and his touch causes no difort, rather it is quite pleasant.

    "Then, I will not ask again." Sri stopped before arge storage shed and took out a ring full of keys. "You said you were interested in the car yesterday, so today I will teach you how to drive."

    "There''s cars too?" Dina came to a halt over their heads andnded, staring awestruck at the modern vehicle in the shed. "Holy shit, does it have an rm?"

    "Yes."

    "Electric or Gas?"

    "Electric, but it can also use gas on low energy."

    "Whoa," Dina stepped into the shade of the shed and pressed her palm against the truck before her. "This is so cool, I haven''t even thought about cars in a few months and now... I''m staring at at alien car... Wait, does it fly?" She snapped looking around at Sri.

    "Do you not hate me?" Sro stared at her confused. "I was told that you spent thest two weeks trapped in a royal cell being abused by demons-"

    "Abused?" Dina scoffed. "Nobody could even touch me or Ikaris, I''m super strong you hear." She puffed up her chest and crackled her knuckles, but she did go quiet afterward and sober up. "But yeah, I absolutely despise demons, my friends...

    my brothers were killed by demons and I haven''t hand a single night of peaceful sleep since that day." She mentioned Han and Bruce, and upon doing so A released a deep sigh and shook her head.

    "However, if Sol is leaving you alone then I''m not going to harm you either."

    "You call him by name?" Sri seemed shocked at this, even Ikaris seemed to revere him more than this girl, and she was his wife.

    "He''s my friend, what else am I supposed to call him?" Dina retorted, kicking the truck and causing the rm to go off with a smile while she covered her ears never imagining she could ever miss the annoying sounds of vehicle rms.

    "Also!" She yelled over the rm before Sri disabled it. "Also... A is my teacher, she is also my close friend, I absolutely refuse to leave her in your presence knowing that she has dropped her guard and is being stubborn, so I''ming along."

    "Others will see and be suspicious of your appearances, there are only demons in the town.

    "Meh." Dina waved her hand and her appearance shimmered, and A did the same changing their appearances to resemble hers.

    "Ah, magic." The demon stared in awe, but her surprise onlysted a few seconds before she walked pass Dina and opened the door. "I already have the funds, we should make haste."

    ***

    [Master Vestic there is a gathering of demon-gods approaching Z-Prime]

    The system alerted him, but he was already staring at the in the sky when she said it.

    "I can sense them, Sitri is doing a good job of spreading the word," He flew off into the air and went sailing toward a random point on the horizon.

    [You praise that being?]

    "She''s my messenger pigeon with a knife at her neck, her time just like everyone else''s wille." Sol looked up again. "How are they travelling that fast?"

    [Strange vehicles called hover pods] She replied in voice. "The estimated distance is closed through copsing space and travelling through the ripples it creates]

    "Interesting."

    [Their estimated arrival is within the next ten minutes]

    "Good." Sol took off like a bolt of lightning leaving the sound of thunder across the skies as the gods all went into hiding and Ikaris stood on the porch with her mana suppressed.

    "Let theme."

 Chapter 129: Grudge.

    "copsing space..." Sol held out his hand as he flew using his usual telekic magic. "Do I have any space techniques that could manage to do that?" He asked.

    [Should I check?] The system responded.

    "You''re able to?"

    [I gained control of the principles that make this vast multidimensional universe, I myself am able toprehend the powers of time and space, I just need to search for something simr to the readings I have experienced while using spacial techniques.] She responded, and Sol nodded, having no clue how to even startprehending what she was about to do.

    "Go ahead then, I''m surprised you''d ask my permission at all, you''re usually lretty intrusive without permission." He raised a brow.

    [You are indeed capable of spacial magic, but you have never even attempted it, it could be dangerous.]

    "I can try afterwards." Sol stopped flying when a projectile flew over his head and stopped before him kicking up a storm of dust beneath them.

    "I like it." Sol stared at the space pod, it looked like something straight out of the most out of pocket sci-fi movie he had ever seen, and with over ten years of nothing but armour and melee weapons it was a shock of culture when he remembered that he was not on Arkadia nor A; Z-Prime was futuristic.

    [There are seven signatures inside of that pod.]

    For a moment, just a brief moment, Sol could have sworn the saw a hand when the system said it, like a phantom limb pointing to the egg-shaped pod.

    "Say... Can you hack it?" Sol went off topic again and crossed his arms with a smirk. "This thing looks cool, I want it forter.

    [Master Vestic.] The system called to him seriously, and he scoffed again and shook his head.

    "Fine, fine." Sol chuckled, staring as the pod made a hissing sound and the outline of a door appeared, pushing outward and then sliding to the side revealing a luxurious interior and seven demons staring at him as they emerged.

    "This is him, right?" The first asked, scratching his short beard and looking around at one of the others who held what looked like a transparent phone with an image on it. He had fluffy hair and his horn grew from his forehead and curved upward.

    But otherwise he just looked like a regr person, save for the divine demon aura Sol could clearly see around him, aside from him the others also seemed average, like the everyday person you would walk pass on the street, amongst the seven nothing stood out. stay updated with m,v,l,e,m p _y,r

    "He''s the one from the dungeon footage we got so he must be..." The one next to him replied, staring at Sol and licking her lips. "I heard that the princess has been warning everyone to take him seriously, but there''s nothing scary about this creature at all." She chuckled.

    "They''re not impressive at all." Sol shook his head. "Have any of you corpses conquered any dimension yet?" He asked, and the female demon-god that had spoken dropped her amusement with clear irritation from his calling her an unimpressive corpse.

    "I thought I told you idiots to gather and make an army, are you that cocky that you think just the seven of you will be able toy a scratch on me?" He asked, and she squeezed her phone and shattered it.

    "This creature."

    "Creature?" Sol raised a brow. "I''m no creature, I am your executioner... but I don''t feel particrly motivated to fight any of you weaklings at all." He unfolded his hands and lowered his head shaking it. "This isme, seven nameless meritless idiots, did you juste here against someone''s orders?"

    "How did he-"

    "If we kill him the Demon Lord will recognise us-"

    "Ugh," Sol raised his hand toward them. "With the size of this, something like this should be harmless right?" He raised his hand and opened his palm. "I don''t want to damage that pod though." Sol snapped and the pod behind them vanished, and in its ce a ball of fire appeared. "I''ve wanted to use it for a while now, but Arkadia was too small."

    [Cosmic Art: Dwarf Explosion]

    From where they were, Ikaris and the others felt the ground begin shaking and saw the sky grow dark when another source of light other than the morning sun appeared across the horizon, an explosion that reached through the stratosphere in the shape of a sphere, it rapidly grew in size, but stopped and remained a burning ball for several more seconds before it vanished, leaving a gigantic hole in the ground.

    "Now then," Sol floated forward, staring at the only one of the seven who had managed to survive; it was the woman who had been offended.

    "I suppose you''re not as useless as I imagined then." He folded his hands behind hil staring at her who was burnt down to mostly bone a d tissue while she held her head with her eyes shut tight, shaking as she was held in ce by his telekic magic.

    "What was that?" She asked trembling when his shadow blocked the sun.

    "A warning of course." Sol looked over her. "I figured Sitri had done a good job, but if this is what came after me, wasting their first day then I can''t help but be disappointed." Sol rested his hand on her head.

    "Please spare me!" She shrieked as soon as she felt his touch. "Have mercy!"

    "Have you conquered any other small universe?" Sol asked, and she stiffened beneath him. "You don''t need to answer that the only way you demons can be true demon-gods is by killing another god or making a ve out of them, the only thing that could withstand that explosion I just created is a demon god, or a divine.

    And since you are clearly not thetter..." Sol started squeezing her head while divine fire started pouring through her orifices. "The only mercy you murderers deserve is death."

    ***

    [That was... Fast.] The system observed the demon-god turn to ashes in Sol''s grasp and start calling from the feet up.

    "They were weak, it would have been a waste of time to entertain them." Sol stared at the horn in his grasp and then released it too.

    [They were not weak, you are just too strong.] She answered him, and he looked around at the edges of the hole that covered the horizon around him with a scoff, to him it seemed minimal, the least effort like a lion dering its territory while leisurelyying down.

    [ording to your previous stats and data, the gods you just killed were all stronger than you were when you first arrived on Arkadia.]

    "What really?" Sol snapped from his stupor.

    [Yes,] the system answered again, and he saw the phantom hand before him a second time. [With the power you hold, there are very few who could match you here, with Godyer transforming and evolving your body into a god killing weapon I see no need to wait at all, why not attack the demons now?]

    [I want to spend more time with Ikaris, and I want to make sure the others are okay before I attack, you said very few, but I know that there are some seriously powerful demons up there." He stared at H��l. "Every time I reach a new height I''m put down by something stronger that I never expected, and right now it''s that one demon-god who apparently rules the others."

    [Do you fear him?]

    "Absolutely not, I fear what he''s capable of."

    "Is that not the same as fearing him then?" She asked clear as day right next to him he heard her voice outside of his head and looked across, finding a window there floatingzily.

    "... No." Sol looked ahead again as he began flying back toward the isted vige. "If my guess is right, then he might be like Ikaris."

    "A Primordial?" She asked, a d Sol ignored the obvious changes to her and nodded.

    "A direct offspring of the darkness, she said that Void was worth when he realised that hecked thepassion one needs to have kinship, but how else would he have been able to create a whole race of demon-gods?"

    "The first three, Creation, Destruction and Bnce had to shatter their consciousnesses across the far reaches of the cosmos to do it, I think he did something simr to create offspring."

    "And you believe that the current Demon-Lord is an existence who inherited something dire tly from Void?" System asked and Sol hummed.

    "Just take a look at him for yourself; he reminds me of Ikaris who is an unfathomable existence, she''s so powerful that it doesn''t make any sense, I''m pretty sure that''s why the author keeps nerfing her, because if she fought for real the whole story would end in a single chapter." Sol stared at the system window and the observers watching his story unfold.

    "I''ve tried staring at him twice now, first when I woke up, and then when I went and got Ikaris back, both times I felt chills run down my spine, he''s terrifying."

    "And yet you do not fear a being that could possibly be as powerful as Goddess Ikaris?" System asked.

    "He''s not as strong as her, I''m not afraid, if it was Void then I''d be too scared to even show my face, an entity that can make the three first deities run and hide is beyond myprehension, but not him, I can definitely see the ends of his power, I can fathom that shit and I will definitely tear him apart just as I will the rest of them!"

    "Your bias toward the demonkind is oddly strong today."

    "I''ve seen and been through things that warrant this hatred." Sol stared ahead. "And after what Sitri did to Ikaris, I haven''t had a peaceful moment where I don''t see her crying, even under her smile she''s still crying out, it pains my heart, it''s tearing me apart from the inside."

    "I have the chance to get rid of all of them, there''s no way I''m letting this grudge go, I''ll burn every ounce of my hatred until nothing of them remain, I don''t care what stands in my way, everything dies."

 Chapter 130: Arrival.

    "I haNovelBine questions." m|vlempyr your story source

    System spoke to Sol after his leisure flight back to the vige was about toe to an end.

    "About what?"

    "The things that happened on A, you always recall the cruelty you witnessed, but I too saw many atrocities on Arkadia, yet you say they pale inparison."

    "The truth of the matter is, the demon-god on Arkadia was patient she gave everyone time to grow so she could have a good fight, but the demon-god from A was not, it took ten years; just think about that for a second...

    Ten, from the moment I got there, to the moment I left, there was nothing but war, there were no safe havens, no breaks, just war." Sol began descending, finding Ikaris smiling at him.

    "That was a splendid disy of power love!" Ikaris met Sol in his descent and grabbed his hands while most of the other gods began gathering. "I foresaw this strength, but it is still unimaginable, from the weak and insecure man you once were, you have be the embodiment of power." She took several steps away from him uponnding, allowing the others to get closer.

    Sol stood there smiling, with Z under the systems hiddenmand he could utilize the sparse mana in the air, so he had indeed directly gained from killing the seven demon-gods...

    Everything seemed fine, but in the back of his head his past after being brought up constantly was eating at him, and the only one who seemed to notice his distress was Ikaris when she felt his mood drop and his tone shift even though his smile only brightened.

    "That is enough now, all of you!" She called from the back of the crowd flying over their heads and taking Sol''s hand. "I mean to speak with him in private, please return." She looked around, quickly addressing everyone before pulling him through the crowd and into their temporary house.

    "Ikaris, what''s wrong?" Sol asked her as soon as they were behind the door, when he saw her erect a barrier and block out all interference.

    "I should ask you that question." She turned to him and closed the space between them. "Your mind is not here, love, you feel worlds away even though you are right before me, this happened a lot on Arkadia too, where do you go that causes your soul to flicker?"

    "A." Sol took a seat in front of the turned off TV and closed his eyes when she sat next to him and pulled him into a hug, lying down and cradling his head against her breasts. "Every time I get the luxury of peace, my mind always wanders back home."

    "Home?" Ikaris stopped caressing his cheek.

    "I spent ten years there, it is your home, where you belong, it''s also home for me." He answered, and she felt her lips curl without her consent into a small smile.

    "I see." She watched him quickly drift off into sleep.

    ***Ten years ago***

    Malnourished and hopelessly depressed, Sol stared at himself lying on the floor and frothing at the mouth with ramen sticking through his mouth and nose, after one bad slurp everything happened so fast that he had gone into shock and died without much of a struggle.

    For a single moment of rity after his tragic death Sol stood and stared at himself as an  astral projection, seeing the events of his life like a montage.

    "So, I''m dying?" He tried kicking himself but his foot simply passed through the body. "No... I am dead." He tried kicking himself again. "Well shit, what now, heaven, hell, limbo?" He asked taking a step toward the door of his run-down apartment. "Will I just haunt and exist here forever?"

    Before he reached the door, he felt a tug, an irresistible tug against him, and without the ability to react he was whisked across the room and then dragged through the roof by an unseen force. It was supposed to be terrifying, but he couldn''t express fear in this state he just epted whatever was happening as beyond his control.

    Beyond his building, above the city, beyond his country and continent he kept being dragged until he was outside of the entirely, and he found himself mesmerised at the sight of hundreds of thousands of others like himself who had been dragged off earth, they all witnessed each other but they couldn''tmunicate, as if they existed and didn''t at the same time they couldn''t touch each other.

    "This is-" Sol opened his mouth to speak, but felt heat at the tips of his fingers, and upon looking down he found a tube beneath him, a swirling tube that extended from the core of the earth and held on to him.

    "I''m damned." He stared at the core through the crust, and the shape of a humanoid creature which stood inside of it, it had seven levels and seven heads and each part of its body seemed to function in a different way, he couldn''t see them, but he could already hear the screams of the dead. "Is that, hell?"

    Nobody was there to answer his question, and only a few seconds after he and the other dead had been dragged from the world of the living he witnessed everyone around him getting sucked through those strange tubes, their bodies started deteriorating and their souls became physical anomalies that began undergoing rapid deconstruction and reconstruction as their bodies and everything inside of them caught ame at the pace of a breathing child exuding and absorbing crimson mes.

    "Wait!" Reality suddenly hit him when his hand caught ame as well, a fire so rough and violent it caused his skin and bones to melt and peel off, reforming and repeating the process as he started slowly sinking into the tube, but then he stopped.

    Another force started pulling him, and above his head a bright white portal appeared, tearing off and releasing his arm into the tube and then dragging him away and closing just before several other creatures appeared in an attempt to seize him.

    This new light caused warmth he had never felt before, and after a few seconds of basking in that warmth and the softness that apanied it beneath his head Sol felt a hand tapping his chest.

    "Are you able to speak?" A sweet voice called to him, and he quickly opened his eyes, immediately making four with pair of beautiful blue eyes with pupils that sparkled with what seemed like gxies.

    "Is this... Heaven?" Sol asked, and received a small chuckle as she helped him sit up from herp and then stood before him. "What''s going on, didn''t I die?"

    "I am grateful for your presence, Sol," she took his hands and helped him to his feet. "I need your help."

    "You''re beautiful."

    "Focus."

    "S-sorry," Sol averted his eyes when they started scanning the woman before him. "What''s going on, where is this?"

    "First, an introduction." She disappeared from before him, reappearing several feet away and taking a seat and crossing her legs as a small throne appeared and cradled her rear.

    "You asked if you were in heaven, the answer in a sense should be yes, but this is just a temporary visit, Sol Vestic, you died on earth-"

    "So everything I saw was real..." He looked down, and sure enough his left arm was missing from the elbow down. "... That was hell."

    "I am Ikaris, Goddess of this universe." She stared at him with a passive smile after he nonchntly interrupted her.

    "You''re god?" Sol stared at her with his mouth agape, and the goddess chuckled again and shook her head.

    "Not the one you are expecting, after your death, I saved your soul from damnation, in a sense I stole you from your home dimension." Ikaris responded.

    "Because..." Sol looked at himself and then at the vast white space where she had taken him. "You need my help?" He asked, and she nodded. "Isekai." Sol stared at his hand and his eyes sparkled as the thought of another world intruded his stupor.

    "What is isekai?" Ikaris raised a brow.

    "Ah, nothing important, is there some kind of dragon or something I have to y after bing an adventurer-"

    "I admire your excitement and eptance, Sol, but please listen carefully." She sat forward and stared at him seriously, erasing his excitement and somehow exuding even more attraction with herck of humour, once again, Sol''s eyes locked onto her.

    "Okay."

    "Summoning you here from your home-dimension has caused a strain on me that I did not expect, but upon sensing your soul across dimensions in the first ce I had to, you are the only one who can help me here, Sol." She locked her fingers as several images appeared in his vision.

    "A is about to fall in a state of depravity and destion, a demonic army appeared sometime ago, and it was being handled, but in thest few years my people have been at their mercy, I am unable to help, and my peopleck the power to win this war, I need your strength-"

    "I''m a weakling, though." Sol countered.

    "Right now you are, but the reason I risked everything to bring you here is because I sense greatness within you the likes of which no other being possesses." Ikaris rested her cheek in her palm and stopped the images from circting in his mind.

    "I will not throw you into a pit without tools, whatever it is that you need, I will grant it to you, and should you ever require help, I will grant you more power-"

    "Power?"

    "Magic."

    "Real magic?"

    "Yes, real magic, I have already granted my blessing to you, when you are sent to A, you will be able to use magic like everyone else, and overtime that power grows."

    "Do I get to choose what kind?" Sol asked seriously, and the goddess raised her head and smiled.

    "I thought about that beforehand, so I granted you the ability of creation which ties to your mind, as long as you can grasp it, any magic feasible can be controlled by you."

    "That''s... Overpowered."

    "It befits one of your calibre." Ikaris nodded. "If that is all, then I will send you to A now, unfortunately I cannot always converse, but if the situation demands it I will enlighten you at your becon, my hero."

    "W-wait, I don''t want to fight a fucking demon army!" Sol snapped, but by the time he was halfway through speaking he was enveloped by golden light and sent falling through the ground beneath him.

    On that day A became alive with majicul (their name for mana), it was visible to the naked eye, and the skies all cried with the voices of angels as the armies on both sides watched the clouds open up and a beam of gold crash to the surface leaving a giant crater and wiping out an entire horde of demons.

    "Do your best, Sol, I will watch over your shoulders."

 Chapter 131: Fight!

    ,vlemp _yr.

    **

    "This is the foretold beginning of the end." A tall man dressed in white robes resembling that of a priest holding a sceptre stood at the edge of the crater staring down at the ring of fire that Sol had created upon impact. "It is truly happening in our time, your Majesty."

    "An arrival from the heavens; the prophesied Sun." An even taller man stood next to him clutching a sword and staring as well, he had a crown atop his head made of gold and silver, and he was wearing light fantastical armour.

    "I never imagined I would live to see this day." He patted the other man''s shoulder and leapt into the crater, waving his sword and creating a powerful gust of wind that blew out the mes as he slid along the edge, stopping right next to Sol who sat cross-legged biting his nails,pletely unaware that he too was on fire.

    "What the-" The king halted his advance and lowered his sword, casting another gust of wind on Sol dousing the fires again and taking a knee next to him. "Ahem* excuse me, chosen-"

    "That crazy bitch, what the fuck do you expect me to do here, so what if I have magic now how am I supposed to fight off an entire demon army, I''ve never even held a sword in my life I don''t know how to use magic, what good is my imagination if I''m just gonna die as soon as I get into a fight, I''m fucking weak..." Sol continued mumbling to himself whilst biting his nails.

    "Isn''t this just another form of hell?"

    "Pardon m-" the king tried appealing his attention again.

    "I gotta find a way out of this, I need to..." Sol''s mind slowed when a hand rested on his shoulder, and he turned to find arge man with pitch ck hair and grey eyes staring at him with a confused and concerned smile. "Who the hell are you?"

    "Wee chosen one, to A." The king answered with a wee first after clearing his throat again. "I am Griffon, King of thisnd." He stood and extended his hand toward Sol while thetter just stared at him, the sword clutched in his grasp, the armour, the glow of his grey eyes; the man seemed like the embodiment of what a king was supposed to be.

    He personified power.

    "King..." The young Sol mused, reaching up and taking Griffon''s hand.

    "If I may... Who were you speaking of previously?" The king asked, and Sol made a face akin to constipation as he recalled his abrupt dismissal from the heavens.

    "Ikaris, I was talking about Ikaris, I get that she saved me from what was most likely damnation, but isn''t this supposed to be hell as well?" He asked finding the king''s face contorted in shock and fright.

    "You have personally met the goddess?"

    "Yeah, she''s meh though, going by just her looks I can tell she''s a real bitch, beautiful is only skin deep with women like her..." Sol murmured.

    "This-"

    The king''s retort was interrupted by the sound of a horn sounding off, and Sol looked up when he saw millions of thin projectiles soaring above the crater, lighting up the sky. "What''s going on?"

    "The next wave of demons has arrived, quickly, we must join the fight!" Griffon raised his de and Sol stared stiff with terror as nightmarish creatures started pouring into therge crater from one side while a multitude of people and beasts poured from the opposite end.

    "W-wait not yet..." Sol dropped to his knees and covered his head causing the king to take a stand before him. "I don''t want to be here, I''m not ready!" He started screaming as the shouts and roars and thunderous footsteps of the two parties approached.

    "What are you doing?!" Griffon snapped. "Stand up, you are the prophesied hero of our-"

    "Aaaaaaah!" Sol continued crying out when the ground under his knees started getting disced by the weight of the opposing sides. "This isn''t happening, I''m still dead, it was a lie, I''m still in hell aren''t I?"

    "Jun!" Griffon shouted and created an arc with his hand and conjuring a shield made of majicul just as a behemoth with arge tree trunk for a weapon leapt into the air and dropped the full weight of its muscr body with the weapon on top of them, shattering the trunk when the barrier repelled it back where it wasing from. "Protect the boy!"

    With the attack being what it was the entirety of the ground around them rumbled and erupted and both Sol with the king ended up airborne from the impact.

    Sol in the air started iling and screaming but a momentter he was in a woman''s embrace and falling to the ground again.

    "Hold still and stop struggling!" The woman snapped at him.

    She had golden eyes and Auburn hair with freckles across her cheeks, and if he knew his fantasy right then she was supposed to be a mage by her attire. "What is your name?"

    "I don''t know!" Sol continued iling in her arms resulting in her plummeting with him and cushioning his impact with her own body, falling unconscious as a result.

    At the front the king held his own against multiple opponents as the horde thickened, but with them arriving before his army he had to start retreating.

    Panic shook Griffon when he realised that the creatures were never targeting him to begin with, many faster than himself zoomed pass him approaching Sol with a certain level of urgency.

    "Save him!" Griffon started targeting the creatures he could catch up to while several people created a blockade of sorts around Sol who was on the ground again cradling his head with his hands in a state of shock and fright. "NO... Sol!!"

    Blood; blood everywhere, one moment there were feet all around him, and the next Sol began screaming when all those feet fell and he was showered in blood and guts as the people around him served as fodder for a particrly strange demon, it had swords for hands, and no eyes, its face was shaped like the tip of an arrow, and its body was skinny and framed like a skeleton, the creature screeched with a sick smile as it made short work of everyone before turning to Sol.

    "This is the one master warned us of!" The demon shrilled kicking Sol in his ribcage and sending him airborne before skewering him and holding him there while the rest of the reinforcements scampered to try and rescue him. "Hero of A, no, dead hero of A hahaha, disappointment indeed."

    "This... is..." Sol held on to the de and stared at his blood racing toward the smiling creature, feeling his strength quickly slipping away again as his punctured lungs burned and his breath failed with his heart being split in two; pain he had never felt, terror he had wished never existed. "Hell..."

    Thest thing he heard was Jun''s voice before he passed out. "Ikaris... why did you do this to me?"

    ...

    "Aaaaaaah!!" Sol leapt out of the embrace of Jun a second time screaming on top of his lungs with his hands iling and his chest bound with a tourniquet, but a momentter he was grabbed by the magician who covered his mouth and held him closely in a hug of sorts.

    "We are hidden, be quiet." She whispered to him, and sure enough as his eyes darted around he found himself in a shallow cave with just her.

    "I''m not dead?"

    "I saved you."

    "Why?" Sol fell on his ass when she released him, shaking and hugging himself. "I can''t help anyone, I shouldn''t be here."

    "The goddess chose you-"

    "She chose wrong, I''m nobody''s hero!" He snapped again, and upon doing so Jun reached forward and pped him so hard he went into a small cascade and hit the wall of the cave.

    "I told you to be quiet!" She also snapped then held her mouth when she heard a roar from the outside. "Shit."

    Jun hurried over to Sol and cast a healing spell on him and then picked him up on her back running out of the cave just before arge demon emerged from under it, outside she was surrounded by a guard unit of soldiers who again lost their lives as the same sword demon from before came along with several other weaker ones.

    "Sol!" Jun leapt high into the air and continued using the air as a stepping stone running across the sky and gaining more speed as she went. "Sol, wake up!" She spun and stopped as she started slowly descending. "Damnit."

    "This is hell..."

    "Of course it''s hell!" Jun grabbed his head which rested on her shoulder and yanked his hair waking him up. "If you don''t fight, you''ll die, I can''t protect you forever, you''re supposed to be a hero; our saviour!" She stared down as once again King Griffon abandoned the front lines and came to deal with the sword demon. "I''m sorry, I am, you don''t want to be here, but you are, you have to fight!"

    "Just kill me..." Sol loosened his grip on her and fell backwards. "Just let me die."

    "Your Majesty!" Jun spun and missed catching him when she was bombarded by several demons who could temporarily utilise flight like she could.

    "Sol!" The king tried averting the demon, but it was relentlessly attacking him.

    Sol fell, but just before he hit the ground instinct took over and a shield materialised in his grasp, cushioning the fall and saving him from any injury, as the dust cleared, everyone watched in shock as more armou mraterialized out of thin air around his body and a sword appeared in his other hand.

    "Kill the hero!" the sword demon shrieked and tried averting the King''s attack to finish what it failed to do the first time, but there stood Griffon like a wall preventing it from advancing.

    "Fight Sol!" The king called to him, suffering a sh across his arm as he fought the demon one on one. "You do not want to die here, follow your heart, FIGHT!!"

    Sol looked up, Jun was upied in the air, and Griffon was being held back by the sword Demon, leaving him with dozens of demons around him while more soldiers averted from the barracks and medical units because of him again.

    "Fight!"

 Chapter 132: Abandoned.

    Fight...

    Since that moment on for the next five years Sol fought, every day became harder than thest, every battle became deadlier than thest, as his strength grew so too did the strength of those around him, once capable of moving hills and houses each of them grew respectively capable of tearing mountains down with him being the standing beacon above the rest.

    But along with their strength increasing so too did the strength of the demons they fought, they evolved faster than A did, and they fought harder than they did, almost desperately in fact, there was an ever-abundant feeling of pressure and doom, it never eased, what strength they had would seem negligible if they took even the shortest break.

    Sol and Jun also grew closer, going beyond justrades as they became an envy even amongst their peers for being able to fall in love in the middle of such a disaster, while he and Griffon became best friends after sharing deadly battles alongside each other for years, the three of them formed what the An army endearingly called the heroes'' party, the unstoppable trio, Sol with his hammer and spears, Griffon with his sword, and Jun with overwhelming firepower, having an evenrger reserve of raw power than Sol did.

    Wherever they went there was a victory.

    But then on the sixth year, that winning streak took a hit, taking a nap with his spear inside of a demon''s head and the holy mages standing guard around him after his most recent battle, Sol was invited in spirit to the heavens.

    "You have done well over the years, Sol." Ikaris smiled at him, standing on a high tform while he stared up at her after taking a knee.

    "I''ve survived, and I''ve grown stronger, but I have to keep asking, why don''t you do more, you''re the god of this world, why haven''t you intervened yet, don''t you see the thousands that die every day?" Sol retorted seriously. "I''ve already seen so many friends die to those demons, I''ve stopped taking names simply because nobody is sure to live beyond the next fight..."

    "I cannot intervene in this war."

    "What can you do then?" Sol stood and balled his fists. "You granted me this power, I''ve survived thanks to it, but what about them?" He raised his palms to her, exuding waves of magic around his body.

    "This is not enough to save these people, it''s not enough to defeat the demon king, his generals are starting to join the fight, I''m not enough anymore, if it''s only just Jun and Griffon; if you blessed them as heroes as well we would be able to easily win-"

    "No." Ikaris answered him passively, and Sol''s expression dropped from desperation to irritation. "I ca-"

    "... useless."

    "Excuse me?" Ikaris leaned her head in confusion staring down at him with her eyes wide in shock.

    "I said, you''re useless." Sol raised his eyes at her again bending his knees and leaping up to the tform with her and grabbing her arm before she could move from being shocked speechless. "What the fuck have you been doing, what do you mean by "no" aren''t these your people?" He held on to her.

    "How dare y-"

    "Hundreds of millions... Billions have died over thest six years, what the fuck do you mean no, why is it so hard for you to get the fuck up and do something!?" He shook her, grinding his teeth. "You don''t get the luxury of being spoilt and entitled, I don''t give a fuck if you''re a goddess, I don''t give a shit about why you can''t, I''m telling you something has to be done!"

    "Sol," Ikaris slowly raised her hand to his cheek. "Let go of me-" see more NovelBin mp|y|r

    "Why the hell should I, does it change anything, aren''t you just gonna run off and hide away again?" He asked, and she stared at him with a blush and lowered her hand again. "No, I don''t feel like letting go just yet."

    "I will not run away from you." She answered, finding this assertion attractive after experiencing it for the first time, it was also the first time anyone had touched her, and the first she had been told "no".

    "Do something, your people are dying."

    "Then... Do you desire more power?" Ikaris asked rxing her hand in his grasp. "Sol?"

    "Not just me, everyone, if you can-"

    "If I grant more power to them, they will grow stronger, yes, but they will eventually die in a few years, a decade at most, it has been tried before, their souls and yours are not the same, they are too weak to endure my blessing." Ikaris countered his argument.

    "Then I''m right, you''re too limited, you have to do something, you can''t just sit here and wait, it''s not enough." Sol calmed down and released her hand when her face registered an emotion he could not trante.

    "You''re the goddess, everyone looks up to you, find a way to help, A is in danger, Ikaris, you can either idly watch us fail, or get up off your ass and do something about it -that''s a decision only you can make."

    "You are... giving me a choice?" Her eyes widened as she stared up at him.

    "Of course I am, choose for yourself, what is most important to you?" He asked, and without hesitation the goddess replied:

    "You are."

    "For fuck''s sake." Sol pped his forehead. "I''m going back now, this is a pointless conversation." He closed his eyes, and without her permission he vanished, and a few secondster he woke up back on A.

    "Are you rested, hero?" The priest who stood directly next to the dead demon asked, watching Sol remove his spear and stand with a frown.

    "There''s no time for rest priest, we''re in the middle of a war."

    "O-of course, I simply meant-"

    "That goddess is a piece of work, isn''t she?" Sol asked, looking at the priest who stared at the golden light from the skies above fall on him like fairy dust. "More strength..." He stared at the majicul being absorbed by his body.

    "Blessed is the hero, chosen by the goddess herself." The priest held out his hands in worship, and along with him the others all did the same. "Blessed is he who converses with the holy goddess on equal footing, we humbly ask your guidance, Hero Sol."

    "Your prayers are wasted on that one." Sol stepped off the carcass and stared forward as rain clouds began gathering.

    "But if you want my guidance then I''d say you better get ready for some dark days, I don''t know why but the way she speaks gives me the impression that she wants to leave or at the very least doesn''t n to help for a while, it''s as if she''s not as invested in this fight as we are; as if this suffering is beneath her."

    "Such sphemous wordsing from the blessed one." The priest shook his head. "If I had not witnessed you converse with the goddess multiple times and receive her divine blessing repeatedly I would consider you a heretic and curse the ground you tred upon." He mumbled as cold winds blew through the armies.

    "I couldn''t care less about any of that, I was promised anything at all I could imagine after I repelled the demon army, you best believe I''m gonna do it, whatever it takes, I''ll survive and get it done." Sol cancelled the spear summon and rubbed his tired eyes.

    "There''s another wave of demons on the Southern horizon, I''m going back to the frontlines, I have a bad feeling about this winter." He leapt onto arge reptilian mount and started off. "Send word to Griffon, tell him to be on the highest alert and use his strength sparingly."

    "As you wish."

    "The hero is marching Southwards, support lines advance, vanguard Advance!" The priest raised his sceptre and a multitude of thousands of soldiers started forming up and marching behind Sol.

    It was during this march to the south that the endless rain began, it was within the next few weeks that something strange happened in the heavens, five times Sol came close to death, five times he sought Ikaris, and five times she did not respond, the heavens had gone silent.

    His concerns grew by the day, and after a month his patience dried up and as soon as he killed thest of a wave of demons he leapt into the air, using the authority of force; Telekinesis, to ascend until he was so high the armies below were hidden between him and clouds, and there with the sun on the cloudy horizon he continued ascending, higher than ever before until not even the winds could reach him...

    the height of the world, mere metres away from the edge of the atmosphere where he could feel the gravity of A at his feet and the pull of the cosmos above him.

    Sol took a deep breath, and then with all the majicul he possessed, and with all the power he could force out of his magically amplified lungs he screamed at the void before him.

    "IKARIS!!" he called out and his voice caused the air around him to explode several times travelling through the skies and back to the surface where everyone heard him above the warring and the screams and roars, above the rain and thunder Sol''s voice made waves across all of A, but there was nothing, no resounding divine power.

    "IKARIS!!

    ANSWER ME!!" Sol screamed with all his power again, and again there was no response, and in a singr moment of enlightenment before he started falling from exhaustion, Sol''s consciousness was pulled to her abode, there the white that represented her divinity had been reced by grey, her throne was empty, and there was no noise,plete emptiness,plete soundlessness, total nothingness.

    As Sol''s consciousness was sent crashing back into his body with a migraine he stared upward as he fell through the clouds and plumetted back into A, causing a crater much like his first arrival, decimating an entire section of the demon horde as he was ovee with rage and began absorbing  magic in mass quantities forming waves of majicul that traversed the skies in visible leylines and crashed into him.

    "Sol!" Jun caught up to him first, and then Griffon and the priest afterwards. "Sol, what happened, why did you do that?" She asked.

    "She''s gone."

    "What?" The priest froze, and the sceptre slipped from his grasp, hitting the ground with a dramatic *Doon!* And causing the rainfall around them to freeze in ce as he immediately recalled Sol''s warning from a month prior.

    "The goddess... Ikaris, she''s gone; there''s nobody there." Sol raised his hand before him, his expression fell and the water on his face trickled and stopped moving. "Without her, we can''t grow in strength, our majicul will stagnate, the demons will grow stronger and surpass uspletely.

    "We will all die."

 Chapter 133: Poisoned by Hatred.

    *

    The difference in strength for the beginning of the seven months of winter were not that great and noticeable, but as the eighth month arrived, the demons started to exhibit more freocity, as they usually would, winter was the hardest, they would be more aggressive because of the cold weather which hampered their enemies, and this time that scale of aggressionpletely broke.

    "Our darkest days are still ahead." Sol stood at the head of the army, with Griffon to his right and Jun on his left, staring at the horde of sword demons screeching as they approached, heading the charge was a strange one he had never seen before,manding them to spread out. "That must be one of their generals."

    "Do you suppose killing it will deter their advance?" Jun asked, fixing her winter coat and looking at Sol as fresh snow fell on hershes and the cold winds brushed pass them.

    "Not a chance in hell." Sol answered her. "You''ve been in this war since you were born, have the demons ever retreated, even once?" He asked, and she sighed and shook her head.

    "Not even a single instance, they charge without regard of their own survival every single time, we have been advancing toward their of the demon king for three years now and are deep on their territory, what remains of A outside of the army is hard to even imagine, we haven''t seen the sun in months, the snow is at our knees... I have never felt so hopeless." Jun shook her head

    "Get ready," Griffon interrupted them and raised his hand giving the order for the archers to do their work as the sky was blocked out with arrows flying toward the demons.

    Sol who had the ability to conjure anything his mind could perceive also summoned a bow and fired arrows made of magic.

    "We''ve made it this far, Jun, don''t lose faith in yourself now, the demon king is just beyond our grasp, we only need to keep pushing!" Sol continued firing for a while and then summoned des in both hands when the demons were upon them.

    "Trust me, we''ll make it through this, you''ll see the end of this war!" He nced at her once and then rushed ahead with Griffon while her and the other magicians took their respective ces.

    That winter was the start of a great decline, Sol and Griffon, and Jun watched appalled as theirrades, their army, everything was butchered it wasn''t a fight at all, it was a bloodbath in the white snow fields, with just one horde of sword demons the entire army was reduced to less than half of their numbers, they came like a tsunami against the poor Ans, tearing through every formation, shredding everything before them.

    Shields were of no use, they easily cut through everything now. With Ikaris''s absence the army was decimated, and the numbers after that bloodbath rapidly dropped to only the most elite,prising of 10% of the entire army, everyone else within the first year of the goddesses absence died.

    And then the true horrors of the second year began; Sol had managed to kill the leader of the sword demons, and eventually after months of fighting them the elite were able to kill all that advanced, but at the break of spring, the frozen grounds turned ret and muddy rivers came back to life, and rain dominated the skies in an endless downpour.

    "Is it even worth it, is this going to ever end?" Jun was seated on a rock under a cave she had made with her stone magic, these had been the saviours of the army since tents had all been destroyed by heavy winds and the constant downpour, rocks and caves were the only means of shelter.

    Her eyes were bagged from exhaustion, and her skin was unhealthily pale after not months of terrible eating and constant warfare, she was riddled with healed scars as was everyone else, and she had lost a lot of weight as well.

    Griffon was next to her eating a small roasted piece of beast meat, after the death of a majority of their army, they had lost a lot of their resources, and with the scarcity of food they had no choice but to kill and eat their own mounts, several soldiers had already lost theirinds and cannibalised each other.

    "How long ago did we stop fighting?" The king asked, swallowing the bitter meat and drinking from his sk of partially clean water, coughing and looking down at his missing left hand. "How long has it been?"

    "Twenty minutes, your Majesty, if they are following their pattern, there should be another wave of demons showing up within the next ten minutes or so..." The priest answered, among the clergy he was the only one left alive, with their faith in Ikaris shattered after she left, the priests and bishops all died off one by one, mostly to the horrors brought by the sword demons.

    If that killing was all it wouldn''t have been half as bad, but these sword demons came with more malice than any of the others ever did, they didn''t just murder, they piged the weaker soldiers like livestock, male and female, even the beats of burden, everything that wasn''t able to resist them.

    They desecrated living soldiers and corpses alike, they rampaged for months and raped and destroyed. Everything that was unable to resist, amongst the survivors there were some that even managed to escape them, but to even speak of what they endured was enough to drive them into madness. Speaking of that time was forbidden.

    "Majesty." Griffon raised his hand and felt the top of his head. "I have no crown, I am no king, I am just a man fighting to stay alive as the world around him ends, what point is there to being king if there is no kingdom to save?"

    "Guys, don''t lose the little hope you have left." Sol stood at the front of the cave staring out and ravenously eating his portion of jerky. "We have to kill them, we have to kill them all, that''s why we''re here, that''s why we''ll win-"

    "Rest Sol, you have been awake for weeks now-"

    "No way, absolutely not, they''reing again, if I let my guard down, if I lose focus you''ll all die, I''m the only one left who can fight on par with them." He answered.

    He was right,pared to him they were all weak now, for whatever reason he was still able to grow stronger even in Ikaris''s absence, but as they had feared before their magic had stagnated at one level while the demons had outgrown them, after a year they had to pool their power together to fight evenly, or they would die.

    "We have a bit of time-"

    "It''s not enough, I don''t want to lose anyone else, Jun." Sol drank his water withoutint and then stepped out into the rain again. "I''ll thin their numbers as much as possible, just focus on surviving." He looked around and then took off.

    "He cannot continue like that." The priest shook his head. "He is extremely unstable."  _em _pyr.

    "Maybe that''s why the goddess chose him." Jun stood and walked to the entrance.

    "Hees from a world where wagons holding hundreds of people fly in the air without magic, to reach such a level of technology, those humans had to give away something, and I think what they gave away was their natural instinct of survival, his culture is suppressive and brainwashes the citizens," She stepped into the rain.

    "Generations of suppressed instincts can manifest in dangerous ways, some people be criminals, others hide behind authority andmit those same criminal acts, and others express their suppressed urges through sport, but Sol has done none of those, he has been held back and suppressed all his life without a way to vent, no true challenge to survive outside of finding daily food, which by his words is incredibly easypared to here."

    "Instinct of survival?" The priest stood as well, joining her as upon Sol moving ahead the entire army began following behind him into the stormy night.

    "The reason why Sol is so resilient is his cruelty, nothing else makes sense, he is kind but he is more cruel than anyone else I have ever met, the things I have seen him do to those demons in the name of revenge I would have never imagined a man capable of, that kind of violence are beyond me." Griffon argued.

    "For everyrade he loses, for every friend that dies his desire to get even grows, it is no assumption to say that if any of us died he would go on a rampage and lose his mindpletely."

    "That is a lot to take in." Jun shook her head. "I disagree with saying he is cruel, he''s such a sweet soul."

    "Of course you would say that given the rtionship the two of you have." Griffon answered. "Make no mistake though,"

    "After living through what those sword demons did, he''s been poisoned by hatred."

 Chapter 134: The Demon King of Atla.

    "Soones chaos... Soones death, ha ha ha ha ha!"

    ***

    Sol had been exhibiting signs of going off his knockers for weeks, horde after horde, he singlehandedly led the elite farther into demonic territory than they had aplished since the start of the war and it had happened in under a year, but on this the second year of the Goddess''s absence, the nature of the war would change forever, and the nature of the hero would be repurposed forever.

    (So... I don''t remember the demon god from A''s name, ??_?? I have tob through all the chapters because there''s mention once somewhere. I''ll make all the edits after I find it.)

    Close to the end of the second of the two darkest years, the elite army had been halved once more, now only a few hundred people remained, they had been hardened and hardwired to hunting and killing demons, the sense of individuality they all once possessed had been reduced to the basic instinct of hatred and violence, in short, they were all replicas of sol, moulded through his hatred.

    The only few who held a sense of self in the army were his closest friends who by now knew very clearly that his mind was close to beingpletely derailed, but they remained by his side because he needed them; Griffon because he and Sol were best friends, The nameless priest because without a goddess, Sol had be his focus of worship, and Jun through endless adoration, she stuck with him even more than Griffon did.

    "What is the meaning of this?" Sol stood with the rain pouring down on him, before him instead of an army there was only one opponent.

    "Who is that?" Griffon shadowed his eyes from the rain staring at the winged figure in the distant. "We were on our way to theirnof the bile demon right, where did this onee from?" He asked.

    "It''s kind of creeping me out, y''know." Jun shook her head and rubbed her arms, casting Huff''s of fire from her palms to warm herself as she usually would. "I know they''re suicidal, but the generals usually have some kind of n to counter us, this one isn''t even trying to be inconspicuous," She added. "It''s unnerving."

    "Agreed." The priest nodded.

    "Maybe... It''s not a general." Sol''s eyes narrowed, his hair was by now tall and touching his back, so he made a ponytail out of it using one of Jun''s essories and wremoved the strands that stuck to his face. "What if it''s the demon king?" He asked.

    "That would make no sense, the demons domain is thousands of miles away from here, it will take at least another year to get there at out current pace, why would-" Griffon was in the middle of refuting Sol when his only arm fell next to him.

    The rain became silent on the rocks and mud.

    "Huh?" Sol stared at the arm confused as did everyone else.

    "Ikaris has abandoned you, thwarting my ns of ascension into godhood, so I feel an urge to change the dynamic a bit out of clear spite, so bare with me... Warriors." The being that had been miles away was standing next to Griffon with his hand on the man''s head and staring down at Sol with a smile.

    He had eyes of crimson, and light tanned skin, horns that protruded from his forehead and curved upward, and sharp teeth that fit in perfect rows in his mouth, on his sides there were swords, and on his back there was an axe, and his hair was an odd shade of pink.

    Sol''s face contorted slowly as his hand trembled, while Jun and the priest reacted at a snails pace in contrast, aside from Sol they were all too weak to eveny a scratch on him.

    "If you would all kindly give us a moment to converse in private..." The demon raised Griffon by his head and used him like a bat to smack Jun and the priest away before raising his hand toward the army and sping his fist.

    "Ah.. aahhh!" Sol''s scream slowly escted as the entirety of the remaining survivors vanished in explosions of blood and gore, in just a moment they were all dead, friends he had known for years named and unnamed, his followers, those who regarded him as a pir of hope.

    "AAAHAAAAAA!" Sol summoned his sword and swung it at the demon, but was sent flying from a kick to his gut that rendered him incapacitated as he tried getting up and fell back to his face.

    "Get away from him!" Sol screamed after thest thing he saw before hitting the ground was Jun and the priest madly approaching. "That''s the demon king!"

    "Get up-get up-get up!" He willed his body to move through the pain, pushing off without the use of his hands, tearing the side of his face as he rapidly built up speed, but when he was finally able to raise his head again he was sent flying a second time by another projectile that cracked like a coconut on his chestte.

    Seconds passed with his eyes blurry as heid on his back, staring at the priests half caved-in head that had hit him unable to process anything that was happening because of the speed at which it was happening.

    Griffon was nowpletely handicapped, Priest was dead, and Jun... "Jun." Sol''s eyes bulged as a moment of rity mmed into him.

    The skies cried out, and a great bolt of lightning crashed from the clouds, parting them for a brief moment as Sol arose and caught it with his bare hand, staring ahead at the demon king that had casually waited for him, holding Jun suspended in the air by her arms with his tail while he used a pile of corpses as a seat with his cheek in his palm and a small smile on his face.

    "Good, after a few minutes I started thinking you had given up on your will to live, Sol. He sat upright and apuded the hero.

    "Let go of her!" Griffon screamed from behind the demon king, and at the same time as he screamed out Sol moved with the lightning in his grasp he traversed the air like the wind stopping short of the demon king and moulding that bolt into a physical sword, burning his hands unrecognisable as he swung it.

    "Um." The demon king caught the de of the lightning sword and held it there staring at Sol.

    "Not yet, you still have too much hope, and not enough trauma." He yanked the burning de from Sol''s hand and then blocked a spear, a hammer and another sword as Sol went mad with his summoned  weapons attacking so fast that the rain was avoiding them by several metres from the shockwaves being generated.

    "I see," The demon king caught the hammer and smashed it with his bare hand and then grabbed Sol with his other hand and pinned him to the ground, tossing Jun to the side and creating a portal next to them.

    "Get off!" Sol blew against the string of guts and  blood on the ground when he nearly inhaled it. "Let go!" Ha struggled vainly as the demon king chuckled and pressed his knee in his back, looking forward as arge ming sword demon with two extra arms in its abdomen walked out of the portal cackling.

    "You and your army have advanced for years trying to save a world that we already annihted." The sword demon spoke. "Misjudging those weaklings for generals and feeding your self-confidence, how pathetic." It walked over to Griffon''s hand, picked it up and bit into it as it caught ame. "This might be myst chance to enjoy human meat, master, what shall I do?" your chapter source NovelBin EMPYR

    "Just put on a show, I suppose." The demon King took a seat behind Sol and drove his tail through his folded arms and body, skewering him and keeping him pinned to the ground.

    "Now that we have killed everything else, with the goddess gone this world is useless to me, I want him in his best condition before I can enjoy devouring his flesh as well, it is only right that I get a proper sendoff after suffering because of that stupid bitch." He rested his head on his fist as a throne arose from the ground he sat on and the surrounding environment was purged of the rain and mud as a small temple of stone emerged and shielded them.

    "Understood." The sword general devoured the rest of Griffon''s hand and then raised the man off the ground, holding him like a doll by his head as the King had done. "Then, I can do as I please with this armless thing?"

    "No!" Sol struggled through his pain. "Don''t you dare, don''t you fucking dare, I''ll kill you, I''ll kill you dead!!" He screamed, banging his face into the stone ground and smashing up his mouth and nose as he tried and failed to escape the Demon King''s control.

    "Let go of him, I swear, you''ll regret- graaahhh!!" Sol bit into the ground with his newly grown teeth breaking them again as he tried everything to get away. "Don''t do it, don''t you fucking dare!!"

 Chapter 135: Precious Memories.

    Sol struggled for hours.

    He had been forced to watch his friend get vited repeatedly and then burnt alive and eaten when his voice gave out.

    "....." A pool of blood beneath his head, and hundreds of teeth around his face, Sol stared dead-eyed at the ashes of what remained of Griffon''s body.

    "On to the next one then?" The sword demon asked, and Sol''s mind snapped like a suspension cable, before the sword demon could touch Jun who had been unconscious all this time magic began pouring out of his body, waves and waves of it, startling the Demon King out of his boredom when the tail that had skewered Sol and suppressed him for hours was torn off.

    More demons appeared, the other three generals, Bile, Dagon, and the wind demon Syth. And all three of them along with the sword demon caught Sol and pinned him again. "Imagine if you had led with that strength, I suppose it makes sense, after all this woman is precious to you...

    Right?" The demon King walked pass Sol, regrowing his severed tail as Sol was impaled by the burning arms of the sword demon while the others stood on his hands.

    "I want to motivate you properly." The Demon King knelt over Jun and pped her, waking her from the trance he had left her in.

    "No..." Sol hoarsely cried, staring as Syth caressed his cheeks and raised his head toward them, angling him so he was unable to look away.

    Jun arose with a scream as she was thrown on her stomach and forced into a submissive position by the demon king who cackled as she tried reaching out for Sol who was right before her. "Stop, please, stop!!"

    There the unimaginable happened right before his eyes, and when the demon king and his generals had all cruelly sated their lusts, the sword demon stabbed her through her heart and tossed her onto Sol while the others released him.

    He was defeated, too defeated to do anything other than hold her, her tears had already dried up, and even after everything she had just been through, her body bloodied and abused and her insides torn and serrated beyond healing, she still smiled at him when he held her.

    Raising her shaking hand, Jun caressed Sol''s cheek and smiled sweetly at him, while he stared at her speechlessly.

    "Am I finally dying, Sol?" Jun asked weakly, unaware of her own state after going numb to the pain halfway through her abuse. "Is it finally my time to die too?"

    "Jun-"

    "I''m so happy, that the sun is shining again, we lived a long life after that horrible war, didn''t we?" She smiled and rubbed her fingers across his cheeks.

    "Darling, why are you crying, we promised each other we would not mourn our deaths, our beautiful children, and Griffon''s children, they would be so sad, do not let them see you cry..." She wheezed after speaking while Sol''s expression became less sad and more shocked.

    After all she had been subjected to, Jun''s mind had beenpletely shattered, and her brain in an attempt to protect her had created the scenario she wished for the most, she had already by definition died.

    "I''m sorry...."

    "Sol, you know, there is one thing you never said, when I asked you if I could love you, you never said yes, even though we lived our whole lives here on this farm, so far away from everyone else, and enjoyed so many good years in each others'' embrace." She kept speaking, and more tears started flowing down his cheeks again.

    "Tell me, husband... Did you ever truly love this little lovestruck woman, or did I love you all these years in vain, Sol, do you love me?" She asked, and his mouth quivered and opened, but his voice never came, he just held her and stared at a loss of words as he saw thest light of life leave her eyes and watched her hand fall limply to her side.

    "There-there, little hero." The Demon King rested his hand on Sol''s head in condolence. He had already sent the others away, but had remained behind to see Jun''s final moments.

    "With this, you are truly alone, aside from the demons, there is nobody left on A, nowhere left to go..."

    "...dead."

    "Hm?" The demon leaned in closer to Sol''s shaking lips as he hoarsely whispered.

    "... Going to kill everything, every demon, I''ll kill them all dead, I''ll murder, I''ll destroy, I''ll erase everything, I''m going to devour them, I''m going to destroy..."

    "Perfect." The Demon King nodded and stood again, walking through his portal and leaving Sol by himself. "There is no greater enemy that a corrupt one, morally, mentally, psychologically, I will remain and watch how you choose to go about this task, I will entertain your revenge, Sol, I will see you on the other side of this crusade."

    mp-y,r.

    ***

    "Dear..." Ikaris timidly approached Sol as heid on the roof staring up at H��l. "You have not said a word since you woke up from your sleep, are you sure everything is-"

    "I''m fine, Ikaris, drop it." Sol answered sharply causing her to wince and take a step back.

    His voice was devoid of hatred toward her, but it felt like he remembered something horrible that had taken his mind back to A, after saying he was thinking of "home" it seemed like he was stuck there, unable to move past it.

    "... Okay." Ikaris turned to leave him be, but paused and turned around again. "Master..." She went on her knees and hands, pressing her forehead to the roof. "Please remember, I am at your mercy, whether you decide to kill or toss me aside, I will not me you."

    Her intuition was sharp, she had caught on since he mentioned A, but now she was sure that he was in a bad ce, having never dealt with his trauma before and having no idea of what that trauma was, she was unsure of how to go about it.

    From her perspective she left and intruded earth''s domain and wandered across the world for two years seeking knowledge on how the humans there interacted, to her it was a mere fraction; a second in the grand scale of time.

    She had no clue what happened on A in those two years, other than the entire poption had fallen from over two billion to just him.

    And he never once responded to her call after her return, he just fought, until the blood of his enemies fused his hand with his sword he fought, for the next three years before he eventually faced the demon King, Sol did not rest once, he never slept either, he grew stronger with every fight, with every kill, and he never spoke a word.

    The cause was unknown, and she was afraid to ask him, so she could only present herself in her weakest state and hope he would find a way to vent, because despite his adoration toward her, she never got over that lingering feeling that he had a lot of animosity hidden behind his smile, it showed when he met the gods on Arkadia, and it was showing now once more, a coldness that not even his warmth was able to reach, disdain toward all forms of divinity be it demon or otherwise.

    Sol stared at her, waiting for her to get up, but after several minutes, she was still bowing to him. "Don''t you think that''s enough?" He asked her sitting up and staring concerned.

    "I have failed you, I do not know what to make of or how to unburden your troubled heart." Ikaris answered him without hesitance. "I ask that you punish me, Master." She added, though this time her tone, hernguage and suggestioncked any kind of sexual undertone, she meant it literally.

    "Seriously," Sol stood and walked over to her, taking a seat again and crossing his legs before her. "I''m not doing that."

    "But... Clearly-"

    "No, stop being stubborn," Sol retorted, "get up."

    "Yes." She sat up immediately and found him with his hands spread inviting her. "Oh." Ikaris crawled on all fours toward him and stopped short of his hug and then slowly leaned and sat in hisp with her legs to the side and hugged herself as he embraced her.

    "Ikaris."

    "Yes."

    "Don''t call me master anymore, I know you do it endearingly, but everyone else is calling me master, you''re not the same as they are."

    "As you wish m... Dear." She sunk into his embrace and sighed sadly. "I only wished to satisfy and rid you of this sadness, truly." She looked at his thumb on her arm slowly caressing and kneading her skin.

    "If that''s your goal, then staying by my side is enough." Sol rested his palm against her cheek and raised her face to his. "I don''t want to lose you, never, you''re my happiness, Ikaris, I can''t express that enough."

    "Then..." She smiled at him and balled her fist in his t-shirt. "Why does it sometimes feel like you hate seeing me?"

    "I don''t, but a lot of times when I wake up, I forget where I am; enough time hasn''t passed yet, I may be physically here, but in contrast I''m always getting dragged back to A. "He admitted.

    "Why not remove the memories that gue you?"

    "Because I want to remember." Sol answered. "These are precious memories that keep me going, they remind me that I''m not done, not until every demon is dead, not until they''re all beneath my feet."

 Chapter 136: Loose Ends.

    "I would have never dreamt of killing every demon, the thought seems impossible." Ikaris lowered her gaze and took a deep breath inhaling his scent and huffing mana in return.

    "I''m gonna make it a reality, for a moment, I forgot the promise I made to myself, but Sitri gave me a painful reminder of why they don''t deserve to live, not a single one of them." Sol lowered his hand and ced it on her abdomen, above her womb, and upon doing so he flinched when Ikaris sucked in a breath and sobbed.

    "I will never forgive demonkind, it doesn''t matter what good they have done and what good they n to do, a demon is a demon in my eyes... not a single one of them deserve salvation."

    Sol''s hair shed white and began floating, and his grip on Ikaris loosened as he let her up and stood. "Their time is up, the system has prevented anyone from escaping by blocking all the portals going on and out with interference, but the sheer amount of them that have tried leaving is almost a shock.

    "Dear, I would never oppose your choices, but I still have to ask, are you sure you want to be the one to kill off an entire species?" Ikaris asked, and while armour slowly grew over Sol''s body he leaned his head and looked at her.

    "Their goal all this time has been to destroy every god, they deserve it." He answered concisely, summoning a bloody sword with a red bow tied to the handle, this was the first time Ikaris had seen it since A, it was the sword he used to kill the demon god there, the sword itself once belonged to Griffon, blessed by the priest, and the red bow belonged to Jun, Sol had used every skill he learnt from his many teachers over the years to give it buffs, three years of constant imaginary-tier curses had caused the item to gain [Absolutely unbreakable] as a permanent status effect, nothing in existence could break it.

    The fact that Sol would use this cursed weapon meant he was going on ceremony, he was going to discard his morality and turn off his heart again, she stared sadly at the dried blood on the de, and how as soon as he held it firmly his eyes seemed to lose their life, as if it possessed him and willed him.

    "If anything happens, call me, I will immediately return-" Sol looked around at Ikaris, and she flinched and ran toward him, pulling out a handkerchief and reaching for his face, but Sol caught her hand and lowered it. "Don''t touch it, it''s always been like this." He looked away from her, hiding his right eye which had a single stream of blood slowly flowing down his cheek.

    "Sol, Wait!" Dina came flying up toward them, and right behind her was A. "Hold on." Shended before him and took a deep breath, ncing at Ikaris and then looking at him again, finding apprension because of his strange appearance and the ominous sword he was holding on to.

    But then against her judgement and the atmosphere she rushed forward and hugged him, clinging on to him and burying her face in his side.

    "Dina, you shouldn''t touch me-"

    "I don''t care, you''ve always done the most reckless things, as far back as I can remember, you''ve gone above and beyond when you put your mind to something." She retorted, and even Ikaris nodded in agreement that this was in fact true.

    "If it''s too much,e back, we won''t think any less of you if you give up to keep your life." Dina looked up at him, staring at his bleeding eye. "Promise."

    "What?" Solzily stared at her.

    "Promise me." She continued staring defiantly, and Sol sighed and smiled at her, resting his hand on her shoulder and kissing her forehead.

    "I''m not dying, Dina, I promise you that." He looked up at A next who was standing behind Ikaris. "Do you also have something to say?" He asked, and she nodded but kept her distance.

    "I... I have no ce here, except in your service, so..." She lowered her head when Sol''s image shifted and he started walking over to her. "I... pray for your safe return, Master Vestic." A felt butterflies when the nking of his armoured boots stopped before her and she stared at his feet, and the bloody sword that hovered next to them.

    "Look here for a second." Sol called to her, and she timidly raised her head again only to find him smiling brightly at her, there was no blood, no anger, it was the Sol who couldfort her. story at NovelBin,mp|y|r

    "Thank you for existing, A, and to answer what you asked be back then, If you can, then go ahead I''d be honoured, my heart is overjoyed that someone as kind spirited as you could ever love me." He smiled again and then rested his hand on her head. "I hope someday I can give you a better response than this."

    The air around him went cold again, and the sword began whispering as Sol turned his back to all of them and began ascending slowly. "Stay safe and remember, if something happens that you can''t handle, I''m a whisper away, all you have to do is call my name, and mean it with all your heart." He gave onest instruction before vanishing in a sh of ck and red lightning.

    "Ikaris?" Dina looked around as soon as Sol was gone. Finding the goddess standing with a clearly worried expression. "He says that all the time, and we proved it too, but isn''t prayer something only a true god can respond to?" She asked, and Ikaris chuckled.

    "Of course, no other being can respond to prayers aside from gods." Ikaris took a seat while her and A joined her staring up in at the ominous above them.

    "Then, are you saying he is a god now?"

    "He is no god, not of the divine or demon variety at least." Ikaris answered. "Sol is the pure essence of godhood, the grey line between us, the shadow we dare not cross, he is the Godyer, one who abides by no rule orw; a being of pure contradiction to the heavens and hell, a parody of power that can achieve what even the divine and demon gods cannot."

    "I still do not understand the concepts you exin." A shook her head.

    "It cannot be understood, as I am of the source of light, and the demon gods are of the sources of darkness, Sol''s poweres from the shadow between, he is simply more."

    "What a headache." Dina rubbed her temples. "I know you''re trying to exin, but everything you say sounds like a parable, I can''t keep up."

    [You have been granted administrativemand of the system in the absence of my owner]

    The system announced to Ikaris.

    "I am hesitant to share this, but, it is a defining moment in the history of creation, what happens today can never be undone, good or bad, desirable or undesirable, we are about to witness a turning point in history." Ikaris waved her hand, and a system window appeared before them all, arge one that continued to grow, not just the three but before every god in the vige, in the fields, everywhere.

    And then they started appearing all across Z-Prime as well as H��l.

    "Demon-gods, Arch-demons, Demonkin,, Lesser Demons, Demonic beasts and all." Sol spoke through the system. "My name is Sol Vestic, and Ie bearing the message of your demise."

    "For hundreds of thousands of millenia, you and your kind have tred across thousands of universes, killing, destroying lives, and plundering, the numbers have long passed thousands of quintillions, a concept that does not even exist, that is how many lives your kind have plundered and carelessly tred upon-"

    "This is a live broadcast?" A stared at Sol who sat in the pilot seat of a space-pod staring at H��l as he approached it.

    "He is doing the same thing that they have done so many times before." Dina stared, holding Ikaris''s shaking hand.

    "I''ve had the misfortune of witnessing two separate universes get ravaged by your kind, I''ve had the misfortune of seeing everything before me turn to blood and fire, so mark this as the moment your karma struck back; I swore years ago that I would kill everyst one of you, and I''vee to deliver on that promi-"

    The pod he was in exploded when a barrage of missiles from both Z and H��l locked on and shot it down while it was in hyper speed.

    [Activating Echo Teleportation (you will appear anywhere within this observable universe that you have already been)]

    "Nothing will stop me." Sol emerged from the ball of sma that the multitude of nukes had created in an attempt to kill him.

    "I''ming with the hatred of every abused and destroyed universe on my back, I won''t falter or waver once." He continued flying, waving his hand and copsing the space in front of him before he closed his eyes and vanishedpletely, reappearing on H��l, right at the spot he had first arrived and saved Dina.

    "I''vee to tie up all loose ends and put a stop to your evils once and for all; you''re all going to die."

 Chapter 137: Judgement Day.

    [There are iing projectiles]

    The system alerted Sol when he arose from the dramatic entry he had made and began walking toward the capital city of H��l.

    "What kind?"

    "I believe the term they use for such weapons are ICBM-]

    "Inter continental ballistic missiles," Sol continued walking observing in real time as thousands of nukes converged toward him, blocking out the sky with smoke and light. "This is quite stupid of them, with the power these demons have why would they still rely on something as weak as Unconventional Weaponry?" He asked, shaking his head and raising his hand.

    Sol raised his eyes and stared upward, waving his hand across the skies in one single motion. "It seems they won''t understand just how fucked they are until I''ve made an example out of them."

    [Imaginary tier magic: Magic mimicry]

    "Origin Explosions." Sol calmly spoke and the entirety of the sky above him became andmine of [origin explosion] balls that were already the size of nuclear explosions.

    Seeing this, the demons that had agreed tounch, the ones who had watched andughed in arrogance, and all those who cowered after catching wind of his existence stared mortified as the skies above Sol shattered and the atmosphere was torn asunder when everything went off in an explosion that made no physical sense.

    Whether it be the sounds that came from it, the cosmic scale of it, or the way it turned day into night and night into day repeatedly as the sand under his feet shattered after turning into ss repeatedly.

    Looking away from the system window in front of her Dina stared up at H��l in horror as the explosions reached out into the cosmos and turned the vum of space into a minefield of moon-sized cosmic explosions as well, amassing and bing a sizeable percentage of the he meant to destroy in the process.

    "What is imaginary tier magic?" A stared up. "It sounds and looks absurd, and it feels unrealistic."

    "I would like to say it was my doing, but as soon as Sol''s soul was exposed to divine power; my power, he awakened that nightmarish magic all on his own, no doubt a sideffect of being chosen by the grey, after all, the first one also had powers of that nature, as I said before, his existence is defiance itself; a parody against physics and thews of the cosmos.

    "Imaginary tier magic is exactly what it sounds like." Ikaris answered A''s question. "Anything feasible, so long as he can see himself doing it, it can be a possibility, which is how he came up with the idea to cocktail divine and demon magic and be what is essentially a perfect copy of the strongest being to ever walk time."

    "What?" Dina looked down at Ikaris after thest part of her exnation. "Strongest?" She repeated.

    "Granted I said being and not entity." Ikaris rified. "He is still ways away from the true powers of the Godyer." She spoke without exnation. "You will see."

    *

    "It is the end of all of us, we are going to die today, there is nowhere we could go, it is all my fault, had I left without Ikaris none of this would have happened!" Sitri had her hands covering her ears and crying as the skies screamed from the atmosphere mming shut repeatedly and opening again, sucking up the desert and creating weather anomalies all across H��l.

    "I admit he is quite strong for a divine being." Another demon-god next to her nodded stroking his chin with a smirk. "But do you honestly think he is stronger than all of us, have we not all created simr disasters sometime or another?" He asked her, but frowned when she did not even acknowledge him.

    Aside from his horns being a shade lighter than Sitri''s ck horns, this demon was nearly identical to her in both height and appearance.

    Her twin brother, and the strongest demon-god under the Entitiy itself which ruled them all; Saleos, prince of H��l.

    They had indeed gathered, thousands of demon gods stood in formation staring at Sol''s approac.

    And at the very back of this army sat a silent figure shrowded in darkness, staring forward with a tired expression on his face.

    "Sitri, your unwillingness to fight disgusts me." The demon-god grabbed her by her hair and raised her off the ground forcing her to open her eyes as she began screaming, but as soon as she did she felt Sol''s eyes lock on to her and all her motion halted.

    "I''m sorry brother, I brought destruction to our doorstep-"

    Sitri tried apologising but suffered a backhanded p that sent her sprawling on the ground before the army she had influenced into creation because of her endless paranoia and relentless warning over thest feew days.

    "Is this weak thing really our princess?" One demon asked another, and together they chuckled when Sitri shakily stood and hugged herself.

    "Sitri." Sol''s voice exploded across the skies as thest explosion went off and the storms all died, and before man beast or child could utter a single word the princess of demons stood at full attention, sprouted her wings and took off like a bullet toward him.

    "What the fuck?" Saleos took off after her. "Hey, what are you doing?" He asked easily catching up and stopping in her way with his hands spread wide. "You are the princess of demons, show some dignity, this whole army amassed to protect you after you said he was going to kill you first, what''s the point of you willingly chase him as soon as he calls?" He snarled at her, shing his teeth rabidly.

    "... I never asked for protection, and I do not believe any of you can save me from my demise." Her wings slowly fanned around her to keep her afloat as she rubbed her arm with a downcast expression. "I... He... " She bit her lip and shook her head. "This is my day of judgement for what I did."

    "...What exactly did you do that caused this?" Saleos asked her with his expression hardening as before him Sitri had been stripped down to a being who could no longer raise her head proudly, she couldn''t even put up a fight in her current state.

    "I killed his child."

    "You have killed many children in the past, we relish-"

    "I killed the child manifest between him and Ikaris, whom Iter found out was a Primordial god that ties to the first god of bnce, that is why I stole her... I thought father would be pleased, but he refused to even meet her, and then Sol showed up-"

    "Gods do not bare offspring." Saleos countered, ignoring everything else she had said. "They can only create life through evolution."

    "What I killed was definitely an embryo, brother, she was pregnant with his child!" She shook her head pleading that he listen to her. "Back then, less than a month ago, I was iprehensibly stronger than he was... But he surpassed me in an instant, his power exploded!" She extended her hands in gesture.

    "And it has been explosively growing ever since, this; all of this, it is all my fault, at first I thought that if I died he would stop, but he hase to kill us all; he is Godyer!" She screamed, and at the mention of Godyer the air, the, the cosmos went silent, and Saleos''s eyes widened.

    The System had been sure to ry her and her brother''s conversation everywhere, everyone heard it, they all saw the fear in her eyes, Ikaris especially held a hard expression as she stared at Sitri''s fear with nonchnce and dismissal.

    "I''m d you''re aware of what triggered this chain of events."

    Sitri''s eyes widened as well when she realised that the reason Saleos''s eyes had widened was to because of her words, but the appearance of a third party, and before she could even move she started falling to the ground.

    [All of your mana has been stolen]

    The system informed her as she plumetted out of the sky.

    "What?"

    Sol''s expression held no emotion as he stared at Saleos, he couldn''t make heads of tails of what had just happened, but he knew as soon as he saw Sol that the being before him had to be eliminated with the utmost urgency.

    Unconventionally it was not a sword or any othereleenweaponnfhat the demon-god pulled, instead arge rail-cannon materialised in his grasp extending all the way to Sol''s face and stopping right at his nose where he did not even flinch as he stared down the ck chamber as dense mana appeared on the inside and created a crimson glow.

    "How unoriginal." Sol stared down the barrel and then raised his hand punching it upwards just as the mana inside of it erupted outward. Even he had to admit that was impressive, the Lazer-focused mana that came from the rail-cannon zipped through the sky and the vum of space and tore a gigantic trench into Z-Prime with zero dy whatsoever, it was instantaneous.

    "He reacted?!"  Saleos gawked staring under his raised weapon at Sol who stared right back as he approached him slowly. "When did he deflect my arm?"

    "You''re not ready yet, I don''t think any of you are, I want a real fight, I want a real struggle, I want to see your hope be hopelessness, just as you did to me, just as you''ve done to countless others, I want to see the life drain out of your efforts until all that remains is a husk of your former selves!"

    "F-Fuck-" Saleos released his gun, causing it to vanish as arge battle-axe with a thruster on the back reced it. "Shi-"

    At speeds near light, the axe descended with the aid of the thrusters, and Saleos gawked a second time when the axe came to a sudden halt, blocked by Sol who raised his sword against it.

    "Go back and prepare for my arrival, I have unfinished business with the one below." Sol appeared before Saleos, eyes wide and burning with divinity and his hand shrowded in [clockwork] mana circles and pressed against his chest.

    "I''ll be right there."

    "Wh-"

 Chapter 138: Fodder.

    [Clockwork (stacked)]

    [Fireball: Imaginary-tier]

    [Less than one percent of mana has been consumed, magicbination achieved]

    "Forced Sun."  Sol gave his new technique a name as he released it, it was small because of the fact that he used clockwork on it which caused it to stop growing, it only grew to the rtive size of a small room.

    The sheer power behind the imaginary-tier technique inparison was devastating, he already knew from observing the mana in Saleos that he could handle the attack, so he considered the destruction he was about to cause a minor grievance at best as the ball of fire forced him and the demon apart in recoil and then exploded.

    After falling to the ground Sitri had remained on her hands and knees shaking; the feeling of having every ounce of mana leave her body in an instant felt as if she had died all over again, it brought her to that corner she had been trapped in when she fought Sol and the heroes back on Arkadia.

    When [Forced Sun] exploded, it quickly grew to the size of a nuke standing in the air for several long seconds.

    Saleos was sent back toward the army in an uncontrolled crash, and Sitri who was directly beneath the explosion was being blown away, but she was caught between her breasts by the crest of her armour by Sol who stood weightlessly in the air riding out the cosmic winds of his attack with a passive stare as he held on to her.

    He waited patiently, whilst she stared dreadfully at his eyes unable to look away as her death was sure to be the next reality.

    "Do you know the girl who''s body you stole?" He asked as soon as the winds died down. "I remembered her after I saw you again, even though you changed her body so much, you still have her likeness..."

    "Well?" Sol asked when seconds psed and she remained mute.

    "N-no, I never knew her." She barely spoke aloud.

    "Her name was Sage, seventeen years of age, she was one of the waitresses in a restaurant I used to frequently visit." Sol stared at her while her horror only grew from his words. "She was a good kid; innocent."

    "Simrly..." Sitri''s expression became pleading. "There are demons who have nothing to do with the-"

    "Yeah, I''m a hypocrite." Sol pulled her closer and smiled at her fearsing to fruition. "I don''t give a fuck about anything that is or could be considered innocent while being a demon!"

    [You have been cursed, all mana has been sealed permanently]

    [You have been cursed with immortality]

    [You have been cursed with hyperawareness]

    [You have been cursed with hypersensitivity]

    [Your pain limiter has been broken, in the event of you normalising any pain your tolerance will drop hundredfold endlessly]

    [You have been cursed with pain awareness; even the slightest touch is equivalent to a stab wound]

    [You have been cursed with restlessness and anxiety]

    [You have been cursed with schizophrenia]

    [You have been cursed with fear]

    [You have been cursed with paranoia]

    "Please... d-don''t... wait... let me change -I promise I can change, I will do better, I can be better, I swear it on my soul!!" Sitri started recalling more horrors as a portal opened up beneath her feet, while the sensation of pain from Sol''s knuckle touching her sent her into droves of spasms as she started screaming, experiencing more pain the more she iled.

    [You have been sentenced to a clone dimension of observed memories in the Nightmare Prism; A 2.0]

    "Goodbye, Sitri." Sol released her into the golden portal, and there she fell while screaming before smahing against a hard surface and painting it deep maroon.

    Sol stood over the entrance and watched as she recovered from the clear deadly drop and began screaming again from simply touching the ground before she was attacked by a burning sword demon which impaled her and raised her by her cor bones and began cackling as it stripped her of her clothes.

    Surrounding that sword demon were thousands more, and then bile demons, and Syth demons, and finally thousands of Dagon behemoths.

    "Suffer like she did, trillionfold, never losing your sanity, experience more pain than any other being in existence ever did." Sol closed the portal and then opened his palm again causing a hexagonal tesseract to appear in his grasp. Inside of which he could hear Sitri screaming as she was subjected to unspeakable horrors.

    [Imaginary tier: Immortal Prison (unbreakable)]

    "You will live forever, and die forever simultaneously." Sol leaned his torso and flung the small tesseract with all his strength watching it rapidly leave the atmosphere and soar into the void of space. "When everything and everyone is dead and gone, even after the end of observable time, you will remain in this dark universe, suffering in the ruins of a shattered dimension."

    "By the gods..." A stared at the prism soaring through space via the system window. "Did it say, A what kind of horrific thing could have happened on A then?" She asked, but found no response as Dina had gone speechless and Ikaris had been left too shocked to even begin to be speechless.

    "Jun... experienced such horrors, because I turned my back...?" Ikaris stared at the prism, using administrative authority to view what was happening on the inside of it, she held her stomach in disgust. "So many of my people did..."

    "Ikaris?" Dina looked at her reaching out, but recoiled in shock along with A when they both witnessed for the first time in her life as Ikaris leaned over and groaned in pain, crying and sobbing before she started vomiting on the rooftop.

    "What the fuck is happening to you?" Dina caught her and pulled back her hair as she continued crying.

    "This is why he never told me, this is why he hated divinity so much!" Ikaris cried heavily before throwing up again. "Jun... Griffon... everyone else, what is this horrible- uurgh!" She stared as memories she had previously not had ess to came flooding through her mind via her strong connection to Sol and by alternation A which she had left behind.

    "What''s happening to her?" A joined Dina, cing her hand on Ikaris''s back and trying to soothe her with [minor heal] but Ikaris only continued to cry and gag.

    "You said it didn''t matter anymore, but you have been shouldering this horrible truth by yourself, drowning in this guilt and self-me!" Ikaris looked up to the skies watching the prism floating away.

    "Sol, how could you have ever forgiven me for leaving, this enters the realm of damnation, not even I would... why, how did you?" She asked.

    "Because, you gave me the chance to heal, you gave me peace I have never dealt before, and the chance to fall in love again." Sol started walking again, he answered passively, and to everyone else it sounded like he was speaking out of context, but Ikaris and the others paused; them looking at her and her looking at him.

    "Is that all?" She asked, hugging herself and shuddering as she was ovee with sorrow like she had never felt. "I failed you, I failed all of you."

    "Stop it." Sol scoffed. "None of them hated you, even the priest, your most devout follower never once utter a single bad word against you, and Jun..." Sol paused as he saw a multitude of demon-gods converging toward him, being guided by Saleos.

    "She suffered, but she died a happy woman, I do not me you, and I do not want you to me yourself either, as I said on the day you brought me back to earth, I am grateful for the second life, and I will live it to the fullest of my abilities." Sol''s expression became the embodiment of evil as the demon-gods closed the distance in an instant.

    "It just so happens that the fullest I can live it to, is taking revenge for everything that happened!" Solunched himself toward the multitude, taking deep wild breaths as his pupils shrunk into dots and vanished in the white of his irises. "I will y everything before me, and rest my grievances once and for all!"

    "Ikaris..." Dina looked to the goddess next, leaning her head and pointing to the system window. "Is it something you are able to share?" She asked, and Ikaris shook her head, wiping her mouth and looking up.

    "Absolutely not."

    "It''s that bad?"

    "I wish I never knew," Ikaris stared at the window again as Sol collided fists with a demon-god with the head of a bull, causing the creature to explode into chunks of meat and entrails, and then used those entrails to catch another by her throat and swing her into a trio before releasing an inaginary-tier fireball in their faces and incinerating them and a multitude more, before emerging and stepping through the head of one who had escaped the explosion and tearing him into two halves.

    "Are these weak beings actual demon-gods?" Sol mused.

    "Compared to Sitri and the other one, these are nothing but fodder."

 Chapter 139: Rule #1

    "If his goal is to kill them all, why does he go through he trouble of doing it individually rather than just destroying the entire H��l in one fell swoop?"

    "If Sol decided to he could destroy H��l, if that is what you are asking, but if he did that it is no guarantee that the demon-gods would all die, and there''s one entity there that wouldn''t die regardless, he is using H��l as a tform to get rid of them and making sure nothing spills over to Z." Ikaris answered A''s question.

    "He''s going to destroy Z-Prime regardless though." Dina countered.

    The three had left the roof and were inside of one of the houses with Gadriel and Gabriell who had now been confirmed to be younger fragments of Ikaris''s original whole, making them her direct younger siblings by several thousand millenia, and thus, they had the privilege of being closer to her than any of the other gods did.

    "Where would we go if that happened?" Gadriel asked, raising her brow at A.

    "It would take some effort but I think with the power I have stocked up I could create another habitable Z-Prime-sized celestial body in a matter of minutes." Ikaris casually spoke and shook her head with her arms folded. "What matters is not that I can though, it is the risk of doing it." She exined.

    "If the demons retreat to Z-Prime it will cause chaos, there is no telling if we would get discovered, currently the only ones among us who would stand a chance are A, Dina, and myself, and although I am sure now that even A after arriving here is strong enough to hold her own, there are thousands of those beings, if they attacked us everyone would likely die."

    "So, in conclusion, it is not because he cannot, it is because he has considered our safety that he refuses to go all out from the start and create hell in the heavens."

    "You sound so confident of his thoughts and motifs." Gabriell responded as they all watched Sol continue to fight.

    "I trust himpletely, and have submitted to himpletely, outside of what happened earlier, we understand each other on a level exceeding individuality, he sees through my acts and intentions all the time, and I the same." Ikaris huffed and then shifted in her seat when she felt the ground tremor and saw items on shelves rattling as the skies above them rumbled.

    "Oh how I wish I could be a part of it:" Ikaris stared at the chandelier swaying above them. "A fight that shakes the foundation of the cosmos, it is a lustful thought." She added.

    "You are a lot more battle-frenzied than I imagined a goddess of bnce would be."

    "I am no longer the goddess of bnce though, at least... Not in my entirety." Ikaris mumbled. "That identity was shattered remember; I am only its memory; thergest fragment of what once was, instead it is more urate to say I am the intent that followed her demise."

    "What does that even mean now?" Dina asked, staring at Ikaris as a foreboding feeling caused her skin to break into goosebumps as Ikaris''s eyes turned crimson for a brief second.

    "When ites to demonkind..." Ikaris stared at the system window, fighting the urge to smile as she watched Sol kill indiscriminately. "When ites to demonkind I am no better than Sol, sure, I may be reserved tomit the same acts as he so passionately does, but my intentions are the fucking same, I want them dead, all of them, everyst one, obliterated down to the-"

    "Ikaris!" Dina grabbed her hand dragging her back to the ground while the other three had looks of horror on their faces, A in particr was bleeding from her nose while Gabriell stood before her in an attempt to protect her.

    "Calm down."

    "You are... the embodiment of our hatred..." Gadriel stared at Ikaris, who unlike the other times hadpletely lost herposure, much like she had done in the Arkadian pantheon, her divine power was rising at such a fast rate that it had begun influencing the gods on the outside who had be physically hostile as they stared to the skies and felt the tremors of Sol''s fight.

    "I am what?" Ikaris calmed down and looked at them.

    "Hatred incarnate, the hatred weck toward demonkind, the drive for revenge we never had I can feel it all in you." Gabriell rified, but Ikaris only scoffed and shook her head, taking a seat andposing herself as if she had done nothing.

    "That is impossible." Ikaris folded her arms and crossed her legs, leaning and looking at A wiping her nose, and then at Dina who was doing the same.

    "To imply such a thing is to say I am wed as a goddess, all beings have hate but there has never been any kind of embodiment of hatred, not in recent or primordial history, I would have sensed it the same as I sensed Sol''s soul across dimensions, such an invaluable asset could have served-"

    "Then... what are you then; what is the intent that followed Ikaris''s demise, if you have no title, and hold no meaning what else could you be other than the hate we all fear andck?" Gabriell asked, and Ikaris went quiet and started observing the fight again.

    "Maybe the reason you never felt it is because you are the door itself."

    "Stop making such baseless arguments." Ikaris''s irises shrunk, and she slowly turned around and stared at Gabriell causing the younger goddess to shudder as she felt a challenge against her existence rise up and shake her soul.

    "I hate the demons just as much as any other god who has seen and experienced their cruelty, to address me as one who conceives and manifests hatred as an identity is nothing short of treachery!" She sneered while her eyes went crimson again.

    "Power, prowess, fortitude, resistance, I inherited the will of the progenitor, and along with that will came the ability to stand up against demonkind, if nothing else I am the goddess of power, and of change-"

    "You have been alone all your existence, you have no idea what kind of god you are, with the violence we have seen from you our eldest, it is a kind assumption at best to not reverence you as an evil god." Gabriell feverishly countered, and for a split moment she flickered in and out of reality when Ikaris stared at her, but before the goddess acted on her impulses and truly killed another god for crossing the line, she stood up and walked out of the room.

    "Why would you call her an evil god?" Gadriel stared at her sister shocked, but the younger of the two cradled her head and sighed.

    "Do not y hypocrite, you have seen it, we all have, she may be our ancestor, one of the first primordials and the direct descendant and fragment of the true Ikaris, but she is also massively unstable, gods of pantheons fighting against each other ismon ce, dominance can only be observed through power, but she needs not fight at all, why is it that we all fear her without even seeing her power?

    Why does it feel like the Ikaris we are seeing is an iplete being, and why is there such an abundance of hatred just beneath her surface?" Gabriell asked.

    "Her existence feels like a sin in itself, her dominance feels obligatory, like irreverence will lead to ughter, no god would ever rule through fear, it is the only thing we are unable to do, and yet we all fear her, the only one who does not fear her is the Godyer."

    "I am not afraid ofdy Ikaris." A folded her handkerchief and shook her head. "In fact it is quite the opposite, I love her, and to say gods cannot rule through fear is null, I have seen it firsthand, the god of dragons; Diablos, was a terrifying being who ruled his subjects with fear, granting them power to do his bidding." She tried debunking Gabriell''s ims.

    "Do not mistake fear and greed elf, dragons are greedy, they spend their existences amassing power to gain sovereignty over their peers and enemies, as a god that instinct is mandatory and more heightened than ever, but she has no such trait, she is the descendant of a being that never raised a hand inbat, who always sought the middle ground peacefully, choosing to shatter her existence and spread it across the cosmos rather than fight, and yet she is the most violent god I have ever seen or heard of.

    "She had to fight, didn''t she save your life?"

    "You are missing the point here, A," Gabriell shook her head while Dina left in search of Ikaris outside. "She had a choice, The Godyer protects her, had she chosen to remain behind him he would have easily stood before her and fought, but she chose to fight because she wanted to, she chose to kill demons because it is a yearning that pulls her, she is so full of violence-"

    "Enough." Gadriel rested her hand on her sisters head staring down on her. "This is tant prejudice, Gabriell, shut it; to regard our saviour with such disrespect, have you no sense of gratitude?"

    "I am making a point-"

    "Ikaris is not perfect." A interjected.

    "I do not believe that any being is perfect, not since the first light and the first darkness, we are all entities muddled with ws and imperfections, personally I do not care if she is hateful, I am happy for it,pared to what she has done here, and the many gods she saved, she singlehandedly rescued hundreds of millions, maybe over a billion lives on my homeworld, had she chosen to stand at the side like the other gods we would have all died." A stared at the goddesses next to her.

    "I love her, I adore her, I respect her, I worship the ground she walks on and she air she breathes, if she is hateful to the demons then let her be, the entirety of her existence and all her hard work has been gued and destroyed by them not once, but twice, how many of us can say we lost everything twice?" She asked.

    "What right do you have to-"

    "I am giving you the alternative to being ungrateful." A stared up at Gabriell. "To speak ill of and use the one who saved you from the horrors of the demons... You are clearly envious of her, whether it be because of master Vestic, or because of the fact that she is able to fight back at all; you are."

    "I implore you to look within yourself before you cast judgement on others, especially when that other is your benefactor and ancestor, is that not the first and most important rule of divinity?"

 Chapter 140: Beauty.

    "There is no such rule amongst the divine you little-"

    "There is." Ikaris answered before Gabriell could insult A again. "Those are my... they are Ikaris''s... My words, I am the one who remembers, I am the one who had to bare the burden and the pain of being torn apart and shattered, I am the one who wrote those rules and it has been me suffering while you all loved cluelessly in your cozy worlds.

    "What do you mean cozy, I watched my entire universe fall apart and burn, we both did, me and my sister!!" Gabriell stood approaching Ikaris who was walking through the door.

    "I sense nothing within you, most of the gods present here have no idea what it is to have subjects worship them, and you fall under that umbre." Ikaris stood passively and raised her nose, staring as the angry goddess approached her.

    "I will not apologise for anything I have said or done, the fact here is you are lesser; a mere fragment of myself who has grown conceited... and has be insecure of her own identity.

    "Ikaris thats-" Dina tried interjecting but stopped when Gabriell''s eyes shed red and she reached out for Ikaris.

    "I am limited to a percent of my power currently, but this is more than enough to put you in your ce, little girl." Ikaris stared at the shorter goddess as she caught her hand and bent it as while eyes also turned crimson.

    Gadriel who was far more self-aware than her arrogant younger sister stood with A hoping it would be resolved without violence, while Dina understood that this was necessary.

    Hiarchy had to be established.

    "Do not look down on me, I am just as much a part of her as you are!" Gabriell sneered, finding Ikaris''s strength unmovable as she waspletely suppressed

    "I am not just a part, I am her, In name, I am Ikaris, memory of creation, memory of fragmentation, proof of existence, and a mass quantity of her power, my power!

    Had I not ryed your identity to you, you would still be confused about how you came to be, about who I am, and you dare to judge and treat me as somemon god?" Ikaris raised her off the ground by her hand and stared at her, eye to crimson eye.

    "Hate exists in all of us, you are not exempt, what you are, Gabriell, is weak."

    Ikaris released her and released a deep sigh just as the house they were inside of tremored again and the skies above howled and thundered. "To focus on you right now is a waste of time." Ikaris walked back to her seat and wentpletely feminine and docile as soon as she sat.

    "We have an important event in the happening." She waved her hand and a massive window the size of the wall with several different points of view opened up.

    "What is that power?" Gadriel asked.

    "System is not a power, she is an entity, before he left, Sol have me adminstrativemand so I have ess to all her power and perks."

    "The system was female?" Dina snapped.

    [I chose to be, to better appeal to Master Vestic''s interests.]

    "Whatever the fuck that means-" Ikaris was about to go off when the window went white and the ground started shaking, but unlike the other times it continued shaking more violently until the system teleported them all outside with the couch where they witnessed the entire building copse as a crack tore through it.

    "Sol..." Ikaris stared up, even through they were so far away, they could still see a massive storm of mana tearing across the skies of H��l.

    The capital city, the pce everything vanished in an instant as Sol raised his hands and began exerting some real force, instantly putting an end to every advance against him.

    *Doom

    "Now it''s gotten boring, maybe I should have tossed you all into prisms and went for the main meal from the start." Sol lowered his hand.

    "How long are you going to stand there watching your foot soldiers die?" Sol stared ahead, he berely spoke but his voice echoed across the entire battleground and the burning city beneath him, but as soon as he said it he clicked his tongue and shook his head.

    "What am I even saying?" Sol raised his hand again.

    [Imaginary tier magic]

    [Forbidden Magic]

    [Taboo magic]

    "Here ites...!" Ikaris had a blush slowly growing on her face as she stared up at H��l, causing those around her, Dina especially to go on guard as she vividly remembered thest time Ikaris had made such an expression; when Sol had beat the shit out of a god for two whole days without break.

    Sol closed his eyes when the figure that stood behind Saleos and the remaining demon-god army did not respond to any of his provocations.

    [You are exerting a massive amount of force, your divine mana will fall by 30%] the system warned him, but Sol only smirked as he thought of the fact that half a day of fighting had not drained a single percent of his power.

    "Sacred Divine Arts..." Sol began sping his fist, and as soon as he did a wave of white transparent mana spread from his body, travelling at the speed of light and epassing all of H��l in a sh and then swelling until it was touching Z-Prime as well. "Celestial Authority."

    "What is that terrifying sensation?" A stared at the system window which was glitching from Sol''s mana interfering with it.

    "Did you teach him something so-"

    "As long as he can envision it, there is nothing he cannot do; Sol is amazing!" Ikaris was giddy with excitement and as bright-eyed as a child, snapping her fingers and causing her and everyone else to suddenly retreat several hundred thousand kilometres outside of the range of Sol''s reach.

    "He is the best!" She eximed again as they all got a clearer view of the great mass of divine mana that grasped the like a hand and began squeezing it, setting off millions of volcanic eruptions as the billions of other lifeforms began vanishing.

    "The peak of evolution!" Ikaris eximed watching fiery cracks appear across the as it slowly began deforming spreading her hands as she exerted a mass of divine mana creating a spacial mana-field around her and everyone else.

    "What is happening?!" Saleos shrieked in terror along with the other gods losing their fighting spiritspletely when the entire started groaning as it was slowly being broken under pressure around them.

    "... Stand at my side, Saleos." The tall entity finally spoke, and when he did Sol''s eyes locked on him and he felt a suppressing force m against his chest, simrly Ikaris who was staring at him slowly fell out of her stupor, with her hands still spread and her eyes wide open.

    "Lord, what of us?" Another demon-god begged falling to the feet of the shrowded being.

    "Insignificant." He replied, raising his long hand and casting a shield over Saleos and himself before the first wave of destruction begun. "The power that god wields feels familiar." He admitted, staring as the demon-gods outside of the barrier cried out and were swept away by a wave of raw cosmic power.

    "He is incredible." Sol continued to stare, feeling a bead of sweat roll down his cheek as he stood in the safe epicentre of his own attack. "Can I truly..." He began musing, but then shook his head and mmed his fist shut with a scowl. "Of course I can, there''s no enemy I can''t defeat, I am the strongest!"

    H��l broke like a melon under the pressure of a thousand rubber bands, first with the continents being torn asunder, and then the seas rapidly rushing ind and covering everything, mountain ranges getting crushed and shot out of the atmosphere, it became a scene of tragedy, and amidst it Sol stared dispassionately as he farmed the souls of every living being he killed into xp.

    "And then to finish it." Sol opened his palm again watching as veins popped up across his forearm before he sped it slowly, causing a secondary hand to emerge from the other side of the violently thrusting into it and causing a giant fiery explosion as everything was blown asunder in a matter of seconds.

    For Ikaris this was reassuring, seeing the oppressive responsible for the suffering of the divine get smashed brought out her joy again and she relished in the destruction, casting crimson before her as her eyes shone brightly in the middle of the day.

    "Marvellous, Love, you truly are the heir to this universe -all shall bow at your feet!" She eximed, bringing her hands to her chest and pressing them onto herself as she felt a particrly sexual urge dominate her current emotions at the thought of Sol standing at the peak with her and everyone else at his feet.

    "My, what beauty~"

 Chapter 141: Re-Creation.

    Sirens started going off all across Z-Prime as the remnants of H��l began crashing toward them.

    "Are we safe here?" Dina asked resting her hand on Ikaris and waking her from her stupor as her eyes returned to normal while she turned to greet evereyone''s gaze.

    "Many of us here are capable of keeping ourselves safe now, as for those who are not, I will protect you, there is little to no demonic energy here on Z-Prime, we are able to easily utilize our strengths." Ikaris answered, but looked behind again with slight worry.

    "Almost all of the demon-gods have been killed now, the few that remain are the most powerful, they are stranded up there but if they find a way down here they will target the gods again, after all, my Love represents us as much as he does himself in his wrath."

    "So..." A trailed off.

    "We will retreat to the opposite side of Z-Prime for now and keep an eye on the battle from there." Ikaris raised her hand, covering everyone in her divine mana and teleporting them all instantaneously.

    With the system aiding her instead of her exerting herself and alerting the enemy of their presence she had already mapped the entire. Moving about was an easy feat.

    "I never imagined I would see the day..." The Demon Lord looked around, his eyes were a light crimson like most other demons, and his skin was grey and ashen.

    He had short ck and wild hair with three horns on either side of his head and a pair of tusks on his lower jawing from the corners of his mouth.

    H��l was less than a fraction of its former self, with one side roughly crushed into smooth mountains, and the other side that was struck being almostpletely t, and it was at most a few miles of rock while everything else was debris floating away rapidly in all directions, on one end stood Sol, and on the other end stood the Demon-Lord and Saleos who had been spared from destruction, while floating weightlessly were a few demon gods who were capable of existing outside of an atmosphere.

    "What a nice setting." Solmented, walking along the rocky surface toward the only two still left there, his eyes and hair had returned to normal. "I never imagined I couldfortably destroy a celestial body the size of Saturn, the thought makes me feel uneasy, but considering my goal I''d say it''s perfect."

    "Your mana is at 79%" Sol heard a voice next to him, and turned his head with his brows wrinkled when he saw the system take physical form, he was shocked, she resembled Ikaris in beauty, but her body was more simr to A''s, and her height was exactly at Dina''s height, and then her features were a mixture of all three making her lookpletely different even though she looked like them at the same time.

    The only variant that waspletely hers was the dress she wore, it was what she found mostfortable which turned out to be a tight in blouse that stopped below her groin and apparently a short skirt it.

    "79... Isn''t it supposed to be 70%?" Sol asked staring at his status window as he walked, but while he walked he saw that number rise again by a percent and he began to chuckle at himself. "Hey, system, what''s going on, why is my mana rising so fast, am I gonna explode?" He asked.

    "Explode?" She leaned forward when he looked away from her. "No, I do not believe so; your mana is regting because of Godyer, it is a third party, not truly divine, not truly demon, the grey remember, you are your own universe." She answered his question.

    "Also you have killed quadrillions, I simply decided the levelling-up notifications were pointless at this point, you are significantly stronger than before."

    "I''m my own universe... Ikaris said the same thing, what exactly does that mean?"

    "I do not have enough information on you or your history to create a proper response to that question." She answered looking down at her breasts that bounced per step. "They are quite heavy, mayhaps I should change the size... What say you, master Vestic?"

    "What the hell are you doing, this is a serious-"

    "But I need your opinion." She stared at him, her hair slightly glowed with blue like a healthy atmosphere, and her eyes were gold with ck star-shaped pupils with four points, and her skin was a shade more tan than Dina''s, with naturally pink and attractive lips; she was beautiful. "I need your immediate opinion." She leaned closer to him.

    "Ugh." Sol stopped walking when he no longer needed to use any kind of magic to look at the Demon-Lord who had been standing patiently waiting. "Go away for now, I''ll deal with youter." He pushed her cheek while she floated off the ground, giving him a bow and vanishing. "Now then-"

    [Mana is at 90%]

    "Is it infinite?"

    [Possibly, but be sure to conserve your mana]

    "Yeah... That''s just not possible!" Sol raised his sword and turned the de to his enemies just as a pir of ck mana appeared before him, even though with the [unbreakable] curse he was able to easily tear the attack apart the sheer force sent him trenching through the ground with his feet leaving deep tears.

    "Come now, destroyer... I allowed you to have your fun, I have listened to your grudge, and witnessed your power; you are strong, so I will fight you to avenge the dead, Sol Vestic of two universes."

    "Avenge?" Sol looked around, sensing the approach of several demon-gods. "You watched them die, don''t y victim with me." Sol started walking again, and then discarded his cape and broke into a slow sprint.

    "Truly, I do not care, this realm bores me, I only want what you have."

    "Which is?" Sol asked as he fell into a crouch watching the Demon-Lord do the same while Saleos took off running.

    "Reignition of passion, and the will to fight, if you can sate my desire for warfare I will dly die by your hand!" His lips peeled back into a grin revealing sharp teeth while Sol''s frown only grew as he drew closer.

    "Your existence is a stain, I''m not here to entertain, I''m here to kill!"

    "Then do your best-"

    [GODSPEED]

    He was on the other side of the drifting remnant of H��l but then all of a sudden he was right in front of the Demon-Lord with his sword curved as his first act was to take his head clean off his body... However.

    "What ...the ...fuck?" Sol''s eyes were wide when he saw a fist before him rapidly descending from the much taller being.

    He couldn''t dodge the attack, hell he could barely perceived it to begin with, it was a sh of ck as the armoured fist mmed into the side of his head and sted him through the ground causing him to emerge on the other side spinning out of control.

    [The enemy has utilized gravitational magic]

    As soon as he was alerted Sol felt himself falling again toward the debris.

    "You easily destroyed my homeworld and have boldly threatened to destroy all life in my universe-" The Demon-Lord emerged from the hole Sol''s body had made and caught his leg, spinning and tossing him faster towards the surface. "Prove that you were worthy!" Hended before Sol hit the ground and aimed to punch him again.

    "Forced-" Sol spun out of the way of his fist andnded feet-first in his chest, "Sun!"

    A gigantic st of sma appeared nuking the entirety of the drifting fragment and sending him cascading toward Z, while he was falling through empty space he again sensed demon-gods approaching him, but their efforts proved fatal as Solnded on a small rock the size of a car and held out his hand.

    [Imaginary tier cosmic maniption:]

    He raised his hand and closed his eyes.

    [Gama-ray burst, stacked]

    A star-like phenomena appeared above him and from that object several pulses of cosmic mana hummed and whirred before long strings of cosmic energy wrged, faster than the speed of light they exploded instantaneously in every direction with one carving a clean hole through the side of Z-Prime while the others annihted every demon-god in hiding save for Saleos who had somehow dodged it preemptively, and the Demon-Lord who absolutely tanked it without issue as he approached Sol cackling.

    "One of them ising this way?" A looked at Ikaris, and the goddess nodded.

    "Yes, the one who was protected by that thing, Sol might be unaware but he is headed directly toward us."

    [It appears I miscalcted, the surviving demon-god is headed toward Z, toward everyone-]

    "He''s incapable of winning against them." Sol answered the systemunching himself like a spinner off the rock and building up momentum as he and the Demon-Lord approached each other.

    "As long as this one doesn''t reach Z, they won''t die!" Sol''s momentum stopped when he struck the hand of the Demon-Lord expecting his sword to easily slice through his body, but gasping when it bounced off his palm before he was grabbed by his torso.

    "Ha ha ha hah-"

    [Imaginary tier creation magic...] The system calcted and then appeared next to Sol with her brows furrowed in concern. "This is not a good idea, creation is far more taxing than destruction-"

    "It''s not a request, I don''t need you to tell me what I can and can''t do!" Sol growled while grabbing on to the Demon-Lord''s hand, and she stared at the maniacallyughing Demon-Lord and at Sol once more before vanishing with a huff.

    [You never listen!]

    [Imaginary tier creation magic: Clockwork; Reversal]

    Sol''s mana spread across everything catching hold of every piece of debris including the chunks that had already crashed on Z and began rapidly dragging them violently back together.

    [Mana output has risen to 30% mana has been drained by 50%]

    [Enemy''s mana output is at 2% mana capacity is unknown, you are at a massive disadvantage master Vestic]

    [New skill unlocked;]

    [You are one step closer topletion]

    "From this moment on..." Sol stared at the surprised expression of the Demon-Lord as an immense gravitation began dragging them into deep space while H��l was being rapidly smashed back together behind him; his eyes inverted, and his hair turned white and began glowing as he shed his casual appearance again and released thest lock barring and suppressing his demigod mana.

    "I''m going all out."

 Chapter 142: Collapsing Star.

    "All out?" The Demon-Lord grinned. "Do you honestly believe it makes a difference how hard you fight?" He asked, stopping with Sol still in his grasp and causing a massive chunk of debris to hit them, and Sol watched him with a stoic stare as therge body of rock and dust broke apart upon contact before it was caught and dragged past them with everything else.

    "I don''t know, but the fact here is, I can sense your power, which means I can beat you, it means I will kill you regardless of how strong you are, regardless of anything!" Sol''s expression went dark as he raised his legs in the weightlessness and thrust his heels into the demon''s chest separating them and taking off toward the forming.

    "It can''t be broken, but it isn''t sharp enough to wound him, or rather I didn''t put enough power behind it!" Sol stared at the sword in his grasp clicking his tongue as he raced through the field of falling debris andnded on the reforming H��l like aet kicking up molten ground and chunks that rapidly fell back from the intense gravity.

    H��l had barely amassed 20% of its former mass and was mostly magma and dust clouds from constant meteorite crashes as the farthest chunks collided into it from getting dragged back with more force,

    "You may go ahead and give it your all then, do not bore me!" The Demon-Lordnded on all fours several hundred metres away from Sol and raced off without righting his posture, making an animalistic dash that covered the distance in a millionth of a second.

    "Shi-" Sol ducked beneath therge hand and swung his sword again watching it bounce off once more with a frown of confusion before he was caught by his torso and mmed into the burning ground so hard a massive red crack opened up across the entire malshaped sphere which was now four times the size of earrth sucking them in after the core of the gravitational pull was exposed for a second.

    More seconds passed, and H��l shook and groaned as more massive chunks fell and formedrge volcanic craters and debris clouds, and after a full minute of the new shaking as if it would plumet down to Z-Prime anotherrge explosion tore the opposite side open, and from the core of that explosion Sol emerged with his hands crossed in guard and his sword spinning off into the void.

    "Is he already on the defensive?" Dina sat on the floor of a forest on the opposite side of Z with Ikaris staring at the system windows showing the fight from multiple angles. "It hasn''t even been five minutes  yet-"

    "His opponent is strong, far stronger than he is, but that gives him  an advantage." Ikaris answered with her eyes glued to the screen.

    "How?" A asked from her opposite side.

    "Because he is a being of limitless potential." Ikaris watched Sol maneuver through the debris and make a head-on collision with the Demon-Lord exerting so much force that the space around them distorted and folded on itself when they both crashed back into the closing crater.

    "The stronger his enemy, the more he grows; when Sol is cornered without a way out, he breaks thews of the universe, you have seen it before, that is why I believe he will win." Ikaris finished her exnation. "He has to."

    "Can I... hold your hand?" A asked, and Dina looked away from the screens to her with herd brows furrowed, but Ikaris was the one that caught her eye; she was worried, scared even, she was visibly shaking.

    "Are you a child?" Ikaris asked without looking away.

    "Please." The half-elf insisted, and Ikaris unfolded her arms from around herself and reached out to A who scooted closer and  locked hands with her, resting her head on her shoulder and sighing. "He will win, your holiness, he always wins."

    "Yes." Ikaris answered resting her other hand on A''s head andbing her fingers through her hair, she wanted to agree, but "yes" was all she could say, after all she now knew where Sol''s true hatred of demonkin came from, the things he saw, the one fight he lost, and what happened after he lost that fight.

    [Name: Orion

    All other information is outside of my ess]

    "Orion..." Sol repeated the name of the Demon-Lord amidst running through the smoke and sutt caused by the constant meteorite shower. "Let''s keep raising the stakes until there''s nothing!-" He broke through a meteor right before it hit the ground and caught Orion in his jaw with a punch that created a crater of its own.

    "-Left!-" Sol caught up and delivered another punch before summoning a whip made of his own mana andssoing it around the Demon-Lord''s arm

    "-To to raise!" Sol closed the distance a third time, spinning and delivering a sessful dropkick in his stomach, sending him crashing thousands of metres like the projectile of a railgun.

    [Godspeed is about to deactivate-]

    "On who''s authority?" Sol asked dragging his hand down his jaw  and fixing his half helmet.

    [You have never used it for anything other than short bursts of speed, we have no idea what kind of sideffect prolonged use will have.] She replied, but Sol clicked his tongue again and ceased his momentum.

    "Godspeed doesn''t have a cooldown, it doesn''t need deactivation, I usually only do that because I get confused from my brain thinking faster than my body can react, like a connection dy from the massive amounts of information I''m gathering," He clenched his jaws and went into a running stance, feeling the burning atmosphere around him forming and releasing a breath of fire.

    "I can handle it just fine now, I''ve been able to ever since I became a demigod!"

    Electricity surged around his body and the ground and air burned when he took off again, leaving white lightning lingering for several seconds before the entire area he was running across exploded.

    Orion was having fun.

    To him this had not yet felt like a serious fight since Sol had been unable to hurt him thus far.

    It felt to him like ying in a bouncy house as he was being tossed around, but that sensation changed when Sol appeared before him again and the world started moving in slow motion.

    [Clockwork]

    [Cosmic fission]

    [Magicbination]

    Sol''s fist connected with his arm when he raised it, and his expression registered shock when his elbow bone tore through the back of his hand and the flesh on his face started burning.

    "Cosmic fission!!"  Sol shouted out his attack for once as the heat and force behind his kic buildup was released at the same wavelength of a supernova, except it was isted to his fist against Orion''s arm.

    H��l was in terrible shape, every time it seemed to gain some level of volcanic mass through collisions another part of it waspletely destroyed and sent hurling around it causing a belt to rapidly form, but this time Sol''s attackpletely erased an entire half of the fiery mass leaving him suspended in space and staring as he watched another small portion of Z before him vanish as the attack carried on.

    "At this rate it doesn''t matter if they fight here or not..." Dina ced her hands on the ground when a quake passed under them. "We''ll die either way."

    "Beautiful." Ikaris stared in the air watching Sol with her naked eyes.

    "No matter how many times I see him fight, it always feels like witnessing art, the things he does-" She stopped mid-sentence and grabbed her mouth when Sol was caught in an explosion more lethal than the one he had just caused, erasing the rest of the forming and leaving the gravitational mass sucking down more debris when Orion came back in a rage.

    "I underestimated you!" The Demon-Lord grabbed Sol in the middle of the fiery cataclysm and mmed his fist in his chest, shattering his armour and sending him flying off into the void like a streak of light while the explosion was dispersed with a silent *pop. "Come then, I will fight you seriously!" He sneered shing Sol''s blood off his hand and staring in his direction again.

    [Your mana output is already at 70%]

    The system warned Sol while he was cascading through space, but he ignored her yet again, exerting his mana almost like a child in a tantrum with hands and legs iling and raising his output until his body became reminiscent of Ikaris''s with his skin glowing slightly.

    [110% output-]

    [-135% and rising, your body is experiencing an overload Master, power down immediately]

    She warned him, but Sol continued to roar as  he flew until he had full control over his body again, shing his head of the blood that stuck to him and searching for Z, but blinked in shock when he realised he''d travelled far beyond the system they were currently in; had he not cast a multitude of healing effects onto himself beforehand he would have likely popped like a balloon when he was struck.

    "If I''m all the way out here-" Sol held out his hands, reactivating [godspeed] again and slowing down his perception of time as he sensed Orion''s rapid approach.

    "Your body cannot handle this level of stress!" She appeared next to him extending her hands and creating a shield made of mirrors and reflections before him. "Stop this madness your output is already up to over 300%!"

    "No." Sol floated backward as mana started erupting from his eyes and bursting from the cracks in his armour.

    "I keep getting told I''m overpowered, I''m not, I get overpowered by my enemies all the time, but I''m determined topletely suppress this monster, no matter how strong he is or how powerful he gets, I''ll do it even if it breaks my body and shatters my bones into dust, I''ve felt it all before -I can handle the pain!"

    Sol screamed and took a solid step on empty space staring as the dimensional barrier the system had created was shattered by Orion.

    "I swore to kill everyst one of you!"

    [Sol!]

    The system called out to him when hepressed all his avable power into his palms and dodged Orion''s fist, vanishing around his body and appearing behind him using his back as a tform and directing all that power onto one focal point.

    [Copsing star: Cosmic Disaster]

    "Hypernova!"

 Chapter 143: Tremble.

    "Oh, my, god..." Dina stared at the system window watching everything turn white before a bright light enveloped the entire screen nearly blinding her and forcing her to look away. "We''re all dead..." She mused as she felt the cosmic mana fluctuating across Z; every critter, every beast, every child and adult, the seas and thends, the air and everything in-between shook in terror.

    "We are safe." Ikaris countered. "We will experience a miniscule amount of difort at best, the grand and nigh total majority of that absurd attack was directed away from us, and even then the first wave of its destruction will reach this ce in about...

    Fifteen or so years, ording to the system''s calctions." She exined, and Dina looked up again, sure enough although she had seen the explosion through the system window there was no sign of it showing up in the sky.

    "Are you telling me that Sol initially survived a hit that sent him fifteen lightyears away in a matter of seconds?" She asked shocked.

    "He has endured worse, we; all of us..." Ikaris looked at her and gestured to her and all the other gods as well as A who sat too stunned to speak after Sol had brought witness to something most of them had never even heard of. "We are beings capable of trampling across entire universes andying waste to them, albeit some infinitely slower than others.

    "Even me?" A asked, and Ikaris nodded with her brow raised.

    "I would say your strength has made impressive leaps and bounds to be urate, A, without checking something as insignificant as levels I can tell you are nigh as strong as Sol was when he first arrived on Arkadia, mind you, he was powerful enough to defeat two thirds of the Arkadian pantheon upon arrival."

    "You''re stronger than me?" Dina spun to look at her teacher, but Ikaris chuckled again.

    "She gained power through interacting with Sol, I do not understand how exactly, but they currently share a simr simbiosis to him and myself; that is to say she has ess to abundant Arkadian mana even though she is here, and her limiters were broken when he tampered with her mana and gave her those sigils, he might have thought it was just a cosmetic change, but when I inspected it earlier I noticed simr properties to my own crests and sigils, it is a ve contract through and through."

    "That''s crazy..." Dina stared at A who had a rising blush on her face as she remembered how caring Sol had been toward her since waking up.

    "You are stronger though." Ikaris stared at Dina bringing both her and A a greater shock than either of them were ready for. "At your current strength, you could possibly fight someone along the same strength as Sorath, the Arkadian goddess of the sun, or maybe stronger."

    "Eh?"

    "Yes, do you honestly believe you would have been able to critically injure Sitri otherwise?" She asked, and Dina shook her head, from her perspective she didn''t feel any stronger than the day they were dragged through the portal on D''ol.

    She was going to speak again but the system window buzzed and Sol appeared on the screen redirecting her attention to him.

    His eyes were bleeding, as we''re his ears and mouth, and he was directly breathing in the vum, heaving and huffing outrge car-sized clouds of raw excess mana while he stared at his hands that had been torn, burnt and shredded beyond recognition, around him were waves and clouds of cosmic dust and fire already spread thousands of miles away, and holding on to his chestte Orion was staring at him with one half of his body burnt ck and falling apart and the other half burnt down to the third degree.

    "You fucking survived something like that to the face...?" Sol smirked nervously as he felt his mana output rapidly falling again.

    Orion didn''t respond, he just stared with his one good bloody eye shaking with wrath.

    "I still have power to spare." Sol raised his arms and focused, causing the flesh to start healing over painfully as all the dead skin and shattered bones burnt away.

    "I have plenty of power to spare!" Sol raised his arms higher and then mmed them down on Orion''s, expecting his arm to shatter since it had been burnt to charcoal by [Hypernova] but he winced when his hands stopped halfway and bounced back upward, revealing bone beneath the shattered skin and muscle.

    *Haaaaaaaaa~

    Orion breathed a mist of red mana from the good corner of his mouth and then leaned his head causing more of his burnt self to shatter and fall off as he began rapidly healing. "Is this the best you can do?" The Demon-Lord asked as his eye regrew and settled in the socket of his exposed skull.

    "Is there no more power left, Sol Vestic, the destroyer?" He asked, balling his fist while the hand holding Sol tightened and broke through his armour.

    "If so, then it is my turn, do not die, I have to repay you for the pain I have just experienced, thousandfold."

    [Master-]

    *Doommm!!*

    A nigh inaudible explosion appeared from the inside of the still expanding ball of cosmic mana Sol had created, and from that explosion a streak of white appeared and vanished, just like before all it took was one hit for Sol to start cascading across the void unable to stop himself and reeling in pain.

    [You are still alive!] The system shouted at him, causing him to open his eyes and stare at his left arm which had been reduced to a stump after he tanked the entirety of the attack with it, protecting his torso.

    [Godsp-]

    Orion appeared faster than Sol could cast, right before him in perfect condition with his fists sped and ascending.

    Without thinking Sol lowered his right arm and tanked yet another blow, seeing the stars turn into streaks as he went flying again, all the way into an entirely different gxy, exerting every bit of his mana into [divine heal] was the only thing that prevented him from burning out when he tore through cosmic clouds and zoomed past stars.

    He began roaring as he had done before, violently healing himself just before his momentum slowed down above a red sun.

    "How, how much stronger could he possibly be!?" Sol blew the blood from his nose and stared up again just in time to catch Orion''s smile before he let loose another unavoidable punch at him, causing him to crater into the sun and exit the other side in an instant, emerging with his armour burning red while Orion beat him to the exit by flying around the star, and from there he grabbed Sol by his hair and tossed him back into the sun again and then sped his fist with a chuckle.

    "You y with the powers of the universe as if they are yours to manipte; as if you understand them, child, how dare you enter my own domain and threaten my life?" Orion sneered as the sun began shrinking rapidly, trapping Sol inside as it turned from red to a zing orange, and then from orange to an even brighter yellow before it started turning white, speedily gaining mass as it shrunk

    "You have no idea of the power this one wields, you can never fathom the powers of I; Orion, to disrespect me in my own territory, and have the sacks to believe yourself superior, a lesson in manners must be taugh... Nay, forefeit your life and begone!" He tightened his fist causing the star to shrink and condense until it started spitting cosmic beams from the two pr points.

    "I am the strongest, I am the most powerful, I am the All Powerful!" Orion raised his other hand, lowering it with a huff and summoning another star from out of deep space in an instant and then approaching the white dwarf and kicking it upwards into the blue giant with another huff.

    "Burn away!" Orion roared, summoning several more blue giants from the deep and crossing his arms, forcing them to all to converge on the dwarf that trapped Sol.

    "Burn into nothingness and disappear forever!" He continued roaring as the stars spun several times around the dwarf and then all collided with it simultaneously, creating another explosion several times more powerful than Sol''s [Hypernova] explosion had been.

    He himself could barely withstand the force of the st, and was sent hurdling through space andughing every time his eyes met the phenomena forming after all that mass had converged.

    "There is none like me, there will never be any like me, sink into the depths of emptiness and be crushed to death by the power of gravity beyond yourprehension."

    BLACK HOLE.

    As the residual matter rapidly converged and copsed onto itself, the cosmic rays started bending against their will, forming an event horizon in a matter of seconds as the gravity caught and started eating the very light around it, which then caused Orion to stop spinning as the gravity of this Ster-Mass ck hole reached and caught him as well.

    After it did though, the demon stared in confusion, because after Sol''s attemt to shield himself had failed from overexerting all his mana earlier, he started sensing another demon deep within the soulless mass.

    "What is that?" He squinted, slowly floating away from the mass and trying to make tails of what was happening inside of it. "Is someone attempting to save that creature?" Orion wondered, but then discarded that thought when the demonic presence disappeared as well, leaving a foreign entity inside of it. "What is that?"  He wondered again.

    "His vessel has been shattered..." Ikaris sat forward with her hands sped and her eyes watering.

    "His vessel -what does that mean -did Sol die?" Dina asked tearing up as well, but Ikaris shook her head and leaned further forward starting with more fascination than ever as she observed the contents of the light-eating mass with her eyes brightly glowing a beautiful shade of blue and her sigils turning blue along with them, humming as she swelled with joy and pride.

    "He is reborn...." Gadriel who had been silent as she witnessed Sol exert more power than she was ever able to fight a being she never imagined could be defeated. "He is reborn anew!" She held her mouth as she too began tearing up.

    "I never imagined I would see such a day..." Gabriell chimed in.

    *Ding

    The system appeared before every being including the Demon-Lord.

    [The mortal vessel has been broken]

    "Mortal what?-"

    [The ancient primordial judge has been set loose]

    "Who speaks?" Orion grabbed at the window, but failed to touch it as his hand whisked through. "Show yourself, coward!" He demanded, and the system appeared before him as an intangible entity, still unable to be touched as she stared at him defiantly and spoke.

    [Nowes The Grey, nowes Atonement, Nowes Order and Absolution]

    [The Godyer has been unleashed upon this universe]

    [Tremble]

 Chapter 144: The Beginning.

    "He did it..." Ikaris stood, hugging herself again and blushing sadistically. "Oh~ I can feel him, such raw and untainted power," she dragged her hands down the sides of her breasts and groped herself as her eyes disyed several different spectrums of colour and her tongue stuck out while her voice rasped and trembled.

    "My lord~" Ikaris shivered and breathed heavily, releasing steam and mana with each breath.

    "I can feel the heat of your glory, your presence alone has triggered my ovtion~

    I crave to submit to you once more, Sol~!"

    "What the fuck is wrong with you, Ikaris?" Dina was staring at Ikaris appalled at what she was openly saying."

    "I think, she is in heat...?" A mused, staring at Ikaris with envious fascination.

    "Can you not sense that overwhelmingly domineering presence?" Ikaris looked around at Dina, sinking to her knees and crawling over to her on all fours. "Does it not drive you mad with lust?" She asked looming over the mage and bringing her face so close there was no  space between their noses. "I feel mes welling up inside of me, it is beautiful, Dina."

    "N-no, I don''t sense anything at all!" Dina shuddered at how Ikaris stared at her, and then caught her shoulders and looked behind her. "No... I do sense something, demonic mana headed our way!"

    [Indeed, Saleos; the direct aire of the Demon-Lord is headed directly toward you, but I was told by master Vestic to not be too rmed as you would be fine, so I decided against immediately telling you]

    The system answered Dina. [He will arrive within the next five minutes]

    "Are you fucking kidding me?!"

    ***

    "Godyer..." Orion stared at the ck hole again, ignoring the system as she floated next to him. "The Godyer is a myth, a mere memory of an ancient age long past-"

    "And yet you are afraid of the implication of his existence." She answered him, and he spun again in an attempt to strike her down, failing when his hand passed through her.

    "I''m... Not dead." Sol stood in the middle of a ck void where light particles were flying pass him into a deeper nothingness, before him at the entrance he could see distant stars, and the sounds around him were unlike anything he had ever heard before, and then he raised his hand, finding a steady glowing from his skin.

    [M-te ha- ion-] He heard the distorted and heavily unstable voice of the system trying tomunicate with him.

    "I''m pretty sure I died for real this time, but... what was I doing exactly, why did  I die?"

    *Kshhh-

    The system continued trying  to municate, but nothing was working in this timeless void, she had power over the demonic universe, but this ce existed where she could not interfere.

    "Where is this exactly-"

    "Sol Vestic," He heard Ikaris''s voice through the void, and stared at the lights and stars beyond the horizon.

    "Ikaris?"  He called back, echoing through the ck. "Where are you?"

    "Have you forgotten who you are?" She asked, and the shook his head and chuckled.

    "Never, I could never forget myself, just as I would never forget you." He smiled and sped his fists. "I... we''ve been through so much terrible things already-"

    "Then, do not forget why you fight." She dictated through the void with a loud and clear voice, and with her tone came shbacks like waves crashing into him violently.

    "Have you made your peace?" The system asked Orion who was still watching the ck hole with a frown.

    "There is nothing in there." Orion concluded after staring for another minute, turning to leave, but with just a small distance passed the ck hole began acting up, the debris and cosmic space dust it had been eating started flying toward it faster than he had seen anything before, and after just a few seconds  he had to be forcing himself to fly away as the pull of the deep space phenomena started eating everything, even the very space it realised within, growingrger andrger by the second before it suddenly stopped and disappeared putting an immediate stop to the chaotic gravity fluctuations.

    "What?" Orion looked behind him after righting himself and found none other than Sol with his back turned and a shrunken andplete ck hole in his palm, naked as the day he was born, aside from his skin having a slight glow his hair had returned to brown again, his Primordial demon-god transformation had been undonepletely; he seemed normal.

    "This is quite interesting if you ask me." Sol stared at the tiny object floating above his hand. "Hypernova was supposed to be the ultimate attack, there should be nothing that can surpass it right?" He asked, raising his hand and looking around at Orion.

    On Sol''s chest there was a crest where the ten pointed star had been, it was a simple golden ring that seemed to be alive upon  observing it, and his eyes held the same golden rings around his pupil.

    "I keep forgetting the vastness of universes and what that truly means, everyone keeps telling me I''m my own universe, and I always failed to understand what to make of such an absurd statement, but I think I''ve gained a bit of understanding now." Sol opened his mouth and casually swallowed the entity he had been holding.

    "A ck hole yields more power, it can literally tear a star apart, an exploding star will only feed a ck hole no matter how powerful the explosion is, but..." Sol chuckled. "Have you ever heard of something called a Supermassive ckhole?" He stared at the demon-god with his eyes opened wide and his head leaned.

    "I just learned about it while I was in there, apparently, a universe is not stationary, and dragging said universe is a force so incredibly dense and powerful it defies all reason, sense and logic, they are also the forces that cause gxies to remain intact rather than explode and scatter... Isn''t that fascinating... O-R-I-O-N?" He chuckled.

    "Just because you survived, does not mean you have any power over me!" Orion snapped when his name was mockingly called, spreading his hands wide and summoning several dozen suns from deep space causing a bright light to appear as they all started converging even against his own strength, but right there next to him, Sol held on to his hand and broke his wrist, causing him to lose control over the stars as they all began rapidly colliding into one another.

    [Dominion]

    Sol raised his hand, and everything stopped moving.

    "You do not control the universe, you only live in it." Sol sped the fist of his free hand and all the stars vanished, reappearing where they originally were.

    "It took a moment inside of there to remember why I was in such a state to begin with, but now as I stand here next to you it all makes sense, in the grandest scheme of everything that ever was you are a mere tool for the Void; Her below all else." Sol spoke and with his words he felt the gaze of the entire universe shift to him.

    "That isn''t to say I no longer hate you, trust me, I''m still as pissed as I could ever be, I''m just extremely unimpressed with what you are now, because I have ascended beyond what the gods and demons are able to perceive and control, I''m on a whole other in of super reality, this is some seriously trippy shit that I''m just so smitten by I can''t make tails of most of it." He looked up at Orion who was staring back at him and screaming inaudibly.

    "Are you even listening?" Sol smiled.

    "Master Vestic." The system appeared at his side and lowered her head in a bow.

    "Hold on there, I need to deal with this creature first." Sol vanished from the system''s perceptionpletely, reappearing in a white space with Orion still screaming and unable to use any of his powers.

    "Hey there." Sol started walking, conjuring casual clothes over his naked self as his feet pped against the ground and Orion was dragged helplessly along. "I came to return this thing." He flung the Demon-Lord forward right at the feet of a shadowy entity that quickly took form before him appearing in Jun''s image and smiling at him as she looked down at Orion who stared up helplessly.

    Unable to move after making eye contact with her.

    "You needed not journey all the way to The Beginning like this, Godyer." She gestured to the clear white emptiness around them.

    "I needed to make sure I wasn''t losing my shit for real." Sol looked around the vastness and then back at her. "So you are her hm? He gestured to her with a raise of his chin. "The one who started it all?"  He asked again, and she slightly kicked Orion idly and chuckled.

    "Why ask what you already know, Godyer?" She asked, and Sol scoffed and stuck his hands in his pockets.

    "Well for starters, I want to determine if I''m going to kill l you here or not-"

    "You know what I am." She stared at him with a clearly troubled expression.

    "Of course, but I want you to say it." Sol narrowed his eyes, watching slippers grow over his feet as he kicked imaginary grass.

    "I... am Nothing, Emptiness, Void, Depravation..." She stared at him with a frown as her appearance morphed into Ikaris''s likeness.

    "I am She who remains below All, trapped here where nothing and everything coexist and do not exist-"

    "The beginning."

 Chapter 145: Darkness.

    "He disappeared." Ikaris stared at the window, and then looked to the deep of space with her own eyes to confirm. "He did not move, he vanished, he is gone." She furrowed her brows in worry, but not once did she make an attempt to go in search of Sol.

    "Did they enter another dimension?" Dina stood next to her staring up as well, even though she could not see what Ikaris was looking at.

    "No, beyond that, everything disappeared, his physical self, his spiritual self, but I can still feel his true presence around us." She rubbed her arms and huffed, with that same worried expression. "It is cold..."

    "Where did he go then?" A asked, and it was Gadriel who answered rather than Ikaris as she too felt the foreign sensation sweeping across them all like a cold winter breeze in the heat of summer.

    "I have sensed this once before, when I first gained consciousness." Gadriel tore the air around herself like a physical object and made a thick nket out of it, hugging herself and looking at her younger sister. "This foreboding power that obeys only one being."

    "This is the power of The Beginning."

    "The what?" Dina asked confused. "I have never heard that term before."

    "No surprises there, the concept is something that not even most gods are aware of." Ikaris scoffed. "The beginning is a conceptual realm, a realm of timeless creation and destruction where allws fall t on their face and obey its will, it is where the great darkness was sealed away." She added.

    "I never imagined he would immediately be able to go there, or even sense it, I sought that power for millennia unsessfully, and only barely grasped its presence when I broke thews of the universe and summoned him." She admitted, if I could have found it I would have been able to save A... I think."

    "Why would Sol go to that ce though?" Dina pulled her back to their present topic, and Ikaris lowered her gaze.

    "I do not know, when he returns you can ask him, I am also curious." Ikaris rubbed her palms over her arms again and took a deep breath when Saleos finally arrived above them staring down. "We have a problem to deal with before then.

    ***

    "So you''re the bitch that''s been pulling the strings and causing chaos from your cosy little prison here, hm?" Sol asked, leaning backwards and resting on a seat that appeared beneath him.

    "Watch your tone-"

    "Or what?" Sol asked, staring intently as his hair turned gold.

    "I will-"

    "You''ll what?" He interrupted her again, and she stared at him with her fists balled for several tense seconds before she unfurled them and sighed, rxing. "That''s what I expected. This ce doesn''t belong to you, you''re just a prisoner here, trapped forever in perpetual loneliness, right?" He asked, and she lowered her gaze and looked away.

    "Why don''t you have a seat." Sol ordered her, leaningfortably as another chair appeared behind her, and then a table appeared before her with a cup of tea and a tray of biscuits. "This is nice, how long have you been standing in here?" He asked watching her slowly sit with a taken aback expression.

    "...Unknown."

    "How long have you been here in general?" Sol raised a brow.

    "I do not adhere to the concept of time, this ce confuses my senses." She answered, and Sol nodded and tapped his leg with a thoughtful gaze at her.

    "Well I suppose you deserve that much torture at the very least after what you did." He frowned. "How did you do it?" He leaned forward foregoing all pleasantries as the chair vanished from under her and the tea she was about to sip disappeared along with the biscuits and the table, leaving her on the floor with her eyes wide in shock.

    "I do not answer to you!" She stood in opposition.

    "You do now." Sol''s eyes shed gold and she stumbled forward and fell  to her hands and knees. "Adjust your posture and address me properly." He started sneering, and without missing a beat, she quickly fell into a submissive knowtow with her forehead on her forearms and her legs tucked beneath her. "Good, now speak; how?" He asked again.

    "My child-"

    "Void?" Sol asked surprised. Ikaris only mentioned the name of the direct descendant of darkness once. "The one who rampaged across universes?"

    "Yes." She quickly answered.

    "You''re trapped in the Beginning, how could you stillmunicate with him, and isn''t he supposed to be dead?" Sol asked.

    "That boy... Void is still alive, he gained ess to this ce a long time ago, I was trapped here by the first, and he was left by himself in Origin."

    "Origin?" Sol started  tapping his foot as nothing she said made sense. "What the fuck is that?"

    "The universe, the first andrgest cosmic consciousness; Origin."

    "I thought the light and darkness were the first, and then the beginning after." Sol leaned on one leg and sighed.

    "We are the first celestial consciousness, origin came after us, the very universe itself lives and breathes,, it sees and knows all, and observes from the sixth dimension." Darkness answered, and Sol raised his head.

    "Fine, what of Void and Origin?" He asked, feeling the powerful force that tethered him to the emptiness around him. "Not even Ikaris has ess to this ce so how did he do it?"

    "It is not impossible, Void is powerful, he manipted Origin into doing his bidding, essentially possessing it..." She paused and looked up at him. "Ikaris ...lives?" She asked.

    "Ikaris is my woman." Sol raised his left hand, and the ring appeared over his finger, and then quickly disappeared again.

    "I saw her shatter into countless... That should be impossible, Creation and destruction both lost themselves, how could she have loved through that?"

    "Don''t avert the topic-"

    "The goddess of bnce should have died with her kin!" Darkness shed Ikaris''s appearance, losing her curves and bing a skinny and malnourished looking-woman with bones sticking out of her back like thorns and soulless eyes that showed no depth. "I did everything, I told him everything, and yet he still failed to kill her!"

    "Ikaris is off the menu." Sol didn''t even bother to get upset as he stared at her. "Keep talking." He ordered her, and she quickly reverted into the appearance of A this time and reassumed her obedient posture before him.

    "Void came to me eons ago seeking my knowledge after manipting Origin, I told him of the centre of the universe he resided in, I told him of the multiple other dimensions that existed in tandem and the children of light, I told him how to manipte the beginning into doing his bidding, and in the end I was captured and left here, while he seized the source and became -"

    "What the fuck is the source??" Sol smacked his forehead. "If you don''t summarise right now I''m going to erase you out of existence and leave your empty will behind."

    "T-The source is the great power that holds a universe together, Origin''s cardinal, its centre, its heart, Void and Origin are one in the same now, they have been for a long time."

    "So in short, Void tricked Origin into meeting you, met and hated everyone else, started a war, got you captured and trapped here in The Beginning by the Godyer, and then went on his merry way after basically taking Origin''s ce?" Sol stared at her nkly.

    "... In summary, yes."

    "So then it wasn''t you who stared at me earlier it was Void?" He asked, and she nodded with her head still hung low. "Are you aware of anything that has been happening on the outside other than what he''s revealed to you?"

    "I am not, but I do know that he has cultivated his children and created several thriving civilizations-"

    "While destroying countless others-"

    "The children of light  deserve to be destroyed." She answered without hesitation, and then froze when she realised that Sol had gone silent.

    After speaking she dared not look up again, fearing that she would be annihted as soon as she did.

    "What... did they ever do to you?" Sol asked after literal minutes of silence.

    "They  stole the power we deserved, and tossed us aside, we existed first, we are the higher power..." She quietly replied.

    "So basically, nothing... You''re just bitter because the Beginning favours light over darkness." Sol stood and spread his hands wide. "I think you still have a lot of time here to reflect on your ways, or rather just stay here forever, it doesn''t matter to me, I''ll keep this thing as well."

    "You are just like the first who called himself Godyer, same spirit, same mind, same bias for those who dwell in light, darkness will always be more pure, darkness is supremacy!" Darkness snapped when she saw Sol take Orion by his leg and start dragging him while all theforts he had sat on and enjoyed vanished. "Had you note we would have never lost!"

    "But I dide, and you did lose, right?" Sol looked around at her gesturing to the edges of the endless white void as they started going dark.

    "If you love yourself this much then go ahead and live in it forever, you will never see light again, never see or feel yourself again, the darkness I leave will swallow you and leave no trace of yourself behind, you''ll live everywhere within this endlessnes, and nowhere at the same time, no top no bottom, no left no right, nowhere, no time, no concept of self, ever again."

    ck enveloped everything, and her form vanished with it; the only light came from Sol who had a majestic glow as he stood and slowly floated weightlessly with Orion still in his clutches.

    "... Please, do not leave  me in this ce by myself."

    "I''m not obligated to kill you, since you''re no demon, but just know, I''m going to kill Void, and all his descendants, Darkness, you''ll be alone for the rest of time, and when all the other universes are long gone, this one will still remain hidden deep within the farthest corners of creation, I''m taking The Beginning with me so, feel free to exercise your freedom to dwell in your own shadow."

    "Wait!"  She screamed, but Sol vanished and everything went with him, there was no sound no sensation, nothing but her, a fate worse than therge endless white space she had been in before.

    "Please!" She continued screaming, but he had taken her voice too, there was truly ...NOTHING.

    "Cool, now all I have to do is destroy the consciousness of the most powerful being that ever existed." Sol reappeared with a screaming Orion. "Aren''t you still having fun?" He grinned.

 Chapter 146: Ikaris; The First.

    To call Saleos weak because he lost to Sol was a grave underestimation of the highest degree; he was not.

    Sitri inparison to her brother was only half as strong as he was when she was at her absolute best, he had the power to topple entire universes, and he had destroyed more than one and killed several pantheons already.

    "Saleos..." Gadriel murmured and began shaking upon seeing him descend slowly toward them. "We should... we must run." She looked at her sister, and then turned to flee, but found Gabriell staring defiantly up at him.

    "I do not want to." Gabriell stared, crimson eyed and full of the very hate she had used Ikaris of. "Where would we run to, who would help us if we ran?" She asked, throwing the nket off her shoulders and balling her fists.

    "Who exactly is Saleos?" Ikaris asked, unlike the sisters many of the other gods had fled upon seeing him, leaving them, a few others, Dina, and A, aside from Ikaris herself though they were all visibly terrified of him, even Gabriell who defied him.

    "He is the one who conquered our home, killed the others, and took us as his concubines for a blur of millenia before we were left to rott in the dungeons and be the ythings of his servants." Gabriell answered, and Ikaris turned her back to him and stared at her.

    "He is strong then?"

    "He is the first hier of the Demon-Lord one of the oldest beings here, Sitri''s older and many times stronger brother." Gabriell answered, and Ikaris nodded and looked around at him again.

    "So the prince of demons." Ikaris balled her fists, crafting iron-knuckled gloves over her hands that covered up to her upper arms, regarding his appearance with nonchnce and equipping a lean and fitting armour set over her body.

    "What are you all doing, we cannot fight him!" Gadriel grabbed Ikaris''s hand, but the goddess before her shrugged her off easily and smiled.

    "Based on my own memory, there was once a time I would have been able to destroy someone like him, demon or not, but after I was shattered I lost the ability to fight back, the same for my brothers who were many times weaker than myself, ever since meeting a demon again I have tried multiple times to fight them using my own power-"

    "It never works, we always lose!"

    "I hurt Sitri, though." Ikaris stared at her, and at this news everyone went circle-eyed.

    "The mana within me is impure, a mixture of An mana, and Arkadian mana, and I have constantly been replenishing myself using my divine mana, using Sol''s example and forcing them all to converge, I never stopped trying in secret." Ikaris confessed.

    "Gadriel, Gabriell,e to me." Saleos called to them as soon as he was within earshot, and on trained instinct and herpulsive submissive nature Gadriel took her first steps without even batting an eye, but A grabbed her hand and held on to her.

    "What are you doing?" The half-elf asked, and Gadriel shook her head and began shaking again.

    "I must obey... Otherwise-"

    "Fuck that, stay put." Dina spread her hands and summoned a brand new staff, unlike the first which was wooden with nothing unique other than the pink crystal that floated within a crescent-shaped tip, this new staff  was white, and the crystal as was humming with more power than she had ever felt. "What the-"

    "Are you truly defying me?" Saleos asked, raising his hand toward them and summoning a cannon-like railgun with a chuckle. "Have you gods lost your mind?" He asked, staring at Dina and aiming at her first, since she currently had the highest output of power.

    "You have already lost, Saleos." Ikaris drew his attention when she started walking toward him. "The Godyer has been fully realised, there is nothing you do in this moment which changes the oue, your life is forefeit!" She pointed at him, raising her voice to the point where thends around her trembled.

    "Who the hell are you?" Saleos turned his weapon to her as another appeared in his other hand.

    "Ikaris." She replied, and at the mention of her name Saleos''s eyes narrowed in usation. "Ikaris Vestic." She smirked, and his eyes narrowed even more.

    "Vestic... As in Sol Vestic, you are Ikaris, the goddess that my sister brought here, the one who caused the jailbreak, the one who caused all of this to happen?" Saleos ground his teeth as his eyes turnedpletely red and began beaming with demonic energy. "I''m killing you first!" Saleos raised his other gun.

    "Ikaris!" Dina raised her hand conjuring a barrier between Ikaris and the demon-god.

    "Let me take initiative." Ikaris nced behind herself and continued walking toward Saleos while he clearly prepared to erase her, easily bypassing the barrier Dina had created and crossing her arms before herself.

    "I thought you would be impressive after causing our downfall, but it seems you are aplete fool!!" Saleos snapped, unleashing a massive st from his twin barrels and Dina again cast a barrier when Ikaris showed no sign of dodging the attack.

    The attack tore her shield apart, causing her to recoil backwards onto A while Ikaris raised her hands.

    [Judgement]

    "No!" Dina rushed forward as soon as she was on her feet again, lowering her staff with her mana escaping her body like a dam exploding as a great bolt appeared out of thin air and dropped on Saleos''s head causing himntonlose bnce as the ground beneath him vanished from vapourosation.

    The attack had already been fully released though, and the beam had more or less travelled miles past them, but when the crimson mana vanished, and Dina rushed there, she found Ikaris with her arms burnt and her armour cracked, but otherwise- "You''re fine!" Dina grabbed her and shook her. "You idiot-"

    "Ha-" Ikaris''sugh cut Dina''sing rant off as she stared at her hands rapidly healing over all the burns she had tanked. "He-he-heh!" She startedughing. "It is still iplete, but this is it, the power I have relentlessly sought for thousands of years after my home was invaded!" Her eyes started glowing brightly and her smile. "Once again, you have changed me for the better, husband!"

    "Impossible!" Saleos arose in a fury, closing the gap between himself and them in a breath of a second and swinging one of his guns while it was in the process of turning into a blunt weapon, but in a twist his head snapped backwards when Ikaris spun Dina out of the way and raised her knee, ricocheting the weapon into his chin and sending him falling  t on his back.

    "By the light..." Gabriell stared shocked as Ikaris punched and weaved excitedly before falling into a stance and hissing a breath of white slightly golden divine mana.

    "What''s going on with you?" Dina stared. "At Ikaris''s sigils pulsing golden instead of their usual blue.

    "Sol''s mana resides within me, he is Godyer, and thus I have ess to that same abominable type of power, I can feel it, within a few hundred years my entire divinity will be evolved into somethingpletely new, I never expected I would ever grow stronger, but it is happening as we speak, this transformation is a dreame true!" Ikaris lowered posture and took off like a bullet.

    "H-hold on!" Dina rushed after her, spinning andunching several origin explosions into Saleos''s face and toppling him while he was still in the process of getting up before Ikaris swerved beneath his guard and punched him square in the jaw.

    "Ah!" Dina panicked when she saw the demon tank the punch and grab Ikaris''s arm having sessfully baited her into carelessly approaching him a third time, but Ikaris slipped beneath his other hand and pressed her palm against his chin still excited as he grabbed her onto himself.

    [Divine tier anomaly fire]

    [Great explosion stream]

    [Magicbination-]

    Saleos felt heat beneath his head and understood the danger he was in, quickly releasing Ikaris and stepping in her back in a kick that sent her flying into Dina, but the mage extended her staff allowing Ikaris to grab it with her free hand and swung her right back at him where she avoided another shot from him and tanked his blunt strike andnded before him, opening her palm again.

    "INCINERATION; MAXIMUM!"

    Saleos snapped as soon as he saw the white mes, leaping several hundred metres away in a matter of seconds, but all the way out there behind him, A emerged from a system gate and pped his arm before vanishing again, and in another moment he appeared before Ikaris again.

    The only other person they had ever seen demonstrate this kind of power was Sol, the field, the entire continent before her, cities and countries, mountains and nds;kes, swamps, everything vanished in a rupture when Ikaris released her first divine tier ability on in a mortal world, it happened so fast that nothing could react, and all those who had been behind her were toppled as the direction of the winds changed.

    "Oh my god," Dina raised her head after being blown off her feet and falling t on her stomach. "Ikaris is on a whole other level now...!" She watched the goddess standing, silhouetted by the raging white mes before her. And then she gulped when Ikaris looked around at her with burning blues, clenching her fist as all her giddy attitude had simmered down into a serious tone.

    "I will be the first, Dina." She looked ahead again. "I am honoured."

    "I will be the first true god to sessfully fell a demon-god."

 Chapter 147: Raise The Threshold.

    After hearing Ikaris''s words, Dina pulled herself to her feet and re-summoned her staff, clutching it tightly. "I believe her," She thought.

    "I have no idea where my strength is right now, she said I was about as strong as Sorath, but back then I have no idea what happened in that fight other than Sol was exhausted when he won-"

    *Ding!

    [Name: Dina Levina

    Race: Human (evolved/ New)

    Level: 10 (new)

    Title: Strongest Mage, Hero, Lover (New) Mage Hero

    Skills: Cosmic Magic, Divine magic (New), all your previous skills have been raised to match your current level

    ss: Mage

    Buffs: All your previous buffs have been raised to match your current level

    Blessing: Goddess Ikaris''s Blessing, Blessing of Adoration (New; A certain entity treasures you unconditionally), Child of Chaos

    Curse: None

    Special: All your special skills have been categorised under Divine magic, there are currently no new special skills avable

    Evolution: Apex (active).]

    [Your mana is currently at 100% and in ordance to your previous count it is 310M]

    Dina stared at this for a few seconds longer than she meant to with several beads of sweat rolling down her cheeks and forehead from the intense heat of Ikaris''s earlier attack, and then she looked at Ikaris''s back again. "H-Hey... Ikaris, did you know about all this?"

    "Know what?" Ikaris asked, watching Saleos''s rapid and destructive return through the mes.

    "My current status." Dina shook her handically in front of herself.

    "Of course I did, the first thing I did when the system returned was check your status, and A''s, I...

    Am reserved to admit that he feels this way, but I also understand that he cannot go against his nature as a man..." Ikaris stepped into the zing mes and took off like a bullet, causing Dina out ofpulsion to fly after her while A who had been a little distance behind her took a moment to check her own status.

    [Status]

    *Ding!

    [Name: A Amastacia

    Race: Grand Elf (Evolved/New)

    Level: 10 (New)

    Title: Devout Lover (New)

    Skills: All previous skills have been raised to your current levels (Pulsar is now avable for use)

    ss: Mage

    Buffs: (All previous buffs have retained their uses)

    Blessing: Special ce (New; a certain entity views you on a pedestal), Goddess Ikaris''s Blessing

    Curse: None

    Special: Blessing -(Evolved; Sharing your mana with someone can aquit them of any ailment, you are able to revive any individual that has been clinically deceased for less than an hour).

    Evolution: Peak (active).]

    [Your mana is currently at 100%, in ordance to your previous mana counter you would have 130M]

    [An added bonus of being marked as the ve of the Godyer; your body has been reconstructed anew, your purity has been returned Dear A] the system alerted her again and then went silent.

    "D-d-devout L-lover!?" The newly realised Grand Elf hid her face in her palms and fell into a crouch shuddering as her cheeks reddened and her eyes zed over with slight emerald magic while her pupils dted. "Does this mean... he epted me, but... Ikaris..." A released a long sigh and slumped to her knees.

    "Are you I''ll?" Gadriel came running toward her.

    "Hm?" A raised her head and looked over her shoulder at the goddess. "No, Lady Gadriel, I am most certainly not."

    "You do not look well though, and why are you crying?" Gabriell came after her sister and reached out to A.

    "I cannot stop these tears-"

    "Then someone indeed hurt you!" Gadriel snapped, but it was her younger sister who pped her and shook her head.

    "This must be a personal matter, mayhaps she is pregnant and has just realised, I can feel her happiness."

    "Pregnant?" A blushed and fell to the ground again. "A-absolutely not! I have never been touched by master in that way!" She shook her head and hid her face in her palms once more, her fantasies though were interrupted when she sensed dangers on the approach.

    Without even casting a circle she raised her hands before her and the two goddesses along with herself vanished just before the ground they stood on erupted into white mes when Ikaris crasnded and bounced back to her feet, wiping blood from her nose and mming her fists together.

    "Are you okay?" Dina swerved around andnded next to her, and after a nce Ikaris nodded and stood upright again.

    "Aye, it is evident that he is many times stronger than Sitri, the current power I hold would have been nigh equal to hers." Ikaris quickly ran her hand across her hair creating a crown across her forehead, to get it out of her eyes.

    "I definitely have the firepower to kill him though, it is a matter of gaining the opportunity to." She admitted, watching Saleosnd before them, unscathed and crackling his neck as his torn up shirt hung from his shoulder revealing arge mouth in his abdomen full of jagged teeth and a barbed purple tongue.

    "Have you two realised yourselves now?" Ikaris asked upon A''s return to her left while Dina stood on her right and stood was ahead of them.

    "You are strong, do not limit yourselves  to the power you previously held by thinking otherwise, I have already relocated the others to somewhere safer, so together, let us destroy thest descendant of Void!" She took the first step while Saleos conjured another blunt weapon and did the same.

    "No god has ever!" The demon-god blocked Ikaris''s initial flurry of fast melee attacks and dodged thest punch spinning around her hand and swinging his weapon intent on breaking her skull, but an inversion of his hands gravity caused him to throw his hand upward instead, leaving his ribcage wide open for Ikaris who spun with a roar and delivered a devastating blow that bent him around her fist as the ground began tearing open simr to what Sol had done to Sitri which caused the nigh destruction of Arkadia.

    "Gravitational magic?" A stared at Dina who had used [invert] on Saleos.

    "Let''s keep at it, he might lose his shit like his sister did and try destroying everything to save himself, we have to kill him before that!" Dina nodded at A, and the Elf nodded back while they chased after him behind Ikaris who had already caught up to his cascade and stopped his momentum with an axe-kick that opened a hole, revealing an evacuation cavern under the entire continent which housed everyone that was supposed to be on top.

    "Hoo~" Ikaris breathed, looking beneath her at Saleos who was shocked at just how effective her attacks were, in terms of potent power, he was still stronger, but when it came to quantify and raw power she had he was a less than a baby in her eyes, even without the help of the others Ikaris could fight him for years with the reserves she possessed thanks to Sol and that is without saying she only had a single percentage of her overall output, which meant her current strongest attack was 0.1% the power of her most casual attack at full power, every time she hit him it felt as if his life shortened from just the rattling of his brain, this made him furious.

    The demons in the bottom of the bustling and shaking cavern stared upward at the hole that had loudly imploded, although it was a mile wide for the entire continent it seemed like a small dot in the ck sky had appeared.

    Soon though, that dot erupted in white mes and quickly began spreading along the ceiling as Ikaris imbued every blow against Saleos with enough power to tear moons apart casually, causing him to scream and tremble as his bones began bending under her weight.

    "INCINERATION MAXIMUM!" Ikaris halted her descent, and used Dina''s barrier behind her as a foothold, tearing it apart when she leapt downwards at him, mming her palm in his abdomen and releasing an evenrger explosion than the first one.

    "Fuuuuck meee!!" Dina crossed her hands when the white mes crashed into the cavern and spread like a tsunami had spawned, killing everything below the demon-god and sending him ripping through the floor of it and then folding on itself and heading up toward them.

    As the cavern waspletely filled Ikaris appeared on the outside thanks to A''s teleportation, and crossed her hands. "Still not enough, I have to raise my output beyond the threshold." She frowned, staring through the mes at Saleos healing the wound on his stomach and standing in a pit of magma as he stared back at her.

    "I need to raise it far beyond the current threshold!" Ikaris lowered her hands and began seeking tearing down the walls that created her limiters in the first ce. "I need the two of you to keep him steady." She looked to her sides, and without another word A started floating upward, smirking.

    She extended her hands downwards, and formed a triangle with her fingers, concentrating her mana into one focal point as the system alerted her.

    "Is that-?"

 Chapter 148: The Beast.

    "Had these idiots been of importance to me I would be wroth right now, but s..." Saleos finished healing his wound and looked around himself at the mes incinerating down to the bones of the Zns, and then looked upwards at his relentless aggressors.

    "They are of no use; expendable liabilities." He fanned his hand through the fire, feeling the heat singe his healing skin, and then frowning deeply.

    "To think I would live to see the day a god gained the ability to fight back, that too on the same day the entirety of my people were ughtered, there was no prophecy of such a cmity, and I have been acting on impulse," the demon-god looked at Ikaris, feeling the waves of her mana building from deep within the cavern and then shifting his focus to A when he felt a foreboding energy pulsing from her as well.

    "That one," he narrowed his eyes at A. "She has more skill than the others, more control, and she is the one who can teleport me around-" he vanished mid-thought and appeared next to the elf foregoing a weapon and swinging his fist with a roar.

    [Great heal-]

    A''s focus from the pulsar she had been building was broken when she splitt her consciousness and cast a healing spell over herself in the same second his fist collided in the side of her head like aet, causing a wave of mana to explode around them as she was sent plumetting out of the sky.

    "Shit-" Dina raised her staff, creating a barrier made of origin explosions between himself and her and diving downward when A showed no signs of recovery.

    Saleos tanked the entirety of the explosions and flew right through it, grabbing Dina by her leg right before she could catch A and spinning with her, using her as a batton  to smack Ikaris who was on the approach before stopping and cing his hand on her abdomen, summoning his gun and aiming it for her chin.

    A crashed, and Ikaris staggered in a slower  descent, snapping back to her senses when Saleos fired the gun, but upon looking at him Dina was missing from his grasp and a wave of mana had reced her.

    "Ugh," Dina slumped andnded on the ground seeing A wince as her hand lowered and she sighed in relief.

    "That was too close..." The elf chuckled, extending her hand to Dina as they helped each other stand.

    "That one keeps getting in the way!" Saleos snapped in agitation, diving downward and vanishing from their senses for a split second before the ground before them exploded like a mine and he came rushing through the debris roaring.

    Neither was ready or prepared since they were still recovering from his previous attacks, but it was Ikaris who seemed to match his speed that came from the side with a kick to his shoulder, staring shocked when she realised that he managed to block it.

    "And you!" Saleos grabbed Ikaris''s leg and spun with her as they both crashed and rolled, raising his hand and punching with every intent to blow her head clean off her shoulders, only to have her dodge and and lock her legs around his arm, spinning and mming him face first into the ground and then slipping off his hand and cing her palm on the back of his head as she knelt in his back.

    "INCINERATION MAXI-"

    "No!" Saleos spun beneath her elbowing her in her side and then grabbing her leg before the momentum and force of his stroke sent her flying again.

    "Enough!" The demon-god roared turning with the goddess and mming her into the ground so hard it condensed several times on itself causing some of the stone to press and heat into shards of ss and diamond before everything around them exploded in dust, chunks ofnd and sparkles.

    This was without a doubt, the hardes Ikaris had ever been hit, it showed in the way her reflexes slowed down as she cked out for a second and slumped in his grasp before he raised her again with  another roar and made an attempt to repeat smashing her into the ground, if only A was not there at every turn.

    Ikaris vanished from his grasp, and then his hand that had been swinging turned as if it had a mind of its own and all that force and momentum was redirected right into his nose when Dina cast [inversion] on him again, and then on Ikaris causing her to fly upward instead of hitting the ground.

    Without a moment to breathe, Saleos emerged from the dust of his own copse reaching out to A who was being the most troublesome of the three, but just before his hand closed over her face his bnce shifted when Ikaris came out of nowhere and grabbed his hair dragging him and mming him into the ground in aical explosion of white fire and terrain that sent A and Dina flying.

    "The longer I fight, the stronger I will get, I have power to spare even if it is only an invisible fraction!" Ikaris stepped on his arm and spun around his other hand, delivering a kick to his chin that had him spinning like a disk in the dirt and creating a massive trench.

    "Altogether I have enough power right now to destroy three universes whole, do not underestimate me!" She caught his leg mid-spin and raised him out of the ground,ing face-to-face with the barrel of his cannon the projectile from it mere millimetres away from hitting her forehead.

    [CLOCKWORK: DOMINION]

    Her heart stopped beating, and time slowed down to a degree that it seemed to freeze around her when the projectile touched her skin.

    Ikaris slipped beneath the weapon, and delivered a flurry of attacks to every inch of his body before the effects of DOMINION wore off, causing Saleos to stagger several seconds as the attacks came dyed while she took a stance before him.

    Dina had barely managed to perceive what had happened because of her awareness buff, and she also recognised that attack quite well after seeing Sol perform it on Sitri.

    Ikaris''s teeth gnashed sparks as she forced her body into an ufortable stanceyering [Clockwork] upon itself until even her muscles started tearing under the armour and knuckles, and then everything healed over when her invisible punch connected with Saleos, and the result was so much worse than what Sol had done.

    He had triggered tectonic shifts on Arkadia, but Ikaris''s constant fighting had left her in a state of heightened awareness and tunnneled her attention on performance, without even realising it her output had jumped from 0.1% all the way up to 15% and as a result Saleos''s torso was torn open from his neck to his hip, the winds all started moving in the opposite direction of her punch, and Z-Prime creaked and shook before a white ring formed vertically from her point and exploded outwards.

    The entire was perfectly split in half from the punch from the north to south poles, and it happened with such precision that only those outside of it could see, and those just so happened to be the other gods who had been teleported to a small satellite which revolved around it.

    Unable to bare the kickback of Ikaris''s punch Dina grabbed A and created a shield around the two of them as they were sent flying off into the distance.

    "I..." Saleos''s eyes turned ck, and his skin turned into a darker shade as well, and the blood in his neck, arms and legs rapidly slung back together instantaneously reforging his body in a more grotesque and beastly manner, with taller limbs, a slightly elongated snout and a long thick tail behind him, finished with a coat of fur.

    "I will not lose to a lowly divine!" He caught her arm and attempted to tear her face off with a bite, but Ikaris sacrificed her other hand without hesitation, breaking free of his grasp and ripping her own limb free and then taking a deep breath when his jaws locked and her removed arm was snapped.

    "His strength just tripped!?" Ikaris flipped backwards avoiding Saleos''s wild and animalistic shes at her, before raising her stub of an arm and conjuring an arm made of mana to brace against his chest when he caught up and nearly bit her head off.

    "He is faster too!" She continued inhaling, the sigils on her skin began glowing brightly, and her eyes turned gold along with them when he tried biting her still, forcing her into an arch supported only by her legs until the pressure he was exuding became overbearing and she plummeted into the ground.

    "Die a horrible death you filth!" Saleos smashed the mana hand pressed against him after grabbing it and then raised his hooved foot and stepped in Ikaris''s head, burying her in the rocks beneath. "I will trample you, I will desecrate your filthy muddled body, I will kill everything and ascend as the most powerful demon in all actuality, the one true BEAST!"

    [Stand clear, Goddess Ikaris is about to use Cosmic Scream]

    The system warned Dina and A who were rushing back toward them now that the powerful winds had died down.

    "Cosmic- that''s the one I never used!" Dina stopped dead in her tracks, holding on to A when they felt Ikaris''s mana signature drop and almost disappear before suddenly doubling the output from earlier.

    Saleos leapt away from her out of pure instinct when she grabbed at his arm again, and Ikaris arose with her eyes wide in rage and her nose bloody from getting stepped on by this creature.

    All the breath she had held converted into mana, and her throat bulged as she opened her mouth releasing a silent scream that quickly became the harrowing sound of a star ejecting all its power in two singr directions.

    The tear through Z-Prime slightly widened again when Ikaris nted her arms and legs in a crouch and spread her wings for bnce, unleashing it with the full intent topletely destroy everything before her.

    In actuality it was a one-sided Gama-ray burst, focused into a Laser capable of travelling gxies in seconds when utilised correctly, and as Ikaris had been literally trampled on she held nothing back as she released it at him.

    Multiple colours erupted from her mouth,ing with so much destruction and fire that the entire night side of the lit up, with everything the light touching catching aze from the intense heat.

    [COSMIC SCREAM]

 Chapter 149: Annihilation.

    "Is there even anyone left on that miserable?" Gabriell stared at the slowly widening crack on Z-Prime from the chaotic apocalypse of a drifting moon they had been left on.

    "The liberator promised to destroy everything, but it seems Ikaris has already imed Z as hers to destroy." Gadriel answered, both equally terrified as they watched space continuously copse upon itself in the aftermath of Ikaris''s [cosmic scream].

    "Do you still think she is not an evil god?" Gabriell asked, remembering how Ikaris relished in the death and destruction Sol had been causing earlier.

    "I believe it is not my ce to speak on such a matter, she has been through more than all of us, if she wishes death on her enemies then I have no issue with it, we all have hatred deep within us, she simply wears her soul on her crown, she is after all, a queen." Gadriel answered and dismissed any further mention of Ikaris''s suspected malevolence.

    ***

    "Are we supposed to even keep fighting with her at this point?" Dina was still holding on to A as the winds all rushed in one direction and the clouds started thinning as the atmosphere was slowly sucked into the cracks of the tear across the. "She is a monster all on her own!"

    "She would have sent us away if she did not need our help though!" A responded above the howling winds. "I believe we should remain by her side!"

    "That''s a fair point!" Dina nodded and then looked at the skies. "But we can''t even move much with this wind, what the hell is happening?"

    [The atmosphere has been torn, raw sr rays are washing across one half of Z-Prime, and a majority of the stratosphere was ignited just now because of her cosmic scream, the remaining atmosphere is being sucked away by rifts across the, it will be gone within the next ten hours. Before that though a tsunami will cover thisnd within the next three hours]

    The system answered Dina while simultaneously alerting A of what was happening globally.

    "This is a disaster." Dina cast a barrier around them again, focusing.

    "Not a single soul will survive, even if there are bunkers everywhere, the intensity of this fight is likely to rise and destroy Z entirely, had Master Vestic not refabricated H��l we would have nowhere left to go." A rubbed her temples with an obvious expression of stress.

    Had she not known Sol was somewhere possibly watching everything she would be panicking because of how absurd a day it had been; twos destroyed in tandem in fights that defied the reality she used to live in, and so many cosmic events happening that the universe itself felt like it was observing them.

    *Haaa~

    Ikaris exhaled and then held her throat, staring at the destruction she had caused.

    [You have exhausted one percent of your overall mana-]

    "I do not care if it falls fifty, as long as that thing remains alive I will persist indefinitely!" Ikaris balled her fists and shook her head when she felt Saleos approaching from the horizon.

    "To think he would even survive that much, I am sure he would be killed by something with the capacity to easily destroy a star..." She frowned, she was sure that Saleos had indeed been hit since the attack itself was something that could not be dodged by anyone outside of Omni-powerful beings like herself and now sol who could manipte time itself and perceived an entire universe casually.

    "I have to keep raising my power-"

    [I advise you not.] The system appeared in person next to her. "If you continue there is a very real chance your current vessel will be irreparably broken."

    "I can make another body at my own leisure, that is a risk I am willing to take." Ikaris nced at her with her brow raised. "You know I am aware of this, why even bother telling me?"

    "There is a chance you might shatter, Ikaris." System stared at her adamantly, and saw the hesitation in Ikaris''s eyes when she heard this, the fear of losing herself a second time was real, what if her fragments remained scattered and no longer had the will sufficient to reform conscious thought?"

    "Ah..." Ikaris shook her head as a bead of sweat rolled down her cheek. "E-even then!" She eximed and balled her fists, when Saleos''s form became defined as he tore through debris and hills on his path to her.

    "If I can fight, I am obligated to do so!" She sped off toward him as well, firing small firebolts that each shook the ground and caused hundreds of metres of stone and terrain to dismantle and vapourise as they crashed into Saleos who tanked them as he came like a berserker.

    "And I can fight!" Ikaris fired off an especiallyrge one and the beast before her leapt above it avoiding the explosion as he descended. "So I absolutely will!" Ikaris arched and met his descending hooved feet with her fist causing another cataclysmic explosion that left a giant crater again as she was sent crashing into the ground while he was thrown into the air.

    "I''ll keep pushing...!" Ikaris slowly arose with a growl, jumping to the side when a crimson bolt from Saleos nearly crashed into her, and then performing a series of rapid slides and dodges when hundreds more came from the beast''s mouth homing in on her like heat-seaking projectiles.

    [Cosmic tier: Mana spear(s)]

    While Saleos was distracted truing to kill Ikaris, a bolt from his peripheral struck him in the side of his head, failing to prate his skull but sending him reeling in the air after it exploded.

    "You dare-" He roared, fanning the smoke off his singed beard and roaring wildly again, only to have that roar interrupted too when another spear from Dina curved and came from beneath him ripping through his palm and exploding like the first one did, and then the mage began spamming.

    Flurries of them, millions in an instant, filling the skies more than the observable stars ever did and ripping through the air in whistles as they were all targeted at him.

    While not as powerful as Ikaris''s attacks for obvious reasons, they were capable of harming and distracting him, and Ikaris used that to her advantage as she weaved through them using Godspeed to keep up with their pace and then mming her palm against his back.

    [INCINERATION; MAXIMUM]

    "Burn away!" Ikaris unleashed another great explosion that easily broke the veil of the manasphere and tore open the ground enveloping the demon-god andunching him like a cannon ball, only for his momentum to bepletely stopped when A sped her hands, activating the runes she had left on his arm from her first interaction with him.

    Saleos was teleported right back to Ikaris again who immediately dropped an axe kick in the top of his head, causing him to spin in ce before she grabbed his leg and tossed him downward with a roar.

    He managed to catch his bnce while he was falling through the air, but his momentum was too fast, so he prepared himself fornding, only to have his entire body turned upside down in an instant when Dina cast [inversion] on him, resulting in him crashing in the ground headfirst.

    Dina was about to cast [judgement] but Saleos vanished from the crater and grabbed her hand with his other hand aimed to skewer her, catching them off-guard by this sudden boost of speed a third time.

    Before he could strike her, Ikaris caught his hand and dragged them both to the ground, kicking the back of his leg and wrapping her leg around his neck flipping him and then leaping and punching him into the ground where heically bounced and received another punch from her that bounced him even higher.

    There in the air stunned Saleos screamed out in agony when a sole [mana spear] fell from the sky and went straight through his eye-socket bedding itself in his head, he tried removing it but as soon as his ws connected with the cosmic tier skill it exploded tearing him open and sending the remains of his body to the ground to form another crater.

    "Surely that-"

    "Don''t jinx it, A!" Dina rushed down to the crater with Ikaris, and sure enough he was already recovering from that wound as well, causing Ikaris to sneer and curse.

    "I understand now," Ikaris nodded, taking a breath and walking toward the headless body as it healed and iled whilst the torso was being stitched together.

    "He has to be destroyedpletely, down to the atom, down to the matter which has memorised his form, we have to kill his very presence." She mused conjuring a ming spear and driving it through his leg and ankle pinning him to the ground and then stepped on his other hand pinning it to the ground with her heel. "Let me handle the rest alone-"

    "Stop!" The system appeared at her side again, startling Dina and A.

    "You have already reached 20%, any higher and a mortal body will not be spared." She warned her.

    "I can handle it." Ikaris grabbed the system by her head and shook her forcing her to vanish.

    [Why do you and Master Vestic constantly not heed my warnings?" She asked appearing at Dina''s side.

    "Ikaris, what are you nning?" Dina stepped forward when the sigils started releasing raw particles of mana, and in response A''s sigils turned red and began doing the same.

    "I am going to do as I said, I will destroy himpletely, he needs to be evaporated down to the subatomic level where even his mana is dispersed, so I want you to retreat up there with the others." She pointed to the distant moon and then snapped her fingers before either Dina or A could refute.

    "Wh-" Dina snapped as soon as she could see again. "A, take us back!" She spun, but the elf shook her head in refusal. "A!"

    "Trust her judgement, has she ever taken on a task she could not handle?" A asked, and Dina nodded and grabbed her shoulders.

    "Yes! Every single fight she has ever been in was won through some sort of self-harm, she always goes the extra mile and puts her life in danger, this is not the time to be stubborn!"

    "She haspletely sealed off Z, you could not return even if you tried to." System added, and they looked at her shocked. "Remember, Goddess Ikaris has administrative authority in Master Vestic''s absence, I do not have the power to refuse her order, I surrendered that authority." She exined.

    As she exined a white glint appeared on Z which they could clearly see was almostpletely separated down the middle now.

    "Her threshold has been broken, her power is reaching Omni-being levels, she intends to destroy everything in one fell swoop, 40%.... 50."

    "60%, she has stopped, any further and her vessel will immediately break."

    "This is the most I can do right now." Ikaris''s hand glowed formlessly.

    "That attack before that caused the atmosphere to burn, cosmic scream, how much did she put into it?" A asked.

    "Cosmic scream was 15% of her released petential, and the punch before was a mere 0.1%, what you are about to witness is on the same scale as what master Vestic had to exert to escape the power of a ck hole; I may give you numbers, but the current Goddess Ikarks in all her power is a single percent of her overall divinity, in a nutshell, with the power she could wield as her true self it is not an exaggeration to say she could destroy the Omniverse."

    [Creation Realm Unique Skill: Annihtion.]

    "Release!"

 Chapter 150: I Am Him.

    Ikaris''s hand descended just as Saleos''s skull finished forming, and him, her, and the entire Z-Prime was enveloped in a singrity that burst from the top and bottom like pirs, reaching the ends of reality in an instant, and then that thin pir began to slowly swell and expand.

    "Where can we go?" A asked, but the system seemed stumped as she stared at the approaching reality-ending power.

    "There is nowhere we could go that would protect us from something like this, aside from myself who exists beyond reality, anything else which is touched by this terror will be erased, as she had stated."

    "What are we supposed to do then?" Dina gestured to the fluctuating mass as it began growing, rapidly expanding, but right after they had all resigned to their fate and the pir was directly in collision with the moon, it vanished, leaving absolute emptiness where Z-Prime had once been, while the moon itself with the absence of the began a unnoticeably slow drift toward the closest star.

    "That is a wrap." Ikaris spoke from their side, sitting on the ground and panting, holding the stub of her missing arm with a wince as her features returned to the human form she used to hide behind and her skin and eyes stopped glowing.

    "Ikaris, are you okay?" Dina spun and fell next to her, casting [heal] on her arm, but the tissue didn''t even budge. "Can you heal yourself?" She asked again.

    "Not at the moment, no." She shrugged and chuckled.

    "I exhausted all of my Arkadian mana at the start of the fight, the An mana within me has beenpletely mixed with my divine power, and on the topic of divinity-" Ikaris stopped talking when a crack appeared across her cheek, excluding white energy as if she was about to explode next to them, and while the other gods slightly retreated, Gabriell and Gadriel approached fearlessly while A knelt on her other side and tried healing her as well.

    "Indeed, I may have pushed it just a bit too far." Ikaris raised her good hand and sealed the crack seamlessly, but as soon as she lowered her hand three more appeared across her cheek, and a muchrger one openned up in her chest.

    "W-what are we supposed to do?"

    "In the end you could not even manage two thirds of your own power." The system took a seat on the ground in front of Ikaris conjuring a transparent golden tourniquet. "Allow me to suspend you, if this continues you will shatter as I had warned you before." She reached forward, and Ikaris''s closed her eyes with a soft smile and epted as she started getting wrapped from her arm.

    "We could have found another way," Dina shook her head seeing more cracks appear beneath the tourniquet while the system rushed toplete her task, until just her head remained, with a single pole off light escaping her left eye that hadpletely caved in revealing pure divinity on the inside.

    "I disagree that there was another way," Ikaris looked up, as the tourniquet stopped at her  neck.

    "He needed to be destroyedpletely, for that to work, he could not be Incinerated, and even something as broken as Cosmic Scream did not work, my only option aside from this was topletely discard this body entirely and run wild in my pure form, the potency of my divine powercked the necessary oomph to finish the fight safely, and he would have just kepting back." She exined, and Dina scrunched her nose.

    "Why didn''t you do that; run wild I mean?"

    "It had to be done in this way, I am sorry-"

    "Without her body to retain her soul she would disappear, or more urately, her divine power would disperse and her consciousness would return to where it originally came in pieces." System wrapped Ikaris''s mouth and continued all the way up to the top of her head, leaving no crevice uncovered.

    "The only thing I can do is suspend her in time and hope that Master Vestic can help her when he returns."

    ***

    "That was hard to watch." Sol floated beneath a great ck that distorted stars as far as the eyes could see in a great arc that seemed to epass everything.

    "I wanted to help her; to step in and end it like I usually do,  but with this victory I can rest assured that her grudges with demonkind have beenpletely settled, even if her body is in shambles, her heart feels at peace." He looked down at the system next to him, and she stared up conflicted.

    "Please do not take too long, I can neverprehend or dream to match her power, there is a limit to how long I can contain Goddess Ikaris''s vessel before she breaks and shatters the dimension I have suspended her in; and I need not tell you but in the case of her divinity escaping unchecked, it would be the end of this current reality, it could possibly trigger another origin-ss event."

    "Don''t worry, I don''t think I''ll be taking too long here." Sol looked up at the great nothingness above himself again and the billions of thin and stretched stars that were being simultaneously swallowed by it. "Though, inside of this ce, time is a bit weird." He stared.

    "The centre of the universe...!" Sol stopped resisting the pull and began getting sucked in so fast that his very image began to distort and stretch like strings and paper.

    "Are you sure this is the best approach, can you guarantee escaping this entity!?" System asked, remaining on the outside of the sphere while Sol vanished.

    He didn''t hear her, the sounds were gone, and all light disappeared with it, thrusting him into another spacepletely.

    **

    "Godyer, you dare to enter my domain, has your memory fragmented with your vanquished soul, have you forgotten who I am?" A voice reverberated around his body and through his head, and Sol shuddered upon hearing it at how creepy it was.

    "Origin... no, Void." He spread his hands stopping his momentum in an instant and watching as the streaks of light he had been zooming by stood still. "I never imagined after hearing about you that I would end up in your presence so soon, that too with the goal of destroying you." Sol released a breath of mana and watched it freeze in ce after a few feet of travel.

    "I''m still tripping." He chuckled and then looked deeper into the darkness as a great eye of gold and crimson opened and stared directly at him.

    "How exactly do I even do this, I can''t outright attack a ck hole, it eats energy, the only other option is to destabilise it and make it raidly disperse, but that''s also a "no", I''m not trying to destroy the universe, and destroying this thing will do just that." Sol mused, scratching his chin while the eye which spanned the size of hundreds of thousands of gxies stared up at him.

    "My goal is to kill the root of all my problems; you, Void."

    "It is impossible, I have spent most of time making myself indistinguishable from Origin, I am the great Void, child of darkness herself, there is no power in existence that can-"

    "I mean, the first Godyer kicked your ass didn''t he?" Sol interrupted him. "I don''t see why I couldn''t rip you out of the consciousness of Origin itself."

    "Origin has long been extinguished, only I VOID remain, I cannot be killed, I cannot be removed, I am indomitable, I am-"

    "A lot more talkative than I imagined  the aggressor against Ikaris would be."

    "Ikarissss...."  Void''s massive pupil shrunk as the eye approached. "The divine that survived when the others shattered and died; a stain on my great name." He stared at sol continuing to close the distance rapidly.

    "What great name, literally, nobody outside knows you even exist, as far as time and the passage of time itself goes, the Godyer defeated you and you ran with your tail between your legs; Void, history knows you as a wounded dog."

    "And yet I am still here, more powerful than I ever was before, staring at that same entity who is now much weaker, much more weaker than he was before!"

    "Ah, I''m not sure what kind of power the lunatic before me had." Sol snapped his fingers and Void''s rapid advance halted when he thought he was going to be attacked, leaving the Godyer chuckling and holding his stomach.

    "..."

    "It doesn''t matter if you''re stronger than me, honestly; answer me this Void, did you ever manage to harm the godyer even once?" Sol asked, staring at the obvious panic in the great eye beneath him.

    "Since I awakened this power I''ve had the sensation ofplete indestructibility, a sense that I am utterly untouchable, I''ve had this feeling before, I''ve been strong before, but when Ipletely inherited these powers everything felt meaningless before me, pointless in their entirety, like I could tear down anything and everything with the casual ease of thought."

    "You are mistaken, after I kill you, your soul will join me and I will make youment forever conscious within my presence!"

    "Except you can''t kill me, can you?" Sol stared while his eyes began glowing and his hair red like fire.

    "I am the emissary of Beginning itself, beforeing here I made darkness my bitch, did you even notice that?" Sol''s expression becameically jovial as he beganughing out loud. "The Godyer; even though nobody has said it themself, is the most powerful being in existence, isn''t it?"

    He stoppedughing and looked down running his fingers through his hair and grinning. "I get why nobody told me, aside from Ikaris who knew me personally, they tried relentlessly to prevent me from gaining strength, because they didn''t trust my intentions I am the absolute peak of power in every reality."

    "I am Him."

 Chapter 151: End of Darkness.

    Void did not answer, he pondered on Sol''s words narrowing his eye and staring at him.

    "Do you have the power to stand against me at all?" Sol asked after their stare-off, and once again the entity said nothing.

    "Right now I''m a little stumped, if you and Origin are the same, then how do I tear that apart, I mean it sounds easy on paper, and I sure as hell have the capacity to do so, but..." Sol scratched his head in frustration.

    "I haven''t ever dealt with a pure consciousness before, I don''t have any study in this field, you''re literally thergest thing I have evere across, A supermassive ck hole so dense that it phycisclly breaks light into smaller chunks."  He reached next to himself and took a fragment of light from the void, crushing it into dust and releasing it back into a frozen state.

    "I can''t ask Ikaris either because she''s unavable right now... speaking of, I should get out of here and check on her as soon as possible."

    "Why do you keep mumbling?"

    "Be silent for a second." Sol turned his back and started idly floating around as he thought.

    "Her body while still mortal has enough of a capacity to withstand 60% of her 1% output, she''s beyond all reason, even for me, I know she would have never lost to you if she could have fought, next to the Godyer only the Queen can stand, I''m sure of that; now that I can sense her she poses a serious threat even to me, I don''t see myself winning against her if she had ess to her full power."

    "The only reason Ikaris lost to you and Darkness was because she didn''t have the ability to fight back to begin with, and just look, the moment she did she erased a piece of reality, leaving a permanent tear there.

    "Listen to me-"

    "Be quiet for a second." Sol paused and stared at him, and then continued idly floating, before snapping his fingers only to slump a few secondster.

    "I don''t know, I need a second opinion, hey big-eye, how exactly do I kill you without harming origin?" Sol asked Void and the entity went in a flustered flurry and began roaring.

    "I am supremacy incarnate, unkible, you cannot kill darkness and I am darkness-"

    "I can kill darkness, but that''s counterproductive, I understand well that killing one will cause an imbnce." Sol floated upside down and stared at him with a carefree raise of his brow, raising his hand to his face and conjuring yellow sunsses toplete his tropical cosy, of a shirt, shorts and sandals.

    "And you sure as hell aren''t darkness,pared to the power she wields you are a spec of dust, just as Light prevails as supreme even above Ikaris who was born from him, I don''t want to leave you alive, as the one who carried out the will of Darkness''s you''re the one who caused everything that''s happened over the span of this war, leaving you would just lead to breaches in the distant future again." Sol ced the sses over his eyes and sighed.

    "I want to hurry back to Ikaris before something bad happens, this is annoying, why is he hiding in here anyway...?" He paused and looked at void again.

    "What creates cognitive thought, why don''t you have a body, are you only a consciousness inside this isted space?" Sol mused and at the question Void screeched and began rushing toward him again, this time impatiently so.

    "I don''t have a choice then, if the first cosmic consciousness lost a mental battle against you then I have no intention of fighting the same fight, I''ll just do what I''ve been doing since the very start," Sol raised his hand toward Void and spread his fingers creating a distortion which caused time to start moving freely around him.

    "I''m going to destroy you, and start a new, in time, another Origin will eventually be born." Sol exined his n, and as he did void began to rapidly retreat away from him, but as he grew smaller he realised that the particles of light were still passing, so he looked around, realising that the further he went therger Sol seemed to get, and before long Sol was outside of the event horizon staring down at him.

    ***

    "Am I seeing things?" Dina was seated with her legs crossed patiently staring out into space when she started seeing what she could imagine was an eye, but it was sorge that it epassed everything, and so far away that she was staring at a red vein that spanned the entire visible universe before her.

    "It is all rounding up, the fight as you know it is now over." System appeared next to Dina smiling as she raised her hands, visually contracting the scenery before them until they could see Sol humming with a nod and holding a golfball-sized entity of  light and dark in his grasp.

    "What is he doing?" A asked trying to make sense of what he was holding.

    "That is origin in his palm; the centre of the universe, thergest ck hole in all existence across all realities." System answered, sticking her hands on her pockets and sighing.

    "I wonder what he ns to-  wha!" She registered actual shock for the first time when Sol raised his other hand and another entity of simr size and power appeared and then he sped his fist on the first one shattering it with a single squeeze then cing the other one in that same hand with a look of focus with his tongue stuck from the corner of his mouth as he slightly adjusted the position.

    The scenery ended when Sol suddenly vanished, and then a momentter he appeared with the cocoon housing Ikaris in his grasp next to them, causing the system to pout at how easily he had bypassed her walls and recovered the suspended goddes.

    "His appearance..." Dina hesitated to approach Sol as she felt an entirely foreign entity, something alien to what she had grown used to his mana feeling like, that along with his attire and his appearance in general made her think for a moment that he was not the same person.

    "Come on now, why are you giving up so easily?" Sol smiled, erasing the constraints with a simple flick of his fingers and holding Ikaris''s cheek in his palm.

    "Ikaris." He uttered her name, and not just her, but Gadriel and Gabriell felt a powerful tug at their souls as if they were going to be forced together, but then that tug vanished when the cracks on Ikaris''s skin and across her body rapidly mended and she opened her eyes.

    "With such ease... he suppressed her." Gabriel stared shocked, rembering well how the system had exined that Ikaris''s destruction would have destroyed the reality they were in.

    "Hi." Ikaris watched Sol ce his hand on the stub of her arm and slowly with rotations of his fingers mend and regrow her missing limb. "My Lord."

    "Come on now," Sol smiled as her tears slowly fell on his hand. "Why are you crying?" He asked, and she smiled even wider and leaned her head against his chest.

    "You are beautiful, Sol." She sobbed, and as she did, his hair and body stopped glowing and returned to normal while she stared at the ring he proudly wore.

    "Something just crossed my mind; Dr''ul." Sol hugged Ikaris and stroked her hair while A and Dina slowly approached. "I didn''t understand what she meant at the time when she took a knee next to me, but she was never interested in fighting Sol at all was she?" He asked, and Ikaris chuckled at his question and how long it had taken him to realise.

    Dr''ul knew he was the Godyer, she was far older than the others and now that he could see and sense her again, he could clearly tell that she too was a fragment of Ikaris, she was inclined to fighting him out of instinct, and her saying she wanted to fight "the strongest" was her acknowledging his existence as her superior.

    "Do you still wish to fight her?" Ikaris asked. "At this point she poses as much threat to you as an ant does to a bolt of lightning.

    "I promised." Sol stood and pulled her to her feet and then gasped when Dina pressed her forehead on his back and slowly snaked her hands around his waist.

    "H-hey..." Sol panicked for as second before he realised that Ikaris had not reacted and had instead taken a step back when A timidly approached from his side and hugged his arm on herself.

    "What''s wrong with you, what''s going on here?"

    *Ahem

    The system cleared her throat and three system windows appeared before Sol''s face. "You have been quite distracted so you never bothered to double-check these statuses." She informed him.

    A''s, window.

    Dina''s window.

    And then

    [Name: Ikaris

    Race: Divine (evolving)

    Level: Infinite

    Title: Goddess of Bnce, Daughter of the first Light, Beloved, First Divine (new), Hero

    Skills: Divine

    ss: Divine

    Buffs: Godyer''s Love (new), Daughter of light, Emergence (new)

    Blessing: Godyer (new), Queen''s Blessing

    Evolution: Realm.]

    ***

    "Holly shit."

 Chapter 152: Pact.

    (If you''ve made it this far, PLEASE consider leaving a review, Webnovels doesn''t do much to boost exposure unless you''re a high earner on their tform, but reviews help more than anything else! ???? Thanks!)

    ***

    "What do we do now? The universe as we see it will be stagnant and lifeless soon, with only Sitri, just as you had envisioned and dered." Ikaris interrupted Sol''s shock bringing his attention back to her.

    "Before that... What''s with these statuses?" Sol asked, stepping away from Dina and A and standing next to her. "I don''t understand what''s-"

    "It is your will, and my eptance which led to this oue." Ikaris lowered her gaze somewhat guiltily. "For a while, maybe after A confessed her feelings, I had a guess that this would happen, and I have be less ufortable with the idea since then, Sol, it is okay for you to-"

    "Hold on." Sol interrupted her, shaking his head, it didn''t feel right, as if his own opinion had been disregarded and as if her feelings were being swept under the rug, it felt almost rushed from her end. "Is this eptance or willingness, Ikaris, there''s a very clear contrast between the two, isn''t there?"

    "My only wish is to serve you, and for you to be happy, my happinesses from being in your care." Her expressions softened and Sol took a deep breath and looked at the system.

    "Why is this happening?"

    "It was not by my design, master Vestic," She responded.

    "You have grown inexplicably close to the women around you, when you should have pushed them away, or been more assertive of where your intentionsy, you instead invited them, and as Mdy had instructed you; opened your heart, the clear result as you can see is their unyielding devotion to you, and your affection toward them as more than just colleagues or allies." She finished with a stare.

    "This happened because I...?"

    "Do not trample on their hearts like this." Ikaris took Sol''s hand and spoke directly into his mind. "You are more than aware of Dina''s undying affection for you, this is no news, you have kept her close and she has felt loved in return, you adore her, and you gave A that ce in your heart where Jun was supposed to be..." She scolded him.

    "I do not dislike the thought of having sisters, what I worry about is losing my ce at your-"

    "I would never!" Sol snapped as soon as she mentioned it. "I really don''t... I could never, Ikaris you''re irreceable-"

    " But does that mean I have to be alone?" She asked him orally, and he took a deep breath and released it, falling backwards into a seat that appeared and resting his hand on his head.

    "Sorry..." Sol looked up at Dina and A. "It''s unfair that this happened to you two."

    "I do not mind, simply being by your side have made thesest few the happiest days of my life, if only for a short while my dreams of being your lover came true, if this is where you sever that tie I am willing to lose everything again." A smiled sadly at him, but Dina had a far more serious expression as she stood there with her eyes locked to the ground and one arm securely holding on to the other.

    "I... still do not want to give up." She narrowed her eyes and blinked rapidly when she felt tears approaching. "When I saw the system window earlier, it felt like the world had stopped for me, I''ve never felt so much happiness since consciously knowing myself, why would I, why should I give that away?" She looked up at him, and then at Ikaris apologetically.

    "I feel like if I step back now, you''ll disappear forever and never return, that''s how it feels."

    A wanted to speak more but she felt at oddspared to Dina, she knew the student she had nurtured had strong feelings for sol, unlike her who first felt security and trust before her emotions had been invested, she didn''t want topete, she just wanted to not be discarded.

    "This is quite the turnaround." Gadriel mumbled to her sister while the two of them stood ways away and observed.

    "Could you not?" Ikaris stared straight at them, and the goddess covered her mouth with a nod and looked away.

    "Sol," Dina spoke up again, startling him when she walked up before him and fell to her knees at his side resting her hands on his leg and lowering her forehead onto them as she built the courage to speak. "Master..."

    "Dina-"

    "Please let me finish." She cut him off, and Ikaris who was standing next to him sat on the other side next to him and crossed her arms, curious about what came next, but also slightly unnerved by it.

    "I won''t ask you for anything, I won''t everin, I will not bother you, I''ll keep my distance and do as I''m told, whatever it may be, all I wish for is that where you go, I go with you, because if I lose the only happiness I''ve ever had I''ll bepletely lost." She raised her eyes and stared up at him. "I promise, I won''t cause any-"

    "Stop it." Sol closed his eyes and sighed, causing her to suck in a breath when he raised his hand and rested it on her head with an unreadable expression that slowly progressed into a soft smile. "Just stop, I can''t do that to you, I won''t treat you like some kind of pet."

    "But if it''s even a pet-"

    "Seriously, that''s enough." Sol tapped her head and then raised her hand, standing and helping her to stand while Ikaris sighed and gave him a small smile as well.

    "Honestly, this is the most indecisive I have ever seen you," Ikaris rested her hand on his shoulder and stood, holding his and Dina''s hands together and gesturing to A as well. "You too."

    "Me?" The elf asked, and Ikaris nodded and gestured for her to hurry over, which she quicklyplied with.

    "What are you doing?"

    "I am a little upset," Ikaris answered Sol whilst looking at A. "Upset at myself I mean." She confessed. "I knew this could happen and I simply watched it unfold, and now it has reached a point where I have a moral choice I never expected I would have to make, at least not this soon." She took A''s hand and held all of their hands together.

    In contact with Sol, the crests on her body began humming and shining in gold, like his Godyer Divinity, A''s sigils which were identical to hers began humming with blue mana pulsing around her, and very slowly, with Sol''s permission, sigils started being etched across Dina''s arms as well, which quickly ran up her sleeves and across her body, locking around her neck with an audible *click in the shape of a small heart with a keyhole in the middle of it and a pair of wings.

    Ikaris''s neck sigil was the shape of ten wings wings with a heart in the middle, while A''s was in the form of a heart with a single pair of wings folded around it.

    And then, the Sigil that had been on Sol''s hand lit up in gold as well, at first it was a simple crest on the back of his hand, but he watched it get manipted and morphed into arge flower that took up his forearm and spread vines around his wrist, locking just above his palm in the shape of three dots connected to each other.

    "Sol, dear." Ikaris stared up at him after she had finished changing the nature of their contract.

    "I do not want to be separated from them, I do not want to lose them, when I was in that cocoon it was terrifying, and all I could think of were my recent memories, from meeting you, and everyone else, I have grown attached to these girls..." She released his hand and pulled Dina and A into a hug in front of him.

    "Resting their heads on her breasts and smiling lovingly with her cheek rested on Dina''s head while the mage was too stunned to speak.

    "Thank you..." A sucked in a breath, holding Ikaris first and burying her face in her side while Dina stared at her. "I could never muster the courage-"

    "I know your heart, A." Ikaris caressed her head and then did the same to Dina. "And yours, more than even you do, so let us make a pact here and now."

    "Pact?"

    "Yes," Ikaris nodded whils Sol and all the other gods watched wordlessly.

    "Our master is the head, we never disobey nor do we ever question his decisions, our roles are his pleasure and peace, we will notpete, nor will we disturb that peace, I am the body, and you two will follow as my right and left hands, so long as you follow these simple directions we can coexist in harmony." Ikaris held them a little tighter.

    Ikaris his body, Dina his right, and A his left.

    "I have no issue, I am grateful, eternally, I may never again raise a word of protest orint to my Master." A spoke first, hugging Ikaris tighter as she assumed something of a mother-like role for the Elf. "Thank you."

    "Is this fine with you as well?" Ikaris looked at Dina, and the mage lowered her gaze and stared at Sol in her peripheral with a deep blush, steaming from the top of her head as her hands locked around Ikaris and A, and she finally rxed.

    "Yes, I agree; I have noint with this arrangement either," Dina sunk deeper into Ikaris with a low squeal while the goddess started smiling at how her usual shyness was at an all-time high. "I will serve my master to the best of my abilities," She whispered turning even redder as she uttered the embarrassing words.

    "Now then..." Ikaris looked up at Sol with her brow raised.

    "Husband, what will you do?"

 Chapter 153: Time Dilation.

    "What indeed," Sol scratched the back of his head and walked over to the three of them, resting his hands on Dina and A''s heads and staring down at Ikaris. "There''s no going back from what you''ve done, you realise this, right?" He asked, and Ikaris smiled and nodded at him as she too now in his presence started feeling a certain reservation to surrender herself as the other two had boldly done.

    "Ma-" She started, but Sol silenced her, reaching down and kissing her on the lips softly, slowly, and then standing straight again and sighing.

    "Ikaris, A, Dina." He looked down at the three of them, and then looked behind at their observers. "Let''s return to Arkadia."

    "Return?" System appeared and looked up at him. "You can return before [path] is ready?" She asked shocked, and Sol grinned at her.

    "Of course he can, he is the Godyer, traversing the infinite domensions is as easy as walking from one room to another for him." Ikaris cleared her throat when their hug unravelled.

    "You would be considered foreign gods, but most of you do not have the power to manage your lost homes, some of you have no home at all to return to, would you be okay with staying in the Arkadian universe as well?" He looked at everyone else, and after a bit of murmurs between them the gods they all agreed, some of them taking it a step further by blowing at the waist, while others Like Gabriell and Gadriel went on their knees in reverence.

    "Good, allow me to make good on my final promise then, and we will leave afterwards." Sol walked out of arms range of everyone, staring up at the cosmos before him and spreading his hands as the crest on his chest, and in his eyes reappeared while his hair began glowing gold along with his body.

    "What was once Origin is no more, and what remains of the demons has been reduced to just Sitri who will remain her in perpetual and increasing torture for the rest of eternity." Sol exerted himself with a look of focus as the stars began disappearing rapidly one after the other taking every and asteroid every object that had any perception of mass or light, matter itself was erased.

    *Sometime Later*

    "I kept my promise, Jun, Griffon, may your souls findfort after all this time." Sol sucked in a hitched breath and then thest of the stars disappeared, leaving him, Ikaris, and several of the other gods as the only remaining sources of light in an endless emptiness.

    It became so lonely there that they began physically hearing the new singrity.

    "That reminds me, what happened to that demon girl... Sri?" Ikaris looked at A, and the Elf lowered her gaze sadly.

    "She died..."

    "She remained true to her nature as a demon to the end." Sol added as he approached.

    "When Saleos descended, she attempted to kill A to gain his favour and possibly extend her life, I can''t say I don''t understand, it is survival, but after my warning A had remained alert, so she killed her first." He looked at A, now easily able to feel the waves of sadnessing from her heart, and his expression softened.

    "I am sorry I ever doubted you, Master." She lowered her head, but once again Sol gave her a headpat and then pulled her into an individual hug, consoling her grief. "I will be more obedient henceforth." She slightly wept.

    "Don''t worry, what I value the most isn''t obedience, it''s genuinity, and the willingness to follow your heart." Sol smiled up at her and the others who watched. "Everyone, gather closer to me." He ordered, and upon doing so, Ikaris tackled him and A in another hug, while Dina approached from the side and pinched his shirt shily.

    "Ah!" The system vanished, appearing within his soul as she had done before in fear of being left behind.

    "Goodness!" Ikaris winced when Sol''s powers red and epassed the entirety of the drifting moon they were on.

    The nameless Moon shook and trembled under his influence, and then a momentter as though nothing had been there in the first ce the celestial object vanished.

    The next time it appeared it did so in a vastly different universe, vibrant, lively, and most importantly it was full of gods, and across their line of sight stretched from one end to the other a massive tear of shattered stars and rifts of all kinds caught their attention, and in that rift they all felt Ikaris''s residual power earning her stares of disbelief.

    "Who dares to-"

    Dr''ul appeared first, with her ming sword at the ready, but halted when she saw Sol basically ame with an unreadable divinity about him, with Ikaris in his arms and Dina as well as A at his sides, and a multitude of divine beings behind them staring up at her.

    "You... returned?" Dr''ul descended like aet while the other gods of Arkadia started emerging.

    [The system has detected another Omni consciousness inside of the Unknown Male God.]

    A gold window appeared before Dr''ul, after shended and practically ran toward them, shrinking and taking a deep breath before grabbing Ikaris''s hands and smiling brightly. "You are alive!" She grinned, but as Sol''s glow subsided she looked over Ikaris''s head at him and retreated several steps.

    "Sol Vestic, I am humbled by your presence." Dr''ul took a knee, and along with her, Renia also appeared at her side, and then the other five governing gods, paying their respects.

    "How is this possible?"

    "Godyer." Ikaris answered briefly, stepping away from Sol and stretching her arms as she smiled at the cozy Arkadian cosmic mana flourishing around her. "Something feels different, how long has it been since we left?" She asked.

    "Five years," Renia answered standing and staring at Dina and A who both had slightly glowing sigils as they stood at Sol''s sides pressed against his side while his arms rested on their shoulders.

    "Five years...?" Sol blinked several times. "Is it because I didn''t use a portal?" He raised his hand and took a step forward resulting in everyone else arising. "Ah, we can talk about thatter!" Sol snapped and pped his fist in his palm, turning and gesturing to the hundred-plus freed gods they had taken with them.

    "I kind of did it on a whim, but currently these gods have nowhere else to stay-"

    "I will dly amodate them all!" Dr''ul volunteered with a raise of her hand. "I have a request in return and a question as well!" She held her hand even higher, causing Reina to scoff and shake her head with a helpless grin.

    "Oh gods..." A chuckled while everyone else pressed their palms on their forehead.

    "Dr''ul..."

    "I want a fight before we leave this location, I am the goddess of war, I have been worried for thest five years that I would never see you again to ask, it has driven me crazy; the longest five years since I first opened my eyes, please fight me!" She huffed smoke through his nose. "I have been preparing every single day!"

    "And your question?" Ikaris asked.

    "Have your powers been fully realised, how strong are you now, do I stand a chance in hell at my best?"

    "Hahaha-" Solughed out. "I forgot that she was this cute." Hemented, causing a pout out of Ikaris as well as Dina while A pinched his hip, causing him tough out again.

    "I mean it, she''s like a kid when she talks about fighting," he shrugged, but then looked at her again shaking his head. "I''m sorry, but, I can''t ept that fight just yet."

    "Wh-"

    "It hasn''t been five years for us, your holiness," Dina continued where Sol left off, looking around and staring out into space. "We have only been gone for a little over a two weeks from our end... Everything that happened here," she lowered her head. "It basically happened yesterday."

    "Oh..." Dr''ul calmed down, and the mes in her head slowly diminished.

    "It is a serious case of time dtion, Origin is thergest and oldest universe in existence moving many times slower than the others are, being there we did not notice, but time was moving at a ridiculously slower pace, I never considered this between the chaos, but just imagine what a year or ten years there would have meant." Ikaris hummed.

    "Then, let us return to D''ol first." Dr''ul raised her hands, and the moon which was now in her domain disappeared and reappeared in rotation around D''ol.

    "Five years." A stared down at the moon bustling with people, and then at beyond it Arkadia which had already recovered from the fight against Sitri and the demon army. "Has anyone returned to Arkadia yet?"

    "A spearman called Gordo Hurkson requested to return with his nsmen two years ago, aside from them, everyone else simply settled here on D''ol." Dr''ul floated off the surface and started flying downward while everyone had stopped upon a small moon appearing in the sky above them.

    "Adonai, Renia, take care of our visitors, the heavens and our universe is going to be expanding again." Dr''ul looked at her brother while descending to D''ol with Sol and Ikaris apanied by A and Dina. "... You two are able to traverse the cosmos freely now despite it being such a short period of time for you?" She asked.

    "To some degree, their strength is in the infancy of extreme evolution, as is mine." Ikaris answered, and the goddess of war smiled at the absurdity of the idea of Ikaris getting any stronger than she already was.

    Down on D''ol staring up at the sky from the balcony of a small pce, a certain woman wearing sses stared as a familiar mana signature caught her attention from high above, cradling a small sleeping child in her grasp.

    The winds rushed across her face, fanning the sleeves of her blouse and revealing a small crest in the shape of a stylish first-aid sign on her forearm, and that crest began resonating green mana.

    "Dina... Ikaris?"

 Chapter 154: Homesickness.

    "Goddess Dr''ul!" A young woman eximed excitedly pointing and lowering her head when Dr''ul descended and stood staring upward after regarding her with a smile, it was rare for Dr''ul to show herself, over the five years since the Arkadian Apocalypse she had only revealed herself once in the aftermath, but they all remembered her; golden armour and hair that burned like fire.

    "Who is that with her?"

    "Other gods came as well, is something happening?" A former soldier of the demon subjugation army asked, slowly approaching, but the closer he drew the faster he began moving until he had broken into a full sprint halting epically and falling at Sol''s feet.

    For the sake of not drawing too much attention, Sol had worn casual clothes, but this man seeing a ghost had recognised him as easily as a n imprinted child would their parent.

    "Y-you..." The man lowered his head and said no more, and for a few seconds, everyone observing went silent, until another older woman spoke up.

    "Are those not the heroes Ikaris and Dina who disappeared five years ago?" The old woman asked, and upon saying so with a loud exim,  the streets began to fill rapidly, stalls and taverns, small inns and civilian households, everyone began pouring into the streets and surrounding them.

    "I expected this would happen." Dr''ul scratched her cheek with an apologetic smile at them and then raised her hand causing the noise from their excitement to almost go mute. "She would have asked the crowd to disperse, but Dina was basically tackled by someone she recognised was once a child from the queen''s pce, causing her tough out and hug the girl, ruffling her hair.

    "This is so weird." Sol stared at the girl, and Dina and then looked through the crowd recognising many familiar faces, some drastically different from the people he knew them to be and others who seemed to have barely changed. "It''s really been five years..."

    The crowd thickened, causing A to draw closer to him, while Ikaris who still had reservations about being so close to people did the same, leaving most of the attention on Dina who seemed to naturally just break into cheerful conversations from those who were shocked and others who were weing her back.

    "Make way, make way!" Someone came pushing through the crowds, and on his sides were armoured soldiers helping to part the crowdsing from the direction of the pce which they hadnded rtively close to.

    "Oh!" Dina raised her right hand staring at the pulsing crest on her forearm the same as Ikaris did, and Sol with a small smile took a step back and disappeared from sight just as Eris was escorted with an elfling child in her hand toward them, her hair was almost as tall as Ikaris''s, and she seemed to have kept herself in rather good shape too.

    "Hah~" the healer stopped short of them and stared, while the baby in her clutches began crying. "You returned, she stumbled forward causing Dina to use a rather simple [sh] speed spell and reach her, resting one hand under the child and her other hand on Eris''s shoulder, helping her to remain upright. "You''re real?" Eris asked.

    "Hi there, healer hero." Dina smiled at her, raising her finger and fixing Eris''s sses that had gone slightly crooked.

    "Long time no see."

    ***

    "You really did it..." Dina walked through the gates of the small pce they had seen when descending, escorted by close to a dozen soldiers, most of whom she recognised from the now abolished army.

    "Hm?" Eris nced back at her, and Dina scratched her cheek.

    "You made a life here, you''re a mom too, it''s a bit of a shock for me."

    "It has been five years since the war, with everyone deciding to stay here on D''ol, closer to the gods there''s been nothing but peace, I had time to settle down," She raised her left hand showing them a ring. "Get married."  She smiled as a maid opened the door for them. "Start a family."

    "Who did you marry?" Ikaris asked, and the healer slowed down a little, slumping and then perking up again as they were led to arge lounge room.

    "It isn''t important anymore, he passed away in a construction identst year after I got pregnant." She turned and stopped, looking at them again. "We were only married for two years.

    Dina, A, and Ikaris exchanged nces at each other at the news, feeling bad for her who had started living her dream and lost someone important so soon.

    "Tell me."  Eris gestured to the seats then had stopped next to  while a maid they recognised from the queen''s guard approached and carefully took the child from her. "What happened on the other side, I can''t imagine it was peaceful spending that many years in demon territory."

    "Well," Ikaris sat first, and on her queue the other two sat at her sides daintily. "The universe we found ourselves in abides by a different set of rules, the chronology is very  exaggerated."

    "Meaning?" Eris leaned her head, watching her maids shuffle around in preparation to bring her honoured guests beverages.

    "Five years passed here, but for myself and Master Vestic it was only a week and a day, and for Dina and dy Ikaris, it has been closer to two weeks." A spoke up, and upon saying so she watched the horror slowly creep up on Eris''s face as she looked at Dina again with her mouth agape.

    "During that time... We never had the luxury of mourning, or getting over what we went through, it might feel like a dream to you, but for us, the war only ended a few hours ago." Dina added, and Ikaris nodded in agreement.

    "You all look drastically different, though!" Eris stared at them, "you three, seem to glow, as if you have been through enough torment to raise your mana to god-like levels, not to mention Sol, I couldn''t even sense him at all!" She made gestures with her hands. "What happened to you?"

    And so, thee three went through recollection, filling in the nks for each other as they went over their arrivals, imprisonment, and the subsequent rescue of the gods that had been captive on H��l, to Sol''s awakening into the Godyer, Ikaris''s evolution into a being closer to the beginning, A''s evolution into a Grand Elf and Dina''s bing a Demigod orbas the system had phrased it, Apex.

    By the time they finished their debrief it was well into thete of night, and the four of them were seated on the balcony of her pce staring up at a flourishing Arkadia.

    "So Sol went on to be the strongest, ever..."

    "Indeed." Ikaris smiled, sighing while A had her head rested against her shoulder, visibly tired.

    "You didn''t exin those though." Eris leaned and pointed to her neck, alerting them that she had noticed the sigils which looked just like Ikaris''s. "Those are supposed to be ve crests right, howe all three of you have them now?" She questioned after realising that they deliberately left that out of their exnations.

    "Eris has be a nosy olddy." Sol appeared from the sky before them, slowly descending with his hands in his pockets.

    "Sol!" Eris stood upon seeing him, grabbing on to the rails and staring  in disbelief. "Where did you run off to?"

    "I spent the day paying my respects." He answered her without hesitation.

    "First, I did not want to, I ran away from the grief, but after everything that''s happened, I know now it''s also a part of who I am, I can''t turn my back on the dead, so I gave them the respect they deserved, all those whom I didn''t know, those I did, those I called friends, everyone." He exined, taking a seat after Ikaris had readily stood and gestured for him to sit and then quickly taken the space between his legs.

    "As for what you asked earlier," Sol spread his arms, and without any further incentive, both A and Dina sat and ced their hands in his, regarding him as he was their god, while Ikaris smiled at her, causing all their sigils to illuminate. "They are all mine, body and soul." He dered.

    "Well, shit..." Eris chuckled, too amused tough and too shocked to react in any other way. "And you''re all okay with this?" She asked.

    "Absolutely." Dina answered first. "He is my master and I his ve, I would have it no other way." She stared at Eris''s jaws slightly cken.

    "Agreed, I am the happiest at his side than I have ever been elsewhere, this is where I will always belong, I have long surrendered myself to Master Vestic." A answered as well.

    "Need I even say a word?" Ikaris chimed in, and Eris''sws snapped shut.

    "No need, I am fully aware of your worship and adoration for him." She stared at Sol, and for a brief moment wondered if she would be among them had she been honest five years ago, but then quickly dismissed the thought as she thought of herte husband and their child.

    "There is a lot to unpack still, before we go." Sol sat forward and rested his hands on Ikaris''s hips. "We might end up staying longer than we intended to.

    "Go?" Eris asked him.

    "Yes, I like it here, what with the total peace, it is perfect, but I''ve also grown homesick." Sol admitted, and Ikaris nodded while A and Dina looked at them.

    "You''re going back to A?"

    "No, not yet." Ikaris corrected.

    "Earth."

 Chapter 155: The Palace Bath.

    "You''re really able to go to and from wherever you want as you please now?" Eris rxed in her seat again and crossed her legs, observing with an attentive eye how close the four of them had be in what was supposed to be only a few days for them.

    "Yes, I can perceive it; the other universes, like I just know where to look, and how to get there without having to think too dire toy about it." Sol answered.

    "That''s pretty fortunate, it''s a really broken skill you''ve acquired there."

    "It is not as simple as a skill." A corrected her. "He is simply able to, without effort."

    "Ah, so not even a skill huh, it''s something as simple as breathing to you..."

    "Speaking of travelling, is she gone?" Sol leaned further forward and locked his hands around Ikaris, resting his forehead on her back and sighing with his eyes closed.

    "Usami left after the first year, when the new system was born."

    "New system?" A perked up. "Is that why you''ve been so quiet?" She looked at Sol, and their system appeared sitting on the balcony rails with her legs crossed and a clear expression of  difort on her face.

    "W-what the-"

    "I simply did not feel like contacting this new system after they tooky ce, that too after regarding me; the original as an imposter." She exined, and Sol who had yet to raise his head scoffed.

    "Eris." He called to her, and she nodded and perked up again.

    "Yes, Usami left the first chance she got, I wish there was a way to know how she was doing, especially now that you''ve exined something like time dtion, it makes me more worried about her." Eris slumped and rubbed her forehead.

    After you four vanished in that cavern, Usami  returned to us shattered, maybe she expected that you would go back with her, but her anxiety only increased from there, shepletely disassociated from everyone here and isted herself with work, she stopped smiling, she stopped talking." Eris sighed.

    "The queen did not even wait a day, she sacrificed herself as soon as the system was online again and sent her back, I was tempted to go as well, after all that was our only window with the princess not being taught the secrets of that magic, but by then I had already met my future husband, my life had gone in the opposite direction of hers, and I think it troubled her a lot."

    "That''s, sad." Dina leaned on Sol''s side. "But I had already decided by that point that I''d ask master to tag along, wherever he went, so if he had decided to stay, so would I." She sighed against him and then yawned.

    "Ah, we have been talking the entire day without even taking any pause, you lot must be exhausted after all you''ve gone through." Eris abruptly stood. "Your rooms have already been prepared, and well I shouldn''t be staying up thiste anyway. "She lowered her head at them, startling them as she paid her respects.

    "Sol, Ikaris, Dina, A." Eris raised her head and then wiped her eyes with a smile.

    "I''m d you''re all alive, truly, and I am eternally thankful for what you''ve done, there''s always been an afterthought that demons would return in your absence, but you went ahead and destroyed them all, you saved everyone, and avenged those of us who fell by their hands, if they ended up anyce better, I know you have their gratitude for what you''ve done."

    "It was a personal grudge and a promise made to those same fallenrades, more from my time than yours." Sol looked over Ikaris''s shoulder again. "But yeah, you never need to worry about them again, as it stands only one exists, and she''s never escaping her fate." His frown returned for a moment, but A''s arm on his leg calmed him again.

    "Sara?" Eris called, and the maid in question, unchanged after five years walked from the shadows and lowered her head, seeing Sara Sol''s eyes slightly widened, everyone else seemed different, but she had not changed or seemed to age at all in the five years of his absence.

    "I''m going in, please take care of them." She smiled and gave them a bow again before leaving urgently at the sound of her child.

    "Yes, Lady Eris." Sara raised her head and then looked around at the four who stared at her and smiled at them. "Wee back, everyone." She approached calmly and slowly took a knee before Ikaris raising her hands above her head while Ikaris took her hands with a confused nce behind her.

    "Have you been listening all this time?" Dina asked, realising that she could not sense Sara''s presence at all.

    "Naturally, no, Lady Levina, I would never disrespect any of you in this way, especially Lord Vestic." Sara stood after recieving Ikaris''s blessings. "I have been brewing a bath for you but..." The observant maid''s eyes scanned them all.

    "It seems a bath for two would be inconvenient now hm?" She teasingly looked at Dina and A resulting in the two of them blushing and partially hiding their faces.

    "Sir, you have been quite proactive thest five years eh?" Sara  nudged Sol''s arm with a cheeky grin while he and Ikaris stood.

    "Wow you haven''t changed at all." Sol deadpanned at her, and she burst I to lightughter. "It''s okay, a small bath can suffice.

    "Please follow me," Sara gestured and began walking. "Regarding me not changing... Sara had a bounce in her steps as she walked. "That is because I have been waiting my lord." She spoke, without restraint.

    "For me?" Sol asked.

    "Precisely, I swore my life to you, and my servitude for as long as I live, I swore from engaging in any kind of affairs that would change my priorities and interests, I ampletely loyal only to you."

    "That''s absurd." Sol raised his brow as they turned the first corner. "What if we never came back, what if... What if I and everyone else had died on the other side?"

    "I would be none the wiser, I would have waited my entire life and died waiting for your return." She answered without batting an eye.

    "That is beyond loyalty though." A countered from behind.

    "True, all my adoration lies within Lord Vestic, in warring times I was able to smile, I who had lived a hard life and never once let loose was given the chance to enjoy a beautiful day-to-day living." She gestured to arge door and then pushed it open, revealing a spacious bathroom with arge shower and a tub.

    "Looks like Eris has been progressing technology to be more modern all on her own, I noticed a magically operated ceiling fan earlier too." Dina stared at the modern-esque appearance of the bathroom, but then reality struck her and she stiffened when she saw Sol enter, and then Ikaris behind him. "We... all of us, together, in there?" She asked, and Sara looked at her strangely.

    "If you are reserved, I shall quickly prepare another guest bathroom mdy."

    "No!" The mage eximed. "No... *ahem, It''s fine, thank you."

    "Then, please excuse me, I will return with more clothing for your post bath." Sara curtseyed daintily and left her standing there while A also stared in the bathroom.

    "A?"

    "G-goodness." A walked in with her face burning and her eyes coated in embarrassment and desire as the thought of Sol naked struck her like a bolt of lightning. "I must control myself." She squealed.

    "Restraint is overrated, this should be a space where we allow ourselves to be free, we are after all in his servitude, his ves, remember?" Ikaris answered standing before Sol and unbuttoning his shirt and then standing before him as he calmly started unbuttoning the back of her blouse.

    "It hasn''t been that long since..." Sol looked up at them when Ikaris pressed her ass against him with a deep sigh of relief as the strings of her corset began unravelling.

    "You don''t need to force yourself, I''ll understand if you choose not to." He looked at Dina, but A in contrast was already right before Ikaris with the goddess staring down at her with a smile as she helped her out of her dress.

    "It''s just that, I um," Dina stuttered to speak. "I have never urhhh~" She hid her face and blushed even brighter than A had. "I want to but..."

    "Another moment of indecision." Ikarismented walking with A who continued to help her undress until she waspletely nude before the bath, exposing Sol who was only in his underwear.

    "Dina." Sol spoke up, and with his voice all their sigils lit up and hummed, causing Ikaris who sat on the side of the bath to close her eyes as it had been a while since he used [authority] on her. "Come to me."

    "Yes," She feltpelled, beyond what she had expected, even with her willingness she had been reserved, but upon Sol speaking all her reservations vanished and she walked forward, stopping before him and staring into his eyes. "Master-"

    "Turn around." He ordered her without the use of the runes, and sheplied without a word of protest, sucking in a breath when he held her sensually for the first time.

    "I''m not some kind of unreasonable machine that only thinks about sex, I''ll respect your reservations there, however-" He held her neck from behind and pressed his palm in her back, causing the entirety of her corset to fall and her dress which had held on to pool at her feet without any obstacles.

    "Hnnnnn~"

 Chapter 156: Im Sorry.

    "You can''t be afraid to show yourself to me." Sol slowly wrapped his hand around Dina''s waist, reaching up to her bra and unhooking it from the middle and then holding it in ce, resting his hand between her breasts. "Toe to me, you must do so as you are, unreserved and willing."

    "Thus has been spoken." Ikaris mumbled. "Sol is a man of literal intent, you must  shed your shyness and offer him your innocence."

    While this happened A stood patiently, blushing with her hands sped between her thighs and a smile stered on her face.

    "Bare, and unrestrained?" Dina asked, raising her hand and holding on to Sol''s.

    "Yes." He answered, and upon doing so she took a deep breath and rxed her muscles, surrendering herself to him and allowing him to fully undress her in front of the others, and upon doing so, Sol cupped her breasts with his bare hand and pressed his lips on the back of her neck channeling mana into her body via his kiss and activating all of the runes across her body and causing her to shake and incline forward with a very light and restrained moan.

    "A." He called and without missing a step the elf approached him while Ikaris retrieved Dina and led her into therge bath, pouring water on her steaming head.

    "A day I never imagined, one I wished for, and one I admittedly dreamt of every single night." A raised her hands and cupped Sol''s cheeks.

    "My Lord, do I have your permission to im your lips?" She asked, and Sol took a calming breath and leaned forward, locking his hand around the back of her neck roughly and raising her to her toes as she closed her eyes and pressed her lips against his in a slow kiss which had even Ikaris staring as she saw A''s dress unravel like a shrowd when Sol''s other hand rested on her hip revealing her crimson sigils rippling with mana.

    "And finally," Sol stood still without so much as a prompt watching her slowly sink to his feet and hold on to the borders of his pants and pull them down, releasing a strong breath of mana as she raised her eyes and came face to face with his manhood.

    "Whaaa~" Dina hid her face in Ikaris''s breasts squealing giddily when A ced her soft hands on his half erect shaft and stared up at him.

    "I..." A attempted to take him in her mouth right there, but Sol''s index finger against her forehead stopped her as he gave her the obvious lecherous stare and smiled, amused.

    "Let''s wait a little." Sol helped her to stand and then spun her around, holding her neck like a handle and leading her into the water with the other two where Ikaris flicked her middle finger across her forehead.

    "Impatient one." Ikarismented, resulting in the elf blushing as she had failed to control her desires.

    "This truly is an honour." Sol sat on the side allowing Ikaris behind him as she carefully began washing his hair with the water mixed with her mana, and then A at his side sunk lower, raised his leg in herp and started doing the same with a humming that quickly turned into her songs.

    "Then... me too." Dina hesitated at first but made her way to his free side and summoned a bathing sponge from the side with a wave of her hand, pressed it against his chest and began scrubbing him carefully.

    "You are enjoying this, Love?" Ikaris asked, resting her breasts against the back of his head, and Sol without even thinking about what she was asking chuckled and looked up at her. "Yes?"

    "How could I not enjoy this?" Sol asked, raising his hands and holding her arms steady as she lowered herself I to his kiss. "I am surrounded by and being pampered by three beautiful goddesses, I''m trying my best to keep myselfposed."

    "You are failing spectacrly, then." Dinamented, keeping her focus on his torso and arms and steaming from her blush while A came closer to his thighs, and looking down, Sol''s expression softened and he let out a chuckle when he found the elf eyeing his manhood again which was now fully erect and throbbing.

    "This is too stimting, I don''t know just how much I can tolerate before I shut my brain off and give in." Sol admitted.

    "It is a disservice to let you wait, and inadequacy as your first wife to withhold pleasure from you." Ikaris whispered in his ear, sliding around him and sinking into therge bath with A, pulling Dina down as well and snapping her fingers causing the soaps and suds to increase as she tackled them both and began washing them like a mother.

    "What are you doing?" Sol stared amused. "They can clean themselves-"

    "But I am horny." Ikaris grabbed A from behind and started massaging her breasts vigorously causing Dina to snap in shock and guard herself when the elf started moaning aloud from the aggressive stimulus.

    "Lady ikaris-"

    "Hold still." Ikaris took A''s head and shoved her beneath the water, grabbing the floating bath sponge and dragging it down the centre of her back causing her toically il with her ass stuck out of the water.

    "This is absurd!" Dina attempted to flee, but Ikaris grabbed her leg and tackled her as well, drowning her while she washed her with the fury of a mad woman. "Urglrlr, S-sol, master, help! -elp! elp! Bulublublu!" She sank again while Sol burst into hystericalughter before A tackled Ikaris as well turning it into a three-way bathing as they challenged each other.

    ***

    They spent a full hour afterwards simply having fun, something they hadn''t done in recent times, for sol especially, thest time heughed like that was when he was a child, his joy brought them joy, and even Ikaris who never experienced being an infant or the pleasures of growing up was able to release her inner child and spend true quality time with them easing all the tension between them.

    At the end of it their bath they all exited in towels drunk in their joy with lightughter, being respectful of the fact that Eris was down the hall with her child.

    "Ah, Sara?" Ikaris stopped before the maid, it was odd seeing her like this, usually she was sharp but seeing her asleep on the floor with a pile of clothes in herp sort of sobered her and the others up a little.

    "You''ve had it rough, haven''t you, Sara?" Sol reached down and scooped her up. Holding her close and smiling as she opened her eyes and smiled sleepily, resting her head in the crook of his neck and hugging him with a sigh.

    "I thought you had died, thank you for returning Sir." Sara snuggled like a child and fell right back to sleep while A took the clothes with a smile.

    "She has Dina levels of innocence doesn''t she?" Ikaris snickered quietly.

    "Wh- me?" Dina snapped while they all started walking again.

    "Sara, where do you sleep?" Sol asked her.

    "I do not... have not." She replied in her still slumber, and Sol paused in his stride, his expression visibly changing and his mood rapidly deteriorating as he thought about what she had just said, even without fighting, he understood what it felt like to not sleep and eldlessly stare out in anticipation of change.

    "What does that mean, what do you mean?" His brows furrowed.

    "In the shadows, I do not age, I need no sleep, so I waited for sir''s return in the darkness."

    "Of the five years we''ve been gone, Sara, how much of that time have you been in your shadows.

    "I onlye out during supper and cleansing myself, if I stay I can wait much longer, hundreds of years if need be, as long as you returned, it was of no importance." She hugged him tighter and began crying while she answered in her sleep.

    "Fuck..." Sol''s mood hit the floor, and with it all the sigils on Ikaris, A and Dina went cold. "I''m sorry."

    "This is not your fault, love." Ikaris held his arm, but released him with a gasp when she felt how deeply affected he had been by Sara''s words.

    "It is though, she was dependent on my winning that fight..."

    "But you did win."

    "Sitri lived, we got dragged away for five whole years, by then I had regarded her as my younger sister, and she had specifically told me that she sees a guardian in me, but I left her behind." He started walking again.

    "She smiled, and pretended like she was okay, hiding behind this damn mask, but she crashed as soon as she felt the slightest bit of ease, it''s too sad, I never imagined that I''d fail her like this."

    "Sara, I''m sorry."

 Chapter 157: Breed me.

    "Often times people do things and forget about those in their immediate surroundings-"

    "No." Dina interrupted his depression,ying her hand on his back when they all stopped by an empty room. "Do not me yourself, not even a little, what happened waspletely out of your control, and you acted ording to the situation, these are things that happen all the time." She stared at him when he stepped into the room.

    "Every time we''ve gone across dimensions there''s been some weird disparity with time, you came as fast as you could, literally a minute difference but hours had passed for us in Origin, we spent at most two and a half weeks there respective of our different locations, and yet five years had gone by here in the Arkadian universe, you are not to me."

    "Still." Solid Sara down and pulled the sheets over her, caressing his cheek with a sad smile. "Can you even imagine that kind of loneliness, waiting for someone that you don''t have the slightest idea will evere?" He asked, but then paused and looked up at A who nodded, Dina, who also nodded, and Ikaris who only smiled.

    He had used the perfect words, because not just him, it was all of them that knew this exact feeling all too well, their circumstances each varied in drastically different ways, but they had all experienced a version of this hopelessness before, same as he had.

    Humbled by the fact that he was truly not alone anymore, Sol smiled and stood. "Let''s leave her to sleep."

    "Indeed." Ikaris took one hand and Dina took his other hand, while A was still holding on to the clothes Sara had prepared for them.

    "Um, do I even need to keep these?" The elf asked, remembering quite well that after they had gained such massive portions of power through their connections with Sol they had been made privy to the maniption of matter, something as trivial as clothing to them could be created and replicated with a simple thought.

    "Of course, she went out of her way to pick them out for us." Dina answered.

    "Yes, the least we could do to show our appreciation is wear them." Ikaris answered as well, stopping before what was supposed to be her and Sol''s bedroom and smiling when Dina and A aimlessly walked in without so much as a step of hesitance.

    ***

    "After what just happened, I''d understand if..." Sol turned after observing the room, but found all three women standing shoulder to shoulder respectfully, their eyes closed, their heads lowered, and their hands sped before them in a bow of submission, they had also already put on the clothes Sara had prepared.

    Ikaris had been given her usual, which was a semi-transparent night dress with frills, exposing her skin and curves easily but keeping her mostly obscured.

    For Dina it was the ssic pajama pairings though instead of pants she had a small skirt, and A wore something simr to Ikaris mainly because of the size of her bust.

    Sara had chosen the most loose-fitting night gown she could and simply given her loose shorts topliment, either way, with the light of the second moon shining through the window at them, Sol took a moment to thank his wingman (Sara) for always knowing what he liked and then sat on the edge of the bed.

    "What''s this, then?" He smiled.

    "We are surrendering ourselves for the night, Love." Ikaris raised her head as her body began slightly glowing again, and her eyes reflected brilliant azure back at him, Dina''s eyes hazed over with her pink mana, and A who had visibly been blushing the most already had steam and mana exhaling as her sky blue eyes shone brightly.

    Within seconds of staring at them and feeling the powerful urges within each, a tent grew from Sol''s towel around his waist.

    "My Lord, may I?" A asked first while Ikaris walked up to and sat on his right, sneaking under his arm and stealing his first kiss reaching out to Dina who took his left and rested her hand on his shoulder, very slowly reaching for his jaw and taking him away from Ikaris.

    "Master, my first kiss." Dina whispered when Sol''s arm snaked around her waist and he pulled her closer onto himself causing the single button holding her shirt to snap open and her breasts to press against him as he kissed her forehead, her nose and then her lips.

    Her inexperience ttered him, and he could tell she was still nervous from her hands not knowing where to go.

    "Hmmm." Sol hummed in Dina''s mouth as she continued kissing him when A carefully undid his towel and held on to his fully erect manhood firmly this time before slowly parting her lips and pressing her tongue against his tip, causing her sigils to ignite and exude raw mana as she felt the true extent of the sexual nature of Ikaris''s design.

    "Haa~" Ikaris hugged Sol''s right arm when his fingers pressed against her clit and her juices began flowing on them, at the same time on his left Dina locked her fingers into his skin, drawing golden blood from his arm when he did the same to her.

    Ikaris''s ears fluttered happily when her hips started moving against his hand, and she jolted when she felt another hand grab her neck, at the same time as Dina was groped by a fourth hand as more appendages grew from Sol''s shoulders, adhering to theirforts.

    Sol''s hips jerked and his cheek twitched in shock when A''s throat amodated every inch he had to offer all the way down to her tongue pressed against his pelvis and her hands holding his waist, while said throat began moving in ways he never imagined a throat could, her eyes zed over and her nails dug into his skin as she gave her all and began slowly bobbing her head.

    Sol fell to the mercy of the elf in just a few motions, falling on his back when the pleasure she brought started sucking the strength out of him, he would have eximed said pleasures but as soon as he was on his back Ikaris straddled his waist, continuing their kiss while Dina crawled down to A, staring wide-eyed at her expert skills in action.

    "Haah~!" A released her grip on Sol''s dick, yanking her head back with a deep groan and grabbing Dina by her shoulders. "Master is... Invigorating!"

    "First," Sol slightly raised Ikaris and sat forward, causing everyone to stop and stare at him.

    "Dina." He eyed her loosely hanging pajamas and the moist puddle she had left on the bed next to him, and without a word more, Ikaris pulled away, and A stood with her.

    "Me?" She asked back.

    "Of course, it is your first time after all, it needs to be an unforgettable one." Ikaris pinned the mage to the bed next to Sol, raising her arms and undressing her top, while A raised her hips and skillfully undressed her bottom without breaking their y.

    Watching them at it again, Sol reached for A who had her rear stuck out toward him, and pressed his palm against her exposed back, sending a wave of mana through her body which caused the elf to convulse and fall over as she soaked her attire, and then with a grin, Sol angled himself and delivered one stinging p to Ikaris''s ass which left her shocked and in pleasure as his mana shook her up to her womb causing her too to fall off Dina with her hips jerking and her eyes rolling over as she experienced more pleasure than she could handle.

    "W-what did you do to them?" Dina looked across at each but was redirected forward again by Sol who took her with two arms and pressed his other two on her legs, slightly parting them and standing before her with his rodying on her abdomen.

    "Dina."

    "Yes, Master?"

    "Do you truly ept me?"

    "I already-" She was going to exin her pact, but Sol''s arms on her legs dragged across her thighs by the nails causing shivers through her body while one thumb of the third arm pressed against her tongue and the other hand sped around her throat.

    "Do you ept me, Dina Levina?" Sol asked again, staring at her with an unusual seriousness while their eyes locked.

    "My mind is an extension of yours, y-your body~" She hissed and moaned from the overstimuli of his four hands massaging her body from every side and repeatedly exploring her for weaknesses.

    "Your body is my temple of worship, my soul is forever at your mercy, master, I only have and will always only ever see you, you are my god- haah~" Her hips jerked forward when Sol''s arm locked under her waist and slowly raised her, causing the sigil above her womb to start pulsing in tandem with the beat of her racing heart.

    "Then do you love me?" Sol asked delicately raising himself and pressing the tip of his babymaker directly at her entrance, slowly feeding her just the head and staring her in her eyes again.

    "Y-yes, I love you, with every fiber of my being, with every cell in my body, with my soul and existence, Sol, Master, I am yours forever!" Dina shook and her breath hitched as Sol slowly prated her while his fingers gently zed over her clitoris whilst she was being ovee by her first orgasm.

    "Allow me to reciprocate those feelings!" Sol grinned down at her, looking to his sides as Ikaris and A drew closer after recovering somewhat from his previous actions.

    "Y-yes please," Dina was pinned by the two at her sides who began exploring her just as much as Sol had been. "Breed me, Master~!"

    At those words, something in Sol''s mind made an audible *Snap

 Chapter 158: Total Submission.

    The Flower sigil on Sol''s original right forearm lit up as soon as Dina spoke, he withdrew his hips, and slowly started a rough piston into her, with the many hands, and sigils simultaneously bringing her pleasure, with the most powerful sigil being the one inside of her which had been activated upon pration Dina''s eyes rolled over again as her inexperienced body was shot into a second climax before the first one even wore off.

    "Haah~ this is hnn~ S- master~" Dina failed to speak upon many different attempts, shing her head and holding on to Ikaris and A''s arms as her mind went numb and returned several times. "Laa~ love, you...!"

    Sol continued to increase his thrusts until he started grunting and putting his back into it, increasing the potency of his mana until the mage wrapped her legs around him, squeezing down on him with so much force he winced and grabbed her cheeks, leaning into her and kissing her as his back arched before and he made one final thrust.

    "Whooaaaaaa~!!" Dina squealed, biting his lips and locking her ankles as Sol jolted several times filling her womb to the point of overflow with his own orgasm while his ejacte threw her into another frenzied orgasm, her eyes rolled again, and her arms that had locked on to him and her nails through his skin all rxed as she became puttu beneath him, passing out with a spray of juices against his lower abdomen.

    "Dina?" Ikaris chuckled yfullyying next to the mage and tapping her cheek several times. "She is gone." She stared at the satisfied and pleasured face of her fellow lover and shook her head.

    "Okay, you next." Ikaris looked over the passed out girl at A, who once again exhibited a far more heightened libidopared to her as Sol''s one hand and already driven her though several climaxes leaving her in a half state of awareness.

    "I imagined you would be pushing to go first," Sol picked Dina up and ced her on the far side of therge bed and then looked at Ikaris again.

    "I do, and I am also aware that this probably will not happen a lot if your thoughts are any to go by," Ikaris smiled at Sol, while he blushed and chuckled.

    "I did say it, but I don''t n to treat you like objects, you''re each individual, so I will set boundaries whenever I feel urged to." Sol answered.

    "Then, I am fascinated enough to indulge tonight, I request to be thest." Ikaris reached for A''s cheeks, and pressed her lips against the Elf''s. "Does that allign with your wishes Love?"

    "I understand what you''re thinking, so..." Sol stared down at A, and for a moment he imagined a little kitten with the way she had her arms folded, squeexinfbheer breasts together and her tongue sticking out of her mouth.

    "Tonight, I will indulge as much as I please." He reache down for the elf, using two hands to pin hers above her head while the other two grabbed hold of her breasts and began kneading them gently, rewarded by A''s small voice moaning sweetly as she continued to breathe mana like smoke.

    "I used to think you had a lot of control over your mana, and in a way you do, but I''ve also realised that you''re not that good at controlling it, are you, A?" Sol stared down at the night gown which partially hid her nakedness from him, and her legs  which were squeezed together as she used every way she could to get friction between them.

    "I used hah~ seals to block my flow a-and artifacts to, to, to-keep it from escaping on its own~" She tried focusing when Sol held on to her knees and spread her legs before himself, raising and resting them on top of his legs. "Master Vestic, my body-"

    "-Was remade anew, I know." Sol dismissively answered her, releasing her breasts helping her out of her night gown.

    "I altered it when I changed your sigils to mine, I never imagined it would lead to this, at the time I simply wanted to ease your troubled mind on the matter, on a psychological level, you seemed less restrictive to others afterwards, and became morefortable with open interactions, but..."

    "But?" Ikaris looked from A to him and Sol''s expression went dark, a lustful gaze trapped his eyes and his pupils shrunk and then returned golden.

    "That''s just not the case anymore, not for any of you." He answered, leaning over A and staring her in her eyes. "Don''t let anyone touch you, ever." He ordered her.

    "You, Ikaris, Dina, you''re mine and mine alone, if someone so much as breathes too close to you I''ll kill him without a second thought, you''re my property!"  He stared at her, and the elf shook beneath him when his palm pressed firmly on her mound and he inserted his finger in her entrance, raising her hips and slowly finger-fucking her.

    "Yes, of course!" A''s head snapped and hit the bed while her eyes shed about incoherently with her raging thoughts. "Yours alone, from now until the end of eternity!" She excitedly matched his fingers thrusts shaking as his hands were overcoated in her nectar.

    "My Lord-" A broke from his hand pinning her and grabbed his cheeks, but Sol beat her to the kiss and stuck his tongue in her mouth just as he angled and made one  strong thrust, burying himself to the hips inside of her, leaving the Elf watering at her eyes when he pinned her hands again and began madly thrusting, giving her no time to recover from her orgasm.

    "I-it is so much deeper than I -ah~" She squirmed beneath his powerful grip as soon as he stopped kissing her, failing repeatedly to gain any kind of leverage under him.

    "Master-" She tried speaking again, but Sol spun and pinned her face into the bed causing Ikaris to gasp and almost fall off at how rough he was being with someone who was at that point newly deflowered.

    "Did I say you could speak?" Sol threw back an extra arm and left a red print of his palm across her asscheek causing her to arch weakly and fold beneath him while her walls squeezed him for dear life. "Throw that shit back." Sol pped her ass again, locking her hands on her back while she began wildly rocking against his strong thrusts.

    "Oh gods...haa~ O-oh-f-fucks!" A raised and dropped her head in Ikaris''s palm, biting into her skin as she raised and mmed her ass even harder than she was before, twisting and squeezing her insides as best she could as Sol mercilessly pounded into her from behind.

    "Hooo~" Sol grabbed her hair, dragging her back and pressing into her back simultaneously reaching even deeper.

    "I can''t -I can''t -I can''t-" She stopped moving as another powerful orgasm crashed into her turning her vision white as she lost all her strength and slumped in his grasp, but Sol continued regardless, because he knew, after bonding he more or less could sense what their desires were, and he could tell... She was a wild one.

    "A!" Sol released her hair causing her face tond in the bed, and then he balled his fist and a chain appeared in his grasp while a leash appeared around her neck which he pulled at, waking her again. "You''re not done yet!"

    "Absolutely, yes master~" Her eyes zed over with lust as she started rocking her hips. "Anything for you, everything for you, t-take it all, use me haa~ however you please~!" The room echoed with the sounds of her ass pping against his hips and her moans rising and falling with that rhythm. "

    He was surprised the first time he hugged her, because from just the sensation, Ikaris had more firm skin, smooth and unrealistically perfect, but A who leaned closer to being chubby than the goddess did was physically softer, he hatedparisons but each of them had something the other didn''t.

    Dina had the sensuality of an unpicked flower, even without trying her every act exuded an innocence that he hadn''t even noticed until he and her became friends.

    A was the wildest and from what he could sense she had many hidden fetishes he would be able to explore in the future, but the most obvious one was her desire to be lead andpletely dominated, he saw it in how she talked, and the way she carried herself, to the way she always asked permission before she did anything, she was even more submissive than Ikaris, and her sex drive was many times higher, most likely from her many years of suppressing said desires.

    And Ikaris filled a gap in his needs where he had yet to see get challenged by the others, as far as making a life went, and being a wife, she had it all figured out by instinct alone, she could sense his arousal all the time, she knew what he wanted and how he wanted it without him even saying anything, while the others had submitted to him epting their roles as lovers, Ikaris was in love with pleasing him specifically, sexually and otherwise; there was a difference between the acts.

    And she was well aware.

    "Oh gods -oh gods hnnyyaaaa~"

    "ept my seed." Sol nted another firm p on her cheeks and then released the chains, pulling her onto himself and hugging her with all four hands, one around her neck, the other around her waist, one holding her leg and thest one hooked in her mouth.

    "Fuck~!" Sol groaned, biting the tip of her ear and sending shivers throughout her body when his climax triggered hers and her walls melted on him.

    Her eyes rolled over once more as Sol held her on top of himself, pumping loads into her and huffing golden mana everywhere as he groaned, and while he released his seed the elfvished in the pleasure of his cock continuing to swell and twitch inside of her, passing out when the overstimtion hit her a third time that night.

    But not before her words reached his ears and she leaned and licked his neck.

    "Master, I will always love you..."

 Chapter 159: Marry Me.

    Heaving heavily, her breasts raised and fell with her eyes dted and sweat dripping down her neck, leaving tracks across her cors and down her arms and sides. A waspletely out of it, and Sol behind her raised her off himself and let her down with a deep sigh as the two extra armsing from his sides disappeared in bits of solid mana.

    "You had no mercy on the poor girl." He heard Ikaris speak, and staring up at her from the elf before him he found her leaning against the head of the bed with her chin rested on her arms which werefortably resting on her knees pulled up to her chest, the moonlight was cast on her, contrasting her eyes and glowing skin as she stared at him with a rather stoic expression albeit with a bright blush on her cheeks and ears.

    "Goddess." Sol mused, she had just watched him fuck two girls brainless after dering months before that he would never look at another woman, but then she was the one who instigated it in the first ce, he found himself at a loss of thought before her.

    "You are truly full of vitality, Love." Ikaris blinked, staring down at his manhood which had immediately gone erect upon himying eyes on her.

    "Are you disappointed?" Sol asked, standing with his hands folded and parading himself proudly before her while Dina and A''s light breathing pervaded throughout the room.

    "Never, my lord." She unhooked her arms and went on her knees, crawling toward him on all fours and stopping before him. "I love everything you offer, and it might surprise you given my strong personality, and my current unenthusiastic approach..." She held on to his hands, pulling herself to her knees and staring up at him with her eyes zed over with lust.

    "... but I am extremely turned on from your performance, incredibly so." She sensually walked her fingers up his chest and held on to his chin.

    "I know you told me to not call you master, but I find the urge entirely irresistible, to be your woman, and to have you lord over me while I please you in every way you need, want and desire is a dream I have always cherished." She kissed his chin and then snapped her fingers, straightening the sheets and cleaning the entire room in an instant as well as him and herself.

    "Master," Ikaris raised her arms around his neck and locked her fingers. "I desire to have your children, in a safe environment where you protect me and my wives." She smiled at the sensation of his member poking her abdomen when she said it. "Master, can I have your children?" She requested politely, and Sol opened his arms around her and held her by her hips.

    "I wouldn''t have it any other way." Sol pressed his forehead against hers and pulled her onto himself kissing her slowly whilst she locked her legs around his waist and melted into his embrace, the sigils on his forearm and the ones across her body radiated with the same light, exuding a strong aura throughout the entire room that rapidly leaked throughout the halls sweeping down the stairs and through the windows, rising into the night air and setting off silent fireworks in the sky out in the cosmos.

    "How many?" Sol asked.

    "As many as you want, children are precious, and ours are no exemption, I want to foster as many of your seed as I possibly can~" She hummed into his kiss, letting one leg down as Sol hooked his elbow beneath the other knee and pulled her into a heated kiss, it would have been a battle but she submitted as soon as he locked his fist in her hair.

    "What''s this sensation?" Sol stared down at her and then looked around at the mana reverberating around them, but she couldn''t even answer him because of that same mana mixing with hers and numbing her mind to reason and logic.

    A few seconds of her grinding herself on him and he too forgot what he was thinking of as he grabbed her gown and tore it off her body roughly, raising her by her ass and carrying her to the balcony of their room which oversaw the vast moonlit grasnds and flowerbeds  behind the pce.

    Unlike his wild nature before, Sol was a lot more gentle with Ikaris, he took a seat on one of the long chairs, and Ikarisid on top of him, raising her ass and holding on to his manhood while their lips remained locked, lowering herself onto him and breathing out her pleasures without breaking contact.

    "I love you, more than I have ever anyone else, you truly are as Dina said; you are the centre of my universe Sol Vestic, you are my one and only, my favoured and cherished, the love of my life and the soul of my existence, my lord." Ikaris cupped Sol''s cheeks kissing him softly while he led the pace with his hands on her hips, guiding her back and forth.

    "Then who am I left to adore?" Sol asked, when she broke their kiss again for air, but instead of answering she held on to his head with one hand, locking her fingers with his like a bike with her other while his free hand silenced her with a thumb on top of her tongue while her mouth was agape.

    "I feel it Ikaris, the love you share with me, I feel it every time your breath touches my skin, every time you call my name, every time we''re joined like this, an abundance of pure love ovees me from you...!" He began raising his hips causing her to jolt and convulse in pleasure as he hit her deepest spot repeatedly, her toes curled and her breasts bounced before his eyes, encouraging him to keep going as his every thrust increased until she folded on top of him.

    "Bare with me, Love." Sol folded his and her hands behind her, trapping her on top of him as he began grinding and thrusting into her and breaking her focus repeatedly leaving her breathless as she tried keeping up, but right before her climax he stopped and released her hands.

    "Master?" Ikaris opened her eyes twitching on top of him as he sat up and held on to her again. "Ah... this position." She locked her hands around his head hugging I''m to her breasts as he closed his eyes while they both remembered what they enjoyed the most in each other.

    "I love you, Ikaris." Sol pulled at her hair from behind urging her to continue grinding on him as he locked his lips to her nipples and bit down on them together causing the goddess a round of shock, pain and pleasure when she flinched and began shaking, sensing his uncontrolled climax and the swelling of his dick inside of her she clenched down on him and locked her legs behind his back.

    And feeling her walls slowly tighten harder and harder Sol held her onto himself, matching their orgasms with each other as they sealed their union with onest kiss.

    "Fuaaaah~" The goddess rocked back and forth, sucking him dry of everything he shot and wiping the sweat off his forehead dearingly while she was pumped full of Godyer cum.

    "That was... Kyaaah!" Ikaris squeaked when Sol raised her up andid her down where he was. "Master?"

    "I''m not done yet, I won''t be done until sunrise, I''m going to enjoy every inch of you tonight, and I''m going to pump everyst drop into your womb, so prepare to lose your mind over and over again, Ikaris!" Sol after being the romantic took a far more domineering role, pinning her down and squeezing the sides of her throat.

    "I love it this way too," Ikaris''s eyes rolled into her head when he started pumping thrusts into her again. "I love it~!"

    ***

    Eventually, their night of pleasures passed, with Dina and A managing to join once more, ultimately failing to keep up with Sol and passing out again, at the break of dawn Sol sat naked on thefy chair he and Ikaris had spent a majority of their time on, and in hisp Ikaris cuddled as they watched the sun rise across the horizon.

    "Truly amazing vitality." Ikaris chuckled sleepily in his embrace, staring at the crest on his arm locked with hers and kissing it. "I never imagined our story would bring us here, with them." She looked inside at the two who cuddled and slept together, covered by the sheets alone.

    "Ikaris," Sol called her name, kissing her shoulder while she closed her eyes and hummed a response.

    "I honestly can''t think of a better, more peaceful time than now to say this." He pressed his forehead on her back while she kissed his forehand again.

    "Say what Dear?" She asked, and as she did, Sol raised her to stand before him and then pulled her to sit in hisp again.

    "Let''s get married this time." He stared up at her, and her eyes glistened with joy as her smile widened. "Let''s hold a beautiful wedding, here on D''ol with everyone present, all our friends and allies."

    "I was wondering when you would ask again." She grinned happily with the birds flying by in droves while the sun highlighted her frame before him.

    "I measured the moment to this point on purpose." He retorted with a smile of his own.

    "Yes, let''s get married."

 Chapter 160: Drul; The Untamed.

    "Good morning!" Eris greeted Sol as soon as sheid eyes on him in the kitchen.

    "You cook for yourself?" Sol raised a brow at her watching the many maids going about their daily routines. "What are all the maids for then?"

    "It''s just breakfast though, I don''t want toze around and do nothing all the time, this much is the norm." She answered with a bounce to her step. "I made enough for the four of you, but, where are they?" She asked looking up the stairs behind him, and Sol smiled and scratched his chin gestured again to the stairs.

    "Ah, good morning everyone!" Eris grinned when she saw Ikaris leading A and Dina by their hands down the stairs, unlike the usualmon getup they would have worn they all chose something a bit more formal, and looking at Sol again Eris realised that he too was dressed to partially impress.

    "Good morning, Eris." Ikaris answered first and then turned to Sol, kissing him on the cheek. "Good morning, husband." She smiled  and walked over to the table taking a seat as the maids gathered and pulled them out.

    "Good morning, Lady Schneider," A smiled sheepishly and then turned to Sol blushing. "Good morning, Master." She reached for him and pulled him to her height and kissed him as well on his cheek."

    "Hi Eris." Dina nodded at her and then looked at Sol, blushing up a storm and punching him in his ribs. "G-good morning, Master." She sheepishly greeted him as well and then kissed his cheek and went to her seat.

    "Good morningdies." Sol seemed to beam with pride after his morning greeting.

    "Ah..." Eris who had observed all their interactions held her cheeks and swooned dramatically. "It is so good to be young~" shemented causing Dina to snap with rounded eyes.

    "What do you mean young you''re only five years older now." The mage hero pointed at Eris, but the healer in response scoffed and held her other cheek yfully.

    "Twenty six is practicallly an old woman though~" Eris yfully swung her hips causing A who was only a year older than that tough out at her antics. Never mind Ikaris, shepletely missed what they even meant by that. In actuality Sol was still the oldest among them with thirty years of experience, and she was literally ageless.

    "Hah~" Eris sighed, taking her seat opposite of Sol who had Ikaris and Dina at his sides while A sat next to Ikaris. "It''s like seeing ghosts." She admitted watching as the maids served their dishes.

    "Seeing you all, unaged, unchanged, the only difference is how much closer you all grew, it''s so bizarre to think that the time here and origin had such a huge disparity." She leaned on her palm and smiled sadly. "It''s really, really, amazing that I met you all before dying, I never stopped worrying." She chuckled, sobering the mood quite a bit as they let the reality of those words sink in.

    Only 17 days on H��l, 9 days on Z-Prime, and they had missed five whole years of Arkadian time, the difference was heartbreaking, had they been gone for a year they wouldn''t havee back and found her alive, or anyone else aside from the gods that they knew for that matter.

    "Mmm, it hasn''t been that long, but I missed your cooking, Eris." Dina smiled solemnly staring down at the te before her, further sobering the atmosphere as her words brought the healer a strong dosage of nostalgia.

    "Ahem* On another topic." Sol spoke up, bringing back the joy from earlier as he rested his hand on Ikaris''s and smiled at Eris, while A and Dina also smiled. "Here on Arkadia, with you and everyone else, Ikaris and I decided to get married." He stared.

    Eris closed her mouth and swallowed slowly, and then sped her hands before her lips as her eyes sparkled and her cheeks reddened.

    "I totally forgot that you had only been lovers, you''ve lived like husband and wife since the first day!" She squealed. "When, where?" She asked, and Sol scratched his chin. "How many guests?"

    "Here on D''ol, and the when is a bit of a hup, you see, Ikaris wanted to do it immediately and with as many visitors and guests as possible, but I wanted a more traditional wedding, an Arkadian wedding to be exact."

    "Oh?" A leaned and smiled at him. "The custom''s forbid the groom and bride from seeing each other for an entire week before they tie the knot." She stared at him expecting his reaction to be along the lines of impatience, but Sol smiled and nodded while Ikaris nodded as well.

    "We previously asked the gods about this, and they pretty much gave us a debriefing of all the customs, Dr''ul even offered to host itt in the heavens but I refused, it has to be here on the moon of hope." Ikaris answered.

    "A week is but a short time apart when we have a beautiful life nned, don''t you agree?" She asked, and Eris nodded and stood, walking around and stopping before Ikaris and Sol taking a knee and holding their hands in hers.

    "If you would allow me, I would be honoured to cover the entire event from my own resources, as a thank-you." Eris stared up at them, and Ikaris smiled and nodded. "Hm?"

    "We were going to ask you to host, it doesn''t need to be from your own resources but-"

    "I insist!" Eris shook her head. "I will make all the arrangements and prepare everything, you need not worry about a thing!"

    They would have responded, but from a financial standpoint they were currently pretty broke; Ikaris had been dragged away from earth leaving all her treasures and such behind, and ording to Dr''ul the survivors of the apocalypse had refused to incorporate another mary system, opting for a stable trading system instead; D''ol was a untopia where something as controlling as money had no ce or value, the new system made trading fair, and the inhabitants had been on a steady path of evolution and enlightenment.

    Eris was a prime example of this; even though the war was long over, she had continued to passively grow stronger, the point system had still been in ce and her strength had reached a higher level than Han at his peak.

    When she spoke about resources she was speaking of her overall influence and her ability to get others to do as she wished as the  one who was recognised as thest hero of the war after Usami left.

    "Mdy, you have a guest." One of the maids came next to Eris whole she stood rubbing her eyes.

    "It''s still so early, who is it?"

    "The Queen, Mdy."

    "Wh- you left her at the door?!" Eris snapped, ready to rush through the dining area but stopped when Da walked around the corner, giving her a curtsey.

    "Eris, good morning." Misty raised her head at the owner of the pce and smiled at her.

    "Your majesty, good morning!" Eris curtseyed as well and then cleared her throat. "Why did you show up unannounced?"

    "I apologise," Da curtseyed again and then smiled widely. "I was busy all of yesterday and only received news of the return of our friends this morning, I came over as soon as I could.

    "I can see that." Sol who was still seated chuckled at her. "You forgot a few buttons." He pointed at her blouse, and she looked down at herself and then blushed and spun around, adjusting her mismatched buttons and then turning to them nervously again.

    "Master Vestic!" Da broke character and rushed past Eris practically leaping into his arms, causing Dina, and A to stare shocked while Ikaris picked her up like a puppy by her waist and stared at her.

    "You have not changed one bit, have you?" The goddess asked with a deadpan

    "I have, I promise, but please allow me to greet him this once." She smiled. By now the girl had matured into an almost perfect copy of herte mother, down to the small mannerisms whenever she showed courtesy, the only notable difference was her being much younger and her hair growing quite longer.

    "Greet him how?" Ikaris asked. "Thest time I saw andmunicated with you it was from youmitting some very questionable acts-"

    "I-I will be good, I swear if on thete queen." Da stopped iling and smiled at her. "I have matured beyond  the girl you once knew, Lady Ikaris."

    "Did you not admit to trying to court my fiance previously?" Ikaris stared at her raising her higher. "I do not trust you."

    "I am happily married though, please excuse my discourtesy I am simply overjoyed-"

    "You do realise that I am a goddess who can easily discern the truth from lies, right?" Ikaris lowered her to eye-level and stared into her soul.

    "I have nothing to hide your holiness, I am truly a changed woman." She admitted, and Ikaris had to agree, not only did her soul and conscience exude rity, but she was apparently already a mother.

    "With your permission, may I informally greet master Vestic," Da asked, and Ikaris scrunched her nose, staring at her fellow lovers and then looking at Sol who seemed interested in how she would handle the situation as he rested his head on his fist innocently.

    All else was interrupted though with the appearance of Dr''ul in their midst, her eyes were half-mooned and her sword clutched in her grasp tightly.

    "Sol."

    "You''re relentless." Sol chuckled and sat forward again.

    "I have waited for an entire day, Sol Vestic."

    "I know, I''ve been expecting this since sunrise, you''re a formidable and relentless woman, I can''t keep ignoring you."

    "Fight me then!"

 Chapter 161: Sol Vs Drul.

    "Now?" Da raised her head staring up at Dr''ul, but she could tell at a nce that the goddess meant business, unlike her usual smile she waspletely swept up with an air of seriousness, simply ncing her way was enough to make one feel heat as she exuded the personification of warfare and strife.

    "I have waited, but with your wedding and departure drawing nigh, I am feeling uneasy; as though this chance may slip from me forever." Dr''ul admitted, and Sol nodded and scrunched his nose.

    "He is able to traverse the multiverse, you could have fought at any time in the future..." Ikaris seemed more bothered by it than  Sol himself was, but he shook his head and stood before the goddess of war with a serious expression.

    "No, Ikaris." Sol  stared at Dr''ul. "I''ll honour my promise and fight her, this was my original goal to begin with, it''s time I closed this chapter of my life, name your setting, name your conditions, the floor and rules as the challenger are yours."

    "Very well, system, take care of this." Dr''ul held out her hand to Sol and as she did Sol''s system appeared next to him, while a system window from the new system appeared at her side.

    "Name your conditions." System stared at the window, and it spoke audibly for the first time,ing through as the voice of a male.

    [As the one who has liberated the gods from the demon scurge in the original universe it is quite obvious that the Godyer is an unfair match-up, thus, he is forbidden from using said Godyer abilities, he will instead fight using only his divine powers]

    "epted, anything else?" System asked again, and the window made a calctive hum.

    [All contention between parties have long been abolished and our statuses as allies is concrete one, this match is to be a friendly match between allies; deadly force is encouraged, lethal force is encouraged, but killing the opponent is forbidden-]

    "No." Dr''ul shook her head. "I do not dare take this fight lightly, I want to fight to the fullest of my powers, I offer my opponent the chance to do the same, currently I am suffused with enough strength to shatter this whole dimension several times over, I do not want to be taken lightly." Dr''ul stated, and Sol smiled at her taking her hand and initiating a binding vow using their mana.

    "When did you grow this powerful?" He asked, and she hummed.

    "Even the gods have their ways, hero." She answered squeezing his hand, and Ikaris sighed and pressed her palm against her forehead.

    "The two of them are more alike than I  imagined, if we leave them alone they will fight forever." She pped her hands with a deadpan and everyone vanished from the dining area.

    Outside of the mansion, hundreds of thousands of ck harpy-crows took to the skies from the shadows courtesy of the god of birds and the goddess of gossip coborating. They spread rapidly across D''ol, to the streets and the towns, hills and valleys spreading the news.

    "Hear my words, the hero Sol Vestic has returned to Arkadia, the hero has returned and has been challenged to a battle by the queen of the heavens, goddess of war Dr''ul! Prepare yourselves to witness the greatest battle of all time, the gods will amodate you all, be at the ready,, settle your affairs by noon today and prepare yourselves for this grand and spectacr event!"

    The multitudes of crowsnded on every tree, on every rooftop and every post, they visited every farnd and teau; all of D''ol was set aze with the news of this legendary battle, and so at the strike of noon every sentient being was standing out in the open, and just as they had been told, after the first second they all disappeared, leaving the entire moon quiet while the gates of the heavens physically appeared for the first time in recorded history aodating them all into an arena the size of a small moon.

    ***

    The great arena was like a colosseum, but sorge that the people on one side could only see people on the other side as blurs and squiggly shapes, and there was no middle ground, whatid in the middle was an entirely different gxy shrunken to the size of the empty space from an alternate dimension where Sol and Dr''ul would not easily harm anyone, no stars, only a great expanse of connected terrains that covered the entire space, and being fed directly into their minds was the feed of said gxy via the two systems working to maximise their reach and range effortlessly.

    The feed changed to Ikaris; eight bright white wings spread behind her as she wore a white dress befitting her title of goddess finished with the crown the first wore when meeting Sol, all eyes were on her as she stood between Sol and Dr''ul with her hand raised, silencing the uproar of the crowds.

    "Ladies and gentlemen, gods and angels, mortals and immortals, species from all walks of life, I wee you." She smiled at the visible floating eye which observed her.

    "Many of you know me personallly, many of you may recognise me, and some of you are just being made aware of my true identity, but for the sole purpose of this special event, I will introduce myself again." She smiled as the crowds began a loud uproar upon seeing her.

    "My name is Ikaris, I am Goddess of Bnce and Unity and Queen across all verses, and I will be hosting the duel between our Hero, Sol Vestic the Godyer, and the Queen of the Arkadian Heavens Dr''ul!"

    "All?" Eris asked hushing her child while seated next to Dina, A, and then Sara in that same order on a special tform where only gods were allowed because of their special statuses and connections, on that same tform were several known faces, along the likes of Sorath the goddess of the sun, Renia, Adonai, Samu''el and S''mael, Ashera, and Ana''e; the goddess of love.

    "When ites to being a big deal, Her and Sol are the biggest." A chuckled. "She didn''t mention this but, I see no harm in telling you as her friend.

    "She is the direct third and most powerful descendant of light itself which birthed the multiple dimensions, she is the only remaining true primordial god, the Queen of all gods everywhere, and if I am not mistaken, she is also Dr''ul''s anscestor." A exined, and Eris''s mouth dropped as she barely shifted her focus and started seeing Ikaris again finding the information hard to swallow but also believable at the same time.

    After all, this had been said by Ikaris herself many times in the past when they thought she was a crazy fangirl for Sol, she had always imed to be the strongest ever, and always had called herself a goddess as well, from the very first meeting she had been very forward about who and what she was.

    "Is this even a matchup at all, what can a mere hero do against the gods themselves?" One spectator asked.

    "Did you not see Dr''ul take a knee in thanks to him and call him the strongest on the day of Arkadia''s end?" Another responded.

    "Also, he is called Godyer, and that very same Goddess Ikaris who just said she was queen across all verses is the one who has always boldly called him her master, isn''t she?!" The man shook and madeical chopping motions with his hands issuing a dosage of critical thinking to his younger counterpart.

    "This sounds impossible-"

    "Look at that man!" The older man grabbed the other by the back of his head and aimed his face toward the middle of the colosseum and the phenomena that resided within it.

    "We have been invited to the heavens, the literal heavens, there are gods cheering alongside us all over the ce, there is a gxy before us and the greatest battle we will ever witness about to begin!" He shook the younger man excitedly.

    "Everything today is going to be something you either fail to grasp orprehend, it is all impossible, but it is happening!" Heughed, shifting his focus to Ikaris again.

    [This is it, the day we have all been awaiting!] Sven; the god of goats eximed excitedly jumping and punching the air next on the opposite side of Eris causing the healer to stare at him weirdly. [Take revenge for me my queen, beat the bastard hahaha!]

    "Apparently, there was a rumour amongst the gods that he was the first to suffer at sir''s hands on the same day he arrived, and I do remember him disappearing that night so it alligns quite well." Sara whispered to A and the elf burst outughing.

    "How did you acquire such unique knowledge?" She wiped her eyes and looked at Sara, and the maid smiled back.

    "The shadows are everywhere, as long as I can perceive the person or ce I can go there, I spent a lot of time travelling throughout D''ol." She answered watching A''s expression slowly dampen before she smiled and rested her hand on her leg with a smile.

    "Never do something like that again." A warned her. "It is a miracle that you survived without  going mad, unless you want to see Master worry himself to death-"

    "N-no, never, I swear it!" Sara waved her hands.

    "Does either party have any words before the duel begins?" Ikaris turned to Sol and Dr''ul asking.

    "None." Sol answered.

    "Our battle will do all the talking for us." Dr''ul responded, falling into a stance while Sol who was fully armoured as well summoned his hammer and did the same.

    "Very well, warriors." Ikaris vanished in a sh of golden divine mana.

    "You may begin!"

 Chapter 162: More To Offer.

    *hoooooo~ Sol filled his lungs to their capacity and released a deep sigh, gathering his  thoughts into the moment as he stared at the goddess of war.

    Her posture was perfect, her form and  confidence was wless, wether she had the power to beat him or not she was so confident in herself that he felt no fear, no hesitance nothing but absolution exuding from her, truly, she was worth every measure of respect she demanded as the Queen of the Arkadian Heavens.

    "It is happening, it is actually happening!" A sat at the edge of her seat  staring in anticipation; she was there the day Sol made  that challenge, and mocked the goddess of war, she was right there to witness it, she never imagined he would reach the ce where  he would be able to fight her this soon, but here they were.

    With all they needed to say engraved in their actions and movements, Sol and Dr''ul took their first steps toward each other, and the ground surrounding them was shredded in an instant when their weapons shed with each other, her Sword versus his hammer.

    One would think that having such a heavy weapon would impede his range of movements but Sol showed the goddess of war right there why he was able to subdue several Omni-powerful beings in one day. The sword she held on to shook and trembledd within her grasp, causing her to redirect his blow and spin around it to avoid the full brunt of his strength.

    Sol''s hammer though had the bottom end of a spear, and with the heavier head falling he spun the weapon and struck at her abdomen with the tip, forcing her to summon a small round shield on her left forearm and block the jab and then retreat several steps away from him.

    "Strong..." The goddess thought to herself watching Sol fall into a stance again with the head of the hammer poised toward the ground as he frowned. "He is focused." She thought again, but she was no idiot, she knew this strength was merely the trim of the surface, residual at best.

    "What the hell did she do to get this powerful?" Sol''s frown deepened as he tried thinking of a solution, but when his initial ideas met dead ends he shook his head and growled, closing the distance between them and wildly swinging the hammer again.

    Her initial thought was to block it like before, but a mere fraction of a second before it connected with her shield she backed off a second time and swung her sword where her body had been.

    Sure enough there was more to his attack than meet the eye, her sword rattled and went flying out of her grasp from a phantom force surrounding the head of the hammer, and she had to raise her shield again when that force suddenly expanded, throwing her off bnce and sending her cascading on her heels across the endless terrain, while she flew Sol psed the distance between them again, raising his hammer high in the air causing  a moment of silence as their eyes met, and roaring as he descended with it.

    "Raaah!" Dr''ul stopped herself abruptly and thrust her free fist at the hammer, leaving an inndenture several hundred miles wide when they shed. Sol flipped andnded with his  arms stretched out and then stared up as his hammer like her sword went flying off into space. "That''s right!" Dr''ul came at him from the side with her eyes zing crimson but her hair still in its original state.

    "The true essence of a fight is not beauty, it is utter confusion and carnage,promise and adaptation!" She blocked his backhand with her shield and spun around his second punch, unleashing an uppercut of her own that he too summoned a small shield and blocked as it sent him soaring upward.

    "This is... Interesting." Sol sobered and humbled himself. "It is close to the same level of power that Orion had." He looked down  at her, halting his ascension and raising his shield again when her image distorted and she appeared above him spinning with an axe kick.

    "How odd." Dr''ul caught the fascinated look in Sol''s eyes when her heel cracked the shield he was using and sent him crashing back toward their battleground. "It feels like I am being, tested...!" She sneered and summoned her sword again, dismantling her shield and making an arm guard for her sword as she began spinning toward him generating more and more heat until her hair began glowing.

    "This will be-" Sol grinned, turning andnding gracefully on one leg.

    "An interesting fight!" Dr''ul stopped just above the ground before him with her sword creating a fiery arc as it descended with all of her charged momentum behind it.

    The goddess''s eyes widened in shock when Sol leaned his head and caught the de between his index and middle fingers, baring the full brunt of the blow as the mes erupted around them and set of a chain reaction of explosions turning the region into a hellscape in a matter of seconds.

    Without relent, Dr''ul released her sword and spun with a kick destined for Sol''s neck, but he raised his other hand and casually blocked that as well, and then three more kicks as she alternated between feet.

    "Let''s raise the bar." Sol''s smile became more evident as he stepped toward her, and just the act of moving left the goddess of war speechless when a wave of mana directed from his body and mmed into her leaving a tear in the very space she crashed through as she hit the ground in a chaotic cascade.

    "What the-" She forced herself to stop by mming her back into the ground and using that halted momentum to raise herself with her legs, but there before her with his eyes shrowded over in shadows and inverted with ck and white Sol''s smile seemed murderous as he swung a punch destined for her jawline.

    Dr''ul caught on immediately and thrust out a punch of her own while catching his punch, and the result of what seemed like a casual exchange made a ball of dense matter form around them, obscuring the viewers for several seconds before it shattered as well, revealing Dr''ul''s hair brightly aze and Sol''s hair glowing white while they locked fingers and pushed against each other.

    "Where is your true power?" Dr''ul asked, gaining the advantage as she grit her teeth causing Sol to lose ground to her, but in his rebuttal he ground his teeth as well and started pushing her back exuding raw mana with every breath he exhaled through his nostrils like a wild bull.

    "I should ask the same!" Sol stared in her crimson eyes while they shed exerting so much strength each that the space around them began distorting and bending, forming and shattering several spheres of various colours.

    Dr''ul quickly realised that she was being overpowered here, at some point Sol managed to gain an upper hand, and she was almostpletely at his mercy as her legs dug trenches into the ground while he slowly began looming over her.

    "Don''t hold out on me, if you want my everything you have to make me feel like you deserve it!" Sol eximed forcing her to arch and fall on one knee as she struggled.

    "Holy-" Dina eximed, of course she knew Sol was supposed to be way stronger than this, the fact that he wasn''t using any of his Godyer abilities was a clear giveaway, but at the same time she knew how Sol was and the fact that he was taking Dr''ul seriously meant there was more to her than met the eye.

    "T-then, I will persist!" Dr''ul''s hair shed a higher hue of crimson and grew twice the length, and the gods in the pantheon went silent as they saw her start exerting more power than she ever had before, to use aparison, she had already surpassed all the fights that had taken ce on Arkadia and D''ol, Sol was simply freakishly strong after his return from Origin.

    "This is better!" Sol continued to press her until he was arching over her as well and her legs were the only thing holding her near parallel to the ground, yet she did not fall, she just kept raising her power to meet his.

    "Currently our challenger Dr''ul is only exerting power on the scale of small systems, but she imed to be able to exert power akin to destroying an entire universe." Ikarismented, though the fighters couldn''t hear, her voice was being broadcasted to everyone else''s mind. "Was it a lie, or will the goddess continue to be on the defensive for the rest of the fight?"

    "Remember viewers, there is no time limit, there are no restrictions, they can fight with as much desperation as they need to gain the upper hand!" She sat far above the fight observing from inside of that cluster with afortable smile on her face and a ss of sparkling wine in her grasp.

    "I can personally assest their strengths and tell you with a hundred percent confidence, this fight is only in its infancy..." She leaned and stared with a discerning eye, also curious about what she was seeing.

    "Dr''ul is strong, do not lose faith in your goddess, she has much more to offer!"

 Chapter 163: Villain.

    Note: If you find any mistakes in this chapter could you please leave a (*), I''m trying to clean up the recently published but I''m also doing a lot more writing than Overpowered hints at. Thank you!

    ***

    "Don''t you dare yield!" Sol continued pressing Dr''ul until her back was nearly touching the ground. "This is what you wanted isn''t it?" He Squeezed into her hands causing her fingers to turn crooked as he mercilessly overpowered her. "Come on!"

    "I will not, there is much I still have to show you, much we have to discuss through battle, this is only the very beginning!" Dr''ul snapped with a roar pushing against Sol''s weight and strength until the armour around her arms and legs shattered and veins appeared across her jaw and forehead as she matched his strength once more.

    "I would die rather than yield!" The goddess roared a second time, dragging sol toward herself and mming her forehead into his nose.

    "Oho!" Ikaris eximed sitting further forward on the edge of her seat. "The goddess finallynds a blow!" She pped watching Sol stagger backwards and block the next few strikes from auch more feral Dr''ul with one hand covering his nose.

    "I am the goddess of war, my power grows with warfare, can you hear them?" Dr''ul paused and thenunched herself at Sol blocking his raised hand and knocking him backwards again with a heel-kick to his chest, spinning and conjuring a sword of pure mes.

    "So that''s how you did it!" Sol stopped himself and created a simr sword made of mana, shing with her and then retreating when their weapons stuck to each other and created a negative explosion that ate at the matter in the area, leaving a null space that screeched for a few seconds before mmog back shut.

    "Goddess of war, I knew you were special but this is beyond my expectations!" Sol skipped backwards while she was trying and failing toy a hit on him.

    "What is he talking about?" A asked, from what she had just witnessed, Dr''ul just got stronger out of the blue, and she hadn''t said anything to give her secrets away, truly this was a fight she dis not have the ability toprehend.

    "Allow me to exin my dear viewers!" Ikaris dly volunteered to fill in the nks, watching Sol continue to block Dr''ul''s increasingly powerful blows grinning widely at her progress. "We all know and vividly remember what happened five years ago-" She began, there is not a single one of us that need be reminded of the horrors that happened that night."

    Dr''ul''s punch came at the speed of a meteor, and Solmet her Fist with his own fist, halting her momentum and mming his other fist in her abdomen, and then barely retreated his elbow and pressed his fingers against her torso while she was still stunned before forcing the space between his hand and her abdomen shut with a one inch punch that left her gasping in ce while the terrains behind her evaporated from the unseen force of the punch.

    Before she could recover Sol feinted several kicks and mmed his right fist into her abdomen in the same spot, sessfully deploying another simr attackbthat sentbhet flying and coughing up golden blood.

    "The goddess of war has evolved quite a lot from that night," Ikaris continued, paying attention as the crowd slightly sobered seeing Dr''ul get owned by a flurry of attacks from Sol before he summoned his hammer again and mmed it into her side effectively breaking her arm as she was sent in a diagonal trench through the ground with no sign of stopping.

    "She has fed off the war for years and grown immensely more powerful than her fellow gods, by literal means, she feeds off warfare, she feeds off the destruction generated through conflict, negative emotions and bloodshed give her more power; and as we all know, five years ago, Arkadia saw bloodshed on a catastrophicary level!"

    "She benefited from Sol and Sitri''s fight?" Dina stared shocked.

    "She did not just benefit." Ikaris answered while stillmentating.

    "She absolutely thrived from it, just look at her, all the intentions and emotions of the people, the demons, the gods, everyone that has ever fought under her rule has been feeding her, she is rich from the buffet of warfare!" Ikaris pped her hands when the ground beneath Sol began trembling and the loose debris began rising around him.

    "Maybe we will see her reach her limits in this fight, but that time has yet toe, it is far from it!"

    "She has so much power to spare." Sol leapt off the ground andnded on arge floating chunk that had been separated from the main surface during their fight, sticking to it and staring upside down as it slowly rotated with him.

    "Is this how the other guys felt fighting me?" He wondered; every time she reached close to some kind of limit she physically broke that limit and pushed her threshold higher.

    The ground erupted in magma fissures and pits of me, balls of burning crimson mananflew off the surface into the air around him, and like a vengeful spirit from hell Dr''ul emerged and locked on to him, her armour was slightly different than before and whole again, and her hair was now fully ame, talk g thebform of physical fire much like Sorath''s did in her fight with Sol, with the only noticeable difference aside from its crimson colour was thebfact that it was twice the lwngth of her body.

    Sol leapt off the floating body, crushing it in the process as he and the goddess of war exchanged several devastating blows, not even bothering to block or dodge they just went at it like rabid berserkers, each punch generating enough power to copse a star easily, forming fissures in space and causing the terrain beneath and around them to suffer as the cosmic heat generated from their attacks melted everything in it''s reach.

    "Do you see, Godyer!?" Dr''ul finally blocked one of Sol''s attacks and spinning into his guard and raising her Fist into his chin, sending him upward and grabbing his legs and dragging him back down into another punch to his chin rattling his brain.

    "Do you still feel the need to hold your trump?" The goddess used Sol''s leg as a tform and leapt backwards while he crashed downward, opening her mouth wide.

    [Divine tier magic]

    "This fight is about to get shy!" Ikaris leapt from her seat excitedly. "I will dy the broadcast by a few seconds so the systems can Interperet the following actions!" She balled her fists, showing childlike fascination as Dr''ul inhaled.

    "Breath of the anguished"

    Dr''ul released a beam of pure crimson mana from her throat right into him, and Sol who despite being stunned could feel the wave of concentrated mana approaching wildly shed his head free of stray thoughts andnded like a meteor, staring up with his mouth wide open as golden mana emerged.

    [Divine tier magic:]

    "Cosmic Scream!"

    Sol felt the kickback as his counter shed into Dr''ul''s attack and created a rift between them as soon as it did, but he received a shock when the [Cosmic Scream] failed to keep up with her [Breath of the Anguished] and her attackpletely tore through the rift eating his and mming into him, creating an explosion akin to several supernovas going off simultaneously.

    Levelling the entire area and carving a hole so wide the edges disappeared into the dark of space.

    *hooo~

    Dr''ul exhaled and stared down with her power still growing as she fully understood what came next, what she was looking forward to the most was Sol using his Godyer abilities, but he had been holding himself from doing so, she gained some level of hope when she saw a glint of gold far in the dark pit her attack had caused, but a momentter that gold turned out to be a weapon as it zoomed past her face.

    "Wh-"

    Her words were cut off when Sol appeared, grabbing the small three ded knife and spinning with a kick to her ribcage that she failed to perceive or even grasp as she was sent cascading through the darkness with blood escaping her mouth and nose.

    "You have to do far better than that, Dr''ul!" Sol emerged from the darkness before her with a double heeled kick to her chest, shattering her armour, and then keeping pace and punching her with a roar causing her crash to outpace him again before he closed the distance and pressed his palm against her face with a grin.

    "He took an attack more powerful than the explosion of a star to his face and is saying she needs to do more... What is happening!?" Ikaris excitedly pped and leapt around. "This is amazing!" She embraced her role entertaining the crowds who were all cheering as they formed more clear divides between who supported Sol and who supported Dr''ul.

    [Imaginary tier]

    "Forced Sun!" Sol unleashed his attack, and a star was instantaneously created and then exploded right in Dr''ul''s face, shooting her into the base of her first crater while Solnded beneath his attack and grabbed her foot at the same moment she hit the ground and roared, throwing her back onto the face of the expanding explosion and pointing his hand at her and shooting off a massive [pulsar] from his index finger, trapping her against the expanding star and blowing everything asunder.

    "If your goal is to fight the Godyer you have to face me with the power to destroy this universe and all the inhabitants in it, Godyer isn''t a toy!" Sol watched the goddes of war fall toward him with crimson mana burning her injuries away in her approach.

    "Then I will start with this space, with this gxy, if what you desire is a viin I am overly qualified to fill that role!" The goddess''s eyes turned fully crimson, and Ikaris slowed in her excitement and stared at her surprised as she again felt familiarity.

    "Goodness me, this little one is rather interesting, after all."

 Chapter 164: Singularity.

    Sol''s hair had and mana had returned to normal after he used [Forced Sun] and [Pulsar] on Dr''ul; not as a measure of his strength waning but rather his intent was to taunt her, he wanted to see more of this power, she was already fighting on the level of Orion which in itself was beyond amazing, considering Orion was the most powerful demonic being from the dark universe, topped only by Darkness and Void.

    If this was him from two days ago fighting her he would have easily lost to her, but Godyer had broken all of his limiters ramping his power several times that of what it used to be; and that is what fascinated him.

    The fact that she was able to channel all the negative emotions and trauma of Arkadia into herself, all the hatred and anguish she had converted into fuel and supercharged herself thereby evolving into a being he couldn''t properly understand despite having the most broken power at his disposal.

    "You think you can be my viin?" Sol asked, slowly bobbed his head from side to side while Dr''ul continued to descend, you think you qualify to fight the Godyer?" He asked again slightly bouncing from one leg to the other and rotating his shoulders while the ground around him began heating up from her approach, and then his eyes shed white, and his hair began floating, changing from the roots and turning to gold and then white again as he suppressed himself.

    "I don''t feel like I worked hard enough for Godyer, honestly," Sol pped his cheeks and stared up at her. "Ever since awakening I''ve felt a sense of false entitlement; as if I don''t actually deserve it." He balled his fist in preparation of hering assault.

    "I feel like fighting you is going to settle this doubt in my heart, maybe I will learn from this experience, so I''ll fight you with just as much conviction as you fight me," Sol''s eyes coated over in white and his ears grew taller as his divine mana ran wild within his body.

    "That''s to say; I won''t hold my punches anymore, soe at me intent on killing me!" Sol roared up toward her matching and surpassing her power in an instant as he leapt.

    "That''s it!" Dr''ul leaned her bodyically, and he did the same, and just a second before their fists collided Ikaris spread her hands and pped loudly, causing the entirety of the universe they were in to tremble before the gxy everyone had been observing disappeared.

    For a few seconds the entire colosseum was quiet after the gxy vanished, but then the feed returned and their visions were graced with several gxies disappearing in an instant, totally erased from existence as Sol and Dr''ul shed fists, neither of them gaining an upper hand as they continued to block and pummel each other across the stars.

    "What did you do?"  Dina used her connection through their shared bond to speak in Ikaris''s head.

    "Their fight is going to get out of hand eventually, I am moderating for his exact reason, I simply threw them both to the farthest corner of this universe, but look at them; at this rate Adonai will be busy rebuilding for the next ten thousand years!" Ikaris answered Dina''s query.

    "Is it not better to stop the fight, then?" A who had heard Dina''s thoughts and Ikaris''s response chimed into the conversation.

    "Nay, I would never." The goddess shook her head smiling. "You heard our Love, this fight is a defining one for his own personal reassurance, while I am still confident in his victory, it is evident he does not care about winning himself, this is simply his way of proving to himself that he is worthy of the powers of The Beginning that he holds." She exined, and A in response nodded.

    "I respect his humility, many would be arrogant beyond conception, and I feel he may have sensed such arrogance within himself, and so has decided to test his heart," She held her hands forward and continued forcing the universe to expand, aodating them farther and farther away from everyone else whilst simultaneously mending the tear she had created when she attacked Dr''ul the first time.

    "This is the character of a great man; one who does not allow power to change them." Ikaris added. "Surely he has changed somewhat, there was once a time he was afraid, he was weak, and he relied on others, but as he learnt to walk on his own he has be a protector, a provider, and a man of moral ambiguity, which to me is the best kind."

    "Moral what?" Dina raised her brows.

    "I think she means to say he does things as he sees fit, he judges wrongdoers but he is not overly or suffocatingly righteous himself, he has his perks but he does not let them define what he wants to be; depending on who his opponent is or what is happening around him, he has the ability to make decisions that can save anyone, or doom everyone." A answered.

    "Ah, walking the grey line."

    "Precisely."  Ikaris answered, focused on the fight as she saw Dr''ul strike Sol so hard that time dted and slowed down around them before he vanished as he was left on the recieving end of a strike which was equivalent to his [stacked clockwork]; a timeless punch if you would.

    Sol flew in what felt like a downward spiral to him, skipping from one gxy to another in mere seconds, extending giant mana hands and grabbing on to massive stars to stop his crash, but the moment he finally slowed down enough to gather himself the goddess emerged before him, her armour at this point was mostly gone as she hadpletely abandoned cosmetics, only shielded by a fraction of her breasttes and some basic looking armoured dress fragments which continued to survive his attacks, while he had been reduced to his trusty unbreakable pants.

    "Each of these strikes are easily capable of destroying Arkadia more than a billion times over, they are incredibly dense, but what can we do, this is a fight that has been promised for over five years, a pact between mortal and immortal, it was inevitable!" Ikaris eximed when she saw Dr''ul descend on Sol and strike him again several times pummeling him through the heart of another gxy, creating such power in her blow that the ck hole on the midst of that gxy evaporated from the overdose of evergy she caused.

    The crowds were a lot quieter now as the fight reached lengths they were incapable of understanding, even the gods had been shocked out of words, those of Arkadia had no idea Dr''ul was this powerful, they had grown fear in their hearts at what they were witnessing, while the new gods seemed to be at a loss of words because she was this strong at all, considering they had witnessed Sol''s power before, they could not believe another being other than Ikaris had managed to grow this powerful.

    "This goddess of war, could she be another primordial like Ikaris?" Gabriell looked at her sister, both wearing simr dresses with their wings folded on their backs and small crowns atop their heads, truly looking like Ikaris did when she first met Sol, only slightly different in appearances and height.

    "ording to our ancestor, her siblings died when they shattered, and there were only two, so if Dr''ul is a primordial she would likely be a part of Ikaris''s own self, right?" Gadriel answered her younger sibling with a shrug. "Either way, this fight reminds me of the one with Orion, but far more...

    Carnal, they are not fighting for the safety or control over a universe, they are not fighting to save anything or anyone, they are proving to themselves why they are strong, and yet look at how hard they fight, it feels desperate."

    "An interesting input from the newest goddess  hope in the Arkadian pantheon!" Ikaris snapped her fingers, rying their conversation to everyone as well.

    "Indeed you are right, Dr''ul is another part of myself, a muchrger portion than I had realised, feel free to refer to her as elder sister!" She eximed proudly, watching with glee as Dr''ul struck Sol for the millionth time, but unlike the previous times he tanked the blow in its entirety and held on to her hand, stopping his momentum and looking up at her with an expression that screamed ''my turn''.

    "There was a time the goddess of war nearly died at my hands," Ikaris exined, and everyone started listening keenly to her words, A who only had a vague idea of this in particr was paying attention as well, along with Dina.

    "At that time I unwittingly exposed what true desperation from a god looks like; I hinted at what a corned god is capable of, I do not regret it, in fact it seems she has grown and adapted a simr power, truly, she is strong." She spoke calmly, looking at Sol tanking several shattering punches from Dr''ul without so much as flinching. "However...

    as damaging as her attacks on him are, if this is where she draws the line she will lose this fight within the next move."

    Holding on to Dr''ul''s arm, Sol reached back and dug deep within himself, grinding his teeth so hard that his gums began bleeding as the gxy the two of them found themselves in began imploding on itself from his buildup of power alone.

    "Is this the Godyer, atst?" Dr''ul wondered, but a secondter her senses started going haywire when she felt the existential threat he was bing and realising he was still withholding his true power from her.

    "Godyer? No." Sol stared at her, squeezing her wrist so hard it snapped in his grasp causing the goddess to wince and hiss as she tried breaking free of his hold. "I did tell you that I''m not gonna hold back, but I said you had to earn Godyer, didn''t I?" He asked as a white crack appeared on his forehead.

    "You want a fight, a real fight, if you''re iming to be my viin there are disadvantages thate along with it-" Sol spun and released her.

    "The first one is being on the recieving end of my unbridled wrath!"

    He closed one fist and held his other hand over it, charging his mana to its peak and then breaking that peak and raising it even higher, distorting the very dimension around them and disorienting Dr''ul into a state of confusion in the process, exuding a gxy''s worth of energy in just his approach as the gravity around his fist caused matter itself to stop moving.

    [Divine overload has ured, calcting current statistics, master vestic you dir it again...] System sighed in his head

    "Singr, Point!"

    "Oh!" Ikaris eximed when Sol''s punch connected with the Goddess''s chest, and all went ck, creating a visible tear across space much as her attack on the heavens had done in the first ce. "What the hell!"

    "Oh!"

 Chapter 165: Clash.

    Ikaris abandoned herfort and rushed toward them, careful to not get caught in the crossfire of Sol''s attack, but by a fraction of the time she took to get there the cosmos had already shattered, arge area of the observable before her simply vanished into darkness.

    She snapped her fingers, ready to try her hand at undoing the damage before it got any worse, but from the darkness thousands of bright red veins emerged reaching out to the closest stars at the very edge and draining them of their power in an instant before the great mass unraveled, revealing a bright spark in the middle of it.

    "She''s on a whole other level!" Dina eximed on the edge of her seat while the masses began roaring again as Dr''ul''s glow continued to brighten while she emitted so much crimson light the very dark of space was being washed away by it.

    Right before her Sol was staring shocked, this was beyond anything he had ever seen or dealt with before.

    "This..." Ikaris also had a shocked expression as she could clearly feel the goddess of war''s power multiply upon itself as if it had no end.

    "This is simply astonishing, she has amassed powerparable to at least a full 40% of mine overall, even if the means is clear I still find this both remarkable and impossible, my current self as I am would lose to her, in this space only Sol is her opponent." Ikaris mumbled to herself keeping this truth from the others as she caressed her chin with a fake beard attached to it.

    "What kind of evolution is this, how''s it possible?"

    "Currently everyone, the goddess of war has achieved her ims with staggering sess, aside from myself she has be the most powerful deity overall, the power she currently wields is enough to end existences at leisure." Ikaris announced. "Whether or not Sol can ovee this kind of power depends on his state of-"

    *boom

    Sol beganughing, while Dr''ul''s appearance had for the most part be intangible and made of of light and fire aside from her remaining armour everything was energy, he saw this and was absolutely stunned by it.

    "She broke out of a ck hole by literally eating it from the inside, are you sure you''re only the goddess of war?" Heughed while the roots of his hair began turning gold, and his irises became golden as well, and the pounding of his heartbeat rippled again across the surrounding gxies extending through the entirety of the universe with a loud *boom* once more.

    "This is it." Sol stared down at his hands, at the very atoms that made his physical self and how they all morphed into entirely different entities, the gene inside of him, his DNA, everything slowly morphed.

    "Look, at, you..." Dr''ul stared at him, she would have smiled but with her vessel inverted she had nothing but bright white eyes and an otherwise energy based dark crimson body with cosmic mes for hair.

    "Godyer, have I qualified to challenge you now?" She asked in a shrill tripled voice causing all who observed her to feel chills, she raised her hand and swiping it across the expanse captured billions of stars in her palm and swallowed them.

    "I have delivered on my promise I have be strong, I have proven myself, now it is time you do the same, do you not agree?"

    "I don''t have a choice do I?" Sol asked, their voices rang in everyone''s heads, and their appearances were at the forefront of their visions as they felt every bit of mana within them tramble as two powerhouses faced each other.

    "This will be the first time I have seen the Godyer fight with my naked eyes." Ikaris admitted. "Even before when he eradicated the demons, I was upied and unable to see him fight in this form, and now he will do so against what is essentially the eighth strongest being to ever exist, far stronger than anyone he had to fight one on one." She took her seat again.

    "Now you will all understand why this power is better earned than inherited, why he chooses to withhold it unless one is qualified; whates next is the power which granted us all the freedom to live in peace." She stared at Sol, dried of her previous humour and with her index tapping the throne.

    Not just her, but Dina as well, and A, their sigils shone in resonance, Hers in gold, Dina''s in azure, and A''s in crimson, and the gods who had been rescued all went quiet and sped their hands into fists beneath their chins breathing silent prayers, causing the Arkadian pantheon to exchange nces at each other since from their perspective, Dr''ul was the most powerful thing they had ever conceived.

    Nevermind the mundane and other lesser species, even with Ikaris''s exnation they were still confused, and were simply enjoying the show.

    "Come on then, Dr''ul, Goddess Of War." Sol raised one hand and inclined himself sideways as he stared up at her. "The strongest god of Arkadia, and the eighth strongest ever, my powers moved without my consent in reaction to yours, so don''t let up,e at me with everything you''ve got, let''s finish this fight in a grand manner." He gestured she attack with his fingers.

    "Everything...?" Dr''ul narrowed her eyes, arching forward and hunching as she began digging even deeper. "Of course, it is said that he swallowed thergest cosmic anomaly as little more than a sweet, he can handle everything I throw at him, at this point I know from hisposure I have already lost this fight, the power I sense within him is immeasurable; bottomless."

    The cosmos began to thunder and trumpet as soon as Dr''ul raised her right hand above her head, and then those horrifying soundsing from the dead of space doubled and tripled when she raised her left. "Everything I have... Then I will raise my power to the absolute limits and risk death, he can handle it."

    "Show me, Sol vestic, from the very first day of your arrival to even today you have never seen me as equal, show me where my limits lie that I may one day ovee them again and challenge you once more!" She formed a hammer out of her own hair and Sol watched amazed as the object in her grasp burned like the surface of a nova, singing the space it touched and causing spacial bubbles and ripples around her.

    In response Sol only rxed his muscles and gave her his full attention.

    [Taboo Divine technique, Divine Judgement]

    The hammer grew several timesrger with loud bursts of fire, visibly sucking the light out of her form until she was normal in appearance once more while it shone formless in her grasp, burning her hands.

    "Amazing..." Sol stared at her. "You''re amazing Dr''ul." He smiled huffing gold mana from his nostrils and summoning his in hammer and coating it with his golden aura and then taking it a step further as his entire body ignited into golden mes as hers had before and then transferred to the hammer while his form also went to his original state.

    "Are you mocking me?" Dr''ul stared at him with a small smirk.

    "Of course not, from one warrior to another, this is a gesture of respect." Ikaris answered in Sol''s stead, though he nor Dr''ul could hear her since she was narrating the details of their actions to the others whopsed understanding.

    "This reminds me of the day we first met." Sol admitted, seeing that same stare of indifference on her face.

    "The moment of absolution." Ikaris gestured with a single hand raised. "I do not have the power to protect anyone if this goes wrong, this is currently beyond my capabilities while here in Arkadian territory."

    Dr''ul took several steps backwards in the emptyness, and Sol did the same, holding his hammer low while she turned herself to get the maximum momentum from her next attack.

    "It has been a pleasure and an honour." Sol admitted to which the goddess smiled before leaping at him.

    Instead of answering, Dr''ul roared descending like aet while he ascended like golden bolt in the ck.

    Their weapons collided silently, leaving not even sparks as they met in perfect synchrony with each other, by then further out, from entire gxies away one could see the ripples of power tearing their current location apart, the stars around them exploded outward, the cosmic clouds which held the secrets of their universe''s creation were scattered like smoke, and therge entity which slowly pulled their dimension groaned and trembled befor the first spark appeared, and with it came white.

    From the connection their hammers had made the darknesspletely vanished, Dr''ul''s hammer emitting crimson and his releasing gold everywhere while she continued to exert herself and roar.

    Great white cracks appeared around them, and reality itself stopped functioning as time was distorted and space was broken apart, tearing the ck away and revealing a clear white which spread outward like a flood of ink.

    "Oh goodness, she actually went ahead and used all of her power..." Ikaris rxed in her throne and stared into the rapidly approaching white matter.

 Chapter 166: Overperformed.

    "What am I supposed to do in this situation, Love?" Ikaris stared at the white matter''s chaotic expansion. "I cannot stop this level of madness as I am; I am not even equipped to protect myself from it." She spoke, but not once did she make any attempt to move, retreat, or even show any fear before it. "Truly, Dr''ul has surpassed all expectations and be a brilliant being all on her own."

    With the concept of space and time being unravelled by Dr''ul''s attack the heavens began trembling, and the same gods and Arkadians who had been entertained only minutes prior felt dread as the systems recorded the chaos unfolding in real time.

    The only ones who seemed calm in the face of this very familiar catastrophe were Sol''s women, and the gods that had been rescued from the dark universe, it was the clear opposite of what they saw thest time, one universe turning intoplete starless darkness, versus this one being turned into pure light.

    In the midst of this unbearable light that threatened to end all, Dr''ul continued to exert all of her power forcing Sol''s hammer down in the process, but after the first minute she realised something was very wrong, at first she could feel tension, as if he was struggling to fight back, but now all that tension had been eased and it took her a moment to realise that it was because his hammer hadn''t been moved at all.

    "What...?" The goddess ground her teeth impatiently. "After everything I did..." She closed her eyes, and Sol watched several strange runes appear across her face, and witnessing this with him also was Ikaris who stared at the runes with her mouth slightly ajar.

    "After everything I have sacrificed...!" Dr''ul''s divine mana spiked irregrly as she released the handle of her weapon and stared at Sol who smiled up at her whilst only holding his hammer with one hand.

    "All my efforts!!" She raised her hands and created a spear out of the remainder of her ming hair, leaving it at its original length while blood escaped the corners of her her eyes, her mouth, her nose and ears.

    [Death Magic: Ender Spear]

    "Master vestic, if shepletes this next attack her soul will be extinguished and she will die." System spoke in Sol''s head, and he nodded and released his hammer, pushing her mana away like a curtain and grabbing the spear before she released it, just as the Circr rune appeared in his chestpeting his transformation into the Godyer.

    "Let me continue, let me fight, release y-"

    Dr''ul''s eyes bulged when Sol grabbed her hair roughly and stabbed her with her own spear through her abdomen, safely returning the frightening magic inside of her and then appeared beneath her again, catching his hammer as the runic word [seal] appeared on the t surface.

    "You have done well you fucking overachiever, I''m proud, more than proud I''m impressed beyond what words I would use to praise your efforts, this is strength I have never faced before, pure and true power, so that''s enough, however, I won''t watch you kill yourself, take pride in yourself Queen Dr''ul, you have forced me to exert even more power than I used to destroy Void." Sol gave her a serious nce as his hammer mmed into her body.

    The racing ink-like light stopped moving as soon as Dr''ul was struck, and following her getting smitten by the powers of The Beginning her body was engulfed in gold and her silhouette vanished in trails of thin ck lines. "Now, let me show you the difference between what a god is, and what I am!" Sol roared finishing his swing and exerting his powers beyond their fight.

    His voice traversed the entirety of their in of existence instantaneously, grabbing the borders of the shattered reality and dragging them back to him when he raised his head and unleashed a singr beam that spanned from one side to the next epassing everything and shaking the foundations of the heavens causing panic as the gods quieted and the mundane cowered in terror.

    [What is this!?] Sven; the god of goats next to Dina fell to his knees covering his ears when the sounds being emitted by the Godyer reached him. [What the zes has that bastard be!?] He bellowed with his snout pressed to the floor beneath him trembling and screaming like, well; a frightened goat!

    Not just him, aside from the new gods, and the Arkadian ruler gods that made up the seven as well as Sorath, everyone else thought he had gone off the rails and was about to carry out his initial threat of ending everything when Dr''ul had gone too far.

    "You personify the powers of light, like Ikaris you''re strong beyond words, but I don''t personify light nor do I power, I am the light itself, I am that power, I am the beginning!" Everyone heard Sol''s voice simultaneously, and just when the heavens felt like they would be torn apart everything stopped, and the lights and chaos caused by their fight all subsided; within a moment all the damage that had been done was undone, and Sol was standing before Dr''ul still in his Godyer form in the exact spot they had begun their fight.

    "Is it even possible... to defeat something like this?" Dr''ul asked, falling to her knees and slumping forward with her head hung low and her hands trembling as she sat and observed her divine powers calming down through his suppression, the only thing that had changed was her physical state, she was visibly injured, and her armour was only barely holding on to her.

    Her breastte being held by the firmness of her own cleavage, and her hair pooled around her body hiding the rest of her securities.

    "...I admit defeat," Dr''ul let her arms rx at her sides and slowly raised her head to stare at him again, though at some points she felt she had the upper hand she now understood that he let her fight to her fullest, he allowed her to demonstrate her power, but in the end with all the praise and admiration he had for her, his power was an uncontested giant inparison to hers.

    "Good, you had me worried you''d try fighting again." Sol chuckled and took a knee before her, slowly resting his elbows on her shoulders and conjuring arge crimson coat around her exposed back.

    "Sol-"

    "Well done, Goddess of War." Sol spoke and then reverted back to his original self with a sigh and huff helping her to her feet and fixing the coat around her shoulders, while he did this a loud horn sounded around them, and ikaris descended from above in a sh of golden light, smiling with a slow apud.

    "Marvellous, truly marvellous, to think my little sister would be so close to my own power, what a shock." Ikaris cheered, and hearing this Dr''ul blushed and lowered her gaze with a humbling smile.

    "You tter me, Majesty."

    "Oh no, I mean it." Ikaris chuckled, hooking her elbow with Sol''s and pressing her finger against Dr''ul''s forehead. "You are nearly half of my overall power, in this vessel I possess, or even if I transcended it and fought you as my soul-vessel, you would still win, the only scenario where I beat the monster that you have be is with all my strength returned to me."

    "Dr''ul, saying you have the power to destroy Arkadia and other universes is not an understatement, currently, there is no power other than the Godyer and myself that can suppress you, because the Light does not fight, Void is dead, And Darkness has been erased from existence." She admitted, and Dr''ul blushed and looked at Sol who nodded with a smile.

    "The strongest god of battle to ever exist, truly, you will only grow stronger with time, you have no need to be sad or depressed at this oue, you overperformed." Ikaris finished and then turned to the eye that had been observing and rying their conversation to the spectators.

    "With that said, this battle hase to an end, the winner by unanimity, is the Ally of the gods, the Godyer; Sol vestic!" Ikaris raised his hand with a bright smile while Dr''ul apuded before them, having epted that she would never reach him, and that him fighting her at all was acknowledgement of her strength and hard work.

    The pantheons erupted in cheer, and the mortals the same, everyone aside from the god of goats whomented at his constant disrespect of Sol and the fact that Sol had always paid attention to him.

    "How was it?" Sol turned to Dr''ul again, and she smiled and nodded, turning his coat into a cape as her armour grew over her body and her hair regained full vitality.

    "It was my first real fight, I have much to learn still, I know it is brazen of me but I would request to fight you every now and then in the future, not as a challenger, but as friends." She walked to his left and took his hand raising it high as well.

    "That''s not a bad idea, even though the very thought of war is a bitter pill for me, I was forged through it, I am a warrior, and I embrace the title, I''d love a good fight here and there." Sol admitted just as they all vanished, reappearing in the midst of the colosseum with Dr''ul walking forward and raising her hands, quieting the crowds once more.

    "I thank you all for being avable today, and I might as well use this moment to ry a special announcement to you all; gods and mortals alike." Dr''ul lowered her hands and then turned to Sol and Ikaris taking their hands and holding them together.

    "In the very near future..."

 Chapter 167: Through The Streets.

    "In the very near future, the Arkadian pantheon will be inviting you once more to witness the divine union of the Godyer, Sol Vestic, The Goddess of Bnce and Order, Ikaris, the gods will be taking care of the entire event and will be working personally on multiple different fronts to make sure the union is the most smooth and beautiful it can ever be, as for the venue and date, keep your ears open for the crows, you will be informed days prior." Dr''ul announced, smiling as she had just seen Sol''s rough edges smoothen out at the mention of his wedding with Ikaris who blushed and looked down at his hand.

    ***

    "I am the all-powerful goddes of war Drul, hahaha I am the strongest god!" A girl ran down the streets being chased by a younger blonde boy waving a wooden sword andughing.

    "I am the Godyer, fear me, fear me!!" The little boy giggled, running through the busy dusk streets through the bustling evening crowds and joining several other kids near a marketce.

    "The stories of that fight will remain centuries after you are long gone, even when nobody rembers your face." A leaned on Sol''s arm, smiling at the children while they walked hand-in-hand, except with his magic coating his appearance nobody could tell it was him.

    "It didn''t need to be a spectacle at all, honestly." Sol chuckled. "All that was Ikaris''s idea, she loves showing off; if anything it makes moving around publicly that much harder, of anyone sees me they''ll crowd around like earlier at Eris''s gates." He sighed. and then looked at A who had her eyes straight ahead. "A."

    "Yes, master?" The elf answered without missing a beat.

    "About Ikaris and I getting married, I know we decided to before you and Dina became an intimate part of this, but even then, I haven''t heard yours or Dina''s opinion on it yet." He stopped at a stall staring at the bumpy Arkadian purple apple.

    "Well, we are in full support of your divine union, if that is what you mean." A took extended her hand and conjured a semi-glowing green jem from her hidden inventory, extending it to the merchant and picking up the apple.

    "If you mean to ask about how I personally feel about it then I truly see it aspletely normal, Mdy was with you before either of us, and you two are brilliant together." She rubbed the fruit onto her dress and cuppedbhis chin, making an "ah" motion with her lips and feeding him a bite with a smile.

    "What I mean ish..." Sol chewed and swallowed, closing his eyes with a smile when she wiped the apple juices from his lips with her finger and then stuck that finger in her mouth with a mischievous grin. "If you wanted to get married as well-"

    "I do not." A took a bite of the apple and hugged his arm again, leading him along per his request.

    "Really?" He looked down at her surprised.

    "Honestly." She nodded, resting her hand on her cheek and licking her lips.

    "I am quitefortable being regarded as your lover, in fact I prefer the title, I want to remain that devout lover and doting mistress on the side who openlyforts you whenever you please and demand, I enjoy being handled harshly, you only need to say a word and I will dly offer myself to you." She chuckled at his expression as she exined her intentions.

    "Of course." Sol gave her a deadpan whilst she burst into lightughter. "You weren''t also gonna say you''d love it if I went ''A, get off your fat ass and make daddy a sandwich'' were you?" Sol jokingly remarked, but went still when the elf looked up at him with stars in her eyes, a trickle of sweat down her forehead, and her cheeks burning red at the thought of what he just said.

    "A-are you saying I am permitted to call you daddy, mastrmm?" She asked and was silenced by his hand over her mouth, but the young couple before them paused and looked around, as well as several people surrounding them after her voice had taken on a rather loud tone when her shock made her lose awareness.

    "He wants her to call him Daddy?" One person asked another. "Young people these days are into some strange fetishes are they not?"

    "The post-war era is raising a whole different generation of perversion I say." An olddy chuckled.

    "Master~" A moaned through Sol''s fingers after he had gone distracted and groped her neck with his other hand.

    "Wh-" Sol snapped and released her mouth, taking her hand and pulling her into the closest alleyway and pinning her to the wall, blocking their presence with his divine sense. "What the heck is wrong with you?" Sol asked, seeing the sigils on her neck and arms faintly pulse along with her heartbeat and sudden arousal.

    "Master, you ought to be careful of the things you say to me in public spaces." A stared down at his hand which still slightly groped her neck.

    "I have always had trouble controlling my arousal around you, ever since first meeting you, but afterst night, I fear you may have already broken mepletely." She held on to his hand and opened her mouth sticking her tongue out and staring into his eyes.

    "My very existence is dedicated to pleasing you in every way I can imagine." Her breath came out as steam in the cold alleyway while she folded her Fist in his shirt and rubbed her legs together.

    "Control yourself for now." Sol stared back into her eyes revealing slightly golden irises, and like a switch went off she closed her mouth and straightened her posture.

    "A-as you wish, master." She lowered her gaze and bit her lip, releasing his shirt and taking his extended hand again. "I will fight it." She muttered, but Sol knew better than to trust her with control.

    He conjured a leash and locked it around her neck, causing her to yelp when she heard the chains rattling and felt the cold iron rest between her breasts. "Master-"

    "Walk." Sol balled his fist in the chain and wrapped it until his hand was right behind her neck.

    "Where shall we go?" She asked, stepping out of the alley with him behind her.

    To everyone it seemed like a hug, but beneath her hair she was being choked by him.

    "We are going to the monuments in the hall of heroes, to that statue they erected of you specifically."  Sol answered.

    "Ahh..." he opened his mouth, and again without missing a beat A raised her hand and fed him another bite of his apple.

    "You are interested in our statues?" A looked ahead again, holding herself in check as much as she could with the sensation of his sharp knuckles pressed on her neck and the leash tugging at her with every step she took. "Hmm~" The elf held in a moan when Sol raised her hand with the apple and stuck her finger in his mouth.

    "Not particrly, but this is their way of showing their respect and gratitude to us though so I figured I might take a look, I do however know that you are quite interested in them, as an artist yourself."

    "I -I see!" She yelped when Sol''s mana passed over her in a wave.

    "That''s why I invited you alone to apany me, but I never imagined you''d turn into a temptress in the middle of the streets, you''ve somewhat averted my original goals, A."

    "I do not feel I should be apologetic, master." A gasped and bit her lip when his fist tightened causing the chain to pull against her, blocking her from speaking. "You seem to be enjoying mypany."

    "I usually do." He hummed as the hall came into view.

    "Hold it." A guard held out his hand toward them, but upon seeing A''s face he cleared his throat and averted his gaze, falling into a salute, as did the one next to him. "General Amastacia, wee back to Arkadia, and congrattions on defeating the demon scourge once and for all, we thank you."

    "Aye!" The other man saluted seriously, but a could barely keep her gaze straight as Sol''s mana traversed her body stimting her.

    "When did I be general?" A stood straight, while the men looked at Sol who had his hand on her back.

    "... Thete Queen promoted you to the status of general, as the main contributor in the Arkadian forces in the fight against the demon-god, Mdy." The guard suspiciously looked at Sol again. "Ma''am, is everything alright, who is this man?" He asked, knowing well that A never let anyone touch her, and then seeing a slight difort on her face.

    "All is well, soldier, with no demon army left to fight I decided to... Hn~ try my hand at being courted for a little, my partner is none you need to concern yourself with, now please excuse us." She gave the men a nod and walked past them as he saluted again.

    "Smoothly handled, I wonder how I will reward my pet for her clever acting skills?" Sol whispered in her ear, pulling against her cor and forcing her to stare straight ahead after she had lowered her gaze out of embarrassment, and she felt her womb and tract tighten as his hot breath fanned across her flesh and his mana began focusing on her nipples, ass and between her thighs.

    "R-reward?"

 Chapter 168: Temptation.

    "This..." A stared through her fingers at the observers below them, hiding her face with both hands while resting on her knees and elbows. "Master~" She jolted forward when Sol''s hand pressed against her exposed mound and his middle finger was swallowed by her folds. "Mmmf~!" She covered her mouth and stared down again.

    "It''s cute how much you''re holding yourself back right now, it just makes me want to tease you even more." Sol who was kneeling next to her raised her chin and stared in her eyes while sticking his finger in her mouth and inserting another finger inside of her.

    The hall of heroes turned out to not be one at all, it was much more like a grand showcase, each had a statue twenty-five metres tall with lights shining up on them, and the much higher roof above was made of semi-transparent ss.

    Apparently it was amission by the god of creation himself who gifted several skilled people slight creation abilities and allowed them to work with the goddess of dreams and memories to recreate perfect giant copies of all the heroes and then A who was thought dead at the time, hers was the smallest statue, but with a height of twenty metres it was far from actually small.

    And currently A was knelt in the outstretched palm of her own statue with her ass exposed and getting fingered by Sol, both finding the act equally arousing and dangerous since he only blocked their presences from the gods, which meant if anyone above them looked hard enough they had a chance of seeing them through the fingers of her statue.

    "This is *haa~ so risky, Master... *ah~" The elf arched further, resting her torso and raising her ass higher as Sol continued with his masterful stimtion. "Where did the ideae *hnn~ to you?" She asked between moans, bracing her hands on the fingers before her as he began roughly stirring her insides. "*haan~"

    "If you keep moaning like that, someone''s gonna hear you," Sol smirked, watching her hold her mouth again as she blushed from the tips of her ears down to her neck. "There''s a good girl." He chuckled and withdrew his fingers, leaving a loud p on her ass that forced her to moan aloud anyway, despite his clear warning of no noise just a few seconds ago.

    "Hiiiik~" A squealed quietly when several visitors to her statue and the guards around stopped what they were doing for a few seconds and seemed to search for the noise they heard.

    "Hahaha." He took a seat in therge palm and rested with his right hand holding on to her chains, slowly pulling her until she sat squarely in hisp with her mouth agape and her sigils burning and releasing crimson mana around her, creating the illusion that the hand of the statue had a ball of fire in it which only served to gather more spectators.

    "A?" Sol looked around them at her mana, amused. "Have you decided on your reward yet?" He asked, and she nodded and began grinding against his pelvis clearly too engrossed in what was happening to think over his words carefully.

    "What is your desire?" He asked, and without another word she spun and crashed in his arms causing the chains to wrap around her arms as she leaned against him and seized his lips in a passionate kiss.

    "I..." She reached down and pressed her palms against his pants incinerating them off his body causing his fully erect phallus to spring up and smack against her abdomen. "This," she took him in both her hands and began stroking him gently.

    "I want to be impaled by this~" A looked up at Sol again and pressed her lips against his neck, sucking on his skin while he rxed and wrapped the chain around her arms several more times binding her torso and then pulling down on it causing her to hunch and brace on him as she pressed into his hip and raised herself.

    "Master, may I?" She asked in the smallest voice he had heard her use, and out of the pure instinct of domination Sol yanked the chain downward causing her to gasp and bite into his shoulder when she swallowed his entire length and felt the hard press against her womb.

    "G-g-gods~" She moaned into his ear, raising her hips using just her legs and dropping roughly on to of him again causing another moan as she was intruded thoroughly a second time. "Master...

    you are much harder than you were yesterday how~?" She moaned softly, raising her hips a second time and then releasing her strength, gasping and shaking with her breath hitching as she felt Sol twitch inside of her.

    "You keep saying the right things." Sol answered with a smile, hugging her head onto himself and kissing her forehead softly. "Take your time, do it properly." He smiled as her expression softened into bliss when her insides began twisting around him and she began drooling on his shirt and grinding slowly.

    "Properly... Is too stimting~" A locked her teeth in his shirt and raised her head with a deep groan ripping a hole in his clothes as she rotated her hips and pushed all the way back causing him to reach deeper than he had before.

    "Hooooh~ I will lose myself!" She repeated the action, bringing her head backwards and relying on the restraints to keep her from falling as they stiffened and tightened around her flesh and neck. "More~!"

    "Your appearance is so innocent, and your attitude outside of casual encounters is so reserved and dignified..." Sol made a sudden thrust upward leaving her breathless as she bounced and fell back on him grabbing his shirt when he released the chain and held her hips.

    "You had me fooled, A, you really did." Sol began wildly thrusting into her forgiving the noise as the entire hall was engulfed with her moans and the me-like mana she had been exuding earlier returned like a furnace reaching the ceilings and spreading like fires.

    "I''m going to do as I please now!" He threw the chain over her neck and watched it hook in the fingers and trap her on her back.

    "Yes, please, as you wish master!" A bent to his will spreading her legs as Sol''s mouth closed around her erect nipples and he drove his shaft into her again.

    ***

    "O~" A groaned and hissed when Dina pulled on both her ears, huffing and shaking her head.

    "Master said he was taking you to appreciate the art of the heroes hall, I never imagined your promiscuity would reach these lengths!" Dina loomed over her with a bright blush.

    "Creating a scene in front of everyone like that, seriously!"

    "But nobody saw either of us~" A argued shrinking under Dina''s gaze while thetter continued getting redder the more she thought about what they had done and how quickly the news of a great me and moaning from A''s statue had spread.

    "And you!" Dina turned to Sol with an using finger, but as soon as her eyes made four with his and she saw the smile and nonchnt attitude he held her resolve crumbled into debris and her finger bent. "Y-you..." She shrunk into her shell when he approached and stood before her.

    "Yes, me?" Sol smirked down at her. "Are you scolding me too?" He asked. "You do realise sex is the most beautiful form of art, right?" He held her shoulders.

    "I never imagined I would ever see Sol and Dina interact like this, I mean we all knew she loved him, but the way Ikaris guarded him I never expected to see this day, that too with A, what a curve-ball." Eris stared at them, thinking deeply as she saw A chuckle at Dina falling silent under Sol''s gaze after making a fuss about what had be the talk of the town.

    "Ah~" Dina swooned and looked away from him, holding her cheeks and hiding her blush. "Don''t look at me like that~" She pouted, causing the room to erupt inughter at how easily she had folded.

    "Hah~" Eris rxed in her seat and sipped her tea. "I suppose I did miss out a little," She mumbled and A raised her head fromughter and looked over her shoulder at her.

    "Missed out?" A asked, on point with her ears as usual."

    "Erm, yea." Eris chuckled nervously waving her hands. "W-well I''m a mother now and I never imagined being able to share a partner with other women..." She calmed down and smiled at them.

    "I would never change what I have, My son means everything to me, and I loved his father more than I love myself; I hold no regrets whatsoever." She smiled sadly looking to the wall where there was a painting of her standing next to an elf, smiling brightly.

    "It must be hard being widowed so early in your life." Sol closed his eyes and huffed. "Sorry, Eris."

    "It''s okay." Eris chuckled.

    "I only mean to say I think it''s refreshing seeing you all smile like this, seeing such love where I never imagined it before, honestly speaking I would have been tempted to join you had I notmitted and settled down, but again, I like where I am, and would never change it." She rified looking through the lounge at the entrance doors as they were pushed open without any announcement and Da came skipping through."

    "Greetings my beautiful subjects!" The queen waved happily and stopped next to A, staring up at Sol who still had his hands on Dina''s shoulders.

 Chapter 169: Beginning and End.

    "You again," Dina stared at the Queen withplete impartiality, and Da swooned much like she had done earlier and grabbed Sol''s arm hugging him to herself and then wincing when Dina''s hand stopped just short of her face and A''s hand froze behind her as she snarled with a sudden pair of fangs.

    "Whoa, what the fuck was that?" Eris stared shocked, watching Sol holding on to Dina''s arm and A''s wrist after saving the queen from what could have easily been two fatal blows to her back and head.

    "The two of you..." Sol stared at Dina first who''s eyes were burning with a bright pink aura, and then at A who''s mana was starting to escale her body.

    His irises turned golden and his grasp on their hands tightened when the queen clung to him realising that she had almost died. "Pipe down and take a deep breath."

    "But-"

    "I said cool it!" Sol''s voice boomed through the lounge forcing Eris to fall to her seat again while Da fell at his feet.

    Minutes passed before he actually released them, and when he did he had them sit opposite of him as punishment while Da was granted permission to sit between his legs, and although he had expected her to refuse with her being a mother and married, the queen quickly agreed to his suggestion and satfortably.

    "This is torture." A stared at Da frowning shamelessly.

    "You should obey me though, I am your queen-"

    "You are no queen of mine, my loyalty and pledge belongs only to my master." A stared wide-eyed and furious, but went docile again when Sol''s eyesnded on her.

    "I don''t understand what is happening with you two right now." Eris looked at them from the kitchen as she poured five sses of wine for herself and her guests.

    "Resonance." Sol answered, tapping the side of his head. "Don''t ask how I know, it''s just an us thing; they don''t like her very much." He pointed at Da''s back. "So what do you want anyway, this is the second time you''ve interrupted us in the same day, and it''ste too."

    "If you say sex I''ll kill you." Dina seemed to switch to murder, fiddling her thumbs as she shared her re with A toward the queen.

    "Goodness me, I am happy to be under the wing of the Godyer, I fear for my own life~" Da cooed teasingly.

    "Don''t push it, if you really cross the line and piss them off for real, I have no obligation to protect you." Sol epted the wine fro Eris with a nod of gratitude as did Da and the others.

    "Please don''t blow up in my home, my child is upstairs, as is Sara."

    "Ahem* s, I have already fulfilled my desires." Da squirmed in Sol''sp and leaned forward, pressing herself against him and thoroughly printing her ass against his crotch letting out a deep sigh and then standing and turning to him and falling to her knees, resting her head against hisp and hugging his leg.

    "Shi-" Eris''s curse failed to make it out of her mouth before A was right above the queen.

    "Hold on." Sol raised his hand, and all her mana was suppressed in an instant while a force threw her back into her seat and pinned her there.

    "You shouldn''t be so quick to judge others A, I know the demon girl left a bad taste of distrust in your mouth, but what happened to seeing the good in people?" Sol asked, feeling no kind of sexual or ulterior intentions through Da and allowing her toy her head in hisp.

    "Master..." A huffed and closed her eyes. "I apologise, but seeing her all over you is raising strange and violent urges inside of me the likes of which I have never experienced." She balled her fists and huffed.

    "Dina?" Sol looked at her as well, and she averted her eyes and bit her lips, nodding.

    "I actually want to kill her... for touching you." Dina admitted, and Sol nodded, taking note of this new dynamic and then thinking of all the times Ikaris had restrained herself from doing the same when someone else touched him.

    "Anyways, that''s enough." Sol looked down at Da, and the queen released his leg with a long sigh and stood, giving Eris a nod and then turning to Dina and A who regarded her with acorn.

    "I thank you for your patience and tolerance, after finding out that Master Vestic had returned of his own ord, I imagined sooner rather thanter he would leave once more, and his departure could span longer than my own life, so I immediately set out to fulfill my one regret before the window closed."

    "Your one regret?" A''s irises narrowed into slits when she asked, and Da''s eyes thinned as well while her irises turned crimson and her breath came out as steam, she knew she stood no chance against anyone in the room but she was just like her mother, backing down to anyone who was not Sol or the gods themselves was far out of her reach ofpromises.

    "Yes, Lady A; even though I am married, and have a child with that man, I hold no affection toward him, he was chosen from the limited pool of remaining nobility for the sole purpose of keeping the royal blood noble, I never epted that, I only epted my role as the queen per my mother''sst wishes." Da exined.

    "How does my case differ?" Sol asked. "From what I understood back then you were obsessed to the point of degeneracy, do you think ill-"

    "I never expected you to, as I have stated, I have a child now, and although her father is an idiot, and unfit to rule anyone she has shown very promising signs of intelligence, I seeded in fulfilling my duties so it is my honour to raise the next queen of the Arkadian people." She waved her hands defensively.

    "I already know I have no right to ask what I did, and I am fully aware I do not deserve to even be near you, but as my affection onlyy with you, I had to find closure." Da skilled sadly at Sol. "Even at the risk of my own safety. She looked around at A who seemingly had an endless pit of anger to spare.

    "Affection?" Eris raised a brow.

    "Obsession." Sol rified. "So you''re saying you won''t cause any ore trouble?" He asked, and Da nodded like an enthusiastic child before him.

    "What exactly did you do?" Dina asked and the queen looked around at her and smiled.

    "I apologisedy Levina, but if I tell you what my end-goal is you will do everything in your power to kill me right where I stand."

    "Then maybe we should just kill you anyway." A sat again and folded her arms beneath her breasts iming down and sighing loudly. "Why bother with all the trouble?"

    "Thank you for understanding." Da fell to her hands and knees before them and pressed her forehead to the ground much like the former queen had done on the first day they arrived on Arkadia.

    "With the information I gathered today, and my previous knowledge I now have everything necessary to mould my husband into a man worthy of recing the one I admire the most and earning my fealty as his wife, if there is anything you need, please, do not hesitate to-"

    "What if I need you to send me back to earth?" Dina perked up when the queen flinched and froze.

    "I apologise, but mother did not teach me the summoning techniques and the Arkadian archives were all destroyed on the day of Sitri''s fire, when the moon shattered and fire reced the stars we lost all our history."

    "Fuck." Dina snapped her fingers lightly and cursed under her breath resulting in Sol and Eris sharing a moment ofughter at how her and A had been acting the whole time.

    "Okay, just go, there''s nothing you have that any of us want, you''re smart enough to have figured out our rtionship, so you know staying any longer is going to get you killed eventually." Sol fanned his handzily at Da and she quickly stood and bowed to him again with evident gratitude in her smile before she left with a bounce in her step just as she hade.

    "Yeah... Hasn''t changed at all." Solmented when the guards closed the door behind the queen.

    "You can tell?" Eris asked, to which he nodded and smiled.

    "In the past I''d have been severely bothered by this, but there are only a select few things that I am bothered by as I am now." Sol sat again at Dina and A''s request while the mage hero straddled hisp and A leaned on Dina''s back staring down at him while hugging her from behind.

    "Cleanse." Dina cast a purification charm on Sol''s body.

    "The first of those things is a very hypocritical one considering I just allowed them to suffer through it."  He smiled at Dina resting her head on his neck and A pressing her onto him as she too sat in hisp. "If anyone touches my women I''ll react the very same way, I''ll kill him without mercy, they''re never to be touched by another man."

    "And the second?" Eris stared at their open affection with a blush across her cheeks, adjusting her sses.

    "The second is who I can fight, I have no choice but to be picky now, in the future a day mighte when I can fight with A and Dina here, but currently it''s depressing that the only ones who would give me fhe thrill of any sort of danger are Dr''ul and Ikaris." He exined.

    "Who knows though, maybe there''s an end out there to my beginning creeping in the shadows of a broken and forgotten universe..."

 Chapter 170: Familiar Faces.

    "An end to your beginning, what a horrid thing to imagine." Ikaris appeared next to them in a sh of light with her divinity on full disy and her wings hugging her body.

    "Ikaris," Sol greeted her with a smile. "How was your meeting with the gods?" He asked.

    "Boring, I never used to do such things while I was on A, I am not ustomed to dealing with others and sharing responsibility like this, maybe as a hero, but most definitely not as a god, and with discovering that Dr''ul, Gadriel and Gabriell are my fragments I feel a certain level of responsibility toward them, I want to make sure they are okay."

    "You think of them as little sisters, but I would argue you treat them more like a mother would." Sol scoffed, and she leaned over his shoulder and kissed Dina''s exposed cheek, and then A''s forehead before turning to him and cing a tender kiss on his lips.

    "Nonsense; I will only be a mother after I have given birth to your child, darling." She whispered in his ear, causing Sol, A and Dina to blush.

    "I wonder how she would react if she knew Da was..." Eris thought, but quickly dismissed it when she saw Sol kiss ikaris again. "Well, it might bother her, but I don''t think it would change a thing other than make them dislike me."

    "Anyways, there is Light, and under light there exists Creation, Destruction, Bnce and the Beginning which is capable of tearing them all down, all of whom are governed by the Godyer; allies all, right?" Sol went back to his original theory while the two in hisp went to his sides and Ikaris sat across his legs, leaning against him as he hugged her.

    "That is urate." Ikaris answered, purring against him.

    "But contrasting that dynamic there is Darkness, and under darkness there was only Void." Sol held Dina with his free hand while Afortably leaned her back against Ikaris''s and brought her knees to her chest, listening intently to Sol''s words. "The bnce of power has always been uneven..."

    "There needed to be no more though." Ikaris agreed with a nod while contradicting with her words. "Darkness is strong, She below all has always been stronger than Him, The Beginning sought to adjust that struggle, but ended up favouring light because it held no Ill intent or animosity and simply wished to be." She exined.

    "My powers worked against Void, as did my brothers'' but he was simply unimaginable, we could not defeat him, and we had to shatter ourselves to escape, the act of taking control of Origin is not something as easy as it sounds, even for him it probably took thousands or tens of thousands of years."

    "While they died because they were weaker than I was, I was able to keep my first consciousness whole; this all happened because of one entity, the Godyer was born from that explosion of consciousness, like a pseudo-beginning being born within the presence of dark and light.

    He seized control of the beginning and merged with it banishing them both into origin, if there was another entity there the fight would not have gone smoothly." Ikaris nuzzled against him.

    "If something alternate to the beginning existed it would be an entity of equilibrium destruction to the beginning''s grey nature, we would have been killed leaving that entity and the Godyer in an eternal struggle, merely thinking about something like "The End" is terrifying." She concluded, and Sol nodded in agreement.

    Whenever he used Godyer, he felt a certain sovereign over all, control over everything, limitless and unmatched power; if something of mal-intent existed with the same powers it would have surely killed everyst one of the gods already.

    "That''s a heavy topic..." Eris stared out in space.

    "I thought I knew a lot before, but the information you guys came back with has left me stumped at every turn, the scale of power you speak on is unfathomable to me, just as that fight with Dr''ul was, even though I know and understand what you''re saying to a certain degree I can''t grasp it at all." She admitted, and they all looked at her silently.

    "On a heavier note..." Ikaris sat up in Sol''sp and pressed her hand against his chest. "You chose to do the Arkadian wedding traditionally," she pouted at Sol. "I am being forced to spend an entire ten days apart from you, it is not fair."

    "Ten days isn''t a lot though..." Eris chuckled nervously. "I also had to be apart from my husband for ten days, but it passed by so quickly!" She pped.

    "Not the same." Sol looked up at Eris. "For us, it''s been a bad experience every time we spent time apart from each other, even I can''t help but be nervous despite knowing that she''ll be within the care of the other gods, which by the way I dont all trust."

    "I see, yes, that''s a valid point." The healer nodded and sighed. "I was foolish to think I could host it here too, then again, Ikaris''s full identity was never revealed to me, so I was none the wiser."

    "Apologies." Ikaris smiled at her. "I would have liked it to be held here, but that crazy redhead went and invited the entire poption." Ikarisughed, as did they all.

    "So, how do you intend to handle the separation then?" Eris stared at the four of them.

    "In shifts." Dina answered while they all nodded in agreement.

    "Sol and I will remain separated for the ten days learning all the customs, but Dina and A will trade ces on the five day mark." Ikaris exined and then stood from hisp. "In fact, that is why I am here."

    "To get Dina?" Eris raised a brow.

    "No, I came for A," Ikaris smiled. "Next to yesterday, we have spent no real time bonding so I have been a little impatient to get to spend time alone with her, I would love to thoroughly know the heart of the woman who affectionately filled the gap in my husband''s heart where even I was unable to reach." Ikaris looked down at A who blushed and slightly lowered her head in reverence.

    "Is this okay, dear?" Ikaris turned to Sol for his blessing, and he smiled and stood resting his hand on A''s head.

    "I don''t see any issues." He answered. "This also means no peeking." Sol smirked at her, and the goddes flinched when she realised she had been caught observing him again.

    "None?"

    "Absolutely no peeking." Sol crossed his hands.

    "But you get into all kinds of trouble when I am not around!" She huffed.

    "I will take... c-care of him." Dina blushed as soon as she realised what she was saying.

    "Goodness I feel sympathy for you." Ikaris chuckled.

    "Sympathy!?" Dina snapped with rounded eyes. "What is that supposed to mean, I''m not some weakling y''know!" She pointed usingly.

    "I am well aware." Ikaris grabbed her in a childish hug and then released her onto Sol.

    "The two of you be nice to each other, you quarrel a lot sometimes.

    "Not in recent memory, she''s been obedienttely." Sol chuckled as the cosmic mage in his grasp shrunk and squirmed.

    "Haa~ I am stalling again." Ikaris pped her cheeks several times and took Sol''s extended hand.

    "Then, until we see each other again, Wife." He kissed her fingers.

    "I will humble myself before you, Husband." She guided his hand to another headpat  again and then stepped away.

    A portal opened up next to them, exuding chaotic energy as a familiar redhead along with a blonde emerged."

    "Ah!" Eris stepped forward going into full hospitality mode as she greeted her sudden guests. "Goddess of Chaos, Renia, Goddess of the Sun, Sorath, I wee you both to my humble abode!" Eris greeted them cordially bending and curtseying while her maids and servants seemingly appeared out of nowhere and did the same.

    "Greetings!" Sara appeared next to Sol from his shadow and curtseyed as well.

    "You two." Sol smiled at them, watching Ikaris and A walk toward the portal which had heavenly mana radiating from within it. "If anyone causes trouble, especially that goat, give them a good ass-kicking on my behalf." He smiled and waved while they did the same before leaving.

    "Are you well?" Renia smiled at Dina, and the mage nodded and greeted her with a hug. "Not now, we can talk after I have taken care of some more affairs." Renia released Dina and then looked at Sol. "Master Vestic, I am thrilled to once again be in your presence." She smiled brightly at him. And then looked at his side.

    "It is good to see you out and about again, Sara." She smiled at the maid, and Sara reacted with a nervous smile and a bow.

    "Of course, likewise." Sol nodded at one of the only gods he had managed to develop a natural rtionship with after she had taken the initiative and reached out to him first, and then looked at Sorath with a different kind of smile.

    "It is wonderful seeing you in person once more." Sorath extended her hand casually, but by the time her and Sol''s hands met and formed a shake their heads were both zing  and the room felt like it was about to catch fire.

    "Wh- hah- my house! Don''t burn down my house!" Eris eximed, and Sorathughed out and conceded.

    "It was merely a greeting Eris." Sorathughed some more while her appearance returned to normal, as did Sol''s. "I cannot do that, after all I am the one responsible for teaching the customs of the Divine Union to our esteemed and honoured guest, so I too will be in your care."

 Chapter 171: Lifes Blessing.

    ***

    "Marriage..." Dina mused, Sorath had left for the night after saying her hello''s so ve it was already long past midnight, and so with Eris making her leave it was just her and Sol that had gone back to their room. "I never imagined..."

    "Do you want to-"

    "I actually don''t." Dina answered Sol who sat on the balcony with an old An graphite pen in one hand and arge sketchbook in the other while she satfortably opposing him in her nightgown with her hand under her chin and her gaze across the night skies; her legs folded and her hair ragged and wild across her face and head, being his muse.

    "It''s funny," Sol paused and looked up at her. "A said the same, so what''s your reason then?"

    "Hm," She took a breath and sighed, not breaking her posture. "How do I exin this without sounding shallow?"

    "Just say your mind, I won''t think any less of you for being honest."

    "Okay," She blushed a little and smiled. "I''mfortable where I am, I feel secure here, being by your side is all I ever wanted, I was ready to never be touched by you and just remain at your side, I''m already living my dream, master." She exined.

    "I don''t know what A said, but my take on it is that I am already happy, I''ve been happy since we became friends, and being your lover is nothing short of a miracle I never imagined."

    "But I don''t want to contest nor do I have the qualifications for the ce of your bride, there can only be one, I''m fine with being the afterthought as long as I''m not abandoned, that''s all; the term is quite loose, but when I think of myself as your concubine it fills me with a strange sense of pride instead of the shame I imagined it would, I Dina Levina, belong to Sol Vestic, and at my side is A Amastacia, and leading us at your side is Ikaris, the first goddess and most powerful divine to ever exist."

    "Hm." Sol looked at his drawing again and then back at her. "I suppose I''ve yed a very passive role in the recent days when ites to how the three of you operate, I didn''t want to turn you away, but I also didn''t want to hurt Ikaris in any way, I was fine keeping you both at bay but she ended up inviting you two herself so I just let her be."

    "She did it because you wished it in your heart of hearts." Dina broke her pose and lowered her hand to look at him.

    "I''m aware, my point is I''m not the one who made this possible, even with the fact that I shared feelings for you, and adoration for A, I had every intention of remaining monogamous to her, I know it''s biased and unfair but the love I have for her and the two of you is not the same, it never will be-"

    "I know." Dina chuckled at how serious he was being, and Sol took in how unbothered she was by his rude transparency. "I know this quite well."

    "Then, aren''t you even a little upset?"

    "No." Dina stared at him, resting her hand and then standing and walking up to him and taking the sketchbook from his grasp.

    "I epted my role when she gave it to me, and I am happy with it, Ikaris is amazing in every way, far more amazing than A and I, and before you say we shouldn''tpare let me tell you we absolutely do, both of us; we know our ce is not as your wives and we would never try to take that from her." She smiled and sat in hisp locking her legs with his legs when his hold hooked her elbows at her sides.

    "The love you have for Ikaris transcends reality, we would never try to disrupt or interrupt that lovepared to what we hold for you it is far superior, the depths she has gone for you is beyond amazing." Dina leaned onto him when his free hand slid up her leg and cupped her mound locking heat onto her flesh and causing a small moan to escape her lips. "I want to be your object instead, master."

    "How can you say that so confidently?" Sol asked, pausing when she began breathing heavily and slightly arching into his touch.

    "It escapes the responsibility of being your wife, instead I will serve you selfishly, and seek out your desires wherever they mayy, even if you try not to show it, I still feel your love, and this is more than I ever asked for or deserved~"

    ***

    At the strike of dawn, the mage opened her eyes, as usual Sol was the first to wake, as if he didn''t sleep at all no matter when their eyes opened he was always already up and busy, and this time was no different.

    "Good morning." She greeted him with a smile, watching him stare at himself in the mirror.

    "Good morning, Dina." Sol answered and turned to meet her gaze. "Did you sleep well?"

    "Like death itself." She stretched into the sheets, wrapping herself up and looking at him again. "Master..."

    "Hm?" He looked up from buttoning his shirt.

    "Thank you."

    "What for, and you realise you don''t need to always call me master, right?"

    "For giving me a chance of course, giving me a life by your side, and I want to call you master, it is the oral proof of my ownership."

    "Good grief." Sol scoffed amused and then turned and looked at the door just as three knocks sounded through the room.

    "May I enter?" Sorath called from the other side.

    "Ah-" Dina leapt to her feet and snapped her fingers fixing the bed behind her and then looking down at herself.

    "Don''t worry, we''ll be in the hall all day today, you can rx." He looked at Dina and she stared back slightly surprised and then rxed again and fell to the bed.

    "I''m still a little exhausted, but I want to know what roles I''ll y."

    "Don''t worry about that." Sol pat her head and ruffled her hair.

    "If I''m not mistaken, that''s decided by the bride, so you have the next few days free while A is with Ikaris." He walked to the door and opened it, revealing Sorath wearing a formal dress with her hair well done and her cheeks as rosy as ever, and at her side Sara who was also dressed formally, with her hair traditionally braided, aside from fooling around and making parodies of herself with him in the past, this was the first time he had seen her wear normal clothing.

    "Ha-ha, you two look like flowers." Sol greeted them with a smile.

    "Good morning, Sir." Sara curtseyed.

    "A pleasant morning, Sir." Sorath did the same, smiling up at him and then standing to the side to let him through. "There are quite a few customs you have to be familiarised with and as I am sure you are aware, and you must learn this in limited time."

    "Of course." Sol nodded in the hallway.

    "Ah Sol!" Eris greeted him with her child in her care and then bowed to Sorath next. "Your holiness, good morning to you both, and you as well, Sara." She smiled at the maid.

    "Mdy."

    "Hi Eris."

    "Greetings, hero." All three greeted her in return.

    "I''ll join you all in a little bit." Dina called from inside of his room, pushing the bathroom open and closing the door behind herself.

    "Okay." Eris called back to her while Sara gently took the baby boy from her grasp and began ying with him. "Then, shall we?" She gestured and began walking toward the lower staircase.

    "After you." Sorath followed as did Sol, and then Sarast.

    "Ten days." Sol closed his eyes smiling as he was led down the stairs to arge double door that had been closed since arriving. "Ten days without Ikaris, ten days until I am bound by matrimony, ten days until my wife in name bes my wife by union."

    "Indeed." Sorath looked around at him with a smile.

    "It''s hard to say, but with everything having turned out like this I can''t help but feel a slight bit of depression." Sol admitted.

    "Howe?" Sara behind him asked curiously. "You seem happier than you have ever been before."

    "And I am, truly, I''m the happiest I''ve ever been."

    "Then , what troubles you, Sir?" She asked, and Sol sighed again.

    "Griffon from A; he was thest king of A and my best friend, he used to joke all the time about seeing me married and settle, even in the warring times we faced and the endless death around us, it was only a few weeks befofe his death rhat he stopped smiling, it would have been an honour if he was here to witness this peace...

    All of them, and here on Arkadia as well, so many died before they could witness the utopia we have created."

    "Han, Bruce, the general." It may have been brief but I do not consider them any less worthy, Han repented of his wrongs in the end, and died protecting Arkadia, as did Bruce and Grim, to have them all here would be a blessing... Unnamed Priest..."

    "Jun..."

    "Who is Jun?" Sorath asked, hearing the weight in his words.

    "Someone I once knew," he replied with a smile. "She''s long dead, but she would love it here as well, Arkadia is lucky, it''s a blessing to still be alive."

    "It is much smaller than the reception in the heavens will be." Eris gestured to her maids who stood guard and they pushed the doors open, weing everyone with bows and curtseys.

    As he walked through the doors, the scenery before him changed from that of the small banquet hall, to a grand interior filled, with lights and floating decore.

    "On this; a monumental day, history records, the first ever Divine Union, one between the Queen of the gods, and the hero of all divinity, the Godyer."

    "All rise!"

 Chapter 172: Nervous.

    ***Two hours earlier***

    "This is truly happening..." Ikaris stood before a mirror in arge white room full of pirs that stretched forever above vertically, and smallfy seats, staring at herself, usually she would have made quick work of dressing herself, but on this; her special day she had no such thought, around her were several of the goddesses she was closely acquainted with.

    Gadriel and Gabriel; her sisters, and then Renia, Ana''el, Sorath, and Ashera, the only male god who had been weed in her presence for the proceedings was Adonai, for hebwas the one who had painstakingly made her dress for her.

    Directly at her left and right, A and Dina stood smiling at her reflection, and behind them was Eris and Sara.

    "I am scared." Ikaris confessed, taking a deep breath and exhaling sharply in hitched breaths showcasing her nervousness. "Goodness, I am shaking!" She raised her hand and gazed at it with an anxious countenance. "What if I fumble and say the wrong thing while all of Arkadia is watching?"

    The gods all wore a light sunshine yellow, thedies, with Eris wore cropped sheath dresses that slightly frilled at their ankles and left their backs exposed above the corset, while their hair was traditionally braided and tucked neatly into itself like a flower and then their heads were adorned with crowns made of silver leaves and golden roses.

    Adonai was also dressed like nobility, wearing a simr sunshine yellow suit of traditional Arkadian design with epolets of pure ck and crests across his sleeves, buttoned on both sides and held together by weaved cords.

    Dina and A wore Empire dresses as the bridesmaids; their hair had smaller braids that neatly folded around their heads and freely fell behind them, held together by small silver petals and golden flowers, and they looked like direct royalty with small silver tiaras atop their heads,pleted with dresses which also pooled just at their ankles, like the gods their dresses were a shade of sunshine with golden strips travelling from their sides to their feet, creating definitive lines, along with gloves from their shoulders which ended in fingerless frills at their wrists held together with more golden stitches, and there was a slight glow to their attire which had been imbued with divine mana for that same effect.

    "You will be great, Ikaris-" Dina stepped forward.

    "What if he dislikes my dress?" Ikaris kept staring at herself.

    "He will not." Adonai answered confidently in Dina''s stead.

    "What if he changes his mind and I am left standing before everyone, I have seen such a thing happen many times while I was on earth, humans often change their minds abruptly..." She clenched fists tightly.

    "He is not human, Mdy." A walked forward next holding her hand and opening her fingers with a smile at her. "Everything has progressed ording to the nner''s intent with both of your blessings, the only piece of this puzzle remaining is for you to go before him, as you are.

    "I am a mess." Ikaris looked at A, smiling teary-eyed. "A, I love him so much I''m so happy, but what is this feeling invading my stomach, I am so nervous that I feel the urge to throw up, I am fighting my legs and my back from failing, what if I faint, what if I-"

    "Hush now." A ced her finger across Ikaris''s lips smiling. "These are all good signs, to walk into the ceremony with full confidence and a cool head as a bride shows ack of passion, it is that same love you feel that is driving you crazy and making you feel funny."

    "T-that makes no sense at all!" Ikaris argued,ughing nervously again.

    "I''m sure he''s just as nervous." Dinamented. "He might have an outgoing and confident personality in public, but I think we should all know by now that Master is quite the introvert, I guarantee he is going through something simr.

    "Let me check-" Ikaris quickly raised her hand to open a system window but almost everyone snapped. "No!" at the same time, causing her to flinch and groan in annoyance.

    "No seeing the groom until you are presented to him." Renia waved her fingers. "For thest ten days he has agonised countless times over seeing you, but he has kept his head, you have done no such thing and you have been preupied by myself purposefully because I knew you would try to peek at him, do not ruin all my efforts!" Renia balled her fists at her with a tick mark across her forehead.

    "Wh... Huhh?" Ikaris lowered her hand and sighed again.

    "It is time we dress you." Adonai spoke up. "Your holiness, Ikaris, please raise your arms and take a deep breath." He instructed her, and she did as told, sucking in a breath and closing her eyes, feeling the warmth of his magic epass her from head to toe as she was transformed without moving a muscle.

    "Goodness." Ikaris heard Gadriel whisper, and in a panic she opened her eyes ready to fling doubt at herself again, but froze in awe when she saw herself.

    It was an A-line Dress that hugged and entuated her curves, pushing up her bosoms with a chiffon velvetce-up corset and anotherced shoulder chiffon that pooled around her body on the floor, pure white almost blindingly so, the dress had golden flowers that formed a V down her torso stopping above her pelvis in small vines all slowly exuding golden mana in the form of glittering dust.

    Unlike everyone else who''s hair had been braided, Ikaris''s velvety hair had been straightened, falling along her dress silkily and over her shoulders, revealing the glittering of gxies she usually reserved, and although they had insisted, she had outright refused any kind of makeup on her face, and now looking at her the gods and mortals alike saw that their primordial needed no such measure because her beauty was already without description,

    "Please remain still Holiness." Adonai waved his right hand daintily with a smile, and her lower dress wasyered once more with another set of glowing silks and her head was adorned with an Arkadian jeweled halo, made entirely of diamondsplimenting her eyes as they draped around the sides of her head and rested atop her hair behind her as well, while a simr jewelled ne appeared around her neck rested between her breasts in threeyers of diamonds which shimmered from the glow of her dress itself.

    Like Dina and A her arms were covered to the elbows by gloves, but they hid her fingerspletely and were attached to the shoulder veil which rested on her back via the elbows.

    "Ikaris, you look amazing..."

 Chapter 173: The Heart Of The Heavens.

    Words she had heard all her existence...

    "Beautiful, stunning, amazing." Ikaris had long gone numb to such vain titles, she already knew, while she had no doubt that there were beings out there more physically attractive than herself, as Sol had exined it would be easier to find a star inside of a star, and yet hearing these words on this day filled her to the crown of her head with joy; even as a goddess that was always revered, she never truly had a day that was all about her.

    She had subjects, but over the billions of years of A''s existence after several purges after civilization had fallen and rebuilt itself even to the day the demon-king appeared, she never once had a day to herself, something her subjects never did was give her a day, they had their own holidays and celebrated their own heroes, and sought her blessing, but she was indifferent toward them, and so she never had apostles, she never had saints, and she never had any personal connection with the An people.

    "Thank you." Ikaris stared at herself, blushing andughing while her eyes watered simultaneously. "Ah, no I don''t want to ruin the dress..." She held her face to the infinity ceiling andughed again. "This is truly happening?" She asked, watching her tears float upwards. "I am marrying...

    By the light I am so nervous!" She mused and they all waited silently before Renia cleared her throat and stepped forward.

    "Your holiness." Renia regarded her with a curtsey, holding a small golden scroll loosely in her grasp. "Would you like to revise the event once more?" She asked, and Ikaris nodded urgently and turned giving her full attention.

    "Yes please, thank you." She smiled at her while the others gave them a little space save for Eris, Dina, and A who joined in the revision. "You have done a marvellous job of nning all of this, Renia."

    "You tter me." Renia opened the scroll, and a slight evanescent melody starteding from inside of it.

    ***

    "Man, this is happening for real." Sol was seated with his elbows rested on his knees and his palms over his mouth, on his left was  Kris Ravenmar, the former defence lieutenant of the demon subjugation army, and to his right standing attentively all of a sudden was Sara and Adonai.

    "I see you are just as nervous." Sara smiled down at him, staring at his golden hair and the rings in his eyes when he looked up at her.

    Simr to Ikaris''s white dress, Sol was wearing an extravagant nobleman''s suit, stitched in detail by Adonai himself it exuded mana just as hers did, it was more militaristic though, giving him the impression of a well decorated soldier.

    "My hands are probably sweating under these gloves!" Sol stood and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I can''t recall another time in my life I have been this nervous, my stomach is about to fall to Arkadia again." He stared at her, but the maid and the god who stood at her sideughed at his reaction.

    "How is Ikaris doing?" He asked, "I haven''t seen her in over a week..." He stated, turning to his mirror and adjusting his gloves again.

    "She is as nervous as you are." Adonai smiled at him.

    "You don''t think she''s gonna call it off do you, oh shit, I''ve never seen ikaris lose her nerve before, what if I messed up and upset her somehow?" He turned and began pacing.

    "Sol." Kris called him, stepping forward and cing a hand on his shoulder. "You will be fine, I do not know where this doubt ising from but I can tell you it is unwarranted andpletely invalid." He stared at him fearlessly when Sol locked eyes and seemed to almost re.

    "I agree, on both your ounts." Adonai responded before Sol did.

    "You Sol Vestic, turned your sword to the heavens in her defence multiple times, even before you had the power to usurp any divine throne you held your ground against us, and do not forget, her holiness arose in your defence as well, when you almost perished at the hands of an unfair challenge she very nearly destroyed the heavens to protect you, do not doubt her love, and surely she has been instructed the same; there is no version of this evening where either of you walk away or leave the other, this is fated to be, you and her are already locked in Divine Union, the ceremony is simply a deration to the light." He gave Sol a small bow and then raised his head again.

    "Well..." Sol ced his hands akimbo and smiled, relieved. "Thanks, the two of you." He nodded at them, shaking Adonai''s hand and then patting Kris''s shoulder while Sara stood behind them smiling at him brightly.

    It was an awkward room to say the least; he had approached Adonai all on his own and asked him to be his wingman, because sadly, all his friends were dead, it wasn''t a reality he liked facing, ten years, everyone dead, and back on earth he had no friends, then here on Arkadia the closest person he could call a friend was Kris.

    Grim whom he was fond of had died, and even though he hated his guts he would still think of Han being at least a distant acquaintance, or maybe Bruce, but they were all dead, that is even without mentioning Morn Castillon; the army''s greatest failure and the queens biggest disappointment.

    He too had died under mysterious circumstances sometime before Usami had left for earth.

    His situation had highlighted something he never realised because Ikaris had filled a massive void in his life.

    "Without A, and without Arkadia, I would have been totally alone, or dead." Sol confessed, and saw Sara''s smile wane as he spoke from the heart. "I never thought about it, but these two vastly different worlds are the reason I''m not burning in an eternity of damnation and torment-"

    "Good lord do not say anything like that during your reception..." Kris pped his forehead, and Adonaiughed out and shook his head... And like that while the others helped Ikaris prepare Sol spent his time with Sara, Kris and Adonai soaking up their encouragement and preparing himself as well.

    ***

    There was a section of the heavens that even the gods were mostly restricted from, a great limitless expanse of t still waters where the sky and the horizon met in every direction and there was a star which stood still and cast a sunset that hadsted for the entirety of the heavens'' existence, the air in that space had a peaceful allure which put all those who entered at ease, and the clear skies above it rained small illusionary beads of divine droplets in the form of flower petals which fell at the speed of snow, disappearing before they could touch anything.

    In the very middle of this reflective majesty there was a small ind norger than a room, it stood alone with a single tree in the middle, a tree no taller than five metres with red leaves and a golden body which held a single silver fruit at the very top resembling an apple.

    Although Dr''ul liked to call him "little brother" Adonai was the eldest, her consciousness existed before his did, but he manifested before she did.

    He was the one who spent thousands of years carefully crafting the heavens, and then he spent three times that length perfecting this ce.

    To the gods it was the most sacred area in their realm; the heart of the heavens, only entered upon the birth of a new deity''s consciousness, which had not happened in such a long time that most of them had forgotten what it looked like.

    Inside of the Heart, all the hosts had been invited, seats of divine matter manifested, and for every seat a person appeared, the great expanse was morphed by its creator erecting tforms and seats upon them, threenes creating a triangr formation around the small ind with the divine tree in the middle, and appearing before that tree was Dr''ul, wearing a ceremonial robe, spreading her arms wide as the guests continued to flood around her, creating.

    "What is this ce exactly?" One of the foreign gods asked an Arkadian god, and thetter looked at her with a smile and gestured to the expanse proudly.

    "It may be thest time either of us see this great expanse, it was built by our god of creation, Adonai; he named it Eden, the cardinal of the heavens." She responded, gesturing to the tree they all observed through the eye of the systems working together again. "That tree stands in the very centre of our reality, it has recorded all knowledge of everything that was and continues to be.

    "Amazing, Adonai is truly a master at his craft." The god responded respectfully, gaining a smile from the goddess.

    Melodious music invaded the space, pulling everyone''s attention to the small ind again as Dr''ul made a gesture with her hands and the skies above them sounded powerful horns and a great golden portal appeared.

    "It is time."

 Chapter 174: Uninvited Guest.

    The great circr portal widened, and from the middle of it a Pegasus flew downwards, swooping across the heads of the crowds and leaving mana particles flying to and fro.

    Atop the Pegasus was Kris doing his best topose himself as the heavenly beast had already warned him about treating her like just another beast of Arkadia.

    She flew in circles around the small ind and then very daintilynded, lowering her head to Dr''ul and then walked to the side standing out of everyone''s way as another Pegasus carrying Adonai ventured through the golden portal, doing the same as the first and thennding as well, pqying his respects to Dr''ul and joining his partner out of sight.

    [Ladies and Gentlemen, deities and mortals, beasts of all shapes and kind; the groom, Godyer, Sol Vestic.]

    A loud roar sounded through the air and a great wed hand came through, then emerged a silver swallow-tailed dragon of old that had avoided the war and demonic corruption; and atop the head of this great beast standing without the use of any aid was Sol causing the crowds all around to erupt in cheer and apud as the systems revealed his image in their minds descending atop the magnificent beast with a smile and waving as he did so.

    The dragon though many times greater than anything the guests had ever seen was elegant as he cruised in the skies, releasing small puffs of white fire before lowering his massive head above the ind and allowing Sol to step off,nding with a descent befitting a deity, greeting Kris and Adonai, and then looking at Dr''ul, the goddess lowered her head before him and then raised her smile and gestured to him and then nodding at Adonai for doing a great job.

    "Nervous?" Dr''ul asked him, and Sol chuckled at her.

    "Have you ever seen me nervous?" He responded, and she chuckled as well.

    "Then that is a very obvious yes." Dr''ul looked ahead as the portal above them closed and then another great portal of White mana opened.

    Just like before Pegasus appeared from the portal, but unlike Kris and Adonai who had been less extravagant in their disy, Renia, Ana''el, Ashera and Sorath emerged in tandem flying about the air in synchrony and thennding one after the other changing the very nature of the atmospgere as the once warm embrace of the sunset now pressed a cool kiss to everyone''s skin the groom and his best men took Dr''ul''s left, and the bridesmaids her right.

    "They''re all so beautiful..." Eris smiled, taking a seat next to Lyra the only remaining lieutenant after Kris''s retirement following the end of the war. "Hi, Lyra."

    "Eris?" Lyra looked at her surprised. "I imagined you would be there with them, considering you were a part of the heroes party."

    "I was offered, but I didn''t feel like I deserved to be up there with them." She replied honestly. "I gave that privilege away five years ago."

    "Hm, if it was your decision then... I will ask no further." Lyra smiled at her, reaching down and allowing the baby to grab hold of her finger.

    "A is also a main part of today, and I was once her very close friend, so I understand." Shemented, and Eris was left with a nervous chuckle when she realised that Lyra had missed her pointpletely, but she decided to let it be, aside from the gods, and very few mortals, everyone believed that they had been gone for the same five years, she had no ce revealing what they didn''t.

    The white portal above them shrunk to the size of arge door, and turned vertical as it descended, resting atop the undisturbed waters as a unique ethereal tune began ying, the sunset that had never changed in all its existence dipped below the horizon, leaving the atmosphere a tad darker and with a brilliant crimson, pink and purple atmosphere.

    [All stand in reverence of the Queen of all deities; the bride, Ikaris] the systems announced again, and a few seconds after the crowds had obediently risen from their seats in anticipation, Sara stepped through with arge bouquet of glowing white flowers in her grasp, then Dina and A emerged behind her with their hands still inside of the portal, and very slowly, Ikaris was ushered through, slightly leaning her head downward and then raising her gaze to the small ind where Sol stood with his mouth half agape and his eyes wide in wonder.

    "Pfffff* look at his face!" Dina scoffed causing A to chuckle, which in turn put a wide smile on Ikaris''s face as she stared at Sol almost at a loss of words, with his Godyer powers on full disy he glowed the same as her divinity made her glow.

    The observers broke into mumbles and gasps as Ikaris stepped throughpletely, revealing herrge wings spread wide behind her while her shoulder veils dragged along the waters not soaking or sinking just as her and the others didn''t sink.

    "I am going to cry." Ikaris almost stumbled causing the crowds and multitudes to gasp when A and Dina raised her again. "M-my legs..."

    "Breathe, Ikaris." Sol whispered from the other side. "Like always, one foot before the other." He smiled at her. "You got this."

    "Even now when you are so nervous, youfort her." Dr''ulmented watching Ikaris''s slow and graceful approach down the aisle.

    "What kind of man would I be if I couldn''t ovee my own insecurities for the woman I love?" Sol replied without breaking eye contact with Ikaris.

    "Of course." Dr''ul smiled clearing her throat as Sara arrived and curtseyed and then stepped to the side, leaving way for Dina and A to do the same as they presented Ikaris directly to Sol who stood at the edge and received her after blessing them both.

    "It''s been forever." Sol carefully took her hands into his own and pulled her onto the ind.

    "Just ten days... Love." Ikaris replied, already on the brink of tears as she smiled back at him, fanning her face.

    "Ten days too long." He mumbled.

    "By the light." Ikaris stood facing him and holding her mouth as she stared. "Stop with that stupid smile you are going to make me ugly-cry on such an auspicious day." She made a face almost simr to his.

    "You''re so adorable right now, so beautiful." Sol shook his head while Dr''ul gave them the moment.

    The music softened again, and all the hosts and guests of the heavens went silent as the goddess of war cleared her throat and the bride and groom stood before her, joined by hand.

    "Blessings and greetings to all, gentle lords anddies we are here on this most auspicious day in the ever-setting Eden to join the Pre-eminent Goddess of Bnce and Order, the first of our noble ancestry, Ikaris, and the breaker of fates and catalyst within the grey, the vessel of The Beginning, the Godyer, Sol Vestic together in divine union." Dr''ul spoke,with the systems amplifying her voice where all could hear her without her needing to raise her tone.

    "They have asked you all here to share in their joy, and to dere their love for each other before us all as a collective Arkadia." She continued and then looked at Sol.

    "Lord, you are here today in pledged troth of your own free will and choice?"

    "I am." Sol answered, and then she repeated the question to Ikaris to which the responded.

    "Yes."

    With Sol and Ikaris sharing nces Dr''ul spoke once more. "With their pledges before you that their adjoinment is of consent we call upon our father the Light to bless this union, and thus if any man or god find fault or cause to deny their union let him speak now or forever shut the fuck up." Dr''ul stared into the multitudes and saw Sven, the goat head open his mouth to speak.

    "Let it be known before objection that within the pantheon there are gods conspiring that any who object without just cause may be beheaded and set to parade before the couple as entertainment after the feast!" She snapped, and the goathead snapped his mouth shut and cleared his throat. "With no objection to the divine union of our saviour, let us cont-"

    Everything stopped, Dr''ul stopped, the mana in the air stopped, every god and being was suddenly frozen, and the ripples across the waters were halted in their advance.

    [What if I am the one who objects?] A voice invaded Sol''s head as he blinked and stared at everyone and everything before him.

    "No, no, you''re not doing this, you aren''t doing this to me, to her, how dare you-"

    [How dare I...?] The voice echoed again, and with the tone he felt his skin grow goosebumps beneath his clothes and the hair on the back of his neck stand at attention.

    [I do not permit the handing off of my child to you who reside within light and dark, you are grey, you Sol Vestic who weaponises the Beginning are tainted and unpure.]

    "Your child?" Sol released Ikaris''s hand and turned around, finding an entity of pure light hovering before him staring with blue formless eyes. "You''re-"

    [I am the pinnacle, the father of all creation, he who lords over all light, I am Him Above All, and I do not consent to this union.]

 Chapter 175: The Knot.

    Hearing this Sol balled his fists and looked around at Ikaris again, but she was still frozen in ce and seemed unable to react or unaware that she had been frozen at all.

    "I don''t care if you consent or not, she is happy with me, and I love her; I have the ability to protect her-"

    [You cannot protect Ikaris, she is doomed to be alone; all who lock hands with her will perish such is her fate, such is her curse.]

    Sol stared at him again. "I don''t give a flying fuck what you think her fate is, I don''t care if you''re her father, her mother or her retarded uncle twice removed, nothing is happening to Ikaris under my watch, nothing!" Sol snapped and reached out to him, but before he acted impartially he stayed his hand and took a calming breath. "...What are you talking about?"

    He asked.

    He remembered something Ikaris said at the very beginning of their journey, something he never epted from her who was supposedly the most powerful deity in existence; she had told him very early on that there were things set that not even she had the ability to change, powers out of her control, and A''s destruction was evidently such a canon event.

    "I ...I don''t understand, what curse?" Sol stared at the entity of light. "You''re her creator, why would you curse your own child?" He asked.

    [I did no such thing, fate has simply decided such an oue, it happens, it has happened, her brothers lived harmoniously with her, they perished-]

    "That wasn''t her fault!" Sol arose to Ikaris''s defence. "Your own counterpart sent her emissary to destroy-"

    [She spawned your seed, and the poor child was murdered right before your very eyes, yet you dare say you have the ability to protect her?] Light asked, and Sol went silent.

    "It''s different now; I am different now, and I would never allow anyone or anything to-"

    [I did note to vainly argue with you, Godyer.] Light interrupted again. [I simply came to take back what is mine-]

    "If you dare to touch or harm her I will utilize everyst drop of my power and annihte you from existence." Sol''s eyes shone brightly and a sword appeared in his grasp.

    [You dare threaten the father of all life, if you kill me reality will plunge into darkness-]

    "Go ahead then, try me." Sol''s eyes widened, his pupils and irises shrunk and his mind took a manic turn for the worst as his threat came with the full weight of his title as Godyer.

    "She no longer belongs to you, don''t you dare treat my wife as a fragment of yourself, she has her own thoughts and her own choices, free will, and I know she would never willingly leave like that." Sol continued to stare.

    [This is for her own good, and the good of all of us, yourself included!] Light roared causing the heavens to tilt in axis. [In order for everything else to survive, she must-]

    "Leave."

    [There are powers at hand that even you cannot-]

    "If you make me repeat myself once more, I''m going to kill you, Ikaris stays with me, whatever fate she has I''ll change it, whatever curse she carries I''m gonna lift it, anything thates after her life is going to be subject to my wrath, so fuck off and dont ever show your face in front of her again." Sol closed his eyes feeling the light that had frozen his domain retreating to whence it came.

    ***

    "...Did something happen just now?" Dr''ul stopped speaking and stared at Sol holding Ikaris''s hand as he had been before, the smile she had just been looking at had suddenly turned into a frown, and Ikaris after she said it seemed to panic for a few seconds before taking a breath and looking around.

    "Love... I sense the presence of the light, was father here?" Ikaris looked at Sol, and he closed his eyes and huffed out a frustrated sigh and then looked at her and Dr''ul respectively.

    "We are under the blessing of the light, remember?" Sol smiled at Ikaris. "If you are sensing his presence it must be him wishing us well as we are joined." He closed his eyes again, berating himself as he hid the raging hurricane of anger within his heart from their seal and contract while smiling to ease her concerns. "Don''t worry."

    "Hm." Ikaris smiled at him once more, cheeks redenning at thefort; the warmth of his hand and the radiance of peacefulness that his presence brought her.

    [Mark my words, Sol Vestic; the queen of the gods is not as simple as your little mind can fathom, her creation was wed, she is cursed, until her soul has returned to me, only tragedy will follow her, if you truly love her, spare her...] Light spoke directly into his head and Sol took a deep breath to remain calm and then looked at Ikaris smiling again.

    "No way, no fucking way in hell, after all I''ve gone through to ease her pain and free her, there''s no way I''m giving her up." He slightly squeezed her hand. "Don''t you worry about a thing, Ikaris, I''ll protect you; always."

    "Shall we continue, then?" Dr''ul pulled their attention upon herself again, and Sol gratefully smiled and nodded.

    "Please."

    "Having none object to this union, we shall continue." Dr''ul picked up where she left off, raising her hand as the tree behind her bent and curved over her shoulder bringing the apple right into her palm where she picked it and held it before Sol.

    "Now swear, Lord Vestic, on this our most sacred fruit of truth, that there is no reason known to you that this union should not proceed, and eat of its flesh to be judged."

    "I swear it." Sol took the silver fruit from her palm and bit into it, and as he did his powers red dramatically before waning again as he turned to Ikaris and ced the fruit in her free hand.

    "Queen Ikaris, be there any reason known to you that this union not being made whole before the light?" Dr''ul asked, and saw Ikaris smile brightly and shake her head.

    "None your holiness." Ikaris answered and bit into the fruit, humming at the texture melting in her mouth and smiling again as the blush returned on her cheeks.

    "By the light; creator and father of all, we humble seek your blessing upon this union, may these your children be granted goodness all the days of their existence, strength, and unity, under your watchful eye, I Dr''ul, bare witness to their hearts." She raised the fruit to the skies and then lowered it to her mouth and bit into it as well.

    "Do you, Lord Vestic, take onto you as wife the beautiful Goddess Ikaris, and pledge unto her under the light eternal servitude, to be her defender, her healer, and sure resort, to honour and sustain her in sickness and health, in fairness and foul, with all your powers that be, forsaking all that stand against her, so long as you both live?"

    At his question, Sol''s conversation with Light reverberated in his head and he slightly frowned, causing Dr''ul''s expression to register worry for a split second before she saw him smile again. "Yes, I absolutely do."

    "And do you, Queen Ikaris, take unto you the noble lord, Vestic, to be your rightful Lord Husband, and pledge unto him before the Light and all our witnesses to honour and cherish him, to cleave onto him in sickness and health, in fairness and foul, to be his one true andsting counsel and sce, and forsaking any and all who rise against him, to keep thine self unto him alone, so long as you both shall live?"

    "Oh gods..." Eris in the audience held her mouth and fanned her watering eyes while Lyra cradled the baby. "It''s so beautiful, I can''t believe I''d see the day."

    "I do, your holiness." Ikaris pledged, and after she did, on queue Adonai walked up next to them, holding in his grasp a tesseract cube which held two rings floating in tandem at the heart, and Sol epted them from him with a nod, cing his in Ikaris''s hand, and keeping hers.

    Going through the rights, Dr''ul blessed the rings and brought them before the light once more.

    "My goddess and lifeline, Ikaris, receive and wear this ring, as a symbol of my trust and undying love and devotion for you." Sol smiled at her, taking her hand as they drew closer together and sliding the modified and refurbished ring upon her finger, and as he did Ikaris finally unable to hold herself any longer burst into tears.

    "S-Sol, my heart and universe... wear this ring, as a symbol of my eternal devotion, my submission, my respect and my love for you." Ikaris gently raised Sol''s finger, and slid the ring onto it, and then raised her head smiling again. "I can''t stop myself, this is the happiest day of my life..."

    "I will let nothing sour your mood, my love." Sol raised his hand and carefully wiped her tears.

    "By this knot, your vows shall be sealed, with all Arkadia baring witness to your derations." Dr''ul turned to A and Dina, who stepped forward presenting a golden divine rope; a fragment of the foundation of their very universe.

    They went through the rites, looping the knot around their joint hands skillfully under the watchful eye of The goddess of War.

    "Two entwined in love, bound bymitment and fear, sadness, joy, by hardship and victory, anger and reconciliation, all of which brings strength to this union." Dr''ul dered loudly.

    "Hold tightly your partner in both bad and good times, and watch as your strength grows... I shall now remove the cords."

    And so she did.

    "You have both pledged upon your existences and sworn before the great light, you have exchanged rings and tied the holy cord, binding one soul to the next in this divine ritual, may it be granted that what has been made whole before the light may never be undone by any other entity."

    "Before I proim you joined you must kiss thrice before all hosts and guests, once for luck, twice for love, and thrice for evesting happiness."

    *Kiss

    *Kiss

    *Kiss

    "By the powers vested in me by the light and realm, I now dere you, Lord Sol Vestic, and Queen Ikaris, Husband and Wife, you are free to kiss your bride my lord." Dr''ul smiled and closed the scroll before her as their audience erupted in tears and cheers, while those immediately around them apuded.

    "Sol."

    "Ikaris."

    Ikaris reached for his cheeks, pulling him in while he locked his hands on her hips and leaned into her, both enjoying the kiss to their fullest as their joy overflowed within each other and their mana sprung forth bright and gold in tandem.

    Both: "I love you."

 Chapter 176: Mine alone.

    "Congrattions!" Eris took Ikaris by her hands, it was a bit of a hassle getting back from the heavens, every single god, almost a thousand at this point wanted to make a toast but Both Sol and Ikaris had pretty much tapped out after the tenth one since their speechessted almost thirty minutes each, her and the others had snuck away in the midst of celebrations, leaving their guests with the gods to dine and make merry in Eden.

    "Thank you, Eris." Ikaris shook her hands excitedly and turned around to Sol, A, Dina, and Sara. "I thank all of you." She smiled at them, and then yelped when Sol stepped forward and scooped her off the floor, holding her close and taking a deep breath.

    "We will be sharing a different room tonight." Dina spoke up gaining a nod of agreement from A, but Ikaris rejected the idea with a shake of her head.

    "Nonsense!" The goddess denied them. "How could I call you two mine if I do not share in my happiness with you?" She asked, and Eris chuckled and took a few steps back.

    "You lot have fun, we will prepare a breakfast akin to a royal feast in the morning soe with your appetites, for now though I will retire to my abode!" She waved at them and then turned and left before anyone else could say anything.

    "Does this mean... As we did on our first night, all together?" A looked at Sol and Ikaris as he began ushering his bride up the stairs.

    "Well, not really." Sol replied, losing much of the smile he had been wearing since the wedding as he walked, and as his tone went serious, Ikaris in his arms went still, and the two following them felt her uneasiness.

    "I was right after all; something happened." Ikaris looked at him as he pushed their door open with his foot and walked in, allowing Dina the chance to close it as she enteredst.

    "It''s weighed on my mind all this time and I honestly didn''t want to say anything, but this... I don''t think it''s something we can necessarily avoid, so it''s paramount that I at least say something now when we have the peace to decide together." Sol sat on the bed and ced Ikaris to sit next to himself. "Ikaris, I''m sorry that I brought this up on your special night, but it honestly scares me."

    "You said it was unavoidable?" Ikaris asked, watching his hair go golden and his pupils dte and then turn golden as well. "Sol?"

    "Light, your father objected to our marriage." He stared at her seriously, and as he did Dina and A took seats in two chairs opposite of them and drew closer.

    "What do you mean he objected?" Ikaris had an expression of appall as she was delivered this news. "If anything, he should be the one most happy for me, I... I have been begging him to see me all this time, praying for his blessings, asking day after day for his wisdom!"

    "Wait." Sol held her hand when her eyes began turning violet in transition to crimson.

    "It''s not like that."

    "Then what is it?" She asked, any semnce of the happiness she had previously held had been erased by clear hostility to her creator. "How dare he-"

    "He wanted to dissolve you into himself." Sol lowered his forehead onto his fingers and started massaging it. "He, approached me for the sole purpose of killing you." He spoke, and as he did he felt her grip on his hand loosen and felt a numb shock through their connection as she stopped breathing for a few seconds before slowly gasping and slumping.

    "After all this time, he...?" Ikaris''s eyes registered emotional death and she closed her fist on his hand again, taking a deep calming breath and staring at him. "Okay...

    Okay, you have my attention, dear, tell me, what happened?" She asked of him, and so Sol recalled the entire encounter word for word and actions for action, leaving out nothing as he was sure she might have had more knowledge of what was happening than himself.

    "But, your status shows no such curse -what is the meaning of this?" A spoke up first, shaking her head in denial. "What could any of that mean, the things that have happened were not-

    "Predetermined?" Sol looked from Ikaris to her. "What if they were, what exactly is fate, aren''t you listening to me?" He asked and she went silent and bit her lips in frustration.

    "Him above All froze you all in your tracks, and attempted to take Ikaris, if I didn''t have these powers, if I wasn''t Godyer I would have been frozen like the rest of you, and he would have taken her without any resistance, is not a matter of him being unable to, it''s simply because I don''t reside within the light or the dark that I was able to deter him." He stared at her.

    "But what did he mean by her being cursed then?" Dina asked. "Ikaris?" She looked to her.

    "I have no idea, I have never been told or used of this... But, the evidence against me is quite clear, whenever I show any closeness or care for others, they end up dead." She looked up at Sol tearing up.

    "That''s not-"

    "My siblings, our first child, A-"

    "I already told you none of those prove what he''s iming." Sol shook his head and held her hands.

    "But they do not disprove them either, death follows me, I have always known this." She shook Sol''s hands desperately trying to make him see her point, but he pulled her into a hug instead and held her tightly.

    "Absolutely not, not under my watch, you won''t suffer like you have in the past... I... I won''t allow it to happen." Sol dered, and as he did Dina joined their hug,forting her and then A afterwards. "I contemted telling you after tonight, but it was eating at me, it didn''t seem like something I should hide from you when youre the one being targeted."

    "No, I understand, you are looking out for my best interests, and being equipped with the knowledge means that I will have a means to protect myself, if even a little." She countered and Sol nodded against her and then hugged her tighter.

    "After hearing all of that, I''m kind of eager to leave, honestly." Dina admitted, and Ikaris chuckled and looked around at her.

    "Me too."

    "A world with no elves and no magic..." A mused, thinking of Z prime but also understanding that the two worlds were significantly different in a lot of areas.

    "I''m dragging you into what might turn out to be a bad experience, sorry." Sol looked at them each and then closed his eyes and sighed against her lips when Ikaris reached for him and kissed him softly.

    "There is nowhere in the infinite realms where being with you is a bad thing, Love." Ikaris smiled against his lips and then began kissing him again, and while she did, Dina and A slowly retreated, eventually leaving them both alone when they began to focus on each other.

    "At a time like this..."

    "I would have it no other way, husband." She smiled at him when she heard the door lock behind her. "You saved me without me even knowing, prevented a fate I was incapable of avoiding without you; you are my hero and my peace..." She straddled his waist and began undoing his uniform while he reached behind her and began loosening her corset.

    "I no longer want to talk about that topic, instead, I am feeling quite depressed because of it, I need thefort of my husband to ease my burdened heart." Ikaris forced Sol onto his back as he undressed her on top of himself.

    "As long as I am with you; by your side, in your service and care, it does not matter if the world around me is on fire, I will be happy."

    Sol watched amazed as her joy flourished bit by bit and the treasure of a smile she was holding grew along with it, feeling guilt at almost ruining that smilepletely with his bad news.

    "Then I will cherish and protect your happiness, Ikaris." Sol raised his hand at her request and firmly cupped her breasts just as they sprung from her dress, relieving her of their weight as she moaned above him and leaned into his touch when his thumbs circted her nipples.

    "I love you, Sol." She leaned over his head, causing her hair to pool around their faces as their golden and azure eyes locked onto each others'' under her shadow. "I do not care what any fate holds, nor what my father has dictated, as long as you are by my side I am blessed to be alive."

    "I''ll never leave you, I won''t ever forsake you, Ikaris." Sol cupped her cheeks just as she did his while leaning onto his chest. "From now till forever more." He pulled her down as she began grinding on top of him, kissing her slowly, enjoying her taste which he had been missing since their separation.

    "You''re mine alone to have."

 Chapter 177: Moving On.

    "Good morning heroes~" Eris chirped at Sol and Ikaris, and then waved as Dina and A followed them into the kitchen.

    "Morning Eris~" Dina stretched and yawned, casting herziness on A as she dropped her hand on her shoulder.

    "A pleasant morn,dy Schneider." A rubbed her eyes and attempted to straighten her hair, but as soon as she raised her hands her bedhead sprung up again causing Dina to snicker while sitting around the table.

    "Did everyone sleep well?" Eris bounced around the table setting their dishes while Sara started sharing the breakfast beverages.

    "You''re in high spirits today." Sol stared at her with a chuckle. "Did something good happen?" He queried, taking his seat while Ikaris sat quietly next to him.

    "It is quite the opposite, actually, this is the most depressing day of my recent life." Eris answered without missing a beat. "I am very depressed today!" Sheughed and then sat, pping her hands and allowing the other maids to continue where she left off. "I feel like shit today." She smiled at them.

    "Eris..."

    "It''s okay, I understand, I''m just sad." Eris snatched a bottle of wine for her passing maid and drank it all the way down to the half point and then immediately cast [heal] on herself, detoxifying her body. "It''s..." She sighed deeply, and with a heavy hand on the table she looked up at them. "Is this how Usami felt when I told her I''d stay?" She asked, and the life in the room drainedpletely.

    "We''ve imposed on you long enough, Eris." Ikaris leaned on the table with her hands sped and regarded her with a stern tone.

    "You''re not moving to another city, or another country, fuck it isn''t even another here; you''re going awaypletely, back to earth, a whole other universe!" She eximed, and everyone went silent.

    "...Is it that you''re upset because we''re leaving, or are you feeling guilty because you''re going to get left behind?" Dina asked, and Eris sucked in a breath and averted her eyes.

    "What''s the point of a fantasy world if all of my closest friends are dead or gone, I had some hope after seeing you all again, I hoped you''d change your minds, but now you''re going to leave..." She frowned, and Sol lowered his gaze and nodded.

    "I understand how that feels..." He stared at her. "When I died, when Ikaris saved me, I thought I was getting the full clich�� isekai, I''m sorry to say but you already know things don''t work in real life as they do in books and stories, all those stupid little fantasies we used to watch and read, thinking it''s gonna be the same-"

    "I know that already." Eris groaned and covered her face with her palms, sucking in another breath and sniffling.

    "Fuck -its just not easy to ept this reality anymore, Han died, Bruce died, Idria died, Billions of people died, and they still hail me as hero, I don''t feel like a hero, I don''t even feel like myself, the most I''ve felt like myself in years has been thest two weeks since you guys came back... And I''m afraid that when you go I''m gonna lose it again."

    "Well." Sol sat straight and stared Eris dead in her eyes. "I guess you have a choice to make then, Eris."

    "What?"

    "I said make your decision, I don''t like unting power, but I am the Godyer after all, if you want toe with us, I can take you, we won''t be there forever but we n to spend a long time on earth.

    "But why not here?" Eris asked out loud and then mmed her fist into the table again, except this time her hand split the table down the middle and everything flew about resulting in A making an uncharacteristic dive from one side to the other and saving a slice of pie she was about to bite into, sticking thending and rolling to a perfect stop.

    "Aside from Han, you''re the only one who nned to stay here, Bruce wanted to go back, Dina was gonna go back as well, Usami had her brother, and I never wanted to be here at all, which meant Ikaris was going to return with me, as much as it drew us all together, Arkadia was a mistake." Sol answered her.

    "I can visit ever so often, but there''s no way I would stay here and look at this ce knowing it''s where our future was nearly destroyed." He gestured out the window at Arkadia and Ikaris who had not even budged closed her eyes and crossed her legs.

    "Arkadia is painful." Ikaris agreed with Sol. "I don''t want to be here forever."

    "I couldn''t just leave on a whim like that-"

    "Then why are you asking me to change my mind on a whim?" Sol narrowed his eyes at her, raising his hands when a simple wave from Ikaris righted and fixed everything that had been shattered and broken. "We never intended to stay here, Eris."

    She took a moment to watch A walk back to the other side of the table and sit daintily to eat her cake before she looked at Sol again.

    "Sol, why does it feel like you''re not taking anything I say seriously, in fact, it doesn''t feel like any of you are."

    "I''m sorry you feel that way, Eris." He responded likewise and folded his hands again. "The truth is; it doesn''t actually matter to me whether youe or not, you want to be with others who you could share your experiences with, you have that here, just go out more and make some friends."

    "If what you want is to rekindle your old friendships, then Usami, Dina, and Ikaris will be on earth, and speaking of her; that''s exactly how she felt when you made her leave, I understand you found love -It''s amazing that you did, but what you also did was abandon her, even jf you weren''t going to go away with her you didnt need to ignore her to the point where she isted herself, and dont you even try refuting that.

    I know you, I know that''s what you did." He stared at her uncaring of how his words made her feel.

    "If what you want is empathy, I understand losing a someone you loved, I understand being left behind, I understand having nobody to rte to, but if you''re looking for sympathy you''re better off trying to spark a fire in the dead of space with a stick and a rubber duck."

    "What the- fine... fine, but just one more day then, there''s so much that I have to-" She rested her cheek on her fist.

    "No."

    "Not even that much?"

    "Not even." Dina spoke up.

    "Ugh, when will you return?"

    "When he''s old enough to remember." Ikaris answered nonchntly, and Sol looked at her with a warm smile and then acknowledged the healer hero once more.

    "I see." Eris shrugged. "I guess its out of my hands then, huh?"

    "It was never in your hands to begin with, this is a new chapter of our lives, you already had your new beginning and you made your choices, I do not want to be swept up in yojr atonement for them." Ikaris spoke again.

    "You..." The healer sighed and rxedpletely in her seat. "Then, do you need anything before you leave, I at least wanted to throw you some kind of sendoff party."

    "That''s unnecessary." Dina shook her head. "I don''t think any of the five of us like parties enough to keep attending them over and over again like this." She exined and Eris''s eyes slightly widened.

    "Five?"

    "I am going with master Vestic." Sara spoke up, cing a fresh ss of drink before him and smiling softly at her.

    "When did you decide this?" Eris stood up, clearly unable to ept what she was hearing. "Are you also bing one of his women?"

    "Eris." Sol called her out on the tone of scrutiny she had used and the face that both Dina and A had reacted to it as if it was nder. "Don''t give me a reason to hate you." He warned her. "Did you even know she hadn''t slept the five years we were gone?" He asked.

    "That''s impossible-"

    "She''s been spending sleepless eternities in her shadows waiting for us, for me, do you think I''m gonna leave her ever again after that?"

    "She''s Arkadian."

    "As am I." A raised her brow.

    "The time has been set for midnightter, regardless of anyone''s reservation, I''m leaving, and I''m taking them all with me." Sol stood and lowered his head towards her, making this the first time since A that he ever bowed properly to someone.

    "Eris, thank you for everything, you didn''t need to take us in, you didn''t need to feed us, everything you''ve done has been from the goodness of your heart." He raised his head, looking to his sides and seeing his three following his example and Sara doing the same behind him, and even the other maids in the kitchen with them.

    "For your sake, I''ll find a way to make a link from us to you, but just know, my offer still stands, if you choose to, I''ll take you back to earth with us." He stepped from his chair and looked to the door.

    "Earth." A mused.

    "How wonderful."

 Chapter 178: Home Sweet Home.

    ***

    "Minutes to midnight." Dina checked a timepiece she had been keeping at-hand. "Minutes to home."

    "I am fairly excited." Ikaris hugged her from behind. "I have spent less time on earth than anywhere else, it is drastically different and far less hostile than everywhere we have been thus far." She added, and Sol nodded in agreement.

    "I am a little nervous, what if human society there does not ept me, or I am too estranged?" A asked, and Sol shook his head and covered her ears with his palms causing her sigils to shimmer in crimson.

    After a few seconds had passed and nothing seemed to happen she looked up at him with her brows furrowed. "Master?"

    "If you managed to adapt to somewhere like Z-Prime, then earth is going to be a breeze, just as an added measure, only those of us who bare the same marks and bonds can see your ears."

    "I can still see her ears, though." Sara leaned her head.

    "You''re an exemption." Sol turned to her. "I did it without your permission, look at your forearm." He walked up to her and held up her hand, causing a slight huff from Ikaris when she saw a small crest on her hand resembling a cross with sharp edges. "It''s to keep you safe, you''re connected to me now, not on the same level as Ikaris and the others, but I can at least protect you like this."

    "I don''t think there''s a single weapon on earth that can harm any of us." Dina shook her head. "Honestly speaking, earth is the safest ce we could possibly go."

    "Earth is not as simple as it seems at first nce, you''ll notice things that you never did when you were therest." Sol responded to Dina and then looked at Eris who was sitting in a sofa with her child silently observing them. "Eris, have you decided?"

    "I will stay." Eris answered as soon as he acknowledged her. "Its both my desire and my punishment for what happened with Usami..." She looked down at the little sleeping boy and smiled kissing his soft red cheek.

    "You are right, Sol, I did alienate her, I ignored her because she didn''t want to be here, she didn''t want to fit in I shunned her when she needed a friend the most, I don''t have the heart to face her after I did that, but can you at least tell her I''m sorry?" She raised her gaze.

    "I will, as soon as I see her." Sol answered, taking two steps to the side while Ikaris pulled Dina away just in time for Dr''ul and Sorath to appear in their midst, and along with them came Gadriel and Gabriell, Renia and Adonai and the goddess of Love, Ana''el.

    "The time draws nigh." Dr''ul stepped forward and extended her hand and Sol reached out and grabbed her''s in a firm shake smiling brightly at her. "I wished your stay was longer, but you are still young, there is much to do and many dreams yet to be reality, I wish you a healthy departure, Sol." She grinned at him patting his shoulder. "And do not forget-"

    "Don''t worry, I''ll swing by every now and then for a fight." Sol nodded patting her shoulder as well and then looking around as Renia tackled Dina and Ikaris in a hug spreading all six of her arms around them and pulling A into it as well.

    "You three, I will miss you dearly!" She rubbed her head in Ikaris''s neck.

    "How beautiful~" Ana''el swooned. "So much love in the air, it is so beautiful~" She hugged Adonai, causing the god of creation to shudder.

    "Sister, please do not interrupt my thoughts with your... Feelings." Adonai peeled her off himself and watched her run over and hug Sol.

    "Oh my dear Sol, I will miss the intrigues of yours and Ikaris''s tale so much!" She dramatically wept while he raised her off himself and held her out like a stray cat.

    "I don''t recall myself or Ikaris having any interaction with you before." Sol raised his brow to the max as the intrusive goddess tried hugging him again. "Dr''ul?"

    "Ana''el is an even bigger fan of your progress and story than S''mael is." Dr''ul chuckled and held on to her sister''s head raising her off her feet and turning her like a doll in her grasp. "Do you want me to flog you again in front of everyone?" Dr''ul asked, smiling as a vein popped up beneath her right eye.

    "A-absolutely not!" Ana''el went still with a blush and chuckled nervously. "I will behave."

    "...anyways." Eris broke the awkward silence. "I thought a lot more people would havee to see you off, Kris was even one of your best men."

    "I spent most of thest two weeks saying farewell to everyone." Sol stood in the middle just as Dina''s timepiece went off marking midnight. "Time''s up."

    "Then, until we meet again, Godyer." Sorath smiled at him, and he did likewise, sparking up a glow as his powers manifested in glorious gold around him.

    "Until then." Sol stood and waited as Ikaris and the others gathered around him.

    "You didn''t pack anything?" Eris stood after realising they were all empty-handed.

    "We have all we need." Dina smiled at her as all five of them were engulfed in golden light. "I''ll be seeing you Eri-"

    "Wait!" She called, but they were already gone, and with the surge of Sol''s mana the babe in her arm started crying casting the room in just his voice as the gods stood and watched her. "...what kind of goodbye was that?"

    "You had two whole weeks to say goodbye to them, why did you not do it properly?" Adonai asked while all the others left consecutively. "What held you from it?"

    "I don''t... I don''t know," she sunk to the floor and cradled her child, and the god of creation looked to Dr''ul who had remained with them, and then sighed and left.

    "You are strong, Eris, but strength without directioncks purpose, you let guilt dictate your actions, you refused logic and acted upon emotion, I cannot console such emotions, this is something you will have to ovee on your own." She spoke to her, resting her hand on her head and then leaving as well.

    "Lady Schneider." A maid entered upon Dr''ul''s departure and knelt next to her. "I will prepare tea to help you sleep after I have put Issac to bed." She took the child from a crying Eris and stood with him. "Is there anything else you might require?" She asked.

    "No." Eris raised her hands and covered her face, sinking further as she felt her stomach go tense from a rise in frustration and her head ache from stress. "I couldn''t ask anything else of you."

    "Thank you."

    ***

    In a small damp room with the roof leaking from a rusty pipeline in the floor above, the air was musty and the ground full of dust and misceneous debris along with a muddy ck puddle, in one corner a small bed with the legs broken, and close to the door a single table with an old TV monitor on it, and right next to the bed there was an old foam cup with ck residue inaide of it and a fork next to that.

    The window was nailed in from the inside, as was the doors, and sitting on the bed were two skeletons holding hands with one holding a gun, by the clothes they wore, one was male and the other female, and both skulls had bullet exit holes in them.

    The air bubbled, and the atmosphere distorted and shifted around as thews of light and time were manipted, a small storm of dust travelled through the room and then a bright sh of golden light appeared, and from that light Sol, Ikaris, Dina, A and Sara walked forth, the bulb in the ceiling flickered upon their arrival, and then turned on when Sol held up his hand and pointed at it.

    "What the fuck?" He looked down at the two skeletons. "Double suicide."

    "Dear, it seems we are not in the same time yet again." Ikaris looked around his old apartment and then at him. "More dtion."

    "It can''t be that long though, the bed and ramen are still there just as we left them."

    "But there are also fully dposed corpses." Ikaris countered his argument.

    "I don''t sense any danger anywhere though." Dina looked around and then rested her hand on the first barricade on the door, peeling it off with a single finger. "I can''t believe you used to live in this little shit hole... No offence."

    "None taken, I hate this ce." Sol replied when she tore off the other four with a wave of her hand and pushed the door open, but on the other side there was a wall barring them in as well.

    "Something is very wrong." Ikarismented, and as she did Sol waved his hands again and all of them vanished a second time, appearing where the roof was supposed to be, by what they were met with instead was a jet soaring over their heads and another fighter jet chasing after it, the skies were cked out with smoke, burning buildings, littered from one side to the next, and below there were people hiding as best they could in the debris of the entropy.

    "What the-" Dina''s words were cut short when a massive explosion drew all their attentions westward where they saw great metallic dragon rampaging through a burning building and firing offsers from its mouth.

    "What the fuck is happening here?"

 Chapter 179: A Warm Earth Welcome.

    "What''s going on here?" Dina looked around floating a little ways from the group while Sol rested his hand on Sara''s shoulder to keep her afloat like the rest. "How much time has passed?" She stared across the horizon at the mech dragon again. "Master... Is this actually earth?" She asked and Sol closed his eyes for a few seconds.

    "It is." He nodded and turned to Ikaris when the jet that was being chased around earlier was shot down above them and crashed across the sky, adding to the chaos as it collided into a building full of people and exploded, causing that building to copse onto another one.

    "What do we do here?" A asked, she had expected to see a bustling world full of people too busy to enjoy their lives like Sol and the others had described so many times before, but instead she found people dying at every turn and soulless machines fighting as far as her senses could reach.

    "Should we leave?" She asked, knowing that Sol viewed conflicts that did not align with his interests as a waste of time.

    "Hm ..." Sol sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Let''s at least find out what''s going on, and how much time has passed."

    "Do you sense Usami?" Dina asked, looking at her crest slightly resonating with Ikaris''s.

    "She is alive somewhere I feel her mana, faintly." Ikaris answered, reaching out to Sara when Sol handed her off and slowly began ascending. "Where are you going?"

    "Hold on a sec." Sol continued ascending and then vanished, the world seemed to start moving slower, the missiles and fires slowed down to a creep, and Dina who was extra perceptive to it looked from one side to the other and then gasped when Sol appeared next to Ikaris and cast a pixted dome over the building beneath them andnded.

    "Did you find anything?"

    "Yeah, it''s just this city at the moment." He summoned a seat and made himselffortable, making more for everyone else as they all joined him around a small table where desserts appeared.

    "There are two factions going at it, one side is called As, and the other is called Order, at least from their tags and how conveniently they''ve branded their weapons and vehicles." He picked up a small cupcake and bit into it.

    "What is happening then?" Ikaris asked, mimicking his actions and eating a cupcake as well.

    "The details I''m not so sure about, I just did a quick scan, but that big ol'' pile of metal over there is an as project that''s gone rogue from a system malfunction, they''re trying to get it back under control, but Order is using the chaos to attack As, it''s kind of fascinating, I''m not sure I want to do anything about it."

    "What about everywhere else?" Sara went around and began pouring the provided beverages for them.

    "There are sites of other disasters like this in the south and western countries, but it seems less chaotic and the fighting has been in a rather secluded area each time, the rest of the world as a whole is fine, it''s just these two organisations going at it." He smiled and raised hand toward Ikaris and she reached out to him and sped her hands over his palm and beneath it. "How is it?"

    "I have full ess to A once more." She smiled. "All that I once possessed is once again yours, Love."

    "Are we going to leave it rampaging like that?" Dina asked, looking over her shoulder at the mech again.

    "If it''s bothering you, then you can take care of it." Sol looked away from Ikaris at her, and without another spoken word Dina arose and flew through the barrier he had created.

    "Careful Dina, earth is much smaller and far more easy to break than Arkadia."

    "Understood." She went a little higher and pointed her finger towards the mech.

    "I''ll just use something small then." Storm clouds suddenly formed over the head of the rampaging bot, with a small gesture of her index finger Dina cast [judgement] and a massive bolt of lightning charged and struck it tearing the arms and head off and then exploding into smaller shards of lightning caused it to melt as they struck it hundreds oer second, reducing it into a pool of magma over the course of a few minutes.

    No more lives lost, and no robot to salvage.

    "How was that?" Dina came back through and took her seat again, looking at her hero sigil resonating and then at Ikaris who was also observing her own. "Should we go find her?"

    "It is quite odd, usually the sigils only react like this when we are in danger, does that mean Usami is in danger?"

    "Unlikely." Sara answered Ikaris. "Although she is nowhereparable to your strength when you disappeared, Usami did keep training day and night, she would not be overpowered by conventional weapons."

    "This is clearly a call for help though."

    "Let''s go find her then." Sol stood and dropped the barrier causing the noise from outside to crash into them again.

    "Hold on, we can''t go around looking like this." Dina gestured to the fact that they were all dressed weirdly, and then waved her hands over herself turning her attire into a blouse and shortsbo, with thigh-high socks and sneakers.

    "Right, earth." Sol stepped off and morphed his attire into a simple shirt and pantsbo while Ikaris turned hers into the same attire he had fitted her with thest time they had been on earth.

    "I do not know what to wear." A seemed out of ce as she thought about it, and Sol snapped his fingers casting golden light around her as her dress turned into a more modern sundress and a hat appeared on her head.

    "How''s that?" He asked, and she spun once in each direction and then smiled excitedly and looked up at him.

    "If I may, I would prefer to keep my uniform." Sara held her hands towards him in pardon when he turned to her. "It suits me, since I n to serve sir as I always have."

    "Whatever you''refortable in I suppose." Sol smiled and ascended using his mana to carry her again.

    Locking onto the signal she sensed of her friend''s mana, Dina took off ahead of them followed urgently by A while Sol and Ikaris leisurely flew as he masked all their presences from the surface and above. "We''reing, Usami." Dina smiled excitedly spinning and swerving through buildings, passing therge molten pit she had created and soaring upward until she could see the shoreline.

    "She''s overseas!"

    ***Seven years ago***

    "She''s waking up..."

    "Put her back under, administer the gases."

    "It isn''t working her vitals are regting."

    "Are you kidding me that''s enough to knock out an elephant already, double the dosage!"

    The sounds and voices around her told her that she was inside of some kind of hospital, but as her eyes opened what Usami found was a massiveb space with several people wearing suits and aiming guns at her head.

    "Patient is awake, I repeat the patient is awake."

    "What the hell is this?" Usami asked, thest thing she remembered was Queen Vermon smiling at her while she turned to stone and then a sh of light. "Where am I?" She asked, looking down at her bound hands. And dropping her head again. "Ugh, where am I?" She asked.

    "Before that, your name is Usami Takae, correct?" Someone asked from a speaker on the far side of the room.

    "Why am I restrained with iron bars?" She asked, looking down at her arms, her torso and her legs again, did I end up somewhere else, this is earth right?" She asked, slowly regaining her awareness as her head spun from the residual inertia. "How long have I been asleep, where is my brother?" She questioned the closest gun aimed at her.

    "Answer the question, girl, what is your name?" The man asked again.

    "Fuck you." She dropped her head once more and then raised her hands tearing the iron bars straight out of the bed they had held her down on and sitting up with a groan. "Answer me first, where''s Uriyu?"

    "...Are you hostile or friendly?" The man asked again, and after he did she grabbed the bars and tore them off her legs, standing on the bed and looking at her forearm as she hunched. "If you do not answer we will open fire and kill you."

    "Anyone who dares to shoot at me dies." Usami ground her teeth and extended her hand and the scientists and security in the facility gasped in horror when a spear appeared in her grasp out of thin air.

    "What happened to my clothes, how long have I been unconscious, someone better start talking!!" She shed her spear, and just the force of her swing sent several of the guards flying I to the walls. "Where am I, where is my baby brother!?"

    "She is incredible, what caused her to be like this?" A female scientist asked. "Skin so hard needles bend and break against it, fire does nothing to her skin, gasses and pollutants dont harm her in any way, and she is still human!"

    "This not incredible you moron, this woman is wild and dangerous, this is a failure, she doesn''t seem the type that will respond to normal threats, switch to n B before she begins to rampage through our facilities and kill our staff." He ordered, and the other man who had been speaking nodded and raised his walkie that had been strapped to his leg.

    "Bring in our bargaining chip."

 Chapter 180: Willing Hostage.

    She stumbled off the bed and fell to her hands and knees, vomiting up the liquids they had fed her while unconscious and then forcing herself to stand and looking again at the guards that had retreated closer to the doors with their wounded while their guns still aimed at her.

    "Where are you going, I have questions!" She stumbled once more to the side holding her head and puking a second time.

    "What the fuck did you put inside of me?" Usami closed her eyes and steadied her bnce and then fell to her knees and then turned her spear and stabbed herself through her throat, opening it up and shrinking her spear to the size of a knife and using it to flick out a chip that had been nted in her throat, coughing and dropping to her hands again.

    "Heal."  She whispered inaudibly and sped her hands over her neck, shutting the wound and then stabbing the tracker. "You, where is the exit?" She looked at the closest scientist who was holding a clipboard between himself and her.

    "Hold it, Usami Takae, you''re not permitted to go anywhere." The man in the observation room spoke up after watching her tear her throat open and seal it shut as if it was something she had done before.

    "Are you gonna bring an army to stop me from leaving?" She asked, and he looked at his fellow scientists and cleared his throat. "Let me answer that for you, it''s no, you can''t stop me, you don''t have the resources nor the power to stop me!" She raised her spear and angled it towards the door. "If you don''t let me out I''m gonna start making doors."

    "We are beneath ake-"

    "The pressure nor the water won''t kill me-" she took a calming breath and prepared to throw.

    "If you break the walls of the facility you will kill everyone here-"

    "That''s not my-"

    "Including your brother." He finished, and all her fight left her body as even the spear in her grasp fell to the ground echoing through the silence and then disappearing. "When you started showing signs of waking up a week ago, we moved him over, just in case you turned out to be hostile it seems I was right, please take a seat, he is on his way."

    "Why would I believe anything you say when you won''t even show yourself?" She looked at the camera in the corner. "Do you think I can''t find you?"

    "I don''t know what you''re capable of, and as a man of science who has envisioned possible alien or terrestrial entities that defy said science I was sure to not underestimate the possibility of you being something malevolent, so I have made many countermeasures, the first is a chip directly on his central nervous system, if you so much as breathe the wrong way it will activate and kill him, and it isn''t a case like yours where we were unable to break your skin, if you try removing it or even touch it, it''ll activate all on its own, so as I said, please take a seat and wait patiently for your brother to arrive, doctor, please hand her your tablet and leave." He ordered and then cleared his throat again.

    She didn''t respond, she sat obediently on her bed and watched the man slowly and timidly approach her, stretching his hand with the tablet while trying to stay as far away as possible.

    "It''s locked." She looked up at the man after trying to open it.

    "T-the password is DaddyGojo27, caps on the G and D." He answered and then retreated back to the door and left with everyone else.

    "What am I looking at?" Usami asked as soon as it was opened to the homescreen with "As" spinning.

    "Use the search, you''re looking for the Alpha-T300, that''s the chip inside of your brother''s nervous system, all the information you need on it is right at your fingertips."

    "Aren''t you afraid I''ll figure out how to remove it?" She asked, but after finding her search one of the first things she saw was that the chip couldn''t be removed without implications of heavy nerve damage, it was a one-way prototype designed specifically because of her, there was even video documentation of the chip being surgically nted into the back of his neck.

    "Of course this was a gamble, had you not cared about the boy it would have been the end of us as you boast, but clearly you do."

    "What do you want from me?" She asked calmly and turned off the screen after blitzing through the information, making sure to memorise everything before crushing the tablet in her grasp and throwing the pieces in the corner.

    "I want answers, let''s start from the begining." He sat down and adjusted his tie while the others in observation released a deep sigh of relief. "What is your name?"

    "Usami Takae." She replied.

    "How old are you, Usami?"

    "Twenty-two, I think."

    "You disappeared three years ago, there is CCTV footage of you and six other individuals vanishing from in sight in the middle of the day, can you tell me what happened?"

    "Three years?" Usami gasped.

    "Can you please answer the question?" He asked, and her eyes narrowed as she thought about how she should answer this.

    "I don''t remember, I was supposed to be going to sses when my friend recognised someone and we started walking toward them, and then everything went ck after that."

    "So you have no recollection of any kind?"

    "I just told you I don''t remember what happened!" She snapped. "Why isn''t my brother here yet!?"

    "Calm down and take a seat Usami."

    "Do you honestly think you hold the cards because you have him?" She asked shing her spear and slicing the bed in half. "If you kill my brother I''ll turn this whole world into hell!"

    "But are you willing to see him die though?" The man asked after a few seconds of silence. "Are you willing to kill your brother to get to me?"

    She tossed and turned in frustration, raising her spear several times to throw it and then lowering it again. "Fuck!" Usami cursed and walked over to the farthest corner from the camera and sat on the floor burying her face in her knees. "I don''t remember anything, I was on campus, and then I was here, it''s all... ck."

    "We''ll move on then." He shook his head and leaned closer to the mic. "We already know everything there is to know about you, so what we want to know most of all is what you seem unable to answer, in the meantime we will run tests-"

    "Not before I see my-" She raised her head ready tosh out again but froze when a teen boy stepped through the doors. "Uriyu!" She leapt to her feet, appearing before him with such speeds that everything behind her was violently toppled over, and ont of the lights burst with a loud pop causing him to flinch and take a step backwards.

    "It''s really you..." The boy looked up at her.

    "You''re so much taller now..." she stared.

    His eyes like hers were dark grey, almost ck, his hair was short and trimmed at the sides and he was wearing a in white shirt and pants and indoor shoes. "Usami... no... big sis, it''s you, right?" He mused and then winced when he saw her fall heavily to the floor before him. "What are you doi-"

    "Uriyu." She whispered his name, holding his hand gently and resting her cheek in his palm. "You''re all grown up now..."

    "What? I''m only thirteen." He stared at her, unsure of how to react to someone he had not seen in three years of being abrat.

    "I missed three years," Usami shook and stood, opening her arms before him. "Can I hug you, Uriyu?" She asked, although she waited even he could see the desperation in her expression as she begged with her eyes rather than her voice.

    "No, you''re disgusting, there''s blood on you." He pinched his nose.

    "Right, you hate the sight of blood, I forgot, I''m sor-"

    "Where have you been?"

    "I-"

    "Why did you leave me by myself, big sis, what happened to your promise that you''d never go away like our parents did?" He narrowed his eyes.

    "Let me exin-"

    "Why did you evene back?"

    "Uriyu, don''t antagonise her, she woke up from aa and asked for you first, we have already exined this to you, your sister shouldn''t be under any stress just yet." He heard the man over thems and clicked his tongue in irritation.

    "Then... don''t people die when they go intoas, why did you bother waking up after three years, are you trying toe back and ruin my life after I finally have a family that gives a shit?" He asked, and before she could answer or retort he turned and walked away.

    "Wait!" Usami reached out and grabbed his hand, but she froze when he looked around at her again, those eyes that used to be filled with joy and sad tears now bore none, they were empty and full of hatred towards her.

    "I said don''t touch me."

    "Please..." Usami let go of his hand and fell to her knees again. "Let me exin."

    "Where were you?" He looked at the red marks her blood left on his sleeves with visible disgust.

    "I..." She lowered her gaze, ncing at the camera in the corner. "I don''t remember."

    "Then how can you exin if you don''t even know?"

    "Uriyu, please." Usami reached out to him but then withdrew her hands and hugged herself. "Can I at least hold you?"

    "I don''t want anything to do with you." He stormed off after seeing her cry.

    "Sir..." The doctor next to the man looked at him worriedly. "What if she loses it?"

    "Usami Takae, are you okay?" He asked, staring at her and anticipating a negative reaction, but sighed when she stood up and went back into theb and sat on the broken bed in the mess she had left.

    "Okay, I''ve seen him, and I''ve seen the imnt in his neck, he''s safe and healthy, and he sounds happy." She stared at the camera again. "I won''t do anything to make his life miserable, so go ahead."

    "Pardon?" The man queried.

    "You want something from me, and as long as Iply you''ll keep taking care of him, right?" She stared, hugging her knees to herself.

    "That is correct."

    "Then name your conditions, whatever it is, you want a town to vanish, a city to burn, you want a president dead, you want the world turned upside-down, tell me, as long as Uriyu gets a good life I will do anything you want, so go ahead."

    "What do I do to keep him alive?"

 Chapter 181: Friends and Loved Ones.

    "It''s been ten yearsbined since I was dragged over to Arkadia by that summons."  Usami spoke perfect Arkadian as she sat on a rooftop with a drone floating just before her and observing her every action.

    Her hair had been cut again and she was wearing pink highlights from the roots which made it look a lot like Dina''s natural highlights, it barely touched her shoulders, and she was wearing a modified variant of the As military uniform, personally tampered with to look like her the armour she used to wear on Arkadia.

    In one hand she had a small me ying with like Ikaris used to do all the time; a habit she had developed when she started missing the mboyant goddess, and hovering above het other hand was a very small ball of cackling energy that reswmbled Dina''s [origin explosion\\s].

    She was in the middle of theke watching the sunset, on top of the only building that pierced the surface of the water, reaching the height of a skyscraper.

    "I wonder if they found a way back?" She sighed and leaned on the wall behind her.

    "Whatnguage is that?" One scientist asked through the drone, watching her summon a tiny spear and stabbed her arm with it and then take a vial from the drone''s mechanic arm and scoop up her blood.

    "Does it matter?" Usami retorted, healing her cut and giving the vial to the drone.

    "It matters that you cooperate, of you started remembering anything you should be telling us, for our sakes, yours and your brother''s." The man answered herzily.

    "He''s in hisst year of college now, twenty-four years old, right?" She looked at the drone. "How is he doing?"

    "Your brother has tried a total of five times in thest three years to contact you, if you truly wanted to know you''d respond to him instead of asking the staff, we aren''t responsible for him, that is another division."

    "I don''t deserve to see him after the things I''ve done, the things you''ve made me do." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath of the warmke air. "Nevermind, as long as he''s safe and alive I don''t care, I''m long passed caring." She deadpanned, blocking the sunlight with her right hand and staring at her hero''s sigil.

    "It seems like even if I didn''te he''d be living a good life without me."   She spoke Arkadian again, and then froze when her sigil dimly flickered.

    "Are you okay, there was a sudden spike in your vitals." The scientist asked.

    "Miller, mind your own business, focus on your bald spot and stop worrying so much about me..." She snapped and stared at her sigil again as it flickered brighter. "Say...

    How is she doing, since you don''t want to talk about Uriyu?" She asked and the man sighed and rxed in his chair, gesturing to an assistant behind him and the girl quickly brought her tablet over and opened up a file with live footage of a little girl with ck hair ying with a nurse in arge white room.

    "Everything looks fine she''s ying with the nurses again, do you want to meet her today?" Miller answered. "I heard she''s been asking for you a lot recently."

    "... She may be my daughter, but I''ve been constantly reminded that she''s also As property, don''t pretend like you give a fuck about either of us, especially after you put that damn chip on her spine." Usami lowered her gaze staring at the sigil on her hand as for the first time in seven years a steady glow appeared on it, raising her hopes."

    "Please." She hid the sigil with her gloves and closed her eyes. "It doesn''t matter who it is, please find me, I need your help...!"

    "Your suit is registering high levels of cardiac stress again, and you''re visibly sweating, Usami are you sure that you''re okay?" Miller sat forward and began running tests as the blood sample was returned to them, while he did this, Usami on the surface closed her eyes as a figure blocked out the sun from her, her sigil burned the gloves off her hand and she lowered her head and wiped her tears clean.

    "Yes, I''m okay." Usami answered as Dina grabbed the drone out of the air, turned it around and stared into the lens causing Miller and most of his staff to go still as the scanners quickly identified her as one of the other six missing people from day zero.

    "Hey there, Hero." Dina smiled at her, and as she did she heard rms starting to go off beneath them in the building. "You don''t look a day older than I remember you."

    "And yet it''s already been ten years." Usami answered, opening her arms wide as her friend sniffled andnded on the rooftop, grabbing her in a hug after she crushed the drone. "You came back, how?"

    "Master brought us back." Dina held her tightly. "Why are you in an As facility?"

    "I need your help." Usami opened her eyes when A arrived next, smiling at her, and then she saw three more silhouettes approaching on the horizon.

    "You don''t look like you do, you could clear this smallke with a single leap-"

    "They have my brother... and my daughter." She closed her eyes again and sunk causing Dina to go down with her. "I can''t do anything without harming them, so I''ve been forced to do terrible things, as a hero, as someone who''s supposed to protect, I''ve done horrible things for them!" She cried.

    "Okay, Usami, tell me what I need to know and save the details forter, how do we help?" Dina pulled away from her as her eyes and sigils lit up upon Sol''s arrival.

    "What''s going on up there, wasn''t that Dina?" Miller scurried to send messages on hisputer raising rms and contacting the higher-ups. "Get our sleepers to retrieve the boy immediately and put the girl under maximum-" He yelped and stumbled about when the facility shook and their systems started failing.

    "Fuck, start an evacuation, if the facility copses not a single one of us is gonna survive-"

    "Oh, I don''t think a single one of you deserve to live after what you did to her." Sol was seated in the man''s chair spinningzily with Usami going through the door with Dina while Ikaris had one unconscious guard''s device tapping and scrolling and Sara with A stood on the observation deck staring down into arge white room full of household items.

    "I didn''t n to get involved, I didn''t even care at first, seeing giant mechs running around was pretty cool, but you crossed the line when you not only ckmailed my friend, but also forced her to have a kid against her will and then used that child to further ckmail her."

    "The death penalty is easily a mercy for them." Ikaris showed Sol a file that left him frowning with his eyes exuding golden mana.

    "You didn''t artificially fertilize... You made her unwillingly have a child through natural...!" Sol stood up and grabbed miller by his throat. "Who''s in charge of As, I want the names of every CEO, every named and unnamed partner, every branch director, every manager, every government funder, every military unit, everything, every hairpin and paperclip, down to how they wash their ass!"

    "I''m the branch manager here, I.. if I do that, will you spare me?"

    "No... Miller." Sol looked at the name on his jacket. "You''re all dying, every single one of you, fuck your families and fuck your friends, fuck any kind of life any of you have outside of this organisation, you signed your death warrant the moment you made her do that, how dare you, to a hero, she is supposed to be a hero, and you turned her into..." Sol paused and hissed through his teeth.

    "You fucking pigs, how could you do that to her so many times?" He paused and took a deep breath. "I said I want names!!"

    "We didn''t know!" The man screamed and shuddered under Sol''s wrath. "Please-"

    Millers assistant screamed when the man''s head went flying after Sol lost patience.

    "You... Ren, start talking." He looked at her. "Thest thing I imagined doing when I was supposed to be enjoying my honeymoon is this, so believe me, I won''t budge, you''re dead anyway, so give me a reason to make it painless." He stared at her, and she shakily raised her tablet to him. "System."

    "Yes, master." She appeared next to him and took the tab from the terrified woman.

    "Download every bit of data As has, hack into everything-"

    "Done." She answered before he even finished speaking. "Compared to the technology of Z-Prime, earth is thousands of years behind." She scoffed and threw the tab back at Ren who shook with her forehead pressed against the ground begging for mercy.

    "We have her!" Dina barged back through the door, with Usami holding an unconscious girl at least six years old.

    "What about the imnt?" A asked.

    "I already removed it." Dina opened her palm revealing a small bloody chip with dozens of tentacles at least a foot tall.

    "Is she hurt?"

    "I''ve already healed her as well." Dina replied again and then looked to Usami who was carefully holding the child. "Is there anything or anyone else here that you care about, think carefully."

    "No, kill them all." Usami held the girl securely and closed her eyes. "Everyst one."

    "dly." Sol sped his fist and her along with everyone else vanished, leaving him standing before the As employees. "I don''t usually preach morality, in fact I''m usually an immoral person, but I draw the line at my friend''s and loved ones, and you trampled all over that line, fuck, you spat in my face."

    "W-we don''t even know who you are-"

    "Of course you don''t." Sol looked down at her as she raised her eyes to ask again for mercy.

    "And you never will." He vanished, and in his ce magma started pouring from a portal, and then in every room, in every hallway, more magma began emerging from nowhere, within just a few minutes the sealed facility was erupting with magma from the top like a volcano, having incinerated everything and filled the insidespletely.

    Dina rested her hand on Usami''s shoulder as they stood on the waters watching the building slowly sink and then raised her eyes when Sol appeared next to them.

    "Let''s find your brother."

 Chapter 182: Usamis friends.

    "Hi, Uriyu." A young woman approached a much older Uriyu (than the previous chapter) smiling and waving with a bounce to her steps, she was average in about as many aspects as one could imagine, a in brte, in hairstyle, in clothes even for college standards, and her appearance, her curves, her attitude, everything screamed average.

    "Anne," Uriyu looked up from his studies and smiled at her, closing his book as she leaned over the table and kissed him. "You don''t have any sses today, what''re you doing here-"

    "Yo, dude what''s up?" A young man approached next, and behind him another male came walking in and waving.

    "Yang, and even Steven too? I haven''t seen either of you in days, what''s going on, did I forget my birthday or something?" Uriyu asked, picking at his hair confused and checking the date on his phone as his two friends and girlfriend sat around him.

    "Uriyu..." Anne rested her hand on his arm and looked across the table at the other two. "We have something to tell you-"

    "You''re As spies sent to keep an eye on me." Uriyu responded after looking at how serious the three of them were. "I''m not an idiot."

    "Wh- you knew?" Anne gawked, shocked.

    "Come on, you didn''t think I''d notice three private organisation stiffs when I saw them when I''ve been under your thumbs since I was ten? I knew who the three of you were as soon as I met you four years ago, not to mention you''ve been paying people off to stay away from me, Anne." He sighed and opened his book again.

    "What do you want, as long as you have my sister''s cooperation my safety is guaranteed, right, you''ve always done what you wanted and even crossed the fucking line with her already, so what''s with the hesitation this time?"

    "If you knew then... what about all those love confessions and-"

    "I said all that just to get in your pants, obviously." Uriyu closed his book and looked up at her again with a clearly hateful re.

    "You won''t let any of the much more attractive girls who are interested in me twenty feet near me so I might as well fuck you whenever I want as an alternative, and you were submissive enough to always do as I demanded, so I used you every chance I got." He gestured to her.

    "But seriously, what''s this about?"

    "Uriyu you-"

    "She''s thinking with her feelings right now." Uriyu looked at Steven. "What does As want from me, more blood tests again, bone marrow, my kidney?"

    "The facility was attacked, we lost contact about five minutes ago, thest transmission was an order to get you into hiding." Steven answered concisely. "There''s a safehouse just outside of the city we can-"

    "Was it Order?" Uriyu went serious again. "They found out about my sister but they''re terrified of her, they''d never attack anywhere within miles of her-"

    "Unidentified individuals attacked our subke As facility, as of right now not even satellites are able to find any traces, we''re assuming everyone was killed, we don''t know if it was Order or not." Yang exined while they all stood.

    "What about Usami?"

    "No reports on your sister, whoever attacked sunk it in less than ten minutes... Let''s leave while we talk."

    "Maybe it was her then."

    "She knows what happens to you if she defies As." Anne answered harshly from behind them. "Why would she do it now after ten years?"

    "She gave up." Uriyu answered with a bead of sweat rolling down his cheek, same as them. "She stopped trying to contact me when I turned eighteen, right after you forced her to have a kid, and she hasn''t responded to me the few times I tried talking to her, so it''s clear you broke her; she gave up." He sat in the middle and scratched his neck above his imnt.

    ***

    "I''m such an asshole." Uriyu pressed his forehead into his palm after several minutes of silent driving had psed and they were entering the bridge that led out of city H.

    "Clearly." Anne scoffed from the front seat.

    "I knew what you were doing to her, ever since I saw thatb room when she just woke up, but I didn''t care and I just let it be, even when I was allowed to leave and go to school outside, I just let you do it to her, I took advantage of her love and let her suffer..."

    "There''s nothing you could have done." Anne answered again. "She chose to-"

    "I could have killed myself and freed her." He answered. "If it really is her that''s gone rogue I won''t let you use me as leverage, I won''t let you use me as a bargaing... chip?" He slumped forward and looked to his side where he found Yang pressing a tube with the mechanics of an EpiPen against his leg.

    "You''re in no position to make any kind of demand or decision, just stay silent like you always do and let us take care of the rest- what the hell!" Yang punched the driver''s seat when the car suddenly stopped in the middle of the bridge.

    "Oh shit man, who the hell is this idiot standing in the middle of the road?" Anne mmed her hand against the dashboard, seeing a woman standing opposite of her with her hands against her hips and her head leaned staring through the windscreen at them, she was wearing an aqua blouse with ck shorts, thigh-high socks, and sneakers, and she did not look pleased.

    "Anne, wait, doesn''t something about her look... familiar?" Yang asked, staring intently as the woman began walking toward the car.

    "I don''t care if she''s my sister, we don''t have time for dys like this!" Anne snapped, raising her torso out of the car and flipping Dina off. "Get out of the fucking road you psycho-"

    "Anne get back in the car..." The driver reached for her and pulled at her blouse, but only half of a torso fell back in while her severed arm fell and spurted blood across the cockpit on everyone.

    "Before this bes a headache..." Dina grabbed the door of the back seats, sunk her fingers through the metal and tore it off with a casual yank and tossed it over the bridge, wiping the blood from her cheek as her eyes burned with pink mana.

    "I''ll just say you all had thising the moment you decided that abusing one of ours was something you''d get away with." She grabbed Yang and threw him off the bridge to a 300 foot drop and reached for Uriyu, pausing when the driver pulled out his gun and fired it point-nk against the side of her head.

    "You''re... Just like her..." The driver stared at Dina who had caught the bullet with her teeth.

    "Usami said everyone dies, right?" A asked from the opposite side staring at the driver.

    "Yea, except this one." Dina ignored the driver and pulled a half conscious Uriyu out and hefted him over her shoulder with casual effort once more

    "Please excuse me then." A reached into the car and grabbed the driver by his arm pulling him along with the door on the opposite side and tossing him out just as Yang had been tossed.

    "W-wait!" Steven grabbed on to the driver''s seat when A reached in and took his arm. "Wait!"

    "Hm?" A paused and stared at him curiously. "Ast wish?"

    "Please, I have information, I can be useful... I''ll do anything, please!" He held on tightly to the seat.

    "We already have all the information of your heinous organisation." A smiled at him askance of mercy. "You hurt my friend, you and your people did terrible things to her, and used her brother against her, you don''t deserve mercy." She yanked him so hard his arm snapped when he failed to release the seat.

    "Do not worry, Steven." She called him by name after having the system deliver all the information and every employee profile for all of As. "None of you live past today, rest assured."

    "Who are you people?" Steven cried rolling on the ground after she let him go.

    "Have you not been listening?" Dina looked down at him while Sara, Sol and Usami with her daughter came and loomed, and then Ikaris grabbed the car by the front and tossed it over the bridge as well. "We''re her friends." She turned her back while Usami walked forward and raised her foot over his head staring down at him hatefully and then stomping through his skull.

    ***

    "Sir..." A woman dressed in all ck called to a man that was seated in a car with a tab pad in his hand watching the footage of Sol and the others standing over Steven as he had activated his hidden camera when Dina showed up and turned Anne into half a person. "Sir?" She repeated resting her hand on his knee. "We need to get you to safety-"

    "There is no point in going anywhere." He looked up from his device at her.

    "That woman has the ability to leap from one continent to the next, she has on multiple asions run across the ocean and back, radiation of the highest degree doesn''t even cause her to catch a cold, she is in every way we can think of; indestructible, we have seen the footage, these others are just like her, except they are more ruthless, more forward and far more careless, even if we kill the boy it will only serve to piss them off..."

    "So are we supposed to just do nothing, just sit back and die?"

    "She hasn''t even lifted a finger, just look at what they did, and how fast they did it, the boy was on the other side of the world, even if we''ve never seen her do anything urgently, they''re moving at speeds we can''t predict or counter, we''ve already alerted the president of their presence, I don''t think there''s anything else we can...

    Do." The man stopped talking when a sh of gold flickered next to him in the back seat of his private vehicle and Sol appeared.

    "From one city to another, I can''t believe my enemy this time are humans." Sol sighed while Ikaris appeared next to him in a sh of gold like he did. "What were you thinking?"

    "Wait, at least let my daughter go." The man gestured to the woman in the front seat. "She doesn''t have anything to do with-"

    "Bull~shit." Sol answered without even looking at him. "You''re the chairman, she''s been involved since she was neen, she''s even made a few calls in your absence." Sol tapped his temple. "I know every single thing you''ve done, Mr chairman, you''re guilty, you''re all guilty."

    "Then what do you want, how do I make you go away?" The old man asked.

    "You don''t, you bastard, what you did to her is unforgivable, by sunrise tomorrow, there will be no As, there will be no organisation, just fire and debris." Ikaris answered. "You defiled a hero meant to protect you, there is no redemption, there is no second chance..."

    "There is nothing but destruction."

 Chapter 183: Grief and Rage.

    "There has to be something, please!" The woman in the front seat sped her hands and shook them before Ikaris, but Ikaris gestured to Sol.

    "If you want mercy, ask that not of myself, but of my husband and master, we all fall under his umbre, we all fall in servitude at his feet." She exined, but when the woman''s eyes fell on Sol she found a soulless stare being thrown back at her.

    "His... feet?" The chairman''s daughter stared at Sol''s golden eyes and then looked at Ikaris again.

    "What are you people?" The chairman asked, but a momentter his head was in hisp and Sol was holding on to a small dagger with a half of the de covered in blood.

    "The time for you talking hase to an end, so let me say my final piece." Sol kicked the seat of the chairman''s daughter, and she was smashed against the dashboard bing an unrecognisable pulp while he stared into the camera that was looking back at him.

    "You had your chance, you had many chances to stop and treat her better but you treated her like ab experiment and did as you all pleased, even when you knew and had confirmed multiple times that she''s human that she''s the same as you, you treated her like an animal and worse; you made a hero serve your selfish agendas andmit mass genocide, so now I''m going to forget that you''re all human just as you ignored her, I''m going to treat you all as I please just as you did to her, I''m going to wash the earth clean of the filth that is the As organisation the same way you sent her out to murder for you, mark my words and say your prayers, I aming for you all." He reached for the cam and smashed it with in his palm.

    "Sol..." Ikaris held his arm timidly, and he nodded and rested his hand on her head with a knowing smile.

    "I''m not going to ask you to do this, I would never, it''s not morally correct it''s a personal vendetta, if you killed these people it would change your nature entirely." Sol ran his hand through her hair, pushing the door open and letting her out.

    "Go back to Usami, watch over her and her family with A and Sara, Dina and I will take care of the rest." He ordered her, and without protest or refute she left, a few secondster Dina came crashing out of the air andnding next to him while he exited the car.

    "Are you ready?" He asked and with a wave of her hands she shed her modern attire and armoured herself with her usual mage getup while he remained in his casual wear.

    "Let''s make them pay." Dina''s left eye ticked with an agumented information board Via the system, which showed her who was where and the closest ones to them.

    "Be mindful of your surroundings, don''t let it spill over." Sol nodded and pointed over his shoulder. "I''m going west, and then north, you can take the south and east."

    "Okay." Dina spun and took off into the air like a rocket leaving a torrent of dust and a crater where she stood, he could tell from her willingness to get even that she was angry; more than that she was hurt at what Usami had gone through, more than even he was at the moment.

    "Are you sure you want to do this on the same you will be calling home?" System appeared at Sol''s side when he slowly ascended through the dust and stared chasing the sun across the horizon.

    "It''s exactly because I''m living here that I think it has to be done, and I''m not stopping here either, these organisations that are government funded have power, they are a pain to deal with and they take their power out on the innocent...

    they make people suffer just as much as the demons did, I''m putting an end to them so my kids dont have to live in a world like this, and I''m not just gonna stop there either, earth can be a good home, but changes have to be made."

    "Do you intend on ruling, master?" She asked again and he shook his head.

    "Never, I want a quiet life with my family outside of the public eye as much as possible, but in order to do that I need to be in the spotlight onest time." Sol stopped over a vast desertedndscape opened his hand causing the ground to tremble and start rising. "I''m doing this now so I don''t get bothered by themter on."

    [Mid-tier earth maniption: Sinkhole]

    The ground that had risen suddenly caved in revealing a facility beneath the first hundred metres rapidly falling as all the supporting terrain beneath it disappeared, far beneath that the entire facility plunged into ake ofva and fire and then the earth that had been removed and disced rapidly reformed above it trapping it to slowly sink killing everyone inside without a chance of escape.

    Contrasting Sol Dina was brash and not even trying to be discreet as she found a facility inside of a mountain range and cast [origin explosion\\s] on it evaporating everything from sight, and then as soon as she was sure they were all dead she took off again.

    "Retaliate damnit, we can''t just allow these aliens to do as they please!" One man sat in an oval office with his country''s g paraded next to him by the windows. "Is it impossible to use nukes against them?" He looked at three men who sat before him.

    "Mr president, sir, they are too fast to be intercepted by any kind of unconventional weapon, they are travelling across continents in a matter of seconds, even if we lock on they would be long gone before any of those missiles detonated, and with the current state of the world evenunching a single one would kickstart a global war and cause mass panic and hysterical entropy!" His advisor warned against a rash decision.

    "That damned girl, she lied about not remembering because they sure as hell do, and she sided with them the moment they appeared!"

    "I hate to be the voice on your shoulder right now, but I disagreed with the way she was being handled since the very first day she arrived, we all spected on the possibility of the others who disappeareding back eventually, with how powerful she was we should have treated her more carefully, I warned-"

    "She''s not some god to be revered, none of them are, they''re nothing but murderous monsters!" The president mmed his hand on his desk and stood abruptly.

    "You heard him, he''s not going to stop until everyst one of us is dead, hiding from a monster that can crush an entire underground base is pointless we don''t even know how they got our information- there''s no evidence of a breach, and we don''t have the time to find who sold us out, we need to find his weakness and fast, otherwise..."

    "Another three As bases have already gone silent, the satellites can''t find a single sign of life or even a trace of the bases sir!" A woman was seated in the corner around a single monitor. "We are getting countless distress calls from all across the globe, other presidents and ministers are already trying to contact you-"

    "We need to secure our own home before we even think of helping anyone else, this is a global fucking disaster!" The president turned and pointed to his advisors. "Get out, and don''te back without a solution."

    "Sir we are on limited time we should-"

    "I said get out!" The president snapped. "We should have diverted the money from that huge wall into more powerful weapons after all." He furrowed his brows and pursed his lips. "Damnit." He cursed again.

    "Stacey pack that shit up ande with me."

    "Sir?"

    "We need to get in contact with the other leaders and discuss using those bombs, these assholes are gonna destroy the world if we don''t do something about them."

    "Yes sir."

    ***

    France, London, Ukraine, Spain, Russia... Dina zipped across Europe on a rampage tearing the facilities apart violently and leaving nothing but craters as she did.

    "Dina, the employees are starting to abandon their posts and run off into the popted cities and towns-" System emerged from her peripheral after she hadid waste to her fifth As facility.

    "Have you already spread your influence across earth?" Dina looked at her seriously.

    "The is very small, I did that as soon as we arrived."

    "Then, find them and pinpoint their exact locations, down to the inch."

    "Done." System nodded and then watched Dina take off again, staring at her concerned.

    "Master vestic, I am concerned Dina might be losing herself." Her other self spoke to Sol and he stopped and looked at her.

    "She seems fine from my end, what are you on about?" He asked.

    "Her aggression is reaching levels simr to yours when you fought the demon-god, Sitri, on Arkadia, if she continues she might lose control and cause a cataclysm." She warned him and he lowered his gaze at the facility beneath him burning and then sped his fist causing everything topress to the size of a ball of energy which he grabbed and crushed with his bare hand.

    "Dina." Sol called to her, and she paused just before entering an apartmentplex where one of the employees were hiding.

    "Master, did something happen?" She asked.

    "Ten years is a long time, even if it was just a few months for us, at least visit your parents; let them see you and know that you''re alive and healthy."

    "I made a stop there on my way to the east, master." Dina answered and he felt her emotions spike several times and then fall and repeat the irregr pattern.

    "Dina, is everything okay?" Sol asked when he felt her anger rise and continue rising.

    "They''re gone." She answered. "The house is a crater, and there''s a memorial by the streets, that thing As made rampaged through my neighbourhood and killed my mom and dad, my grandma, my entire family is...!" She stopped talking and tore the wall in front of her apart with her bare hands, finding a man holding on to a woman wearing the As employee''s uniform with a little boy between them.

    "These bastards are responsible for the death of my family, I won''t forgive them, I''ll kill them all!"

 Chapter 184: Only the Guilty is Guilty.

    "I''m killing them all!"

    "Dina!" Sol appeared and grabbed her hand turning it out the hole she had made in the wall just in time for [incineration] to explode into the open air, travelling for hundreds of metres into the sky and then dissipating in the rain.

    "Master..." She lowered her head. "Please, let me do this."

    "As is guilty, that man and child have nothing to do with them, check the data, you know this is wrong." He stared at her holding on to her hand when she tried pulling away from him. "Dina."

    "They killed my parents, Sol." She raised her other hand and weakly punched his chest. "They have done so much wrong, they''ve ruined so many lives, how can anyone live with someone who''s done such atrocious things and still be innocent, they''re all guilty they should all die!"

    "What are we doing currently?" Sol stared at her. "Tell me."

    "Taking down an evil organisation-"

    "We''re exacting personal revenge against As for what they did to Usami, and what they''ve done to your family as well, As; not the families of As employees, don''t do anything now that you won''t be able to stomachter." Sol released her hand when he was sure she had calmed down.

    "Take that anger out on those that deserve it and leave these ones to me." He pointed to the hole, and without a word she slowly flew out and vanished in a st of fire.

    "Don''t do what I did on H��l, revenge doesn''t close your wounds, it just forces them shut with fire while you slowly be your enemy."

    "S-sir-"

    "I''m not sparing you, Hry Decker." Sol stared at the woman who had thought his appearance meant mercy.

    "You made a choice when you decided to join As, you''ve seen what they do, even if you haven''t seen it in thebs the entire world has seen them rampage across countries and continents, seen them wipe entire viges off the map, killing millions over thest six years, you saw all of that and unlike the many others who left you stayed, working in analysis and risk management, you mitigate whether it''s beneficial or not to kill innocent people to pave the road for your boss, there''s no way I''m letting someone without a conscience roam free.

    "I can change-"

    "Thest person who said that to me is the same person who killed my unborn child." Sol''s eyes shed white as he briefly relieved Sitri''s horrors. "Say your goodbyes and get the fuck out." He looked at her husband.

    "Isn''t there anything we can do to change your mind, don''t you have a family of your own?" The man asked, and Sol stared at him, and then at their child crying between them and sighed. "Please."

    "She''s directly responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of men and woman, and children, entire families, I''m not calling myself innocent- I''m the most tainted one here." Sol balled his fist and sat around their dinner table.

    "I have the blood of trillions on my hands, the difference between you and me Hry, is that I did what I did to save my people, to save even earth and the people who live here, I did it to give everyone the chance to live without the threat of demonic invasion looming over their heads at every turn, thinking that my friend; my ally, was here ready to defend you all in my absence." He stared at her watching the colour drain from her face as she thought of what he was saying.

    "Usami was meant to be a hero, a warrior who stands against evils and she''s a damn good one too, she always put her best foot forward even when she was separated from her only family, but then I return and not only do I find out that she has been ckmailed into killing for you and your organisation, I also find out that you people forced her to have children three times in thest seven years, and then you killed two of them in experiments, in the name of your science, in your greedy thirst for power and evolution!"

    He balled his fist looking over at her husband and son who stared at her in horror. "You knew, you saw, and not only did you not leave you helped themmit more atrocious acts! My mercy doesn''t extend to people like you, so I''ll say it again..." He looked to the man once more.

    "Say your goodbyes and get the fuck out, you can alwayse after my life in the future, that''s fine, but if anyone dares to target my loved ones they''re signing over their existence."

    "Evan-"

    "-Let''s go." Her husband pulled the boy away from her and stood, leaving without so much as a word to her.

    Sol walked over to her and extended his hand to her after seeing all her hope wither and die along with her will to survive. "Will it hurt?" She asked, and Sol closed his eyes and shook his head.

    "I''m not a monster, I''m just angry, tired, and in pain, plus they left the room but they''re still watching." He answered her watching her stand and take his hand. "You''ll probably be the only one I extend this mercy to, I made a promise after all." He looked at her husband through his peripheral and then released her hand and vanished when her first tear fell.

    "He''s right, Evan." Hry sat and looked at the door as her husband returned with the little boy holding his leg and looking at her from behind him.

    "I did everything he said I did, and a lot that he didn''t mention as well, I''m a terrible person who doesn''t deserve a second chance." She leaned on the table and looked at her arm when she began disappearing into sparkling dust that blew through the hole in the wall as it slowly mended from Sol''s residual magic.

    "I''m sorry, I really am, Evan, Elliot, I love you both." She smiled at them and then vanished into a flurry of lights and magical residue, leaving the kitchen spotless.

    ***

    Three hours after the incident in Europe with Dina, she appeared in the west hovering about the abode where the President was hidden, high in the sky where nobody could see her, but close enough where sensors detected her as she emitted a steady flow of energy in the night sky, forming rainclouds just as she had done everywhere else that she went, after three hours of relentless back and forth they hade to associate thunder with doom and destruction thanks to her.

    A few minutes after her arrival, Sol arrived as well and without so much as a word he folded his arms and descended like a bomb, destroying the roof of the great-house and crashing thriugh the earth shattering dozens of underground levels until he was standing on top of a bunker some 300 metres beneath the surface.

    "When I was a kid I always wanted one of these." Sol''s eyes shone with white and flickers of golden light as he raised his fist and blew blew a hole in the roof of the bunker with a single punch falling through andnding with his hair bright and white and his eyes scanning for any kind of threat, although he knew that nothing there could harm him.

    Seven people sat around arge table, each of them on his list, and before that table was a screen that took up the entirety of a wall with dozens of monitors each with a single person representing anotherrge government.

    "Sol Vestic." The president addressed him before he said a word, and Sol lowered his defences even more, reverting back to his base appearance and releasing a breath as Dina followed through the hole and snapped her fingers casting a barrier around the entire bunker.

    "Do not utter master''s name with that filth you call a mouth." Dina stepped forward and waved her hands across the room killing everyone except him and his analyst by causing their hearts to implode inside of them, but when she raised her hand toward him Sol stopped her.

    "Don''t, this one doesn''t die, even though he''s the one who deserves to die the most." He instructed her, and she closed her fists and walked over to the corner of the room and took a seat next to the terrified analyst and crossing her arms.

    "Why have you spared the country leaders?" She asked.

    "It would cause another wave of mass panic and hysteria if we killed a bunch of presidents and prime ministers, the countries would fall into chaos, it''s easier to deal with them this way." Sol answered her gesturing that the president sit and after seeing what they had both just done the man took a seat as obediently as a child when he heard he''d live.

    "You''re wondering what I want, right, President Tullok," Sol asked and the man nodded eagerly.

    "Anything you want, I will give it to you without question or-"

    "What I want you can''t afford, unless you have the ability to turn time and undo what you allowed them to do to her."

 Chapter 185: The Takae Family House.

    "Then..." The president swallowed and wiped his forehead. "What should I do?"

    "As we speak, earth is undergoing an important change, there will be an adjustment period, but it''s going to solve a lot of problems specifically where crimes are concerned, the other world leaders, including the ones I''ve let libe are already aware of this, I left you forst because I heavily contemted killing you the most." Sol answered.

    "Lending military support to other countries is escting their wars, giving military aide to other countries has caused mass murder and genocide at every turn, you''re going to stop..."

    "Are you taking notes?" Dina asked keeping her eyes on the woman while she typed away.

    "Y-yes ma''am." She adjusted her sses streaming tears and sweating buckets while she recorded everything she heard.

    "Good... I''m going to enforce every rule and order he gives and if you break a single one I''ming back with hell''s fury, I haven''t and won''t ever forgive any of you."

    "...Understood."

    "What about the countries already engaged in war?" The president asked and Sol scoffed.

    "Currently their leaders are discussing peace under the eye of the system, every warring state, province, country and continent with conflict is currently being led through negotiations, you leaders only get this one chance, if you try to screw me over you''re all going to die and be promptly reced by more capable individuals, in fact there''s no telling, I might just kill you all and set the te clean anyway, but I''m giving you a chance to prevent anarchy." Sol rxed in his seat on the far side of therge table when System appeared at his side staring down at the president with an almost scornful eye.

    "Mr president, you have done quite a number of damnable acts and ordered some terrible things throughout your life and carreer." Shemented, and the man shuddered at her presence and how her voice reached inside of his head and spoke directly into his consciousness.

    "I am the System, henseforth you will be dealing with me." She informed him while Sol looked across at Dina and gestured for her toe to him.

    "Yes." Dina stopped at Sol''s side with her head slightly lowered and her posture rigid, but as soon as he pushed out his seat and opened his arms she sat across hisp, buried her face against his neck and began silently crying.

    [Issuing administrativemand: System has been named Alpha, searching database, Alpha is an eptable name, thank you, master Vestic.]

    Alpha looked around at him stoically when her name was given discreetly and then smiled when he disappeared with Dina before she turned to the president again and snapped her fingers causing the deceased in the room to get transported elsewhere. "Shall we continue Mr President?"

    "May I ask, where you all came from?"

    "That is ssified, only those who are direct allies and family of master are privy to that information." Alpha adjusted her clothes and looked at him seriously. "Now about these crimes you havemitted President Tullok..."

    ***

    "Dina!" A hastily approached as soon as Sol appeared with her in his grasp, walking toward the door of a house apparently owned by Usami. "I am so sorry..." She stopped before them waiting for Sol to let Dina down before she seized her in a warm cuddle and stole her from him ushering her inside where Sara and Ikarisforted her in the living room while he wandered in, looking around.

    "Sol." Usami walked up to him and stood staring at him with her mouth upturned and her lips pressed tightly together. "Sol Vestic..." She balled her fists as tears began flowing down her cheeks.

    "Really, honestly, thank you so much foring back!" She eximed and gave him a proper bow and with her doing so her brother who had already been awake at that point came from the kitchen and did the same, and the little girl seeing her mother and uncle being polite joined them both and inclined herself as well.

    "I''m sorry, Usami, I''m sorry all of this happened to you, I''m sorry I wasn''t strong enough to do anything about it, I swear I''ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you-"

    "Uriyu, don''t be absurd." Usami raised her head and looked at her brother, raising him to stand before her and patting his shoulders and smiling while she sniffled. "You grew into a beautiful and capable man, I couldn''t have asked for anything else, it happened suddenly but you best believe As is gone for good, with my friends here there''s nothing to ever be worried about again."

    "I''m not capable, sis, I fucked up, I fucked up a lot, I let all of those things happen to you... I-"

    "You''re no longer alone." Usami held her taller brother and pulled him into a hug keeping his head against hers as he bent and hugged her. "It''s okay, I don''t hate you, Uriyu." She smiled when he shook. "Let''s move on from all of this." She held him tightly and then released him with her hand patting his chest over his heart. "We can talk more in the morning, go rest."

    "Yeah." Uriyu rested his hand on her head and smiled sadly at her. "Sir, thank you for everything you''ve done today," He looked to Sol who was standing next to them and then left after a nod from his benefactor.

    "Sol." Usami turned to him and sighed raising her daughter on her side as the girl yed with her hair. "Thank you, really, I don''t think I''ve epted that I''m actually free yet because of how sudden this all happened, I can only say thank you for now." She stared at him devoid of even a smile.

    "Nothing else is necessary." Sol smiled at her and then her daughter.

    "They didn''t want to name her, but I had gone ahead and named her Gia anyway." She smiled at her daughter, making signs with her one hand while the little girl nodded and did the same.

    "That''s Dina''s middle name." Sol spoke up while the others had stopped and stared at them. "She''s adorable."

    "I hate how she came to be, hate it, but I love her so much that it kills me, I had to pretend that I didn''t care so they wouldn''t use her as more leverage to get me to do worse things..." Usami made more signs with her fingers, smiling when the girl read her lips and hugged her. "If she would have died in thosebs...

    I''d have probably killed myself..." She admitted just before Dina came and hugged her from behind resting her forehead against her neck.

    "Don''t say such things."

    "She was born with mana, but I sealed it off before anyone even realised, it made her weak and fragile, but if they had tried turning my baby into a weapon...

    I don''t know if the me before you would be the same person you know, I''d have be a devil, I thought about it so many times "what if I could just shut off my feelings and kill indiscriminately," but every time I thought of Gia and Uriyu I swallowed it down and stayed my hand." She looked at the girl that had fallen asleep in her embrace.

    "I''m so happy that I didn''t, I''m also disappointed in myself that I couldn''t."

    "It took greater courage to hold on, you didn''t choose wrong, that sigil on your hand means something, you''re not a monster, Usami, you are the spear hero." Ikaris carefully took the little girl from her grasp, and Sol saw the goddess melt as she was hugged and snuggled against, her smile and her eyes softened into puddles and her whole posture became flexible and exuded a motherly aura.

    "She glows."  Ikaris smiled. "I will put her to bed."

    "There''s a small room at the end of the hall to the right, it was originally Uriyu''s but he long outgrew it." Usami kissed Gia''s forehead and then let Ikaris take her away.

    "This is your family home?" Sol asked, and she pointed to the wall behind him where he found a bunch of old photos of her, her brother and even their parents.

    "One of the few requests that they agreed to was having this house remain mine, whenever I could I would stop here and clean, while it was otherwise maintained by them." She answered and then turned to everyone. "Did you stop by Arkadia first?"bshebasked looking at Sara. "And Eris still didn''te?"

    "Lady Eris... has a baby boy, and she did not want to raise him here on earth." A answered. "But that was not her real reason for noting with us." She added.

    "She couldn''t even look me in the eye when I was sent back."

    "Guilt." Sol answered before anyone else could. "She''s been regretting noting with you, she''s been beating herself up over how she treated you, she didn''t want toe back because she was afraid of facing you, she didn''t feel worthy of any form of forgiveness after what she did and I don''t disagree with her, she did treat you poorly." Sol rested his hand on her shoulder and smiled at her.

    "She asked me to apologise on her behalf and I want to apologise as well, what happened to you..."

    "Thanks, Sol." Usami smiled and hugged him squeezing his torso so tightly he felt the air leaving his lungs. "Now then." Usami turned and pinched Dina''s neck and stared at A''s. "These two have been calling you master since you all got here and they have Ikaris''s tattoos now too."

    "What kind of degeneracy have the four of you been up to in my absence?"

 Chapter 186: A System Window.

    "Degeneracy?" Ikaris came skipping down the stairs and floating to a quietnd next to Usami. "Nothing of the kind." She pinched her cheek and chuckled.

    "Of course we arepletely wholesome you see." A added, but in the back of Dina''s head all she could think about was how many times she''d already been pressed and pounded until she lost her ability to talk, she couldn''t hide the blush that crept across her cheeks and ears.

    "Are you kidding me, look at her." Usami gave A a deadpan and pointed at Dina. "It may have been a sec since we saw each other, but I have known her for most of my life and I have never seen this girl glow like this!" She took Dina''s hand.

    "Come on, you''re spilling the beans." She dragged Dina up the stairs and A panicked and chased after them, leaving Sol with Ikaris and Sara standing in amusement.

    "It seems she hasn''t changed all that much either." Ikaris smiled, and Sol nodded and walked into the living room, taking a seat and sighing.

    "Thankfully, she managed to hold on to a major piece of what made her so likeable in the first ce, but she''s right, we could havee back and seen a monster, instead of the As Organisation, what if Usami had been the one that had to be stopped after rampaging across the?" Sol asked as he was joined by his wife while Sara gave them a bow and disappeared in the shadows.

    "I am ted that such was not the case, Ikaris pulled her legs into the sofa and rested her head on his chest while he held her onto himself.

    "I think I said it before, but I like her; she was always honest with her thoughts and provocations, and I havee to appreciate the rarity of someone like Usami in what you all call modern times." She snuggled against him when he started dragging his fingers through her hair. "I have grown to appreciate you even more every day I spend with you, every second I spend in your presence...

    Youplete me, my King."

    "I love you too." Sol smiled and raised her chin cing a soft kiss on her lips.

    "My Queen." He kissed her again, and then again while she continued to slowly turn until she was sitting in hisp with her hands locked in his hair and his hands holding her leg and waist, they would have gone further, but Uriyu trying to sneak by them to get into the fridge caused Sol to adjust her blouse and snicker when Ikaris leaned onto him to further hide herself from the boy''s gaze.

    "Sorry..." Uriyu hid his face embarrassed as Ikaris looked over Sol''s head at him and his eyes met her cerulean gaze, he bowed in apology and then quickly took out a bottle of water and scurried up the stairs again, but as soon as he was on the top of the stairs he nearly yelped from surprise when he came face to face with and nearly crashed into A who had just exited his sister''s room.

    "Careful there." A smiled at him and skipped out of his way. "Good night."

    "S-sorry... Good night." He gave her a bow as well and then quickly went into his room and slid down the door after shutting it.

    "Holy fuck..." Uriyu opened his water and drank the whole bottle where he sat, rubbing his eyes and staring at the slowly spinning fan in his ceiling. "My sister came back prettier, but those three... A, and Dina and especially Ikaris, oh my god." Uriyu squealed and rolled across the mat stopping at his bed and flinging himself atop it with a groan.

    "And I think that other girl''s name was Sara, right? She''s cute too and dainty like a fairy."

    "Fuck, I''ve never seen anyone as beautiful as them in my whole life!" He rolled around on his bed and flopped onto his stomach. "How can I sleep knowing the three most beautiful women I''ve ever seen in my life are literally just walls away?" He contemted, taking out his phone and checking the time.

    "It really isn''t thatte either!"

    ***

    "So they are the same?" Usami gawked staring at Dina''s sigils slightly glowing as she exposed her back. "Like, a ve contract like Ikaris''s?"

    "Well, we don''t call it that, it''s the term used and I''d dly own it, but he prefers to call us his lovers." Dina smiled and pulled her blouse over her shoulders again while A returned with a bottle of wine and three sses, closing the door behind her with a flick of her finger and settling on the bed next to them.

    "You too?" Usami looked at A and she chuckled and nodded while her ears flickered and shook regaining their original length as she rxed herself in their presence.

    "I do not mind being called ve, in fact, being chained and dragged around by him was such a... Hnn~" The elf made a light moan and down everything in her ss falling on her back causing her breasts to bounce healthily as her sigils flickered crimson and then went dull again. "I do not care what he calls me."

    "Same." Dina rested on her side over A and pressed her cheek against the elf''s exposed stomach now that she was wearing shorts and a in blouse that had ridden up as soon as sheid down, revealing just the bottom of her bosoms. "It doesn''t matter at all to me either."

    "Wha~" Usami stared at them in disbelief. "What about Ikaris though, thest time you had tried going between her and Sol, she broke your nose." She pointed out and Dinaughed out at the fact that she''d forgotten that incident.

    "Ikaris is the one who made it possible, I love her, I respect her, and I''d never try to do what I did back then, I don''t think it''s even possible to try, I''m so happy where I am as her right hand that it''s impossible for me to even see myself doing it, she called me her wife, I just want to keep everything the way it is, I''ll follow them through hell without them asking.

    "Indeed, if this is the life of a concubine I much prefer it over any other kind of living." A chuckled when Dina blew against her skin.

    "God, you''re both totally gone huh?" Usami leaned on her fist and smiled, swirling her wine in the ss and taking a sip.

    "I think I might have liked him too back then, I was curious how he had so many beautiful women surrounding him when he seemed so in and uninteresting, but the more I knew him and the more his true self was revealed the more I realised it was because they felt safe in his presence."

    "But it was at most just a little crush, I could never give my everything to anyone like that again." Usami gestured to them, reaching for Dina''s leg and pressing her finger against the sigil on her inner thigh. "Complete servitude, total and unyielding trust...

    the life I lived before Arkadia, and then what happened with Morn made me lose all trust in men, honestly I hated them, and then when I came back here... the only man in my life is always going to be my little Uriyu, even when he''s moved on and left me behind." She stopped talking when the two of them sat up staring at her. "Sorry."

    "Tell me more about the big wedding, you all went up into the Arkadian heavens, what did it look like?"

    "Not once but twice, first we have to go back a little, have you ever heard of the Godyer?" Dina made wild gestures excitedly when she saw Usami trying to lighten the mood by changing the topic.

    ***

    "I can''t believe you fell asleep here." Usami stood over Sol and Ikaris who had dozed off in the sofa and spent the night there.

    "We talked each other to sleep." Ikaris sat up and stretched then looked behind her in the kitchen where A had her usual wild bedhead and Dina was yawning and stretching while Sara expertly handled breakfast with Uriyu sitting in the corner trying his best not to stare. "Did we miss anything?"

    "Alpha." Sol called, and the system appeared in person next to Usami with her head lowered.

    "Good morning, master Vestic." She greeted him. "I havepleted your request, I am ready to go online." She notified him and he nodded when everyone stopped and looked at what he was doing.

    "Launch it then." Sol sat straight and stared before himself just as a small blue system window appeared holding basic information as well as an official message, not just for him but for every human on the.

    [Greetings, I am Alpha; the newly installed system designed with the purpose of bettering your lives here on earth and securing an honest and transparent utopia.]

    "Master?" A called from the kitchen standing and hurrying over to him, but by his expression she went silent and smiled, if he was the one responsible then she trusted his judgement, it was a simple panel, and she could see her name as well as everyone else''s when she looked at them.

    [Name: A Amastacia

    Age: 27

    Gender: Female

    Status: Taken]

    [There are no rules set by the administrator and no punishments designed to harm you, you are free to go about your daily lives with one exemption, look closely on the name tags of the people surrounding you, this is the first step to a peaceful crime-free world.] Alpha guided them into the first step.

    [ording to the life one has lived, whether they havemitted crimes or not their name tags will slowly or drastically change colour; white meaningplete purity and innocence particrly designed for children, and from there you have blue, green and yellow which range between the average person, orange being someone who hasmitted a jail-worthy crime, red being a felony and\\or serious offence, and ck being more serious crimes, for example murder or the otherwise responsibility of taking someone''s or a collevtive of people''s lives.]

    [What you have before you is a chance to start anew, the colour of your tag does not remain permanent and with the correct punishment one can easily reduce the guilt they have just as they can increase it bymitting criminal acts, look to your leaders, your neighbours, your friends and acquaintances.]

    [There is no hiding the colour, and those who are within the red and ck categories their crimes will be revealed with the word "inspect" personal justice via vigntism is still crime byw killing outside of self-defence will change the colour of your name, do be careful of your actions.]

    [Judge and be Judged]

 Chapter 187: Estate.

    [It has already been three months since this strange phenomenon called the System Window has been making waves across the entire globe, with dozens if not tens of dozens of religious groups known and unknown crawling out of the woodworks and taking im to this supernatural mystery while on the other side of the spectrum, chaos continues to fester with several groups of red and ck titled criminals calling themselves P.K.ers, generally between the ages of 16 to 35, said to have been influenced by MMO games and fantasy novels which show the highest poprity within these age groups-]

    "I expected them to at least try to live their lives correctly, but a lot of unexpected people have chosen to go the wrong path-"

    "This is what happens when you introduce any kind of drastic change to humans wherever they are, and the ones who are behaving out of sorts aren''t people who have changed overnight, from what Alpha has told me only a single percent of people have chosen that path after the system was put there, the rest were already in the orange to ck categories." Sol turned off the TV and looked down at Ikaris.

    "It''ll clear up within a year''s time, if it doesn''t then I''ll personally take action, because as far as they''re concerned, ck tags already don''t deserve to live."

    "I told her not to keep tabs on that channel, but she doesn''t listen." Dina walked through a hall, shaking her head and taking the remote from Sol''s hand. "Come on, Ikaris you''re supposed to be resting today." She extended her hand.

    "I hardly have much to do these days as-is." Ikaris pouted and took Dina''s hand, rocking herself to a stand and smiling at Sol when he held and steadied her.

    "Do you want to go out for a bit then?" Sol asked, and Dina huffed in surrender when she saw Ikaris''s smile widen and felt her excitement shoot through the roof.

    "Nowhere dangerous though." A walked into the spacious living room next wearing an apron with gravy stains apanied by Sara who wore casual clothes and the same.

    "What dangers can there be for I?" Ikaris chuckled, but still smiled again when Sol extended went on a knee before her and helped her into a pair of shoes.

    "Absolutely none, I''ll protect you." Sol stood and kissed her forehead, and then patted A and Dina''s heads and smiled at Sara. "That said we aren''t going too far, so you can choose anywhere within this country."

    "That''s your idea of not too far?" Dina snapped with rounded eyes pointing to him and gesturing around, while A and Sara burst outughing.

    "Goodness Dina, I am only pregnant..." Ikaris chuckled at the light mood and looked down at her belly with a softened smile. "Besides the ce I want to go is not that far either way, it is within driving distance and I would rather driving than any other means of quick transportation." She looked up at them and they all collectively sighed.

    "I shall apany you then." Sara spoke up casting a veil of shadows around herself and equipping heraid outfit in a matter of seconds, stepping out of the veil with a small kerchief wiping thest gravy stain from her elbow and gesturing to the door. "Please."

    "Well, I suppose that settles that, Dina would you like to help me in the kitchen, we were almost finished." A poked Dina in her side with a wooden spoon.

    "I have sses in a bit remember." Dina snatched the spoon and waved it at her, and the elf sighed and slumped. "Why don''t you just go with them, I thought you''d be excited to travel around but you''re even more of a housewife than Ikaris is."

    "I never truly had the opportunity to enjoy day-to-day living, so I have been rxing and taking it all in, this peace is lovely; far more than anything I could have ever imagined; we are here together, no enemies, no threats, just living like one family, we dine as one, we share amongst each other, and I quite enjoy you and Master sharing how your days went, I enjoy serving Master and taking care of Ikaris with Sara and you, Dina." A chuckled.

    "I would never ask for another thing, this is happiness I never knew existed."

    "Agreed." Sara added her piece.

    "Come with us, A." Ikaris gestured as she began walking with Sol."

    "But, the food-"

    "If Ikaris ising with us then we''ll be eating soon anyways." Sol scoffed causing the goddess he lead by her shoulders tough while Sara pushed the doors of the front porch open revealing arge front yard with trimmed grass and gardens to the side, and further forward a farm with horses and caretakers.

    A little man approached them from the side and stopped, waving. "Sir, Ladies, will you be back soon?" He asked, holding his hat to his chest and resting his hedge trimmer at his side.

    "A few hours at most." Dina answered, stepping out and swinging her bag idly followed by A before the doors behind them closed on their own. "The estate is off limits as usual, anyone who intrudes without permission will be fired and charged with trespassing, you know, it''s in your contracts." She looked over at him and he nodded and smiled at her.

    "Of course Miss Levina, I''m well aware as is everyone else that works here, we would never repay the kindness Mr Vestic has shown us with betrayal he allowed us to live on hisnds and we only work minimum hours for an outrageously generous ie, rest assured we will keep watch and report on any strangers that even daree close, you have a lovely day now, and be careful Ms Vestic!" He waved happily at them and went back to work trimming the hedges.

    "I like that guy, did I ever mention that I liked him?" Sol looked over his shoulder at the old man. [View]

    [Name: Murphy Addams (blue)

    Age: 57

    Gender: Male

    Status: Taken]

    "I should give him a raise, he really knows how to sweet-talk people." Sol chuckled when Dina dipped into his back pocket and pulled out bike keys while Sara took out another set of keys from the purse she was carrying and took the driver''s seat of a car while Sol opened the door and let Ikaris in and A took the front seat.

    With the power Sol had it was an easy task getting his wealth back from the many banks that had bought portions of his ount after Ikaris had loaded a few trillion into it added from the hundreds of billions ten years prior, of course the very president and other world leaders he had spared were the ones who issued most of the orders federally stretching their powers as thin as possible in every way to appease the one they had collectively dubbed the horseman of death.

    For thest three months they had settled on a former As-owned estate overlooking arge pond with a mountainous backdrop that had been an off-book base, with a few modifications here and there they had turned the formerly fortified ce into a child-friendly home living in leisure and hiring some of the locals in the surrounding area as well as workers from far who left their previous homes when the riots began and even helping them build houses closer to them forming a smallmunity since the closest town was a little under three miles away at the time.

    Thend and all its assets had been freely transferred over to Sol''s name legally, making him the owner of a fifty mile wide expanse of unusednd, and then most of the other As-ownednd was given to him as well as Usami as an apology, but since she refused them and chose to stay in her own home they wereter transferred to him, and while his own home was built and modified he had several other projects simr to his expanding open-gatemunity underway.

    Within a year''s time most of hisnd would be upied by tenants, but of course for the sake of hising child the biased ownership per lot was going to be those within the white, blue and green tagged people, only the most honest and innocent citizens; his only requirement, even if he knew such people usually came with the baggage of annoying neighbours.

    By himself he had the wealth of a whole country, except unlike any other country he was free of debt since who dared take taxes from a being who destroyed an organisation that had ruled the world for seven years?

    On that same note Order had disbanded all on their own when they caught wind of Usami''s freedom as well as others like herself appearing and wiping the more dominant As off the map, killing every active agent and member as far up as their managing heads and owners.

    "Mdy," Sara called to them pulling out of the driveway while A turned up the radio to soft ssical music and began humming to the tunes. "Your destination?"

    "The new park by the pond, Sara." Ikaris smiled, looking out the window and waving to children passing on the opposite side of the road and then looking up at the great barrier Sol had created restricting anyone who bore Ill intent from entering, invisible to the naked eye and all forms of technology.

    "Right away Mdy."

 Chapter 188: Neighbours.

    "We have arrived." Sara announced, pulling into a dirt parking lot the size of a small mall.

    "That was fast, indeed." Ikarismented, looking across the lot at the flickering lights.

    The waters of the pond reflected onto the surrounding trees with a metre tall thin wooden gate that blocked it from all angles, and a stone road that surrounded the gates making it possible for children to safely walk by without the fear of falling into the water, as an added measure Sol had even ced a rune at the bottom of the pond that would activate if anyone''s life was in danger, bringing them somece safe and wiping their memory as well as the memory of anyone else who witnessed the incident.

    "Even though youmissioned it because you wanted somece for the kids toe and y, you''reing here for the first time after it was finished two months ago." Sol opened the door for Ikaris and helped her out. "I never expected the first few dozen families to all have kids though." Sol looked at the park again amazed at how bustling it was with children and adults everywhere everywhere.

    "Alpha, how many residents do we have currently?"

    [Currently there are 605 residents, 470 adults and 135 children ranging from newborns to fifteen years] she answered without appearing since they were in a public space and had gained quite the few eyes on them when the people saw new faces.

    "At this rate I''ll have to give this ce a name soon, calling it area 10.B is a bit boring." Sol chuckled reaching before Ikaris and catching a frisby that flew by his head. "I don''t think we''ve all enjoyed the outdoors without a threat or enemy before." He looked over his shoulder as two teenagers came running over. "Careful."

    "Sorry." One smiled at him and took the toy and then the two of them turned to Ikaris and stared at each other before gesturing to her.

    Both: "Sorry, miss."

    "It''s fine have as much fun as you want, just watch out for the kids and elderly." Ikaris smiled at the boys and the both blushed and ran off after apologising again.

    "I will secure a spot and set up your pic, Mdy." Sara went to the back of the vehicle and opened it up while A reached in, using her teleportation magic to summon things she thought they would need, being as discreet as possible.

    "Then in the meantime, I want to visit the yground." Ikaris began walking, pulling sol along. "Come husband, give me a tour."

    "Haha of course, wife." Solughed as he walked with her.

    Their intention was to be there at most three hours, but the allure andfort of the park kept the four of them there all the way through the rest of the day until most families hade and gone.

    "It looks like I missed quite the day." Dina approached them beneath the tree hey had set up a table while they were chatting with one of the families that had just arrived and joined them, eating abined dinner, she pressed her forehead against A''s and then kissed Ikaris''s cheek before taking a seat next to Sol and epting the te he had prepared in advance andying a kiss on his cheek as well.

    "Hi, I''m Dina." She reached her hand out and shook the hand of the woman opposite of Ikaris who also had a baby-bump shaking her hand and using [view] to check her name.

    "I''d argue that you are right on time, Dina, I''m Ivan." She smiled, at her left was her husband Henry, and to his left their older son Harry and to Ivan''s right their younger son Henry jr.

    "This is nice, we just moved in a week ago so today is the first time the whole family has been able to go out like this, it''s easy making friends when everyone''s adjusting haha." Henry smiled at Sol after greeting Dina with a nod, raising his cold beer to which Sol did the same and popped his open taking few big gulps and sighing as the cold beverage washed down his stomach.

    "Where are you originally from?" Harry, who was the splitting image of his mom down to her dark auburn hair and green eyes, even with the rounded sses asked, staring at Dina who sat across from him.

    "I used to live in upper City Q two states away from here, I was away when the As organization''s experiment went rogue and I ended up losing a lot because of it, so Area 10.B is a fresh start for me." Dina answered politely, smiling at the young man and then raising her hands when Sara came around and.

    "How terrible, I saw that on the news, a lot of people died when that thing got out of control..." Ivan started, but saw Dina''s expression sadden and stopped talking. "I''m sorry."

    "No, it''s fine, a lot of people lost their loved ones, besides, As was destroyed after that so they got what they deserved." Dina smiled and picked up a fork full of food after tasting it and turned to Sol. "This is tasty, here." She fed him, and then wiped his lips with her thumb and stuck her finger in her mouth while he hummed and chewed.

    "Is it? I have not tried that one yet." Ikaris looked across at them and Sol leaned out of the way allowing Dina and feed it to her as well, watching her glow as she slowly chewed and blushed at the tasted exploding in her mouth.

    "Ich melchs ing my mouch (it melts in my mouth)" Ikaris nodded, praising the vours as she ate, and then swallowed and looked at A and Sara. "Which one of you made this, I have never had anything like it!"

    "When I was still in the service of  Lady Schneider I spent a lot of time testing my cooking skills while I waited, I daresay it was one of the things that kept me sane." Sara spoke up while A epted another bite from Ikaris and swooned over the taste as well.

    "Sara this is amazing." Sol praised her.

    "It seems there is still yet a lot I must learn if I am topete with you, Sara." A chuckled after eating her share. "It is truly delicious!"

    "I didn''t know people still hired maids in this day and age." Henry stared at Sara. "Can I ask how old you are young miss?"

    "I will be twenty-four in the next few months." Sara answered nonchntly and went over to Dina again, sharing a different portion of food and thening over to their side and sharing seconds for the boys and then Ivan while Howard refused a second sharing and tappex his dad-bod belly.

    "You all seem drastically different, from your mannerisms to the way you react with each other, I thought you were friends having a pic together but, are you lot actually family?" Ivan gestured to them with a curious eye and Sol''s eyes slightly narrowed as he smiled and looked down into his te when he felt her using the system to pry into their names and even trying to see if they were hiding anything.

    "Well," Sol gestured to Ikaris. "My wife, A, and Sara are from overseas, while I''m from City Q, like Dina." He gestured to them each.

    "Oh, immigrants... No wonder they are so exotically beautiful, they really look out of ce here." Ivan started matter-of-factly and her husband cleared his throat and sat forward looking at Sol and hoping his wife didn''t offend them.

    "Adjusting has not been as smooth as we imagined, but simply being here is enough to make me the happiest I have ever been." A spoke up before Ikaris who was visibly bothered by the way the woman across from them had said it.

    "Where sir goes so too will I." Sara added, taking a seat and starting on her dinner as well while the lights under the tree went on and the sun dipped below mountains west of them.

    "It''s so strange, usually when we try to use the system it gives me the information of a person, but I can''t seem to get it to work when I use it on you, all I can see are your first names." Ivan stood up and took her phone from her purse.

    "Ivan, put the phone down, what are you doing?" Henry stood abruptly a d reached for her phone but she dodged him and kept him at arms length calling a number she had saved in it.

    "I am making aint to the number we all got when we came here, the owner of 10.B, Mr Vestic said that we should always report suspicious people-"

    "Do these people strike you as suspicious though, really?" Henry snapped and turned to them apologising before trying to take the phone from her again without using any more force and upsetting or harming her.

    "Sir, should I?" Sara asked Sol when her phone began ringing and Sol nodded and gestured that she ept the call.

    "You are speaking to Sara, Mr Vestic''s head of security for 10.B, thank you for calling, Ms Be." Sara answered her phone and looked up at Ivan who had gone silent and the rest of her family who''s jaws had hit the floor.

    "I appreciate your honesty, Ivan, the whole reason I only allow those who''s names are untainted is because I can trust they''ll be a bit headstrong when they try to enforce the rules I set."

    "However, I must ask that you not simply judge someone because you''re unable to understand them or because they are from a different country, if I have to keep answering toints like these then I''m going to remove the ones making theint, if you don''t mind, I''d like to finish my dinner as well as my beer before it gets cold." Sol stared while A, Sara, Dina, and Ikaris calmed down and daintily ate, reserved of their previous friendliness as their moods had been soured.

    "Please, have a seat."

 Chapter 189: Second Warning.

    "Mom, you''re so embarrassing." Henry jr hid his face from Sol''s side of the table causing Ikaris to snicker. "I can''t believe you do this to the first people you meet." He added, leaving Ivan speechless as she took a seat and put her phone in her bag again after Sara hung up and put away her own.

    "So, Sol; as in Sol Vestic the one who is building 10.B ...?" Ivan looked across the table timidly at them, swallowing when nobody aside from Sol looked up at her.

    "It''s none of your business if you can''t see the details of our identities, you are seeing enough by our first names to know that we aren''t shady, you made a decision based on personal bias and belief, while it doesn''t harm us, if it had been someone else they would have had security show up at their doors and question their integrity, it''s an inconvenience and a hassle." Sol turned his head when Ikaris offered him something from her te.

    "Mmm."

    "I don''t want incidents like this happening again, this is supposed to be a ce we can raise our kids in peace without worrying that something or someone might harm them from the inside." He looked at Henry who nodded in agreement while seemingly sweating buckets.

    "Mr Vestic, can I ask something else on the matter?" Harry raised his hand politely, and but it was Ikaris who looked up at him while Sol started eating again.

    "You don''t need permission to speak, Harry." She smiled warmly.

    "It''s just that, your names are all kind of glowing, I mean everyone''s name tags glows a lottle, but yours are literally glowing, all five of you, what''s up with that?" Harry asked. "Are you some kind of super citizens?

    "Was I also like that a few years ago?" Sol looked at Dina and she chuckled and then burst outughing.

    "If I recall, when you were neen you wanted to sign up for the police academy, but your situation back then..." Her smile faltered and she closed her eyes and took a sip of water. "Back then...you..." She stoppedpletely and bit her lip. "We should forget the past and keep looking forward, Master, but no; you were apletely different person back then."

    "Master?" Harry adjusted his sses, Henry raised his head, and Ivan stared when they looked up and found Dina caressing Sol''s cheek and him closing his eyes and smiling at her care while Ikaris and the others watched with a smile of their own.

    "It''s been a while so I really forgot, but I guess it''d be a fairly fresh memory for you, what four years ago?" Sol sighed ignoring Harry repeating what Dina had called him and nodded as he too rembered that at neen is when he started dealing illegal substances and going astray the most. "I won''t say it didn''t happen for the best, we all ended up here, after all."

    "Sir, another call." Sara stood and walked over to him.

    "If it''s aint just alert-"

    "No, it''s from the president, Sir." She showed him the screen and Sol sighed and took the phone from her hand.

    "I told you not to call this line, it''s reserved only for those who actually live here are you trying to piss me off, why didn''t you call my number, don''t you have me on speed dial?" Sol made a gesture of excuse and stood from the table, resting his hand on Ikaris''s shoulder as he walked away.

    [I was afraid you wouldn''t answer if I called you directly, sir.] The president responded and Sol nodded and scratched his chin, of course he''d ignore it; he didn''t want to interact with someone who was directly linked to Usami''s suffering.

    [This is urgent though, one of our northern-most countries under your umbre has been ordering their armada closer to the borders of another, forcing them to do the same as a countermeasure, given the history these two countries have, I think it might be an invasion, war will break out between the two-"

    "Is that all?" Sol asked and the president stood ufortably by the window of his oval office and stared at his g.

    "What do you mean?" Tullok asked.

    [If it''s only war between two countries then that''s fine, if someone wants someone else''snd let them fight it out the winner takes and the loser is left to pick up their pieces, I won''t intervene in any country''s affairs unless they start wantonly killing civilians for no reason, if that happens I''ll make an example of them, but otherwise this is of no concern, if you want to help do so after they have fought not becore or during.] Sol spoke while the president stared out into the night sky fixing his tie and then turning around to his three advisors again.

    "So you are saying-"

    "Let me be clear." Sol cut him off, looking around at his family eating and conversing with the Henry and his family.

    "There''s no umbre, all I did wasy out some simple rules to ensure that your wars don''tst decades and ruin the world." He looked around at everyone while Sara stared at him listening and Henry stared because he just saw someone get pissed at the president for interrupting their dinner.

    "If someone can''t protect their country from invasion then they ought to give leadership to someone else who can, it''s as simple as that; a bunch of inadequate leaders weakens the world''s overall capacity to grow and perform optimally, let them fight if they want, nobody will help either side.

    Let the strong devour the weak, and don''t call me for petty squabbles amongst minor countries like this, if I needed to know alpha would have told me directly."

    "Ah... Yes." Tullok answered again and Sol hung up and turned to his family, gesturing for Sara toe get her business phone.

    "Will you not intervene?" Ikaris asked when he came and took a seat again.

    "If they want to fight it out let them fight, without someone greedily funding their fused someone will have to forfeit within the next two to three months, when that happens a winner is decided and the others can swoop in for damage control, I''ll say this; it''s gonna be nasty." Sol answered and A looked at him with a nod.

    "Indeed, it will serve as a lesson to the others when they see the aftermath, conflicts will be more internal that external as they scurry for better leaders instead of salivating over their neighbours''nds and resources, there will be more treaties and trades as well, it just takes time." A added and Sol snapped his fingers and looked over at her with a proud smile, after spending so much time with her peacefully he often forgot that she was an extremely intelligent strategist whomanded millions of soldiers back on Arkadia.

    "Precisely."

    "Sol." Henry cleared his throat. "If it''s no issue, can I ask whatne of upation you follow?"

    "It''s fine, it''s global security." Sol answered lowering his fork into an empty te when Sara stood and started clearing them. "We operate on an international scale to ensure that ces like this are moremon in the aftermath of thest seven years of chaos around the world thanks to thete As and Order organisations."

    "It is quite the fulfilling job." A added, and Dina agreed, as did Ikaris.

    "All of you?" Ivan asked shocked. "I thought you were in college that''s what Ikaris said earlier when she mentioned you would be joining us." She looked at Dina and thetter smiled and nodded.

    "I am in college, I only work part-time." Dina stared at her.

    "I''m a little confused, how do you know each other?" Harry adjusted his sses again, leaning on the table and staring at Dina. "You''re in some huge global securitypany, going to college and you still have time to hang out here with us are you some CEOs daughter or something?"

    "Are you just going to keep pushing until I answer, dude?" Dina stared at him annoyed. "I''m almost tempted to tell you just to get you off my back." She leaned and stuck thest of her meal in her mouthplementing the chef with a satisfied grunt.

    "Allow me." Sol drank thest of his beer and picked up another bottle popping it open with his thumb and staring at Harry who was obviously interested in Dina and had been prodding her for some kind of interest since she arrived.

    He reached for Dina''s neck and pulled her into a kiss while A blushed from next to her.

    "Me too."  A quickly stood and walked to him upon his gesture giggling, then leaned in and kissed him as well and hurrying back to her seat when Sol looked around at Ikaris and wiped the splotch of gravy from her lip before she pulled him into a kiss.

    "Woah~" Henry jr stared at Sol like a god brimming with admiration, while his older brother stared with his mouth agape in disbelief with his mother and Henry covered his mouth in thought.

    "So... You''re in a publicly open rtionship with your wife?" Henry asked sceptically slowly gaining interest as his eyes focused on A who by his standards and preferences was perfection.

    "I am his lover and this is a closed rtionship, Henry." Dina answered ring at his ogling of A.

    "As am I, I would never even look at another man or acknowledge their existence to begin with, master is my everything." A answered, adjusting her blouse and covering more of her cleavage, and collectively the entire family opposite of them repeated "master" again.

    "We are happy together." Ikaris concluded, looking down at her swol belly and smiling with a beautiful blush that caused everyone on the other side of the table to swoon and blush as well. "I am extremely happy to be his wife, and have two doting mistresses at my side taking care of me with him, we are to each other a blessing."

    "What about you?" Harry shook his head of the shock and looked at Sara while she was in the middle of packing.

    "I am only Sara; that is all you need to know about me."  She answered without so much as raising her head to look at him after he had immediately diverted his attention from Dina to her. "Sir, everything is ready."

    "Alright." Sol stood and extended his hand toward the shocked family. "It was nice meeting you all, I hope we can do this again sometime soon; it''s been all work for a while now so I want to make some friends here as well." He smiled and shook the parents hands.

    [The lies you tell to protect her now will return to harm everyone around you, Godyer, you are living on borrowed time.] Sol heard a voice in his head and froze right before he opened the door for Ikaris in the parking lot.

    "Dear?" Ikaris raised her hand to his cheek when she saw his eyes slightly flicker as his consciousness was nearly tugged into a different space. "Is everything okay?"

    "Did something happen?" Sara approached quickly and snapped her fingers before him. "Sir?"

    "What is happening?" A stopped, looking over the roof of the car by tipping on her toes. "Is master okay?"

    "... Sorry, it''s nothing, let''s go." He snapped back to his senses and opened the door for Ikaris as if nothing had happened at all."

    "Are you sure?" Ikaris asked, holding his other cheek and staring into his eyes seriously. "You know you can tell me anything, right?"

    "I''m fine, Ikaris." Sol gently lowered her hands from his face and kissed her forehead.

    "Everything will be okay." He thought as he watched her enter the vehicle.

    "I won''t let you die, Ikaris."

 Chapter 190: Muse.

    NEWS! I drew Ikaris and I can''t stop looking at her! she''s on the book''s home page as an official listed character, starting a discord to share more of them and their process of creation seems like a good idea, who should I draw next?

    Sol?

    Dina?

    A?

    ***

    "Sol." Ikaris knocked on a door and then slowly pushed it open, finding him seated behind a table with dozens of scrolls and books opened around him almost hiding him from view.

    "Yes, Ikaris?" He looked over everything at her. "Do you need my help with something?" He asked seeing her clearly worried expression.

    "I am not powerless, you know." She huffed and approached smiling as the books and scrolls were all enveloped in a golden aura and began packing and sorting themselves away upon Sol''s gesture. "Is this why you wanted a study?" She asked, catching one of the scrolls out of the air and looking at the text with her brows furrowed. "This is not An, Arkadian, nor is it of earth." She looked up at him.

    "I''ve been studying differentnguages, from other universes." He reached out and pulled her into hisp, cradling her carefully and resting his hand on her belly, it was now the fifth month of her pregnancy.

    "You already have the ability to understand what anyone says, why study thenguage?" She asked and he hummed and took the scroll from her grasp.

    "I can understand speech, sure. But I am still a dunce to their writtennguages, and if I can''t read it then how else do I learn their histories aside from having someone exin it to me?" He asked, and Ikaris nodded agreeing since she had to also learn Arkadian text even though she was able to understand.

    "Ikaris." He called to her again and she raised her elbow over his neck and kissed his forehead. "How do you feel?"

    "Five months pregnant." She chuckled gesturing to herself. "It has been painless and stress free, and I do not have any weird outbreaks or swelling, it is not what I expected at all.

    "Well you''re not mortal nor just immortal, you''re a goddess, the Goddess of goddesses, if something went wrong I''d fucking panic." Solughed nervously at the thought of her having some kind ofplication. "But anyway, are you going to keep stalling?" He asked when she picked up his pen and began drawing circles on his cheek.

    "You make it hard for me to speak my mind sometimes, when I already know how you will respond it feels like asking certain questions is a waste of time." Ikaris answered honestly.

    "Try me."

    "You have been having frequentpses recently." She stared at him seriously and he closed his eyes and sighed. "See, there it is again, the "I''m fine" sigh you always do." She poked his forehead and tried mimicking his voice.

    "Have you lost trust in me, dear?" Ikaris asked, genuinely concerned.

    "No, never, I''ll trust youpletely even if you ask me to take a bath in hellfire." Sol slightly sat up with her wrapping his hand around her waist and pressing his palm against her stomach again.

    "Then why have you been keeping this one thing from me, can you not see how much it bothers me?" Ikaris huffed and stood.

    "And do not tell me it is nothing, you are Godyer, there should be nothing that can make you this distracted unless you choose to be, but you have been passively losing focus ever since we came to earth, so tell me Sol, what bothers and concerns you so much?" She asked seriously while he leaned forward and closed his fists before his forehead.

    "Why are you suddenly trying to bare this burden alone?

    "I promise you, I''m not trying to do that, but... Ikaris you''re pregnant, thest thing I want to do is worry you."

    "Master." Ikaris went on her knees before him and rested her hands on his legs staring pleadingly into his eyes. "I am already worried sick, the power you possess is the most frightening yet there is something that haspelled you to cast a barrier across the entire preventing anything in or out, how am I supposed to interpret such an absurd countermeasure?" She asked.

    "I am not worried because you are staring out in space, you have always done that; I am worried because you are clearly scared of something and you insist on keeping it to yourself."

    "Ikaris..." Sol held her by her arms and raised her off the ground, ushering her to the door and stopping with his hand on the knob.

    "This might be the only instance I ask something like this of you, but I need you to trust me that telling you will do more harm than good, there''s no benefit to a straight answer." He rested his palm on her cheek and kissed her forehead just as she had done his earlier.

    "Can you promise that it will be fixed soon?" She asked, lowering her gaze sadly and then raising her teary eyes to meet his again. "If there''s anything I can help with-"

    "This time the best way to help is by staying away from it, Ikaris." He closed the door behind himself. "That''s why I haven''t said anything, I know how you are and telling you is going to make you uneasy and you''re going to want a confrontation, I can''t allow you to do anything like that when you''re pregnant, please understand."

    "And if I promise to not confront whatever or whomever?" She held her belly as he walked behind her.

    "I still won''t say." Sol answered honestly, and felt the concern she had been pressuring him with through their connection ease as she epted his advice and stopped pushing for an answer.

    "Okay, love, I will trust your judgement." She looked over her shoulder with a smile and Sol returned one, poking her cheek as he lead her down the stairs towards Sara who was seated in the guest lounge with Henry jr while his family was out.

    "Little man, what''s up?" Sol waved at the boy.

    "Good afternoon, Mr and Ms Vestic!" Henry jr blushed when he saw Ikaris smiling at him.

    "Ikaris and I are going out for a treat at the new cafe do you want toe with us?"

    "Is there going to be cake and ice cream?"

    "Absolutely!" Ikaris pped. "As much as we can eat, so much we might get sick!" Sheughed when he leapt from his seat and looked at Sara who was tutoring him.

    "I have my keys at-hand." Sara reached into her pockets and pulled keys from her shadows raising them out and dangling them before the excited boy who almost leapt for joy as the four of them began making their way to the door with Ikaris significantly slower as she tried being careful.

    ***

    "God where did they find such a woman...?"

    "She''s so pretty I could die!"

    "I''m gonna ask her out as soon as we''re done here."

    "I''ve never seen anyone like her before."

    "A is amazing...."

    "She has the grace of an angel, where did professor find her?"

    The art room was filled with murmurs in thest few minutes while A sat still hugging a stic skull with a rose sticking out of it to her abdomen and slightly smiling at it, the ssroom was packed with students both art and otherwise after her visit to Dina turned into her being a temporary muse when the woman who was scheduled toe called in sick at thest moment.

    "Thank you for volunteering like that, you seem to have inspired my students to put their best forward, I have never seen quality work like that in this ssroom before." The male art professor held out his hand to shake hers after the ss had concluded, but A stood a few feet away with her hands locked behind her and slightly inclined her head instead of touching him.

    "It was no problem, Dina is an art major so I volunteered for her sake." A exined turning to said person when she approached.

    "You''re too much, you''re dressed so modestly and you''re still attracting more eyes than an eldritch demon in a church." Dina pouted at her and Aughed out and extended a bag with servings of food she had bought on the way. "Did you drive?"

    "I did..." A answered as the two of them; ignorant of everyone else went to one corner and began chatting while eating together.

    "Where did that womane from?" One student asked. "I think if she came as muse every time we''d have a full ss and straight masterpieces from everyone trying to impress her." He chuckled.

    "You''re one to talk, I''ve never seen you paint individual strands of hair before, but this time you even did crush lines and folds, I had no idea you could produce such quality!" The girl next to him elbowed him in his ribcage. "But... I don''t think you stand a chance with either her or your crush." She looked at him.

    "I heard that they''re both from 10.B, you know that super rich estate neighbourhood that only allows blue, white and green tags that''s being built a few miles from here?"

    "Really, no wonder they''re friends-"

    "No there''s even more, someone who lives there said they saw Dina with her before,ing from the same house, the biggest-"

    "They live together!?" The man blurted out causing the entire auditorium to go quiet.

    "You fucking idiot!" The girl punched him in his neck sending him falling and gasping while she panicked and fell to his side.

    "They live in the same house?" He wheezed looking up at her.

    "Y-yeah, and nobody can touch them, they''re protected by the president himself."

    "Holy fuck, they must have deep pockets and even deeper connections." The man sat up and rubbed his neck, clearing his throat. "I''d do anything to get in."

    "Are you deaf?"

    "I heard that anyone can get in and the housing is actually super cheap but the requirements can''t be negotiated, I''m a green tag so I have a chance at least, if I can live there then I can meet Dina on a daily basis, who knows one thing might lead to another if we see each other enough." He chuckled as he schemed.

    "It seems you are the popr one." Aughed when she saw Dina slump and rest her head against the desk she was eating on, blowing her hair out of her face.

    "I used to like the attention, but I have master now, I don''t even want to be seen let alone talked to." Dinained.

    "Well, as long as they do not touch you..."

    "Never, I''ve been super careful, I don''t want a repeat of the first day, if a bunch of people start disappearing the campus might shut down but I just want to finish myst semester and be done with it." Dina shuddered as she remembered Sol causing a random orange tag to go insane and run into a moving truck after he grabbed her ass when she was enrolling.

    "You never did exin why you wanted toe back." A leaned her head and took a bite of her food.

    "I likepleting what I start." She answered and then looked up at A.

    "I miss master."

    "Me too, being away from him makes me uneasy."

 Chapter 191: Unsettling.

    "Tasty!" Ikaris hummed with a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth. "Right?" She looked down at Henry jr who was seated next to her while Sol sat opposite of them next to Sara who was also enjoying her treat.

    "The best!" The boy chuckled.

    "I won''t ever get used to this." Sol stuck his spoon in his mouth and red at the men in the cafe who had stopped what they were doing to watch Ikaris every time she made a peep.

    "Your only option is to hide Mdy, Sir." Sara joked causing Ikaris tough out which then made even more eyes lock onto her as even herughter was an attractive one.

    "Ugh," Sol grimaced and raised his fist at the caf�� shaking it menacingly at them which again caused Ikaris to burst outughing as she enjoyed her ice cream. "These bastards."

    "Oh!" Ikaris jolted and dropped her spoon in the dish looking down at her belly and then up at Sol. "She kicked!"

    Like a snake Sol weaved around Sara and slid to Ikaris''s side when she turned her legs outward and attempted to stand. "Dear you''re being embarrassing." Ikaris smiled and looked down at him as he pressed his cheek onto her belly with anticipation.

    "She... Punched me." Sol eased his cheek off Ikaris with an absent stare at her. "Ikaris." Sol stood and held her hand. "I felt her, I sensed her, her tiny mana pool has already begun forming." He whispered to her with the same askance stare as the reality of his life crashed into him. "I''m a dad, a real father...

    I''m gonna, we''re going to be parents, there is new life inside of you; life that we created together."

    "Indeed, love." Ikaris wiped the single tear from his cheek and sighed as he cradled her belly and sucked in a breath.

    "I have to do more... much more, I have to protect you both, I... I can''t let-" He stopped talking when her smile faltered and she started wearing another concerned expression.

    [How much longer will you hide her away from her demise, it is fast approaching, the abomination within her will usher the end of all life, it should not exist-]

    "Sol!" Ikaris pped her hand over his eyes when they shed brightly, luckily everyone''s eyes were locked on her and not him, so nobody noticed. "Snap out of it!" She tapped his cheek with her other hand until she felt his breath again and the glow in his eyes subsided.

    "Sir..." Do you need a moment?" Sara stood next to him watching the daze slowly lift off his eyes and his awareness return.

    "What was that hostility? You could have killed everyone here." Ikaris held his hands with her brows furrowed.

    "Is Mr Vestic okay?" Henry jr asked after Ikaris''s sudden outburst and the way she held on to him.

    "Stay with Sara for a minute, we will return." Ikaris smiled at the child and then took Sol''s hand again and pulled him out of the cafe.

    "Ikaris I''m fine-"

    "I have to ask." She turned as soon as they were outside and stared up at him seriously. "What just happened is not normal, not even by our standards, you nearly exploded in rage, I know I said I would not ask, but this is getting worse, love, what if the next time it happens there is nobody there to calm you down?" She asked, and he took a deep breath and rubbed his temples.

    "Are your Godyer powers going out of control?" She questioned him and he lowered his hands and released a long sigh.

    "What grew inside of you could have easily wiped this entire area off the map, killing everyone and possibly triggering a catastrophe, that qualifies as a problem you should share, Love."

    "Light." Sol pulled his hand away and started pacing. "I can''t... He''s in my head, every time, anytime there''s even a moment where I let my guard down he forces his way into my head."

    "You have been having visits from Father?" Ikaris seemed more disturbed than shocked at the news. "But, he never takes initiative to do anything, and why just you, I have not even sensed him since our..." She paused and looked at him as realisation dawned upon her. "...our wedding." She took his hands. "What happened?"

    He reluctantly turned his full attention to her, closing his eyes, going against his own wishes.

    "He''s been warning me of something terrible happening, something that even I won''t be able to stop." He looked at her, isting the space around them so it seemed like they were still standing and talking while he assumed his full Godyer personapleted with the ears and rings on his chest and back, and in his eyes. All forms of perception, including HIM were blocked.

    "Every chance he gets, he warms me, and it''s getting more frequent now, it was once every week but it''s moved from that to daily and now several times a day."

    "I always sensed something happening with you, how your mood suddenly dipped without warning or trigger, but this time was different, this time you nearly exploded in anger, what happened, why is there a barrier around earth that not even I could break without exerting more than half of my power?

    I at first assumed it was because I was with child, but now..." Ikaris held on tightly to his hand when it felt as if he would walk away rather than exin any further.

    "He wants you to be whole with him again." Sol ground his teeth.

    "Is that all?" Ikaris asked. "I am already a part of my father-"

    "No." Sol interrupted her. "He wants you to disappearpletely within himself, he wants to destroy your existence and join him entirely." He stared at her, watching the hope, joy, and blood drain from her face as his words rung clear in her mind.

    "Wh... what, why?"

    "He believes that you''re some kind of catalyst for the end of the collective, that you''re somehow going to be responsible for destroying everything that was, everything that is, and all that will be, unless you cease to exist..." He rested his hand on her belly and took a deep breath. "Now he''s saying she is that destruction; our daughter, I lost my temper because he mentioned killing her."

    "That is absurd!" She held her belly protectively and backed away from him. "I would never... how dare he... no!" She shook at the implications of dying after finally attaining her long-desired happiness.

    "He wants you back before she is born, he wants you both, before she is born, before she kills you or anything else."

    "I won''t, not my baby... You know where he is right, you know how to contact him, let me talk to-"

    "That''s too risky," Sol shook his head negatively "I don''t want him anywhere near you, I don''t want anyone near you, he might use the opportunity and do something unexpected."

    "Then kill him!" She stared at Sol saying the unthinkable with a straight face andplete resolve. "Kill him before anything happens!"

    "I can''t do that, the same way killing darkness would destroy the void we exist within, if I kill light I am destroying all life born after him, myself and you included, everything and everyone we know are an extension of his existence, locking him away doesn''t work either, because he isn''t the one that is the threat." Sol balled his fists and ground his teeth. "You are, our child is..."

    "I refuse to believe that." Ikaris shook her head in denial. "This child is a blessing." She cradled her belly and smiled sadly. "I will not allow harm toe to her."

    "Just as I won''t allow any toe to you." Sol suppressed himself and unsealed the closed space stepping forward and cing his forehead to her''s. "Promise me Ikaris, if you ever feel the danger of me losing control you get the hell out of there, as far as you can go to the ends of this universe."

    "And leave you to do what, suffer by yourself?"

    "No, leave me to handle it, I can''t always guarantee that I won''t lose control of my emotions andsh out at someone who means you harm, right now that someone is your father, I don''t care how it''s done I''ll find a way to fix whatever''s broken, to make right whatever is wrong, but if you end up getting hurt because of me, if our child..." He looked in the cafe at Sara entertaining Henry jr.

    "I won''t allow what we have done to be undone, whatever cmityes, whatever disaster draws nigh, I''ll stop it dead in its tracks.

    "Then... I will ce all my trust in you as usual, love." She closed her eyes as they shared a moment of silence between each other, closing their eyes and soaking in the warmth of the sun. "I will be by your side, we made vows, through disaster and blessing I will never leave you till death." Ikaris smiled when she felt her belly moving again, taking his hand and resting it against herself.

    "What we have can never be a cmity, she is a gift; a gift born of a miracle, the testament of our love resides within this child, Sol."

 Chapter 192: Crash.

    "Did you feel that?" Dina abruptly stood around the same time Sol nearly lost his temper.

    "Is master not with Ikaris, could something bad have happened to them?" A stood as well, but only a momentter the anger they sensed within him evaporated and was reced with worry, and then a minuteter they lost contact with him and Ikarispletely. "Dina-"

    "Let''s go." Dina scooped up her bag and took off towards the door, passing skillfully through everyone with A doing the same as they rushed out the doors and toward the bathrooms, locking the door behind them and checking each stall before A waved her hand and the two of them vanished via her teleportation skill, appearing high in the air above where Sol and Ikaris werest sensed.

    What they found was Sara casually ying with Henry jr and not seeming to care at all that Sol and Ikaris were gone.

    "She hasn''t reacted, isn''t she supposed to be searching?" Dina frowned, but A ced her hand on the crest in the middle of her chest and shook her head.

    "Sara is not worried at all you can faintly feel it since we are connected by the crest on her hand, maybe it was a false rm...?" She asked, but Dina frowned and stared even harder, extending her senses to epass the entire span of 10.B and finding nothing out of sorts.

    "If it''s a false rm then where are they?" Dina asked, spreading her mana across the entire area, the mountain range and after a minute then while country, but there was nothing at all, no sign of either Sol or Ikaris, and then seemingly out of nowhere the two of them suddenly appeared again, and it was only then that A realised there was an illusion cast just beneath them in the cafe lot.

    With their return the two registered worry, anger and contentment, and then as sol approached and embraced Ikaris everything else was washed away by a strong desire to protecting from Sol and Ikaris''s mind being at ease made their minds at ease as well.

    They waited until both of them were finished before A linked herself with Ikaris while Sol received a wave of concern from Dina and together they looked into the air finding the two far into the clouds staring back at them.

    "Is this something we need to be worried about?"  Dina asked.

    "Are you both okay?" A queried, and Ikaris kept silent and looked to Sol for a response since she didn''t know whether he had the intention of answering or telling them what was happening.

    "Don''t worry about it for now, we can talk when you get backter." Sol answered and Ikaris nodded and smiled.

    "... Okay, If you say so."  Dina seemed skeptical based on the rage and the shock she sensed from the two of them before, but ultimately obeyed him and left with A reappearing inside of the bathroom in a *thwip and opening the door finding two girls standing there impatiently.

    "For fuck''s sake, can you at least wait until nobody''s here to do nasty shit in the bathrooms?" One of them regarded Dina with her mouth half agape as Dina''s aura beautified her to unreal proportions, and then fell silent when she saw A who had less control over her natural aura and for a moment seemed to really be glowing.

    "Don''t drag me into the depths of your degenerate mind bitch, why would either of us ever do anything in this nasty public filth?" Dina snapped out of old habit and held her mouth when A burst outughing as they walked past the girls.

    "Do they go here?" The second girl asked, watching them both leaving towards the art division where they had left their belongings because of the urgency they believed the situation held.

    "I don''t know about the redhead." The other gestured to A. "But I''ve definitely seen that one around in thest few months, she''s a transfer from City-Q I''m surprised you don''t know who she is, everyone knows Dina Levinas name by now, she''s basically the most popr girl on campus."

    "I don''t see what''s so special about her-"

    "You mean besides looking like she fell straight out it heaven?" The girl jealously pushed her friend. "Don''t be a bitch you know she''s hot as fuck."

    "Hahah." Aughed at Dina''s shoulders shaking as she was not only idolised by men but women as well. "You seem to be far more of an idol than you let on."

    "I should have hidden my face more." Dina sighed as they entered the ss again, seeing their belongings on the professor''s desk with the male art student who had a crush on Dina standing guard over them while his female friend sat staring at A''s drawings.

    "Hey, Dina-"

    "We should head back immediately, I don''t know why but even with the way he assured us I feel a bit uneasy, I mean he didn''t deny that something was wrong either." Dina picked up hers and A''s bags and turned to leave.

    "Hold on, Dina." He called to her again, and for the first time he caught her attention when A paused and she looked around and looked at his name.

    [Mark Hale

    22yrs

    Male

    Single]

    "If you have something to talk about ask me the next time you see me, I''m in a rush, Hale." Dina red at him and then stormed off with A leaving the auditorium silent as everyone stared at him.

    "Wow you finally got her to say something to you." His friend praised him when he stumbled and fell to the desk sitting and holding his heart. "Are you okay?"

    "Oh my god." Mark held his cheeks and checked his pulse. "She actually talked to me, she knows my name."

    "We have our names on full disy even in the dark, of course she knows your name." His friend scoffed.

    "She said my name.."

    "Are you kidding me, she''s just one girl-"

    "She''s totally into me!"

    "She doesn''t even see you-"

    "She said she''ll talk to me, next time."

    "She also looked at you like a pile of turd on the roadside, Mark, you''re dreaming."

    "But she called my name."

    "Your surname!" His friend tried making him see reason.

    "I''m totally gonna marry her..."

    "Wha~ you''re an even bigger idiot than I thought, aren''t you?"

    They made a show of struggling with Dina''s bike to get it into the back of A''s vehicle, causing several male students to help while the two of them stood to the side and thanked them before leaving when everything was set.

    "Say, A." Dina nced at her behind the wheel. "You look a lot different from the first time we met don''t you?" She asked, and the elf quickly nced over herself and focused on the road again.

    "I do not think so, do I?"

    "I mean," Dina reached across and raised her fingers through her hair. "Your hair used to be auburn, and back on Z prime it was nearly blonde, but after master''s sigils it''s a shade of auburn and amber now; almost like fire.

    The same for your eyes, they were once clearly brown, but over the past few months they are now bluer than the Arkadian skies, it suits you, it''s beautiful."

    "Dina... Are you analysing me or trying to seduce me with poetry?" A chuckled, keeping her eyes on the road while Dina blushed and stared ahead.

    "Shut up." Dina pouted.

    "I have noticed but you should know that I spend less than ten minutes before a mirror daily, I was never concerned with my appearance at any given time in my life, but if we are talking about changes then I should tell you that you are many times more attractive than the first time I met you." She nced at Dina who reddened at her cheeks and started ying with her hair that had grown to half the length of her torso.

    "Your mana purifies your body the longer you circte it, sometimes it changes you for the better, sometimes for the worse, as I am older and have far less control over my mana, it was bound to cause drastic changes when the very nature of my powers changed, but while you have been practicinf for a little under a year respectively you have amazing control and have made leaps in yoir evolution." A smiled.

    "The result of such a change is every fiber that makes up your body being rejuvenated with fresh cells and giving you a kind of glow."

    "Does this exin why Ikaris is so beautiful?" Dina mused and covered her mouth in thought.

    "I do not believe so." A hummed. "Lady Ikaris has a very distinct purity about her, even after all the horrors she has seen and endured she has remained pure at heart and soul, my belief is that the Ikaris we see on the outside, is the same Ikaris on the inside, her appearance directly ties to her nature, that is my belief."

    "Oh..." Dina lowered her gaze, and closed her eyes, but as soon as she did a sensation she had never felt before invaded her head and body and she dipped forward hitting her forehead on the dashboard and falling unconscious.

    The same time as she lost herself to the sensation A lost consciousness as well and the car swerved off the road and flipped throwing them both out in different directions before it crashed into a tree and exploded into mes.

    A crashed across the grass andnded into a ditch of rocks with a small stream under her face, while Dina hit the road and slumped against a tree on the opposite side, bleeding from her nose.

    [Disaster befalls all who ally with Ikaris, it is inevitable that you both will die by association with her] A voice echoed inside of their consciousness while their eyes flickered white.

    [The time draws nigh]

 Chapter 193: Emergency Room.

    "Dear...!" Ikaris stopped walking, holding her hand over her heart by her sigil and staring at the ground as a sudden retching feeling hit her. She held her mouth and ran to the side by the bushes almost falling over the rails of their stairs as she brought up everything she had enjoyed back at the cafe.

    "Ikaris!" Sol reached her side in record time, pulling up her hair and slightly resting his hand on her back.

    "Was it the food?" He asked, looking around at Sara who held Henry jr away from them and then across the spaciouswn at a gardener who stopped and stared in concern as the bushes she had just pruned the previous day were puked all across.

    "No, something terrible is happening to Dina and A!" Ikaris tried to stand straight again but held her chest in pain and hurled up even more leaving Sol with a shocked and almost desperate expression as he stared at her in disbelief.

    "We saw them just a few hours ago, I''m attuned to their every emotion, I am sensing that they''re fine right now, or rather I''m not sensing anything wrong, what are you talking about?" Sol asked, staring at her while his hand hovered and trembled. "There''s no way something happened to them without my knowledge..." Sol denied what she had said.

    "Go to them, find them, help them!" Ikaris spun and grabbed him violently by his shirt and Sol''s breath shuddered and his chest caved when he saw a trickle of blood drip from her nose while her eyes fought back the crimson he sensed beneath them.

    "I can''t leave you, you''re in pain-"

    "...They need you more than I do right now, please, Master." Ikaris weakly pleaded with Sol and then leaned forward and fainted against him.

    Sol sucked in another rigid breath, and every atom in his body began to violently tremble as he caught and righted her and then carefully raised her off the ground turning to Sara with a face so stoic and foreign the maid flinched and averted her gaze.

    "Tell Usami to get over here right now and stay by Ikaris''s side, Sara." Sol ordered, and like her shadows hade to life Sara glided over to him rushing to the doors and pushing them open.

    "Henry, go home."

    "Nobody''s home yet-"

    "I won''t repeat myself." Sol looked down at the kid and watched the innocence get scared out of him as he was beheld by golden irises slowly rotating with a loud ringing in the air filling the entire estate from the ground floor to his study in the very back, the boy looked to Sara for help but her eyes hadpletely zed over with ck, scaring him even more.

    Henry jr ran out as fast as his little legs could carry him hearing the doors m shut as he sprinted across the courtyard and through the gates and then hightailed if down the street towards his house, not daring to look back.

    "Sir," Sara called to Sol, but rather than an answer he looked away and hurried up the stairs taking Ikaris into their bedroom and gently resting her on her side, seeing her sweat and in a state ofplete vulnerability as if all of her mana had simply vanished and she had be mortal, he watched her continuously replenish her reserves and saw them drain again.

    "I''m going to get A and Dina." Sol looked at the maid while she wiped the sweat from Ikaris''s face and pulled a small bottle of room temperature water from the kitchen through her shadows, pouring it on the napkin and wiping Ikaris''s neck with an increasingly worried presence over the goddess.

    "Sir she has a fever, she''s burning up," Sara spoke up and immediately regretted uttering that sentence as she saw Sol''s hair brightly re up in gold and violently spinning rings appear, hovering before his chest and on his back.

    "Ikaris-"

    "Please, if you don''t go now they will die!" Ikaris peered her eyes open and stared at Sol before curling her toes as another wave of pain invaded her body and knocked her out again.

    "Go!" Sara snapped at him when she saw him looming forward hesitate to leave his wife in such a state. "I am here, and Usami has been notified she will arrive in another few minutes, go!" She snapped again, and Sol vanished like a thunderp leaving a charred hole in the ground where he stood.

    ***

    "Doctor, her heart rate is way above the average!" A nurse had Dina under a respirator and several ice packs around her head, neck and arms trying to cool her body as fast as possible.

    "She''s 140 over 98��F how the fuck is she even alive!?" The woman panicked looking at the monitors.

    "This one''s the same!" Another doctor called from a bed opposite of Dina with a respirator over A''s face as well.

    "I''ve never seen anything like this, her respiratory rate and blood pressure are high enough to kill a rhino several times over how hasn''t she gone into cardiac arrest yet or had a stroke?" The doctor asked, picking up the cool pack that had gone warm and cing another cold one in its ce.

    "Where did theye from?" The leading doctor asked checking their monitors. "Why haven''t we sedated them yet?"

    "We can''t, sir, the needles break!"

    "What do you mean they break?"

    "The needles all broke on their skin, we can''t-"

    "Don''t be preposterous..." The doctor quickly opened up a close-by drawer and pulled out a fresh syringe loading it with sedatives and flicking the bubbles free before taking a calming breath and holding Dina''s hand, but as soon as he touched her she unconsciously grabbed on to him and started squeezing.

    Although by her standards it was weak the man screamed out in pain and released the syringe, falling to his knees and prying his hand away with a terrified stare at the unconscious girl.

    "Is it some kind of drug, how is she so freakishly strong?" A third nurse present held the doctor and checked if he had any fractures from his deformed hand.

    "We don''t know yet, this one was bleeding from her nose but the blood samples are all checking negative for everything we test them against," Another doctor walked through the door.

    Standing on the outside watching it close again was none other than Mark; the fellow art major from Dina''s college.

    "What would have happened if she hadn''t left her phone, what if I hadn''t decided to try catching them and giving it back?" He asked pacing across the hallway while his friend sat nervously on the bench behind him tapping her feet.

    "Mark if you don''t calm down they''re gonna kick both of us out into the waiting area-"

    "What the hell happened to them, they were perfectly fine when they left, but it''s already been three hours and the doctors are all running back and forth unable to help them?" He looked at his friend just as the lights in the hospital flickered.

    "Sir, sir! You can''t just go down here!" A nurse from the reception desk came running down while the two of them watched a tall man ignore her as he stormed the hallway towards them.

    "Sir if you don''t stop I''m calling security!" The nurse called again, but Sol wasn''t even hearing her, with the amount of power he had to be holding back for the good of everyone around him, he had to walk through the doors and down the halls like a regr person or risk killing everyone with cosmic levels of mana by simply breathing.

    "Sir!" The nurse called again. "Please!"

    Time seemed to slow for Mark as his and Sol''s eyes met for a brief moment before Sol pushed the doors of the emergency room open and barged in causing every soul to pause as he stopped and stared at Dina and A on the cusp ofplete mana depletion; minutes away from death.

    It wasn''t a wonder he couldn''t sense them property earlier, their ve contracts relied on mana, but evidently every bit of mana in their bodies had been forcefully drained and they were both going through severe bacsh, had Ikaris not felt it through an alternate connection they would have both died before he even realised what was happening.

    "Damnit." Sol hissed through his teeth.

    "Who the hell are you?" The doctor asked when Sol stepped further in, but instead of an answer he was met with a death re as this strange man reached for the unconscious girl''s hand and held on to her, staring down with a gentle expression contrasting the violence his rigid appearance promised.

    "I want answers." Sol looked down at Dina as he fed his mana into her and all her vitals and abnormalities started rapidly returming to their average levels.

    Before anyone could say or do anything to react to the miracle they had just witnessed Sol stepped over to A and raised her off the bed setting her down next to Dina as thetter suddenly sat up and held her head with a hiss and groan.

    "Who did this?" Sol asked looking between the two of them with his hands on either sides of their faces caressing their cheeks as they both realised the danger they had been in having been at death''s door.

    "M-mas, master!" Aunched herself at him first pushing him to the floor and crying loudly as he held on to her while Dina slowly slipped off the bed and pressed her forehead against his before kissing his neck and then hugging him as well.

    "I could do nothing to help myself, it was awful, all of my mana, everyst bit, gone in an instant, I prayed for your arrival, but you never came~!" A continued to cry like a child causing Dina to hold on to her as well.

    "Who the hell is this guy, I''ve never seen him before." Mark stared through the doors after he and his friend had pushed them slightly open, he would have said more but his heart took a spear when Dina held on to Sol''s cheeks and kissed him several times before she too broke down crying.

    "What the fuck...?"

 Chapter 194: Second Source.

    "A-"

    "Waah~" She cried in his arms.

    "A, that''s enough." Dina sat up and looked down at her as Sol tried calming her down, but she only cried harder.

    "That was my first timeing so close to death, I always had more than enough mana to run away but it waspletely gone~!" She wailed and clung on to Sol''s torso, causing Dina who had already calmed down to sigh.

    "Enough." Sol used [Authority] and like a switch had gone off, she went quiet and looked up at him obediently, several nurses and the head doctor were still there watching it all unfold and Mark with his friend were still watching from the door, though now they were standing on the inside of the room.

    "Ikaris?" Sol closed his eyes and reached out for her.

    "I am okay now, love, they are fine, so I am as well." She replied, seated on the bed with Sara sitting on the floor and holding her heart as she stared up at her. "Thank you Sara, Usami." She looked to the corner of the room where Usami was standing with her back turned and her forehead pressed against the wall.

    "You really scared me there for a sec, y''know." Usami huffed and looked around. "I thought you were gonna die for real."

    "My life was not in any real danger, but the pain I felt was very real." Ikaris sobered from seeing her dream-like smile and looked at her hands and then at Sara who was still shaking in fear after thinking she was going to die as well. "When Sol epted Dina and A, on the same night the three of usmuned for the first time, I secretly bound their souls to mine.

    "Not by contract but literally, the bond the four of us share would not be disturbed by it and I would always have an extra measure of ensuring their safety, though my soul is many times stronger than theirs it is still painful having a part of you being torn away and destroyed, I did it so I would never lose them, because just like he does, I also love those two, I love them eternally, and I am terrified of losing them, my fears were actualised today, and it makes me happy I had done this." Ikaris scooted to the edge of the bed and smiled at Sara, holding her cheeks and pulling her to her knees.

    "I apologise for worrying you, Sara and I thank you for taking such good care of me."

    Now it was her turn for tears as Sara started crying, she wasn''t there when Sol disappeared after the war, and she was absent-minded when Sol''s chest was imploded by Sitri; this was the first time she had seen the maid cry openly, she silently held on to her hands and wept.

    "Everything''s fine back home as well." Sol sighed in relief and stood off the ground. "Like I said before, I want answers." He nced at them alternately and then stared at the six other people in the room. "You all tried, at least." He gave the doctor and nurses a nod and then looked at the other two present. "You are?"

    "I-I''m the one who found them, Dina and I are in the same..." Mark dug into his pocket nervously and took out Dina''s phone.

    "...You left your phone, earlier-" he extended it to her but it was Sol who took it from his shaking hand.

    "You touched her?" Sol asked and Mark felt the weight of his stare baring down on him as the taller man spared him a dead re.

    "She was unconscious I didn''t want to risk hurting her so, no, I called the hospital but-"

    "Thanks." Dina lowered her head as did A upon Sol''s gesture. "Thank you all." She turned and did the same towards the nurses and doctor.

    "We appreciate your help, but we are fine now." A added and then together they walked out leaving Sol standing with the doctors as he stared at Mark.

    "Who are you exactly, what kind of rtionship do you and them have mister?" Mark''s friend asked and Sol looked past the nervous man at her and sighed with a relieved smile.

    "Master." Dina slid the door open and nced in at him. "Ikaris is waiting." She called, and Sol smiled again and took two business cards from his shirt pocket handing one to the doctor and another to Mark''s friend.

    "Don''t call me mister, I''m the same age as you, if there''s something you need in the future give the number on the bottom left a call and ask for Sara." Sol raised an amused brow and then looked to the doctor who was out of loops because of seeing two women who by all rights were supposed to be dead recover after a man just walked in and told them to get better.

    "You all tried your best to help them, I''m sure you''re doing your best otherwise as well, so since I''m in the area and it''s still in development, I''m going to be talking to your branch finance department about an expansion and some needed upgrades to your facilities." Sol walked past Mark and took Dina''s outstretched hand.

    "Oh my god." Mark''s friend mused and pped the card Sol had handed to her on his chest.

    "What is it, Eve?"

    "I was just rude to Sol Vestic." She balled her fist and punched herself lightly.

    "Who?"

    "Are youpletely disconnected from reality?" Eve grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the emergency room forcing him to bow as Sol, A, and Dina left. "I''ve never seen any image of him but to think he''d be so handsome!" She squealed, standing straight and blushing.

    "Who is he?" Mark asked again.

    "He owns this entire area!" Eve snapped at him "Sol Vestic; he''s like the richest man this side of the, Dina''s boyfriend is the world''s youngest multibillionaire, you can kiss whatever hopes you had and shove them back up your ass man you have zero chances she''ll ever notice you."

    "What are you even saying, I saved her life, she''s gonna be all over me the next time we meet." Mark scoffed. "Not even the richest man can win a woman''s heart if she grows feelings for someone that saved her life, it''s just evolution, I''m invincible." He chuckled.

    "You''re an idiot, he showed up and calmed them both down when not even the doctors knew what was going on." Eve corrected him as they both left, expecting to find them by the front, but upon reaching outside roughly twenty seconds after they had lost sight of them, the three were gone.

    ***

    "A voice in your head?" Ikaris sat opposite of Dina and A in the living area with Sol standing behind her, arms folded and teeth grit in fury while his hair wafted around his head weightlessly.

    "Er -yes." A answered. "Disaster befalls all who ally, it is inevitable that you meet your doom, the time draws nigh." A repeated what she heard when she fell unconscious, and upon saying it the temperature in the room dipped to negative degrees as Sol stopped moving and looked at her while Ikaris looked over her shoulder expecting this like of reaction from him.

    "I''ll fucking kill him," Sol stared at A wide-eyed. "I warned him!" He spun on his heel, but right at next to him Ikaris stood quickly grabbing his hand before he set off.

    "It is as you said, love, killing him will offset the bnce of every reality and kill us all in his absence."

    "...Then I''ll beat the shit out of him within inches of his eternal life and trap him in the beginning like Darkness was trapped, he antagonised and nearly killed them, he had every intention to when he stole their mana like that!"

    "You were in pain because of him, the baby was in pain because of him, I can''t forgive this!" Sol roughly pushed her hand off his own. "This wasn''t your fault, it was his, how dare he after I warned him?"

    [There is no need to go seeking, I am already here.] Sol heard the familiar voice and snapped violently, ready tosh out at the source of his anguish out but froze with his opened palm inches from A''s face as her eyes shined white while she stood facing him. [I warned you Sol Vestic, of the consequences of- ghuaa!!]

    Sol grabbed A''s forehead like a priest and bent her backwards pressing his hand on her abdomen and expelling the invasive light out of her like a demon, and then grabbing it by a fragment of its tail and vanishing with it."

    "Shit!" Dina grabbed A after she was left falling, unconscious from the sudden divine possession. "Ikaris..." She fell to her knees and cradled A pping her cheek. "She''s not responding..."

    "She will be fine." Ikaris stared at them after feeling no threat to her soul "Fundamentally, light does not harm-"

    "He has been harming, though!" Dina growled tapping A''s cheek again.

    "Because of me." She answered and for a brief moment imagined going back to light, a secondter though she held her belly and took a seat. "Lay your trust in our Master, he will fix this."

    "What if she dies?" Dina asked cing her fingers on the crest in the middle of A''s chest when it started humming and releasing crimson mana. "What if she doesn''t wake up?"

    "Master will handle it, A will be okay."

    "Why is he doing this?" Usami asked cradling A with Dina while Ikaris and Sara approached them. "Can''t he just use words without threatening someone''s life?"

    "The time for talking has long passed, Sol warned him multiple times and he..." Ikaris sighed and ced her palm against A''s abdomen, injecting mana into her.

    Inside of an infinite ck space a pair of entities shone, one white and barely with any form, while the other source of light was Sol and all the glow of his Godyer transformation.

    [You cannot harm me, I am the father of all- ghaaaa!!] The entity screamed out in pain when Sol tore a piece of it and fed it into the darkness.

    "I don''t need to kill you to get rid of you, I can always reduce you to a formless mass of unintelligible light, as long as you''re not dead all life will remain!" Sol grabbed an arm and tore it off, sending it hurling through the dark which quickly swallowed it up as well.

    "You''ve crossed the line, I gave you the benefit of a doubt because you''re supposed to be all good, and Ikaris cherishes the very atoms you breathe upon, but all you have shown me is why I should get rid of you!" Sol roared and forced him onto his back and stepped in his chest, tearing his leg away and feeding it to the darkness above them.

    "I won''t tolerate any more attacks from you against my family, I don''t care who or what you are!" He grabbed the entity''s head, but stopped dead in his tracks when he sensed another source, and sure enough looking behind himself there indeed was, the light was a shade bluer than the one he knew before him but the powers that it had were a fine likeness, it in fact was another source of eternal light, and this one had a feminine figure, his fury turned into him questioning his sanity as the entity closed the gap between them walking along the darkness and leaving small ripples of light as she did.

    "Wait, child, do not harm him any further."

    "What, how?"

    "He was only acting on your behalf."

 Chapter 195: Lumi.

    "There should only be one of you, what''s going on here?" Sol righted himself holding on to HIM by his head while he heaved in his grasp helplessly. "Where did youe from?"

    "No Godyer should harm the sources of creation and destruction-"

    "No Godyer...?" Sol''s eyes narrowed. "Are you implying that there are others like me?" He grimaced at her. "That''s impossible, I''m the only-"

    "What do you think happened to the one before you, who disappeared and gave you the chance to be what you currently are?" She asked and Sol''s hostility visibly eased.

    "You are not the first, and should you continue down this path you will not be thest either, release him to my care and I will spare you the agony of death by my hand." She lowered her gaze, unlike HIM who had eyes of blue, hers were the opposite red, burning with fury, and Sol could feel a massive difference in power from the two of them, her power was so many times greater than the one in his grasp that he immediately doubted his ability to fight and ovee her, but his anger was still very present, so he held the armless being before her like a ragdoll and gestured to him.

    "Give me a real reason, if you''re only threatening me then I won''t listen to a word of reason from you, this thing; this bastard, has wronged me and gone after my loved ones repeatedly, what makes you think telling me to stop is enough?" Sol asked, boastig his powers as he squeezed down on LIGHT''S head.

    "It doesn''t matter who was what before I was, I''m the current Godyer and if you think something like an empty promise can sate my anger then I''ll go ahead and kill you both and then figure the rest out!" Sol roared.

    "A step further, and your precious goddess, your ves, that little maid and your friends, Arkadia and everything that resides in it; earth and everything you cherish will be swept away in one fell swoop." She narrowed her eyes at him as her light intensified, filling the void they upied and washing away the darkness shocking Sol who was supposed to have full control over this domain.

    "I have seen many like you who do not know the extent of the collective, living in your little worlds and considering them vast and endless, I am a being that transcends this small space you upy capable of horrors beyond your wildest dreams, do not test my patience with your arrogance, Sol Vestic!!"  She approached him, and Sol felt his bones begin rattling, merely looking into her eyes caused his skin to break into goosebumps and shivers.

    She raised her hand collecting all the light she hadmanded loose and holding it above her palm as a tiny pure entity.

    "You are nothing special, just another cog in our muchrger and more grand machine, so I ask you once more before I am at my wit''s end, Sol, will you deliver him to me and let me leave, or do you truly wish demise upon yourself and your loved ones?" She questioned him calmly, and Sol bit his lips and lowered his hand letting go of LIGHT and hunching forward with a death re.

    "Thank you for your benevolence, Godyer."

    "Will you at least exin why?" Sol asked tiredly. "Ikaris has been a victim her entire life, he sought to kill her, to erase her existence because he fears our child, but why?" Sol asked, and she reached down and picked up LIGHT like a feather, tossing him over her shoulder.

    "The answer you seek lies within the goddess you call Ikaris, within that child conceived inside of her, soon enough you will understand, soon enough." She answered and turned, walking away. "I will take care of this one, do not worry, he will never bother you again."

    "Wait, who are you?" Sol called to her when it felt like each step put entire gxies between them.

    "For the sake of reference, you may call me Lumi, until we meet again, Godyer." She answered, and within another step she was gone from sight and senses, taking LIGHT with her, as though neither of them ever existed at all, and left there in tbe beginning Sol stood staring at the darkness.

    Without even realising it he spent hours there simply going through the interaction over and over again.

    Cog in what machine?

    Wasn''t the multiverse the collective?

    What else could there be out there?

    She made it sound like the Godyer was a mob in her eyes, somethingmon where shees from, wherever that might be, because even with his powers at full throttle he couldn''t sense her anywhere within the observable and hidden realms through all the expanding realities.

    She also called the multiverse "small".

    Sol agonised over these five points of their interaction, over and over again, trying to make sense of them, but after epting the defeat he had been bitterly served he closed his eyes and sighed opening them again in his lounging room where he found everyone quietly sitting, evidently worried. "What''s going on here?"

    "Master!" A sprung to her feet and tackled Sol before he could take another step, but this time he easily caught her and held on to her, looking at the rest who stared at him and sighed in relief.

    "So, you didn''t kill HIM after all," Dina ced her hand over her heart and slumped in her seat next to Ikaris. "I''ve been here worried I was gonna suddenly disappear into dust after you killed him." She admitted, and Usami opposite of her sighed as well and nodded.

    "After Ikaris exined everything to us, I thought I''d die for sure this time." Usami chuckled and rubbed her forehead.

    "What happened, is everything okay?" Ikaris looked up at him curiously, because not only was hepletely calm, there was also an air of uneasiness to his presence since returning that made her feel the same as when he first told her about her father''s constant interruptions and his attempts to remove her from the image."

    "Well..." Sol raised A off himself like a cat and put her to stand on her own and then walked over to his personal seat and rested raising his head when the elf quickly leapt across hisp and cuddled against him, causing Dina to almostugh out while Ikaris sighed in amusement. "A, are you okay now?" He asked, and she curled up even more as her expression sobered up.

    "Twice in the same day, master, twice I almost died, and twice you saved me, I do not feel strong today, not anymore, it feels like I am on Arkadia again, everything is happening out of my control, and I am spiralling into madness because of it, I do not want to fight another war." She exined how she felt, and everyone could wholly agree with her sentiments, Ikaris was powerless in the face of the source of creation, and everyone else couldn''t even perceive him, the only factor that had saved them was Sol''s presence.

    "Hopefully you won''t have to, A." Sol closed his eyes and rested his hand on her head gently, and then looked up at the others. "But, there''s a chance something terrible does happen in the near future." He spoke up and Ikaris held her belly on instinct forcing him to look away from her.

    "What did father say?" She asked, and Sol stared ahead and huffed out a concentrated puff of pure gold mana.

    "He didn''t get the chance to speak, a short while after I cornered him in The Beginning and confronted him, someone else showed up-"

    "Showed up? Isn''t that ce your domain which should be inessible by any kind of normal or even abnormal means?" Dina asked surprised, but went silent again when Sol looked at her for already interrupting something clearly important. "...Sorry."

    "Another source showed up, far stronger than Him Above All, stronger than me..."

    "By what length?" Ikaris stared at his expression noting theck of confidence as he spoke.

    "I can''t guage her power properly, not only is she far more powerful, but she hinted at something that''s been eating at me," Sol stopped petting A after gaining their undivided attention.

    "The observable as we know it, most definitely isn''t the only one, there are others out there, others like you, Ikaris, others like Light and Darkness, other multiverses, and possibly, other beings like myself."

    "Is that even possible?" Ikaris asked in disbelief. "The whole theory of a multiverse is it''s unending size right, endlessness in every direction and infinite realities, if it is infinite then how can there be more?" She asked while everyone else remained still, watching Sol raise both his hands while the lights went out.

    "There is no rule anywhere that states more than one infinity can''t exist in tandem, I''ve never thought of it like that, but what if there''s an infinite individual infinities, how do we make sense of something so vast?"

    "Can you even?" Usami stared as small dots started appearing above them via his conjuring. "At some point what we look at bes so unbelievable that our sense of reason refuses to understand it."

    "The multiverse we reside in expands by the second, I feel it, I sense its power and vastness, it feeds my strength just as much as I observe it; it grows endlessly...

    For every breath we take another universe explodes into being, every day that passes several new realities are born, innumerable and uncountable like all the sands in every dimension; ever-expanding, I''ve never once tried to look beyond it, and I doubt I even can without being as powerful as Lumi."

    Sol sped his hands and the dots started shrinking, painting arger picture as they formed structures simr to the pirs of creation the closer they got to each other, but then even those pirs disappeared as dots as he continued to shrink everything, leaving Ikaris and the others staring embaffled at the vastness of what they had never once perceived or imagined.

    "This is the multiverse, every star you see is representation of a universe in and of itself with a brain-melting distance between it and another, making physical transit between them impossible without teleportation."

    "The essence of infinity is endlessness, no positive or negative, just endlessness in every direction, how does someone who resides within an infinity look on the outside?" He asked watching everything condense over and over forming more clouds, more systems, more gxies made of universes entangled together.

    "It''s like asking an eagle that has ever only known the limits of the sky to fly through the void and kiss the sun, never once perceived, never once attempted."

    "Look at the size of that one..." Usami stared as she saw Origin, even though several billion universes had already been condensed Origin was still capable of swallowing them all, but then that too became small, taking the epicentre of his diagram as he continued to force the perspective wider in order to catch a glimpse of the edge of infinity.

    "Maybe I''m looking at it wrong, after all." Sol stopped. "Maybe there''s another approach that I''m missing, a third factor that I haven''t thought of yet."

    "Well you have been Godyer for a very short while, Love, there are bound to be things yet revealed to you, maybe soon enough..." Ikaris answered him and she saw realisation dawn on his face.

    "Soon enough?"  Sol conversed with himself in private.

    "That''s exactly what Lumi said." He though while looking at Ikaris and thinking of her pregnancy.

    "So, does our child hold some kind of information, or is she the key to understanding?"

    "If that''s the case, then why did LIGHT want her dead, he clearly knew more than he led on..."

    And why did Lumi take him away?

 Chapter 196: Meetup.

    "Darling?"

    "Yes, Ikaris?" Sol answered, holding her to himself with his hand rested on her hip and his other hand being her pillow as theyid on their sides in bed.

    "Will everything be okay?" She asked, and he took a moment, he took a real moment to consider how he should answer that question being asked from the most powerful goddess in their multi-dimension.

    "I... will make sure we are, whatever it takes, Ikaris." He answered, kissing her cheek and rxing again.

    "I know you hate promises, but..." She paused when she felt his lips press on her ear causing it to lose the illusion and flutter.

    "I promise, whatever it takes, I will take care of you, Ikaris, I''ll protect you both, I''ll protect all of you." He looked to the door just as A pushed it open and poked her head in.

    "May I?" She asked, and Ikaris smiled and gestured with a wave that she enter.

    "Can''t sleep?" Sol asked and she walked in hugging her pillow. "What about Dina?"

    "She said she will study all night." A answered, crawling into the bed in front of Ikaris andying on her pillow, kissing her forehead and holding her hand. "I fear falling asleep and waking up elsewhere again, or not waking at all."

    "It is okay, A." Ikaris smiled at her squeezing her slightly shaking hand as they stared from blue to blue "When you wake, I will be right here." She waved her hand above the elf''s head, putting her to sleep as soon as her eyes closed.

    "She has been traumatised, Sol." Ikaris stared at A guiltily, caressing her forehand. "It is all my fault."

    "It''s not your fault, the things that have happened recently have also been out of your control, just as much as everyone else." Sol pulled her closer onto himself carefully and reached across brushing A''s hair from her face and sighing. "Rest Ikaris, don''t lose sleep over something like this, you gave all of us a scare today just as they did, it''s been a long day for everyone."

    "Yes, good night my love." Ikaris snuggled against him some more and closed her eyes as well while he waved his hand above her head, using a stronger version of the same skill she used on A to put her to sleep as well.

    "Sweet dreams, Ikaris." Sol nodded off all on his own, since sleep was something he was constantly deprived of.

    ***

    The next day rolled in with a light shower casting a cold atmosphere across the entire 10.B area, and as usual thest to sleep was the first to wake, for once though it was a full sleep as nothing bothered and nobody invaded his dreams, it was a simple rest; the best kind.

    "Sol?" Ikaris looked up when she felt the bed shifting, but Sol rested his hand on her shoulder and stopped her from wakingpletely, kissing her forehead and smiling down at her and A as they cuddled.

    "Master?" A called him next, and he did the same to prevent her from waking up and then quietly left them to sleep in peace.

    "Master, greetings." Alpha met Sol as soon as he reached the bathroom.

    "You didn''t show up yesterday." Sol looked at her with his brow raised. "Was something happening?" He asked, and she nodded.

    "The war from two months ago has already ended, I was multitasking with the leaders to negotiate peace, no worries, I did not reveal myself to them as they are minor characters, but I was paying keen attention to what happened here at home-"

    "You''re calling here home now?" Sol pushed the door open, stepping to the side just as Dina appeared at the entrance after him.

    "Master." Dina yawned and pressed her forehead against Sol''s chest sleepily. "Good morning." She greeted him with azy hug and cuddle and then looked at his side. "Hi Alpha."

    "Good morning, mdy." The system greeted her and then looked up at Sol again.

    "The next time anything happens you tell me immediately, regardless of your calctions, understood?" Sol stared at Alpha and she lowered her head and nodded.

    "My apologies, I miscalcted the seriousness of the situation, it will never happen again, master Vestic." She apologised sincerely and then stepped out of the bathroom and floated off the ground. "I will give you privacy." She left down the hall towards Sara who was already awake and in the kitchen as usual.

    "How are you feeling?" Sol nced down at Dina who had yet to release his shirt.

    "I am a little tired." She hugged him properly and sighed against his shirt burying her face against him. "And before you ask, that''s all I feel in regard to what happened yesterday as well, I never doubted you woulde, and I am happy you did." She looked up at him and Sol smiled and kissed her forehead causing flowers to bloom in her head and stomach. "Master..."

    "Hm?"

    "I still needforting, though." She stated and Sol chuckled and walked into the shower not even taking off his clothes as he turned on the warm water and let it rain on him.

    "Come." He gestured, and she followed his example and entered without undressing allowing her pajamas to soak through as the water seeped into her pores.

    Dina sighed and blew the water from her lips holding on to his head when Sol sat before her and rested his forehead against her abdomen, biting her blouse and raising it with his teeth before continuing to slowly undress her with his eyes closed and then opening them to behold her topless form before him.

    "Dina, you''re strong." He smiled at her and watched her cheeks redden from the heat of the water, her nakedness before him, and hispliment.

    "Not when you stare at me like that, master." She blushed as Sol stood, took his shirt off and then held the waist of her pants and pulled them upwards, earning a moan out of her as her muff was squeezed and printed for his visual pleasure.

    "Master~" She tipped on her toes as he continued to pull her pants stretching the fabric and then suddenly releasing her where she slumped before him and caught herself on his leg, breathing heavily as her sigils began brightly glowing.

    "Dina."

    "Yes?"

    "I don''t know aboutforting you right now, I need to unload a lot of stress and pent up aggression." Sol stared down at her while she pulled his pants down and then looked up to catch his manhood pping her cheek.

    "Then..." Dina caught the water beneath his phallus and began rubbing him gently. "Allow me tofort you instead master, do with my body as you desire, it would be my pleasure to de-stress you."

    "Of course, I''ll be enjoying the meal." Sol reached down and took a fistfull of her hair raising her to her feet and turning her around as he tore her pants off with a rough yank, pressing her against the bathroom walls and staring down her back as the waters beat against and ran down her skin while she heaved and slowly.

    "Arch for me, Dina." Sol ordered and watched he''d herply obediently and then he relished in her warmth as her legs shook when he braced against her and slowly slid inside of her, almost trembling as both their tension caused him to be harder than usual and her to be tighter than he expected.

    ***

    "I never expected to see you here today considering what happenedst night." Eve sat before Dina, smiling at her. "How are you?"

    "It was just an ident, I have a mock exam today." Dina stared at her, slightly confused. "You usually sit on the other end of the auditorium whispering, do you want something... Ah!" She snapped her fingers. "Did you already decide what you wanted as a thanks?" She asked, and Eve''s expression slightly dipped as she thought about what she was saying.

    "Do I seem like the kind of girl who''s only interested in money?" She asked, and Dina stared at her for several seconds and then nodded shamelessly.

    "You absolutely are the type." She answered and Eve sighed and smiled.

    "Okay, there''s no fooling you, I absolutely do want something, but I haven''t decided yet, if I wanted a house-"

    "Done."

    "H..oi, wait, what if I asked for an apartmentplex?"

    "I can do that too." Dina stared at her.

    "What do you mean by that, aren''t you just his girlfriend?" Even stared at her incredulously, and Dina gave her a genuine smile and rested her cheek on her fist.

    "Don''t go pushing your nose where it doesn''t belong, I''m being nice despite the fact that your friend went through my bag while I was gone and took out my phone, just tell me what you want, girl." Dina smiled at her, and Eve froze for a few seconds.

    "He even looked through my phone, but everything important is government encrypted so it''s fine." Dina added.

    "I didn''t care then and I don''t care now, I''m in an extremely good mood today so just tell me what you want.

    "I''m only being nice because Mark likes you-"

    "I couldn''t care less who likes or hates me, Eve." Dina tapped her fingers on the desk impatiently. "Out with it."

    "Fine, I want to meet your... I want to meet with Sol Vestic, in person, can you make that happen?" Eve stared at her seriously, and Dina almost burst outughing as she saw how serious she was.

    "Does it have to be in person?"

    "Absolutely."

    "You sure about that?" Dina asked again.

    "Absolutely." Eve repeated her answer and watched Dina pull out her phone and tap a few times.

    "Master, the girl from the hospital yesterday wants to meet you, in person, can shee along?" Dina asked, and put the phone on speaker so Eve could hear.

    [That''s what she asked for?] Sol asked from the other end.

    "Yes, can I bring a plus-one?" Dina asked and Sol hummed and then there was a bunch of scuffling in the fore and background.

    [Sure, bring whomever you wish Dina dear, the more the merrier!] Ikaris answered instead of Sol and Solughed in the background along with A and Sara apanied by the sounds of sshing. [Sara will handle all the technical stuff!] Sol shouted from further in the background

    "Gosh you already went and started having fun without me didn''t you?" Dina pouted. "Fine." She hung up and looked at Eve. "I''ll have to pull some strings but I can clear you for the next week and dy any exams or sses you''d miss so you cane along."

    "Huh?"

    "Master left for the tropics with our family this morning, have you ever been on a private jet?"

    "...What?"

 Chapter 197: Friends In High Places.

    Dina''s watch rmed and she stood before the girl.

    "My exams start in a bit, Sara will call you, we can spend a bit of time at the mall getting you some stuff." She smiled and left Eve staring in disbelief at her vacant chair, askance and empty of thought while her phone began vibrating in her grasp, that same look carried on for the next three and a half hours as she found herself taking a seat in a luxurious jet on a private airstrip while an attendant ced a drink before her and took her luggage to the back.

    "Are you okay, we haven''t left yet you can still back out if you want to you know?" Dina sat opposite of Eve with a ss in her hand and her phone in the other while the same attendant came and took a seat after strapping them both in.

    "Huh... No, I''m fine, yeah, I''ming..." Eve stared at Dina across the table and at the attendant on the opposite side who poured herself a drink and downed all of it.

    "What are you doing dressing up as a flight attendant, Sara?" Dina raised an amused brow and the maid chuckled and took off her hat, ruffling her hair.

    "Aftering here I have truly found fascination in attendant culture Mdy, whether it be hostess or flight attendants, I think the cosy is fun too, after sir introduced me to it back home I have been quite addicted to trying different jobs and learning their customs." Sara smiled and crossed her legsfortably.

    "It''s great that you''ve adjusted so well, I remember A waspletely out of sorts for the first month."  Dina smiled and looked down at her phone again.

    "Lady Amastacia had it harsh and then was thrown into the forefront of conflict, I grew up as Lady Vermon''s security escort and then became a pce maid when I turned twenty, our lives are very different I am afraid." Sara exined and Dina ced her ss down and looked over at her.

    "Before we arrived, did you know A well?"

    "Not quite, after she joined the army she was quite the entric, most of us maids were intimidated by her..."

    They continued to speak, not in code but everything they spoke sounded so otherworldly that Eve just sat there with her mouth shut, they figured as much so they just left out the simplest details to keep their conversation "human".

    "Pces, Queen''s escorts, maids, nobility and secret wars and armies I''ve never even heard of, Sirs and Ladies, Lord this and Lady that, just who the fuck are these people!?"  Eve cried out in her head wondering if she was going to be brought to an ind of cultists and praying it was not so.

    "You know, Sara, master loves you a lot, I''d say unconditionally." Dina smiled at her and the maid smiled back brightly while Eve stared at her for saying something serious and intimate out of the blue.

    "Even before he considered me and A, you were there by his side being a wonderful ally and an irreceable asset, I''m truly d he got to meet someone as amazing as you." She rested her chin In her palm.

    "Sir is my best friend and my closest confidant, we have spent many nights simply talking about things for the sake of conversation and even more days being silly together, I find in him the brother I needed growing up, just as he sees in me the doting little sister who likes all his weird hobbies, I also love him with all my heart, I will always and forever remain loyal to him, Mdy."

    "That''s great, I can''t imagine any of our lives being the same without you in it, it reflects in the way he never leaves you out of anything he does and always seeks your advice, I have the same trust in you, and I believe the others do as well."

    "Ahaha." Saraughed at the generouspliment. "You are ttering me Mdy, I am but a humble maid in the service of one whom I consider the greatest blessing, thank you, I am happy to be of assistance even after moving here." Sara quickly refilled Eve''s drink and regarded her with a warm smile.

    "Ms Eve, are youfortable?" She asked, and Eve stared at her absently and nodded.

    "She is probably just a little overwhelmed." Dina chuckled. "A year ago I''d be shocked speechless if my ssmate flew me out on vacation with their family, not that I had any ssmate that would, I might have been popr, but nobody really liked me it seemed, they didn''t even try to..."

    "I-I''m not speechless!" Eve snapped and then dropped her gaze when Dina and A looked at her. "I''m just a little... lightheaded."

    ***

    From one private strip to another, five hours after setting off the jet made a safending on a tropicalnding strip, and there waiting for them was another vehicle and a security team, of course this was all Dina''s doing since had she been by herself as intended she would have just flown or have either Sara or A teleport her over in an instant,pared to that she had to sit and make conversation to pass the time, but it turned our pretty good considering she almost never had Sara without Sol present, and she was also able to have a few small conversations with Eve.

    Sitting in the waiting car Eve stared out the window amazed as these men in suits entered the ne after them and returned with her luggage packing them as per Sara''s orders.

    "Reality sinking in yet?" Dina asked from the other side of the car leaning forward to get her attention.

    "I''m..." Eve paused and looked at her. "You''re a lot nicer than you first appeared, I really thought you''d be a total bitch... Ah- sorry."

    "No-no, it''s fine, honestly I''m a little surprised you didn''t back outst minute because of how nervous you were when you exined everything to your friend and parents, but they pretty much just let youe without making a fuss hm?" Dina pped her hands together praising her for her courage.

    "A day ago I was wondering how I''d finish paying off my debts, and today I''m sitting in a private escort on a resort ind after flying in a private jet..."

    "Life turns around pretty dramatically when you have the right friends, I hope you don''t think I''m trying to bribe you into friendship though, Eve." Dina rxed again when Sara entered the front and the driver returned, both closing their doors.

    "It''s just that, I don''t really know a lot of people and when everyone avoids you it''s hard to meet anyone who doesn''t have ulterior motifs, so when you actually told me what you wanted up front I found it refreshing."

    "We''re going now, Ladies." The man informed them and drove off.

    "I kind of thought you were doing that in the beginning, but after hearing you speak to Ms Sara and seeing how close you are, and just being around you, I kind of think you''re cool now, you have all of this and you never let it show not even once, you don''t treat people like shit and you''re even going to a regr public college with a bunch of peasants." Eve admitted and Dina smiled to herself as she fished out thepliment and ate it like a hot-dog.

    "I''m also a peasant." Dina chuckled. "I simply have a lot of friends in high ces."

    "True." Sara chimed in. "The only among us who could be said to be of nobility are Sir and the First Lady." She added and Eve lowered her gaze in thought.

    "I have never heard of any Lady Ikaris before, Is she..."

    "She''s the kindest, most caring person you''ll ever meet." Dina eased her nerves with warm words. "You''ll understand when you meet herter."

    The rest of the drive insisted of Eve gawking at every mountain and town they passed going closer to the shores until they reached their destination; arge resort with a lot of people already present, mostly families and celebrities from all over the world, but the first thing that Eve really noticed was that everyone''s names were in the green, white  and blue categories, making her the only yellow tag there, and yet nobody seemed to even notice her as they all went about heir businesses.

    Eve was once again overwhelmed by merely being present. "This is paradise." She mused, and Dina agreed wholly as she stepped out of the car and ced a hat on her head after  taking off her blouse and revealing that she was already wearing a bikini top underneath it.

    "You can go on ahead, I will sort out the luggage and join you after a few minutes." Sara waved at them and then turned to the security-men with a wave of her hand.

    "This is nice~ It''s such a drastic change from the city." Dina reached into the small bag on her arm and equipped sunsses as she walked and took deep breaths of the cool tropical air.

    "It''s paradise..." Eve stared, following without even looking where she was going.

    "Everyone is this way." Dina nced behind her as she walked towards the beach, but Eve who had not heard anyone tell her or seen her look at her phone since arriving raised a brow while they walked down a cool stone path that lead to a beach full of people just having a lifetime''s worth of fun.

    "Here, there are three different sets in case you are ufortable with any." Sara caught up already dressed for the beach, handing a bag full of beach necessities to her and then running ahead of the two of them, meeting A at the end of the path who waved at Dina and then ran off as well.

    "My head is spinning." Eve stared down the path and Dina stopped and looked at her. "I feel like I''ve been on a rollercoaster-"

    "Aunt Dina!" Uriyu called to her as soon as she set foot on the sand and Eve saw the girl go crooked and ball her fists shaking them at the man who was by age older than she was, but considering she was supposed to be thirty two had she not been summoned still teased her about it.

    "You little bastard I told you not to call me that! I''m gonna smash your teeth in when I catch you!" Dina made to chase after him, but stopped and looked around at Eve. "First, let''s get you changed, you haven''t met everyone yet." She gestured to arge building off to the side.

 Chapter 198: Deals and Conditions.

    "Even for a girl you''re taking an awfully long time choosing between just three bathing suits, Eve." Dina stood at the entrance of the changing rooms redirecting everyone the men to another and allowing only the women to enter with her. "Is it that you don''t like them, should I ask Sara to get another set?" She asked when no reply came.

    "No!... No, that''s not it; I''m not used to it, the beach is a lot different than some poolside, I dont think I can wear this in public." Eve answered amonges the other chatting women causing almost all of them to look at her.

    "Don''t tell me..." Dina took off her sses parting the women like peas in a child''s te and standing before her as she hugged herself after wearing the bikini. "You''ve never been to the beach before?"

    "I live in the city, I never left home before-"

    "Now that''s a story I never expected to hear with my own ears." One of the women in the changing room chuckled when Dina took the towel from around her waist and wrapped it around Eve.

    "I don''t mind having my name in orange for a while if it means beating the shit out of you, I hope you think of that before you open your mouth again." Dina looked over her shoulder at the woman who had spoken.

    "Not everyone had the privilege of being born the illegitimate daughter of a millionaire." She stared at her, and the woman sucked her teeth and turned, storming out after Dina had struck a nerve.

    "... Thanks." Eve smiled embarrassed as she held on to the towem and fixed it around her waist while Dina double-checked the bathing top and then patted her shoulder.

    "Come on, master''s waiting."

    "Is he?" Eve asked surprised.

    "He said he would wait, and so he will." She took her hand and ushered her out of the building leading her onto the beach.

    "It''s so beautiful." Eve mused again as soon as the vastness of the ocean graced her eyes, not a cloud in sight just vibrant skies and shimmering waters with white sand and a healthy amount of sunlight that surprisingly didn''t burn, causing the beach to have people from one side to the next properly dispersed where nobody was in anyone else''s way.

    "Over here." Dina took her by her hand and led her across several groups waving to someone who quickly perked up when they saw her.

    "Finally, you were taking forever." Usami approached first and stood before them brushing her fingers through Dina''s let-down hair and then looking at Eve. "And you must be the plus-one."

    "Eve." She answered taking Usami''s hand nervously. "I-It''s a pleasure to meet you, miss... I mean, Lady Ikaris..." She greeted her and Usami took a few seconds to let what she heard soak in before realisation hit her and she looked at Dina, resulting in the two of them erupting inughter and hugging each other for support.

    "Did I say something wrong?"

    "Absolutely." Dina let go of Usami and took Eve by her chin turning her head towards a crowd of children almost thirty strong and growing beneath a tree. "Ikaris is over there." She pointed. "As is Master, soe on." She began leading her by her shoulders.

    "Are they giving away free candy or something, where did all these kidse from?" Eve asked, intimidated by the sheer amount of kids going to and from the tree.

    "She has a charm that attracts the little ones, they both do." A seemingly from nowhere joined Dina''s side along with Sara, greeting her by pressing their foreheads together, resulting in Eve staring at them skeptically while Usami parted the kids and let them through.

    Sitting by the base of the tree on a table was Ikaris and Sol, Ikaris with a little girl sitting on her leg and Sol with a little boy hung ober his shoulder andughing as he rocked from side to side.

    "Dina!" Ikaris looked up with a bright smile as soon as she saw them, and Eve seeing this smile felt a bed of flowers bloom across her heart and stomach as Ikaris looked at her as well. "You came straight here after your flight?" She asked and Dina nodded and slightly pushed Eve forward.

    "Go on, greet her."

    "Wh..." Eve stumbled forward and stopped before Ikaris unable to look away while Ikaris smiled at her. "Oh god." She stared until her eyes started tearing up.

    "Breathe, Eve." Dina pat her back, and the girl took a deep breath and blinked several times, shakily raising her hand and taking Ikaris''s outstretched arm.

    "You''re... an angel." Evemented her first words blushing brightly as she could swear she was seeing lighte from the woman before her, and Sol chuckled in reaction from his seat on the table, standing and  cing the child on the ground as he approached and held out his hand to her.

    "Eve, it''s nice seeing you again." Sol took her hand as she looked from Ikaris up at him and her jaw ckened at his smile as well.

    "Oh my god, you''re beautiful too." Eve stared causing Sol to clear his throat and regard her respectfully, releasing his hand from her grasp and looking at Dina who gave him a nce asking him to exercise patience for her sake.

    "Dina said you wanted to meet me, and I know it might have been a bit sudden and overwhelming but here we are, face to face as you requested."

    "Yes, right." Eve nodded and looked away from them, and then averted her eyes from A when their paths crossed. "You''re all beautiful, what the hell..." She mused and then looked at Sol again.

    "I know what I want for my reward now, but I ended uping here because I wanted to see if meeting someone like you face-to-face was possible, I''d rather be rejected to my face than over a call or email." Eve stared at him and saw the amusement rising in his eyes.

    "Okay, it was possible and I''m here before you, whether I reject your request depends on what you''re asking of me." Sol smiled at her and then looked at Dina with a curious and impressed smile. "Friend?"

    "Yes, friend." Dina answered, and A bumped her with her elbow.

    "This girl has more courage than anyone else I have ever seen, if she had any clue who she was talking to she would probably shit herself, haha." A chuckled with Dina, but her humour was left hanging when Dina looked back at her and shook her head, making her realise she was serious.

    "Dina is seriously considering a friendship with you..." Sol watched what happened between Dina and A and then looked at Eve again. "I''m convinced."

    He gestured that she follow him outside of everyone else''s earshot under the guise of a more private conversation.

    "If Dina has seen a friend in you then I''ll give you my full support in whatever you want or need, she even spent out of her own pocket to get you here, so name it, no matter how absurd the request as long as it doesn''t cross the boundaries ofmon sense or life and death, orpromise me and my family in any serious way I''ll grant it.

    "She''s the one that paid for my trip?"

    "Of course, Dina is filthy rich all on her own, did you think I was her sugar daddy or something?" Sol Chuckled and watched Eve muse over that fact for a few seconds.

    "It''s nothing that serious, I know you own Area 10.B, and the housing there is supposed to be cheap-"

    "You can move in with your family whenever you''re ready." Sol smiled at her, taking a seat around another table beneath another tree while she stood there bbergasted. "I''ll even find a house close to ours so you and Dina can meet easier, is there anything else?"

    "My father-"

    "-Has been struggling to get a stable paying job, if you move into 10.B I''ll personally find him something suiting his skills within the week, he''ll be able tofortably afford his housing fees by the end of the first month, and your mom''s a stay-at-home just like Ikaris, they might end up bing friends too she''s a bit of an introvert though." Sol cut her off again, meeting and surpassing her demand''s expectations.

    "Anything else?"

    "Gosh he''s overwhelming her again." Dina sat next to Ikaris with her head rested on her shoulder and he arm locked with Ikaris''s while the goddess hummed and yed with the small kids who surrounded her. "What if he scares her off, it wasn''t easy finding her, everyone else I''ve observed has only wanted my friendship to of convenience in secret or wanted me..." She deadpanned.

    "...My tuition and student loans." Eve lowered her head.

    "Okay, that one''s conditional." Sol crossed her arms and hummed in thought thinking she had been given two blessings so thest one should be something she earns.

    "Conditional how?" Eve asked, thinking for a moment that Sol was going to offer that she be his woman sings it was apparent that Ikaris was his wife and he was still in a rtionship with Dina and A, one he didn''t even hide from his wife, what was one more girl?

    Sol saw the expectation on her face and sighed, shutting her down with a shake of his head.

    "Before you get the wrong idea, Dina and A aren''t just random women I aplroached out of some insatiable lust, I''m not interesting in something as disrespectful to my wife as a harem I won''t even consider it, we''re a family, my condition has nothing to do with you giving yourself to me or any degeneracy like that; you are Dina''s friend, so I am giving you the familial treatment and the benefit of a doubt I believe you deserve as someone who has earned her friendship."

    "Oof." Dina winced at the tactical shut-down seeing Ikaris smile and look over at them.

    "I will personally pay off all of your loans and get you the highest paying job in whatever field of work you desire right out of college, but my condition is that you have to pass top of your sses, lucky for you none of them cross Dina''s path because I don''t think there''s a person out there who''s capable of besting her, she''s future valedictorian, but I want you to prove that you deserve everything you''ve asked for by bing an asset to me and not a liability."

    "Wow, that''s unexpectedly... Good." Usami who was also listening in to their conversation hummed, holding on to therge sweater A wore over her bathing suit to keep the male gaze off herself so ve it was inevitable that she gets tonnes of stares if she openly wore anything too revealing.

    "Top of the board in everything you do, and don''t worry, your parents won''t be affected by anything you do, what I''m doing for them is independent of your sess or failure, I won''t hold it against you, and I''ll still help you out in the future regardless of you meeting my expectations, however, if you seed you''ll be free and earning within the first month of graduating, or whenever you please." Sol smiled and extended his hand across the beach table.

    "Is that good enough?"

    "Yes, this is far more than I was expecting." Eve extended her hand across the table and took his on a firm shake. "As long as you keep your word."

    "Then we have a deal, Eve."

 Chapter 199: Once a Hero...

    "...Just like that?"

    "Yup."

    "And everyone seems fine with it..."

    "That''s right." Dina answered, applying lip balm as she stared out into the ocean under a beach umbre with Eve sitting next to her staring out as well with another vacant expression.

    "Nobody''s questioning my motive?" Eve asked and Dina sighed and looked over at her.

    "Then do you have ulterior motives, Eve?" Dina peered above her sunsses at her , and the girl stared at the sand at her feet and rested her chin on her knees, taling inbthe cold ocean air with a deep sigh.

    "I don''t, but how can you just trust someone you don''t know?"

    "I never said I trusted you." Dina smiled and went back to rxing.

    "I don''t have to trust you to be friends, in fact I think the best friendships are the ones where you don''t trust each other, it means you have aplete understanding of the other person and they understand you as well, rtionships are built on trust, friendships are built on mutual benefit." She rified how she viewed their new friendship.

    "Then, what benefit does having me as a friend bring to you who has everything?" Eve asked and watched Dina sit forward and think about it.

    "Well, I have a family that I love and cherish, but Usami has been my only friend for as long as I can remember, she''s a mom now and we don''t see each other outside of our duties, so, your friendship is the benefit of our friendship for me, just having you being my friend is enough." She picked up a fistfull of sand and threw it out against the shore.

    "And you''re wrong about not knowing anything about you, it wasn''t intentional towards you but I''d run background checks on the first day, every new person I see, I want to know if they''ll be a problem in the future, we are the world''srgest and most influential security group after all, I can''t be in an environment where I can''t focus on my studies."

    "Background checks on everyone, as in for the entire college?"

    "That''s right."

    "So, you already have a job?" Eve furrowed her brows. "Why bother finishing college then?"

    "Well, aside from work I wanted to have a little fun doing normal things and having friends for a change, it''s not guaranteed whether we live or die tomorrow, I''ve already had near-death encounters on many asions and I''ve made peace with dying at any given time because of my profession... I''ll be right back."

    "Huh-"

    "Help!" A woman screamed out catching the attention of everyone in that area as she jumped urgently and pointed out in her water. "Someone please help, I can''t swim!" She leapt and gestured again to a little boy drowning out in the ocean.

    Before Eve could even react Dina was halfway to the shore, and already there waiting for her waist deep  in the water was Sol with his back slightly inclined and his shoulder stiff in a punting motion as he balled his fists and pressed his hands together.

    Coming to a halt before Dina was Usami who went on her knees in the water providing a foothold that wouldn''t slow her down as she skipped across her back with her right andnded on Sol''s punt with her left while he made a show of grunting and arched himself, sending her flying over his head almost eight metres out into the water where shended close to the little boy and dived beneath the surface.

    "Holy shit!" The lifeguard that was about to rush into the water hit her brakes at the shore in shock when Dina came from underneath the child and raised him but his armpits while Sol swam out to meet them, taking the kids from her and putting him onnhis shoulders as he and Dina swam back to the sandy shores, awaited by a crowd of onlookers and phone cameras pointed at them.

    cing the boy to sit in the sand Sol took a seat before him and riffled his hair while the crowd gathered closer, there a momentter was A and Ikaris followed by Eve and Uriyu while the three who took action first gathered together just as the boy was tackled in a hug by his mother and the lifeguard pushed through the crowds and started checking on him.

    "Once a hero." Sol shed his hair and raised Dina''s hair from her face smiling proudly at her.

    "Always a hero." Ikaris came through and took their hands. "That was spectacr, even with mundane skills you three shine as the heroes you were meant to be."

    "Agreed." A pped Usami''s shoulder yfully. "That was some fine hearing, it is good seeing you in action again, Spear maiden."

    "Holy shit are you even human?" Eve snapped at Sol and Dina. "I''ve never seen anyone get tossed like that before, and you made a perfect dive in such a hectic situation!" She eximed overexcited.

    "That''s because-" Sol leaned and scooped up both A and Dina, casing them to help from shock after he hefted them onto his arms and flexed, easily supporting their weights per hand, and then smiling at Ikaris whoughed at his yfulness. "-I''m strong!" Sol spun with them causing them to hold on to his head as they took beganughing.

    For the sake of simplicity their sigils were mostly hidden, but Eve who was finally seeing them all together noticed the cor sigils around the three of their necks and the ones that rested just beneath those.

    "Matching tattoos too?" She mused as she watched Sol dance and the crowds get her even more.

    "Dear, let us eat, the children are getting hungry." Ikaris looked at the little girl holding her hand and smiled, ruffling her hair.

    "Let''s!" Sol put down his two lovers and rested his arms on his wife''s shoulders leading her through the crowd who gave them room to pass because of the army of kids protecting Ikaris from all sides.

    "Come on." Dinaughed and gestured to Eve when Sara brought everyone''s belongings and gestured for her as well.

    ***

    The rest of the day was without incident, and after each parent had collected their child from Ikaris the group left the beach and headed to their private vi overlooking the ocean by the side of a cliff.

    "I still can''t believe how strong he is." Eve mumbled watching Sol mess around and throw A into the infinity pool on the roof causing the woman to scream out from the sudden shock before creating a big ssh.

    "Effortlessly strong." Uriyu hummed, drinking a cold beverage as he sat behind the bar. "We didn''t get to talk today because you were so caught in everyone else''s charm." He smiled at her. "I''m Uriyu, Usami''s younger brother, and you are... Eve, correct?" He smiled at her.

    "Yes, it''s nice officially meeting you, Uriyu... you don''t look like her younger brother, in fact you look a little older than she does." Eve scanned him from head to hip behind the counter.

    "That''s because my sister is blessed with incredible youth, she''s past thirty but she doesn''t look a day over eighteen." He huffed pinching she skin of his cheek while Eve looked at Usami ying with Gia.

    "They''re all so incredible, I''ve never seen a a group like this before, they run a giant organisation together, and they still manage to be a loving family, nobody fights and it''s just... Love everytime I look at them."

    "That''s all thanks to Uncle Sol." Uriyu chuckled. "They pretty much solved the world''s problems when he formed that organisation, he even got a bunch of government leaders to sign non-aggression, I don''t know what his pitch was but he really is an amazing guy."

    "Solved?" Eve looked at him curiously.

    "Well if you''re hanging out with Aunt Dina you''ll find out eventually, but the abolishment and disappearance of the As organisation six months ago was all thanks to their efforts, when I say solved I really mean it, amazing doesn''t describe them properly at all.

    "Seriously?"

    "Insane right, they''re real life heroes and nobody even knows it."

    "And we would like to keep the anonymity for the sake of living in peace." Ikaris approached from the downstairs and sat next to Eve in arge chair with Sara apanying her and handing her something to chew on while she watched the others y around.

    "Of course, the things I''ve seen and heard today make me feel like I''ve been let in on some huge secret, I wouldn''t tell a soul." Eve chuckled.

    "Thank you."

    "But what about all those people who took pictures and videos of the beach incident?"

    "Our friend already took care of that, there is a reason despite doing such public things you have never seen any of our faces on the inte and have instead just read articles and newsletters, some might call it a conspiracy, others will say it is maniption, but my husband does not want the public eye to disturb our sanctuary." Ikaris answered, making mention of he fact that Alpha was always monitoring everything everywhere all at once, she was true omnipresence."

 Chapter 200: Mana Sponge.

    ***

    The week passed with at least a hup a day and everyone having nothing but wholesome fun the entire time, and at the end of it, they all went back to their usual lives, for Usami and her daughter along with Uriyu that was leaving and going back home where she was supervising a whole country by herself while her brother simply needed to be a student for the time being, and her daughter needed to be home-schooled too since after Sol had broken the seal on her mana she had been ding crazy things ever so often that cautioned her mother from having her too exposed to normal people.

    Until she learned to keep her powers under control and remain anonymous she was going to be homeschooled by her Usami who had no qualms as she considered it a way to make up for lost time and bond with the enthusiastic and energetic child.

    Sara resumed her duties as Sol''s shadow, saving him the majority of small matters so he could spend time with Ikaris, Dina and her new friend had gone back to her studies and college, and A had assumed a role much like Sara''s, she was never too far that Sol would have to call her twice, but far enough that she wouldn''t be in anyone''s way while she absorbed earth''s culture and supervised the house, she had been offered a more active role, but turned it down considering her entire life had been one hectic event after another, to her all of earth was a resort she could freely run around on."

    "Sol, dear." Ikaris knocked thrice on the door of his study and pushed it open peeking her head in and smiling as he looked up from his mountain of scrolls and books. "Am I disturbing your hobby again?"

    "I''ll always drop whatever I''m doing to tend to you, Ikaris." Sol answered doing just that as he dramatically threw the book he was learning from over his shoulder and stood to greet her with a kiss to her cheek.

    "Did you need something, or do you just want to spend time with your doting hubby?" He asked and she snickered at the cringe and held his hands reaching up and kissing him while he leaned down to meet her lips.

    "A little of both, you may not have noticed it yet, but as I am aware of a single gram of my divine power being used I thought I should tell you after a day of observation." She went somewhat serious after giving a highlight of her visit.

    "Is something wrong with your mana?" Sol asked, dropping the humour and light atmospherepletely as he stared down at her seriously.

    "No, no, my mana is fine, but it is being drained away very slowly, I started noticing it two nights ago; like single beads of water from a faucet, overtime it might go away or it might get worse before it gets better." She exined.

    "Is it...?" Sol ced his hand on her belly as he observed her mana for any abnormalities. "I don''t sense anything different about it...unless..."

    "Yes, she started using my mana as nourishment, and as a result-"

    "Holy shit." Sol pressed his forehead against Ikaris''s belly staring with his eyes wide open. "This is incredible, she''s already as strong as A!" He stared flickering between divine and Godyer as his excitement leapt through the room.

    "Her mana is forming pathways I''ve never seen before it''s like her spiritual and physical selves are one in the same, I don''t know what to make of her strength, what the heck is happening inside of you...?" He stopped when Ikaris caught his cheeks and pulled him to stand again, staring at him seriously.

    "Honey, I am worried." Ikaris stated, and again his excitement fell and his mood sobered.

    The baby was absorbing an unbelievable amount of mana, even with her reserves being what they were she was worried because she still had four months of pregnancy left, if the child was already absorbing this much at five months then there was a chance she would need to remain in constant contact with him by the ninth month to have ess to A and prevent herself from being drained of all her mana.

    What she was calling a slight trickle of mana was equivalent to the amount of mana it required to destroy a smallmunity in one fell swoop and that much was being taken every other second.

    "I do not know what to do, there is a chance that keeping it from her might harm her as well." Ikaris shook her head thinking the obvious reaction was going to be blocking her mana from being eaten by the avaricious unborn.

    "I already thought about that, what if she took my mana instead?" He suggested, and she nodded in acknowledgement since this was her reason for asking his advice, neither of them or anyone else for that matter had any experience when it came to a divine co celtion of this level, gods do not conceive, at least she knew that with him she would be protected if something went wrong.

    "It is worth a try." Ikaris smiled watching the small study they were in start expanding when Sol utilized spacial powers making the inside of the room asrge as the estate itself while everywhere on the outside remained unaffected to the point that A and Sara who were both in the building didn''t even notice, he cleared his table and ced her to sit on it like a doctor and took position beflre her.

    "Okay, just a small bit, even smaller than she''s taking." Sol concentrated a tiny portion of his divine mana and knelt before Ikaris raising her baggy blouse over her belly and exposing her stretched skin and a slightly concerning amount of visible veins as he could now physically see her mana pathways had changed as well specifically to feed the unborn, he released the portion of mana before her like a fog and watched as the it was absorbed through her skin.

    "Oh!" Ikarisughed at the ticklish sensation when her mana was released for a brief second and the baby grabbed on to Sol''s mana and ate it like a treeroot absorbing nourishment before grabbing on to her mana once more. "It worked, for a brief moment it worked!" She pped her hands and Sol sighed in relief.

    "Are you okay, does anything feel different?" He asked and she shook her head.

    "It seems she is only interested in absorbing divine mana." Ikaris answered happily and Sol stood and crossed his arms in thought. "Dear?"

    "I''m just wondering... The other more potent form of mana I possess, maybe she would require less if I gave that to her, the properties of your own mana are a lot like my Godyer mana already, but I don''t want to end up harming her if it backfires, maybe we should ask outside opinion...?" He suggested, but the goddess shook her head and rejected that idea.

    "There is nobody to ask, love." She held her belly and poked herself. "Should we at least try, maybe with more potency she will be satisfied for longer periods and not take as much-"

    "Or it could be the opposite and the next time she takes it''s a great quantity that endangers you." Sol argued a valid point and Ikaris had to see the reasoning in his words. "If that happens we''ll have to leave earth and take you back to A immediately.

    "It is a risk I am at the very least willing to take then, maybe nothing different happens and she will simply rest again." Ikaris made a counter and Sol sighed.

    "This isn''t a good idea but I can tell it''s one of those wife moments where she won''t stop persisting until she''s had her way, I don''t want to harm her and I hate the idea of an experiment on our unborn child, this goes against my better judgement too, I should not." He conversed with himself on whether it was the right call to make, so instead of doing anything immediately he picked up his phone and called Dina.

    [Master,] She answered almost on the first ring even though she was in ss. [You never call during my school time, did something important happen?]

    "Yes, actually." Sol answered her while he sent a telepathic message to A and Sara and mentally summoned Alpha, briefing them on what was happening. "Can youe back right now, I need some council."

    Without a moment''s hesitation, A showed up forst via her teleportation runes left on both him and Ikaris, second to her Sara showed up next through his shadows, and then the air trembled as Dina arrived umtreating the matter as urgently as he sounded serious soaring through the air at speeds nobody could see or hear anding straight through his window after locking on to their presences; eight miles in five seconds, and that was her trying not to break any barriers and keeping a low profile.

    "Alright," Dina greeted A and Sara and stopped before Sol and then looked at Ikaris who was sitting patiently on the table with her belly exposed and a worried expression.

    "What''s going on?"

    "We have a mana sponge situation."

 Chapter 201: Fabricated Peace.

    "Mana sponge?" A asked looking around the room.

    "He is referring to me." Ikaris sighed and poured at Sol for using such a term. "More specifically, the baby."

    "Is there something wrong with her?" All three women approached Ikaris basically brushing sol to the side like a dirty rag and surrounding her.

    "Are you hurt?"

    "Is the baby okay?"

    "What happened?"

    "H-hold on, one question at a time!" Ikaris looked at them consecutively as the questions of concern came at her faster than she could answer.

    "Hold on you three, they''re both doing fine for now, but going forward that might not be the case we have what could be a temporary or even permanent solution, but..." Sol paused and folded his arms taking control of the atmosphere again.

    "I''m not sure, when ites to mana on a whole I''ve studied quite a lot butpared to you A who are a natural mage, or even you Dina who constantly studies her mana I''m a bitcking, the knowledge that ckmes with being godyer is vastly acessible but until I knkw exactly what im dealing with I cant jumo to any conclusions, not when it''s their safety on the line, so I needed a second or even third opinion."

    "Okay, then what''s the issue exactly?" Dina calmed down and sat next to Ikaris as A took her other side while Sara as usual stood next to him.

    "The baby started eating away my divine mana, it is not hurting her though but I am worried because of the amount she is taking and I fear she might start taking higher quantities as time passes." Ikaris spoke up.

    "How much does a baby need to take for you to get worried?" A queried.

    "At present she is taking about as much as a sexond tier mage." Sol answered, using the Arkadian unit of measurement as a reference to get his point across faster.

    "That''s crazy to take that much a day, what the heck is cooking inside of that belly of yours?" Dina looked back at Ikaris shocked.

    "Not daily, Dina." Ikaris smiled at her sheepishly. "She is taking that amount every few seconds, over thest two days she has taken enough of my mana to feed her core that she is of simr capacity to A." She exined and saw Sara grab her mouth in shock while Dina and A went ck-jawed.

    "How on earth?" A barely rested her hand on Ikaris''s babu bump and tried scanning, but just like Sol had before the moment she realised how different the pathways had be inside of Ikaris she did a double take and a tivated her sensory abilities trying to look deeper. "This is incredible...!" She whispered, causing Dina to do the same.

    "Hum, the good news at least is that she''s not just taking Ikaris''s mana, I tried earlier and she took my mana without any issues as well, but it seems she''s only interested in divine mana right now, the problemes with how much we can ess to give to her when she wants to and whether we''ll have to take Ikaris back to A to ensure she doesn''t suddenly get drainedter down the line."

    "What about your Godyer mana then, from your exnations if divine mana is equivalent to air then your Godyer mana byparison is as heavy as metal, if you could provide her even a small amount she would be satisfied probably indefinitely." Dina looked up from Ikaris as well as A.

    "That is the same conclusion I came to, but he is troubled by the risks." Ikaris sighed. "And rightfully so."

    "I have no idea what that would do, whether it would help or harm her or even worse, I think it''s too risky, but I''m notpletely shutting the idea down." Sol added and they both nodded in understanding.

    "What if you thinned the potency of your Godyer mana and increased the quantity?" Sara pitched in.

    "That would defeat the purpose of less equals more." A argued that suggestion and the maid hummed and took on a thinking posture.

    "Not to mention these are twopletely different manapositions, right now Ikaris''s mana is between the two that''s why I''m not putting it off the table, but byparison less than a percent of her mana has been modified to mine, with such a small amount it''s still a huge risk."

    "I say we at least try, sitting here and talking about it yields no result at all." Ikaris tapped the desk impatiently, and Sol nced at her and then at his lovers. "After being away from A this long the idea of returning right now is... Haunting." She lowered her gaze.

    "A is under a purge to rid it of the demonic mana as well as erase all surface evidence of the previous civilization, to return now would be to face it all again... I do not feel like I am ready to face them." She looked at Sol pleadingly and saw the expression he had been holding go through several emotions as he realised what she was saying.

    The estimated time was ten years for aplete pirge, it was by now at most five or six years into a purge considering the differences in time between there, Arkadia, Earth, and Origin, each of different sizes and fluctuations.

    "I understand." Sol nodded and then looked to Dina and A again. "So we vote to use my powers as a substitute?" He asked, and they both nced at each other and nodded at him.

    "Fine, but I want to be sure we absolutely need to use it at all, so I''m waiting an additional month to see how much she actually takes from Ikaris." He dered, and everyone unanimously agreed with that decision, being hasty could lead toplications. "Until then Ikaris, you tell me if there''s even a slight change, keep mepletely informed."

    "I will, love." She smiled and pulled her blouse over her exposed belly. "Mana consumptiones at the cost of cravings though, and currently we are both a little hungry." She chuckled.

    "I was preparing lunch, it will be ready in ankther few minutes, Sir and Ladies, please pardon me." Sara bowed and hurried out of the study.

    "She wants divine mana only."  Sol waved his hands conjuring raw mana in the atmosphere around them like a fog and watched as Ikaris''s body slowly absorbed it causing her to giggle again at the ticklish sensations.

    "That''s amazing." Dina mused. "Would my divine mana work, I mean it''s not as potent and not nearly as much, but it is still divine mana, right?" She looked at Sol for permission and he nodded and made a gesture with his fingers.

    "Try a tiny bit."

    ***

    The estate was quiet, the afternoon sun hidden above a lightly cloudy sky with signs of rain in the near future, but all that peace was suddenly disturbed when the entire back half of the estate exploded outwards, sending shrapnel as far as a hundred metres away.

    "Is everyone okay!?" Sol asked, his shirt and pants were torn up and his hair was glowing bright gold along with his iris as he held on to Ikaris in a loose hug with a shield cast around them as her body continued to expell golden mana which he absorbed.

    "Safe!" Dina shouted from across the destroyed mansion, standing and brushing herself off as a small shield was disced from around her.

    "I am alive!" A called from the side, slowly standing from beneath a hill of books after she had hit the shelves, and Sara emerged from his shadows holding her heart.

    A month had passed and as they had nned Sol tried giving the child a small dose of Godyer mana, she didn''t reject it, but at the same time that small dosage was a bit much and as soon as she was satisfied she expelled the remainder out of Ikaris violently which was what resulted in the explosion.

    "Ikaris?" Sol asked pulling away from her and looking at the bubble he had trapped them both in, seeing his mana swirl around before eventually subsiding several secondster. "Are you okay, is she-"

    He stopped when she chuckled and looked up at him.

    "To have your mana flow into me like that, it feels different from all the other times you have done the same, usually I feel warmth and pleasure, but your mana today felt like the universe was looking back at me, what was that?" She asked, and Sol released a deep sigh and hugged her head to his shoulder.

    "That was too dangerous."

    But it worked." Ikaris raised her head and smiled at him. "She is full and resting, my mana is not being taken anymore." She chuckled. "You might have gone overboard a little but she safe and sated and she has yet to make a peep."

    "Sess?" A approached. "That is-"

    "No..." Sol''s eyes narrowed and his Godyer mana erupted from his body while Ikaris darted around looking for the threat which had caused everyone and everything in the entire universe toe to a standstill.

    "What''s going on?" Dina asked, looking around as well, both Sol and Ikaris looked at each other and then at her. "Why is everything frozen, master, did you do this?"

    "You''re able to move?"

    "One of thest skills I got from Arkadia was the ability to perceive time maniption... what''s happening?"

    Sol took a deep breath and raised his head causing them both to do the same after not even realising the entity casually descending from above.

    "I never expected I would be back this soon, Godyer, but your actions today will have terrible consequences in the future; HE might have been out of line in his approach but he was only trying to prevent an irreversible event." She made mentiom of what LIGHT had almost done.

    "What are you doing here..." Sol''s eyes burned with the desire to protect everyone as he extended his hands and they were all dragged behind him, Ikaris in shock, Dina in confusion, and both A and Sara frozen in time along with everything else.

    "What is that?" Ikaris asked unable to sense the being as it stood before them while Sol held out his hands defensively.

    "Hello, Ikaris, Dina and-"

    "Not them, you''re talking to me, keep those eyes on me, what do you want..." He stared into her bright red eyes which although set in a passive stare still felt like a threatening re. "...Lumi?"

    "Do not worry, I mean no harm, I have onlye with a warning, Godyer; to start, this fabricated peace you have built is about toe to an abrupt end."

 Chapter 202: Invasion.

    "What''s that supposed to mean?" Sol hid Dina and Ikaris further behind himself, exerting his energy to the point where the ground and surrounding building structures began disintegrating from his mere presence, but in the face of this which was supposed to be abominable power, Lumi stared passively, not even bothering to raise her guard as she instead rxed her form emitting less light and causing her figure beneath it to be more pronounced.

    She was tall; at the least twelve feet from head to toe and by the looks of it all the light came from her skin since he was sure he could make out what looked like fabric folds now that she wasn''t a blinding figure anymore.

    "I have already warned you twice of what a fight with me promises, Godyer, I may be patient but I am far from merciful, if you continue to antagonize me into actibg against my better judgement I will erase you where you stand." Lumi narrowed her eyes at him, and just as it had happened before Sol''s powers subsided and he took a calming breath, causing even Ikaris to stare at him in shock as she never thought she would see the day someone was able to subdue him without the need of force.

    "A wise choice, Godyer."

    "Get to the point, what are you talking about, we already figured out how to prevent our child from causing more harm to anyone." He stared at her unapologetic of his bad manners, after all; he was Sol Vestic, whether they could kill him or not he never lowered his head before anyone.

    "That was never a part of the reason she will bring cmity, as I said before the child herself is a greater part of the coking disaster, you were safe as long as you did nothing foolish, but now that you have fed her your power the others have been made aware of both hers and that being''s existence." She gestured to Ikaris.

    "Address her properly, she''s the queen of the heavens and the first goddess." Sol stared up at Lumi defiantly.

    "Goddess?" Lumi''s eyes upturned in amusement and she smiled behind the light. "Ikaris might be many things, but to hear you call her a mere goddess, how crude." She chuckled, and then shook her head.

    "I am not going to exin any further as I am not obligated to do so, but as the acting light for your collective in the absence of the unnamed one I am obligated to give you a note of urgent warning, invasion is upon you, the multiverse you have known is about to change forever, as Godyer it is your duty and obligation to protect your domain, and as your benefactor it is mine to inform you of whates to im what is yours."

    "What the hell  ...invasion from whom?" Sol furrowed his brows. Hearing it from her mouth brought a weight he''d never felt before. "Are you saying there are other multiverses?"

    "A finite number dictates your infinity, and the ones who seek you are onlying for one reason." Lumi raised her hand and pointed at Ikaris.

    "The pure blood of the Vatui runs through that one; the blood of creation and true origin, she is rare and prized, and her enemies have long been searching for her, the one before you failed, and the one before him, now you are the only thing standing between her and absolute annihtion."

    "You are talking nonsense!" Ikaris shed her hands and stomped forward causing Sol to hold her back when she tried to approach Lumi. "I have never heard of any divine race called Vatui, I was always here, I was created here by Him Above All, nobody''s blood but his pulses through me, you speak lies..."

    "Of course you would deny your own existence; one who has dared to defy fate and destiny would always try to run away from it, you are no different, it is understandable that you too would have no recollection, just like the others." Lumi regarded her with narrowed eyes, and Ikaris''s fight fled her seeing the being before her take a step forward and loom after she had just suppressed Sol''s fighting instinct by merely being present.

    "But I am not a liar, nor am I a schemer, your domain will be invaded, it is sure to happen with imminent prompt, you are indeed not of this ce you call home, that is the truth, and the child within you is a curse to us all, be that your home or the collective, but we have determined that this is the will of fate, what happens to you cannot be interfered with or altered as we please, to do so is to defy fate even if the oue breeds undesirable urrences."

    "Just as your journey had a beginning so too will it have an end, Ikaris, wife of the Godyer, daughter of Vatui, false queen of a lesser domain."

    "You may choose to heed my words or you may ignore them, but keep your eyes to the skies and pray your demise is a quick one, or gain the power to oppose the collective, either way, fate cannot be avoided, now that they have been made privy of your existence be sure they wille, and they will never stoping."

    "You''re awfully informative for someone who isn''t taking any sides, Lumi, are you sure this isn''t too much of an advantage?" Sol raised his golden eyes to her crimson, slowly floating off the ground until he was looking at her at eye level. "It seems you''re a bit biased yourself."

    "Hm, you may be correct, my intrigue of this little corner of the collective may be influencing my decisions a small bit, telling you this much may indeed already be too much, butpared to whates afterwards the information I have delivered by obligation is not even a grain of sand against a roaring tidal, I am simply acting on the will of fate." She replied, slowly regaining her luminescent aura and floating above him towards the skies.

    "Do with it what you will, it is not my intention to interfere any further, but I do wish you the best of luck... Godyer."

    "What about the Vatui, and Ikaris, are you just going to leave that out to terrorise our minds?" Sol ground his teeth, and she smiled down at him and vanished.

    "Information is all around you ripe for the picking Godyer, those who seek the truth have always found ways to attain it and as I said, the birth of your child will reveal a lot, until then I bid you good luck in your endeavours." Sol heard her voice in his head while he descended and stopped before Ikaris and Dina just as time started freely moving again causing A and Sara who had both been moved from their original ces when Lumi arrived to bump into each other from the continued momentum.

    "Ow..." A held her forehead looking down her torso at Sara after their foreheads collided and the maid stopped and fell onto her. "Sara, are you okay...?" She asked, but didn''t even bother seeking an answer after Dina fell next to her holding her arms and slightly shaking releasing a fit of mana per breath.

    "Dina!" She grabbed her but her skin was cold she let her go from shock and then grabbed her again turning her around.

    Her eyes were dted and her mana continued escaping her body as if she was in the middle of a stressful fight, she had been terrified to the point where her body was experiencing death from simply being in Lumi''s presence.

    "Let me." Sol quickly took Dina from A''s panicked grasp and hugged her while Ikaris stood behind them, concerned. "Come on, snap out of it, Dina." He held her tightly and pulled her into hisp, covering her in a veil of warm mana.

    "She''s gone, you''re okay now, calm down." He embraced her while they watched her mana slowly fall back under her control, subsiding with a light hum while her sigils slowly stopped drumming. "There... There..."

    "What happened?" A hesitated, since Sol was shaken, Ikaris looked like sha had seen a ghost, and Dina was literally scared to death, but in contrast all she had was a slightly reddish bruise on her forehead from bumping into Sara who had the same.

    "Lumi was here." Ikaris answered, slowly sitting in the rubble of what was once Sol''s study while they heard several neighbours and workerse rushing from all angles and calling to see if anyone was hurt or worse.

    "L-Lumi?" A looked around frantically but rested her gaze on Ikaris who shook her head negatively.

    "She is long gone, observing silently from somewhere we cannot find her." Ikaris looked at her. "And I mean this very seriously, A unless you want to experience what Dina has, do not seek that creature''s presence, let her be."

    A nodded and looked at Dina again, she had not seen the one rewarded with the title of Strongest Mage Alive this terrified since her first crusade outside of Argom, nay, she had never seen Dina this shaken before.

    "What ...what did she want?" Sara asked, being the first to gather her bearings seeing that whatever threat that came had already lifted.

    "She came with a warning." Ikaris answered watching Sol carefully let go of Dina and then hug her again when her rigid breath turned into sobs and she began crying. "An invasion ising, from beyond our collective realities, a war the likes of none we''ve ever seen before, today, tomorrow, a week from now, she didn''t specify, but the threat is imminent."

    "They''reing... because of me."

 Chapter 203: Golden Tether.

    "They areing because of you." Sol repeated Ikaris''s words. "But they''re all dying by my hand, I don''t want a single one of you to lift a finger this time... It doesn''t matter what happens, you stay out of sight and by Ikaris''s side no matter what you see hear or feel." He ground his teeth holding Dina''s head against himself while she slowly calmed down.

    "Alpha."

    "At your service." She appeared without a moment''s hesitance kneeling next to him.

    "I''m going to use the old version with full point and reward measures, make it so."

    "Master that would mean that earth-"

    "Earth will cease to exist if I can''t protect it, from Lumi''s words I''m assuming the worst oue is theplete destruction of everything we know and have ever beheld, I don''t care about something as trivial and insignificant as a few humans gaining powers at a time like this."

    "If anything, I should have done so from the start so we could all live morefortably instead of hiding all the time, let them fight, let them wage their wars, order doesn''t mean a thing if there''s no world or universe for it to exist in; this is an executive order, give them a power system and keep them distracted, I want to be able to freely roam about, but exempt the point perks to just us, if anyone dangerous emerges you all have my permission to cut them down without mercy, enstate the rules of the wild, that will be your order."

    "Sir, that will cause anarchy..." Sara looked at him, watching his sanity slowly deteriorate as his words became less and less coherent from a rasp in the back of his throat. "You do remember who the enemy is, right?" She asked, and Sol let go of Dina and looked to Alpha again.

    "Do it now."

    "Understood." Alpha closed her eyes and vanished, and a secondter a system window appeared before everyone exining how simple repeated tasks of different types could possibly allow them to gain special abilities that would evolve overtime.

    "Sol." Ikaris took his hand. "Calm yourself, do not haste to-"

    "I need some time to focus, Ikaris, I need to be aware of the edges of the collective as soon as possible that way I can intercept a breach as soon as it happens, don''t worry, within a few hours to sunset today everything will be as it was this morning." He stopped her from dissuading him and looked at A. "Get Usami and her family here now and let them know what''s happening."

    "Understood." A stood and looked at Ikaris concerned, gaining a second nod of approval from her as well before she waved her hand and vanished in a sh of crimson light leaving the scorch marks of her teleportation runes in the cracked and half-dismantled floor.

    "Are you sure this is what you wish, and it is not being driven by any sense of misced urgency?" Ikaris looked at Sol again worriedly and he hummed and gave her a small smile, but in her mind she felt his thethers had snapped and thrust him back on A all over again, from the way he spoke to his bodynguage and his nigh nonchnce towards Dina''s clear trauma as she sat on the floor looking up at him he reminded her of the version of himself that fought the demon-god.

    "There''s all the urgency you can imagine, Ikaris, there''s a fighting, enemies we know nothing about, and by the sounds of it there will be less than a handful of us that can stand against them, specifically myself, Dr''ul, Adonai, and possibly S''mael; in the various dimensions across my range only those three are at the peak of power."

    "What about -"

    "I absolutely will not let you fight in your current state." He looked at her disturbed that she would even think of it. "Ikaris, you''re pregnant, think as a mother and not as a hero or warrior, factor everything and everyone else as a second priority, our childes first; they want her just as much as they want you." He held her shoulders and stared her in her eyes.

    "I''ll destroy every living being that dares to approach you, even at the cost of my life, understand this and do not dwell on it, you heard her, it is the Godyer''s duty; it is my duty to protect you."

    "Love..." Ikaris watched Dina stand on her own and brush her knees off. "I forbid you to die on mine or anyone else''s behalf." She red at him and then softened when he kissed her forehead and joined hers and Dina''s hands together. "A life without you is no life at all."

    "Let me work." Sol waved his finger slightly and the entire house began rebuilding itself bit by bit causing the neighbours and workers that had tried getting through the rubble to stop and take cover, some running from terror especially after seeing the system window a few minutes earlier. "Make sure everyone else leaves as well."

    "Right away." Sara bowed and left before them.

    "Now then..." He crackled his fingers and neck-joints as soon as he room was finished renovating and Dina had left with Ikaris.

    He vanished in a p of thunder causing a mess again as books and scrolls were disced by the gust that exploded in his wake.

    He indeed had been going about the collective all wrong, he was scanning individual universe clusters and trying to expand that times infinity, but infinity was a number even he couldn''t attain, doing it like that would ensire he never found the edges, so he thought of a simpler way to deal with something that was impossible to catch, and that was to utilise the one power which already existed within him and outside of him in everything and everywhere.

    The Beginning.

    The vast grey space he teleported to could house anything his imagination could conjure, and as his power itself was nigh limitless in his domain all he needed was the imagination to pull it off and that was as easy as pretending to be a child holding everything in the palm of his hand.

    Sol grew, spreading the roots of his power across every gxy, every universe and every system, simultaneously causing great golden veins to appear across all realities, the reforming A, Arkadia, even origin that had gone ck suddenly had a sh of gold stretching across its massive expanse as infinity became his reality, he was unsure of how long it was taking but as he graspedplete control over The Beginning his reach halted and he opened his eyes.

    "There you are."

    With everything now before him Sol visualised the multiverse with his reach tethering it all together, and what he found was a great golden tree with so many veins it looked like cotton, each vein branching into another segway as a new universe was explosively born and each vein glowing when another reality was created.

    "You figured it out in one short sitting, I am utterly impressed, Godyer." Lumi appeared in his peripheral.

    "Why are you here?" Sol asked, and she chuckled and moved to his other peripheral staying out of his sight.

    "I am interested to see what the Godyer can aplish, I am after all only an observer, and advocate of fate." She answered honestly.

    "Thus far, I have viewed all you have aplished and suffered through, and I am indeed a fan of your aplishments, many others would simply have given up, but whenever you are backed into a corner yoush out at the constructs of reason and reality themselves, an indestructible cockroach." Sheughed.

    "That''s the second time someone''s called me that." Sol paid her no heed as the beginning continued to shrink until he was outside of it and standing in a ck starless void.

    "I mean no ill by it, as I said I am quite the fan." Lumi cooed from one ear to the next.

    "As a fan why don''t you help your idol out?" He huffed, watching the roots of the beginning sink into his skin collecting his vision back on earth where to his surprise the sun was about to set on his home.

    "Fate cannot be tampered with, the will of fate must remain d and unsullied by personal preference and individual tampering, your failure and sess is judged by your own effort."

    "Of course you''d say that, you know, if you don''t have the will necessary to defy your own fate, then you should never boast power, it can be easily taken from you, strength is only as useful as your willingness to use it theck of will is the greatest weakness." Sol scoffed and vanished from her sight, leaving her staring out at the great tree he had created to map the progress and expansion of the multiverse.

    "... Weak hm? How long has it been since someone aplished this, let alone aplishing it within a few units of time and not agonise over it for billions of years?" Lumi watched Sol reappearing in his study as violently as he''d left.

    "Master!" A nearly burst down the door as she barged in and grabbed him in a hug, and then after her Ikaris arrived and then Dina, Usami and Sara and then Uriyu poked his head in and slipped through the closing door as well. "You returned."

    "You seed." Ikaris stated, and Sol raised his hand creating a projection of the tree in his palm and giving them all a small smile while she did the same using a system window to show him arge golden vine that appeared across the skies hours ago. "What is it?"

    "The Beginning, manifest as a divine tether from one universe to the next, every new branch is recorded."

    With the collective now observable at any time I have the means to detect a breach even while I''m asleep." He sighed and closed his eyes taking a deep breath and then smiling for real this time.

    "What''s for dinner? I smell Sara''s cooking."

 Chapter 204: The Peace I want to Protect.

    "Aaargh noo!"

    "Hahahaha~" Sara burst outughing hysterically at Usami who cradled her head and went into a crouch on the floor of his study, and as Saraughed she dipped into her shadows and pulled out an extra pair of her maid uniform and dropped it on her back causing Uriyu and Dina to startughing and eventually A as well while Ikaris just snickered and smiled at them.

    "Did I say something wrong?" Sol looked at Ikaris and then nced over her shoulder at Usami again.

    "The two of them got into a heated discussion about the first thing you would say after you returned, Usami wagered Sara would be her personal maid for a week, and Sara wagered Usami would have to dress as a traditional maid and serve you for a week, as you can see; Sara won."

    "Pffft!" Sol pped his forehead andughed as well. "Of course she would win, Sara has spent the entire time we''ve known each other studying my habits, my dislikes and likes she''s the ultimate maid and she wears that title like a badge!" He tapped Ikaris''s head while he too broke into hystericalughter when Sara started giving Usami tips on how to behave for the next week.

    "Well then!" Sara sobered up before everyone else and pped her hands gaining their attention. "While Mdy dresses and prepares for the week ahead, dinner has been served everyone, please make an orderly retreat to the dining area!" She opened the door and stood on the outside waiting as they all passed one after the other.

    "Love, is everything truly okay?" Ikaris looked at him while her and Dina stood and A waited outside with Sara.

    "I can''t say yes nor can I say no right now, but I can tell you I''m ready for whateveres." Sol answered taking her by her shoulders and kissing her cheek from behind while Dina rested her hands on his back and led him forming a three-person train.

    "Whether you are ready or not remains to be seen..." Lumimented to herself but flinched when she felt a golden gaze as well as an azure gaze lock on to her, and sure enough, looking at them again she found both Sol and Ikaris had stopped walking and were staring directly at her while Ikaris had a simr projection of the tree shimmering in her palm as it continuously bore new life and new verses.

    "Hm, now even I am exposed and unable to hide should he choose to find me, indeed; he is a rarity of his kind."  Lumi thought to herself smiling and vanishing from where she resided.

    "Quite handy indeed." Ikaris looked at the tree again and dissolved the image from her mind. "Even without the necessary power to travel everywhere, I can now easily view anything I wish to by simply being in contact with you, this is an amazing creation, Dear, I would say your third best aplishment ever."

    "My third?" Sol leaned his head, amused.

    "Yes, the second was having the stones to marry me, and the first I think we would both agree is our beloved little one who ravenously feeds on our mana to grow healthily." She made a motherly face as she pursed her lips and tapped her belly. "Oh, she is waking." She chuckled and began walking again while Sol beamed with pride at thepliments.

    ***

    "Alpha, how''s the transition going?" Sol asked while he and everyone were sitting in front of the TV watching it together for once.

    "As you would expect, master, more greedy factions have imed it to be their doing, and the media has been calling it the second wave, already there is widespread chaos as the first groups of reckless humans utilize their newly adapted powers to do as they please while some others seem to be actively trying to stop them creating an almost effective hero and viin dynamic within the first seven hours." Alpha took a seat as a small entity on his shoulder, kicking her legs and staring at the monitor.

    "As their genes are mixed in a few generations they will be vastly more powerful than the average warrior of Arkadia as an example, so tier two swordsmen and mages but with the exemption of magic being absent for a more effective stamina-based scaling.

    That said, as more time passes children will be born with superior attributes in all those fields vastly more potent than the current generation will be, within two hundred years some will be strong enough to fight a being as powerful as a lesser demon-god, easily capable of destroying continents, though, they will be very few, less than 0.000005% to be precise, so roughly about a hundred to a thousand people across the."

    "I''m already capable of that."

    "Of course, you are Usami Takae." Alpha looked at Usami in her maid uniform standing behind Sol while Sara stood next to her with a proud smile as the new cosyer''s mannerisms and posture were perfect.

    "You we''re bred inbat and blessed by gods to fight against dimensional invaders on a world over a hundred times the size of earth, you and everyone else from Arkadia are vastly superior for the time being, but given enough time, earth will be a superpower unlike any before, much like..." Alpha paused and looked at Sol.

    "Much like Z-Prime and H��l, capable of interster travel across their own universe." Sol picked up where she left off and Alpha hummed in agreement.

    "Precisely."

    "Z-Prime and H��l." Uriyu repeated the names and looked at his sister. "I haven''t heard anything from you about those ces."

    "I never went," Usami answered him with a straight expression.

    "And I''m d I didn''t, it sounds amazing in theory, but a world ruled by demons and another sister world governed by demon-gods sounds just like the ce someone like me would fit right in, and I don''t mean that in any good way, I usually adapt and let things as they are, there''s no telling who''s hands I would have ended up in to save my own skin." She admitted and Uriyu lowered his gaze at the unsettling thought and looked up at her again.

    "I won''t let that happen, I''ll protect you, Usami, now that I have a skill tree that I can activate I''ll find ways to grow stronger, don''t go anywhere that I can''t reach you, you won''t need to lift a finger ever again, big sister!" He balled his fist and everyone paused in their thoughts and looked at him and then at Usami who pped her cheeks and blushed, beaming with pride.

    "Oh god my little Uriyu is all grown up now~!" Usami swooned. "I missed so much time with my precious little brother!" She swayed from side to side.

    "Oh god, there''s no mistaking that they''re siblings through and through." Dina stared at Uriyu flexing his muscles and his sister doting on him as sparkles and light radiated off the two, but then it got even weirder when Gia who had been sitting quietly in A''sp leapt around and started mimicking her uncle flexing and making weird poses making Usami swoon even harder shooting hearts from her person.

    "Hah? It runs in the family!?" Dina''s jaw dropped and her eyes twitchedically meanwhile Ikaris who was seeing this kind of dynamic from people other than Sol and Sara for the first time shook and beganughing from her seat next to him.

    "You see, don''t you?" Sol directed his thoughts out into the void, not even bothering to search.

    "This is what I have aplished, this is the fabricated peace you speak of, to be seated and enjoy thepany of your loved ones without worrying that someone wants to take that peace away from you, without worrying that you''re being targeted, this is what I want to protect, this is what I will fight to the bitter end to defend."

    "..."

    "-Sol?" Ikaris snapped her fingers before him jolting him out of his train of thoughts. "Did you hear me, I asked if something happened?" She rested her hand on his shoulder and he looked around and found all the yfulness hade to a halt as they all stared at him expectantly.

    "No, I was just lost in thought, thinking how much has happened over thest ten months and how much closer we''ve all grown." He looked at them. "From the moment I greeted you all in Arkadia pretending to be a weakling to get out of working under anyone, to now; it''s been a real adventure." He smiled. "A lot more like the reincarnation I expected the first time."

    "Yeah, if only Eris could be here, to see that earth isn''t much different from Arkadia now." Usami mumbled, catching Ikaris''s ear.

    "We should visit her soon, right?" Dina suggested. "Six months here is about two months and a few days on Arkadia, but a lot has happened since we left."

    "We should do it sooner thanter." Ikaris looked at him as well. "With a threat like this looming over our head and the baby being a beacon once I deliver her, there is a chance we will never get to see Eris for a very long time, or possibly ever again." She reminded him, and Sol scrunched his nose and turned his lips.

    "Yes, but before then, Dina''s finals are two weeks away, the results are months after that so we can always return within that timeframe, but it''s good to finish what we start." He looked at the mage in question when everyone agreed and she nodded, blushing at the fact that they would all postpone such an important journey on her behalf.

    "I''ll use that opportunity to speak to Dr''ul and the others as well, we can kill two birds with one stone."

 Chapter 205: Trouble on Campus.

    "You''re leaving?"

    "Yeah." Dina answered Eve sitting across from her in the back of their ss while Mark sat by himself pouting at the door; after finding out that Dina and Eve had be friends he had tried persuading her many times to at least try getting them alone together, but each time he tried Eve warned him that he''d likely lose his head and then reject his plea, she refused to even keep the two of them in the same space and was adamant about him keeping his distance.

    What he didn''t know was that Dina was the one likely to attack him if he''d touched or approached her inappropriately, she remembered vividly how she had fractured a man''s hand after he touched her back on their vacation, and then exined that if she hadn''t done at least this much Sol would have probably killed him for real.

    Sol protected his women like a fierce dragon, and he was possessive over them too, some might say far more possessive than any normal man would ever be, and his women were loyal to a fault, in their eyes only he existed, she saw genuine love in how they treated each other.

    Mark was an outsider that would be violently rejected if he even attempted anything.

    "How long are you going to be gone for this time?" Eve rested both hands on the desk and stared at her with her brows furrowed. "You said thest time you left turned into a ten-year stay, and you''re going back to wherever that ce is again, why would you even go there you said it was a miserable experience that nearly killed you multiple times!"

    "It''s also where I was able to confess my feelings and be one with the love of my life." Dina smiled, causing Mark who was observing from afar to gasp in shock as this was the most beautiful he had ever seen her, on the rare asion that she smirked when amused he had always caught it, and when A who they all assumed was her sister came she smiled a little and showed a much more active and social side of herself, but whatever she was talking about this time made her glow unlike anything he had ever seen before.

    "Wow..." Mark covered his mouth and balled his fist, taking steps of approach, but upon Dina noticing him and Eve watching her tense up his friend looked around and red at him.

    Do you have any idea when you''ll be back, at least?" Eve asked and Dina shook her head and shrugged. "What about calls then, will you be able to do at least that much?" She questioned her friend frustrated and Dina huffed and smiled at her. "Do you think it''s funny?"

    "No, I''m not trying to make fun of you, Eve, It''s just a little warming that you''re this worried about me." Dina admitted what she was thinking and saw the girl roll her eyes.

    "I know we haven''t been friends for a long time, Dina, but I''m genuinely tewakingnover this, I''m still getting to know you and it just feels like you''re saying goodbye forever." She exined her thoughts and Dina sighed through her nostrils and nced out the window at the birds passing, the calm weather, and one random person flying by out of control.

    Considering the stakes, an invasion of hostile entities bent on killing or stealing Ikaris away with Sol as their only shield, if he failed she would sacrifice herself protecting Ikaris as well as A and most likely Sara.

    "It really might be though, Eve, the world is dangerous now everything we''re doing is to ensure your safety, it means I can''t contact you since we''ll be making a lot of new enemies, but if this works out there''s nothing stopping me froming back, I don''t want to miss graduation.

    "God you''re worried about something like that at a time like this?" Eve pped the desk. "If you think you might die then... just dont-"

    "I''ll stop you there." Dina looked at her seriously. "Eve, as you''ve said it really hasn''t been that long, I respect your opinion as someone who doesn''t harbour their thoughts and is forward in her intentions.

    I think I''ve made it clear before that my duties to my family and the world atrgee before my own safety, I''m not the average girl who runs away from danger, we might appear normal in some sense because of how we treat each other in a public space but we are far from it." She folded her fist and pped her palm causing the winds outside to start howling as a slight pink glow came from the highlights of her hair and her eyes.

    "What we do, nobody else can do it, the things we have seen and witnessed would make the average man shit themselves and die of strokes, the people we''ve gone up against are demons, destroyers, beings that could easily destroy the world, in the face kf threats like this, something as meagre as personal safety is an afterthought, of vourse indont want to die, but if ites to it i would dly sacrifice my everything to save you all, fhats mt job as..."

    "...as a hero, I get it." Eve sighed and reached across the desk, taking her fist and gently unfurling it. "You never told me exactly what it was but Uriyu is a bber mouth, he wouldn''t shut up about how awesome you all were, and called you heroes every chance he got, and little Gia too...

    I don''t know exactly what you do and the way you talk about it makes me want to hide in my closet at home, but is it really okay to throw your life away for a cause like that?"

    "I''m not throwing my life away," Dina pulled her hand from Eve''s grasp and pat her folded fist. "I''m fighting so you all get to live in peace; we took down the global As organisation and forced Order to resign and dismantle in a single day of forming, do you really think there''s anything we can''t handle?"

    "I keep forgetting you did that because of how absurd it sounds..." Eve smiled at the reassurance. "If even they didn''t stand a chance then whoeveres next will definitely get their asses kicked.

    "Exactly."

    "Dina!" A came rushing through the door, pausing when she saw her sitting casually around her desk. "Wh- you are alright!?" She snapped and rested her hand on the doorframe.

    "Did something happen?" Dina stood abruptly.

    "My sen...sors picked up irregrities here, Master sent me ahead to check on you as soon as it happened." She approached the two and stood pointing to the window. "Calm down."

    "Oh," Dina suppressed her mana resulting in the winds and rain outside ceasing as easily as they started. "Sorry, I didn''t even notice."

    "What the heck just..." Eve stared confused, but ruled against asking and getting gaslit by them again.

    Moments after A had entered Sol himself arrived, stepping through the door wearing a ck long-sleeved turtleneck and brand pants as well as a hat and mask to hide his face as he approached, but all in vain as the moment Dina saw him she ran out of her seat and grabbed him in a hug, his appearance didn''t really help either since with the mystery behind his appearance he had entered like some kind of supermodel.

    "Master!"

    The auditorium of nearly fifty students sitting here and there in the hundreds of seats went dead silent while more students silently poured in.

    "You''re a lot like A in this regard, you know, do you two have to greet me like his every time?" Sol looked down at her smiling as she pulled off his cap and pulled his forehead onto hers. "Now you''ve got everyone looking at me."

    "I would have kissed you if you weren''t wearing the mask." Dina chuckled, putting his cap on her head.

    "She is effortlessly the most popr girl on campus, it is impossible to hide yourself if you''re with her either way." Eve greeted him with a customary bow. "Good afternoon, Sir."

    "Honestly, we''re the same age you don''t need to keep doing that every time we see each other." Sol rested his hand on Dina''s head and pat Eve''s shoulder. "Anyways, if doesn''t seem like anything''s wrong either, what happened with the storm outside? It was almost the size of a small hurricane." Sol looked down at Dina who winced when she heard that detail.

    "Apparently Dina was simply... In her feels." A pointed out approaching Sol and getting a headpat from him as well.

    "Oh." Sol cheerfully pped and then looked at Eve again. "How are your studiesi-"

    "Hey, you." A student approached and stood behind Sol. "What business do you have here on our campus grounds?"

    "Last I checked this was a public space, fuck off Duran." Eve walked around Sol and tried pushing the guy away but he easily brushed her to the side and poked Sol''s shoulder, he was tall and more muscr than even bruce and Kris were.

    "Seriously, you don''t want to do this-" Eve grabbed his hand and tried pulling him away, but the man pushed her aside again causing Mark who was on his way to catch her before she hit the ground.

    "Answer me pipsqueak." He stared down at the back of Sol''s head. "What are you doing touching and hugging my girl?" Duran asked.

    He was going to ignore the ignorant fool, he had every intention of saying his goodbyes to Dina and leaving with A after confirming that everything was okay, but Sol very slowly looked at the finger pressed against his shirt and then looked around at the man.

    "Excuse me...?"

    "Oh... No." Eve held her mouth seeing Dina ball her fists and A narrowing her eyes.

 Chapter 206: My Property.

    "You heard what I said asshole, you think cause you''re some rich old man''s kid you can waltz on in here with your fancy-ass clothes and do whatever the hell you want and say whatever you want-"

    "Dina, has this guy bothered you in the past?" Sol looked Back at her and she rxed her fists and shook her head.

    "Literally, this is the first time he''s evere near me." She answered and Sol took a breath and calmed down considerably after contemting several ways he''d kill him.

    "Do you mind just leaving me be?

    Big guy, I''m not in the mood for this right now, there are more important things to worry about." Sol looked at Duran again, in his mind only one other person came to mind when dealing with people like this; Han, he was willing to be the bigger person and avoid a conflict with a lesser being if it meant not dirtying his hands with someone who reminded him of pre-Arkadian Han.

    "Master, this isn''t a good setting, something bad will happen if-" Dina tried diffusing the situation before it got out of hand but Sol reached behind her, holding his hand at her ass when Duran tried pping her, much like one dead student had done in the past. "How dare-"

    "I don''t know what''s gotten into him, he''s barely awakened any kind of strength yet and he thinks the world is his to rule already." Sol spun Dina around himself into A''s arms and turned to Duran. "I''ll only say this once-"

    *Duff!*

    Duran''s hand mmed in Sol''s chest causing the entire auditorium to wince when Sol took a step backwards out of shock at what had suddenly happened, he even went and extra step and yanked the mask off Sol''s face releasing it to the ground and stepping on it spitefully.

    "Hey..." Sol''s eyes shrowded over with darkness as he held himself frommitting murder in front of a bunch of students. "I''m trying to let you off easy for Dina''s sake since I don''t want her to get expelled because of me, but dont-"

    *Duff!* Duran''s hand mmed against Sol''s chest again and before anyone could even blink from the loud thundering hit the man''s hand was in Sol''s grasp.

    It happened so fast that Duran along with most of the students who had gathered to watch didn''t even realise it had happened at all until Sol raised his severed arm and pped him across the face with it sending him to his ass and grabbing his wound angrily searing it closed with heat.

    "Do I look like some kind of weakling to you?" Sol furrowed his brows and turned his nose to the air like a gangster, stepping in Duran''s knee before he could let out a scream and shoving his own hand in his mouth. "Do you think the meagre grain of power you''ve been granted makes you untouchable?" Sol''s brows continued to furrow.

    "Barging in here like you''re some hot shit and creating a mess of my day with your filthy mundane existence..." Sol stepped on his groin and pressed his heel into him while mming his jaws shut on his hand breaking his teeth. "I should make you swallow your own teeth and bones and beat the shit out of you while they tear your insides apart-"

    "Master don''t kill him!" Dina called to Sol and he paused with his fist hovering above a barely conscious man and sighed.

    "Oh my god... he''spletely different." Eve stared shocked.

    She had seen Sol''s sweet side the whole week they were in the tropics, he was always smiling always cheering everyone up with some kind of ridiculous thing, he was like a child that brightened a room with endless energy and a charming demeanor, but like a switch that child had turned into something evil and nearly killed a man after he merely attempted to touch Dina, who it was apparent had a knack for attracting bad attention by just existing.

    "Well, I guess he''s served a fitting enough punishment for trying to touch you, I''ll let this be an example, college students usually get rowdy when they''re close to leaving, this will be a warning to anyone who has any thoughts." Sol stood and sighed while A pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the man''s blood off his cheek and tossed it at him as heid there breathing rapidly with his hand still danlgingbfeom his mouth.

    "You call that a punishment?" Mark snapped, causing Sol who hadn''t memorised his face to look at him with a devilishly disgusted face.

    "Hey... Hey... I''m not in the mood, if you even try anything to remotely piss me off I won''t listen to anyone, I''ll fucking kill you where you stand, you little shit, what the fuck is wrong with you people today, I just came to have a conversation with my woman what''s so hard in that?"

    "There''s no way someone as sweet as Dina would be with a monster like you, never, she''s better than stooping to your level!" Mark snapped again and Eve spun and pped him before Sol reacted to the provocation. "Dina, you can tell us we have witnesses, did he ckmail you, did he promise you money, whatever it is we- mmf!"

    "Please... Don''t hurt this one, he''s an idiot who doesn''t know what he''s talking about, Mr Vestic." Eve pped her hand over marks mouth and held it when he came right back after being pped.

    "Oh no, he''s right." Sol chuckled and spoke loudly causing the auditorium of spectators to erupt in murmurs. "I do have something over her." Sol reached his hand out to Dina and she obediently approached and stood before him while he rested his hand on her shoulder and hugged her by her waist onto himself.

    "Get off of me!" Mark pushed Eve away and wiped his mouth roughly. "I knew there was no way in hell she''d be with a crude asshole like... H-hey..." Mark fell speechless when Dina was raised and ced to sit on the desk right next to him, and Sol leaned over her slowly and sensually kissed her in full view of everyone. "Stop... Dina."

    "Dina is my property, if any man touches her I''ll kill him, it''s that simple, mine alone." Sol looked up at the dumbfounded man and then looked to Dina again when she took his cheeks and directed him into another more passionate kiss, locking her arms around his neck and knitting her fingers in his hair.

    "Weren''t you afraid of me killing some poor fool a second ago?" Sol asked her when she released his head and held onto his shirt. "What''s with the sudden change of heart?

    "He can die for all I care, he deserved it for trying to touch your property, Master~" Dina pulled Sol''s shirt again with her tongue pressed against his neck as she nced over at Mark who was having a meltdown being unable to look away as the woman he had considered untouchable was for the second timepletely obedient and submissive to another man right in front of his eyes.

    "Ahem... Master, Dina, you are being observed by a few professors now." A called to them, standing daintily by their side.

    "Are we?" Sol looked to the door and sure enough, several of the professors were there shaken as they saw one student on the ground with his hand in his mouth and them just metres away making out as if the world was ending.

    "They can watch too." Sol chuckled with his lips between Dina''s teeth when her arousal started controlling her and she began breathing heavily against the touch of his hand pressed on her leg and his other hand locked around her neck.

    "This is inappropriate behavior-" One of the professors finally found the courage to speak while the others rushed to Duran''s side to see if he was still alive after he''d passed out, he stopped though when Sol held out his hand in a gesture of "one sec" before he righted himself and stood properly again while Dinaid on her back and locked her legs around one of his staring at everyone upside-down and breathing heavily as her sigils under her clothes simultaneously became hot across her body.

    "Master, can we leave, please?" She looked down her chest at Sol who was staring at everyone while they watched shamelessly.

    "Unbelievable." Mark held his face. "Fucking unbelievable, all this time I thought you were some saint; some kind of angel, but if I''d had a tonne of money I would have gotten my way with you as well, if I''d not been such a broke loser I''d be the one... What?" He stopped on ount of Eve resting her hand on his shoulder.

    "Shut up and walk away." Eve stared at him, concerns aside, fun and games aside, he was starting to poke the bear and she could feel that after Duran, Sol''s patience had dried out.

 Chapter 207: Too Pure to be a Devil.

    "You fucking traitor..." Mark stared at his supposed best friend scornfully. "One taste of their money and you''re taking their side like some kind of people-pleasingckey, open your eyes Eve, this man is a scam, there''s no way someone like Dina would do anything someone like him wanted unless he corrupted and threatened her..." He grabbed her shoulder and eased her off his side, staring at Sol.

    "Walk away, Mark."

    "Or is it that you''re also corrupted by him, I mean you did spend an entire week with him after all, who knows what kind of things he made you do, you weren''t line this before, tell me, Eve." Mark red at Sol. "Did this bastard force himself onto y-"

    Mark''s teeth went flying and he himself hit a table behind himself and snapped it, flipping several times and colliding into the wall face first leaving a splotch of blood as he slid to the floor.

    "Dina!"

    "I''ve had just about enough of you." Dina crackled her knuckles and walked over to Mark, picking him up by his cor and mming him into the wall again whilst casting [Minor heal] to save him from any fatal damage.

    "Rude, always staring, always stalking!" She pped him so hard more teeth went flying out of his mouth before she picked him up again and cast [heal] once more.

    "I can handle all of that, but how dare you bad-mouth Sol in front of me, how dare you use the most genuine person on this of something so disgusting!?" She gave him a backhanded p and he spun out of her grasp and hit another desk breaking that one too.

    "T-that''s enough!" One of the faculty members attempted to approach Dina, but she looked around at the woman with her eyes zing pink and her sigils burning giving her a feral almost demonic stare as she ground her teeth.

    "I promise the same to anyone who even tries to help him!" Dina snapped and raised him by his shirt again.

    "Dina..." A wanted to intervene but Sol held her hand and took picked up a chair, taking a seat and tapping hisp.

    "She''s okay, I''ve yet to see Dina dish out any personally justice and honestly if she hadn''t stepped in and decked him across the face just now I''d probably have sent him flying through space myself." Sol rested his back while A sat across hisp and Eve who overheard his statement nced at him horrified.

    "Um... Mr Vestic-"

    "You can call me Sol." He looked at Eve while A ignored everything else, rested her head in the crook of his neck and hugged him, closing her eyes tonfurtherbshow she was impartial after he had toldnher tonlet it be.

    "...Okay, Sol." She cleared her throat wincing when she heard Mark scream out and beg for mercy when Dina started pping the crust off his skin. "Is this really okay, eventually people are going to-"

    "Eve, take a look at your friend''s name tag." Sol instructed her, and using [view] Eve gasped when she saw that Marks name was all the way in orange, nearly reding from green, a week away and a nother few days without her and he managed to do something that got him under.

    "What''s going on, what did he do?" She asked and Sol closed his eyes.

    "I''m responsible for global security, not the misdoings of a single person, having an orange or red name doesn''t necessarily make you a bad person, but it does show howpatible you are with society, it''s not a fair one considering the contributions she''s made but look at Dina''s." He instructed her and she did as told again.

    "It is white, but I thought only kids had... No, it''s brighter than any I''ve ever seen before, it''s glowing with gold..." She mused.

    "Does that seem like the bearings of someone who''s been corrupted by anything or anyone, or are you going to question a phenomena that has helped rid the world of 70% of the ongoing surface crimes after just six months?"  Sol asked watching her use [view] on him and A, finding their names the same white and gold glow as Dina''s.

    "I''m not dictating that what we do is right or wrong, frankly we only need to believe that it''s right or wrong to act, but we do act with everyone''s best interest at heart, always.

    The things we do, nobody else can, we''ve put our lives at the fkrefront of every major threat, an attack on my women; on my allies, is spitting in the face of that service, we don''t want or value recognition, all we want and have are each other." He looked at Dina who was brutally pping the orange out of Mark''s name... Literally.

    Since he hadn''tmitted something as serious as getting his name in the red by which the state or government would have intervened, Dina''s harsh treatment was punishment enough, not that it mattered since the poor man was being beaten within an inch of his life by hands hitting with the weight and malice of police battons while nobody was the wiser since she healed him between every blow.

    "You never told me exactly what it is that you do though... Aside from taking down As" She took a seat much like a lot of other students and even the teachers, they had been paying attention to Sol, they mostly heard what he had said, and a lot of them hearing her mention the extinct As cooperation broke into murmurs. "What''s your organisation even called?"

    "We never named it, to remain out of the limelight and stay away from publicity so people would just live and move on, we never named it." A answered with her eyes closed.

    "Master has a cute dream about retiring somece quiet when we are all done, and we would have been in another six months while this ce was being built... But things started happening again, and now we have no choice but to leave and be active once more." She pouted while Sol pet her head to console her.

    "As for exactly what we do, I''m afraid that''s ssified information none of you here are cleared to know, not that it would matter even if you did; the responsibility is one only I as their patriarch bare." Sol added, and saw Eve pout and lean her head at him.

    "Are you calling yourself a king?"

    "Haha, master, she thinks you are a king." A chuckled and looked at him, and then across the room when Dina righted herself and took a deep breath.

    "I swear, if I ever see your name anywhere near orange again, I''ll break your legs and cripple you, got it?" She stared at Mark who was sweating with drips of blood surrounding him on the ground.

    "Y-yes... ma''am." He shuddered when their eyes made four. "Never again..."

    "His name really changed from orange to yellow." One observer shuddered as well looking at the mess he was as heid there heaving and crying on the floor traumatised into being a good citizen by his crush.

    "Good, we''re done here then." Dina huffed a d looked at everyone else. "This is a warning for anyone who thinks they have the eight to touch or approach me outside of master''s permission, Dina Levina is off-limits, if you fuck around you''re gonna find out the hard way, and be damn d I''ll be the one beating your ass because if you manage to piss him off you''re already a walking corpse."

    "Is she serious?"

    "I''m not above killing someone who threatens to tear my family apart, gods or demons, whatever they may be, Ikaris, Dina, A, and Sara are the most important people to me, for them id dly drop everything ane be the world''s most cruel devil."

    "Master you shouldn''t say things like that, it is unbing of a Hero." A snuggled against him.

    "Even heroes break when you take what''s most important to them." Sol responded honestly and A opened her eyes and kissed his neck.

    "You are my guidance, the golden beacon of hopeful light in a dark and unforgiving universe, to lose you is to lose my reason for life itself, Master, you who gave me a second chance and a reason to love again are too pure to be a devil." A sat up when Dina approached them, wiping Mark''s blood off her fingertips and looking at Eve who was visibly afraid of her now that she knew she had been this dangerous all along.

    "Are you saying you''d leave me?" Sol asked. And both A and Dina responded "absolutely not" in the same breath almost on the same pitch as well.

    "If you became a demon I''d be your mistress in a heartbeat." Dina pouted, but sucked in a breath and looked at Sol apologetically as soon as she caught herself saying something like that after what they''d all been through; him especially. "I-I''m sorry, I didn''t mean it like that." She held her face and lowered her gaze from his stare. "I wasn''t thinking..."

    "It''s okay, Dina." Sol smiled and stood before her, taking out his phone. "It''s in the past, you don''t need to walk on eggshells around me... Ikaris is calling for us."

    "let''s head home."

 Chapter 208: A Battleship in the Sky.

    "You''re just gonna leave him like that?" One student asked looking at Mark who wheezed as the phantom pain ran trips across his face.

    "You sent the other one to the hospital, didn''t you?" Sol nced at the girl and then walked to one of the professors who stood with a security guard that was too scared to approach anyone after seeing what Dina did to Mark.

    "I''m sorry for disturbing your teaching atmosphere, honestly, we had no right doing what we just did." He gestured to the auditorium and then spun his hand and ced his card in her grasp.

    "The president will deal with anything rted to this college in my absence, but while I''m still around please feel free to ask anything of my assistant and she will have it done promptly, I hope this doesn''t affect Dina''s ability to finish her semester andplete her test; she only acted on my behalf." Sol gestured to her.

    "N-no... She is fine." The woman answered with a trickle of sweat rolling down her cheek.

    "Well, okay then."

    He gestured to the door and they all parted like little ants.

    "Sorry." Dina held her gaze straight while she passed everyone while A smiled at them shamelessly, telling the faculty and security to have a nice rest of day.

    "Ikaris, is it urgent, and why are you using a phone when you can just speak directly to me?" Sol contacted her as soon as they set foot outside ready to teleport away if she answered "yes" but she chuckled in his ear.

    "Not urgent at all, love, our child gets ufortable whenever you are not near, sometimes painfully so, and what is the point of having a phone if I never get to use it?" She answered and Sol raised his brow and stopped walking.

    "Painfully?"

    "Yes, she kicks and squirms every time you are not around, she has also acquired a taste for your mana it seems since she has barely had any of mine in the week since the incident." Ikaris answered with a chuckle and Sol smiled at that revtion.

    "Okay, we''ll be there in a bit."

    "Everything okay?" Dina looked up at his smiling face along with A.

    "My daughter misses me it seems." Sol answered and both of them nced at each other and then at him again.

    ***

    [The human girl, Eve and her friend are at the door shall I let them in?] Alpha sat with Gia ying with her while everyone was seated around the dinner table but aside from Sara, nobody even budged or looked at her as they focused fully on the food before them.

    "Please do, I will prepare another serving for them both." Sara answered, setting her fork aside and heading into the kitchen with the serving cart she used to usher in everyone else''s while the system walked away.

    "Hello there!" Alpha opened the door herself looking up at them with a weing smile while Gia held on to her hand and did the same, both wearing a maid''s outfit like Sara''s. "Wee, you arrived during dinner, so our Master has invited you to join them."

    "Ah, sorry for intruding." Eve took off her jacket and entered hanging it on the closest rack and smiling at Alpha. "I haven''t seen you yet, are you new?"

    "Not nearly, I am Alpha, master Vestic''s other personal maid, I was simply away on business." Alpha chuckled, taking her and Marks bags and handing them to Gia who chuckled and carried them over to an empty table, cing them down properly and running back.

    "Hi Gia! Why are you wearing a maid''s cosy?" Eve stooped before the little girl and greeted her with a hug raising her off the ground when she held out her hands.

    "Mommy looked pretty in her uniform, I want to look like mommy!" She cheerfully answered while Eve grinned and followed Alpha upon her gesture towards the dining hall.

    "This ce is huge..." Mark mused, walking behind everyone and rubbing his hand sheepishly, clearly feeling out of ce.

    "Wee, Eve, Mark." Sara greeted them both with a fancy gesture, and then smiled at Mark specifically causing the man to blush and avert his eyes.

    "Everyone, thanks for having us." Eve ced Gia to stand on her own and gave them a bow, prompting her friend to do the same.

    "Good evening, Eve and Eve''s friend, I hope you didn''t eat too much beforeing over, Sara made her special today." Ikaris smiled at them causing Mark to audibly gasp, almost choking when he set eyes on her, but almost as soon as he did he cleared his throat and looked away when Sol raised his eyes.

    "Mmm." Mark raised his eyes again, and stared at Sol while Eve took her seat. "Mister Vestic." He stood at attention and lowered his head almost down to the hip. "I... today, I was really disrespectful, seriously, I''m sorry for all those things I said." He apologised and then remained there listening for a response.

    "You really pissed me off today, Mark." Sol replied after another mouthful. "But it''s not me you should be apologising to; your words were intended for another, weren''t they?" He looked at the man bowing and saw mark swallow and slowly look over to Dina.

    "D-Dina..."

    "The food''s delicious, stop wasting time and sit down." Dina answered before he even got the chance to utter another word of apology.

    "Dang," Usami huffed. "You didn''t even give him the opportunity." She looked at her fellow hero and Dina clicked her tongue.

    "If you''d heard what he said, Usami, if you were there."

    "I would have probably pped him senseless too." Usami chuckled causing Mark to hide his face and groan when everyone chuckled at his expense.

    "Well," A quipped in. "Knowing your temperamentdy Usami you would have likely attacked him with your spear." She objected, and Usami looked over at Mark shocked that he wasn''t dead.

    "Was it that bad?" The spear hero asked Dina and thetter nodded and huffed again before melting with another spoonful of food.

    "Let''s not discuss this at the table." Sol looked across at them and Dina nodded while Usami grinned with a salute and A stuck another spoonful in her mouth quickly.

    "A change of topic then, Mark," Ikaris called his attention to herself once more.

    "Yes ma''am."

    "Ah, I am only a year older than you are." Ikaris pouted causing Sol to scoff and almost choke on his food at her calling herself young knowing fully well she''s nearly as old as creation itself.

    "You!" Ikaris stared at him from the opposite end and flicked a single bean out of her te intending for it to hit Sol in his forehead, but he caught it with his fork and stuck it in his mouth and continuedughing.

    "What the-" Eve gawked shocked alongside Mark while everyone else took a moment and apudedically.

    "Haha, thank you-" Sol stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the ceiling, cing his fork next to his te. "Ikaris,e." He held out his hand to his side physically summoning her with his powers while his eyes and hair turned gold.

    Along with his sudden change in character Dina and A stood, eyes glowing pink and Crimson respectively while all their sigils lit up as a reaction to him and Ikaris.

    "Sol, the baby is uneasy!" Ikaris drew closer holding her belly when he stood and looked at everyone around the table.

    "Alpha, take Ikaris ...and get those two home safely." Sol ground his teeth in agitation sparing them a single nce

    His clothes burned away revealing a set of ck armour beneath it and the circr sigils appeared before his chest and on his back again. "Something just breached from the outside; something big and it''sing fast."

    Eve and Mark didn''t even get a chance to react when seeing A and Ikaris''s ears grow taller... hers and Dina''s clothes changing into armour along with Usami''s and Sara''s, they only recalled seeing a sh od white before they appeared in their homes sitting in their beds.

    "What the hell just happened-" Eve stood staring at the fork clutched firmly in her grasp but a momentter a loud trumpeting sound came from outside and her along with her parents ran out of their apartment into the streets and stared skyward.

    "Something... big..." Eve''s mouth slowly widened along with her eyes as the fork fell from her grasp when they beheld a massive ship slowly descending, the clouds began parting and the skies cked out revealing more of it across the horizon, and then she followed a streak of gold in her peripheral ascending towards the country-sized construct and crashing into it.

    The next moment both the light that had ascended and the giant construct disappeared in a burst of light that left particles of light and ember falling through the skies..

    "When they said global security... they were talking about protecting us from outside of the?"

 Chapter 209: Binding Vow.

    "What the hell just happened?" A woman wearing a uniform of pure white behind arge dashboard with her hand inside of a ball of energy tethered to her nerves asked.

    Her along with a couple hundred other people were staring out into the void at a small golden light approaching them.

    "Where are we?" A man asked from behind them, seated on a high throne of iron with one hand rested on the handle while his other hand held his head in ce, his hair was violet from the roots to the ends, and his eyes as ck as the void he stared at with pupils of pure red, and beneath his left eye was the number 79 the same as the number on the front of the massive ship

    Unlike the crew who worked under him, the man wore ck, much like their uniforms but it resembled a battlesuit. "These stars are not the same as a moment ago." He stated and the woman started moving her fingers retracing their steps on a smaller floating augmented screen in front of her.

    "I have no idea, the breach isn''t where it was supposed to be either, and all the stars are different indeed, not different as in a separate ce sir, but different in physics as well, I think we identally jumped universes-"

    "That was no ident." The man sat forward and smirked as the gold before him turned to white and the approach slowed. "My brother was right after all, there is indeed a Godyer here." He grinned revealing his teeth all sharp and zipped like those of sharks. "...and if there is a Godyer..."

    "Vatui are never far behind, but what was that golden light before?" Another woman wearing a simr battlesuit to his with simr attributes in appearance save for her hair being tall and caught into a ponytail and the number under her eye being 120 sat on the handle of his throne and smiled watching Sol slow down before the screen of their deck and stare at everyone inside, clutching his hammer.

    He looked at the ship from one end to the next, the biggest feat of creation he had ever seen outside of celestial bodies, but his awe waspletely suppressed under the weight of this being a ship that had breached the veil and entered his domain.

    "Leave." Sol didn''t waste any time at all as he spoke, and upon speaking, his voice boomed throughout the entire ship causing most of the staff to instantly fall unconscious while the others covered their ears in shock, several of them even fell to their knees and cowered in fright.

    "I want to avoid conflicts as much as I can, I don''t know who you are and I don''t care why you''re here, you''re not weed, leave." He spoke again, and the man on the throne chuckled, drawing Sol''s attention to himself.

    "This one has no idea the vastness of the collective, does he, who doesn''t know who we are, is he for real?" He asked, and Sol sighed and ced his hand on the ss.

    "Alpha, can you identify it?" He asked.

    [Unknownpounds, standby...]

    [I tried hacking into their system but something is blocking me, not another sentient consciousness like myself but a power much like yours, it is preventing me from gaining any information.] She answered in his head and Sol raised his hammer and tapped the ss.

    Sol stared at the woman in white he was sure was the leading pilot. "You won''t get another chance, if you don''t start leaving in the next ten seconds I attack." He stated calmly

    "A hostile Godyer... How long has it been since one of these relics had the will to fight back?" 120 asked, stepping forward and smiling when Sol and her eyes locked onto each other, "The one he protects must be of high status, all the more reason to find and kill them." Sheughed and as soon as the words left her mouth Sol''s fist mmed into the ss.

    "Whoa, does he think that a strike from his bare fist can even scratch an imperial v-"

    *BOOM!* Sol mmed his fist into the screen a second time and the woman did a double-take of the ss when she saw a massive crack run from the top to the bottom and rms started going off.

    "I get it now, he took us to a different universe entirely." The man held forward his hand. "Not that it matters, A Godyer is only a Godyer." He sped his fist and the ss was instantly mended to perfect condition.

    "The Vatui he protects is indeed someone special, there are so few these days that it only makes sense that he would be, maybe we finally found one of the nobles that escaped, or maybe royalty this time..."

    "Time''s up." Sol hefted his hammer and leaned himself. "You''ll learn the importance of caution-"

    "Seize him." Number-79 ordered, and all of a sudden there were dozens of people on the outside of the ship, they weren''t gods, Sol couldn''t tell what they were supposed to be, but they were all stronger than they appeared -that much was clear as day. "Don''t kill him, I want to question him myself-"

    He was in the middle of giving an order when the soldiers he sent after Sol all exploded when they tried attacking him, sending clots of blood and body parts flying off and hitting the screen.

    [Master, is it wise to kill them all? We need information...] Alpha spoke up but Sol scoffed.

    "I''m curious too but if one came, then more willeter on, we can always question someone else when we have enough questions, for the time being though, I''m going to exercise ignorance and send these ones to hell because I''m curious where the threshold is that I need to keep on average to not overexert myself or underperform."

    [Forced Sun]

    Inside of the ship, Sol watched several officers and soldiers, start running around as cosmic fire began zing and his technique manifested in there with them, he watched unsympathetically as the insides melted and everything went still.

    sping his fist, he created a tiny star on the inside manifesting a small isted apocalypse and watching for a response other than panic and fear.

    "That''s enough!"

    From seemingly out of nowhere the woman with 120 came from his peripheral and dropkicked him in his side, Sol knew something was off about them, he knew they were strong as the ones who seemed to be in charge but when her heels connected with his armour and broke it he was genuinely shocked at the ease at which something that had survived most of his other battles was obliterated in a single strike.

    The kick alone caused a wave of force that tilted the entire ship as he was sent spiralling down reaching out and tearing at space in an attempt to stop himself and only gaining the ability to do so when the glow of his white hair intensified and he exerted more power.

    "You have been tested, Godyer, you are no match for the Emporium, not a single one of you have been for the past few millennia, In the name of the Queen of the Thousand Sun Empire, I order you to surrender the Vatui rebels.

    "What the hell is a Vatui?" Sol raised his hand off his armour seeing a few cracked shards float off into space. "I genuinely have no idea what you''re talking about; you''re trespassing on my territory I want you gone, it''s as simple as that.

    "You lying little peasant, the Godyers only manifest where the Vatui reside, the fact that you exist means that you have been in constant contact with one of those traitors, if you fail to deliver them, your entire Gate will burn away into nothing-"

    "Yeah... I still don''t know what A Vatui is, you''re free to try prying information from me, but I guarantee..." Sol rxed and sucked in a breath. "None of you are leaving here alive anyway."

    "Red eyes... White hair, deceitful, cunning, able to impersonate any other being by a quick study, able to adapt powers so long as they are exposed to it, are you telling me none of this rings a bell?" The woman started walking across the void towards him.

    "Do you honestly expect me to believe that some Vatui filth didn''t awaken your powers, that you just acquired them all on your own?" She roared, and Sol felt his chest tremble from her voice.

    "That''s exactly what I''m saying!" He snapped back exerting even more power than she just had, and she paused in reaction to it and stared curiously since this was far more power than the usual Godyer could exert as a Vatui henchman, meaning there was more to them, it was rare but she had experienced this power before.

    "You are intimate with yours, I see... You managed to forge some kind of binding vow or contract in exchange for more power." She smiled when she saw the blood drain from Sol''s face as he felt tremors of rage and fear in the pits of his stomach.

    "I have no idea what you''re on about." Sol narrowed his eyes doing a mental check and finding Ikaris still safe and waiting in an isted space with Dina and the others while the system ryed to them what was happening in real time through the cloned connected consciousness of Alpha that he had brought with him.

    "If that were true, then why do you think of the name, Ikaris, every time I say Vatui?"

 Chapter 210: Brain-dead.

    "What?"

    "You heard me, Godyer, that imposter you call Ikaris, the vile little vermin you keep thinking of when I utter the word Vatui, where are they?" She asked and for a moment after her question the very space around them went dead silent before Sol released his hammer and balled his fist.

    "You... You read my mind?" He asked, never before, no other creature had ever done this, even Ikaris was unable to, even the goddess of dreams and memories was unable to; but this woman numbered 120 had easily intruded his mental space without him even realising.

    "Indeed." She smirked. "A few more moments and I will no longer need your words, I will simply pry the information directly from your thoughts... What the!" She snapped shocked when all of Sol''s thoughts became distorted and dark, she became unable to make sense of anything in his mind, and upon looking at him closely she saw a drop of drool floating away from his mouth. "What the hell did you do?"

    Sol wouldn''t be able to make sense of her words, as soon as he realised his mind was his enemy hepletely shut down like a machine.

    "You turned yourself into an idiot...?" She stared at him in disbelief. "I''ve never heard of... what?

    Who the hell is this guy?" She began slowly approaching again since someone with no brain function couldn''t react, but by the time she was at arms length from Sol who floated stationary she felt a foreboding presence inside of him warning her that this was the closest she would ever get and keep her limbs.

    "What''s going on?" Dina asked, staring at Sol directly through the system''s eyes. "What did he do?"

    [He turned off his thoughts, he still functions, but all his senses have been locked away leaving only instinct, at least that is what it seems like, even trying to speak to him has be impossible, he simply stares back like a marite.] Alpha answered in their heads.

    "Is it that bad?" Usami who was standing by Ikaris''s side queried impatiently. "He should have attacked multiple times already, I thought he was going to be more aggressive."

    "He was weighing whether it was safe to fight them." Ikaris responded this time.

    "You haven''t been in a fight yet where your opponent holds all the cards like this; they came with enough power to destroy an entire universe in that ship I have never seen anything like it; a truly sentient being with unlimited resources is the most terrifying thing to face as an enemy, the moment he realised he was being probed he took the advantage away, it was a smart option, but I do not know if it was the best option."

    [It is the only option that makes sense, ironically,] Alpha corrected her. [That woman with the serial 120 on her cheek would have found us by now had she not given away her intentions earlier, the only reason they are unaware of where we are is because he sacrificed his mind.]

    "Will he be alright?" A spoke up.

    "He is the Godyer, I think you should remember he did something simr when he fought Sitri." Ikaris looked at her. "He is the only one capable of destroying and reconstructing his very consciousness onmand, and I am sure you remember what happened thest time he lost his mind."

    "Chaos."

    ***

    "What''s the hold up, Minora, just retrieve him and take him back already he is only a godyer." The man in the ship was walking over dead bodies on his way to the screen while the ship itself quickly travelled on its way towards them, an entire gxy away, speaking to her through an imnt in the skies of their heads.

    "Boss... I can''t touch him." The now named Minora shook her head raising her hand and feeling a death sentence rise against her again when Sol''s finger twitched. "If I get any closer I''ll die.

    "Don''t be ridiculous-"

    "N-no, I''m serious, he realised I was probing his mind andpletely shut down like a doll, except he''s way more dangerous than before, if I even try to touch this man, I''ll definitely die!" She retracted her hand and retreated several paces away.

    "That''s ...new."

    "What should I do?" She asked.

    "Stay put and keep your eyes on him, I''ll deal with him myself." The boss answered and disconnected from the conversation leaving her there staring at Sol with a small dagger in her grasp, ready to defend herself at a moment''s notice."

    "Ugh,No." Ikaris groaned, leaned forward and started breathing heavily, holding on to A''s shoulder for support. "Not now...!"

    "Ikaris, ow~!" Everyone turned to her when A hissed and yelped from her shoulder almost breaking because of the Goddess''s grasp. "What''s wrong?" She asked, casting [heal] on her dislocated shoulder and bending down with her.

    "She is draining my mana again, but she is taking a lot this time to substitute for Sol''s mana, I don''t think I have enough to spare currently!"

    "If we leave this space they will immediately find you again!" Dina stared at her taking a knee and waving her hand before her belly conjuring up the small reserve of divine power she possessed and sucking in a breath of shock when the entirety of it was siphoned from her within a few seconds.

    "Hunn~ It hurts!" Ikaris held her belly and ced her hand over her heart breathing heavily while she began sweating. "My mana does not multiply this fast, if this continues..." She left the spection unsaid and Alpha appeared before them.

    [The only safe option is to get her to A so she can ess the rest of her power, but I do not have the means to do that currently] Alpha ced her hand on Ikaris''s forehead. [She has a fever again.]

    "Fuck me..." Usami began pacing before them causing Gia to yfully do the same until Uriyu picked her up while his sister looked at them. "What''s the unsafe option?"

    "Master vestic will not respond to me until he gets rid of that woman, it is a game of chess and he is waiting for them to slip up, but if he senses that Ikaris is in danger he will abandon that fight ande right to her-"

    "If he does that they will follow him right to us though..." Dina stared at Alpha.

    "If we stay, Ikaris dies it''s not even a question, get us out now!" Usami snapped at them, and they collectively looked at alpha and nodded watching her eyes light up before the world around then shattered and they appeared in the dining area again.

    As soon as A''s feet touched the ground properly she fell to her knees, finding the root of her sigils and channeling her mana into it until she seemed to glow with reminiscent crimson and then she screamed with all her power; "Master!"

    "We locked on sir!" The pilot of the ship called to the man, a half of her face was burnt and bandaged and her hand was scarred, but she still did her job well enough to remain in charge

    "What?"

    "Two Vatui signatures appeared again stronger than before."

    "I thought there was supposed to be only one." He furrowed his brow.

    "These readings... they''re female, sir, she''s with child!" Another woman jumped from her seat and looked at him then fell back and started tapping away at her screen. "Her vitals are dropping fast she is nearly dead, if we don''t hurry we will miss the opportunity to reap them both!"

    "Minora, there''s been a change, the Vatui showed up again with a child, stay there with the Godyer for now and let me know if anything happens, I''ll retrieve them ande back to get you as soon as it''s done." He spoke through his imnt, but there was no response. "Minora, are you there?"

    "Minora?"

    "Sir! Sir... Captain!!" A man came running towards him, tripping across someone''s leg and falling epically causing a device held in his grasp to hit the ground and slide to his leader''s feet. "S-sir there''s a dyed signaling from Vice Captain Minoras imnt."

    "Dyed, how?"

    "Sir, she''s dead, her vitals are all gone, but her brain hasn''t shut down yet because she didn''t realise, t-the cause was decapitation she still thinks she''s looking at the Godyer!"

    "What, when did this happen!?" He snapped at the man grabbing him by his neck and raising him off the ground.

    "The signal is dyed by a minute, it seems to have happened after yourst transmission, thest message was a warning...!" The analyst iled when he was tossed to the ground, getting up and reaching for his device again. "It said ''If I see your ship, sense your presence or even feel like you''reing after me I''ll murder everyst one of you'' ... Sir!"

    "Set a course now, make it instant, we have a Godyer to kill!" The Captain roared in fury and the pilot summoned another orb like the first and stuck her hand in it, closing her eyes and focusing as the stars they were passing became streaks and the void before them lit up.

    "Ten seconds to breach!" Someone announced over Comms and everyone rushed to strap down while 79 stood next to the Pilot with his hands smashed through the dashboard as he held on with his teeth grinding and his eyes burning crimson. "I will make you regret doing that to my subordinate, I will make you regret being born, you and that Vatui whore!"

    "Godyer filth!"

 Chapter 211: Beyond Superhuman.

    "There, it''s okay now." Sol was kneeling before Ikaris with his hand on her belly as she sat in one of the kitchen chairs. " That was too close, any longer and you could have..." He shook his head. "How is she?"

    "Resting again, Sol, I''m sorry." Ikaris sat forward now that she was able to freely move without unbearable pain again. "If I was able to hold on for just a while longer you would need not expose yourself and us like this, but she reacted to your presence disappearing." She took his outstretched hand and watched him rest his cheek in her palm.

    "Don''t me yourself, Ikaris, this isn''t something either of us can control, we can only nourish her until she''s ready to see the world." He closed his eyes and smiled for a moment, and then went serious again when the air around them started shaking, visibly vibrating after the ship returned through a breach the size of the moon next to earth and stopped while 79 stared and his analysts easily pinpointed their location.

    "Now that it''se to this though, I''m not going to be staying my hand or exercising any more caution, I killed one of theirs to get back and I can sense the other one''s grief and anger, not that it matters."

    "Go." Dina held on to Ikaris''s hand while A took her other side, both standing guard over her ready to use whatever means necessary to defend her as best they could, but Sol had already decided the moment he returned that not a living soul aboard was living past this day.

    All across the world simultaneously everyone''s radios and other forms ofmunication were hacked, and the Captain''s face came clear across all monitors.

    [I am the seventy-ninth Captain under the Emporium''s fleet and I do note in peace; I don''t know why you returned here, Godyer, but hiding amongst your people is a waste of time, surrender the Vatui woman and yourself and we will leave these people unharmed, fail to do so in the next few seconds and we will tear this little world apart and pry her from your cold hands, I am extending the same mercy you gave to us.]

    "I have a captain to kill." Sol stood properly from his loom over Ikaris after kissing her forehead and resting his hands on Dina and A''s heads. "I''ll be back." He turned causing his crimson cape to fan around before he vanished in a violent sh of golden light leaving a foot-deep hole in the marble ground.

    "Captain, no response."

    "He is a Godyer, and she is Vatui, nobody else matters, they are both easily capable of surviving the destruction of this tiny world." He responded coldly. "Destroy it."

    The ship didn''t get to fire a single shot at earth, one moment it was there, and the next it was a cosmic pile of parts being shot out into deep space when Sol attacked it seriously, unlike the first time; with a single strike of his palm he was able topletely obliterate the entire thing instantly killing most of the crew on board while the captain came rushing at him roaring in outrage.,

    Sol could tell this man was strong, not as strong as Dr''ul or even Orion, hell he wasn''t even as strong as Saleos, but strong enough that any kind of fight near the they were by would cause irreparable damage, so with a single swipe of his hand he scanned the observable and sent him to a dead gxy full of blue stars.

    "What is your name?" Sol appeared before him, he had yet to even use his Godyer powers and was acting solely with his divine mana, but since they had identified him as Godyer with his white glow he had refrained from using any unnecessary power, especially when he realised that there was an unknown entity observing him from the outside, something that for whatever reason had yet to take action; something with the same formidable power that Lumi possessed.

    It was his hope that he wouldn''t have to fight that being yet, he needed to get stronger before he even attempted it.

    "How are you so strong?" The Captain asked, ignoring Sol''s question when he realised that he was somecepletely different again. "Godyers are on average able to manipte an entire system, but you''ve casually sent us to another verse entirely, and now you still have enough power to do this!?"

    "I''m different." Sol regarded him closely. "Your entire crew is dead now, and your ship is nothing but junk floating in deep space-"

    "If I die, more wille!"

    "You were so confident in killing me a moment ago weren''t you?" Sol narrowed his eyes. "What was all that about having a Godyer to kill, or was it all dependent on your ship?" He asked.

    "Your Vice Captain was stronger than you are, and look where that got her, I was able to send your ship an entire universe away, why did you think you stood a chance against me?" He asked, inching closer with every word he spoke.

    "What makes you think I''m afraid of you, number seventy-nine?" Sol asked again. "Go ahead, I want you to fight back and fully understand who you''ve fucked with, give me everything So I can tear thatst bit of hope from your fingers before I kill you." He stared at him with his eyes wide and with a promise of unavoidable death.

    "Come on, Captain, say something, do something, why are you just standing there?"

    Sol watched droplets of sweat escape the man''s face and float off as he began breathing heavily and ced his hand against a crest of a crescent dragon on his right chest te.

    "-mpire.."

    "Hm?" Sol asked when the man began mumbling. "Speak up, corpse, I don''t want to go back entirely empty-handed."

    "For the Empire!" The captain mmed his hand against his chest and Sol''s eyes widened when all the stars in the entire gxy began swelling with ten times the power they were supposed to possess swallowing up their systems and rapidly expanding until they started colliding into each other.

    "So this is your answer?" Sol raised his hand and stopped the star behind him from advancing any further, watching the man heave as blood escaped his eyes and mouth. "Suicide?"

    "More wille, greater than I, stronger than you, Mark my words Godyer, this is far from over, you and that Vatui whore will both die miserable deaths-" He stopped talking when Sol''s spear tore through his face taking his mouth and a half of his head.

    "Even if you''re dying, how dare you regard my wife with such a vile term in my presence?" Sol seethed, already calming down and collecting his spear as the body floated away from him.

    "Alpha, did you manage to get anything?"

    [I collected all the personal belongings I could scan aboard the ship, however I was still unable to hack into the mainframe, there was some kind of barrier in ce much like the one in your mind, that ship was likely sentient in some way.] She answered.

    "Scan through the wreckage and let me know when you find something useful to us." Sol picked at his nails with one hand and stared upward again when the presence from earlier which observed from outside stopped watching and left.

    [Understood.]

    "How did a being with no cosmic mana cause the stars to explode like that?" He looked around at the massive stars forming one giant anomaly and then vanished observing it all from the outside and still being unable to learn anything useful as it was nothing but chaos as an entire gxy vanished in a bright explosion.

    "Where did such a scary powere from in a man who had no mana to begin with, how was he even able to survive in the void?"

    Sol''s mind now that the threat had been lifted was riddled with questions. "He was human-" He appeared next to A staring at them waiting in the living area for him. "pletely human, no mana at all, and yet he could survive the depths of space, his vice-captain was human as well, but she was almost as strong as I was when I fought Orion, before I awakened..."

    "What?" Ikaris mused, shocked. "That monstrous strength was merely human, how is that possible?"

    "That''s what I''m saying." Sol sat next to her and rxed his body leaving his armour to vanish and be reced by casual clothes again. "It goes beyond the concept of superhuman, this is the realm of gods, no wonder they don''t fear me..."

    [It is technology unlike anything I have ever seen, from all the advanced civil actions you have exposed me to in thest five months of brief travel, it is the first time I havee across something that confuses me, I need more information to even beginprehension.] Alpha answered, appearing before him with a small book in her grasp.

    "What''s this?"

    "A journal, I found it on one of the bodies of the crewmen, currently I am probing his brain fornguage in order to trante, I know you have a taste for learning newnguages so I will deliver an alphabet and manual as soon as I havepleted studying him."

    "Good, until then I have to go again." Sol sent the journal into a storage space and stood again with a sigh.

    "You just got back." Dina protested.

    "Where are you going?"

    "I''m gonna go pick a fight with an emissary of Fate."

 Chapter 212: Raise Your Fists.

    "Do you truly intend to fight me, Godyer?" Lumi asked Sol as soon as he entered her presence; much like The Beginning, it was a vast endless white space with neither up nor down aside from wherever one decided there was, and here she was no more than a mass barely distinguishable from her surroundings.

    "I''m not in the mood Lumi, I want answers that only you would have." Sol stared at her eyes as the only thing to focus on, his previous hives from being near her and the nerve rattling sensations were all gone, she mentallymended him for showing such an unmoving resolve as he seemed to have ovee the small bit of fear she sensed thest time they were face to face.

    "Then, ask." She responded to-the-point much like he was talking. "If it does not interfere with the will of fate I will answer truthfully."

    "I''m not seeing things, right, those people are just human, right?" Sol furrowed his brows.

    "Indeed they are, though the Captain was a bit stronger than most, and his vice captain was exceptionally strong for her rank and age, where theye from... they are considered to be at the bottom of the chain; weak."

    "Then I don''t understand what''s going on, how is a mere human able to grow that strong without augmentation?" Sol stared at her confused and at a loss of conclusions. "No matter what Ie up with, it doesn''t make sense that there are regr humans capable of doing what they were casually doing!"

    "I had told you beforehand that the collective was beyond yourprehension, Godyer, what you call power, and what they call power are two very different things, the meagre piece of the collective that you possess is but a spec of dust in a much grander machine, you are not even a cog yet." Lumi responded and he watched her eyes bob up and down assuming she was nodding.

    "Yet?" He asked curiously.

    "As you and your young verse have been introduced to the collective, it is but a matter of time before it sweeps you up as a part of itself; fate chose this path for you, I am merely here to oversee your current progress."

    "What does that mean for us then, getting dragged into the collective?" He asked, and Lumi nodded once more and closed her eyes.

    "Open your eyes and view yourself as insignificant before the might of the Emporium, you a lone Godyer are going to face the reality that there exists more power than you can fathom, endless struggles and a fight that will either kill or put you at the peak of true power, you chose to fight, so raise your fists to the skies and keep looking up, the weight of whates next...

    I fear it is impossible for anyone but you to bare." Lumi answered with another warning and then closed her eyes disappearing and rendering the area ck again as she left for another part of the void.

    While Sol knew that she couldn''t hide from him wherever she went, he knew that their conversation was over, the likelihood of her continuing to talk if he followed her across the tree was very low, so he took her warning like a bitter pill and left back for earth.

    ***

    "Where the devils did you disappear to?" Ikaris greeted Sol impatiently as soon as he appeared in the living area and he leaned his head in confusion and looked around, it was night, but everyone was wearing something different than a moment ago, and Eve was there again despite only a few minutes passing and her home being miles away, even Mark was present again.

    "What''s going on?" Sol asked when A as usual greeted him with a big hug, releasing her weight on his shoulders and sighing as she took in his scent. "I wasn''t gone for more than a few minutes at most."

    "It is Wednesday, Master." Dina greeted him with a kiss on his cheek while Sara ran up before him and curtseyed while Sol conjured an image of the tree and frowned when he realised that he was on the outskirts of Origin, three days had passed in a few minutes.

    "That red-eyed..." Sol was going to curse Lumi, but huffed out his frustration and approached Ikaris.

    "Is everything okay?"

    "We are hungry." Ikaris huffed and turned her head the opposite direction when he attempted to kiss her on her lips, causing his lips to fall on her cheek instead.

    "Ikaris, are you mad at me?" Sol asked surprised and looked at the others to which Dina sighed with a worried smile while A chuckled nervously.

    "Sir, Mdy has stayed her sleep for the three nights of your absence in worry, she has been waring down the floors of the estate with her ceaseless pacing about." Sara Gestured to Ikaris and Sol sighed.

    "D-Do not tell him that!" Ikaris snapped with a blush creeping up on her face.

    "I didn''t check, Lumi was in the Origin universe." Sol took Ikaris''s hands and began channelling his golden mana into her watching it get intercepted and taken by the baby once more. "It was an honest mistake, Ikaris." Sol smiled at her when she began pouting.

    "Do you want to punish your master?" He teased her seeing her blush creep up to her ears before she locked her fingers with his and stared at him.

    "You said you would fight the emissary of Fate, and then you disappeared for three full days without a word while Alpha was unable to reach you and we could not either, worry does not describe the feeling well..." Ikaris''s eyes watered and she tried leaning onto him but was hindered by her belly in the way.

    "I was scared you had been dragged off somewhere outside of our reach and was unable toe back!" Ikaris punched his chest weakly. "What would we do without you to guide us, husband?" She asked, and upon her question Sol felt them all fall into a deeper depression at the thought.

    "It''s okay, I''m here." He hugged her from the side resting her head on his chest and kissing her while Dina who had been  ying tough quickly approached and hugged his side and A joined as well at his gesture to them, all three of them releasing a collective sigh of relief. "I''m here."

    "I don''t understand what''s going on at all." Mark looked at Eve, confused but it was Uriyu who sat on her opposite side forming a trio of powerless bystanders that answered.

    "Uncle Sol has been defending the gxy for years now, he looks young because he keeps going through time dtion from ces where time runs slower than here, Aunt Ikaris is the same except thest time they left she got pregnant, Aunt Sara and A are from one of those other ces, and Aunty Dina is a hero like-"

    "You expect me to believe that bullshit?" Mark looked across at Uriyu skeptically.

    "How do you exin him being able to destroy a giant spaceship the size of an ind?" Uriyu asked.

    "We don''t know what blew it up." Mark snapped back heatedly. "My sister spent three years fighting at their side before she came back for me-"

    "More bullshit, you expect me to believe in sincerity... that man standing right there is some kind of gctic hero, are you stupid?" Mark scoffed and regarded Sol with a gesture. "He''s strong because of the system."

    "Where do you think Alpha came from!?" Uriyu snapped when he realised his words weren''t getting through to the unbeliever''s head. "Are you so caught up in your own ass that you can''t even believe the truth when you see it with your own eyes?"

    "Wait... So Dina isn''t actually twenty-two?" Eve asked and Mark went silent, quickly ncing at her and then at Uriyu again for an answer.

    "Aren''t you listening?" Uriyu asked poking her in the side of her head and then poking his palm impatiently. "It''s called time dtion, it was ten years here on earth for us, but for them it''s only been ten months, not even a year, that''s why I''m their age now." He gestured to himself as an example.

    "What would they be protecting us from then?" Mark queried calmly, believing Dina''s part and nobody else''s.

    "They were fighting an evil empire that invaded other worlds and killed the leaders, and took the women for themselves; demons."

    "Are you kidding me with this again?" Mark shook his head.

    "Aren''t you even a little bit curious about why the system only just gave us the tools to grow stronger a few days ago but they''re already strong enough to do these amazing things?" Uriyu made emphasis with his hands in chopping motions. "My little niece is only six, but because of my sister''s hero magic she''s already able to lift-"

    "It''s magic now?" Mark narrowed his eyes and leaned his head withplete doubt, but Eve raised her fist and punched him t to the ground with her eyes furious at being constantly withheld from the truth Uriyu was trying to tell them.

    "Would you let the man finish talking already!" She snapped loudly calling everyone''s attention to them. "S-sorry everyone!" She called at them and watched them slowly go back to their group discussion while Uriyu gestured Gia over with a wave of his hand.

    "Hey kiddo, can you do a magic trick for your uncle?" Uriyu picked up Gia in hisp and covered her hands with his.

    "No magic in the living area, Aunty Sara will get mad again." Gia shook her head, but adamantly Uriyu smiled and pointed at Sara.

    "Aunt Sara isn''t looking, can you make the funny fire?" He asked, and the little girl''s eyes lit up as she focused and held her hands before herself causing a little blue spark before a little farting me ignited and began dancing above her palms.

    "What the fuck..." Mark gasped in a whisper while Eve went speechless as they watched the little fire bounce from one hand to the other fizzing in and out of existence and creating a farting sound each time it happened.

    "Good job, now put it away." Uriyu praised her while smirking at Mark''s ajar expression.

    "Uncle wait, I can make a big one hahaha!" Gia raised her hands and eximed with a loudugh causing Sara to look over as her and A sensed an Arkadian mana signature that was neither of theirs suddenly ascending to the ceiling.

    "Gia!"

 Chapter 213: Mother of Change.

    "I never imagined that would happen." Sol chuckled lowering his hand and cancelling a small barrier around Eve, Uriyu and Mark after Gia''s small fire spell exploded in the lounge and caused the chandeliers to fall on them, surely with anyone else there they''d have been alright just the same, but his reaction time was simply fasterpared to theirs.

    "Gia, what did I tell you about using fire magic inside?" Usami knelt before the girl and pinched her chubby cheek while she cast [heal] on her fingers that had been blistered from the massive ball of mes she had conjured.

    "Usami, why aren''t you spending more time teaching her to control her mana?" Dina stood over them watching Ikaris raise her hands, slowly undoing the damage Gia had caused while A and Sara checked if the three were alright. "If none of us were here she could have really hurt them."

    "I know, I have my reservations about teaching her though, honestly I''d rather Gia grow up without the use of magic at all, but with the direction the world is going she''s gonna have to learn in order to use the system to her advantage." Usami answered with a sigh.

    "I don''t want my baby to use magic and draw attention to herself, magic pretty much ruined my life, I''d hate it if what happened to me happened to her, I would never forgive myself..."

    "Then give her the power she needs to never be taken advantage of." Dina shook her head. "I get it, you fear that others will try to use her if they find out right, but imagine how much worse it will be in a world of superhumans if she''spletely normal." Dina gave her a different perspective.

    "Instead of trying to raise her to be normal you ought to consider giving her an advantage, make her so strong that she''s feared instead of desired, it''s better..." Dina looked across at Sol who was listening to her advice. "It''s better to be so terrifying that even the gods fear you."

    "Well said." Sol closed his palm and turned to the staircase.

    "Are you going to tell us what happened with the emissary of Fate?" Usami looked at him leaving after no exnation.

    "What she said isn''t really important right now, but the bottom line is that I''m not ready for what''sing, this makes the third time she''s given me this warning and after what happened with that breach I have to strongly agree with her, they''re human,pletely human; yet they can do all sorts of fantastical things, and on top of that they''re unrealistically strong, I got lucky this time but there''s no telling whates after this, so I''ll be in my study if you need me."

    "What will you be doing?" A asked what everyone else was afraid of asking.

    "I''ll do as I''ve always done when faced with a powerful enemy," Sol paused at the top of the staircase and looked down at them feeling the full weight of each life resting on his shoulders as he stared at their expressions and their gazes aimed straight at him. "I will evolve and grow stronger." He answered and then left.

    "What does that even mean?" Usami looked at Ikaris for an answer but she shrugged and sighed.

    "I told him I would trust his decisions and I intend to keep that promise, but even I am totally unaware of how someone as strong as he is can gain more strength; I have lived my entire existence believing there to be none stronger than the Godyer, it is rooted in my memories the things the first one did, and it remains engraved in my mind the things that Sol has done, what greater power could there possibly be than his?"

    "Something else, apparently." Dina started up the stairs as well. "If Master sees a need to grow his strength then I will follow in his example, it is far from the same but I will not sit idly by forever under his shadow, I want to evolve with him." She confessed, and Ikaris sighed and looked down at herself.

    "I too thought the same, too, until I saw the depth of the Godyer, it is something unfathomable, and yet he was hurt by a mere human."

    "Hurt?" Usami stared at her confused. "That woman didn''t put a scratch on him, though." She argued.

    "That is what you saw, what you observed with your naked eye, but what I saw was a Sol easily capable of crushing a world the size of Arkadia with a casual clench of his fist get his armour which could withstand that same level of power smacked by a woman who we now know is entirely human, the strongest being in our collevtive universes was hurt by what amounts to a foot soldier in an army of stronger soldiers, is there any hope that we will ever be strong enough without him to face them?"

    "Personally, I don''t need to be strong enough to blow them away, I just need to have enough firepower to rend their flesh, that''s enough for me, as long as I can ovee that obstacle then they''re kible, because at the end of the day, as we have been saying repeatedly; they''re only human." Dina smiled at everyone after giving another set of good advice and then left.

    "Enough to rend their flesh... enough firepower to tear them to shreds." Ikaris stared at the seats and began slowly walking towards them. "She says she does not want to fight, but she actively seeks it even more than I do sometimes."

    "Whether it is the fine arts she observes and passionately practices as a pastime, or battling a powerful enemy within inches of her life, as a being set to always evolve she will grow attached to whatever field she sets her mind to, right now for her that field falls under your safety, Mdy." A smiled at Ikaris.

    "We swore on our souls to put you first, to honour you in health or death, you are our firstdy and the primordial goddess of bnce, your safetyes above all else for myself as well."

    "Gosh..." Usami watched A follow after Dina and leave toward their room to do gods know what to gain more strength, following Sol''s example.

    "Mdy." Sara gestured to the seats and Ikaris sighed with a smile and followed after her, stretching her legs as the maid went back to the kitchen and provided her with something to eat, while Gia bounced over and sat next to her. "You are worried, it shows in your eyes."

    "I am." Ikaris didn''t hide how she felt.

    "Everyone has some part they have to y in all this and it feels like it is all happening because of me, I do not know how to react anymore, I am being called by a title I do not know, and invaders areing after me because I am some kind of refugee apparently, I am confused about who I am supposed to be now, Sara." Ikaris confessed her thoughts, and the maid hummed and sat on her other side picking up her feet and resting them in herp for a slow and well needed massage.

    "You are and always have been Ikaris."

    "But what if I am not?" Ikaris answered. "I don''t know what the Vatui is or why so many people seem to want me and my child dead, Dina, A and Master are stressed because of it and I cannot help but feel that my disappearance could somehow save them-"

    "Wrong, Mdy." Sara cut her off, seeing the pattern of Ikaris only calling Sol by his title when she was stressed herself or at a loss of options and sought some kind of guidance. "Your disappearance would kill them; it would do far more harm than Amy good you believe it would, please do not speak such things in any of their presences."

    "I will not." Ikaris sighed and rxedwhen Sara''s expert hands started kneading into her muscles. "I just... I want to help and not feel this useless."

    "Aunty isn''t useless." Gia stared at the TV while she spoke, not even looking at them.

    "And what would a little pumpkin that has yet to even ripen be able to tell me of myself that I do not already know?" Ikaris smiled at her, yfully running her fingers through the girl''s hair and chuckling when she pouted and leaned forward.

    "Aunty Ikaris is pretty, and you have a hungry baby in your big belly and...and the baby in your belly needs you ...so not useless." Gia looked up at her.

    "The child is right." Sara agreed, looking at Gia with her brow raised. "Mdy, what you are housing inside of you someone out there fears, in fact whenever people try to destroy a race, whether that race is good or pure evil like the demons were, it is purely out of fear is it not?" She asked and Ikaris went silent as she thought about this.

    "VOID, Orion and Sitri, they were killed by sir strictly because they were evil to the bone and everyone feared the power they wielded, the Pantheon; Psikos and Diablos, and even Saat tried killing Sir because he was too strong, because they feared the power he held, they feared his evolution, here in human history, the great dictators of the past were all killed the first time they made a mistake and exposed a weakness because their enemies understand that all it takes is one decision, one order, one action and they could destroy everything in their path." She lectured Ikaris, and the goddess sucked in a breath as this was a new approach she hadn''t even considered; and insightful one.

    "Sara, sometimes I am a little bothered by how insightful you are, not even Sol pays as much attention as you do, iynis honestly kind of unnerving."

    "Well..." Sara stopped massaging her leg and looked at her.

    "I live to serve you, Your Holiness, your daily needs, your hourly wants, my only purpose is to make the Vestic family asfortable as they will ever want to be, it may not be my destiny, but I frown at any other destiny than this one, my love and adoration for Sir runs deeper than my own self worth, and you Mdy are an inspiration to behold every day when I look at you; mother of a new race-"

    "What?" Ikaris stopped her. "What did you just say?"

    "You are the mother of a new race." Sara repeated her statement.

    "That beautiful child you are nurturing is the first of her kind, that is apparent from how the invaders reacted upon hearing you were pregnant from Alpha''s exnation, they are afraid of you both, you, the Vatui in hiding, and her, the child of said Vatui and a Godyer, this is why I believe they are so adamant to get you and will soon return; you are far more special than you realise."

    "Inside of you may lie creation, destruction, or both, but with everyone scurrying about endlessly Mdy it is quite obvious that she is as feared as you are, perhaps even more so..." Sara smiled at her.

    "You are now the Mother of Change."

    "The catalyst they have been trying to avoid."

 Chapter 214: More Strength.

    In arge hall of red carpets and flowing ck drapes three hooded and cloaked individuals stood facing each other around a small table, one with red eyes, another with blue eyes and the third''s eyes were hiddenpletely under the veil of her hood.

    "How strong are they exactly, why was my attention brought to this, we have had several Godyer incidents surging all over the collective in recent times, what makes this one any different, and why is it this sector again?" She asked, and the red-eyed individual cleared his throat.

    "The ship itself was destroyed."

    "A lesser realm has a weapon capable of harming one of our fleet''s newest models?" She asked raising her head until her lips were visible; plump and soft lips ented by a rosy red highlight. "Did anyone from the vessel survive?"

    "It was no weapon that destroyed the ship, it was the Godyer himself, ording to our source this one seems to be stronger than the norm, hepletely destroyed the entire ship and killed everyone on board with a single strike of his bare hand, and there is more..." The red-eyed man cleared his throat again, waving his hand above the table causing a hologram of a chart to appear before the other two.

    "These readings are beyond anything I have seen before, what kind of being could possibly give off such energy?" The blue-eyed man stared at the spike in energy. "This is the Godyer of that sector?" He asked and the red-eyed nodded and pulled up another chart showing a slightly lower signature.

    "This ispletely different, are there multiple Godyers inhabiting the same space, was that even possible?" The woman asked and the one exining shook his head.

    "Ma''am, that is a Vatui reading, a woman, and from thest recorded log in the ship''s data bank before it was destroyed she is with child." The red-eyed man exined and the woman slowly raised her eyes to him until the light from the hologram reflected their greys.

    "Impossible, the Vatui do not reproduce biologically-"

    "It is and she did though, for whatever reason unknown to us this Vatui woman has conceived, and it was heavily spected that the father heralding the abomination is none other than the Godyer himself." He rested his hand on the table and conjured a third chart.

    "These are the readings we receiveding from the Vatui woman, a third signal, the one that originally alerted us of her presence." He gestured to it and watched the grey-eyed woman''s eyes widen.

    "Impossible, these are the readings of an unborn child!?" She snapped and the blue-eyed man did a double-check while he stared in disbelief as well. "We need her, we need to find out how she did it and possibly repeat this, if it was through artificial means then we will replicate the technology she used, and if it was otherwise then we ought to capture the godyer as well."

    "We have never spared one of them, the Godyer species might be obsolete and looked down upon but that makes them no less dangerous, I vote we kill him and gain all the information we can from his blood and bones instead. The red-eyed man shook his head in disagreement, but a nce from the woman silenced him before she was silenced by the stare of the blue-eyed man who barely said a word.

    "Make it happen, capture them both and kill anything and anyone else that tries to protect them," The blue-eyed man ordered them both. "This might be worth the attention of the higher-ups."

    "How high up are you projecting?" The woman asked.

    "As high as we can, a Godyer destroyed one of our vessels with his bare hands, this has never happened before, and the Vatui woman he protects is conceiving an abominably strong child, another impossibilitye true, this might be exactly what the Emporium has been searching for the past years, go on, send scouts ahead this time to properly test the limits of his strength, if he is any stronger than the ninth order kill him without hesitation; blow up the entire system if you have to, I want no repeats of what happened with the first Godyer that came from that ce, send five ships of the seventh order."

    "Understood."

    ***

    "Ikaris, I may have found a solution." Sol came running down the stairs excitedly and stopped before her and A, smiling at the elf as well and then looking at her again.

    "A solution to what, dear?" Ikaris put the book she was reading to the side while A who was casually floating in a lotus sitting position peeled one eye open and then closed it again, choosing to listen while she slowly forced her mana pool to expand instead ofpletely abandoning her progress since Dina was passively doing the same even while she was away in the middle of her final tests for the semester.

    "Did you figure a way to prevent intruders from breaching?" Ikaris asked hopefully but sighed when she saw Sol''s expression go dull andzy. "I am sorry, I know you are trying your best, it is unrealistic of me to ask something that big of you so soon." She regarded him with sad and sympathetic eyes after she had almost ruined his mood.

    "Tell me, what new discovery have you made my love?" She smiled at him.

    It was only a question but Sol''s mood had indeed taken a dip, while he was in the middle of speeding up the process of evolution across verses and causing more bnces to appear he had a strange idea, so to test his theory out he selected a barren universe that had already existed for a while on a branch that hadn''t seen any growth in millennia, and carefully he severed that branch from the main tree to see what would happen.

    To his delight the light did not fade, in fact, severing the branch and holding it separate made him more aware of its presence, and then he was able to forge the branch on a different part of the tree causing an instantaneous burst as several hundred new verses and realities from its dead end resulting in his mana noticeably growing for once as the brach''s thousands of years of stagnation led to it having pent up energy that released as soon as it found headway to break free.

    "Master Vestic, Good morni-" Sara was on her way to greet Sol with breakfast after he had spent all night in his study for the night day that week but stopped when Sol held out his hand toward Ikaris and revealed a physical golden branch radiating so much light it was nearly white, what shook her most was that she had seen this before; a projection of the divine tree he had created to map the expansion of everything that grew within his reach.

    "What have you done?" Ikaris sat forward in shock, worried when she began sensing a powerful resonance within the branch floating above his palm. "Sol!" She held his hand.

    "It''s okay, I admit it did cause a bit of difort since it was a main branch, but I already found a way to easily rece it through-"

    "What if you had caused irreparable damage to your body or mana?" Ikaris squeezed his hand staring at therge portion of the tree which stemmed from A which he now held before her.

    "Ikaris." Sol stared at her with a soft smile. "Calm down and take a seat." He ordered her, and slowly she obeyed his direction and took a calming breath. "By doing this I have freed you from relying on my power and granted you even more in the process." He knelt before her.

    "While I was studying myself I ironically learnt that the collective doesn''t need me to flourish, of course considering it existed before I did that''s a no-brainer..." He paused and stared at himself stupidly.

    "My point is there are stagnant branches that I can free by simply moving them around, it''s safe and it exponentially increases my power when I do it, the mana I lost by giving you this massive branch..." Sol paused and conjured the tree above his other palm revealing that although the area where A and its branches were was barely noticeably empty the tree now had arge branch sticking from the top.

    "I have gained a dozen times that power already from a single branch being freed, and there are hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of dead branches, some as old as A and others even older going back as close as their initial creation." He excitedly vanquished the projection and held on to the branch between them.

    "If I nt this branch in your soul, Ikaris you will suddenly have the power of over a million universes, infinite energy, you''ll almost be as strong as I am again." He stared at her.

    "But, if you do this, our link will be severed." Ikaris withdrew her hand and pressed her palm above her breasts on her sigils worriedly. "Even if it is only for a moment, I never want to lose you, Master." She shook her head.

    "You won''t, these are still connected to me, they''re growing and I can feel them, we''ll be more connected than ever before," Sol argued her point and took her hand again.

    "Ikaris, open your soul and let me nt a new divine tree within you, trust me, it will benefit all of us, not just you either, if I can seed here I want to do the same for Dina and A as well, I know I''ming on strong, but just think how much stronger you will be if I do this." He closed his hand over hers with a pleading gaze.

    "Are you certain?" A asked, resting after hearing her mention.

    "There''s a fighting, A, one I''m not sure I''ll be able to win by myself."  Sol nced at her.

    "We all need more strength, a lot more strength."

 Chapter 215: Kill the Godslayer.

    "Master..." A lowered her gaze to his hand holding Ikaris''s and stared. "Are you doing this because you want us to fight with you at your side, or are you doing it to prepare us for..." She stopped and looked up at him again. "Is this a failsafe in the case of-"

    "A, do not ask a question you do not want answered." Ikaris shook her head at the elf and spread her arms before Sol. "Dear, I trust your judgement, whatever you ask of me, I will do it without any doubt in my heart, but please, make sure it is for the right reasons." She smiled at Sol, and a momentter her eyes began glowing while Sol''s mana began racing towards her body. "I am ready."

    "It might be slightly ufortable." Sol closed his eyes and Ikaris''s mana began racing towards him as well mixing gold and gold, creating a steady white glow between the two of them while the branch was slowly forced through her flesh, melding with her mana and making waves around her body as he used his mana to seize control of her soul.

    Ikaris''s true form emerged violently, sending waves of power in every direction and knocking everyone off their feet, her mana spread far across their district covering the entirety of the 10.B area and rattling the ground as its potency and purity grew, thend began quaking and her mana began reaching into the clouds and spreading across the skies sending a massive beacon straight off into the cosmos, all while Sol''s Godyer mana quickly followed hers undoing all the damage as he forced a section of her soul to solidify like his own and then nted the tree within it.

    "Hnn~" Ikaris scrunched her nose and squeezed Sol''s hand as soon as he took hers.

    "Are you okay?" Sol asked, watching her closely as her mana raced back towards her and prepared for damage control in case of anything happening during her integration, but she smiled with her pained expression and bore the sensation of her soul suddenly expanding over a dozen times its original strength.

    "I''m here, tell me if anything happens that you can''t handle." He stared intently at her expression. "You''ll need a little time to fully digest such arge change."

    "It is as you said, love; a minor inconvenience, Ikaris opened her eyes and looked around. "It feels as though there is a horse resting on my chest, but this much I can easily handle... however just now-"

    "Yes, they most definitely caught on to that brilliant phenomenon just now." A stood watching the cracks being mended by Sol''s mana while Ikaris''s finally finished making trips across the globe and subsided back into her as though nothing had just happened.

    "What now, that was even greater than the first two times." Sara righted herself and sat forward worriedly. "I fear arger force will arrive too especially after you destroyed thest breach, sir." She gestured to the window pointing out at the afternoon skies.

    "I''m well aware, that''s also why I waited until Dina''s test waspleted; I need you all to go take a back seat for now and let me protect you thoroughly." Sol stood with his hair zing white and a half crest on his chest and back.

    "I''m going to face a lot this time and I don''t n on being as patient or as merciful as I was thest time either, I''ve been trying hard to hold on to the peace we have built here but it''s time to admit that I failed in attaining that peace for you all; Outer Collective, Grand Emporium, I don''t care what they are, what they stand for or what they want, they took away my leisure so I''m gonna end them with my own two hands!" He slowly disappeared from their sight leaving the room humming with his residual mana.

    "What''s happening, is everything okay!?" Dina crashnded through the door holding on to it when it tore off the hinges and came to a sliding halt right behind Usami who had alsoe running after she had seen and felt Ikaris''s mana go crazy for a few seconds. "Ikaris?"

    "Alpha." Ikaris smiled and called their system seeing the girl gently appearing at her side.

    "Yes, Mdy?"

    "Could you take us in again, Master seems to be in a bad mood today after letting go of his leisure." Ikaris lowered her gaze thinking how Sol just didn''t get a break.

    "At once." Alpha snapped her fingers and all of them disappeared with low popping sounds reappearing in arge spacious yard with a small cabin surrounded by grasnds as far as one could see from any direction.

    "Something happened again?" Uriyu looked at his surroundings, frightened after he was supposed to be driving but was suddenly whisked away from behind the wheel leaving his car stranded in the middle of an empty highway. "Where are we?"

    "The same sealed space where the invaders are unable to detect you, I made a few assessments after the incident with her holiness thest time," Alpha answered gesturing to the cabin. "In the case of something happening, I will not hesitate to bring you to Master like I did before."

    Outside of Alpha''s sealed dimension Eve and Mark were instantaneously teleported back to their homes again receiving the same message from the system which they had yet to be directly told was actually Sol''s doing, they now knew he had something to do with it but they had no idea alpha was his personal AI.

    [Another invasion ising, as you are acquaintances of the strongest there ever was the system has granted your abodes with immunity to all forms of attack, in case of a global catastrophe of any kind your honesty will swiftly adapt and save the lives of anyone inside of it, do not leave until you are told otherwise] the system sent the messages to them and before eve could even finish reading her phone rang.

    "Mark... you too?" She asked.

    "Y-yeah, it''s just likest time, right?" He replied. "Another invasion?"

    "I don''t know, but something''s happened." She answered honestly, looking out her window and down to the streets where everything seemed to be normal. "It feels unfair that we''re getting special privileges because we know someone like Mr Vestic, but I don''t want to die so I''m hunkering down, what about you?" She turned on the video feature of her phone and put it on a stand.

    "Same." Mark rested his phone on the table next to his bed and sat cross-legged staring at her. "I''d rather be there with you though, I live by myself, so if anything happened I''d be stranded, this house isn''t ideal for single people, after all." He admitted and Eve slightly blushed and scratched her chin with a thoughtful expression.

    "I can move in next time then, if you don''t want to stay alone another time something like this happens, I''ve always wondered why you stayed there by yourself."

    "A small house on the outskirts of the city is a great choice, if I was popr I''d be holding parties every weekend here." He chuckled while his cheeks reddened as well. "But yeah, it''d be nice if I had you here to keep mepany."

    "Well, let''s just wait then, if everything works out I''ll move in as soon as I can." She chuckled and rxed on her bed taking off her jacket and flopping to her side. "So... what''s been going on with your exams, you have the same sses as Dina, right?" Eve asked and Mark groaned.

    "Let me tell you..."

    ***

    Far into the deep Sol was a bright beacon staring out into the void as he watched one massive breach open up, evenrger than thest one as six ships emerged one after the other.

    "We have made contact with-" A male pilot to the first intruding ship was logging when a bolt of White mana crashed through the face of his ship killing him and hundreds more in a sh explosion that left a clean hole through it.

    "What the hell just happened?" The captain of the second ship stood from her seat staring as the ship was bombarded with more projectile beams that turned it into a nest of holes and bodies.

    "Shield up!" She snapped at her crewmen who had gone speechless, and luckily too since a moment afterwards another great white pir seemingly from nowhere crashed into the barrier and was sent ricocheting out into the void, and then another, and several more, explosion after explosion shook the five remaining ships while everyone inside of them waited with bated breath.

    "This is power rivalling the ships themselves, why is a Godyer this powerful still hiding in a lesser domain?" The same female captain asked, just like 79 she had violet hair with ck eyes, and she was wearing the same battlesuit he wore, but her number inparison was 55, and at her side was a man with the number 5 on his cheek, her vice-captain.

    "Ma''am, should we retreat and form a better n, it feels like this bombardment can oust our shields." The man stared through the screen.

    "He was able to destroy a perfectly functional ship and kill everyone in a matter of seconds, the captain and vice-captain included, Huey," She answered.

    "If we expose any more weaknesses he will undoubtedly take advantage of them, he knows what we want thanks to 79 and that brat running their mouths off, he took us by surprise, sure, but the real fightes now." She looked to the dashboard at her crew who listened to her words like gospels.

    "Send word to the other four captains; this Godyer has easily surpassed the Eighth Order and is likely somewhere on the sixth or even fifth, I rmend using deadly force."

    "We kill the Godyer."

 Chapter 216: One Way or Another.

    "It''s been a few minutes, is it the same as before?" Sol quizzed curiously.

    [Yes, Master, the vessels all have some kind of guard that prevents me from essing them, maybe if I could physically interact with one of them through you then I would be able to ess more information."

    "So you can''t even manifest inside of them?" Sol asked surprised and she appeared next to him and shook her head with a sigh. "Then we only need one of them for an experiment." Sol stopped the useless bombardment of mana pirs and summoned the handle of a sword in his grasp. "The rest can die immediately."

    "He is finally exhausted after using about the same power as ten Godyersbined...

    set out immediately and prepare to neutralise the-" Captain #55 was giving out an order when the shielded ship next to hers was suddenly sliced into chunks by a massive sword made of white light (mana) and then another more powerful pir of light than before erased it''s presencepletely, there wasn''t even anything left for Alpha to salvage.

    "Is there another hidden enemy?" She looked to the dash. "Why can''t we find him?"

    "This is Captain #99 speaking, 55, we should order a retreat for the time bei-" another Captain triedmunicating to her while his ship was in the process of turning but the link to theirmunication was severed when the ship was chopped into three pieces and then a star-like entity from inside of it grew to its overall size killing everyone and evaporating the very atoms that made the ship leaving an empty white ce in the void it once upied which mmed shut causing technical interference for the remaining three.

    "Prepare the rail-cannons, maximize the shields. Find him!" The captain leapt from her seat to the front dash next to the pilot. "Prepare countermeasures to destroy every star within two systems of this area and get ready to zip away at a moment''s notice." She looked at the man over the controls and he nodded and began tapping through a multitude of white buttons with rune-like writings on them.

    "Captains-" She raised her head and looked at the two ships before her, but with no time to utter a syble more she watched horrified as they both were engulfed in floods of cosmic fire from the deep void which washed across them like rivers, incinerating them down to scraps which all mysteriously disappeared from view and when the lights of the mes died, she stared ahead speechlessly as a figure emerged from where they were, white hair slowly swaying where no wind blew.

    "Is this... what a Godyer of old was?" The woman''s hand shook involuntarily as she backed up from the dash seeing Sol slowly and ominously approach, his ck armour made his body barely tangible, but his cape of red which also weightlessly swayed behind him revealed his figure, while she looked at the sword made of mana in his grasp.

    "Is this why the emporium kills them as soon as they are born?" She asked, grabbing her shaking hand and clenched her teeth. "They sent us to our deaths because of a being I heard never intended to leave his domain and asked to be left alone..." She fell to her knees, causing her crew to lose hope as well.

    Unlike the first breach where 129 and 79 had a clear power difference, of everyone in this fleet of six ships number 55 was the strongest captain and warrior overall, no other captain or vice-captainpared to her, and yet she found herself unable to stop shaking as she saw Sol pass through their shield breaking it as easily as fragile ss, stop before the screen and loom, staring in at them without saying a word.

    "Captain." Her vice-captain stood at her side and red up at Sol defiantly. "Your orders, ma''am?" He asked as the rms across the entire ship started going off.

    "Detonating the stars is useless," Sol spoke and while he spoke all the stars in their visible range vanished one after the other, shrunken to infinitely smaller sizes where even if they expanded a hundred times their sizes per second it would take years before someone could see them from a foot away.

    "Captain-"

    "Killing you brings me no joy, but as long as you keeping, I will continue doing what needs to be done in order to protect my home." Sol turned the back of his folded fist towards the ss screen, and with a single flick of his middle finger, the protectiveyer of screen was shattered, causing a sudden vacuum to suck everyone out leaving the captain and vice-captain who could resist the pull while everyone else died horrible deaths behind him.

    "Is this close enough?" Sol asked not wanting to set foot on the inside.

    [I need contact, master you have to touch it.] Alpha answered in his head and then appeared at his side. "I am still being blocked."

    "Fine." Sol snapped his fingers causing all the hidden people on-board to appear behind him as well leaving just the captain and her vice-captain there in horror as he slowly descended before them and ced his hand on the dashboard resting and staring at them, they would have asked why he didn''t kill them, but as they stared in his inverted eyes they found themselves unable to even blink, those eyes held no mercy, they were full of fury and wretched hatred towards them, he was simply busy at the moment.

    "Any good?"

    "The Emporium is much more cautious than we imagined," Alpha looked at Sol with her hands on the dash next to him. "It would appear no information of them is left on the ship, only mentions here and there, also, I found the source of this ship''s power and the reason these humans are capable of using power beyond limits and expectations." She looked around at them visibly upset.

    "Master, on-board this vessel is a container in which a brainless corpse is producing massive amounts of cosmic energy, billions of tonnes per second."

    "What... what kind of corpse could fuel a ship this advanced, shouldn''t it be a star or something??" Sol''s eyes narrowed when he saw the horror etched on the two''s faces at her mention of their core.

    "It is the corpse of a Godyer, Master, the reason I could not breach was because I was reprogrammed to not ess your power directly, it makes sense atst, the reason they tried capturing instead of killing you is because their ships are powered by your kind."

    "Enough of that, what about the Vatui?" Sol asked, and at his request 55''s vice-captain snapped like a madman and exploded into a zero-gravity sprint at him, but already expecting this much the man''s legs vanished from beneath him in bloody explosions and a force of power descended through the ship and crashed into his back leaving an indent in the back of his head and pressing him into the ground until the rest of his torso popped again sending blood in every direction.

    All of this happened without Sol even lifting a finger, the only thing which showed he had acted at all was the glow of his hair ring up and then dying down to a regr slight white glow again.

    "Is there anything on the Vatui?"

    "Nothing much." Alpha looked confused. "There are no logs on Vatui, and after searching the entire ship, every corpse and every room and chamber, the only thing that keeps showing up is the word harvest." She looked around at the captain who had slouched forward in defeat with her eyes locked to her trembling hands.

    "Harvest?" Sol asked befuddled. "That''s all?"

    "Yes, Master, kill the Godyer, harvest the Vatui woman  and her offspring, tests, experiments..." These are the only records throughout this entire ship, it is far too little information."

    "What do you want with my wife and child?" Sol asked, and the captain''s head shot up as he had confirmed one of their biggest spections but it also caused her to fall into the deepest despair when she saw death staring back at her.

    "What does harvest mean?" He ground his teeth in agitation, crushing the piece of the dashboard his hand was resting on as he watched the captain lower her head and hug herself.

    "I... am Captain Jenifer Law of the scout fleet 3795, ranked 55, long live the Emporium." She answered shaking as tears floated from the corners of her eyes. "I am Captain Jenifer Law of the scout fleet 37-"

    "Answer me!" Sol roared, emitting a powerful golden aura all of a sudden which caused the entire ship to scream and groan as severalpartments imploded from the stress of his mana running amok across it. "What do you want with them, what does it mean to harvest!?"

    "I-I am C-captain, Jenifer Law of the s-s-scout fleet... *hic!* 3795... R-ranked 55, long ...long live the Emporium!" She began weeping as she hugged herself. "Mother... *hic!* Father... I''m sorry, I won''t being home ...after all...!"

    "She is activating that suit''s kill switch!"

    [CLOCKWORK: DOMINION]

    Sol raised his hand toward the woman and sped his fist causing her to freeze in ce leaving just her head.

    "You don''t have my permission to die yet." Sol released the dashboard and walked over to her. "There are other ways to get the information I want out of you, Jenifer Law of fleet 3795." Sol bent down before her and slowly began reaching for her head.

    "One way or another, I''ll know what you know, Captain."

 Chapter 217: The true Godkillers.

    [One way or another, I''ll know what you know, Captain.]

    A transmitted feed repeated Sol''s words showing his eyes turn golden and the white crescent on his chest became a whole golden circle before Jenifer''s screaming knocked out the lens of her imnt and killed the mic inside of it.

    "What am I supposed to make of this, what should I do?" The grey-eyed woman asked standing around the small circr table with her twopanions, except this time the room of ck curtains was properly lit, and her hood was down while theirs was still hiding their figures and faces. "I need guidance."

    To go along with her grey eyes she had dark tanned skin and white hair, and across her forehead was a scar resembling the crest of the Emporium''s army; a dragon burnt into her flesh, and on her cheek below her right eye was the number 01.

    "This is beyond what we can handle, of the remaining officers in our fleet very few are stronger than Captain Law, if we send them after him there is no guarantee that the oue will be any different." The red-eyed man answered turning off the repeating transmission and looking at the one with blue eyes.

    "Are you saying we give up, are you telling me to sit back and take this?" The woman asked, and her red-eyed ally nodded and grunted.

    "Ma''am, it is quite obvious we are in over our heads here, that Godyer has bested some of our finest effortlessly, are we to send the rest of our small 3795th fleet after him to all be ughtered, it is already bad enough that he destroyed the ships but now he actually has one in his possession, with another Godyer aboard it-"

    "A dead one-"

    "It doesn''t matter if he is dead or dying, their bodies never rot, his body creates power just as it did while he was alive, and now that monster has it in his possession." The blue-eyed man shook his head.

    "This is beyond us now, we tried our hand and failed miserably it is better to ask forgiveness rather than permission; we have no choice but to rm the other fleets, nay, the entire army and the Emporium should know, we have already contemted whether to do so and now we know we must." He grunted and stroked his short beard visible beneath the hood.

    "Sir..."

    "That is an order, carry it out immediately, and send the footage as well as all our documents through the two encounters to our allies." He fastened his hood and turned away from them. "Get it done and have the proof ready by noon."

    "General, please, before we give up, allow me to personally deal with him, if I fail you can me everything on my poor judgement, just this once... Let me act on my own." The woman stood at attention saluting with her hand on her chest balled in a fist.

    "No, Chey, I understand your passion for this particr subject, given your rtionship with Jeniferw, but it is a dead attempt, we have already tried, I would rather not see my best captain die at the hands of our enemy, I would never forgive myself." He continued walking. "Submit the report immediately and get it done."

    "...Yes sir!" Chey saluted again sping her fist so tight blood dripped from the creases of her fingers as she watched him leave and the door m shut in his absence.

    "Ma''am-"

    "Get out and leave me alone for a moment, I will join you in a few minutes." Chey closed her eyes and leaned on the table.

    "Yes, Ma''am." The red-eyed man saluted her and then hurried off towards the exit leaving her to her thoughts.

    Now by herself Chey pulled out a small device and stared at the screen, taking a deep breath as the image of Jenifer Law appeared.

    "I refuse to sit still, I apologise General, but this time I will not."

    "By blood, fire the will of the collective, your mother will avenge you, whatever the cost." She dered, allowing a single tear to roll down her cheek and then wiping it away and clearing her throat as she walked towards the exit. "I swear it on His Majesty''s and your father''s names, the Godyer will pay, his Vatui slut will pay, they will all be swept away by my wrath!"

    *A few hours earlier in Sol''s Domain*

    [Master, that is dangerous, you have never attempted something of thisplexity before...] Alpha stood next to him watching Jenifer''s eyes light up like his as he intruded her mind. [The closest you have evere was Void, but ultimately you killed him because you could find no way to separate his and Origin''s consciousnesses-]

    "Be silent, Alpha.] Sol responded sleepily. [Is everything okay with your original self and Ikaris?" He asked and she hummed contacting her split consciousness.

    [Yes, mdy is resting with Dina and A under Usami''s guard in my pocket space, earth on the whole is undisturbed.]

    "Good, let me know if anything changes." Sol closed his eyes as his consciousness was whisked away.

    It was like a dream where he had no power to act freely aside from observing.

    "Mother, I finally passed the evaluation!" Sol saw a younger silver-haired Jenifer run into an office stopping before an older woman who looked like her.

    "Sir!" Jenifer saluted upon realising she had interrupted a conversation between her mother and a blue-eyed man under a hood, he would have tried seeing his face but from Jenifer''s perspective his face was hidden, so even as he moved around the man he could not disclose anything other than blue eyes.

    "At ease, cadet." The man returned the salute and ced his hand on the older woman''s shoulder. "Think about it Chey, you are more than qualified to be captain of your own fleet, you already possess the skills andmand the respect of entire regimes, granting you this much is an easy task." He smiled at her and then left after patting Jenifer''s head and congratting her.

    "Well done, Jen, but never do that again, had you walked in on any confidential topic you could have easily been executed," Chey warned the girl, and she nodded and raised a scroll-like device opening it and showing her mother the contents.

    "Are you sure you want to be a part of the Emporium''s army, Jenifer, what happened to your dream of being-" The scenes before him stopped and Sol sighed as it was whisked away.

    He had no knowledge of prying in someone''s mind, so instead he was using the memory-wiping technique he learned from Ikaris and walking along the path it did before erasure.

    "He followed her childhood and teenage years learning everything he could in detail about the emporium, about their homeworld and all the fantastical creatures and technology, and then finally as she enrolled in the Emporium''s academic courses hended square in the ssrooms teaching about the war against the Vatui and their Godyer counterparts.

    "Finally." Sol sat next to her with his hands folded and listened intently.

    A time before times, when the collective was infant and the emporium had not yet existed there were two major powers that ruled us all, on the left the Vatui; a warring race of immortal beings with the power to destroy entire universes within their bodies, and on the right were the beings that wouldter be called Godyers who were capable of the same but far more violent, together they challenged the heavens and destroyed creation itself, remaking everything in their own image with a power called The Beginning, an entity that transcends the fourth and fifth realms of reality.

    Overtime, through the heavens'' defiance of their tyranny a fourth power was born, though it took aeons and the death of innumerable amounts of warriors rebelling against them, the suffering masses achieved an evolution called Law, and this is the foundation upon which the Emporium was eventually built.

    Slowly the species outside of Vatui and Godyer gained power, their numbers grew and their influence reached across the collective, stretching to different realities and waking powerful entities from their slumber, when the emporium struck, they did so with an insurmountable force that not even the proud Vatui and their Godyer guardians could suppress.

    Billions of cycles of war and a seemingly endless struggle for powerter and the two sides were still locked in bloodshed,  that is until the disappearance of the Vatui royalty following the death of the uing ruler of their race, they started making mistakes, and the Emporium was able to capture and experiment on them while still alive.

    Today we have the technology to harvest the Vatui as resource, they hold gic information within their bodies that has helped advance our way of life faster than ever before, and as for the relics which used to be Godyers, we have also long surpassed their power, in today''s age they are hunted and used for fuel, trillions of them can be found in the Emporium fleets.

    The main task of the Emporium''s army is theirplete destruction, until such a day arrives we will endlessly search the collective, wherever they have hidden, whatever means they try to use, we will strike them all down until there is none left and kill all the rebels who secretly ally with the former oppressors.

    "No Vatui will be left unharvested."

    "No Godyer will ever rise again."

    "We will kill them all."

    "Long live the Emporium."

    "We are the true Godkillers."

 Chapter 218: Back to Arkadia.

    "So, I am naturally not a goddess?" Ikaris sat staring at Sol with her brows furrowed in both horror and confusion.

    "The term they used was Immortal, but the further I searched more I heard the term Celestial." Sol answered Ikaris sitting across from her while A sat on his leg and Dina sat at her side.

    "But gods are Celestial beings aren''t they?" Dina queried with clear confusion as well.

    "It doesn''t make any sense, she''s used divine power all her life the power of the gods, she was even unable to fight against the demons because she wasn''t able to use anything other than divine power, and if she isn''t a god then why doesn''t she have any memory of anything before Him Above All who originally ruled this domain under Darkness'' thumb?" She asked and Ikaris looked at the mage with her brow raised; those were two good questions, why did she have no memory of anything that pointed to her being Vatui?

    "The Vatui are a race of Celestial beings that can adapt and blend in with any other form of life, the power inside of them is infinitely capable of adaptation and endless evolution, and if we look at everything we''ve seen from Ikaris so far, it kind of adds up." Sol answered, gesturing to himself.

    "She''s been assimting my Godyer mana, by her own assessment, within a century she''ll havepletely identical powers to mine, now with the tree nted inside of her soul that process has been reduced to just a few years." He exined.

    "No god is supposed to be able to use anything aside from divine mana, but she was easily able to ept and learn Arkadian mana inside of herself and utilize it transforming the very nature of her being, another evolution worth mentioning." He added.

    "And then there''s the matter of her difference from the other gods we''ve met." He narrowed his eyes, and Ikaris gasped in realisation almost standing when she tried sitting forward.

    "My sister''s and other descendants?" Ikaris stared at Sol.

    "This entire collective is packed to the brim with lesser versions of yourself, beings which were directly created from your shattered consciousness when you fought Void; aplete third of the entirety of all the gods under my watch are your descendants, Ikaris, in other words-"

    "They too are all Vatui." A''s mouth slowly widened when she realised what they were getting at.

    "If the Emporium was not so fixated on the two of you they could have easily figured this out already, granted, these gods have no idea that they are celestials and they have never used any power outside of Divine." She looked at Dina who looked over to Usami who then nced at Sara while the lounge went into stiff silence.

    "Will you tell them?" Dina asked, and Sol closed his eyes thinking about it carefully. "This means Dr''ul can grow even stronger, and Gabriell and Gadriel, and all the others who are Ikaris''s descendants."

    "If we weaponize them the Emporium will notice, and that''s a real dilemma for me since if I don''t tell them and theye and investigate instead of attack they could end up finding out anyway." Sol pinched the bridge of his nose.

    "There are billions of Vatui refugees in this single collective alone who have no idea the danger hanging over their heads, and the Emporium''s whole goal is their extinction if they figure out what happened here they will send everything they have at us, and let me tell you, from Jenifer''s memory, I''ve seen their fleets, it''s nothing average, their army stretches the expanse of multiple universes, multiple collectives, they upy over 80% of the grand collective in totality."

    "That much?" Ikaris asked, and he sighed and rested his hand on A''s leg while she turned to him and hugged his head against her breasts. "You mentioned a rebellion against the emporium, are they of any use?" She asked watching Sol''s stress life off his shoulder as he was caressed by the caring elf.

    "The Emporium doesn''t know how to deal with them, they seem to just pop up and cause trouble every now and then but overall it seems like the remnant of Godyers and Vatui who survived the war and have dedicated their existences to tearing the Grand Emporium down, but it''s not enough, with the power of Law on their side they were able to stand on equal footing against our kinds when the war was at its most merciless, by today''s standards these rebels are merely a street gang confined to a single district trying to fight a government armed to the teeth." Sol sighed and groaned when A began massaging his stiff neck.

    "Their efforts have absolutely no effect, but they still get attention because they are a valuable resource."

    "What about this Jenifer woman?" Ikaris asked and Sol raised his head and stared at her. "Did you need to kill her even after erasing her memories?"

    "I didn''t kill her," Sol answered.

    "She''s trapped in Alpha''s dimension, I''m having her relive a fake past where the Vatui and Godyers are her allies and she was nted in the emporium as a child to spy for me, she''s strong enough to fight against the 10th ranked in the 3795th fleet, while they are one of the smallest and their power is at best negligiblepared to the top 1000 fleets, she''s still useful considering who she is, if I can use her as a bargaining chip against the first captain then I will take the chance.

    "The daughter of the first Captain..." Dina mused. "Is it safe at all to have her with us, I imagine once word gets back the captain wille gun''s-zing." She theorised.

    "That''s why I''m sending her back, I have no idea what the Emporium is like outside of her perspective, but with her working in secret for me there''s a chance we can learn even more over time, the subjects of my protection have drastically increased, I won''t allow my people to be test subjects, to have their minds ripped out and turned into AI for a ship."

    "Your people..." Ikaris smiled at him. "Am I also a part of your people?"

    "You are my wife and firstdy, you are my highest priority, Ikaris." He chuckled at her attempt to lighten his mood.

    "What of the other one, the dead Godyer?" Usami finally spoke after absorbing the indigestible information like bile and kerosine.

    "Godyers don''t die like that." Sol looked at her, and she furrowed her brows.

    "Meaning?"

    "He isn''t dead, not really." Sol sat upright and stared at them all.

    "Even in my infancy before I was fully realised, I was able to survive being impaled through the head and heart simultaneously by Sitri, I''m saying simply having a portion of his brain removed isn''t enough to kill him; as a fellow Godyer I was unable to pry in his mind, but I could still sense his consciousness pulling me when I approached him, he''s not dead, he''s simply in hibernation, a deep sleep brought byplete defeat, it''s likely he failed in his entirety to protect his Vatui Ward, a warrior is only useful if their service is valuable, I can feel his pain, and his hopelessness even when he''s in another dimension."

    "Will he ever wake up?"

    "Maybe someday, I don''t know, but whatever he dreams of I hope it''s better than what he went through to put him into such a state to begin with; for now it''s good enough to let a tired man sleep," Sol answered and then raised A and stood.

    "Is everyone ready?" He stared at them all, and Uriyu who was in another corner listening perked up with a sleeping Gia in hisp with Eve at his side staring.

    "Back to Arkadia already, I was hoping the next time would be with a little girl in myp." Ikaris smiled and stood with Dina''s help. "Eris will be shocked to see us so soon."

    "It can''t be helped though, Dr''ul is one of the most powerful gods... Celestials we now know of, we have to warn her of the impending threat." Dina responded. "What I''m worried about is the chaos that the world will fall under in our absence, I might have been to other more fantastical ces now, but I still love it here the most; it''s peaceful."

    "That''s why we''ll return as soon as possible." Sol assured her and turned to an empty space with his hair turning gold and his eyes shing white as he spread his fingers, causing the atmosphere to ripple before it slowly tore open revealing a short ck passage and a bright green world opposite of it.

    "That''s why Alpha''s replica consciousness will stay here and watch over everything, don''t worry Dina, the earth you know now will only change for the better over time."

    "Is it okay for me to see and hear all of this, what if the government targets me?" Eve looked at Uriyu.

    "Fret not girl, I will be sure to protect you and your family from all harm." Alpha appeared next to her and then looked at Sol who nodded.

    [System update, your name has been officially recognised as an ally of the Godyer, henceforth you are under his care, should anything happen, I will immediately notify Master.]

    Eve saw the notification and looked at Sol again who smiled as he ushered Ikaris towards the portal.

    "I''ll be seeing you soon, okay?" Dina stood before her with a somewhat sad smile. "I''ll ask Alpha how you''re doing every now and then, and maybe we can evenmunicate through her if it''s important-"

    "No... no, you have a lot on your te right now, I''ll just wait for the good news and try not to be a disappointment on my end." Eve spread her arms and slowly hugged Dina like a child. "Dina, you''re the coolest person I''ve ever met in my whole life, I hope you know that."

    "Don''t worry, I''lle back; I promise."

 Chapter 219: Trouble is coming.

    "Dina." Sol called her from the portal gate waiting as Sara went through while guiding Uriyu and Gia. "Do you want to stay behind?" He asked jokingly then raised his head in shock when Dina vanished from in front of Eve like a phantom and appeared at his side clutching his arm tightly and pouting.

    "That is not funny." She huffed waving at Eve once more as the gate began closing before them.

    "I''m in way over my head here aren''t I?" Eve smiled as she saw the swirling mass of energy close silently and then fizz out in a pop.

    [You will be fine, you need only adhere to your agreement with master, I will tell you if anything important happens, as I said before you have been marked as an ally thanks to your friendship with Dina.] Alpha disappeared from her sight and spoke through the window to her.

    "If they are all the organisation was, then what does that make me who wanted to be a part of it?" She asked and for a moment Alpha was silent.

    [You are a good person, Eve, and I do not mean that based on your name turning blue recently, I am easily able to read the hearts of individuals and discern their true nature, you are an ideal candidate for acting in their absence.]  Alpha replied while Eve left the estate seeing the doors, windows and other entrances close off while the staff was on the retreat.

    [Before leaving, Dina had suggested you fill their role.]

    "I''m only human though!" Eve snapped in terror as she thought about the responsibility that was suddenly being left in herp. "I can''t do what they do-"

    "Not now, no." Alpha walked from behind a tree and continued walking next to her. "You will not be alone, I have carefully selected other candidates across the globe who would be of great help to you, all major decisions are going to be made by myself as the acting power that be in master''s absence, you will simply be the face of the organisation, while I monitor everything from the shadows."

    "You have the right to refuse and live your own life, it was only a suggestion, though if not you, I do need someone else with knowledge of what is out there to keep the earth in check." Alpha added and Eve stared at her watching the gates close slowly behind them. "What is your choice then, Eve?"

    "Can I at least think about it?" Eve rubbed her forehead.

    "Of course, I will give you until the end of the week before I choose another candidate and begin their briefing." Alpha smiled at her and then disappeared again.

    ***

    "The hall, the hall!!" A man ran out of the Hall of Heroes on D''ol rming the visitors entering as well as the guards while others evacuated as well. "Something is happening, the statues of the heroes are looking at us!"

    "Looking?" A guard asked, seeing more and more people leaving in a hurry before one woman ran out and stopped at the entrance panting. "Ma''am, are you okay?" The guard asked her and she smiled at him.

    "It is just as before, sir, I was here that day when they returned, I remember it well, I was one of the lucky architectsmissioned to make those statues alongside others by the god of creation; Adonai.

    The glow in the eyes predicts the appearance of the heroes back to Arkadia!" She grabbed the guard''s cor and shook him excitedly. "Lord Vestic, Queen Ikaris, Lady Levina, Lady Amastacia, and Lady Takae have all returned!" She grinned at him seeing his excitement slowly rise before those who heard her took off towards the only ce they expected the returning heroes to be.

    "Is there a riot?" Eris stood on the balcony of her pce staring down at the gathering crowd by her gates a few hundred metres away. "Go and find out what''s happening." She turned to a maid next to her, taking her child as the woman curtseyed and left calmly.

    "Mdy!" The maid rushed back into Eris''s room excitedly and following her was none other than Usami, who came to a stop as soon as she saw the half-elf in her grasp.

    "Ikaris, you never mentioned that she had a baby, what the fuck?" Usami looked around and began walking again, making space for a heavily pregnant Ikaris and then the others, as well as a man she didn''t recognise who had a little girl on his shoulders.

    "I wanted to keep it a surprise." Ikarisughed at her shocked face.

    "What''s..." Eris stood stiff staring as they all approached her; Dina arrived and hugged her first while the maid took the child to the corner of the room and secured a seat. "What''s going on, why is everyone already back here, is Earth..." She left her question unfinished as she stared at Ikaris''s belly. "It''s only been two months you''re a balloon!"

    "Two months on Arkadia, is nearly six on Earth, Eris." Usami spoke directly to her and the healer froze and lowered her head. "It''s been seven years since Ist saw you, or rather... Eight, since you didn''t see me off." She approached and stared down at the shorter woman. "How have you been?"

    "Usami, I... um," Eris fumbled with her words when Usami held her hands. "I''m sorry." She slightly shuddered. "I''m really sorry." She pressed her forehead against Usami''s cor when she hugged her.

    "Don''t sweat over it, it''s in the past, and I''d prefer it be buried there for good." Usami held Eris tightly and then looked over her shoulder at the others who shared a warm smile. "You''re still such a crybaby, I thought you''d be a whole different person y''know."

    "I-It''s not that easy to change!" Eris sobbed in her embrace.

    "God... stop already I want you to meet them." Usami released her from their hug and gestured that the twoe forward. "Eris, this is my little brother Uriyu."

    "Ten years..." Eris wiped her eyes and smiled up at the man before her. "By the gods, you''re already an adult!" She took his hands and then pulled him into a hug as well.

    "Is this okay?" Uriyu asked looking over Eris''s head at his sister.

    "Of course it is." Usami raised a brow at him.

    "Is this your daughter, Uriyu?" Eris looked at Gia who was a tad uncertain about her as a new person, holding Usami''s leg and hiding behind her. "She is adorable..."

    "Um... I''m here uncle," Uriyu answered and Eris''s eyes almost bulged as she snapped back up and looked at Usami with her mouth agape."

    "Holy shit, how old is she?"

    "She just turned six a few months ago," Usami answered still slightly perplexed by the topic. "Her name is Gia..."

    "I thought you said you''d never have kids, but here you are with a beautiful little girl, I hope her father is-"

    "Eris, I''m sorry to break up your excitement there, but this isn''t a casual visit, we have a serious problem." He interrupted her from saying anything further while she observed Usami''s expression grow sombre and somewhat dark as her hero crest pulsed a menacing crimson as opposed to the blue light it once had like her Dina''s and Ikaris''s.

    "Usami, your crest..."

    "We can talk about itter." Usami looked at the door along with everyone after Sol walked off.

    "Let''s go, Dr''ul''s waiting for us."

    "Me too?" Eris stood in the middle of the room watching them leave.

    "I wouldn''t havee here first if I didn''t want you to at least know what''s about to happen, there''s a chance that even you will have a crucial role in the future." Sol answered from outside waiting for everyone to leave and then walking behind them.

    "Sol." Dr''ul stood at the bottom of the stairs waiting for them along with S''mael the god of Destruction, Ana''el the goddess of Love, Renia the goddess of Chaos, Samu''el the god of Time, Ashera the goddess of Beasts and Adonai the god of Creation. "Ikaris!" She stared at Ikaris, shocked. "What the cosmos..." She mused reaching out and taking Ikaris''s hand as she descended the staircase.

    "You called urgently, was this the issue, is there a problem with..." She gestured to Ikaris''s belly.

    "Ha-!" Sol almost startedughing when he realised that it had indeed started after Ikaris''s firstplication with the baby, but with the gravity of the situation he closed his eyes and cleared his throat, regaining hisposure while they all looked at him.

    "Straight to the point then." He gestured to the seats in the lounge, waiting for them all to sit before he took a seat opposite Dr''ul next to Ikaris.

    "What is this urgent matter you mentioned upon arrival, which requires the immediate attention of the gods?"

    "There''s been something of a disastrous development, for you, Dr''ul, Renia, and others like Gadriel and Gabriell." Sol gestured to them.

    "By others you mean the gods who are fragments of Ikaris?" Renia asked, hitting the nail on the head with her first guess. "Are we in some kind of danger?"

    "Yes, actually," Sol replied, taking a breath and looking at Ikaris who nodded. "To begin with, it''se to our attention that Ikaris is not a goddess, not in the traditional sense of divinity, she is a higher being known as a Celestial, and you; her descendants, are all in danger."

    The room registered silence as Dr''ul''s eyes slowly widened upon this bomb dropping in herp.

    "What?"

    "Trouble ising, power like we''ve never seen before.

 Chapter 220: Hot Spring in the Heavens.

    "The vast and infinite realms that we''ve called home since our births and creations, is nothing more than a singrity in a finite number of infinities, there are multiple collectives." Sol stared at Dr''ul who as he expected had the greatest reaction.

    "We are in one of the youngest and least known sectors in  what is called the Grand Emporium."

    Ikaris added and they all looked at her. "I am from the first of two progenitor races called Vatui, the race that once ruled the Grand Collective through tyranny and dictatorship, and Sol is the inherited descendant of an entire race of Godyers." She looked at him.

    "Troublees for us both, me more than him, and thanks to our shared lineage you all have marks on your backs." She regarded them with a gesture of her hand.

    "I do notprehend, please, make sense of how you could havee by such information." Adonai asked, and Sol''s eyes flickered white and gold for a moment before a small fractured breach appeared in the midst of them all and Jenifer Law fell through,nding on her feet and standing with her fists balled staring at them one after the other.

    Of everyone there only Eris and Usami were slow to react while Uriyu did not react at all, the gods all went on high alert with Dina and A rushing before Ikaris and standing guard, with A resting her hand on Ikaris''s shoulder. "Hold it." Sol raised his hand, and Jenifer looked around at him confused.

    "Sir, are these the allies you mentioned?" She asked, and Sol nodded and gestured that she take a seat conjuring an extra chair close to himself.

    "They are." Sol gestured to the seat and Jenifer obediently sat and bowed to everyone, unlike her previous appearance of violet hair and ck eyes, her hair had returned to silver and her eyes had returned to grey, she had been reverted to her pre-captain state through the immense trauma alpha had to put her through to reconstruct the memories Sol had shattered.

    "What in the heavens is she?" Dr''ul lowered her hands as a bead of sweat rolled down her cheek, she could clearly sense Jenifer''s power, but she had no mana signature at all, she had no sign of being powerful, but at the same time her presence made them all wary and extremely defensive against her.

    "This woman is Captain Jenifer Law ranked 55th in one of the weakest fleets of the Grand Emporium, born and raised as human, with no augmentation aside from her eyes being reced by fake ones and no further imnts other than a tracking chip being ced in her blood, all they did was give her a title based on her strength and performance." Sol gestured to her. "She is not from this Collective."

    "An imposter in our midst, how can you trust her?" Dr''ul asked, still not rxing as simply being near the woman for some reason caused the hair on her skin to jitter and stand on end even though she could clearly tell that she could kill her. "What is happening to me?" She looked at her arms unable to douse the mes of her hair no matter how she calmed herself.

    "Fear, Dr''ul." Ikaris replied raising her hand and revealing the mana rapidly surging through her body in reaction to Jenifer''s presence as well. "For me, it is slight unease, I sense her and immediately I can tell she is my natural enemy, the blood of our kind is on her hands."

    "Then we should kill-" S''mael arose spreading his six arms and summoning a curved dagger in each, but Sol''s raised hand deterred him from making any hasty moves. "Why are you colluding with one who has our blood on her hands?" He asked, and Sol gestured to Jenifer.

    "Please, ept my apology, the emporium has brainwashed its citizens into believing that they are in the right, but all that has happened since the end of the war is genocide of retreating species for selfish gains, this may not be enough, but I promise to do all I can to assist you,e what may." Janifer went on her hands and knees, pressing her forehead to the ground before S''mael and begging for forgiveness.

    "I helped Jenifer get a new perspective, she is working under my hand, that being said, she has her own free will and will fight back if you choose to attack her, and as the initiator, I won''t show pity on your impatience if she gets the better of you." Sol stared askance at the god of destruction.

    "She''s going back to the Emporium as our spy, I advise you not to ruin my ns based on your feelings, S''mael."

    "How will that work when we have already removed the power source of her ship?" Usami looked at him, and Sol gestured to Jenifer again. "I''ve already nned their next invasion, now that I know how they respond to threats and signs of us, it''s risky but I also have to do it in order to get her back home, the only remaining problem is whether they fall for it or not."

    "What is your end goal, what do you n to achieve by sending her back?" Dr''ul curiously queried.

    "The Emporium is a superpower that I alone can''t face, not without knowing every rank and every order by which they scale their power, I want to destroy their rule over the Grand collective, I want to tear them down from both the inside and out before they even realise what''s happening, I need to do it before they notice the amount of Vatui in under my care."

    "If that happens, forget a fleet, they will send thousands of armadas and turn this entire sector into a dead zone, nothing will be spared." Jenifer added.

    "I have many questions about various other things." Ana''el raised her hand. "The first obviously, is if we are descendants of this Vatui race then why are we able to only utilize divine power, if Vatui are not divine beings born under the light then howe we never had the ability to fight the demon invasions?"

    "That would be my fault." Ikaris cleared her throat.

    "All my existence I believed myself a goddess, the Vatui are capable of infinite mimicry so to put it simply, I was fooling myself, I have denied anything else the whole time, a god is only capable of using divine mana, I am readily sure that if I were to face a demon currently I would destroy it without lifting a finger, because, since the discovery of my alternate identity, I have felt a difference in my mana, one not brought forth by my husband''s influence.

    "As my descendants, you all suffered under my subconscious delusion." She exined.

    "Huh..." Renia mused.

    "There is quite a lot to unpack here, but I take it you do not n to tell the others about this?" She looked at Sol considering he didn''t even have an audience with them in the heavens with the added fact that she could feel his mana around them barring any prying eyes and listening ears from discovering their meeting.

    "That''s right." The whole reason the Emporium has not discovered you all is because prior to this nobody has ever tried using anything other than divine mana, after all a god can only..." Sol answered. "If you start trying to do what should be impossible for a god they''ll find you, the same as Ikaris was discovered because of our child."

    "I don''t feel like I have a single role here to y after all." Eris sighed, so far she was hearing things that made no sense to her whatsoever, alternate realities outside of their infinity? Humans with more power than the gods? An entire Empire built on the bodies and blood of Ikaris''s Celestial race and Sol''s?

    It was like the impossible she had experienced in thest was now a casual fart on a Sunday afternoon inparison.

    "How do you think I feel?" Uriyu who was seated with Gia in hisp next to her chuckled nervously staring at Dr''ul''s ming head, at S''mael and Renia''s six arms, at the extremely tall Adonai and Ashera who from his knowledge was definitely what Earth considered a beast man, there were gods before his eyes, he was on another in an alternate reality in the middle of a discussion about espionage with fantasy heroes, gods, a Celestial goddess and a being called a Godyer capable of shrinking and expanding universes at will, who was also just a weak human once upon a time and that''s without mentioning Jenifer who served an Empire that controlled eighty percent of all reality across multiple dimensions, collectives and the universes within them.

    "At this point, I can only stick with my sister and keep my head down."

    "So then, Sol," Dr''ul called his attention to herself again. "What do you intend to do first?" She asked, watching Sol''s brows furrow as he tapped his foot.

    "I really want to soak in a hot spring."

    "What didn''t you say it wasn''t a casual visit?" Eris spoke up.

    "It''s not a casual visit, I''m thinking of it as a business trip!" Sol spun in his seat and looked at her. "Even the elite business heads soak their bones when they get the chance why should I pass this up?" He asked standing and tapping his legs. "I don''t want to sit and talk anymore, there''s a lot we have to go through, say, Adonai is there a hot spring in the heavens?"

    "Pardon?"

    "Is there a Heavenly Hot Spring?"

 Chapter 221: Druls Challenge.

    "A hot spring in the heavens...?" The god of creation looked at Sol weirdly. "Are you doing the leg pulling?" He asked innocently and Eris pped her forehead, how could the god of creation have a bad memory for puns?

    "I''m dead serious, is there?" Sol asked again and he shook his head in the negative resulting in Sol as well as Ikaris sighing. "Well, never mind then, I''ll make one somewhere on D''ol, it''s close to the same size as Earth so it''s pretty easy to find somewhere nice with how well you''ve remodelled it forfortable living." He stood up and disappeared from their sight.

    "Is he serious?" Uriyu looked at Eris who had started chuckling. "A hot spring at a time like this?"

    "You have no idea howid-back that man can be!" Erisughed out loud causing Dr''ul and Ikaris to chuckle as they understood perfectly why she wasughing. "Sol used to y around like a child when everyone else was in warring times." Eris reminisced with a fond smile.

    "What, then how did he ever get strong, was the power he has just given to him?" Uriyu scrunched up his nose in disappointment at what he was hearing.

    "It is quite the opposite actually." Ikaris looked over her shoulder at him. "Sol was strong upon being summoned here, he had the luxury of being yful because there was nothing on Arkadia that could harm him."

    "Indeed." Dr''ul held up her right hand and stared at her palm.

    "I remember it quite vividly, the power of one human who defied the gods themselves, he was not yet a demigod nor was he Godyer, at that time he was only human, but there was none stronger than him on Arkadia, he was fearless, ruthless, and merciless, our very first meeting sparked a fused after I struck him down from the heavens." She looked at her hand remembering in detail how her palm had itched and her hand had shaken from their sh.

    "He never mentioned that before." Dina looked at the goddess surprised at what she was hearing.

    "Indeed, it was the first time since growing strong that I had seen him humbled." Ikaris added. "It was the spark he needed to seek greater strength, and he did, through many battles and tragedies he gained insurmountable power surpassing even myself which none other than the first had ever been stronger than."

    "He has been tested by the fires of fate over and over again, bing a force unlike any other." Dr''ul clenched her fist and then looked at Janifer who sat quietly listening. "You, human, do you want to fight me?"

    "Your Highness!" Eris snapped. "Do you have to ask every new person you meet for a fight?" She asked and Dr''ul erupted inughter.

    "ording to sir, the one with the red hair of mes is stronger than the average Godyer and Vatui, I am also stronger than the average, but he went the extra length to tell me that your power dwarfs that of everyone else''s aside from his and Mdy''s." She gestured to Ikaris who held a reserved expression as she regarded her.

    She didn''t know what Sol did to this woman, but her unquestionably loyal reference to her made her uneasy.

    "If possible, I would prefer you not make any gesture at all towards me." Ikaris stated, and Jenifer lowered her hand with aplex expression akin to heartache. "He may trust you to some degree, but I will never trust someone from the Emporium that seeks to kill me and my baby, no matter how much you do for us, you will always be the enemy in my eyes."

    "Of course." She responded; her voice evidently the only sound as everyone else had gone mute from Ikaris''s hostility towards her. "I''m sorry, it won''t happen again." Jenifer answered, casting a depressed aura as her lowered hand sought refuge in herp making her look like a child that had been refused something they liked.

    "Regarding your proposal, Majesty." She looked up at Dr''ul taking note of how Eris had addressed her. "I was told not to fight anyone else but Sir."

    "Why would he tell you that?" A seemed a tad confused.

    "Vatui have different signatures, once exposed to it there is no mistaking them for another, kind of like a fingerprint, if I fought any Vatui regardless of being harmed or not my body will have traces of their signatures on me, Mdy''s..." She almost gestured to Ikaris, but paused and lowered her hand again.

    "Her signature has already been recorded, if they were to scan another on my body you would bepromised." She exined and Dr''ul nodded.

    "Fair, I will take that information and utilize it wisely going forward." Dr''ul took a mental note and then looked at Dina. "How about you, and A then, as usual, my pantheon refuses to fight me, but even more so now that they have seen my fight against Sol, I am starved of battle; as the goddess of war this is most tragic!"

    "I would like to see the extent of their power as well, ever since Origin they have not fought anyone seriously." Ikaris chuckled

    "Mdy you would agree to this!?" A gawked looking at Ikaris and then at Dr''ul again and shuddering. "I am terrified of raising a finger against the queen of the Arkadian pantheon!"

    "I don''t feel good about it either, we literally have no chance of winning." Dina sped her hands at Ikaris, but she seemed to have already made up her Ming as she smiled at them without saying a word.

    This was a done deal, they''d been sold for her entertainment.

    "Are you all serious?" S''mael asked folding all his arms and staring at Dr''ul. "Are we not in the middle of a crisis?"

    "If they fight properly you will see a great tonne of destruction, S''mael." Ikaris looked at him.

    "Do it." The god grinned shamelessly.

    I will limit myself to Sorath''s level of power, that should-"

    "You would lose." Ikaris shook her head and Dr''ul stumbled from her seat and fell to her hands staring up at her with her eyes wide in horror.

    "What do you mean lose?"

    "Dina alone can contend with the goddess of the sun, while A is about the same power as Diablos." Ikaris answered and watched Dr''ul grow a blush on her face as she creepily regarded the two mages.

    "Is the goddess of the sun strong?" Uriyu asked, and Eris nodded with a look of horror on her face as well, she knew they had grown stronger, but this level of power made it impossible for her to catch up no matter how many years she trained; the power to face the gods on equal footing was something she believed only Sol would ever be able to do.

    "She is the only god that Sol lost to, she beat him in a battle of attrition and will but surrendered out of respect for his morales, say she should see this too, I am sure she and Dina would be a great matchup," Ikaris answered proudly.

    "Please don''t do that, she''s as stubborn as Dr''ul is being her younger sibling, if she starts challenging me only Master could save me from her." Dina held Ikaris''s hand pleadingly.

    "All done!" Sol reappeared in his seat. "I hear there''s a fight, where''s the venue?"

    "M-master don''t agree so fast~" Dina whined while A sighed in defeat.

    "To be fair I want to know where youck strength so I can help you build stronger foundations, I haven''t really paid much attention to your fights in the past." Sol smiled at them. "Come on, it''s a great idea and a pretty good way to work up a sweat before you hit the springs.

    "We can host it on Arkadia, thend is still vastly unpopted." Dr''ul suggested and Solughed as Dina ran to his side and dropped her forehead on his leg forcing up tears and weeping.

    "Master, I feel like I might have the flu... and I miss Eve, also my knee hurts-"

    "Pfft-hahaha!" Sol broke into hysterics again, tapping her shoulder.

    "Don''t worry, fighting can cure your loneliness, working up a sweat can cure illnesses, and just hop on one leg!" He gave her no leeway as he found her behaviour and unwilling attitude hrious.

    "I will do it." A stood seriously, staring at Dr''ul who righted herself and smiled. "If this means you can help me gain more strength, then I will do it, I want to stand next to Dina someday, I am her teacher, I cannot remain in her shadow forever." She balled her fists closing her eyes as her sigils emitted a steady crimson glow from her thoughts and feelings resonating with Sol''s.

    "Ugh..." Dina stood and rubbed her forehead. "Fine."

    "Wonderful!" Dr''ul pped and two systems windows appeared before them.

    [The goddess of war has challenged you to a friendly fight, will you ept?]

    Both: [ept]

 Chapter 222: Against the Goddess of War.

    [The pantheon is watching keenly]

    [The new members of the pantheon are showing a great amount of interest in youring performance]

    "I''m so nervous I could faint." Dinamented as soon as she opened her eyes to the view of an endless nd covered in grass and small trees no taller than a person. "We''re really doing this... this insanity!" She looked to her side at A but found the elfposed and alert.

    "Why are you so determined, wasn''t it you who wanted to be a pacifist and never raise your hand inbat again?" She asked.

    [The Godyer is also curious about this new development]

    [Ikaris has expressed increased curiosity on this topic]

    "I am Mdy''s left hand, just as you are her right, I believe it to be my duty to hold a certain level of power befitting her as an extension of herself, I know she would not and I know master would not abandon us, but the thought of being removed or reced has gued me since our discovery the other day." A was mindful of what she said now that everyone was paying attention.

    "I want to make her proud."

    "Gosh," Dina sighed conjuring a second set of armour over her casual wear just as the elf had done. "You''re right though, I don''t want to be a weight on her shoulder holding her down." She confessed.

    "Have you found your resolve?" Dr''ul descended from the skies like aeting to a slow and graceful halt andnding soundlessly before them.

    "I am ready." A waved her hands before her and summoned a glove on each with a crimson gemstone on the back which resonated with her sigils.

    "Let''s tango." Dina stretched her arms and crackled her knuckles.

    "As a warmup, I will start at a respectable advantage and give you the time needed to dig as deep as you can and bring out the absolute peak of your powers!"

    [The fight will go on until either party surrenders and deadly force is encouraged, you may begin!]

    The new system announced.

    "Then... pardon my rudeness, your holiness!" A slowly arched and spread her hands wide generating so much mana off the bat that Dina leapt to the side when her mana began sparking and tearing the soil beneath her feet and in her immediate surroundings.

    "That''s...!" Sol sat up, staring at the window with a bucket of popcorn in his mouth. "I never expected she would be able to!"

    [Activated Godspeed]

    "What?" Dr''ul recoiled in shock when A''s image distorted and the mage appeared directly in front of hering to a sudden halt with her hair fanned out around her head and her arms sped and pointed at her. "She is faster than she should be as a mage!"  Dr''ul leapt backwards in what felt like slow motion as she felt A''s already high levels of mana spike a second time.

    [Copsing Star]

    The world around them turned ck as the light of her attack caused more sparks, and Dr''ul who had grossly underestimated the two of them raised her hand and summoned her sword, deflecting a pir of red, blue, and white mana as it emerged from A''s fingers getting thrown off her bnce and sent flying in the process.

    "That''s my girl!" Sol pumped his fists alongside Ikaris causing everyone else to look at them strangely. "That''s what I''m talking about!" He opened up another window and watched the deflected beam of mana soar past D''ol harmlessly and crash into Sett, leaving the earth-sized moon with a massive crater and cracks almost covering a whole half of it.

    "Yes!" S''mael eximed from his seat next to Sol waving his arms and clenching his fists. "More more more!"

    "She''s incredible, as an elf and otherwise!" Dr''ul skirted across the ground on her toes,ing to a halt and raising her guard a second time when a [Mana Spear] descended from the sky and nearly struck her in the top of her head, it was supposed to be a regr attack, surely, but Dr''ul was even more shocked when the [Mana Spear] pped her sword clean out of her grasp and then exploded against her throwing her through the air a second time and leaving a crater the size of a stadium in its wake.

    "A, sync up!" Dina who had finally gotten past her pre-fight jitters waved her hands and sped them conjuring a bolt of lightning the size of a skyscraper from the cosmos and dropping her hands while A teleported to her side and fired off another [Copsing Star at Dr''ul while she was still floating."

    With one attack from above and another frontal assault, Dr''ul''s humour dried and she raised her hand blocking them both and letting them explode against her creating an indent in thend for hundreds of miles when the explosion raised a giant cloud of destruction like a hundred nukes going off simultaneously, tearing the grass fields away and leaving an unleveled terrain of fire and molten rock, the epicentre of which looked like an apocalypse.

    "Get ready." Dina looked at the elf for a brief second, lowering her hand and dispersing the barrier she had erected to protect them from their very own attacks. "The real fight starts now." She narrowed her eyes, watching Dr''ul emerge from the mes with a serious expression.

    "All jokes aside I am pleased beyond words." Dr''ul took a single step and closed the distance between her and the two in the blink of an eye, passing them both anding to a spinning halt and then pausing and looking at her hand, she had intended to outpace them and deal damage in the meantime, but in the middle of attacking something interesting had happened on Dina''s end, using a simple shield she pushed a away and reced her with a small [origin explosion] which stuck to the goddesses hand and thereafter exploded against her.

    "I can''t believe it, I''m seeing it, but I still can''t believe it!" Uriyu eximed in total shock. "Is this what the fights are always like here?" He asked.

    "Usually they are faster and far more violent, but Dr''ul is exercising incredible restraint, and her opponents are testing the waters, after all, she is the goddess of war, and the most powerful Arkadian god, it is only a matter of time before that happens." Ikaris answered while everyone else watched nervously.

    "That?" Usami''s little brother was confused seeing how nervous Eris and Usami were.

    "She can''t keep a lid on it," Sol responded, taking a sip of soda whilst an excited expression graced his face.

    "I can already feel her excitement from fighting strong opponents, a half of her existence, is dedicated entirely to the thrill of battle." He grinned just as he saw the goddess of war emerge from the dust and mes with her head aze and that ecstatic grin she wore when she fantasized about fighting.

    "You perceive time almost at the same level as Samu''el, how did youe by such a unique trait?" Dr''ul asked except only a select few could hear her as she moved at speeds iprehensible to regr or even augmented eyes, watching Dina''s eyes track her and seeing her mana already at work to create another countermeasure to slow her down again.

    "Being blindsided by attacks too fast to perceive." Dina''s thoughts raced at the speed of her reaction and Dr''ul struck at her only to see another origin explosion manifest on her hand, but this time instead of retreating and waiting she spun and mmed her hand in Dina''s stomach causing the explosion to blow her away instead.

    [Copsing-] A''s hands were pointed at Dr''ul but a momentter her hands were aimed at the air while Dr''ul''s palm was on the back of her head leading her face downward and smashing her into the ground so hard it burst open and condensed on itself twice.

    [-Star!] A stubbornly spun out of Dr''ul''s hand and unleashed the attack at point-nk range vanishing just before it went off.

    "Fascinating!" Dr''ul leapt out of the explosion, finding A while she was in a barrel roll destined tond on her feet and flying after her. "Truly!" She grabbed at the elf, but in another second her eyes bulged in shock as her vision was turned and she was crashing in the opposite direction with her eyes to the sky.

    Shey there for several seconds, wondering what had just happened, but blinking several times was all it took to realise something was falling out of the midday sky towards her.

    "They are keeping her at bay by using ranged skills." Ikaris frowned. "But such a tactic against one like Dr''ul is utterly useless." She watched a third [Copsing Star] tear through the cloudsing straight at her and watched Dr''ul raise her hand without any incentive and tank this attack as well, though this time it did not explode, instead it simply vanished.

    "Dr''ul excels at rangedbat just as she does with melee, but if they insist on keeping her at bay she will adapt and crush them without a chance at retaliation." Solmented, seeing the daylight get sucked away when the goddess of war arose from the crater she had ended up in and looked around at Dina.

    "A get-" Dina''s exmation was severed when Dr''ul''s fist collided with her stomach, but instead of being blown away the punch immobilised her and left her breathless. "Guh!" She fell to her knees and gasped loudly.

    [Godspeed] A vanished in a sh and tried nking the goddess, but was stopped dead in her tracks when the ground before her erupted in mes and then from those same mes Dr''ul who was supposed to be to her left emerged and dropped her hand intending on knocking her out with a single strike, but once more A vanished and appeared at Dina''s side casting [greater heal] on her and then disappearing again when her just before Dr''ul''s feetnded where they were and tore the terrain to shreds.

    [Inversion!] Dina shifted her hand to the side and Dr''ul who was hot on their tails furrowed her brows in confusion when an unseen force changed her trajectory and sent her flying in another direction leaving a trench in the ground when she tried stopping herself.

    [Inversion!] Dina pointed to the skies.

    The goddess felt the ground vanish from beneath her feet and the world turned upside down just as a sh of crimson light Crossed her path and she felt A''s mana spike once more.

    [Cosmic tier skill: Pulsar]

    "Hoooooh!!" Dina took a deep breath, triggering mana nds in her throat as the air around her went deathly quiet even as A fired off one massive [Pulsar] attack at Dr''ul.

    Divine tier ability

    [Cosmic Scream]

 Chapter 223: Against the Goddess of War pt 2.

    Arkadia shook, the grounds trembled, the mountains groaned, and the skies vibrated with mana particles scurrying to and fro as a pir of light emerged from a singr point and cleaved a trench across half the visible before escaping off into the void.

    "This fight might break Arkadia again, I never imagined I would see this kind of power from anyone aside from you, Master Vestic." Renia mused in shock seeing A recover from her [Pulsar] and watching Dina stumble forward after her attack had blown Dr''ul away and out of sight.

    "Haah~" Dina hissed mana and cleared her throat casting [minor heal] on her lips after [Cosmic Scream] had left them dry and cracked. "Not enough." Shemented looking at A who held a worried expression ncing back at her.

    "Far from it, I can only grow when I''ve exhausted all other options, and I am far from optionless and exhaustion!" She eximed sucking in another breath and held it in anticipation while A leapt away from her and stood still with her right hand above her left and a small blue orb of mana hovering between her palms.

    "I think I have a feeling of where I need to keep this fight now." Dr''ul came walking through the giant trench of fire, holding up her hand and revealing a burn mark on the forearm of her armour.

    "Something of this level easily surpassed the abilities of a mere mortal, to put it bluntly, not even Sol at this stage in his evolution was that strong, Dina Levina, you are a prodigy gifted with both luck and incredible skill." She clenched her fist and then looked at A not leaving her out since she knew the elf had a rather annoying and hard-to-deal-with arsenal of attacks at her disposal as well.

    "Now the real fight can start." The goddess slowed down to a looming hunch and then sped off towards A, and as she suspected just a moment before she couldy a hand on the elf she vanished from before her appearing several hundred feet away where a mana circle was nted on the ground and then upon trying again her sense of bnce was thrown off and she was sent tunnelling through the ground on her heels.

    "One has the ability to instantaneously send anything away as long as she makes contact once, and the other has the power to change the kic force of anything in whatever direction she wills it, the only option left for me without destroying the entire to get to them is-"

    Dr''ul stopped crashing and vanished again causing Dina and A to snap in shock when she appeared behind Dina and caught the edge of her cape, spinning with her and mming her into the ground.

    Dina guarded her head with her hands keeping her teeth grit as her brain was shaken when the force of Dr''ul''s barbaric tactic travelled through her body and back.

    "I have to move faster than they can cast their magic!" Dr''ul released Dina, spinning again and kicking at her, but as expected she vanished in a sh of light via A''s teleportation magic, except when A''s eyes tracked where the goddess was supposed to reappear she was missing instead there was a violent explosion of mana and Dr''ul emerged from where she originally was with Dina continuing her kick before the mage could recover from the first attack.

    "How!?" A broke her stance cancelling the mana circle beneath her feet and reached out with small mana circles appearing around each wrist, like a had been cast Dina hit an invisible barrier that slowed her cascade across the terrain before she disappeared and appeared at A''s side once more.

    "What a pestilential technique." Dr''ul frowned seeing the dynamic the two had set up; by themselves, they could hold their own respectively, but as they worked together it was clear that without fully immobilising one of them they could always rely on the other to pull some rabbit out of a hat and disorient the enemy long enough to recreate their dup formation.

    "I figured you two would work well together as you are teacher and student, but this level of single-mindedness is fascinating, it almost feels like..." Dr''ul''s eyes widened as she was struck with a wave of realisation.

    "She figured it out." Solmented, watching Dr''ul''s cheeks redden and her hair start flowing with mes again.

    "I see, how intriguing, how interesting!" She cackled and summoned a golden staff in her hand.

    "Those brightly shining marks on your bodies which resemble Ikaris''s must also mean you arepletely connected with Sol, which means you canmunicate privately, you have been coordinating with each other this entire time, as long as it is within reason you would be some level ahead of me!" Dr''ul beganughing as she spun the staff creating powerful gusts that began tearing away at the terrain around them.

    "Amazing, forget allowing you the time to cast, I cannot even allow you the time to think, I must surpass the speed at which your trained and perceptive minds can fire off ideas!" She continuedughing and then suddenly vanished, catching A by her head and then extending her staff to Dina but instead of aiming directly for her she aimed the staff to the side making a feint as she swung away from Dina, and with A''s mind upied with breaking from her grip and dina focused on the attack the mage made her first mistake and used [inversion] in the wrong direction resulting in the staffing back and mming into her side.

    While she did realise her mistake and reacted fast enough to block the weapon with her hand the force alone caused the bone in her arm to fracture leaving her screaming in pain and casting [Heal] on herself as she was blown away by the residual force of the staff.

    "And you-" Dr''ul spun the staff with one hand and started descending with it at A''s abdomen, but again she was whisked away.

    For a moment the elf thought she had avoided the attack, but as Dr''ul was sent a distance away her peripheral caught sight of a gold and her head slowly turned while her fingers swerved after she failed to block the staff which Dr''ul had left behind after pretending to swing but had a really thrown it leaving no contact between herself and the object when she was eventually teleported away.

    "Fu-CK!!" A cursed when the blunt staff mmed into her ribcage and nted her firmly into the ground sending massive hills'' worth of rock and debris high in the air muffling her screams as the staff caught ame and exploded much like Dina''s [Mana Spear] would.

    "I am impressed." Dr''ul appeared above another magic circle daintily andnded on her toes watching Dina''s cascade end in the side of an uprooted tree root the size of a hill, and A''s crash ended with a st of crimson fire like a tower in the air. "Hm... more?" Dr''ul stared at both ends curiously when she felt their mana signatures weaken and then simultaneously begin rising.

    "You two, hold on this is supposed to be a test and educational-" Dr''ul stopped talking and zipped to the side as fast as lightning when from A and Dina''s ends two [Pulsars] shredded everything in their path and almost hit her.

    "Are you listening to me?" Dr''ul summoned her staff again and started swaying away what felt like an endless wave of [Mana Spears] and [Origin Explosions]ing from Dina''s side while she felt A''s mana continue rising until the crimson fire her explosion had caused was entirely blown away revealing A racing towards her at full speed.

    "They are too invested to stop just yet." Sol smiled with Ikaris nodding in agreement.

    "Indeed, Cosmic scream which I believe is more than even Sorath could handle safely was supposed to be her limit but she has pushed past that blockade and entered a state of heightenedbat awareness, it would be a shame to see her stop right on the cusp of breaking her limiters once more," Ikarismented.

    "And A has seemingly endless potential as well, she only needed the power to support her crazy, inventive and ever-expanding arsenal of skills."

    "A direct approach?" Dr''ul watched A closely as she made a direct line towards her, through debris, thrust dust and mes, the elf blew everything away in her approach, and then when she was only a few metres away she vanished using [godspeed] blindsiding Dr''ul who had not expected such a bold attack from a mage who specialised in supportive skills and healing magic and swinging with a kick directed at her leg.

    "Not fast enough."

    Dr''ul barely turned and began dropping her staff in an attempt to block the kick which to her was both weak and slow, but when her eyes settled on what was supposed to be A she found a floating rock in her ce.

    She never expected to be at a disadvantage, but for some reason after being constantly surprised and blindsided by the pair the goddess; whilst still many times superior in all fields, felt hesitation and intimidation as she couldn''t get a grasp of what kind of tactic they came up with while they were in the middle of an ongoing battle.

    "What the...!" Dr''ul spun again finding A right before her with her palm struck out and inches away from touching her, but once again the attack in her eyes from a support mage was sloppy and slow.

    Dr''ul spun out of A''s way and grabbed at her, but missed on ount of the mage vanishing and returning on the opposite side again.

    There was no trigger, there were no tells or gestures, the elf was casting the technique without words or circles and it made her hard to predict as it quickly became a game of "tag" with Dr''ul bing restless and impatient when she realised that A''sbined technique with godspeed made her almost impossible to touch while she used them in tandem, and then on hetst grab after A vanished and Dr''ul spun to try catching her again she was met with Dina''s image holding on to A''s hand.

    There was something strange about the mage though, all the avable mana she could sense from her had gathered in her right hand and just like A, she was making a direct assault.

    [Inversion]

    Ikaris cast her skill against Dr''ul throwing her off bnce as she was suddenly flipped upside down, but she had expected such a move and immediately countered with a downward kick towards Dina''s head, though her vision blurred when she was hit with [Inversion] multiple times in one ce causing her to flip and teleport without moving an inch throwing her senses offpletely before Dina''s hand pressed on her exposed stomach and heat she had never expected began pushing against her flesh.

    [Divinity has been passively activated, you have achieved a new stage of evolition]

    [Dina Levina: Demigod (active)]

    "Haaaahh...!" Dina shed her head wildly from side to side as her hair became pink from the roots to the tips with a bright glow while she put the full remainder of her vast quantities of mana into this one attack and A disappeared once more.

    Dr''ul''s eyes refocused in shock when she sensed the abnormal scale of what was about to happen, and from her seat on D''ol observing Ikaris stared shocked as well when she sensed the familiar buildup and expulsion of arcane mes.

    "INCINERATION-MAXIMUM!!"

 Chapter 224: Vestic Resorts and Hot Springs.

    [Behold, the birth of an infant divine; a new Demigod has challenged the power of heaven]

    "Good heavens, Dina, why would you do something so reckless?" Ikaris sat forward, cradling her belly and gasping when even from D''ol they started feeling Dina''s mana like ripples across the cosmos, the heavens and its hosts stopped and stared in fascination.

    Drul grabbed Dina''s hand and her eyes wentpletely crimson as they both vanished in a bright sh of her crimson mana.

    For a few seconds, the system window was silent and still pointing at the area showing A return to the spot and cover her eyes from the sun as she stared into the air.

    "By the gods..." A mused. "I am surrounded by monsters." She squinted staring at Sett; the third andrgest moon that her own attack had nearly destroyed earlier without her knowledge.

    It started like a small wave of pink fire, spreading across the surface rapidly, but then the moon itself began opening up as Dina''s dyed attack tore through it spitting fire from every direction before the backside of the moon facing away from everything else was sted to kingdome in a massive explosion, and then the explosion shrunk and went off a second time epassing three times the radius of the moon and causing the void it upied to roar and copse violently.

    As if it hadn''t existed at all, Sett was gone.

    "Oh my god," Usami sat and stared at the screen with her mouth half agape and her fists clenched in horror. "That is more power than even Sitri showed when she fought with Sol -what the hell, Dina, this is beyond anything even remotely mortal!"

    "Seriously, what the fuck..." Eris agreed from her seat next to Uriyu with a bead of sweat rolling down her cheek to neck. "What the fuck happened in that dark universe to cause them to grow this strong?"

    Sett was an exact replica of Earth''s size down to thest inch, and with her full power, Dina hadpletely destroyed it down to thest rock.

    "It looks like this fight is about to be concluded, then," Sol threw popcorn in his mouth while Ikaris picked from the bucket in hisp with a smile.

    "Indeed."

    "Dina, I am shocked." Dr''ul held on to her hand staring at where Sett was supposed to be and grinning widely. "You have surpassed my expectations entirely, that too without revealing your real trump card." She looked at Dina staring at her hair glowing brightly and her irises that had turned pink with her sclera turning ck mimicking Sol''s divine appearance, save for the pink.

    "I can still keep going," Dina stared at her barely trying to pull her hand away. "I still have power to spare."

    "Unless you want to use the chaos magic Renia blessed to grow inside of you and endanger your life, I suggest you reconsider what you are saying, you barely have enough overall mana to maintain that appearance let alone fight." Dr''ul argued Dina''s bluff and then released Dina when she let out a breath of mana and stopped struggling.

    "Do not be downhearted, Mage Hero, you are blessed beyond your peers, blessed beyond your years, and a very worthy opponent, amazing, Dina; that is what you are."

    "But... I didn''t even harm a hair on your head after giving it my all and you didn''t even dodge it." Dina sighed as thest of her divine mana was used up and she stopped glowing, immediately slumping over and falling unconscious.

    "What did you expect, I am the strongest." Dr''ulughed as she held her to herself like a babe and vanished again.

    [Your partner has forfeited the challenge, do you wish to continue?]

    The system notified A who was standing in the wastnd that was once arge ind isted from the rest of Arkadia.

    "Today is not my day to shine it appears, I will grow stronger when it suits me best, but for now, I suppose I forfeit." A smiled and raised her hands in defeat and a secondter she was once again in Eris''s pce standing before everyone. "Ah!" She stared at Dina who was being catered to by Sara.

    "Is she okay?" She ran over to her ignoring everyone else in the room and sliding to a halt cancelling the summoned armour and gloves on her hands and resting her palm against Dina''s cheek.

    [The winner of this challenge is the Goddess of war, Dr''ul!]

    The system announced and everyone present slowly began apuding, but to the elf''s surprise, even Dr''ul was doing the same while she and the others stared at herself and Dina who slowly regained consciousness when Sol came over and rested his hand on her forehead granting her a portion of his own mana.

    "Well done, you two." Sol smiled warmly at them, pulling them to their feet and resting his hands on their heads. "That was amazing."

    "And extremely reckless, Dina." Ikaris spoke up from her seat. "Using divine arts you barely understand could have backfired and killed you, silly girl." She sighed in relief. "But, it was amazing what you both did, as mages, as warriors."

    "Indeed!" Dr''ulughed, and then looked down at Jenifer, shrinking to a regr height and staring at her. "You seem shocked."

    "I''m not too surprised by anything I witness after seeing the power sir wields, but I am pleased that you are this strong, the strength disyed by you is that ofmanders," she regarded A. "And you are as powerful as a vice-captain without a doubt." She pointed at Dina and then looked at Dr''ul directly.

    "Your majesty, you are beyond the power of the average Godyer; many times stronger." She cracked a small smile. "Maybe you are descended from the strongest of Vatui bloodlines."

    "The strongest..." Sol mused after the room had gone quiet again. "I didn''t think too much on it since it''s a longshot and something of an urban legend among her people, but maybe..." He looked around at Ikaris. "There''s a chance Ikaris is some kind of nobility, a pureblooded Vatui noble said to have gone extinct in the war."

    "Nobility?" Ikaris scoffed. "What are the chances of such a coincidence?"

    "From her memories, it only makes sense that you could be, the Vatui are all strong but the nobles were the leaders for a reason; it was only after they all suddenly disappeared that the war was lost." Sol answered.

    "Do you mind exining to me what your n for getting her back to her people without exposing us is?" Dr''ul asked, but Sol raised his hand and shook his fingers.

    "Hot, spring."

    "But-"

    *Snap*

    "-I have never..." Dr''ul''s shoulders slouched when she found herself somecepletely different. Stay connected to the story on m-vl-em-py-r

    "Never what?" Sol responded when she failed to finish speaking when she came face to face with a great structure the size of Eris''s pce, it wasn''t a simple structure like any he''d built before either; it was a detailed and fully functional resort,plete with a reception desk which Sara quickly want behind and zipped into her shadows appearing again in uniform.

    "Ladies, gentlemen, gods of all ages and sizes, wee to Vestic Resort and Hot Springs,"  Sara smiled at them all, took a pen from the desk, opened a log book and then took a namete from her pocket with her name on it and ced it for everyone to see. "I will quickly add your names and you will choose your destination, please form a line."

    "Are you serious?" Dr''ul cast a deadpan at Sol, and heughed haughtily and gestured to the front desk. "I have never once shown myself to anyone before, if I am not mistaken a hot spring is something which involves nudity is it not?" She asked with her brows furrowed and her eyes narrowed, Sol nodded and pointed to a sign right above Sara''s head.

    [Public Lady''s section to the right, Public Men''s section to the left, Public Mixed springs down the centre and private springs are also avable for mixed or single bathing, please see the receptionist to make an appointment and do remember to respect these rules.]

    "How are we to talk if not face to face?" Adonai looked down at Sol.

    "Alpha will connect us to a live call, with names and all like WiFi." Sol answered while the mentioned system appeared and created a window before everyone with all their names on it, and as each person spoke their names shone brightly with a mic icon next to it.

    "I do not know what WiFi is, but it seems convenient speaking to someone without always sending a message or making a journey." Renia stared at the window and her name as it lit up with her words.

    "Amazing, then I will obviously be in the Ladies section." Ana''el chirped and stood before Sara taking a small wooden crest from the receptionist and then hurrying along as a system window followed and exined the experience of a Hot Spring resort to her.

    "Is it safe for you to go in a hot spring when you''re like this?" Eris looked at Ikaris, and she smiled and nodded.

    "I am an all-powerful being, Eris, setting foot in warm water and rxing will not be enough to harm me nor my child; neither of us will overheat." She chuckled and turned to Sara. "We will be taking a private spring, please."

    "Certainly Mdy, please follow the system window and pay attention to the rules, everything will be provided," Sara responded kindly and made a gesture before Ikaris, Dina and A vanished.

    "If I may, Sara," Alpha appeared at her side dressed as she was and flicked her fingers causing Sara''s receptionist que to change to her name. "You should also enjoy a little downtime, I will appoint you to Master''s private Spring and handle the rest." She gestured to the gods who all obediently formed a line while Sol disappeared.

    "Can I?" Sara asked joyfully, and the system smiled and snapped her fingers causing Sara to vanish again.

    "My apologies for the dy Ma''am, what will be your choice?" Alpha asked Dr''ul who was first in line.

    "I suppose, the public Ladies''," Drul answered and Alpha smiled again.

    "Right away."

 Chapter 225: King of all the Heavens.

    "haah~" A sighed and groaned under Ikaris''s feet. "I never imagined that getting stepped on could feel this wonderful~" the elf sighed once more and scratched her arms outwards. "Yess, Mdy your feet~"

    Sheid on a massage table which allowed her breasts tofortably rest beneath her and Ikaris was floating and giving her a foot massage, something she learned from Sara on their first Arkadian adventure.

    "Haha," Ikaris chuckled looking over at Dina whoid on her back whilst getting a full massage from Sol who was still taking to the others with a bud in his left ear like a true professional while the girl beneath his hands breathed heavily as he went over every inch of her body.

    "How wonderful~" Sara was the only one who would ever be allowed in the same room as them, and she relished in the heat of the pool of hot water with her back turned and her arms on the tiled edge after Alpha who had sorted all the other gods'' affairs had joined and offered to give her a shoulder massage as well one she apparently needed as she continuously sighed and vocally praised the system''s masterful skills.

    "-is a n like this not even more risky than you first insinuated?" Dr''ul asked with a deep sigh, almost moaning as the heat of the water prated her skin and rxed her muscles, although a hot spring was not something any of the gods needed, leaving themselves vulnerable and under Sol''s protection to enjoy a mortal pleasure had caused all the used rooms to erupt in sighs of bliss, even Samu''el who always went on and on about the importance of time had gone quiet to enjoy one of the highest forms of rxation ever known.

    "It''s a gamble," Sol responded kneading his thumbs in Dina''s leg and smiling as she closed her eyes with a deep groan, her toes curling and her fingers stretched and shaking while her sigils lit up and thumped with her racing heart. "It can''t be helped though, the alternative is something much worse that will likely put us right under the microscope of the entire Emporium." He debated.

    "How so?" Renia asked.

    "My mother," Jenifer spoke up, she had been granted a private room all to herself and she sat in the middle of the pool with her knees raised to her chest, hugging them and blowing bubbles with her nose as she experienced something she had never seen or heard of before despite visiting thousands of systems and seeing hundreds of diverse cultures.

    "I know my mother more than anyone else, and I know how the general thinks, he will want to bring the news of my failure and death to the higher-ups, but she will most likelye seeking revenge before that happens, she always put my safety even above the Emporium''s strict orders, she will definitelye." She exined.

    "And if she does not?" Dr''ul enquired, watching droplets roll down her leg after raising it out of the water. "If the first captain does note for her daughter, what then?" She wiggled her toes, making ridiculous gestures while her face held a serious expression void of the humour her actions were supposed to cause.

    "If she does note then the general was able to convince her to avoid acting rashly and do it by the books, and if such is the case then you have a wide-scale invasion on your hands," Jenifer answered the goddess almost dismissively.

    "That''s not happening," Sol spoke up. "While you aren''t the best technician, I was able to learn quite a bit when I searched your mind," Sol spoke making Jenifer aware that her mind had indeed been pried into but leaving out the fact that it had been reconstructed from his memories of what he had seen after being wiped clean.

    "Sir... Did you find a way to contact them without my ship?" She asked, and Sol nodded at Dina who was now seated in hisp with her legs wrapped around his waist while Ikaris had already left with Sara and A was lying behind him on the massage bed staring with an askance and pleased expression.

    "A dyed distress signal; I already sent it after discovering I could and making this n, within a few hours from now it should reach since it''s been a day or two where you''re from, the First Captain will receive a direct signal from your brain imnt, I know that she''s going to act ording to her maternal instinct, her child needs her." He answered, sinking his fingers in Dina''s hair and arching her on top of himself when she began to slowly thrust her hips against his, driving himself inside of her and moaning lightly at the wet intrusion.

    "I do not have a lot of time then." Jenifer sunk herselfpletely beneath the water for a few seconds hearing Dr''ul and Renia''s voices as if she was above the surface while they asked more questions. "Sir, how does this system work, willmunication be possible beyond your sector?"

    "Alpha has already created backdoor signals routed to other sectors and lesser collectives with the same information we got from the ship as a test, so it''s fine, I''ll be able to contact you whenever I want, using her as a catalyst without even being detected." Sol bent Dina further, holding her throat by a golden chain made of his mana whilst she went crazy on top of him.

    "Since you''re human, she''s Gonna be able to easily block any memory you have of us, as well as erase it if need be, on the off chance that they somehow catch on to you being a spy and they try to force information out of you, I''m wiping your mind and letting you gopletely, you''ll forget everything you''ve witnessed with myself and everyone else, all you''ll know is what happened when your mother came for you."

    Jenifer after hearing this stood and went over to the towels, wrapped herself and caught her wet hair in a messy bun and then nodded to herself, not knowing that everyone had remained silent just to hear her reaction to Sol''s harsh deal-breaker where she was concerned.

    "I do not want to forget you, sir, even before you forced me to see the wickedness and atrocities of the Emporium I acknowledged that you are worth every bit of respect thates with your Godyer title as the most fearsome being that once ruled the Grand Collective with unmatched power, I will obey your orders to the letter and do everything in my power to help you take them down from the inside."

    "If I may, Sol?" Dr''ul called his attention to herself. "What is your motivation here, from what I know of you, you are a ratherid-back man, very hard to provoke unless you choose to be bothered, what is your drive for taking on a power capable of wiping us all out?"

    "They came after Ikaris and our child, they want them dead, that''s my drive, it''s enough to destroy the foundation of their very order, I don''t want to live a life in hiding, I don''t want to be constantly bothered by a threat of war at my doorsteps, the emporium is too powerful to ignore, billions of Vatui and Godyers collectively have been killed by them, before that happens; before their Great Armada even has a clue who I am or where I am I will take the initiative and strike first and hard, I''ll cripple them before they have any idea what hit them."

    "I see, then you need only utter a word, this threat is one which looms over us all, I shall dlyy myself before your cause, my King." Dr''ul regarded him respectfully cing her hand over her heart with a deep frown.

    "King?" Jenifer asked, surprised.

    "Of course, Ikaris is the Queen of all gods across all realities in our collective, I am merely the queen of one verse inparison, she was the first goddess, and remains the most powerful only contested by Sol himself who holds more frightening power than even you can fathom," Dr''ul answered.

    "He is the peak of power, the strongest there ever was, even capable of standing against thews of light and darkness the King of all the Heavens, he is an unmovable motherfucker." Dr''ul spoke informally revealing the high praises she held towards Sol.

    "I... I was unaware of this." Jenifer furrowed her brows.

    "Nobody amongst his women or close friends would say something like this directly to his face, but I who am neither his woman nor bed-maiden have no such obligation and am shameless enough to speak his praises all day long, I can freely say that any power or conceivable beings will ultimately fall at his feet in either servitude or defeat, that is the man you respect and serve; that is Sol Vestic, that is our Godyer.

 Chapter 226: Resignation.

    ***

    "Amazing," Jenifer sat on arge bed staring at a wall with a painting of Arkadia, this ce called D''ol of Arkadia, technology hardly exists here, but the people are so happy; the Vatui who I used to think were tyrants and wolves who prey on the weak freely mingle with the humans and other beings and treat them with respect even though they are higher beings, they are revered as gods but they do not dictate how the other beings live, it feels like my entire life to this point was lived inside of a bubble." She mused.

    "A very big bubble," Sol answered.

    On the opposite side of the bed she sat on, Sol was seated as well with his back turned to her while he stared out the window at Arkadia and the destruction left by Dina and A''s fight with Dr''ul.

    Before him in hisp was Ikaris, slowly and peacefully eating a meal prepared by Sara who stood at the door with a pleasant smile, while Dina and A were snuggled together in arge chair to the side sleeping cosily.

    "I do not know what the full story is, but I have to ask a very ignorable and shallow question." Ikaris looked over her shoulder seeing the 55th Captain slouch.

    "Yes?"

    "You have met other Vatui, correct?" She asked and Jenifer nodded.

    "I have met a lot... I have... killed, a lot." She answered after the silence became a dreadful one.

    "Have you ever met an ugly Vatui?" Ikaris pressed for the answers she sought, and at her question, Jenifer raised her head and slightly turned to her and everyone else.

    "Yes, the ones who attack the Emporium are usually unpleasant to look at, they carry hideous blemishes on their skin and a lot of them are disfigured, this is why the emporium believes that the Vatui suffered some kind of disease which led to their decline, I do not understand the point of asking about their appearance though, you are the most beautiful being I have everid eyes on, you glow with beauty, one such as you would never..." She stopped talking and bit her lips.

    "I''m sorry." She reminisced on Ikaris telling her to not talk to her unless necessary.

    "So A was right," Solmented. "It''s likely that there is no disease at all amongst them, what you have seen is the malice and hatred of their hearts."

    "I do not understand." Jenifer turned a little more to look at him properly.

    "Ikaris was beautiful when I met her, the most stunning being I''ve ever seen, but if you were to put that past self and her current self in the same room, the present Ikaris would brightly outshine herst self; her heart shows in her appearance and after the demons were wiped out and her grudges settled, she has only be more beautiful by the day." Sol reached around Ikaris''s hair and poked her cheek yfully while she blushed from his praises.

    "Vatui are incapable of hiding their feelings, years of being hunted have made the others bitter."

    "I have a question, sir," Jenifer spoke up. "Regarding Mdy''s appearance, she does not look like the average Vatui of red eyes and White hair, is it an illusion?" She asked and Sol stared at Ikaris''s hair and smiled.

    "When she is upset, truly upset to the point of violence, her eyes are indeed red, but I don''t think Ikaris is capable of holding animosity for too long, it''s not an illusion, there are others like her with blue eyes and hair cker than the void, as for the white hair, only someone with knowledge of their past could exin that, for as long as she has known herself, she has maintained this appearance," Sol exined and then helped Ikaris stand.

    "Jenifer Law, your time hase."

    "Is it my mother?" She leapt to her feet and turned, tapping her chest twice causing an electrical humming to fill the room as her battlesuit slowly grew around her body shredding the clothes Sol had given her to wear in the meantime.

    "I don''t know, but there''s about to be a breach."

    Sol''s eyes slowly inverted and his hair turned white from the roots out shing several times in gold and then retaining white as he scaled himself to hide the fact that he was only using divinity and had yet to utilise his Godyer powers.

    "Dear," Ikaris stared at him with a persistent gaze, cupping his cheeks in her small hands and smiling worriedly at him. "Be careful, and-"

    "Don''t fret so much, Ikaris." Sol smiled holding her hands and kissing her fingers gently. "I promised I wouldn''t let a soul touch you and I meant it."

    "I am talking about you; you often do reckless things but this is by far the most dangerous, a single mishap and you could..."

    "Ikaris," Sol rested his hand on her head regarding her with an absent smile and his eyes half closed. "I''ve always said it, and I know I''ve shown you a lot of doubt in thest few months but make no mistake; I won''t lose to anyone, I''ll always...

    ALWAYS be the strongest, and if I''m not, I''ll take the title from whoever holds it." He dered and then turned summoning a scarred and half-broken armour on himself and then snapping his fingers causing Jenifer''s battlesuit to tear and be bruised along with her skin while she hissed from the scars and bruises that appeared across her skin, he even went as far as causing minor internal injuries as well leading to her puking up a mouthful of blood.

    "This is enough, right?" Sol asked raising his hand to snap it again but she stumbled forward and rested her hand on her knee staring at him in bewilderment.

    "With only a snap of your finger?" She coughed again and Sol snapped his fingers again causing bruises across his own body like hers.

    "Master," Dina stood at his side and wiped the trickle of blood from his nose. "Be safe, be careful."

    "I''ll be going then." Sol rested his hand on her head and vanished along with Jenifer, reappearing next to her ship and dodging her since she attacked him as soon as his eyes focused.

    "Sir, please mind your strength, I am no good to you dead...!" Jenifer descended to the top of her ship and folded her hands in a guard just as another battleship emerged from a breach behind her and a multitude of drones started spreading around them.

    "-fer!" Her Comms started working when Alpha unjammed the signal allowing her to hear her mother shouting her name. "Jennifer, can you hear me?!"

    "I''m well aware, I''ll talk to you soon." Sol extended his hand and aimed for her abdomen, firing a singr fire bolt that rapidly expanded, swallowing up the entire ship and blowing her arm off as she was sent crashing uncontrobly towards the new arrival.

    "Attack that bastard!" Chey shouted pointing to Sol as he started raising his magical output and distracting everyone. "Kill the Godyer!" She screamed, but only a momentter she reclined in her chair shocked when Jenifer mmed into the screen in front of her, legs torn and arms mangled but clearly still alive.

    "The more youe, the worse it gets, stay away from us!" Sol roared through the cosmos spreading his hands and causing the drones to all vanish in a string ofrge explosions which started causing the ship to haveplications as he turned his attention to them.

    "Captain!" The pilot called to her. "If we don''t retreat we risk dying here!"

    "He''s right in front of us!" Chey squeezed the handles of her seat breaking them off as Jenifer was retrieved while Sol slowly appeared. "If we don''t kill him now-"

    "With all due respect, ma''am, a single ship stands no chance against him, he is stronger than any we have seen recently, clearly he is injured, but our sensors are reading a massive amount of energy even greater than that of our ship, if we don''t leave now we might all end up dead." Her Vice Captain rested his hand on her shoulder.

    "We live now and return with a greater offence and take him down, you already have your daughter, order the retreat."

    "Alpha, do you have ess to their ship?"

    [Everything is going ording to n,] she answered and Sol smirked.

    "Kill the weapons."

    [Confirmed] Alpha answered again and Sol aimed a small concentration of mana directly at the Captain smiling and firing it straight through the ship and past her face tearing off a piece of her ear and killing the Vice Captain behind her after it exploded inside of his abdomen ripping him apart and sttering guts across her section of the cockpit.

    "Captain!" The pilot snapped again. "Please!"

    "Fuck..." Chey walked across the cockpit and stared as Sol began rapidly approaching.

    "I still want answers, who are you people, what is the Emporium, why do you keeping here!?" He roared, sping his hands and summoning a small star-like phenomena in his palm.

    "A Godyer unaware of the emporium..." Chey mused pressing a button on the captain''s desk andunching a small pod the size of a finger at him, he easily caught it, calmly opened it and furrowed his brow when he realised it was an earpiece; from Alpha''s exnation and his own memories this was technology that shot waves directly into one''s brain and could be used in the vacuum where sound couldn''t travel by conventional means, much like their ability tomunicate because of their heightened brainwaves connecting with each other at a thought.

    He put the device in his ear and stared at Chey."

    [This is Chey Law, first captain of the 3795th fleet speaking, may I make a request?]

    "I only want you to leave my home alone, whatever request you have, whatever bargain you want to make, I don''t give a shit, I''ll fight you as long as you keeping back!"

    [Then let me leave in peace, I only came here for the 55th Captain, if you are insistent on the peace you are trying to protect, then I will leave-]

    "What''s to stop you froming back again?" Sol grimaced. "What does sparing you now mean for the future, for my future?" He held his hand higher causing the star in his grasp to grow exponentiallyrger almost twice the size of the ship.

    [As the first Captain, if I die here you will face the entire armada of the 3795th, that is more than even you can handle, Godyer.]

    "And if you live?"

    [I will resign my post, and cease all advances immediately.]

    "Ma''am!" Someone from her crew snapped in protest, but went silent when she held up her hand.

    [I won''t attack you, ever again I swear it.]

 Chapter 227: Souls Garden.

    "C-Captain, this is absurd!"

    "Be silent, set a course for home and do not do anything more to antagonise the Godyer." Chey stared at the pilot of her ship and then behind herself at the mess of blood and body parts that was once her Vice Captain, he was supposed to be near her own third Order of strength but he was effortlessly killed, seeing that woke her up from any thoughts of aggression; she needed to leave before this madman changed his mind and threw that abominable thing he was holding over them.

    "Do it now!" She snapped at the pilot and then looked at Sol again.

    "Can I trust your words?" Sol asked watching through theyers in the ship as Jenifer was given emergency care and then put inside an incubation capsule where her body began mending slowly.

    "I can''t speak for the rest of the Emporium, but I will never show my face before you again," Chey answered taking the piece from her ear and cing it on the dashboard while Sol took his and crushed it, lowering his hand and cancelling the shy technique.

    "Get us out of here."

    [Watch over her Alpha, if ites to it, give her a system and make sure she has the strength to at least protect herself.] Sol ordered the third consciousness of the system.

    [I will do all I can, master.] Alpha answered, and Sol watched as the ship started going backwards while a great white tear appeared in the space behind it, then a momentter it was gone.

    "Well," Sol huffed and rxed himself changing his clothes and healing his superficial wounds as he began slowly turning until his legs were pointing upwards and his arms were folded behind his head.

    "That''s one part of many, all we can do now is wait and see if it works." He scoffed and spun several more times and then with a flick of his finger he appeared in Eris''s guest room again andnded on the floor with a graceful tap of his toes.

    "A wonderful performance, I never took you for an actor!" A apuded Sol''s acting skills as soon as his eyes opened.

    "Come on, he had us allpletely fooled until someone messed with Ikaris too, didn''t he?" Dina made mention of what happened in their third month on Arkadia when Kane and the demigods attacked the encampment and Sol had gone off the rails and A nodded to that while Sara smiled, since she had been the very first to suspect Sol of hiding his power after he had thrown her out of reflex.

    "What now then?" Ikaris asked, pulling all eyes to herself.

    "Jenifer''s incident was isted, it was going to happen regardless, ouring here was to warn the others about the Emporium and scout the strongest amongst the pantheon, those I could trust with more strength," Sol answered, scratching his head.

    "Do you intend to break the collective apart and gift everyone you trust with more power?" A asked skeptically.

    "Absolutely not." Ikaris objected before Sol even spoke a word.

    "Don''t worry, only you three and Sara," Sol answered. "I already have those branches separated and ready, but we haven''t had a lot of time to really settle down so I''ve been holding off and monitoring Ikaris in the meantime." He added.

    "Since this is something that directly affects your soul and mana granting you an abundant amount of cosmic mana that canter bepacted into divine power I needed to give her time and see what happens.

    "You used me as a guinea pig?" Ikaris raised a brow at Sol''s exnation and he chuckled and shook his head.

    "It''s not exactly like it''s been done before, you already have the capacity to withstand much more than that, but the little difort you experienced when I nted the tree in your soul could be the death of others, I wanted to make sure." He sat down and gestured to A, Dina and then Sara.

    "Dina can handle a small branch, she''s achievedplete evolution and her mana has already changed nature to that of a Demigod, A still possessed cosmic mana, and Sara hasn''t been making much progress-"

    "That was my own choice, Sir," Sara interjected. "I honestly detest fighting, I know you will not always be able to protect me, but I would rather not be some god-like entity that breaks worlds; my ce is as your shadow and your maidservant." She smiled and Sol scoffed with a smile.

    "Dina," Sol called her over, sitting in a lotus pose on the bed and tapping the empty space before himself. "Let''s do this.

    "I will give you two a little privacy then," Ikaris stood with Sara''s help. "I am going to visit Eris and Usami for some girl time,e, A." She gestured and the elf happily leapt from her seat and followed them out, closing the door behind herself.

    "It''s gonna hurt, right?" Dina asked, biting her lips in anticipation.

    "Dina, try to rx as much as possible and let me in."

    "I''ll always let youe in." She chuckled nervously, but Sol was already focused so didn''t find the humour in her words and glossed over itpletely as he pressed his palm on her back. "Uhm... Master, this scares me, what if being a demigod isn''t enough?"

    "I''m right here, don''t worry, whatever pain you experience I''ll heal it, if your body rejects it I''ll call it all off." Sol''s image slowly shifted as he went through a quiet transformation behind her, opened his palm, summoned a small branch, a singr universe and held it at her back.

    "Close your eyes and focus on my mana, I''m going in."

    "T-This is terrifying!" Dina leaned forward and opened her eyes again just before Sol could breach her soul. "How did Ikaris do this?"

    "Do you trust me?" Sol rested his hand on her shoulder and straightened her posture again.

    "I do; I trust you with my all."

    "Then surrender your soul into my hands and let me do the rest," Sol pressed his hand on her back once more and closed his eyes. "Surrender everything."

    "Okay," Dina took a deep breath and calmed her racing heart feeling the wrenching tear against a body she had no power to move, her soul resisted and it showed with every breath she took when sweat started dripping down chin and her sigils started burning a bright blue hue.

    Like Ikaris Dina saw a vast and empty space within herself after Sol intruded and a few secondster that space turnedpletely ck at the wee of a golden branch being led by vines, wherever they walkednd would appear, followed by flowers and grass, she watched in marvel as the vast emptiness was filled from one stretch to the other with greenery, and at the halt of the vines they all took root and the branch immediately began reaching for the endless ck skies above.

    Clouds of white formed and winds started howling as the space came to life and beneath this great tree that stretched for an eternity Dina stood with her eyes wide in wonder and her mouth agape unaware that on the outside her body was limp in Sol''s arms.

    For her, only a few minutes had passed since she stood beneath the tree, but for everyone else, it had been hours, Ikaris and the others had returned to Sol holding her and since that moment on she had been in his grasp as he carefully monitored and watched the tree spread, wondering if he should halt the growth as it continued sprouting more branches and growing rapidly.

    Just when he was going to halt the growth and try waking her up though, Dina''s eyes slowly opened and she groaned and held her head. "Dina," Sol ced his hand on the Mage''s head cheek and tapped it several times.

    "How are you feeling?" He asked, expecting her to say something along the lines of being in pain, but instead, she chuckled for a few seconds rolling out of his grasp and vomiting up a pool of squirming ck mass on the floor.

    "Oh, gods..." A scrunched her nose as the scent of the mass arose. "What is that?"

    "To my knowledge that should be the impurities which remained after her body was purged and her foundation improved." Sara held her nose and created a shadow beneath the mass vanquishing it to some unknown ce,  pulling a bottle of air freshener from her pocket and spraying it around the room.

    "Sara, where did that ideae from?" Sol raised a brow at her.

    "I spend my leisure and lunch breaks reading Manhua and web novels, Sir it is quitemon to see this type of phenomenon after one raises their foundation in those fantastical adventures!" She turned to Sol excitedly and pped her hands while he loomed over Dina who looked up at her and wiped her mouth.

    "Did you justpare me to fiction...?" Dina asked but before she could say a word more she turned to the floor and hurled more ck mass again.

    "Dina-"

    "I''m okay, I promise, after a few more pukes I''ll be good to g-uuurgh!" She bent over his hand again while everyone held their noses and quietly left them once more, visibly relieved.

    "That was a little scary, even Ikaris came running," Sol admitted with a relieved sigh, waving his hand and purifying the mass on the ground into water.

    "I didn''t feel a thing though," She answered leaning against his hand and tapping her stomach when she felt moreing up.

    "Dina, you nearly died," Sol furrowed his brows and watched her shoulders stiffen when she looked around at him.

    "You don''t remember a thing, do you?"

 Chapter 228: His Last Breath.

    "I mean... it wouldn''t be the first time I almost died would it?" Dina chuckled making light of what Sol had said, but he waspletely serious as he summoned a kerchief in his grasp and wiped her mouth.

    "Not like this; you scared me, Dina, for a moment I started thinking you wouldn''t make it, and that I was the one who was responsible for doing this to you, I''ve seen a lot of pain, I''ve witnessed a lot of agony and torture, but I''ve never experienced that kind of fear before and never once in my life have I ever seen someone scream like that."

    Dina felt Sol''s hand shudder for the few seconds that he recalled what happened. "Do you honestly not remember anything that happened earlier?" He asked her sceptically, and she shook her head in the negative and held his hand.

    "Nothing at all, there was a brief moment of difort, but that''s where it stopped; I was watching the tree grow in my Soul''s Garden." She responded and Sol raised his gaze and his brows at her.

    "Your what?"

    "It''s so beautiful in there, skies cker than the starless Origin, green grass contrasting it for as far as I can see wherever I look, golden flowers growing on from the grass, and then the tree, it''s so big, and it grows so fast that I couldn''t possibly understand its vastness even if I sat there all eternity, its the most beautiful thing I''ve seen outside of you and Ikaris." She rested her cheek in his palm and smiled gently at his touch.

    "I don''t know what happened, and I don''t necessarily feel any stronger yet, but I''m d you did it, I can feel you more than I ever could before, Master."

    "Gosh," Sol huffed. "We truly are different; all of us." He mused, and she raised her brow at him.

    "What I mean is, for Ikaris it wasn''t a field that grew, it was a whole world aplete globe which the tree holds on to and wraps itself around by the roots, and reaches into a starry sky, and for me the tree isn''t inside of me, not yet at least, it is still very much around us all and I am merely able to ess it whenever and wherever I please."

    "Well, I am a mage, you are the Godyer, and Ikaris is Vatui, it makes sense that we would experience different forms of evolution," Dina chuckled and stood resting her hand on his arm. "See, after a few hours I''m all good to go," She chuckled at him whilst flexing her arms boastfully.

    "I didn''t get strong just so I could fall over every time something happens, I want to be useful to you, Master." She blushed when he gave her his full attention again.

    "Dina you''re a toothpick, what could you possibly do to protect me of all people?" Solughed when she pouted while the two of them exited the room.

    ***

    -Three hours after Jenifer''s return to the 3795th in the Emporium-

    -62 days have passed on Arkadia-

    -86 days have passed on earth-

    "Captain Law, Ma''am." Chey''s newly assigned Vice Captain stood at the door of her office inside her home and raised his hand to knock, but before he did the door slid open and she raised her head from behind her desk staring at him.

    "What do you want?" Chey answered resting her pen on a scroll-tab and sighing heavily. "I told you not to disturb me unless the General lifted my suspension or my daughter woke up," She red.

    "Yes, Captain it''s thetter, she is already in a debrief with the general, I was sent to inform you-" The man stood at attention and saluted but before his eyes couldplete a proper blink Chey was already gone, leaving him standing there confused at the pen spinning on the table before it fell to the side. "Damn, she''s faster than even my eyes." He sighed and turned.

    "Just what kind of monster is that Godyer that would cause someone like her to try and resign as soon as she returned?" He asked, running down the hallway and out of the building.

    ***

    "...For the sake of clear transparency and rity, I need you to repeat what happened after themunications went down." A blue-eyed man Sat across from Jenifer who had her hands bound byrge cuffs that locked them all the way up to her shoulders making her incapable of moving her arms at all, there was a machine strapped to her head scanning het brainwaves, and another taped to her opened blouse above her heart.

    "I have already told you three times, sir-"

    "I need you to repeat it." He ordered her, and she sighed and closed her eyes.

    [Do not worry, I will keep your heart and mind clear, the scans will always show that you speak the truth.] Alpha spoke in her head.

    "He tried to use some weird Godyer mind control on me, but it didn''t work, I broke free of his grasp and engaged in battle, we fought-"

    "-For four entire days ording to the universe you were in and the information in your suit, you were fighting for four full days without a break?"

    "I was fighting to survive, I fought for my life, sir, he wanted to keep me alive for questioning so he entertained the fight in an attempt to wear me down, that is the only reason I survived, thest thing I remembered was the boom of another ship behind me, I saw battle drones surround us and then he attacked again and everything else went white, the next thing I remember is the humming of the incubation chamber twenty minutes ago," Jenifer looked up at him.

    "Sir, why am I being held under such tight surveince?" She asked and the general looked at the eight officers in the room with their weapons on the ready and their mouths pointed at the ground.

    "The safety of the Emporium is my first priority, ensuring that you did note back with any foreign agents inside of you or contaminants demand strict surveince."

    "Then shouldn''t I be inside of a holding cell or under a microscope?"

    "I need to get to the bottom of what happened so I can pass the information on as soon as possible, that Godyer is trouble, I can sense it in my joints that if we don''t get rid of him now he will be a real problemter on" He answered her truthfully.

    "Captain Law, you were there, you faced him and saw more of his power than anyone else, what is your personal assessment of the Godyer?" He asked and Jenifer lowered her gaze as the images of everything she witnessed while under Sol''s care came rushing at her.

    Him being able to construct a massive resort in only a few seconds, the fact that all the damage she sustained was done by a snap of his fingers, him being able to traverse not just one, but every universe inside of his collective, and the fact that he sent an omnipresent entity back with her that was able to detect and avoid all scans.

    She looked up at the general with a bead of sweat rolling down her cheek.

    "With all due respect, sir, he is beyond us, approach means death, as his enemy you have a cord around your neck and a scythe at your abdomen, he is surprisingly level-headed for a Godyer, but that makes him all the more dangerous as we have seen, he is a ruthless and wicked being with the power to act on his threats, I lost all my crew and my Vice Captain to him, but I do not hold a shred of hate, only fear, he is terrifying." She spoke half-truths, and the general nodded and made a note of her words as well.

    "You are beyond lucky to be alive, suspiciously so as a matter of fact." The general picked up his scroll-tab and walked to the door. "The scanners indicate that everything you have said is the truth, therefore I have no reason to hold you here any longer, you will lose your rank of Captain, however-"

    "What?" Jenifer stood abruptly and flinched when the guards in the room all raised their weapons at her. "Sir!"

    "Do I need to remind you that you failed a mission, there were nearly seven thousand people in thosebined six vessels that you were in charge of and you are the only one that survived, I went through the logs, you could have ordered a retreat after the first two vessels were taken out, but you failed and got them all killed, a demotion to Vice Captain is mercy, I should have you executed where you stand..." He red at her while the guards all readied their weapons.

    "All of you, stand down."

    "Sir, none of us knew what kind of monster we were dealing with-"

    "And that is why you are taking the fall, it was your mother''s mistake sending you, but it was also thanks to her that we got a chance to witness the lengths of his power as well as his weaknesses."

    "Weakness?"

    "A Godyer that doesn''t seek to destroy his enemy is barely a Godyer at all, that is merely a child chasing peace and solitude, we will go back, and we will destroy him and his entire collective, mark my words and pray for the day your colleagues are avenged Jenifer Law-"

    ***

    Sol stood on the peak of the highest mountain on Arkadia with the howling winds brushing his cape every which way, watching the live feed through Jenifer''s eyes via Alpha, for hours he stood just to be able to hear single sentences.

    "The next time we return, it will be the entire fleet, I have been ordered to exterminate everything by the higher powers."

    "They will die, all of them, I will spearhead the entire 3975th fleet and invade that damned sector, they want the Vatui who is with child, and they want the Godyer dead and forgotten, I have already dered it so rest up and rest assured as we march, that creature has drawn hisst breath."

 Chapter 229: Your Time Has Come.

    "Myst breath... huh?" Sol''s eyeszily locked on to the general''s face. "I can''t determine his strength, Alpha," He huffed with an air of arrogance and turned.

    [As a human, his level of strength can only be measured once he is active in battle, but the Emporium''s hierarchy is decided through strength so I assume he is very strong if he was able to achieve the rank of a general.] Alpha answered, but Sol was already disinterested by the time she finished speaking.

    "I don''t have time for this." Sol spun on his heels and vanished with so much residual power that the entire mountain was destroyed in his wake leaving the continent trembling while he appeared back on D''ol above Eris''s mansion with a p of thunder and a deafening explosion of air.

    "He''s back." Dina looked towards the windows just as Sol swooped in andnded next to her.

    There lying in the bed was Ikaris with a sleepy smile and surrounding her was the entire remainder of the heroes'' party along with Dr''ul, S''mael, Adonai and Renia.

    "Master could you not do that every time you arrive, there have been countlessints about explosions from the neighbours and citizens around us, not to mention you nearly gave an old maid a heart attack yesterday," Dina stared up at him.

    "Sorry, I''m anxious," Sol retorted unapologetically and took a seat next to Ikaris, holding her hand and kissing her fingers. "How are you?" He asked and she slightly squeezed his hand and huffed with a smirk.

    "Weak, and also anxious, like there is an eager baby inside of me wanting to see the worlds," She chuckled back at him and Sol smiled and ced his forehead on the bed next to her resting his mind for a moment. "What of Jenifer?" She asked back.

    "Should you really be concerned about anything else right now?" Usami furrowed her brows at Ikaris. "You''re due in a week, you should be thinking about your child," She raised her shoulders but Ikaris scoffed at her as well.

    "From one mother to another, I am sure the only thing on your mind a week before you had your child was their safety." Ikaris stared at Usami, and thetter huffed and nodded in defeat. "You wanted to keep her safe; you wanted her to be protected, I''m asking Sol this for the same reason, Usami, I need to know."

    "They''re nning a full-scale invasion." Sol got straight to the point. "It''s Ill-timed and frustrating that they''re doing it now when you''re like this, ording to what is considered prompt by their standards they will be here within the next few days to a week."

    "But that''s-"

    "Almost exactly when you''ll give birth," Sol responded to Ikaris before she even had the chance to finish.

    "The problem is I can''t bring you back to earth to have her, that''s putting all of humanity in danger, and we can''t stay here either; when that child is born, it''s going to consume a lot of your power, the two of you are going to be like a beacon to every Emporium vessel from here to their Collective."

    "Sol..." Eris wanted to say something but kept her tongue when she saw the conflict on his face and his hair continuously sh from brown to white and gold.

    "It''s a high possibility that I''ll be locked in battle for who-knows how long with them, I won''t be able to hold my daughter after she''s born, I won''t even be able toe near you...!" He clenched his fists causing a strong gust to sweep the sheets about, but it was Ikaris who held his hand again and smiled at him to calm him down.

    "Dear, there is none I trust more than you with that task, do not fret, no harm wille to either of us."

    "I''ll make sure of it," Dina added seriously, and A joined her deration with a nod. "It''s our job to remain at her side, right, so you don''t have to focus on anything else?" Dina rested her hand on Sol''s shoulder. "It''ll be okay."

    "Sol, Drul raised her fist and caused a re of fire around her arm. "Do not lose heart, I will be at your side."

    "Yes, as will I," Adonai folded his hands from his seat and huffed. "We all owe you an unyable debt for what you did, toy my life in service of my saviour is not enough to repay your benevolence." He dered, and the other two gods next to him nodded in agreement.

    "You all..." Sol stared at them grateful for their forward support, but shook his head in refusal. "I can''t ask you all to leave Arkadia like that, this is a fight that will undoubtedly spill across the collective if I fail to contain it, Arkadia will need you, I only came to warn you to be ready-"

    "Out of the question," Dr''ul objected. "Standing by your side will lessen the breach and your workload, rather than facing it all alone, take sce in ourbined strengths, we will be by your side."  She smiled at him. "Let us fight with you."

    "Dr''ul, you are Vatui, and you too, Renia, it''s evident from your appearances."

    "Changing the way I look is an easy feat." Renia waved his excuse to the side. "You will not get rid of us that easily, Master Vestic." She smiled at him.

    "Their ships are what will detect you-"

    "Dear." Ikaris sat up with Sara''s help and held onto his hand once more. "I understand more than they do why you reluctantly eptrades willing to fight by your side, and the fight against Sitri was an exemption because of your weakness at the time, but remember, this is not A, they are not your old friends, and they are by no means weak either, it is okay to ce your trust in them."

    "I have never seen you mention your old home with such an expression before, Ikaris," Dr''ul regarded her with curious eyes. "What happened there?"

    "Best left unsaid," Ikaris answered. "What matters is that this is not A, this is not an unwinnable fight, nor is it an invasion unknown to us, we have the advantage.

    "Over a hundred thousand battleships areing at us, a hundred thousand Captains of unknown strength, three hundred thousand warriors of Vice-Captain levels, most of which are stronger than their captains, and billions of soldiers let me be clear; over ny percent of the pantheon could be killed by any of them, this is not the demon army full of mobs and easily defeated drones, every single one of these people is a warrior with years of training under their belt-"

    "All the more reason to not do it by yourself." Dr''ul huffed, stood and walked over to him dropping her hand on his shoulder. "I am not of A, you know my strength even better than I do, I guard Arkadia so if your desire is for me to retreat then I will ask no more questions, but let me fight by your side Godyer, it is all I ask."

    "I choose destruction!" S''mael smacked all his fists together with a grin. "I thrive from it, so long as there is an enemy I am immortal!" Heughed.

    One by one they all dered their readiness, but all Sol could see no matter how much they encouraged and assured him was his old party; his first love, his best friend, his greatest supporter, and a young man who had looked up to him as an older brother and had died early on in his arrival, Sol smiled at Dr''ul and her fellow gods, but contrasting his smile was pain and heartache, something his wife and lovers realised and kept hidden for his sake, as well as the sakes of those who wanted to fight alongside him.

    "Master, they are on the move." Alpha appeared at his side and along with Sol everyone went silent, the mood was ruinedpletely, and all eyes fell on Sol when D''ol began to slightly tremble.

    "Thanks, Alpha," Sol looked at her and then at the others. "Ikaris- "

    "I know, it is okay," she answered him and looked at the other heroes and Sara, while Uriyu and Gia came running through the door towards them after Alpha had summoned him."

    "Is it time?" Uriyu asked and Sol stood upright and rested this hand on Ikaris''s cheeks.

    "I''m sorry, Ikaris."

    "I understand, Love, do what you must, we will wait for you." Ikaris smiled at him while he rested his hands on Dina and A''s heads before Alpha whisked all of them away along with Eris''s entire pce grounds, leaving him with the gods floating in the air.

    "All of you, get ready," Sol curved his hand and balled his fist and with a sh of gold they all disappeared, re-emerging in an entirely different ce.

    "I do not recognise these stars..." Adonai looked around. "Where are we?"

    "I chose this ce because it''s far away from Arkadia and Earth, so even if the fight spills over into another whole, they won''t be affected or discovered," Sol raised his hand and created a small golden ball infused with his Godyer mana and shot it out in the void before them. "That will guide them right to us, I can''t stress caution enough, everyone," He looked around at them.

    "This won''t end quickly."

    "Trust us, Sol." Dr''ul rxed in the emptiness and summoned her throne, taking a seat and resting her cheek on her fist. "We are ready." On her words, all the others did the same and Sol in response folded his legs and fired off three more golden balls and closed his eyes.

    "Now we wait."

    ***

    "General," A man dressed in a captain''s battlesuit alongside nine others each with tattoos from the numbers two to ten on their right cheeks turned to him. "We have a strong Godyer readinging from them again."

    "It''s a call for war; he knows we''reing," The general frowned. "I misjudged his softness, he knew the moment he let Law go that we would return."

    "What do we do sir?"

    "Until the Vatui woman is discovered he is our main target and priority, set a course directly for him and alert the armada of his presence," He ordered with azy wave of his hand.

    "Do not fret Godyer, your time hase."

 Chapter 230 : A Real Fight.

    "Jen, may I enter?" Chey stood at the entrance of her daughter''s door politely, knocking and announcing herself.

    In response Jenifer stood from her seat by the window and raised her hand to her chest, standing at attention with a salute.

    "Captain, I meant to visit you sooner to thank you for saving my... life!" Jenifer yelped when Chey closed behind herself and tackled her in a hug almost falling over. "Mother-"

    "You are the toughest woman I have ever seen in all my life." Chey broke down, almost crying as she held her shorter daughter by her cheeks and pressed her head against her bosom.

    "What are you talking about?"

    "To survive for any amount of time against that monster is praiseworthy, how you managed to ovee your fears while facing him is beyond me, as a captain I have never faced anything more terrifying, he is-"

    "I didn''t survive, Mom," Jenifer admitted with a small smile, sitting by her seat at the window and smiling at the twin suns once more.

    "He let me live, at any point, he could have killed me but he wanted answers and I wouldn''t give up, not like I did before, not that easily, I went into a rage and just kept fighting him because I knew if anyone woulde it would be you, I counted on your arrival, and while I''m not sure how you did it, I''m grateful that you did."

    "I dered my uselessness to the Emporium in exchange for your life." Chey sat opposite her by the table and sighed, looking out as well.

    "He gave me a choice, and I chose the one that ensured your life would be saved; honestly it doesn''t matter what others say or think, I never wanted you to join this army in the first ce, being something like a doctor better suited you but you were stubborn like myself and fought your way to the top just like I did when I was your age."

    "They won''t win," Jenifer abruptly ended the cosy atmosphere between the two of them. "They maye close, but I do not see a version of this fight where the 3795th wins that fight, all those lives will be lost in vain."

    "What could possibly make you think like that, even if he was holding back do not downy your skills, Jenifer, you managed to hold your own for days against him -"

    "Because that was his will, I didn''t stand a chance, I held out because he allowed me to, I''m alive because he willed it that way, Mother, the Godyer is a whole different breedpared to the others like him, he is an apex, fighting him is a mistake, the Emporium will be destroyed if they make a true enemy out of him," She looked at Chey seriously. "He is unfathomable."

    "Jenifer, I have never seen you like this before, but I am sure you''re just shaken up because of-"

    "No, this isn''t some kind of trauma or any other bullshit like that, I''m being serious here, Mom, if there''s one thing I learned while facing him, it''s that he is greater than any threat ever faced in our entire history, forget about the Godyers of the past, what he is; is more, we have never seen a Godyer strong enough to put out an entire gxy as casually as he did with the 79th Captain, we have never seen another Godyer powerful enough to go anywhere within their collective as fast or as freely as he does, Godyers aren''t supposed to be capable of doing anything he''s doing as casually as he does, I hate to sound so praising of the enemy but he is far too powerful, why do we think aggravating a sleeping apocalypse is a good idea ?"

    "For the Glory of the Emporium," Chey answered seriously while simultaneously tapping the desk silently in code. "Jenifer, you are shaken up from your experience, it hasn''t even been a week yet, you should get some rest." She left Jenifer to her thoughts and exited the room while her daughter thought of the message she had tapped out.

    [I don''t know what happened to you over there, but don''t talk like this to anyone else, you could be executed for collusion, and never repeat what you just said to me outside of this room, you are being monitored and assessed as a threat to Emporium security]

    "Will she be of any use?" Jenifer rxed in her seat and sighed. "I would rather not lose my mother in the future copse of the Emporium but she can be an extremely stubborn woman, I beg your patience, Sir."

    "Whether she''s useful or not remains to be seen, if you want to save her you''re gonna have to do so on your own, because after knowing all you know and having ess to the Emporium archives I''m bleeding from the inside, anyone who attacks me will be faced with death regardless of their familial ties with anyone else I know," Sol answered, staring at the void before him when it started cracking open.

    "I understand, I''m being monitored but I''ll do whatever you ask of me from my end, and I''ll slowly work my way into her head."

    "Good." Sol cut the feed and looked behind himself at Dr''ul and the others as they prepared for battle. "There''s no turning back after they scan your bodies, once they do your mana will be locked into their database which has no deletion function, you will be tracked anywhere you go, so there''s no choice but to kill them all and destroy their on-board data banks," he stated.

    "Fine by me." Renia''s body was shrouded in ck and crimson chaos magic, and her appearance became a tad grotesque as she enveloped herself in chaos, along with her, S''mael underwent a simr transformation, while Adonai summoned a staff with an ouroboros sigil glowing above it and Dr''ul simply summoned her sword.

    The singr breach from before multiplied into thousands, and each breach began spitting out dozens of ships spanning across the expanse of an entire gxy, within the breath of a few seconds the entire fleet was before them, and leading this massive fleet was an even greater ship several timesrger than the ones around itself, it alone was the size of a star; a size that made no sense in and of itself, traversal through this unfathomable vessel was done entirely by teleportation.

    "He has allies?" One captain close to the general asked, fixing the gloves on his hand as he prepared to depart, along with him the other eight captains were in the process of double-checking their suits.

    "It doesn''t matter if he has an army or a baby on his back; we have an armada with the sole purpose of taking him down, those allies can''t save him, he''s already a dead man walking." The general scoffed and fixed his earpiece. "Initiate the shield array and attack them simultaneously, overwhelm them with force and numbers and prepare Project: PowerPoint.

    [Affirmative]

    "This is a bit intimidating." Adonai stared from his left to his right, above and below, they were surrounded from every conceivable angle, but also quite strange."

    "Strange?" Sol asked.

    "Yes, these vessels are all perfectly aligned around us the wless form is reminiscent of a great sphere.

    "They intend to iste the fight and prevent us from making any exits." S''mael scoffed. "Useless tactics of enemies already dead, I will blow them all to smithereens!" He leapt from one bare foot to the other on an invisible tform and then disappeared from next to Adonai.

    "Watch each other''s backs, and remember, they''re still human at core, as long as their suits don''t heal them they''ll die from any fatal wound you''re free to let loose and wreak havoc," Sol looked around at Dr''ul before he vanished in a sh of gold.

    "The barrier is 70%pleted General!" His pilot called from behind him. "They don''t seem to have noticed it yet.

    "Keep monitoring them-"

    *Boom*

    The entire cockpit was engulfed in ck-and-white fire and the dashboards all started melting while the crew retreated from their posts and activated their battlesuits when the screen before them was torn open and S''mael came rolling in withughter as his ck-and-white cosmic mes burnt everything they touched

    "The strongest, give me the strongest, I will kill him, I will bleed him, I will destroy him!" The god of destruction cackled maniacally whilst waving his hands menacingly, but to his surprise and disappointment aside from a few of the crew, the several thousand people in the cockpit didn''t even budge after he entered.

    "There are strong Vatui readingsing from this one..." The fifth-ranked captain crackled her knuckles after throwing down a beeping device and grinned at S''mael. "They are all Vatui, this entire collective is likely crawling with them, no wonder the Godyer is so powerful." Sheughed. "General, allow me to-"

    "What the fuck does Vatui mean?" S''mael asked with his brow raised.

    "I was told that there was aing invasion, so I came to destroy, fuck your Vatui nonsense, I am a god, I am the god of destruction!" S''mael gave them all a reason to retreat when cosmic rays of light and lightning started erupting from his body, tearing the cockpit areas asunder as his mana disintegrated everything that it touched.

    "Ha-ha-ha-ha! Come, give me a fight, all of you invading bastards, you are free toe at me, I will destroy you all one after the other -or all at once!"

    "Give this old god a real fight!"

 Chapter 231 : Too Weak.

    "A real fight it is!" The 5th Captain came rushing through the mes, through the lightning and the cosmic rays causing S''mael to frown in surprise after seeing them get negated by what was supposed to be a purely human body.

    His frown didn''tst long though, for thest five years the god of destruction had been itching for a fight, and what everyone aside from Sol and possibly Dr''ul had not noticed was that much like the goddess of war that had gained an abundant amount of energy from the hundred-year long war, S''mael had been reaping the destructive energy of every fight since then.

    "So be it!" S''mael raised two of his arms and brought them down whilst punching with another two, and the 5th Captain raised one hand to block the descending hands and parried another with her other hand, causing the remaining captains around them to get blown away from the sheer force of his attacks while tanking the fourth hand to her side and coughing up blood a few secondster without breaking her grin and then grabbing hold of his arm.

    "I will make a fine ship out of you; you are mine, god of destruction!" The 5th Captain grinned and spun with S''mael, avoiding all five of his other arms and punching him square in his chest, he had been wary, he had taken Sol''s words to heart, but it was when his vision blurred and he collided into an invisible barrier at the edge of the gxy that he truly understood what Sol had meant.

    S''mael shook his head and ced his hand on the barrier, unable to even see the other ships and his fellow gods as he stared across the void.

    "Surprised, aren''t you, Vatui scum?" The 5th Captain seemed to just appear before him with the speed shemanded.

    S''mael in contrast was still gathering his bearings, aside from Dr''ul striking him aeons ago for speaking out of ce, and Ashera, the goddess of Beasts fighting him a few times in the past he had never been hit anywhere as hard as he just had, it left a visible impression in his chest, had he been mortal he''d have died upon impact.

    "My-my, Captain Van Hyden," Another captain appeared, contrasting her short hair that had been cut at the sides along with her intimidating and muscr stature as a woman standing almost seven feet tall, he had tall hair caught in a ponytail and he was slim, but equally as tall as her with the number 8 on his cheek.

    The onlysting simrity between the captains was the fact that they all had ck eyes and a deep purple tint in their hair. "Did you intend to fight this strong opponent all by lonesome away from the army?" He asked.

    "Captain Borr, I would normally tell you to stay out of this but..." Captain Van-Hyden held her hand to her ribcage and looked at him while he slowly floated to her side. "It appears the Godyer has found himself some powerful allies capable of holding their own even against us. "She stared at the dent in S''mael''s chest and watched it heal in seconds.

    After Captain Borr''s arrival, several hundred other captain-level reinforcements arrived as well, and behind them tens of thousands of vice-captains, S''mael smirked; to his back was a wall that felt indestructible and before him an army dedicated to killing him.

    "Interesting..." The god of destruction chuckled. "Very interesting -no, it is intriguing!" He startedughing, mming his fists against the barrier and leaving visible ripples across the void it upied while he raised his battle spirit.

    "A real fight, atst, a real fight!!" He cackled wickedly and turned himself diagonally, cing his bare feet against the barrier and making a leap above all of them, it took a few seconds before they even realised he was gone, but the indicator was a gargantuan ripple that forced an explosion of gamma energy out of the space he once upied.

    Several soldiers and Vice captains were instantaneously evaporated against the cosmic energy, and S''mael cackled and raised his hand again, grabbing Von-Hyden''s foot and mming her against Captain Borr with a roar and a swing after the two of them caught up to him first.

    "Caution, the ones with multiple arms like insects are stronger than they appear!" Captain Borr pressed his finger to his ear rying a message to the rest of the captains whilst steadying the 5th Captain in his grasp and watching S''mael mercilessly dispatch several other lower-ranked captains and vice-captains, taking their heads and disfiguring their bodies with a face full of glee and excitement.

    "Assuming the strongest one amongst them, the Godyer, has glowing hair, I am going with my hint that the ones who glow are far more dangerous." Captain Hamed, bald with the number 3 on her cheek next to Captain Leonir, a casual man with the number 6 on his cheek stood on an abandoned ship that had been effortlessly cleaved in half with thousands of bodies floating around it staring at Dr''ul as she slowly floated towards them.

    "It''s just a hunch."

    "Captains, I presume, and based on the size of the digits on your faces, you are stronger than the others?" Dr''ul''s eyes burned crimson and the void around her body sizzled and burned casting her glow like a sun as she gracefullynded before them on the other half of the ship they stood on.

    "Vatui bitch-"

    "Jezebel, caution," Captain Alec Leonir (6th) looked to his third-ranked counterpart when she started crouching.

    "I know Alec, as I said, I''m under the assumption that she is very strong, how strong is irrelevant but I have reason to believe she might be a warrior of the same ss as the Godyer, so I will not take her lightly," The 3rd captain started grinding her teeth in agitation to Dr''ul''s provocation with her ming sword and the fact that while Sol had yet to raise a hand, Drul had already killed tens of thousands of Soldiers, thousands of Vice-captains, and hundreds of captains, destroying dozens of ships and killing hundreds of thousands of crewmen in the process and leaving a dead field of bodies and debris around herself.

    "This one is going to be troublesome."

    "I am Dr''ul, Goddess of War," Dr''ul''s expression was one of calm as she spoke, but the two felt nothing but intimidation from her words even as thousands more reced the dead soldiers and they received reinforcement from captains and vice-captains Dr''ul''s presence was domineering, she was an unnatural cosmic force of power, unlike anything any of them had ever faced before.

    "This creature thinks of herself as a goddess..." Jezebel scoffed though she remained put as more and more reinforcements came their way.

    "To intrude upon the peace of Master Vestic and threaten to take his beloved from him you have ignited his wrath, by threatening to kill my people, you have ignited my own, know this, Emporium filth, there is no retreat for you, there is no mercy for the dogs of a faceless empire who seek my ruin, facing I; the goddess of war is riding the reaper''s scythe itself, I will wash myself in your blood and relish in your screams of despair!"

    Dr''ul stomped on the ship causing a massive pulse of cosmic mes to explode and ripple around her, blocking her from their sights for a mere second which led to the death of another mass of Emporium warriors as Dr''ul lived up to the title she inherited from her creation, leavingnes of blood and dismembered carcases in her wake, unlike her brother who was enjoying this fight the Goddess of War had only theirplete annihtion on her mind, she forewent the pleasantries of battle and went straight for the kill every time she swung her weapon.

    "We might need to use Project: PowerPoint to slow her down for a decisive blow, General Hydra!" Jezebel leapt off the half ship and dodged Dr''ul''s sword in an attempt to grab her only to get caught with a heel to her shoulder when Dr''ul spun and dropped an axe kick on top of her, it seemed like a casual kick but the blow was so powerful that the third Captain vanished from everyone''s sights, appearing on scanners on the far side of the gxy they inhabited with a fracture.

    "General, please confirm!" Jezebel winced when Dr''ul came at her again catching her by her arm and mming her into the barrier a second time before raising her hand to the side of her head and blocking Alec''s attempt at knocking her away, to Dr''ul''s surprise though she was still sent cascading along the inside of the spherical barrier,ing to a stop only when Alec attacked her a second time trying to disable her by going after her leg, but like a snake Dr''ul twisted herself out of his way and grabbed his neck, mming him into the barrier and raised her other hand catching the 3rd Captain''s fist and pinning them both to the barrier by their heads.

    "General!" The 3rd captain screamed again, but no help woulde their way outside of more captains and vice-captains.

    "Figure out a way to win, Captain Hamed, I need PowerPoint to face the Godyer." General Hydra stared at Sol metres away from himself

    "There''s more isn''t there?" Sol stared at the general. "There is no way this easily dispatchable force is all you tried toe at me with, there has to be more," Sol stated with certainty seeing the confidence in the man''s gaze.

    "These warriors of yours, are far too weak."

 Chapter 232: Project: PowerPoint.

    The majority of the fleet had surrounded Sol, aside from the captains who had been dispatched to deal with the four Vatui allies he had opposed them with who now posed catastrophic threats all on their own, the main force was targeting him, the strongest amongst the captains ranking 11th and above, and all the most powerful vice-captains.

    "I did note with the aim to lose." General Hydra answered Sol''s im with his eyes narrowed. "You and your kind think you own everything, you call yourselves gods and tried across humans and all other lesser forms as though we should be beneath you-"

    "You are beneath me, I could think of a hundred different things I''d rather be doing than facing the likes of the Emporium but you won''t leave me alone will you, you''ll never leave us alone, right!?" Sol snapped and watched as several weapons were immediately trained on him.

    "All I''ve done is protect, but there seems to always be some kind of asshole out there trying to destroy what I value the most, people like you; bastards like you!"

    "Do not preach good deeds to me you savage, not after destroying my ships and killing my men, the only good Godyer is a dead one and the only peaceful Vatui is a harvested one." The general slowly began raising his hand.

    "And therein lies our conflict." Sol''s hair started floating around his head as he released the shackles of his divinity, turning white from the roots to the tips as his eyes inverted and his canines became fangs.

    "You won''t leave me and my people in peace, and I have no intention of dying by your or anyone else''s hands, you came at me with the initiative to kill me and use my body as your fuel, I''m retorting likewise." He leaned forward. "I''m going to destroy everyst Emporium outpost, I''m going to kill everyst Emporium dog, I am going to destroy the empire that sought to ruin me." He dered calmly.

    "I gave you a chance to quietly walk away, and instead of taking that opportunity, you spat in the face of my mercy and brought an entire army to my doorsteps...

    but nevermind, the time for talking has expired along with my interest in your existence," Sol raised his hands suddenly and several hidden projectiles that had silently been shot at him stopped moving and the emptiness of the void around them began trembling at his will. "Nowes my response."

    "You all die!"

    "The Godyer has decided!" Dr''ul was being bombarded by weapons and projectiles from all angles, but as soon as she felt Sol''s power she roared into the void and spread het hands casting a veil of fire around herself as her hair ignited. "I will respond to his call!" She spun and leapt grabbing an Emporium soldier by his head and smashing his face with her palm and then summoned her sword again.

    "Everything will be annihted, all shall be destroyed!"

    "So it was spoken!" S''mael eximed next, grabbing General Von-Hyden''s arm and using her like a bat to swat her fellow General into the barrier, throwing her after him and then turning his back to them as his appearance grew even more fiendish. "Ha-ha-ha!"

    His nose stretched and his bones broke and reformed until his face was like that of a Canid and his fingertips broke new skin and made way for ws while his slim frame stretched and his muscles became full, his form waspleted with his sharp teeth gnashing, his ears flicking atop his head and his skin turning dark before shiny ck fur grew out along with a bushy tail.

    "Haah~ finally, my purpose of destruction will be realised!"

    [GOD OF DESTRUCTION: S''MAEL; BLACK JACKAL]

    "What is that abomination?" The 8th Captain wiped his nose of blood staring at S''mael in horror. "This is not even close to the appearance of any Vatui I have ever seen!"

    "Haah?" S''mael looked over his shoulder at Luther.

    "I keep asking what the fuck a Vatui is and you keep on calling me one without an exnation, I am no Vatui, I''m a God; the God Of Destruction, created under the light, fighting to protect my home from invasion!" S''mael snapped his fingers and the man''s arm vanished in a violent wave of ck mana that left a great crack across the barrier that had been previously unbreakable for him.

    "General, S-sir, something''s wrong with them, these readings are far beyond the power of the First Order, they''re approaching Celestial levels of power, the 3795th wasn''t intended to fight beings of this scale over half our numbers have already been wiped out!"

    "What?" Hydra looked at Sol who had still been waiting motionlessly.

    "Which ones?"

    "Sir, all of them are Celestial, they''re thoroughbred Vatui of royal blood!"

    "That''s impossible, the nobility all died out-"

    "Sir- gaah!!" The 10th Captain, Varen Hawk was about to say something but Renia whom he was opposing grabbed him by his neck and crushed his spine in her grasp before releasing a deafening screech, much like S''mael.

    Upon Sol''s go-ahead and Dr''ul''s approval the Arkadian gods had been given the rare chance to let loose, and like the god of destruction she had thrived from countless years of chaos, not to mention the chaos all around her.

    "Activate PowerPoint." The general gave the order, and the battlefield went still, Adonai was holding a man by his head when he felt a force start repelling him away from his enemy, simrly, S''mael felt resistanceing from his opponents, same as Renia and Dr''ul.

    "On my own, I am above the first order but sub-Celestial, even when I was at my prime," General Hydra pressed his palm over his chest and Sol felt his heartbeat cease, for a few seconds before it started drumming rapidly releasing a physical pulse that caused the space around him to be warped and distorted.

    "But with PowerPoint, LAW is at my disposal I too can control the abilities of a god, I can ascend the in of mortality and tread amongst the highest beings to ever exist, above light and darkness, above fate itself, I am the greatest evolution!" He stepped forward revealing his eyespletely cked out and his veins all turning ck as whatever he had infused into himself changed the very makeup of his DNA.

    [Master there is something wrong with the invading forces, and this PowerPoint project that they have mentioned several times already is nowhere in their records, it may be some off-the-books type of power unrecognised or unallowed by the higher-ups, by the looks of it; some kind of enhancing drug or chemical injected in their bodies through the battlesuits] Alpha informed Sol, and he nodded and closed his eyes.

    "The real fight begins now then." He lowered his hands and allowed the projectiles to crash into him, showcasing the fact that their weaponry which was weaker than their fists was entirely harmless.

    "Drul, Renia, S''mael, Adonai, enough ying around, you wanted to help, keep everyone else away from me, I''ll deal with the real threat here." He started walking towards Hydra leaving a whisper of mana with every step he took as his hair turned from white to gold and the rings appeared before and behind him.

    "General, the time hase to face the consequences of your arrogance."

    Sol vanished from before his sights for a few seconds and then the entire battlefield along with the stars disappeared leaving traces of white before he appeared somecepletely different, he thought it was another gxy as the reports had shown Sol was able to move about freely, but in reality, he had been taken to an entirely different universe a dead universe with a dead branch already severed and unable to grow; here he would be able to let loose without the thought of harming others, and leaving Dr''ul in charge of the remaining army given the fact that where they resided was another dead universe, both parties had the opportunity to give their all.

    "Hey-hey what the fuck?" S''mael scratched his head staring at the captains and everyone else opposing him who now had eyes as ck as coal and ck veins all across their faces and exposed necks. "He just up and left us like that, I swear that Godyer has some nerve," He chuckled. "What if we end up in a pinch?"

    "Are you saying you forego your derations of destruction?" Dr''ul asked S''mael from the other side of the gxy. "This little space is not enough for me, as we are in a ce that can bepletely annihted, I will be taking advantage of that opportunity!" She buried her sword in the head of her enemy and spread her hands making a grabbing motion and then crossing her arms.

    The cosmos creaked and vibrated, giving the same feeling of dread as Sol had when he showed a bit of his power, and then the great sphere they had been trapped and fighting inside shattered, destroying thousands of ships that had been utilizing their energy sources to make it.

    "Never, let me kill, let me destroy, I''ll kill them all and use their bones to make my throne anew!" S''mael shrieked and roared after seeing the barrier shatter.

    "These bug-eyed freaks, so disgusting-looking!" Heughed and vanished in a burst of speede with me all who want to die, I''ll grant your wish!" He dered and like a tail of ck the Captains and Vice-captains, the crewmen and all the Emporium soldiers that had been fighting against him followed.

    "From his words, I assume whatever they have done to themselves has made them many times stronger than before, while this poses no threat from the lesser warriors, it was already a struggle facing these Captains," Adonai stared at his primary opponents; the 4th Captain Fried J?ger, and the 10th Captain Minerva Kaal.

    "That is correct, fight well or die killing them, brother!" Dr''ul summoned her sword again as she now faced the greatest number of enemies having taken on the quantities that Sol was keeping at bay by simply being there, including the 2nd Captain who had previously been with the General opposing Sol; Captain Lazar Strab.

    "Now war awaits." Dr''ul''s appearance began rapidly changing as Renia was pursued in one direction by her lot, and Adonai in another. "Facing millions..." She looked up at them as the crimson took over all of her eyes and her armour was burnt away by the heat her body produced and she began glowing.

    "Come!"

 Chapter 233: Selfish.

    "There is a major possibility that my dimension will not hold their released power." Alpha looked at Eris.

    "How major is major exactly?" Eris responded to the system, staring at Ikaris who was lying on a small low-lying bed with Dina on her right and A on her left while Usami sat behind her and Sara was pacing before her.

    "Sara you are making me anxious!" Ikaris snapped at the maid. "Would you please stop that?"

    "Mdy, I apologise, everything is prepared but my worry lies outside of this safe haven Alpha has created for us."

    "There is a 98% chance that either Ikaris or her newborn will lose control of their power and cause a catastrophic amount of destruction to the surrounding universe wherever we are, it is for that reason that Master Vestic ced me in a barren universe with no other lifeform aside from us, my pocket dimension is merely an extra measure to hide them from the Emporium''s scanners given that they have developed technology around Vatui lifeforms and can track them from the smallest, most minuscule signatures.

    "If it''s that dangerous then why are we here?" Eris stared at the system, confused. "Why is my home here, with my maids and most importantly my child?" She questioned loudly, and the room went silent.

    Alpha paused for a moment and looked at everyone else, and then stared up at Eris again with her eyes slightly narrowed and her posture straight.

    "Eris Schneider," She gestured to herself. "If leaving is your desire, I will freely grant you the skill [path] you can take your home your maids and your child with you, the cooldown is ten years regardless of where you are and the skill has no limit to its use other than the ten-year cooldown," She made an offer and Eris froze upon hearing it, she looked up at everyone and then at Alpha again.

    "Are you serious?"

    Read thetest stories on M-VL-em|p,yr

    "Yes, it was the skill I originally granted Master Vestic that allowed him to pursue Ikaris to Origin, as long as you can envision your destination, or describe it correctly you will be where you desire to be the most," Alpha exined.

    "That''s a broken skill why would you give me for free?" Eris was taken aback by the offer, and when she looked at the others for their reactions she found them minding Rach others'' businesses and not herding her any attention.

    "I have enough supplies to open a hospital Mdy." Sara smiled and Ikarisughed at herment and then again when A used a basic telekic skill to carefully levitate her and the bed off the ground and suspend them in the air.

    "In that case, I can create a structure and have you move into it immediately," Alpha suggested, walking away from Eris and standing by A''s side. "I have been on earth for thest six and a half months, recreating the most luxurious hospital on the is an easy feat for me."

    "That sounds like a splendid idea!" A chirped, while Dina and Sara were already in the motion of packing whatever wasid in the room.

    "Hey-"

    *Ding!*

    [You have been granted the unique skill: PATH, the details are simple; envision or wish for your destination, wherever or whomever your goal is you will be taken to them as long as they exist within the in of the living, the cooldown for [PATH] is ten years, there are no consequences and there are no drawbacks to its use]

    She got the message and froze.

    "Don''t worry, Eris, we''ll be out of your hair in a sec, you can go back as soon as we''re out." Dina looked around at her and then went back to packing their belongings.

    "Wh- you''re not even gonna talk about this?" Eris asked, aloud causing them all to stop. "You''re putting everything on the line, Usami you have your daughter and your brother on the line here, you-"

    "For fuck''s sake, Eris!" Dina snapped. "When will you ever get a fucking clue?" She asked. "We get it; we get it already, you prioritise yourself over everyone and everything, you and everything that''s about youe first, your life is the most important in the room it''s fine, you don''t need to exin yourself any further."

    At Dina''s words, the silence became shocking.

    "I didn''t mean it like that..." Eris stood at the door after she had already been on her way there before. "I''m just saying-"

    "You don''t need to exin a thing more, honestly." Usami furrowed her brows before settling on a frown. "You''re a mother, you want your child to be safe before anything and anyone else, you keep your family safe and we''ll look after ours." She stared at her.

    "You''re not a family." The healer retorted but received several res promising violence if she carried through with whatever was intended toe after that deration.

    "I thought you were at least a little bit redeemed, I felt so bad for leaving the first time even though I had all right to hate you, but you''re not the same, Eris, you''ve changed so much, you''ve be the opposite of the woman you used to be, that girl who raised the spirits of thousands of soldiers, the one who used to save lives, the woman who sought strength and looked out for the well-being of her party, her friends, her family..."

    Usami shook her head as everyone vanished from the room leaving just the two of them.

    "She''s nowhere to be found, you don''t deserve that crest on your right forehand, you don''t even deserve to be in the same room as them, to have your statue next to theirs is a sin, you''re no hero -you selfish asshole, you''re just Eris now, the woman who turned her back on everything that isn''t about her." She finished talking before Alpha summoned her outside of the mansion grounds where she was already constructing arge space and a homey medical facility.

    Eris stood at the window, her eyes dried of tears and her expression nk and void of emotion as she stared at the great white space she had been teleported in, thinking; at any moment now this could all vanish in a deadly explosion. "The fuck do you know about selfishness?"

    "You isted yourself and left me just as much as I left you..."

    It was a few minutester that the pce and everyone in it vanished.

    [PATH] had been used.

    ***

    "What the hell-" Renia was weaving and dodging attacks from captains and vice-captains like bombardments from every conceivable direction.

    "This is not how humans fight, not even Master Vestic at the peak of his insanity fought like this -they are killing themselves!" She eximed as the warriors collided with each other as ever so often, smashing their skulls and breaking their bodies into unrecognisable mounds of flesh and bone whenever they missed her.

    "They are using their bodies like projectiles!" She spun around one vice-captain and grabbed his leg swinging him like a Barton and killing dozens that came at her afterwards.

    "It is the same for me." Adonai was using his staff instead of a weapon made of his enemy, grinding them away and turning their bodies into different elements and objects upon contact.

    "Their power has increased a hundredfold but those who are still weaker are using their bodies to buy the stronger ones a miniscule moment to find even the slightest weakness in my armour and attack!" He eximed, and right on queue blocked a strike from Fried J?ger, the 4th Captain''s hand, spinning the weapon so fast that it tore the man''s hand clean off his shoulder.

    "And another thing-"

    "I do not know what Project: PowerPoint is but it has enabled them the ability to manipte their bodies in amazing ways, they have achieved some form of exponential cellr growth since their eyes and blood turned ck!" Dr''ul spoke up.

    "As long as the wound is not fatal their body draws flesh from itself to that area, recreating whatever they lost in an attempt to keep them in fighting condition, surely with their bodies remaining human it has a limit, but it is still extremely troublesome!" She blocked and weaved through the dead space full of bodies and red and ck blood, still easily dispatching her enemies but visibly wary of the three captains that she was fighting.

    "A healing factor like this has a limit, but with the power they possess continuously rising the longer they fight, I fear we might be overpowered with enough time," Adonai buried his staff halfway into the body of an enemy and sped his hands together forming a barrier around himself that used the woman''s blood as a conduit to strengthen itself repeatedly.

    "I have no choice but to give it my all!" He roared.

    His shoulders broadened, and his clean and pristine nails turned to ws and grew sharp and jagged, his emerald eyes became golden and slotted and his face rapidly disfigured and stretched into a reptilian snout while a tail grew from his spine swinging around and finally, his skin hardened I to shell-like scales as he grabbed his staff a second time and roared again.

    The gxy he had found himself in expanded and shrunk several times as his powers of creation began running rampant, forming and destroying new stars as he started wearing against the Drugged-up Emporium Warriors.

    "I do not rely on this hideous appearance, it does not suit me well, but I am now forced to rely on one of the powers I have never used and detest, I: Adonai, the god of Creation will send you all to the afterlife!" He roared again opening his long mouth wide and firing off a white Lazer-like bomb which tore through and caused the bodies of his enemies to explode upon being mangled.

    "I will hunt you all!"

    [THE GOD OF CREATION: ADONAI; PREDATOR EVOLITION]

    He continued roaring.

    "I WILL SLAUGHTER YOU ALL!!"

 Chapter 234: Black Blood.

    "Hahaha~ this is wonderful, Master Vestic was fully aware of what he was doing when he chose us from the others," Renia walked across empty space as though it was tangible ground beneath her feet.

    "Dr''ul, S''mael, Adonai and myself, we all thrive in such ces more than anyone else aside from death himself, but he is incapable of interacting with the physical world," She chuckled, catching a dive-bomber by her head and crushing it causing blood to float and ssh across her and blocked another from above with her elbow breaking him almost entirely in half with the weight of his momentum.

    Her grotesque appearance had returned to normal with the exemption of her fingers retaining the ck ws, and she was no longer shrouded in chaotic energy, her eyes burned as bright as Dr''ul''s, and her hair had turned entirely ck, her skin seemed more lively than ever while her presence exuded a brilliant yet dimmed crimson aura.

    "I feel so much Chaos inside of you all, I do not know what you did to your bodies nor what the ck eyes and veins mean, but your very presence has be chaos; chaos I can feed on, chaos I can manipte!" She fanned four of her hands around herself causing everyone lower than the rank of Captain to bleed out and die in an instant and then she opened her mouth manipting every drop towards herself, drinking down the cold blood and swallowing it with a delighted expression.

    "I could kill a thousand suns with this much chaos, creating more chaos, spreading more destruction, causing more creation which in turn will ignite even more chaos!!" Renia spread her six hands wide and started roaring as the stars around herself began imploding one after the other. "It is an endless cycle of beauty!"

    From her spine grew a tail as smooth as her skin and as tall as her body as she hunched and balled her fists.

    "It was always a mistake to challenge the Godyer, but today the Emporium will understand that he is not the only threat in our collective!" She vanished from their sight and one by one the captains started vanishing, reappearing seconds after their disappearance as mangled corpses, but something interesting the leading captains in their state of madness noticed was the fact that each new corpse came back without a drop of blood, it was only when she had killed the lesser captains and targeted the 9th Captain Varen Hawk that he understood what was happening.

    "Y- you!" Captain Hawk tried prying Renia off himself but she snaked herself around his body and bound his hands to his side with four of hers and held his head and face with the other two, locking her legs around his waist and her tail around his legs and thenughing at his futile struggles.

    "Little human captain, so frail, so easily vulnerable...

    it is so pitiful of you thinking you stand a chance against us gods, but fret not, your journey was not in vain, you have delivered into my hands the most intoxicating and most concentrated picking of chaos I have ever sunk my fangs into," She opened her mouth around the captain''s neck and bit into his flesh, humming in glee at his screams while her arms started squeezing and tearing at his body as she drank his blood down to thest drop, and then snapped his with a deepugh, releasing his head and groaning in extasy.

    "What is happening?" The 7th Captain, Neoma Thrax stared at the bodies around her, everyone was dead and she hadn''t seen how even though she was still in the midst of her berserker state because of the PowerPoint drug coursing through her veins.

    She had been shocked back to sanity, Renia was moving so fast that she couldn''t make sense of it, so in a fit of fright, the captain took off flying as fast as she could away from the field of bodies soaring past a star and crashing face-first into a small burning Celestialbody when she tried exiting the pull of that sun.

    The cracked after the captain emerged on the opposite side spinning out of control and crasnding into a mountain range of snow and ice.

    "Can anyone hear me?" Neoma opened her Comms, but all she received from thousands of channels were screams for help, it seemed the others were in simr or probably worse situations, she switched to the captains'' channel, but it was silent there, contrasting the screams of the other channels.

    "What is this, how could this have happened to the 3795th?" She asked aloud, opening the quiet channel again.

    [This is Captain Neoma Thrax, respond.]

    *Silence*

    [Captains, please respond.]

    *SILENCE*

    [Somebody, say something!] She snapped flicking her finger on the earpiece and switching through the various channels until she was once again on the first channel. "Captains, General, can anyone hear me, this is the 7th Captain, Neoma Thrax, does anyone read?"

    Minutes passed by in the sub-zero atmosphere of a hostile with her standing still, causing shards of snow and ss to crash against her vertically from the powerful winds, small spider-like creatures with tentacles beneath their belly the size of cats crawled to and fro in the strong winds, immune to the cold and thriving on this barren ce.

    After an hour of silence, the captain epted the possibility of herrades all dying and started walking, she walked and walked until she found herself at the foot of a mountain and there she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, the ck blood would no longer trouble her mind, but it still ran through her body granting her virtual immortality as her cells regenerated faster than they died.

    "I cannot return without dying, those are Vatui of royal descent, Celestials of the highest Order," She spoke to herselfing to a cave and walking inside.

    "I cannot send a distress signal unless I have ess to a ship, but the ships were all destroyed by the one who called herself the goddess of war," She tapped her suit and a light shined from the crest of the Emporium lighting her way as she ventured deeper.

    "I... I do not want to die like that," She rubbed her forehead as her mind conjured up the mangled bloodless images of herrades that she had seen before fleeing.

    She tapped her forearm with a sigh bringing up a small holographic image in her augmented vision.

    [Armour is at 79% integrity.

    Lifespan is 420 years ETE, (Emporium-time-estimate)].

    "I''ll stay here, with PowerPoint running through me I''ll be fine, I just need to keep my mind from deteriorating and maintain my integrity, by then I am sure a lot will have happened, but there has to be somece in this vast universe where intelligent lifeforms exist, even if they are small and backwards, I can live the rest of my life-"

    *Crash*

    "Iyaah!!"

    She spun and struck blindly, missing her mark after something hit her back and fell to the ground, turning to meet what had shocked her she yelped and stumbled backwards in panic when she came face-to-face with Captain Hawk''s dried-out corpse and then backed up a second time hitting the opposite wall of the dark cave when the space above him was torn open by a crimson and ck phantasm and Renia poked her head through sideways.

    "I finally found you~"

    "N-no, stay away, get away from me!" The Captain screamed and fell to her ass hugging her head and shaking in terror, y-you''re not real, I''m already seeing things, it''s all the toxins in the air, it''s this cave, you''re not real, you''re not real!"

    "You are thest one, sweet, sweet Neoma," Renia chuckled, spreading the tear wider with her six hands and stepping through, wiping ck blood from her lips and licking her fingers clean of it.

    "How do you know my name?"

    "This little thing," Renia tapped her ear and themunicator in Neoma''s ear blinked and beeped. "Alpha was kind enough to rm me of a little stowaway calling for help, but to think it was a big bad Captain hiding in a little cave, how enticing~" She stepped closer and the captain started shaking before her again.

    "You''re not real, y-you''re not... real!" Neoma shrieked when Renia stood before her and her crimson eyes glimmered through the dark.

    "I am real, my little birdy." Renia loomed over her. "There is no fight left in you, have you given up on your mission?" She asked and Neoma seeing a chance at living nodded furiously.

    "I swear, I won''t leave this cave as long as I live, I''ll stay here forever, you won''t ever see me- eeek!!" She stopped talking and began trembling again when one of Renia''s hands dropped on her head as the goddess took a seat before her and opened her arms.

    "Come, little birdie, enter the embrace of chaos and disappear forever, I will ease your pain, I will ease your fears, I will erase everything that troubles you," Renia smiled at her seeing her tears flow and her lips quiver. "Give me your chaos and I will grant you ETERNITY."

    [Chaos Maniption]

    [Mind Maniption]

    [Memory Maniption]

    [Attraction]

    "Come to me," Renia continued to smile watching her chaos seep inside of Neoma''s head and gloss her mind over in a ck hazy fog. "Come," she called again.

    "Eternity?" Neoma asked, sliding off her seat and into Renia''s arms as they all slowly wrapped around her and held her firmly.

    "Yes," Renia whispered in her ear allowing her to regain her awareness and begin to struggle, but it was toote, now within the arms of chaos there was no longer any hope of escape. "Eternal death, your soul will disappear within the eternity of my chaos and your delicious blood will be my sustenance!" Renia leaned the woman''s head to the side and licked her lips.

    From the outside of the cave where the winds howled and the snow and ss flew sideways, the light of Neoma''s battlesuit flickered and went out under the shrill screams she managed to make as she was torn apart by the embodiment of chaos that sought her ck blood.

    "Hnn, Delicious... hahahaha~"

 Chapter 235: Overcharge.

    I expected more from this battle, especially after they all went crazy with ck blood and eyes," S''mael sat on a piece of floating debris before Dr''ul with his legs crossed and his handszily spread around him resting on his legs with his cheek on one hand, still in his ck Jackal form. "I am greatly disappointed."

    "You thrive on destruction, S''mael, there was no version of this fight where you did not dominate, the same as Renia has evolved through manipting the chaos around her, you grew exponentially stronger because of the endless destruction Dr''ul caused in her fights, that is without mentioning myself who was much more of a destroyer god myself rather than a creator," Adonai stood on another piece of floating debris with his hands folded behind himself and his posture as straight and dignified as usual.

    Unlike S''mael though, Adonai was back to his usual appearance again.

    "It was a good fight, I quite enjoyed the thrill, they were strong, yes, far stronger than I anticipated originally, but a lot weaker than I expected they would be overall," Drul was seated on her throne with her legs crossed and her hair floating around her.

    Like Adonai, she too had reverted to her original appearance since being in a battle-ready form or her true burning form was extremely taxing on her now that the fighting hade to a halt.

    "It was thrilling~" Renia floatedzily behind Dr''ul with her arms spread and a small ball of ck blood hovering above her mouth, the beauty she once held was still out of her reach as her lips opened from one ear to the other, revealing a mouth full of sharp fangs as she reached out and locked her jaws over the orb and swallowed with a delighted grunt.

    "This PowerPoint is the ultimate treat; the most potent chaos I have ever experienced, I simply cannot have enough."

    Adonai regarded Renia with a disgusted gaze and turned his nose.

    "I do not agree with you indulging in the filth of their blood, we do not have the slightest idea what that garbage will do to your body," he scoffed, but Dr''ul shook her head in protest rather than Renia.

    "She is the goddess of chaos, regardless of what substance she devours she will benefit from it once there lies chaos within it, but I am rather curious about this PowerPoint drug and what it is made of, if I were to somehow understand the creation process I may be able to replicate the process and strengthen myself with it," Dr''ul tapped her temple in thought.

    "Sister, is strength all you think about?" Adonai stared at her disturbed.

    "What else is there to our existence than strength?" S''mael asked with a loud scoff, rolling his eyes.

    "We Create, destroy, fight and cause mayhem whilst rowing stronger, that is our purpose, the four of us are the perfect set," He added, and Adonai turned to him ready to retort heatedly when the four of them paused when the space above them by the original tear of the armada started opening up again.

    "Were we expectingpany from the other side?" Adonai asked grinding his teeth as his body rapidly transformed once more, along with him Renia started paying attention and S''mael stood and hunched with a wicked grin as he felt the essence of destruction intruding while Dr''ul''s hair shed brightly and began burning amidst her standing and facing the breach.

    "What?" Dr''ul''s hair began burning even brighter, and her armour was rapidly burnt away when she was faced with a wave of bloodlust that left her with goosebumps across her shoulders and arms.

    "What is this terrible sensation again?" She asked ncing over at S''mael whose ears had fallen t against his head while he growled and then at Adonai who was snarling and releasing a low growl from the depths of his throat.

    "Fear...!" Renia answered, remembering the feeling well after feeling it for the first time when she was faced with Jenifer back in Eris''s pce on D''ol. "It is fear; inherent fear from Ikaris''s blood which flows within us!" She bared her fangs and wildly shed her hands around summoning daggers in each grasp and falling into a crouch.

    "I detest this feeling, I do not like it one bit, I reject it!" Drul eximed, and with her outburst, her siblings had to retreat from her side as she began burning the very void around herself.

    "Reject it all you want, Vatui wench," A man came walking through the small breach and behind him another man.

    They wore the same Emporium uniform as the captains, but there were no marks or numbers on their faces, instead, the uniform had been changed from ck to white, they still had purple hair and ck irises. "I will make a brilliant vessel out of you, and use your ground bones and hyde to make a fresh pair of shoes."

    The first man who had spoken was tall, almost as tall as Adonai, with the muscles topliment hisrge build, his chin was hidden by a bushy beard, and his lips were hidden beneath an elegant moustache, the second man in contrast was a bitnky inparison with a smooth chin unblemished face and an even smoother head free of a strand of evidence of hair ever existing atop it.

    "I feel terrible, this is not destruction at all...!" S''mael shook in fear.

    "This is death, if we fight them we will die, Dr''ul, what do we do?" He asked, but she was too focused on the newly arrived enemies before her to even hear his voice in her head, her mana kept exerting to higher degrees, and her body kept condensing it into brilliant lights illuminating the void around them until her three siblings had lost all sense of hope.

    "She is treating them of the same calibre as she did the Godyer," Adonaimented retreating further away from Dr''ul with every second she seethed. "We have no means to challenge their power as we are!"

    "We cannot just let her fight them alone though!" Renia looked at him, her confidence from before had been sapped dry in the face of Dr''ul''s overwhelming power, and yet the goddess of war continued to raise her power to even higher heights until she finally stepped forward, and with her actions, the other two disappeared as well, for a few seconds the three lingered with their breaths held silently and then S''mael flinched in shock when several distant gxies within their view suddenly vanished from supermassive collisions going off almost simultaneously.

    Renia attempted to turn and flee, but her vision was suddenly obscured by a hand meant to catch her by her face, had Dr''ul not caught the hand of the slim-built enemy and blocked his other hand with her fist around Renia''s head he would have killed her before she even realised.

    "Within your chaos dimension, Renia, go, take the others and hide!" Dr''ul swung over her head andnded a double-heeled kick in the man''s chest blowing Renia away in the process.

    "Dr''ul I can''t-"

    "Do as I say, these two will kill you otherwise!" She snapped.

    "I will kill them regardless!" The bearded enemy rushed past Dr''ul at Renia but he was halted in his tracks when she mmed her forehead into his nose and grabbed him by his leg, dragging him towards herself and locking him in a chokehold while the slim one came and drove his hand through her side causing her to cough up a torrential of golden blood in the void.

    "Let go of me!" The man tried prying Dr''ul off himself but she only held on tighter, choking him until he started iling while the other continued to smash his fist into the side of her head to the point that her glowing eye went out and started flickering like a faulty lightbulb.

    "Sister!" Adonai attempted to approach them but Dr''ul started roaring as cracks across the void started appearing, great white cracks that stretched and copsed on each other tearing the very reality of the realm asunder. "Dr''ul!" He called when S''mael and Renia grabbed him and Renia cast her hands around them both dragging them through a ck and crimson rift.

    "Amidst Dr''ul''s screaming the muscr warrior managed to break free of her grip and spun in a fury delivering a punch that snapped her jaw open and sent her plummeting through the void, star after star, system after system, Dr''ul crashed like a streak of light across multiple different ces before eventually reaching a great solid in and crashing against it as well and there at her heels by the time she could get to her hands and knees was the slim warrior.

    He grabbed her hair and mmed her face against the surface and then stepped to the side when the other came andnded feet-first in her back snapping her spine and causing the glow of her hair to lessen as she screamed out in pain.

    "Where have you sent then?" The warrior demanded, but Dr''ul arose and tackled him back to the surface bringing back her fist and smashing it against his face with a roar causing white cracks to start appearing again only to be thwarted a second time by the slim warrior who kicked her off the other before the two of them began mercilessly tag-teaming her in a brutal beatdown, forcing het to focus on recovery and incapable of retaliating offensively.

    "Renia, let me out, let me rescue her and die in her ce!" S''mael iled wildly at his sister''s chaos magic but he was unable to manipte it. "Let me go!"

    "She told me to keep you here!" Renia snapped at him holding her head and weeping. "She... she said to hide!" She cried ck tears from her eyes staring up at him.

    "I do not care, we cannot allow her to die by herself like that!" S''mael protested turning to her. "Let me out!"

    "Brother-"

    "Don''t you dare say a word to me, Adonai this is not the time for reason and rationale, they will kill her undoubtedly if we do nothing!"

    "We have to obey her, she knows what she is doing." Adonai Shook his head.

    "She has delivered herself to them in our ce, that is not a n that is epting death!"

    "If she can make it until Sol returns-"

    "And what if he does not?" Renia looked at Adonai. "What if Master Vestic iste and fails to save her, did he not warn us that something of this scale was entirely usible?" She held out her hand and attempted to open a rift back to Dr''ul but as soon as the smallest tear emerged Dr''ul''s voice exploded inward at them through her willpower.

    "Stay your hand; remain hidden, Sol wille, Renia." She roared finally gaining a second of breathing space and summoning her sword to block the next series of attacks, stabbing it against the invisible surface they were fighting on and forcing it down causing the ck void to start peeling away like ink when her form became an intangible mass of pure mana.

    "If this keeps up, Dr''ul you will overcharge again like you did against Master Vestic and die-"

    "Have faith!"

 Chapter 236: Cannibalism.

    "If that is what it took to ovee these two then I would dly give my life, I knew this was a possibility when I offered my hand as his ally!" Dr''ul caught the fists of her two aggressors and spun out of their way, sping her hands and spreading her mana across everything she could perceive.

    "However, I have realised through this ordeal that I am unwilling to see any of my brothers and sisters die, not here, not like this, so I am reserved to create the destruction needed to break my vessel!" She pulled her hands together and the stars started vanishing one after the other.

    "That said; I do not intend to die by their hand, I still have a rematch with Sol to look forward to andpared to him these two are nothing special at all!!" Dr''ul erupted in a ball of majestic crimson and orange mes catching the two Emporium warriors off-guard after they had attempted a pincer attack.

    "I will not fall by the hands of the Emporium''s dogs!" Drul emerged from the burning ball and grabbed one of the retreating men by his throat squeezing until her hand made a fist beneath his head severing it from his body with his eyes pulled and his tongue swollen. "None but the Godyer have the right to best me, I will never yield!" She shed him from her hand and turned to the other.

    "You keep sending your weakest and underestimating the might that we possess I say keep sending them, every dead Emporium mutt is one less to bother them," Drul turned to the bulkier of the two that had managed to escape her clutches earlier.

    "Impossible," The man seethed. "How could a mere Vatui have this much power?" He clenched his gifts and ground his teeth impatiently.

    "I need to warn the others-" his eyes lost focus of Dr''ul''s image for a fraction of a second and at that moment his head was nearly severed when she struck with het sword, but probing to be more nimble than his dead counterpart he evaded the de getting a gash across his throat and spinning out of her way and holding the wound revealing ck blood seeping through his fingers.

    "PowerPoint?" Dr''ul paused and raised her guard again; that drug was dangerous, whatever they made it with was so potent it gave them limitless potential, she had been pushed to use this much power without facing it so she knew she was in trouble but how much trouble she was in was only revealed after the man vanished from her sight and her right arm was torn clean off her shoulder taking the sword with it.

    Renia held her mouth in shock when she saw this unfold and she remained mute about the events she witnessed when her brothers asked her what was happening, she attempted to leave once more but Dr''ul raised her left hand and summoned her sword again,nding on a random piece of debris and taking a knee, spitting up golden blood.

    "Do note, Renia," She warned her.

    Dr''ul''s power was her own weakness because she physically wore her mana, it embodied her; which meant that whatever she lost was permanently taken from her, until she could rece it, so losing an arm was in effect losing a massive amount of her overall power.

    On a greater scale she still had a lot more to spare, but as she regrew her lost limb she could feel her power diminish slightly.

    [Energy readings have dropped]

    The warriors''s AI scanned Dr''ul while he was in retreat and he stopped and turned to her again, she hesitated to attack him even though he was retreating, she had be wary of him since he activated PowerPoint, and even though she hadn''t exerted herself any further there was a noticeable drop in the energy readings she emitted as soon as she regrew her lost limb.

    "Maybe," He mused, concentrating with the aid of his suit on the blood within himself and forcing his heart to stop beating, and his lungs to stop pumping oxygen throughout his body.

    The veins in his face and neck stood on end, and the ck in his eyes started flowing away as his blood vessels ruptured when he forced his body into a state of adrenaline brought by depriving it of its ability to properly function, in a sense, he was in a state of emergency.

    It could onlyst for a minute at max, but the payoff was power unlike anything else. "I''ll kill this one and retreat with her body, forget harvesting she is too powerful to be left alive...!" He leaned forward and the shoulders of his suit burst open from the pressure of his muscles expanding beneath it.

    Dr''ul''s eyes widened in shock when the man''s fist appeared before her, mere moments ago he had been far out of her sight and almost at the edge of the gxy, but his return shocked her because of the power that it came with.

    She managed to dodge his fist, but even in the vacuum of space the power that came after it blew her away and tore the tform she had been standing on asunder.

    Before she could right herself or raise her guard a second time he came at her head again with his hand in a piercing motion and although she evaded his strike at thest second she was still left with a slice across her cheek.

    "He is after my h-" Amidst trying to right herself the man caught her by her hand and stepped in her side, tearing her limb off with a roar and ripping it in two with his other hand.

    "He figured it out!" Dr''ul raised her leg and kicked him square in his chin in an attempt to escape his range before he could strike at her again, but the berserker tanked the blow with his head snapping backwards and grabbed her ankle spinning several times and tossing her towards the invisible wall of the universe they inhabited.

    They had already been fighting on a scale that made perceiving the damage dealt and received incalcble, but when Dr''ul hit that barrier and thousands of giant white cracks appeared across it stretching for what seemed like an infinity and she felt a splitting headache along with her shoulder bone breaking she knew she had been entirely wrong about her assessment of the white-d warriors who had arrived after the rest had been ughtered.

    Her arm and leg regenerated and she raised her hands in defence, but the man didn''t aim for her head again, instead, he drove his fist into her stomach and tore a hole right through her body, pulling her up and smashing her over and over again before yanking his hand free and stomping through the wound widening it as more golden blood sshed around her.

    "Dr''ul!" Renia emerged from behind him and locked her arms around hisrge body, and following her S''mael and Adonai came afterwards; S''mael holding his legs with his six arms and Adonai holding on to his arm positioned over Dr''ul''s chest.

    It was futile, the three of thembined had not matched Dr''ul''s power so the man found no resistance when he grabbed S''mael''s head and smashed his face t into the surface beneath and then grabbed Adonai''s hand and mmed him on top of Dr''ul.

    "Weak, all of you!" Heughed and reached for Renia, but she avoided his first grab and sunk her teeth into his skin attempting to drain his blood, a secondter she released him all on her own and retreated several paces away when she had a taste of what coursed beneath his skin.

    He grinned and looked at Dr''ul again. "I will kill you first!" Heughed punching at her after she had finished healing all of her injuries, but she dodged his arm and locked her legs around his neck while Adonai grabbed his other hand once more and S''mael held on to his legs.

    "Renia, take him, drain his blood!" Dr''ul screamed at her immobile sister and only a momentter blinked in shock when Renia started vomiting and punching her stomach bringing up massive amounts of ck blood as tears poured from her eyes.

    "She is disgusted by herself for devouring the essence of her own kind!" The manughed at Renia, "A vampiric parasite- you are not the first to cannibalise your fellow Vatui hahaha!"

    "PowerPoint is-"

    "Concentrated Vatui blood so dense it turns the body ck!!" He continuedughing spreading his stance and waving his hands as a wave of pure energy blew them all away. "My time is almost up..." He clenched his jaws when blood began escaping the sides of his mouth and his skin started turning purple.

    "Die," He hoarsely spoke hunching and shaking when the entire left side of his face turned purple and blood started pouring from his ear as well.

    "All of you..." He raised his thumb and rammed it in his eye fiddling around and pulling out a small glowing white orb the size of his iris and staring at it for a few seconds.

    "Everyst one of you will die, even when my death has passed, I will fight you," Heughed when the flesh from his forehead stretched and formed new cells regenerating his eye and mending the tears across his skin.

    "Do not let him swallow that!" Dr''ul snapped and summoned her sword swinging at him.

    He didn''t even dodge her strike, he allowed the sword to cleave through his body as he dropped the object in his mouth, and even Adonai grabbing him by his head and prying his mouth open didn''t help as he willfully swallowed his tongue to push it down his throat.

    "No!" Dr''ul charged and rammed her shoulder in his stomach in ast effort to get him to regurgitate it but he choked andughed simultaneously, looking down his nose at her while he grabbed Adonai''s neck.

    "Everyst Vatui!" He gargled.

 Chapter 237: Drunk on Power.

    "We... Failed," Dr''ul stared up at the man''s smiling face as his fist slowly descended towards her face. "I should have listened," She turned her head and avoided the brunt of the blow but gasped when his hand retracted and descended even faster mming into the side of her head and bending her around his torso as he grinned amidstughing.

    "I should have listened to Renia and killed him when I had the chance rather than try and preserve this universe, I made a mistake!!" She shook under the weight of the fist on her head, fighting to right herself whilst also raising and striking at his head.

    But with a wave of his hand, she was blown off to the side hitting the surface of their current reality crashing into it and bouncing to her feet again.

    "This is bad"

    "This is really bad!"

    "Sol is nowhere near us, he is facing the strongest of the armada, but this man... he is far superior to that man, currently, even if I sacrificed my siblings and went for the kill, I fear his strength is beyond me, especially after..." She summoned one sword in her left hand and shed her right hand restoring it after breaking it against the barrier.

    "I do not have the necessary energy to ess that level of power either way!"

    "This win belongs to me," the man caught S''mael who tried attacking from behind and started breathing out mass amounts of raw mana.

    "He umted mana even though he had none a moment ago- what did he eat?" Adonai asked striking the back of his knee and his neck with his staff and then tearing S''mael''s arm off and pulling him away.

    "It felt like he swallowed a living being, folded andpressed into a small entity, it felt like he ate a god." Renia cradled her head again and slumped forward but Dr''ul dragged her out of the way just before the warriornded after them and leapt in their direction.

    "Get a hold of yourself, Renia, you can''t undo what you did so deal with it and move on!" She flung the goddess of chaos out of the way and shielded herself with her hair losing almost half of it when he grabbed it and she had to chop it off to evade his other hand.

    "My own kin!"

    "I understand now, the creation of those great vessels, the creation of their self-repairing armour, the PowerPoint drug, that thing he just swallowed they are all the same," Adonai helped S''mael to his feet as all four of them stood facing him.

    "They use Vatui and Godyer bodies as the main resource for their technology which is then used to hunt us down, the war, for whatever reason it started has indeed ended, what remains of the war is scavenging through the collective for more resources, we are a preciousmodity to them..." He closed one eye and gnashed his teeth hatefully at the man.

    "I have fostered souls in my care, I understand the essence of life better than anyone else, this atrocity calling itself the Emporium is wiping our kind out for the sake of greed and gain under the illusion of warfare, they are nothing but murderers drunk on power!" Adonai roared in outrage; he who knew no corruption and was pure beyond even the gods of purity had found himself and his siblings a product in demand for a corrupt and greedy empire.

    "I will not have it!"

    "Dr''ul, how much have you lost already?" S''mael looked at her; her glow after losing her hair had almost left her at her base appearance again.

    "If you want to know... I am still capable of destroying everything here, but... It is not enough anymore," Dr''ul answered with a frown holding her hand forward and looking at a ck crack across her forearm.

    "I need to revise my entire existence and find a new way to fight, using my power this recklessly has led to consequences I should have expected, to think he would target my body rather than try going for the kill, I am at half of what I started with," She admitted bitterly, "Brothers and sister if we do not stand our ground and fight with everything we have, this Emporium bastard will certainly kill us all.

    "Then, let us band together like never before, let us destroy this bastard!" Adonai passionately snarled, mming his tail against the surface beneath his feet and pushing his mana to the highest it had ever been, overexerting himself into a second transformation as spikes grew from his back, sharp dorsals and menacing scales of ck and gold.

    ***

    "I feel useless here, seeing others put their lives on the line like this and being unable to do a thing to help, what was the point of me bing a demigod if I can''t even do that much?" Dina sat with her fists balled in her skirt and her teeth gritted tightly, staring at the system window showing her the fight between the four Arkadian gods and the new invader.

    His right eye had changed from ck to crimson and simrly, half of his hair had changed from purple to white, Dr''ul and the others were mostly on the defensive trying their hardest to survive against the monstrosity he had be after eating the white object.

    "He became half Vatui after consuming that white pill, I fear your assistance would only serve to hinder their fight and likely get them killed," Alpha answered Dina''s rhetorical question seriously, and the mage huffed and stared at her, annoyed.

    "Vatui?"

    "Correct," Alpha looked around at A. "ording to the data we have thanks to Jenifer, that man''s appearance is a match to the average Vatui, Lady Ikaris is an exemption as you must have all realised by now since by the calctions of the defeated invaders Dr''ul and the others are also Celestials of the royal Vatui order and abnormally powerful at that."

    "They would shit themselves if they knew about Ikaris then." Usami wiped a trickle of sweat from her forehead and scoffed. "They''d literally shit themselves if they knew Ikaris and Sol''s true power.

    "It would cause endless problems," Ikaris answered herment without breaking eye contact with the monitor, she was invested in the fight since the death of any of the four would lead to the defeat of the other three, they were fighting as desperately as Sol used to, every swing of their fists and weapons were over calcted and nigh perfect, and their formation was unbreakable, as they matched him beat for beat, stride for stride keeping up with his singr self as a whole of four.

    "Mdy, you should lie down." Sara ced her hand on Ikaris''s hand and shoulder with an expression full of concern. "Please, you are minutes away from-"

    "I know, Sara," Ikaris nodded and gave the maid an assuring smile. "I am well aware of what is happening within my own body, there is no need to panic, I

    "Mdy, you should listen to Sara," Alpha turned to her as well. "You have suffered minor contractions for thest few hours and although they are not painful we do not know what will happen once the child is-"

    "Do you expect me to not even watch?" Ikaris stared at her with her eyes narrowed and her fists balled. "Look at them, at their struggle; ever since finding out they are my own flesh I have endlessly worried about them, they are all my younger siblings are they not, am I supposed to casually breeze over the fact that they are fighting for their lives against an enemy I could easily kill?"

    "Ikaris, you''re in a weakened state right now," Dina shook her head in objection. "You couldn''t even fight A because of the amount of power you have diverted to the baby, what could you do when you''re that weak?"

    "I know, I mean, if I was not about to give birth, obviously!" Ikaris snapped heatedly wincing when she tried to abruptly stand. "I could at least lend my power-"

    "Cool your tits there momma." Usami quickly grabbed her shoulders and kept her pressed to the bed.

    "Don''t even think about it, you''re tough, we know that, you''re strong, we''re aware, but even if I can''t I''m still gonna use all my power to keep you here, you''re about to have a fucking baby!" She gently dropped her knuckle in Ikaris''s head leaving the space silent when Ikaris winced and began growling.

    "I-I- Ikaris, don''t overreact she didn''t mean to-"

    "I''m fine, Dina." Ikaris huffed and looked up at Usami who hadn''t even budged or shown any sign of fear after striking her, knowing who she was and her temper. "Not even Sol dares to strike me-"

    "I don''t care, I''m making a point!" Usami pointed at herself.

    "Aside from my dear brother and baby girl, I''m the weakest in here, you don''t even have the strength or reflex to handle a punch from me, Ikaris, you don''t have any power to spare if Sol hadn''t returned A to you, you''d be in really bad shape right now," She dered and then rested her hand on Ikaris''s head when she saw tears in the corners of her eyes.

    "H-hey, I didn''t hit you hard enough for you to start crying, did I?"

    "No, there is something building inside of me...!" Ikaris held her hands together and cast a barrier around herself and on instinct Dina grabbed Usami Uriyu and Gia and retreated several steps while Alpha covered Sara and A in a prism barrier.

    "What''s going on!?" Usami snapped at Dina watching pink mana surround them in several dozenyers.

    "Ikaris is-"

    *Boom*

    Dina''s words were cut off when the entire facility evaporated in an explosion that left them all speechless seeing Dina grind her teeth and exert herself, reinforcing her barrier repeatedly while Alpha sent Sara and A inside of it for protection and disappeared when her prism shattered.

    The explosion travelled endlessly vertically and horizontally, and it was only when Ikaris passed out that the raging divine mana stopped moving.

    "Hold on to me, Uriyu," Usami picked up Gia and allowed her brother to piggyback onto her as the surface of the barrier beneath them vanished revealing a giant crater left in the wake of the explosion.

    Like a phantom, Dina and A vanished leaving the others to descend.

    "Ikaris!"

 Chapter 238: God Vs Godslayer.

    "Ikaris!" Dina called exerting her newfound divine mana in her demigod state and lighting the way of an endlessly deep hole, at her side using the light she provided was A and right above them Sara was falling as well while Usami had used several spears to reach the corners of the hole and create a foothold for herself to retreat to the surface above.

    "What happened?"

    [From my observation, she tried to suppress the explosion brought by her baby''s mana awakening, I managed to extend the dimension only in the direction her mana travelled in order to prevent a copse but it has resulted in this terrain, I will take you to her.] Alpha answered and then there was a snap and all three of them disappeared and reappeared next to Ikaris who was at the very bottom of the hold with a small cloud of mana holding her above ground.

    "Ikaris," Dina reached her side first and slowly rested her hand on her. "What the heck, she''s unconscious."

    "For now," A gestured to the top. "We need to get back to the surface, Alpha."

    [Right away.] Alpha answered and zapped them back to the top. [I was able to prevent the copse of my dimension but there seem to have been breaches near the epicentre.] Alpha appeared at her side and pointed across the damaged surface revealing small white cracks with bits of light shining through them.

    "I have some data on their scanning systems but the Emporium is very advanced, I do not know if this was enough to alert them of Ikaris''s presence," Alpha admitted and then looked at Ikaris once she started moving again.

    "Mdy-"

    "Fuck," Ikaris groaned and opened her eyes startling Sara who was right at her side watching another facility appear while all the damage around them was fixed. "Is anyone hurt?" She looked around at them but nobody bothered answering her question and instead she was surrounded when a bed held her weight and Sara began taking supplies from her shadows.

    "How are you feeling?" Dina asked her seriously, is the baby okay?"

    "She is very ...anxious," Ikaris slowly looked down at herself and then the room that was erected around them as it was an exact replica of her and Sol''s room back on earth. "Am I alright?" She asked as well seeking a portion of the bed beneath her leg wet before Alpha''s powers removed the moisture and reced the sheets without disturbing her at all.

    "Mdy, your water broke," Sara started scurrying around.

    "Is that what happened?" Ikaris furrowed her brows and slightly cradled her belly.

    "Precisely so," Alpha chimed in and then looked at the door just before Usami came running in. "Do not worry, you are in good hands, Sara has been constantly prepped by myself in preparation for this day ever since your conception, as have Dina and A, and Usami as well."

    "What?" Ikaris looked at them all as they smiled at her taking her sides. "Every day in secret you all...?"

    "We did not want to worry you about the small stuff so we have been preparing in secret, even Master has, but we all know why he can''t be here right now," A smiled and held Ikaris''s hand. "Mdy, we love and want the best for you, we would not leave you in the hands of medical strangers," She smiled at Ikaris''s sobered expression and squeezed het hand casting heal on everyone around.

    "We are gathered for your sake," She smiled and then leaned closer and held Ikaris''s arm when she winced and gritted her teeth letting out a pained groan and sucking in her breath.

    "Contractions have begun." Sara continued scurrying to and fro, setting up everything they would need.

    "Speaking of-" Alpha closed her eyes, dividing her consciousness and appearing at Sol''s side from her pink with him. "Master," She looked up at him standing with General Hydra geld by his head and dangling lifelessly with a hole in his chest.

    "Did something happen?" Sol looked around at her. "Is Ikaris okay, didn''t I tell you to keep your focus on her I told you I wanted to focus here," He furrowed his brows in annoyance. "How are Dr''ul and the others?" He asked again.

    "Mdy is onbour-" Alpha was rmed when Sol''s mana suddenly copsed and his Godyer form reverted to the very base human causing him to stumble and then look around at her again with his eyes wide in worry.

    "I should see her, is she okay -how''s her mana, was there an ident, what''s going on?" He spun on his heel and attempted to open a gateway directly to Ikaris but he was stopped by Alpha holding on to his other hand and shaking her head.

    "Mdy is in good hands, Master, but Dr''ul needs your help."

    "Ikaris needs me I didn''t leave them with anyone they couldn''t manage-"

    "Master." Alpha stared at Sol seriously.

    "Another for has appeared, stronger than the others, many times stronger than all of thembined, if you do not help them now they will all die, do you want your daughter''s birth to bememorated by the death of your wife''s younger brother''s and sisters?" She asked, and Sol''s face registered an unheavenly level of bitterness towards her, but she epted his hostility with nonchnce and continued staring at him seriously.

    "I may be a tad behind with myck of a strong emotional spectrum, but even I understand that her needing you by her side is trumped by this, please choose your priorities more carefully."

    "How strong is he for you to be this assertive?"

    "You understand Dr''ul''s power better than anyone else, he has overpowered her and her siblings all at once and continues to grow stronger because of a new drug-" Alpha''s eyes widened and she looked at Sol again. "They are in danger, Master."

    "Right." Sol ground his teeth and disappeared in a violent sh of golden mana reappearing above Dr''ul and raising his hand before her face saving her from getting her head smashed in.

    "How did youe to this?" Sol asked, staring down at her, her arms and legs had been torn off and she was a torso at the end of her wits heaving heavily and coughing up golden blood, far off to the sides Adonai had no arms either, and his staff was stuck in the edge of reality pinning him down through the chest.

    Further from him, S''mael was a mess of broken bones and torn muscles unable to move, and Renia was close to him unconscious with her entire lower half stuck in the chaos dimension.

    "I was told the Godyer had white hair, who is this new aberration?" The man asked, taking a calming breath and retreating several steps away from Sol who had managed to block his strike easily despite that same level of attack being able to dismantle the other Vatui he had been fighting. "Who are you?"

    "I knew you woulde," Dr''ul coughed and smiled at Sol healing a single hand and raising it to his head giving him a weak punch. "Alwayste to the beat, as usual, Godyer..." She chuckled and then fell unconscious as well.

    "She finally passed out?" The warrior chuckled and crackled his knuckles.

    "Move aside pleb, I have to collect these vermin and take them back for harvesting, if you cause problems for me I''ll just kill you where you stand, from where I stand you''re not Vatui, so you''re useless to me, hahaha what a harvest I made this time, these are the strongest I have ever seen or even heard of I want that redhead to make an aberrant suit, that nasty one with the fangs I want for PowerPoint, the other two can be used to improve my Vessels hehehahahahaha...

    Huh?"

    He stoppedughing abruptly when Sol''s hair shed white and then turned gold as his powers manifested like a wave around him and Dr''ul, and then Renia, Adonai and S''mael sending the readings in his right eye off their charts and breaking the scanner, ruining the function of his right after he had already destroyed the left

    "So that is how it is, a Godyer capable of hiding his power and by my readings, stronger than even the redhead... No wonder we never knew you existed."

    "Alpha, take them to safety," Sol ordered the system, and she appeared at his side and waved her hands collecting the gods one by one and then looking at the man and then vanishing as well.

    He would have reacted to Sol and the sudden appearance of a little woman that made the function of his suit glitch for a few seconds, but he already understood he was in some deep waters here, without hesitation he popped his right eye and tore it out, squishing it in his palm and revealing over a dozen small white pills in his bloody grasp and threw them all in his mouth.

    "The pill he took that made him half Vatui!" Alpha warned Sol who had yet to look over his shoulder at the man as he knelt where Dr''ul was, staring at her blood and the massive cracks across the great barrier. "If he eats that many his power might be as great as yours, possibly greater-"

    "I almost failed them." Sol sighed, standing and allowing his powers to continue rising tearing away at his golden armour and repairing it with the ck one. "I almost got them killed because I tried getting through Hydra''s head." He punched his chest denting his armour and then turning around and staring at the man. "Tell me your name, I want to know the name of the man who''s about to die."

    "Die? Me??" The man chuckled, swallowing the pills and feeling them dissolve within him.

    "No, no, the one who does is you, Godyer!" He startedughing. "You and those Vatui you serve are too slow, flexing your powers and allowing your opponents to use their trump cards kekeke!"

    His hair becamepletely white and his eye regrew in its socket crimson and glowing while all his injuries steamed.

    "Forget a gxy, forget a universe hahaha with this much power inside of me, I can destroy thousands, tens of thousands with just a swipe of my hand!

    I have be a true god, a real divine, a pure Celestial, I will kill every living being inside this entire collective and be hailed as a hero uncontested by anything or any- G-uuurgh!!!"

    He shrieked in pain when Sol''s fist connected with his chest and sent him flying straight through the barrier his back was facing and out into the emptiness.

    "I don''t want my collective to be destroyed because of my grudge, I allowed you to eat those ...even though I sensed what they were, I still let you eat them because I don''t want you to die from one hit, I don''t want you crumbling after a few either, I want you to suffer a proper beating, I don''t understand what you are, and I don''t care, go ahead, eat more, eat the rest you have on you, ten...

    No fifteen." Sol walked with his guard down swaying slightly as golden waves of mana escaped his body burning the starless emptiness before him and healing the barrier behind him until it was closedpletely.

    "Every time I get really strong, my opponent bes fragile, go ahead, eat them all, get stronger, I want to thoroughly destroy you like you did myrades, I want to kill you when your pride is at its highest!" Sol''s eyes overturned with pure gold and the rings rotating on his chest and back started humming as their speed increased.

    He saw the man''s hesitance as his chest healed and snapped like a mad dog grinding his teeth.

    "Eat them, let''s fight for real, God Vs Godyer..."

    "EAT THEM!"

 Chapter 239: We Found Ikaris.

    "With a name like Jedrek, how can you be so weak new kid?"

    A mist of a forgotten memory from hundreds of years past torn away by Sol''s ws tearing flesh and breaking bone.

    "You''re going to be strong, son you are destined to be the strongest," A woman held his hand leading him to the gates of a primary Emporium academy, and he smiled at her, but her face was hidden behind a bleeding red sun and the skies had rings of gold and ck clouds; another hazy memory abruptly torn apart by Sol''s ws tearing into his skin.

    "Fight back, don''t give up, don''t die to this savage, your wife, your family, your mother, they''re all waiting for you..."  Another thought manifested his memories of years long forgotten.

    A Vatui attack destroyed his house, hundreds of white heads shading crimson eyes pouring across the city, an apocalypse, billions dead, trillions injured.

    Once again torn apart by Sol''s glowing golden eyes and his hands ripping them apart revealing blood of ck and bones of yellow.

    "That''s why I''ve been killing them that''s why I''ve dedicated my eternity to their demise, these savages, these terrorists, these monsters, what family, what wife, what mother!?" His crimson eyes and white hair a reminder of his vengeance and of his greatest enemies, those same crimson eyes and white-haired demons that stole his homeworld, stole his family, killed and destroyed and ravaged an entire in the name of revenge for years of being hunted.

    "What garbage!!"

    "You all deserve to die...!" He thought.

    Images of his past, of his old mother bleeding out on top of him and a steel rod driven through their abdomens, visions of being pinned to the ground as fire and chaos spread around them, his wife and children decapitated and set atop crucifixes turned upside-down, his house torched and Vatui Rebelsughing as they beat his neighbours to death, Godyer rebelsughing around campfires with young maidens across theirps, tied up and begging for mercy.

    "MONSTERS."

    "BASTARDS!"

    "DEMONS, DEMONS ALL!!"

    "I''LL KILL EVERY LAST ONE!"

    His vision fixated on Sol once more and he raised his hand and blocked another of the Godyer''s punches that left his ribcage rattled as his hand mmed into his chest, breaking it and sending him further out into the emptiness between one collective and the other, he could see the veins of gold the branches reaching out, and he could feel the pressure it produced now that he wasn''t inside of a protective vessel.

    "I won''t lose to the likes of you savages!!" Jedrek screamed shing his head and tearing his suit open causing a dozen little glowing white pills to pop out. "I''ll kill you, I''ll kill you all, everyst one, dead, dead and gone, you don''t deserve life!" He grabbed them all before Sol could reach him again and swallowed them all.

    How eyes shed and blinked and then vanished in white and he screamed again as his veins began bursting, spewing out ck blood mixed with gold.

    "No matter what it takes, I will always, ALWAYS win, I will never lose to the likes of a Godyer, NEVER!!" he cradled his stomach and vomited up more ck and gold blood and Sol watched the ck get washed away by gold as his body underwent a mass transfusion of Vatui cells.

    "At whatever cost, I''ll kill you all, even if it means selling my soul to Hades itself I''ll kill you and harvest everyst one of those Vatui cockroaches you serve!"

    "Good," Sol stopped his advance and quickly tied his hair.

    "Very good, that''s the spirit, that''s the monster I want to destroy, not some Emporium brat, but the real enemy here, the greed that was installed in the Emporium hase to my doorsteps and I''d be damned if I didn''t feed it an overdose of my hatred for what they''ve been doing!" Sol clenched his fists again also shing his golden hair and then cradling his head.

    "If you are justified then you will win this fight, if I am then I will tear you apart and devour your soul whole, you hear me, you want us for sustenance well I''ll treat you the same, you want us all dead well I want the same for you, Emporium waste!"

    Neither truly cared about titles, nor did they want to bother with the politics of it all, Sol wanted to make a point, to make an example out of the Emporium about where he stood by destroying everything they sent his way and then destroying them, and Jedrek wanted nothing but revenge for his homeworld for his home and his people that had been annihted by Vatui and Godyer Rebels, neither side was entirely right, just as neither side was in the wrong, it was simply an opposition based on protecting what one deemed most important.

    "Out here where there is nothing to destroy..." Sol''s ears grew taller and a pair of horns grew from the sides of his head protruding backwards. "I have nothing to worry about.

    "Out here where there is nobody to stop me," Jedrek hissed and breathed mana from his nostrils and throat. "I will gain a step of evolution that nobody has ever witnessed, I will kill the strongest Godyer and achieve godhood, I will destroy his collective and everything in it, seizing all Vatui for myself and harvesting them as the resource they deserve to be!"

    "The only thing you will find out here-" Sol snapped and closed the distance between the two causing a deep humming like the sub-sonic whistle of an engine when he gritted his teeth and swung his fist. "-is my wrath!!"

    "Raaaagh!" Jedrek punched as well.

    Their fists collided and a wave of white traversed the emptiness and crashed into the barrier of Sol''s collective shattering that small area again as he was sent flying through it and Jedrek went sailing away from it.

    "Master, what is happening, I have no reach in that ce!" Alpha connected and spoke to him immediately, but as Sol had unleashed his full powers for the first time, the entire universe he was inside of copsed without resistance and imploded, severing itself from the collective and dying with everything in it.

    "Master!" Alpha called again, but Sol ignored her entirely as he disappeared a second time appearing on the outside and severing their connection once more as he and Jedrek shed fists and butt heads as soon as they met each other causing light to appear where none had ever before.

    "What kind of monster is he fighting?" Dina asked holding Ikaris''s hand and looking across at A who did the same with Usami wiping her sweat away and Sara kneeling before her and focused.

    "Is there anything I can do to help?" Dr''ul rushed through the door behind them and then froze when Ikaris''s crimson eyesnded on her, that oppression she had no power to resist now made sense, if by the Emporium''s standards she and her siblings were purebred Vatui of royal status then Ikaris must have been the real deal, the actual royalty, she wasn''t just any purebred, she was a true Celestial of the highest Order.

    "-are you listening!?" Dina snapped at the dazed goddess and she shook her head and looked at her.

    "Pardon?"

    "Do you have any more power to spare?"

    "I am already in recovery-"

    "Lend me your power, Dr''ul!" Dina stared over her shoulder.

    "Right now, aside from Master, I have the strongest connection with Ikaris because of the divine trees within us born of him, I have the means to lessen the load of her and the baby''s power, but I do not have the output of power I need to do it, I need a conduit that can take the strain off me," She exined, and although Dr''ul hadn''t understood a word she nodded and closed the door behind herself.

    "What do I need to do?"

    "Hold on to my mana, seek my soul, I''ll guide you to the Garden, all you need to do is channel my outpouring mana and widen the gateways for us, your job is to tank the load and not let it overflow on either side."

    "Dina that sounds like it could kill you," A spoke up, since she had yet to receive the tree she had spent a great deal of time observing Dina and Ikaris''s mana channels and one thing she had figured out fairly early on was that their dormant mana was incapable of control, it needed to be slowly let out or they would both face fatal consequences, the fact that this applied to Ikaris as well spoke volumes since aside from Sol no soul in their collective was as strong as hers.

    "It could kill all three of you-"

    "Do it!" Ikaris snapped holding A''s hands a bit tighter and staring her in her eyes. "I trust Dina, put some faith in her as well, A!" She held a burdened expression as she stared at the elf, and Dr''ul nodded and took a seat behind Dina, pressed her palm against her back and closed her eyes as everything else faded to white.

    "Sir the destination disappeared!" A man wearing a white battlesuit looked up from his dashboard."

    "What do you mean it disappeared, a universe doesn''t just cease to exist," A bald man wearing a cape over his suit with eyes of crimson scoffed and stood from his seat walking towards the smaller man and staring at the screen. "What happened to it?" He asked as three others behind him stared at the Emporium crest on his cape.

    "It imploded after a sudden spike in Celestial activity," The man answered, staring at what looked like a tree of golden branches in the distance. "Have you ever seen a collective look so... alive, sir?" He asked timidly and his superior shook his head.

    "Focus on getting there before..." he was interrupted by an rm going off. "What could survive out in the passage?" He asked staring through the warnings at the screen as lights shed. "Are you scanning those?"

    "S-sir, it''s Vice Captain Jedrek who went ahead against your orders, his suit''s almost entirely destroyed, there''s barely any reading, he''s also showing elevated signs of brain and bodily activity, brain-killing levels of stress, he''s locked in a fight... but these numbers ...sir, this is above the Celestial Order, this is above the Grand Celestial Order!" The man wiped the sweat from his face.

    "Are you saying Jedrek is currently as strong as myself?" The caped baldy asked with a raised brow. "That is impossible unless-"

    "No, sir, these aren''t his readings, I''m only getting his reading from his suit, all the energy we''re picking up is... my god, it''s a Godyer!"

    "What!?" The man leaned forward and almost broke the dashboard. "Set a course now, send a request to the Grand Emporium and take us to this rebel, if these readings are indeed from a Godyer then we have a serious problem on our hands!"

    "W-wait there''s a second signatureing from the collective, two more, three more!" A woman called their attention to herself. "We haven''t seen Vatui readings like these since the war, since the royals!"

    "There''s no way, did we find their leader?"

    "No sir the weakest is an infant reading; unknown as is another, but the strongest reading amongst them is one I think you''ve met before," She pulled up a locked and confidential file of the highest security, one he had seen before and the leader furrowed his brows and quickly opened it out of pure curiosity.

    He found himself staring at a white-haired woman with a crimson gaze and a silver crown atop her head and the caped leader''s eyes registered shock as he began cackling with himself.

    "Hahaha, this is even better than their leader, send an urgent alert to His Majesty the Emperor and request the immediate deployment of every armada within the closest sectors to us."

    "What message, sir?" The woman asked timidly seeing a trickle of sweat roll down the man''s bald head to his chin.

    "We found Ikaris."

 Chapter 240: Sol.

    The Passage:

    Dead space between one collective and another, no being other than the Godyers and Vatui should be able to traverse such a in and even then, passing through passages came at great risks, sometimes physical, sometimes mental, other times psychological, in order to hunt them the Emporium developed technology around their bodies and minds, scavenging them down to thest cell and manipting their powers to its benefit, thus, the vessels were created and utilizing a Godyer''s cosmic powers in tandem with the natural incline of the Vatui they now passed freely from one collective to another, "conquering" in the name of their greedy Emporium.

    "Sir, are you sure you want to leave the Godyer unchecked, Vice Captain Jedrek''s vitals show he is under a tremendous amount of pressure-"

    "If we manage to capture that woman, we won''t even need to check if he''s alive afterwards, Ikaris is more important, if the Emporium gets hold of her mind, if she can be harvested- we win." The baldy grinned, staring off to the side at the lights shing from Sol and Jedrek''s fight. "Forget the Godyer, he is a mere dogpared to the power and influence of that woman."

    "Sir," One of his other three Vice Captains spoke up. "Is her information ssified even after her discovery?" She asked, and he looked around at her with aplicated frown.

    "Not now, no." He answered. "Ikaris is..."

    "I am pushing you little shit, I have been pushing for almost an hour my back feels like a demon kicked me!!" Ikaris red daggers at Sara with her eyes glowing brightly and torrents of mana surging out of her body, Alpha had stopped observing the collective and stopped paying attention to Sol, opting to focus on expanding her dimension as fast as possible and healing the rifts Ikaris was causing to seal her presence, but it wasn''t working not even in the slightest.

    "Do you want me to tear myself open and throw the baby at you!?" Ikaris snapped, squeezing down on Dina''s hand so hard her fingers broke but the mage didn''t even make a sound as she quickly healed her hand and leaned forward.

    "Mdy, you are almost there!" Sara looked up at Ikaris again, sweating and bleeding from her nose while A constantly healed her and held Ikaris''s leg from kicking her away.

    "I am? Am I fucking-almost there? Where''s Sol, I''m gonna kill him for not being here, I''ll chop off his manhood -how dare he make me pregnant!?

    I am a goddess why does this hurt so badly...!?" She screamed and shed Dina like a doll forcing Dr''ul to catch and hold on to her to prevent their link from severing as that would immediately cause another explosion which would likely kill them all this time.

    "By the lights," Dr''ul cradled Dina and hugged her from behind keeping their link strong and steady while Dina worked overtime to circte enough mana to cause her to overload and implode like a submarine several thousand times over.

    "Once more Lady Ikaris!" Sara winced and reached forward and Ikaris''s eyes shed a brighter hue of crimson while her hair flickered a pure and glowing white, screaming to the roof Ikaris closed her eyes and ground her teeth before Dina raised her head and stared with her mouth slightly ajar and Dr''ul opened her eyes when a bright glow filled the room."

    [No!] Alpha snapped appearing in the flesh and casting a veil over them. [Stay still, do not move a muscle!] She spoke in their heads casting sound nullifying magic over everyone and summoning Usami''s family in the room with them along with Dr''ul''s siblings.

    The veil was transparent and so they all witnessed as a bald red-eyed man wearing a variant white battlesuit with a red cape over his shoulders intruded violently, with his mouth frozen in a grin and his eyes scanning the area.

    "What''s happening?" Dina winced, staring at Ikaris who was barely conscious and Sara who was cradling a little moving nket on the floor.

    "He is an artificial Vatui who has consumed enough of the white condensed essences to permanently keep his power active, he is like the one Master Vestic is currently fighting, but far more powerful, inparison he gives me the same feeling as Lumi did," Alpha whispered.

    "How did he get in here?"

    "He broke through like Master usually does, his power defies reason itself, the real question is why didn''t he go after Master and instead came here directly...?" Alpha looked around at the others and then focused on Ikaris who barely raised her hand.

    "No, do not issue any kind ofmand over your power; nobody in here is his opponent, he might kill you all on sight, by my guess he may be in pursuit of-"

    "I can feel her presence." The Captain closed his eyes and took a deep breath as his three Vice-Captains entered through the hole he had made, he stood upright and continued grinning. "I can feel her presence!" He balled his fists.

    "Please, please, please..." A whispered with her hands sped and her head hung. "Master, we need you!"

    "I sense a praying woman," the captain slowly turned his head and looked directly where A was, and the room exploded in mana as Dr''ul realised that they had been discovered, along with her Dina spun and charged her mana taking a deep breath and opening her mouth towards him, it all happened in an instant, Dina fired off [Cosmic Scream], A shot [Pulsar] and Dr''ul swung her sword while Usami grabbed her brother and daughter and closed her eyes, shielding them with her body.

    "Mil-"

    Everyone vanished when Ikaris snapped her fingers and Alpha''s dimension was ripped asunder as cosmic abilities she could not withstand tore through it.

    They appeared somece random within the empty universe; a small terrestrial with a breathable atmosphere and Sara quickly stood with the child in her grasp while Ikaris''s hand fell limply to her side and she started heaving.

    "Ikaris!!" A voice boomed above them.

    "How did he-" S''mael was about to ready himself for an attack when a vice-captainnded in his head and smashed it into the ground, tearing two of his arms from his side and stabbing him with them, pinning him on his stomach, the resulting wave of debris and wing blew everyone off their feet and sent Sara flying but Ikaris caught her and the baby and took the fall for them, sliding to a stop across a small meadow and then heaving again as she tried utilizing more of her powers.

    "It truly is her, she may look different, but my scanners have shown a 100% match," The Captain smiled as he descended and stood next to Dina who was in the middle of getting up.

    "Why do you know her name, why are you doing this?" She raised her hand toward him and conjured a mana spear in her grasp. "Why won''t you leave us alone!?"

    "I could care less about some random human girl, the real prize here is that woman." The man pointed at Ikaris and then began cackling again. "Is that a baby wrapped up there, is that her baby?" He asked excitedly. "This is perfect, the very solution to our greatest problem has fallen into my grasp!"

    "Why hasn''t Sol shown up yet?" Adonai looked at Renia and then stood between the general and Ikaris while she held on to Sara and the child. "Did something happen?" He asked.

    Deep in the emptiness of the passage Sol faced Jedrek both covered in golden blood with their wounds hissing and their eyes zed over with golden light, but while Sol recovered, Jedrek''s wounds only closed, leavingrge scars. "I will not lose, I will not lose I will not..."

    "You''ve already lost, Jedrek of the 100th fleet." Sol heaved and hunched. "All that remains is for you to remain dead when I fucking kill y-"

    "MASTER!!" Sol froze like a deer in headlights when he felt A''s soul cry out to him and as a result, he suffered a punch that disoriented him and left him open to bloody barrages as Jedrek''s muscles and bones tore and broke against his body and reformed, slicing I to his skin and breaking his flesh.

    "WE NEED YOU!!" Sol felt A again and turned his head catching the man''s hand as he made a link with her and started seeing through her eyes, Adonai was kneeling before the general headless, Renia was being beaten blindly by another vice-captain and Dr''ul was being double-teamed and beaten to a pulp by two other vice-captains while S''mael''s head was smashed and buried in the ground.

    Dina was barely heaving, and shallowly breathing with a metallic spear sticking out of her chest, her arms broken and another hole in her abdomen, Usami and her two were hidden, and Ikaris was weakly hugging Sara with her back turned to everyone and a small baby hidden in a nket between them, whispering his name repeatedly.

    "sol..."

    "Sol..."

    .

    .

    .

    "SOL..."

 Chapter 241: INVERSION.

    "The mighty Ikaris watered down to a weak shrivelling little woman cradling a child and weeping helplessly, how times have changed." The Captain stopped walking when A stood in his way with her arms spread wide and her eyes burning fiercely with crimson mana casting barriers around her and Ikaris.

    "What are you even supposed to be?" He asked, staring at her and finding no mention of her species in his database.

    "You will go no further." A took a stance before him and the general chuckled and leaned his head, amused.

    "Stand down little woman, you have gusto, but your life is wasted in the service of Vatui, I''m willing to turn my head and pretend you were never affiliated with them at all and in return, you be a part of my harem, I like the little exotic ones see...

    and I have never seen anything like you before," He smiled at her, but A ground her teeth and narrowed her eyes exerting even more mana as she opposed him.

    "I belong only to my master!" She stood her ground when he walked up to her, pressing her fist against his chest and grinding her teeth when she started sliding across the ground while he ignored her.

    "Stay away from them!" A opened her palm and cast a prism around the Captain causing him to stop again out of intrigue and look down at her with a grin, cing his palm against the prism and marvelling at the structure.

    A loud thump shook the dwarf, and the captain turned in A''s prism and stared with his brows furrowed in surprise as a bright white light engulfed everything around them and then rapidly subsided, revealing Dina, her hair as tall as A''s with a small crescent crest glowing in her forehead and the hero sigil burning the skin on her forearm.

    Dina leaned forward and disappeared from sight and the Captain was about tough when she vanished from their sensors as well, but a momentter he and all the others were upside down and descending towards a star and entire gxy away.

    Dr''ul who had finally been given a moment to breathe leapt to her feet and stumbled over to Adonai, resting her hand on his shoulder and causing the missing upper half of his head to reappear as he took a deep breath and looked around at her, reverting to his regr appearance and coughing.

    She took a step toward S''mael to restore his depleted power with her own but lost an arm when a vice-captain descended and caused the entire area to explode sending everyone skyborne, but by the time the man could stand properly he was cascading through the void towards the same star again.

    "What''s going on!?" The captainnded before the debris could fall and looked around, finding Dina standing over Ikaris while Alpha was in the middle of crafting a new dimension to send them away to.

    Instead of Ikaris, his eyes focused on Dina and he took off like a bolt at her. "It''s this one-"

    His finger barely touched her skin, and a momentter he was descending towards a star again while the force of his reach hit and sent her flying.

    "Dina, if you keep this up you''ll die-"

    "The alternative is Ikaris and the baby dying." Dina slid across the ground and flickered, appearing at Ikaris''s side again just as the Captain appeared before her, only to vanish once more leaving the area he was about to step on burning from his rapid reentry into the small atmosphere.

    "That skill...

    I never imagined it would be able to keep them at bay like this," Dr''ul mused seeing Dina using [INVERSION] on such arge scale that it was sending the enemies further and further away each time, but as they continued returning desperate to catch and kill her, her fatigue became evident, that too with the minor injuries she was ignoring starting to pile up, in just a few minutes There was a crater around Dina with scars across it as the Captain and his three Vice-Captains flickered in and out of sight.

    "If I could figure out the loophole to this technique though, it is just a matter of time before one of them realises..."

    "Dina!" Alpha called.

    "Just go!" Dina shouted, falling to her hands and knees and coughing up a mouthful of blood and then looking up at Ikaris who held on to Sara and her hidden child still whispering Sol''s name. "Hide, all of you!"

    "Master... I hope this buys you enough time."

    "No!" The female Vice-Captain stopped short of attacking Dina and rushed towards Alpha, but again Dina used [inversion] on her and she was sent spiralling through the abyss at the same star once more.

    Witnessing the broken ability for what felt like the fiftieth time, the captain slowed his approach and stopped at a distance shing his hand and summoning over the same metallic weapon he had impaled Dina on earlier and throwing it at her, as expected, the trajectory of the weapon changed as soon as he let go of it, but he caught up and tossed it again, and again slowly lessening the distance towards Dina in the process until he and his three henchmen were right before her.

    [INVERSION]

    All four of them went tunnelling through the crust of the dwarf.

    "I can''t see anymore..." Dina forced herself to her feet and sped her hands again sending another two of the vice-captains away and then wincing when the third one''s hand barely pierced her abdomen before he was sent flying in another direction.

    "I can''t focus either -" Dina barely leaned her head, dodging an attack from behind her and sending the attacker spiralling upwards like a spindle when she cast [Inversion] on him multiple times.

    "Stand down." The captainnded, with his weapon at his side and a smile across his mug. "It has been a while since a lesser being made me exert myself this much, but here this bitch has me running around like a bug without a head, I''m pissed off!" He grinned.

    "It''s not like they can hide forever, they are incapable of skipping across the collective with Ikaris in that weakened state, as long as they are here I will find them." He huffed and spun the weapon around his hand.

    "I can''t do this any longer," Dina stumbled forward from the shockwave of the weapon almost impaling her and being teleported away, but only a momentter it wasing at her from the front causing her to snap backwards and almost fall over from that secondary shockwave.

    Like needles from every direction the projectile kepting at her faster than the captains had been moments prior, and with her vision going foggy from overusing the powers Sol nted inside of her she missed the Captain gaining ground, she missed how fast he approached and how he caught the weapon each time and threw it at her again, her senses were all focused on the weaponing at her from each angle so she missed his approach right up until the moment where he caught her by her arm making inversion impossible without tearing her limb off.

    Dina reeled forward in shock releasing her mana and slumping against his arm when he caught the weapon once more and drove it into her abdomen before she could react and send it away. "You made me work for that,  Dina," He huffed and repeated her name after hearing Alpha address her earlier.

    "It would be an intrigue to harvest you, but I know that if I let go of you now, you''d likely kill yourself or find some way to attack me again, I am forced to destroy something I think might be valuable." He sighed.

    "You talk big, but... when my master arrives, it''s gonna be all over for you bastards..." Dina held on to his hand, closing one eye and groaning in pain when he chuckled and twisted the weapon inside of her.

    "Was it worth it?" He asked, shoving it deeper and forcing it through her back. "Aiding and abetting the Vatui is a capital crime punishable by death, was it worth your life to fight and protect those savages?"

    "The... only savage here, is you...!" She raised her free hand and pressed it against his chest, making a gun hand and pointing her finger against him.

    [Cosmic mana umted]

    [Pulsar]

    "What is thi-" The Captain was suddenly sted away in the attack that tore a portion of the away and incinerated it.

    Another weapon was driven through her back, sticking in the ground and holding her upright as two more impaled her Via the three Vice-Captains with one ripping her heart a hole causing her to go immobile as her hands weakly reached out and then she slumped, thest thing she felt before her world went ck was Sol''s presence approaching and tearing entire gxies apart in its wake.

    His eyes were wide in fear and horror, and his teeth were all sharp and locked like a zip, Sol''s eyes had ck rings around them and his heart was pounding so hard it caused ripples across the collective shaking the entire foundation of his domain as he felt Dina''s mana dwindling.

 Chapter 242: Unkind Fate.

    "Let''s quickly find Ikaris and the others and get the hell out of here before-"

    The Captain had once again returned and was in the middle of issuing an order when he and his vice-captains felt a throbbing sensation against their skulls as though the space they upied was copsing on them.

    He didn''t see it, and the other three were blind to it as well, what they collectively recalled of the next two seconds was the shattering of the they upied, it happened so fast that they did not even regroup immediately and instead floated through a field of debris wondering what had hit them.

    "What the hell was that?" The Baldy rubbed his head while he scanned, but there was nothing there, Dina had vanished, the rift that would have led them to Alpha''s dimension had disappeared and all that remained were the chunks of a former dwarf rapidly spreading through the void.

    "Dina!" A ran from Ikaris''s side and slit to Sol when he appeared in their midst cradling her gently with his hair zing and his face contorted in a pained expression. "Is she..." A wanted to ask, but when she saw Sol''s expression she held her hand over her heart and began weeping. "I''m sorry, Master, I should have remained at he''d side-"

    "She''s alive, A," Sol closed his eyes and held Dina tighter and the elf watched the four gaping holes in her torso quickly shut and witnessed her chest rise and fall slowly as she began breathing again. "Please, take her." He looked up at A and she sucked in a breath when she saw the ominous ck rim around his eyes. "I have to go back outside."

    "Where are we?" Alpha asked. "I have been trying but aside from this physical self, my power over all has beenpletely shut off."

    "Ikaris, don''te any closer," Sol stood and turned his back to her when she took the newborn from Sara''s grasp and turned to him, ignoring Alpha''s question entirely.

    Ikaris''s stride faltered and her smile slowly turned into a concerned frown. "I keep fucking up, this time I barely made it at all -I had to force her to stay alive again." He rested his hands on his hips and hung his head low.

    "Master Vestic, these enemies are all easily more powerful than the likes of Void or even Darkness and HIM, the one who leads them, in particr, is especially powerful, it is advised that you retreat now while you still have a chance and find an alternative means to beat themter on," Alpha teleported to his side and stared up at him.

    "What are you even saying, do you have any idea what''s out there, do you even know why I brought you here to The Beginning rather than to some random universe like before?" Sol red at her and she lowered her gaze and took a few steps away from him.

    "As I said, I have been blind ever since you took us here," Alpha admitted and Sol huffed again.

    "Sol," Ikaris called his name with her voice broken and her eyes streaming with tears. "Is there no other way, will you not at the very least see her before you go again?"

    "It seems..." Sol raised his head and looked around at Ikaris. "I''m already starting the day as a terrible father-" His voice was abruptly cut as he disappeared, leaving an echo while a small house on an isted hill in the great grey space appeared.

    "Why did he do that?" Usami gestured to Ikaris when she slumped and held the child firmly. "He could have at least-"

    "No, I understand, Ipletely understand." Ikaris was raised off the surface by an unseen force and brought to the house on the hill and ced directly onto the bed while A carried Dina on her shoulders and the others followed suit.

    "Ikaris, you say you understand but... I''ve never seen such an expression on you before, not even when he... When Sitri attacked us." Usami stared at her visibly disturbed as she saw Ikaris crying while Sara helped her rx and cradle the baby properly, exposing her little head of dark brown hair as she soundlessly clung to her.

    "I do understand, if he has brought us here then that means nowhere in the collective is safe, I know you can''t feel it, but didn''t you see the pain in his eyes?" She asked.

    "The Beginning is the only ce where they are unable to find us, but as it is the safest safe here it is also very dangerous, the powers that it manifests are terrifying beyond what any of us can counter or resist."

    "I may be able to withstand it for a longer period, as well as A, Dina and the baby because we are all connected to Sol, body and soul, but for the rest of you, the beginning will reject your existence and slowly eject you, if he takes too long... you might end up in some random ce or dead."

    "Nowhere in the collective is safe...?" A took a seat and rested Dina''s head on herp sighing as her face showed the worry she failed to speak or express. "Master must be so overwrought," She sighed a second time.

    "Which is why he left us so urgently," Dr''ul sat and held Renia who was still more shaken than anyone else. "Between the time that Alpha took us away and he arrived something more must have happened."

    "I would show what is happening on the outside if I could, but the powers of the Godyer are always outside of my grasp, it doesn''t matter when or where, whenever ites to master I have limits to what I can do, I apologise," Alpha hung her head low sitting with her legs crossed.

    "You are not being med for anything, Alpha," Dina slowly opened her eyes and hoarsely spoke igniting the I treat of the others.

    "Stay still, you have healed but your body has yet to-"

    "It''s just a small headache," Dina raised herself from A''sp and stared at everyone. "We just have to trust that he''ll handle it."

    "Indeed," Ikaris agreed, cradling the infant as she held on to and squished her face against her breast with a gleeful smile.

    "She hasn''t made a peep yet, is it supposed to be like this?" Usami asked, remembering that when Gia was born she was so loud she thought her eardrums would fissure and pop.

    "She is quiet because I asked her to be," Ikaris answered resting her lips again at the baby''s palm and smiling sweetly at her as they both emitted a slight glow. "She is already very obedient-"

    "May I approach?" An unfamiliar voice called from the bottom of the hill, and while everyone else went on high alert, Ikaris kissed the baby''s sad cheeks again and hushed her. "I wish to see her."

    "There -there, little one, she means no harm," Ikaris leaned and looked to the door. "She''s a friend of your dad''s." She smiled and nodded, mere secondster there were knocks against the door and once again everyone went on guard. "All of you behave," Ikaris ordered them and watched them calm down one after the other. "You are free to enter, Lumi."

    "Pardon the intrusion," Lumi pushed the door open and stepped through, it was strange though, she had no glow at all, she simply looked like a being made of blue-ish surfaces, with hair as white as snow and eyes crimson and bright.

    "You... Are Vatui?" Ikaris stared at her face, at how beautiful she was even though she was blue and Lumi chuckled and shook in the negative at her question as she walked past everyone else and took a seat at her side after conjuring a chair much like Sol usually did.

    "I am not, Mdy," Lumi chuckled again. "I simply suppressed my light and reinforced a surface to hide it so I may cause no harm to those who cannot witness my power."

    Lumi smiled at Ikaris''s shocked expression and then looked down at the baby again. "Goodness, she is brimming with power nearlyparable to that of her father," Lumi looked up at Ikaris again and slowly reached for the child, pressing her finger against her cheek and causing her to peer her big eyes open, revealing two bright pools of blue the same as Ikaris''s.

    "You may look like your mommy, but those are definitely the eyes of that defiant Godyer aren''t they?" Lumi chuckled and then looked up at Ikaris once more.

    "On that topic," Ikaris narrowed her eyes and picked the child from herp holding her against her chest and covering her in a veil of warm mana hiding her from the others as she began breastfeeding her. "You have control over The Beginning just as much as my husband, can you tell me what is happening outside?"

    "As it does not tamper with fate''s will you may know," Lumi nodded and closed her eyes.

    Before theplete destruction of the 3795th fleet and the death of all its captains aside from Captain Law who was on suspension after trying to resign, they managed to send an emergency broadcast to the outside, the 100th fleet responded, although they are much smaller than the 3795th, they are far more powerful, and the one spearheading the reinforcement is someone who could fight the Godyer all on his own..."

    ***

    Sol stood on a piece of debris with his body emitting radiant gold like a healthy sun and his eyes set on the hundreds of ships before him.

    [What he faces is a second invasion that is happening across multiple breaches in several different areas within your collective]

    [Your collective is now a hot target]

    [The Emporium Is here]

    "Can he defeat that Captain?" A asked worriedly.

    "He could," Lumi answered ncing at her and then looking at Ikaris again. "But I am afraid fate is not always kind, the one who is considered his enemy is not alone, there are others of nigh simr power to his across his armada."

    "If the Godyer chooses to fight this army, it will result in his death."

 Chapter 243: Herald of Destruction.

    "I reject the thought," Ikaris stared at Lumi with her brows furrowed, as did Dina and A. "He will not die, he is Sol Vestic, my chosen-"

    "Not even the great Ikaris can avoid fate forever," Lumi smiled at her remaining calm under the pressure of her hostility that made everyone else feel like ants in het presence. "The fact remains that he is irrefutably powerful, but what is before him is an army of captains that fought against his kind in the great war, if he defies them he will die."

    "Are you saying he only has the option of giving up?" A asked with a scoff as she incredulously red at the emissary of Fate. "Clearly, you do not know Master Vestic at all."

    "I mean no offence little A, I understand that you all have great faith in him, I understand that you are all devoted to him, I know you all love him dearly, I know he will not surrender, it is not his nature, but you must understand; this was always where his journey would end."

    "What?" Dr''ul stood abruptly and summoned her sword, leaning as the weight it produced bared down on her shoulder revealing just how weakened she had be from constantly losing chunks of herself.

    "Do not raise your weapon against me, goddess of war, you will not be afforded a pleasant death," Lumi nced over her shoulder at her and a crack appeared across her forearm.

    "Dr''ul, stand down," Ikaris stared at her with tired eyes. "Lady Light, it doesn''t matter what you think-"

    "My thoughts are irrelevant, I wanted to see if he could change fate but despite his derations and clear attempts, the Godyer has remained under the thumb of fate the same as us all," Lumi smiled at her.

    "He will not die."

    "He is destined to die fighting the army he now faces, fate cannot be wrong-"

    "Fate can suck my left nut." Dina scoffed and stood walking over to Lumi and staring down at her surprised expression. "If we left everything up to fate we''d all be the same as you, Lumi."

    "I beg your pardon?" Lumi raised a brow at the mage. "Fate is absolute."

    "Strength is absolute," Dina argued. "Do you expect him to lie down and take it because some unknown entity said so?"

    "My point is-"

    "Dina!" Ikaris snapped shocked when Dina rested her hand on Lumi''s shoulder and pushed her index finger against her cheek. "Dina, do not antagonise her," Ikaris warned her knowing that she didn''t have the strength to face Lumi whether she was in her best condition or not.

    "I''ll leave it up to fate," Dina disobeyed Ikaris for the first time, staring at Lumi whose eyes widened after she was put in a predicament of choices. "You''re an emissary of Fate, so you''re aware of a lot of things both past, future and present, did your precious Fate tell you I''d do this?" Dina asked conjuring a tiny ssh of water from the tip of her finger onto Lumi''s face.

    "Go ahead, answer," She stared at her unblinking.

    "No," Lumi held her hand and lowered it calmly. "Fate is not something physical which interacts with the environment-"

    "Then that means I have my own free will, I make my own choices, they''re not dictated by anything fated, it''s all consequences brought by actions, I''d rather believe and have faith than rely on something as shady as Fate, and right now my faith in Master is telling me that he will live, he won''t concede and he won''t die, I know him by heart and nature I''m not just an observer like I once was and I k ow that he will always find a way; nothing is impossible for him!" Dina dragged her hand out of Lumi''s grasp and sat on the opposite side next to Ikaris.

    "Fate didn''t make him, and it sure as hell won''t undo him, he''s the Godyer, one who yields to none."

    "Good heavens," Adonaimented. "We should pay closer heed to that little one, she knows how to inspire hope."

    "She always did." Usami chuckled while Lumi stared at Dina at a loss for words; how this weak little creature found bravery where even the strongest had shown humility was beyond her, but Dina had managed to do something even greater than inspire hope, as the emissary of Fate closed her eyes and started watching Sol''s fight against the emporium she started feeling doubt in the foundation she had existed upon.

    ***

    Their eyes ck and endlessly empty, and veins full of corrupted ck veins, the army at his heels had all been drugged to the bone with PowerPoint.

    "Haah~"

    "Haah~"

    "Haah~"

    "Yield, Godyer, you alone cannot face the might of the Emporium, you alone cannot win against us." The bald captain cradled his bloody side and took a deep breath staring at Sol who was paces away from him with his hands hung low and his breath shallow as he continued panting.

    "My army has the power to easily destroy your entire collective, but we are reserved of the thought because that would harm the newborn and her mother Vatui, you are of no importance inparison, a mere hindrance in my way!" He waved his hand and on his order, his officers started attacking again.

    "Buy me a minute to catch my breath," The Captain looked at his Vice-Captains and all three of them rushed in as well.

    "He''s the real danger here...!" Sol blocked attacks from every angle sending them all gxies away with a series of fast snaps and then rushing after the captain, but a moment before he reached him, with his fingers inches away from touching him the vice-captains returned crashing into his back and sending him spiralling towards the edge of their current reality where he spun andnded before raising his hands blocking a triple axe kick that sent him crashing through the borders and back into the Passage again.

    "They''re all immensely stronger than Jedrek, it''s pointless destroying everything because they''ll survive that too, so I am forced into hand to hand because that''s the only method which works without fail... But this...!" Sol scowled when he righted his crash and found himself surrounded from all angles by thousands of enemies again.

    "I have to find a way to kill them all at once!" He thought watching them fall into a spherical formation around him and then Sol''s eyes widened in horror when all of the enemies surrounding him twisted their jaws and swallowed.

    The roots of their hair changed from ck to white and their void eyes became alive with crimson casting red in the endless darkness of the passage only contrasted by the flickering shards of a shattered reality passing by.

    "I can''t," Sol lowered his hands and huffed a cloud of cosmic mana from his nostrils as his golden hair subsided to brow and began flickering gold while the rings on his chest and back began spinning and humming. "I can''t do this..." He spoke again straightening his posture and rubbing his head with a chuckle. "There''s no way I can beat all of them like this." He sighed. "I just can''t."

    "As I said," Lumimented. Drawing Ikaris''s attention after she started watching Dina, A and her sigils dimming and blinking. "Fate decides what moves and what does not, it decides who dies and who lives, it is all by design -when faced with overwhelming odds any creature would give up."

    "Finally giving up?" The Head Captain slowly approached. "Here I expected you to try your hardest, even as thousands of warriors as strong as Jedrek challenged you, where did that confidence go, Godyer?"

    "Where did your fighting spirit run off to?" He chuckled floating through the formation and stopping before Sol and reaching out to him. "Where is Ikaris and the little shit-"

    He stopped and slowly withdrew his hand, looking at his palm as a cut slowly opened up in it causing his golden blood to squirt out into the void between them before it healed.

    By the time his eyes could leave his hand to look at Sol again his vision was elsewhere and his nose was smashed halfway in his face.

    "I have been thinking of you as people, that''s my mistake, after so many warnings you just kepting back, I even tried making deals, that was my next mistake, I have been on the defensive giving my all to protect the Collective, THAT is my sin, I should have been more heavy-handed!" Sol''s hair shed brightly gold and along with it the sigil on his hand which connected him to Ikaris and the others began shining as it grew up his arm and across his exposed chest and stopped beneath his left eye across his nose.

    "No more!"

    "No more holding back!"

    "No more code of honour!"

    "No more... No more..."

    "NO MORE SOL VESTIC!!" He roared extending his mana across the Passage like a veil and incinerating a majority of the enemies as he burned through his powers like gasoline in open fire. "I just need to destroy everyst agent of the Emporium and then it''ll all be fixed, right!?"

    "I''m not giving up," He caught one of the three Vice-Captains and broke his hand before he could break free. "I just need to be stronger, I''ll break my own collective if that''s what it takes to get rid of you all, I''ll be the Godyer you used to fear, I''ll be the golden death you all despise so much, I''ll herald your destruction!!"

    "What is this?" Lumi stood abruptly and turned to the door. "This is not in ordance to fate!"

    "Would you intervene and cause his death to prove the will of your fate?" Ikaris asked with her eyes gently locked onto her child who had fallen asleep after being fed. "Would you kill my husband for trying to survive?"

    "If it is fate''s will, then I would."

    "How is that any different than what HIM Above All did?" A asked and Lumi stopped at the door and looked around at her with wide almost frantic eyes.

    "I act ording to fate," She argued. "He acted against it."

    "If you''re so driven by fate then why haven''t you thought that the reason you were able to stop him is because fate has more in store for the Godyer, aren''t you just doing this to prove a point? Isn''t this just your personal belief clouding your judgement to prove a point that fate is absolute!?" Dina snapped standing and pointing at her.

    "You''re no different than HIM you''re just as blind, you preach on fate and call yourself an emissary but you''re just like the rest of us!"

    "Lumi, you''re blind!"

 Chapter 244 : Standoff.

    Lumi wanted to refute, she wanted to deny this brazen little human from what she considered an insignificant sector the admission that she was correct, but she was, Dina''s words hadnded squarely on their mark and it left the emissary speechless with her mouth half agape and her eyes slightly narrowed.

    "You know just as much as we all do that he has the ability to ovee this and if not then apromise which will lead to him living, he''s been denying fate ever since he first set foot amongst the living, Master has done everything in his power time and time again to perform miracles beyond belief, he didn''t do any of that because of fate, it was his own strength!" Dina huffed.

    "You''re no better than the demons if you take our only hope away; you''ll have subjected this entire collective to death."

    "Unless fate decides that we should all die with the Godyer who protects us," Ikaris looked up from the baby again, smiling tiredly and then leaned down with Sara''s help and closed her eyes. "Do as you please, emissary of fate, none here has the power to stop you either way."

    "You speak as though you are the one giving me an option." Lumi stared at Ikaris with frustration etched across her forehead. "Do you believe you hold any power here?"

    "I know I do not, I know more than anyone else here how horrifyingly powerful you are, Lumi, I am aware how powerless I am before you," Ikaris replied without even looking at her again.

    "And that is why I have resigned myself to your choice, so you hold all of our lives in your hands now, you and your fate," She caressed the sleeping child''s face and smiled sadly at her.

    "I would rather die than live in a reality where my love does not exist either way, for such a reality is evesting torment.

    "Agreed," A spoke up followed by Dina who took her seat and closed her eyes.

    "Yeah, it''s pointless if he''s not there."

    "Master Vestic is my all, I have already suffered and epted his death twice, I will only choose that he lives regardless of what happens afterwards," Sara dered after the three.

    Lumi said nothing for the longest while, she had been dead set on ending everything but as they had all epted that she was stronger and therefore unstoppable she found the strength within herself to stop before she made a mistake and acted for personal gain.

    "Then this too must be the will of fate," Lumi conceded and walked back to her seat, closing her eyes and sitting next to Ikaris again while everyone else in the building remained silent after witnessing what the four of them had done. "I will remain passive as I usually do and act only if a force simr to mine acts."

    "Thank you," Ikaris smiled again and cuddled in the bed.

    "Ikaris..." Dina rested her hand on Ikaris''s leg looking at the circles beneath her eyes. "Are you sure you''re okay, you look-"

    "It is okay, Dina, I''ll be fine as soon as he returns, I am only worried," Ikaris smiled and peered an eye open to address her properly. "Worried that he will change after today."

    "Worried that he has yet to meet his daughter."

    ***

    They weren''t outside so they hadn''t been aware, and Lumi was not obligated to share what she was seeing with them, but Sol was in terrible shape, he was indeed killing his enemies, he was tearing through their ranks at speeds akin to genocide; it was a ughter.

    However, it wasing at a price, a very steep one.

    The power it took to kill a single enemy was beyondprehension, he had burned through half his powers to get this far already and there seemed to be no end to what he initially thought were just tens of thousands of them, not A, not Arkadia, not even H��l was this bad. This was the first time he had ever put this much effort into anything and it was hardly yielding fast enough results.

    His mana was being replenished by the collective he connected to but the speed at which he had to siphon it to keep himself atop the fight had already drained a noticeable portion of the whole ck leaving nothing, just like Origin the stars vanished and the great mass of power which tethered everything together was crushed and absorbed, thousands, tens of thousands, a universe for every Artificial Vatui, and yet he was still unable to kill the Captain or the remaining vice-captains of his ship.

    His mind had gone numb and his thoughts narrowed to the simple desire to tear them apart at whatever cost, it was not berserker nor was it any state of madness, he needed to be aware of Ikaris''s condition and that of their child and everyone else, he couldn''t afford to lose track, instead he set a timer and gave himself a deadline in which all before him must beid to waste.

    Sol blocked blows from the two remaining Vice-Captains, each attack sending fissures through his body and leaving evidence of their damage even after he had healed the wounds, but before he could retaliate he was bombarded by the others, it was a formation that was wearing him down even faster than his powers were being exhausted as their attacks tore his flesh, broke segments of his mana which he had to heal, and left serrations across his soul which he had to forcibly close while he kept fighting.

    Every swing of his fists left another dead universe, every time he took a hit the tree groaned as though it connected with him more than even he realised, the golden branches that stretched forever in every direction across the collective slightly dimmed with each critical blow he suffered but he never stopped fighting, confining his battle to one universe and causing irreparable tears across that reality...

    the stars had all shattered, stretched intones and clouds of chaotic cosmic dust.

    A battle that was supposed to take a few hours to a day, dragged over to a week of endless bloodletting and violence and at the end of it Sol''s left eye had been blinded by a weapon tearing across his face from his forehead to his cheek, he had visibly lost almost half his body mass and the gold in his hair was thinned and nearly white inparison to before, a very light yellow, the rings had cracks across them, and he was missing three fingers on his right arm from his attempt to block the attack that took his eye.

    On the opposing side, only the Captain remained.

    Everyone was dead, torn apart violently over the course of the battle, some mangled beyond recognition and others gone altogether.

    The captain was in worse shape than Sol; he had a missing arm and his suit''s power had been used and overused until it was merely dead fabric over his skin, his cape was no more than a small red piece of cloth across his shoulders and he had numerousrge scars that had healed thanks to PowerPoint and the Vatui cells inside of him but just like Sol he was now at his limit, both of them had stopped fighting for hours and just stood before each other thinking of ways to win and simting fights in their heads.

    They had found a drifting, a small one with dead flora and burns across its frozen surface being lit by the billions of stars which had been torn apart around them.

    With his good hand resting on his knee the man stared at Sol while he caught his breath, regarding him with shock, curiosity and fear.

    "How have you remained hidden?" He asked, panting and heaving.

    "I was never hiding," Sol answered. "I was just living my life peacefully, with my Wife... my women, with my friends and then you people came and tried killing her, I won''t stop until you''re all dead, mark my words...!" Sol raised his hand and summoned his hammer stumbling forward and catching his bnce while the captain extended his hand and called his weapon over.

    "You are a mere child, you know nothing of the horrors that thing you call a wife hasmitted Ikaris of the n of the same name which she created, she is a demon, a monster, had you any idea of what she has done-"

    "It doesn''t matter, do you think it would matter?" Sol raised his good brow.

    "She could be the king of all hells, I''d still protect her, she is the mother of my child and the love of my life, I don''t care if she burned a full of old people or thousands of them, the Ikaris I know is evestingly good, who seeks to do right by others and practices good deeds she shies away from killing and is passive unless provoked otherwise, it''s not for any kind of atonement she genuinely just gives a shit about others and wants to live normally and raise our child," Sol closed his eye and began growling.

    "She has no memory of a time past, whatever crimes she''smitted she has already paid for them with innumerable years of solitude, loss and suffering-"

    "I dont-"

    "That''s why I won''t let you have her!" Sol''s hair exploded with vibrant gold again and the captain''s eyes widened in horror. "I won''t let you touch her, I won''t!!" He mmed his hammer into the ground causing cracks to run across the entire and return to him sending chunks off into the void around them.

    "Ikaris will die, one way or another, she will meet her end, her destiny is to be harvested, that is her fate!!" The Captain raised his hand and parried the rocks floating towards him.

    *DUN*

    Upon the mention of that word, the man felt the Vatui cells inside of him attempt to flee from Sol causing blood to gush from his skin through his pours.

    "Fate...?"

 Chapter 245 : Sleeping Apocalypse.

    "Fate is the driving force of-"

    "AAARGH this again- fate means nothing to me!" Sol snapped. "What the fuck is wrong with you all!?" He grabbed his hand and started pulling at it, tearing out golden strands and roaring as the brilliance of his mana returned while the great vein above them dimmed and went ck. "Fate this, fate that...

    fate is bullshit, you''re all fools..." Sol''s left eye lit up and began bleeding golden blood again. "I''ll show you, I''ll prove to you," He dragged his fingers across his skin tearing his flesh and screeching while the general furrowed his bald brows and turned.

    "This madman, I can''t tell what he intends to do but I can tell it''s dangerous, if I don''t retreat now I''m as good as dead!" The Captain spun and burst into a sprint leaping off the surface and flying away with all the power he could muster within his broken body.

    "You don''t get to decide, no light, no darkness, no emissary, no captain, no emporium, no god, no human, no fucking fate gets to choose my life and death or those of anyone I love! Nobody! I live as I wish and I''ll die when it suits me, I won''t be ruled, I won''t be governed!

    I won''t adhere to yourws and rules!!" Sol''s teeth gnashed and broke bing serrated and his nails grew sharp and tall apanied by two horns growing from the sides of his head and curving forward.

    Already half a gxy away the captain turned and sighed when he saw a breach opening before him and then quickly began rushing towards it with his eyes trained on where Sol was supposed to be, but right as the vessel on the other side pierced the veil the Captain was skewered by the sharp end of Sol''s hammer and held up like bait.

    "What the hell is that?" The leader of the iing vessel leaned forward when he saw what looked like a beast drive the back end of a hammer through someone.

    "Sir, I can''t find any more vitals, just these two... just that one," the man wearing the pilot''s uniform spoke up and the leader sighed and held his forehead watching Sol sh the captain towards them and roar through the void.

    "What do we do, that man who was just killed is unmistakably the first Captain, is this something we can handle?" A short woman next to the leader looked up at him, crimson eyes and white hair caught in a ponytail with sses made her seem like an otherworldly librarian, and her small and soft stature simr to A''s gave her the presence of a harmless individual.

    Unlike the captain who had been mercilessly in, the man she addressed as "sir" had no trace of the PowerPoint drug, nor did he have any signs of using the artificial Vatui form, he had dark-tanned skin, short red hair and blue eyes contrasting them, he was wearing a battlesuit of the same colour as his hair and on his hip rested a traditional sword the same length as his arm.

    "Genera." The short woman called again after the man spent an extended amount of time staring at Sol with his eyes wide and unblinking.

    "This Godyer managed to kill off an entire lesser armada by himself and then impressively he destroyed the First Captain''s whole militia, I would lie if I said I''m not excited to meet him, after seeing what he just did to my captain I''m shaking for a chance to fight him, I haven''t seen this level of warrior since the war, I haven''t felt such bloodlust since the old days...!" The general grinned wickedly.

    "He''s looking at us, he wants us dead, he wants to tear us apart, it''s fascinating seeing a true warrior after all this time!" He rested his hand on the handle of his sword.

    Sol stared at them for several long seconds, the entire invasion from the captain''s side had been dealt with, he had managed to fight off and kill them all from multiple fronts and leave no soldier alive, but here before him was someone who made his skin crawl when their eyes made four, this man in the red suit was someone he recognised from Jenifer''s memories.

    Viktor Flint; General of the 100th Armada.

    A real monster of the Emporium hade this time; Viktor was hailed across the collective as one of the strongest of all time, his chaotic charisma coupled with his merciless dispatch of Vatui and Godyer enemies made him renowned stemming from as far back as the war, Sol had to admit to himself that he didn''t want to fight this man...

    but if he was already here then he really didn''t have a choice.

    "I ...want to fight this creature, I want to spill his blood with my own hands," Viktor cackled staring at Sol but he made no move to carry out his desires, instead his smile slowly faded into a frown and his hand gently released his sword.

    "Unfortunately, he has caused too much trouble, since the 100th has been destroyed I don''t have the luxury of taking him lightly, have you found any indication of Ikaris''s presence in this collective?" He looked at the short woman again and she lowered her sses and stared for several seconds as her pupils rapidly dted and shrunk and then stopped moving revealing her iris to be vertically slit.

    "There are signs of her being in several ces, Sir, and that Godyer has the strongest scent on him, but for some reason, I can''t find her anywhere."

    "That''s good enough, we can figure out what collective she fled toter, let''s wrap things up here first, this collective stinks of Vatui activity, start at the oldest universe and work your way out, destroy everything."

    "As ordered," The woman fixed her sses again and saluted stepping towards the screen and appearing on the other side before Sol, holding her hand over her head and lowering a gun almost asrge as herself appearing in sparks and shes of nano-light.

    "I will exterminate thergest," She stared at Sol as she spoke while he had frozen upon sensing her presence, she was not artificial like the others, this woman was a real Vatui, and judging by the power he sensed within her she was far above the Celestial Order; she was stronger than he was and yet he didn''t hesitate as soon as her weapon settled in her grasp Sol appeared at her side swinging.

    She didn''t move a muscle, instead, it was the general who appeared at her side and blocked the hammer by casually cing the hilt of his sword in the way.

    "Oho, he truly is strong." The general chuckled staring at Sol''s shocked face. "Maybe if I had apanied Warden as he had suggested upon discovering news of Ikaris I would have been able to fight you while you had the strength to resist me, but it is toote for such pleasantries now, Godyer..."

    "In the end," Lumi opened her eyes drawing everyone''s attention to herself. "Fate was proven to be true."

    General Flint smiled and waved his sword forcing Sol to block the weapon but shocking him out of his mind when the casual action sent him spiralling out of control and crashing through the barrier of the dead universe and flying so fast he crashed into another.

    If that had been all then he would have simply rushed back and found some way to fight them, but after stopping and focusing his vision again he was met face to face with the General once more in the motion of slowly swinging his sheathed sword.

    Something was off though, Sol''s attention after he dodged the sloppy swing and retreated paces away he felt a pain in the core of his mana foundation, and immediately recognised this as a universe being killed, the Vatui woman, whatever she had fired had already torn through one and was on its way to the core of another with the ultimate goal being Origin where Darkness and Sitri were sealed.

    It moved at impossible speeds but it wasn''t instantaneous so Sol was able to react; he stuck his thumb out and stabbed himself in his chest with his nail using his blood as a catalyst and causing the entire collective to shift, on a smallerary scale nothing seemed to happen, but from the outside the entire collective had shifted causing the projectile to tear through the wall of another universe and harmlessly fly off into the passage.

    "Sir..." The woman pressed her hand against her ear and called. "Did something happen, I lost contact with the main Comms for a moment there."

    "Sure did." The general chuckled with his heel pressed against Sol''s forehead and his sword pinning him down to the hilt through his chest on an asteroid. "This one is interesting, he injured himself and the entire collective shifted almost as if it resonated with him," He told her what happened from his side.

    "He is stronger than he appears, I have seen Godyers who can manipte clusters inside of a collective, but this is the first time I have seen a collective bend to the will of one, it is almost a shame that he must die here today."

    "... I won''t." Sol grabbed the general''s foot and tried pushing him away, but it was quickly proven to be an impossibility causing him to abandon the effort.

    "The fuck are you even saying?" The general snickered. "You don''t even have the strength to fight my second inmand what the hell do you think you can do against me?" He asked and a momentter he was staring at a random star after hearing what sounded like someone snapped their fingers.

    "...ah, how annoying," he turned around and caught Sol''s punch crushing his fist and attempting to grab him but Sol vanished from his grasp and appeared mere feet away with his hand healed and his hair zing again.

    "I can''t fight anymore." Sol lowered his gaze and then looked up at the General with a frown as his appearance reverted to his original Godyer form. "This is the first time I''ve ever retreated from a fight."

    "As if I''d allow you to-"

    The general reached for Sol with all the speed he could ess but failed to catch him several times consecutively. "Huh ...what the hell?"

    "I said I''m retreating, it doesn''t matter how much stronger than me you are, this is my domain, if I want to get away nothing can stop me, but don''t worry, General Viktor Flint of the 100th, I''ll remember today I''ll remember how you all attacked me, I''ll rembers how you tried murdering my wife and newborn, I''m never forgetting any of it, I''ll let it grow within me and fester like the seed of hatred it is, I''ll keep it close to my heart I''ming after the Emporium with everything I''ve got ...and the next time we meet..." Sol extended his hands rapidly while the general tried reaching him again, the white in his eyes were reced by ck and the gold across his body turned to crimson as he began roaring creating an infinity between the two of them and preventing the man from touching him.

    "I''LL BE RIDING WITH HELL BEHIND ME, I''LL BE COMING FOR YOU ALL, EMPORIUM FILTH!"

    "No!" Finch roared and swung his sword in the empty space. "Fuck!"

    "Sir?"

    "Alert the Emporium, we have a real problem here, that boy is one of the most powerful Godyers I''ve ever met, and the only one able to outpace me, if he finds the others it''s gonna be chaos in the Grand Collective."

    "He got away from you?" She fixed her sses and released her gun watching it dismantle and condense into a ring which she caught and ced on her finger again. "How?"

    "It doesn''t matter, that might have been my only chance to get rid of him without a catastrophe, we need to set every sector on high alert, I''ve never seen eyes like those before, I have never felt this level of uneasiness until seeing his expression... we''ve awakened a sleeping Apocalypse."

 Chapter 246: Khalla-Nova.

    "I did not experience his power, I at least agree that he is dangerous but isn''t it a bit of a stretch to call him a sleeping apocalypse?" The short Captain in sses sat next to Victor and crossed her legs, ying with the ring on her finger as she reminisced on how the entire collective had shifted to Sol''s will.

    On his ship once more General Victor Flint was seated with his cheek rested on his fist and his other hand tapping his chair impatiently as they travelled through the dead universe on their way to another.

    "I''m telling you, Cecelia, that boy is a proper monster if I''ve ever witnessed one, I should have killed him when I had the chance," the general answered her inquiry with a trickle of sweat rolling down his forehead. "I fucked up, this will cost the Emporium."

    "Sir-"

    "He is Ikaris''s guardian, Cecelia, he is Godyer to the most feared and ruthless enemy the emporium has ever seen, even in the prime of her days of battle she stood alone and uncontested, but this man has not only tamed her, he made a wife of her, he made a mother out of her, this can only mean that he is stronger than she is, you know better than I how your kind value power over all else...

    he is a devil clothed in angel''s gold... so yea, I fucked up," He looked at her after speaking loudly causing the entire cockpit to stare at him in worry. "We have to destroy this entire collective and all of them with it-"

    "Sir!"

    "What now!?" The general snapped as soon as he was interrupted from his plotting and self-loathing.

    "W-we have a reading of the Godyer''s power again, he''s appeared in-"

    "Take us there immediately!" Victor leapt from his seat andnded before the cockpit drawing his de and staring out as the pilot gave the order. "This is a thread of luck, we have to make good on this opportunity while it still exists..." He paused and looked at the pilot next to him. "...where exactly is he?"

    "The very centre of the collective, sir, their nexus universe."

    "Why the hell would he go somece like that?" He raised a brow. "If he wanted time to recuperate he should have chosen a freshly birthed realm, not the slowest -but I won''t challenge hismon sense, this is good for us, can you tell what he''s doing from here?" Victor turned to Cecelia and she lowered her sses again, walked up to his side and stared outwards.

    "It''s strange." She answered squinting her eyes. "There''s arge amount of power being expelled where he is and there isn''t even a single source of light there aside from him, also, unlike every other nexus I''ve ever seen, that ce doesn''t have a single whisper of life inside of it, by the looks of it everything seems to have been destroyed intentionally."

    "Godyers have never been able to interact with the nexus of their collective, but considering how powerful the bastard is it makes sense, he was able to shift the whole fucking thing, after all." Victor scoffed.

    "Should I try aiming for it again, or at him this time, Sir?" Cecelia rested her fingers on her ring prepared to carry out his order upon confirmation

    "No, he''d just avoid it again, let''s focus on getting there as fast as possible instead. He boasted on his ability to be untouchable, but I won''t let him get away a second time."

    ***

    "Master, what are you doing, can you exin?" Alpha appeared by Sol''s side after he pulled her from The Grey.

    "They know my face, they know my power, they won''t stoping, they''ll kill every living being in this Collective unless I do this," Sol had an expression of focus as he continued extending his mana as far as he could sense taking hold of every universe by following the pathways of the tree and roots.

    Your adventure continues at m v|l-e''-NovelBin

    "But what exactly is it that you are trying to aplish?" Alpha asked again after nodding in agreement, she observed and witnessed Sol''s mana reserves be finite for the first time since his fight against Demon Lord Orion as it took everything he had to grasp the entire collective and keep it from expanding any further, in doing so even the dead and sick parts of the divine tree that had suffered from his previous fights were provided with sustenance again.

    "I''m doing the only thing I can do to protect you all."

    "Even I?" Alpha was taken aback by his response as she followed his pathways and found the enemies in a rapid approach.

    "You''ve done a lot, the power I have today is undoubtedly because of your system, without you I''d have probably ended up being an average Godyer, Alpha, I don''t want to lose you either, having a guiding line inside of my mind has led to me growing far stronger than myself or anyone else ever expected," Sol sighed and lowered his hands as his hair went from gold, flickered to white and then turned to its original brown.

    "You''re also a part of my family, you''re also important," he huffed and crossed his legs simting a replica of the tree before himself. "Besides, there are things that only you can do."

    "...I see," She nodded again to his words and then looked across the collective at the Emporium ship once more. "Then, instead of asking what your intent is I should be asking what you need of me," She copied his posture. "I am at your disposal, master."

    "I want you to prepare the most powerful railgun you can, ignore the ship, ignore everything else and focus all your power on that," Sol closed his blinded eye and looked at her with his good eye.

    "A weapon to be used against the Emporium ship I suppose, if I focus all my power from across the collective as thin as possible I may be able to mimic power close to yours destructively, is that your desire?" She asked and he shook his head.

    "No, it doesn''t need to be offensive at all, I want you to shoot me off into the deep, it''ll give me a jumpstart once they catch up, go ahead and calcte anything you need."

    "... Master, is your intent-"

    "I''m going to Kha-Nova, to Jenifer''s collective." Sol closed his eye and began focusing again.

    "Something strange is happening across the collective." Cecelia took off her sses and rested her hand on the dash before her, pulling up a real-time scan of the closest realm and watching the numbers it processed rapidly falling. "What the hell..."

    "What?"

    "They''re disappearing, the collective is shrinking in the direction of the Godyer, at this rate we will be inside of the passage again within the hour!" She snapped and looked at the general. "Sir, he''s going to run and he''s taking everything with him."

    "How soon until we reach him?" Victor asked his analysts and watched the three people in a panel by themselves rapidly going over numbers and then look at him.

    "We are moving at roughly the same speed as the clusters are disappearing, sir, at this speed, we will be there a few minutes earlier than they all vanish or a few minutester if the ship develops anyplications, we are already going at 200% the threshold, any faster and we face exhausting the core or overheating the main driver, they are partially sentient after all, there''s a limit to how much either can take before they need to rest."

    "If we''re within visual or sensory distance I don''t need to rely on the ship, just prepare to attack him as soon as he''s in sight."

    They waited from both sides, after Sol had taken Alpha outside of the beginning he had left a small tear norger than a strand of hair, and that allowed her to freely traverse each side andmunicate with Ikaris and the others, showing them what was happening in real-time through visual connection.

    The general and his ship held their breaths when Origin''s border came into view and before they could breach to enter that too vanished.

    "There!" Cecelia pointed at Sol and Victor leapt forward madly reaching out and then swinging his sword as the distance between him and the Godyer copsed.

    "Begone!" Alpha waved her hands and a powerful force crashed into the general''s chest and sent him caving through the darkness away from Sol just as he opened his hands wide again.

    "Cecelia!" Victor snapped and she rushed out immediately transforming her weapon from her ring and aiming at Sol''s head intent to st him to kingdome, but again Alpha proved to be a valuable obstacle as she blocked the signal being sent to the weapon and caused it to malfunction and shatter after sparking.

    "Shit!" Cecelia tossed the debris aside and rushed towards Sol only to crash into the ship a momentter when Alpha used Dina''s [inversion] against her and changed her direction.

    "Master, it is ready." Alpha looked over to Sol and he nodded and sped his hands causing gigantic roots of gold to grow over the remainder of the collective behind them and then vanish in a sh of light.

    The light in Sol''s eyes went out and he began coughing up crimson blood as he held the small mass of light before himself and shoved it into his chest.

    "That direction," He pointed and watched Alpha cause more interference with the ship as it approached while small green rings appeared beneath him like an infinity tunnel.

    "Master, I will sleep for a little after this, good luck," Alpha looked at Sol and then vanished when the tunnel of rings began pulling him, after the first ring Sol was gone like a beam of light, and every ring after that only gave him more speed as he righted himself and focused on going faster as well.

    "You won''t get away from me!!" Victor came ripping the passage between them with his sword ready to cut Sol down, but try as he might he could not reach him, it took only a few secondspared to the hour they had spent getting there, Sol vanished faster than any vessel could ever hope to travel. "Damnit!!" Victor watched Sol''s trajectory and stopped following him when his ship caught up. "Fuck!!"

    "Sir-"

    "He is headed for Kha-Nova, destroy him!"

    "That is the direction of another collective we might destroy-"

    "I said kill him, I''ll take full responsibility, if he makes it to Kha-Nova it''ll take years before we have any idea where to find him we can''t start a war inside of a sister collective!"

    "Very well," the Pilot gave the order, charged the cannon and then fired it straight down the green tunnel of rings that Sol alone could interact with, what he didn''t realise until he lost contact was that the General was surfing on the tip of that beam.

    "I made it...!" Sol extended his hand when Kha-Nova came into view but a momentter reclined and bent in pain when the General''s sword sliced through his back and the two of them mmed into the barrier separating the collective from the passage.

    "You won''t-"

    Sol grabbed the sword and teleported it out of his back sending it spiralling off into the void only to see the general reach and grab it and turn to stab him again.

    "You can''t stop me!" Sol reached for the man in a rage as more blood sprung from his mouth and nose as he overexerted himself using thest drop of mana he could spare forcing himself into a state of divinity once more with one inverted eye and his hair half white and half brown.

    With this power he caught the de aimed for his neck through his palm and grabbed the hilt of the sword, pressed his heels against the man''s chest and kicked them apart.

    "I''ll be seeing you, General, mark my words!" Sol crashed through the barrier and pointed to the man, severing his hand and then vanishing before Victor could reach to him again.

    "You''ll all burn for this!!"

 Chapter 247: Heavens Dew.

    "We''ve... lost track of him, Sir," Cecelia rested her hands on in herp, while he paced around in the cockpit biting his nails.

    "Of course, we did, if his kind were easy to find and capture we''d never need to go through such great lengths; them and the Vatui are perfect at blending in -he might as well have turned into the wind!" Victor snapped at her and clenched jaws with a distressed expression.

    "Even at death''s door, the only thing that bastard could think of was fighting, he didn''t retreat at all he did it because he had her to protect," The general sat and rubbed his forehead after feeling a pang of pain. "He took an entire collective with him, was that even possible, has anyone ever done something like that before?" He looked up at Cecelia and she stared in herp again.

    "Before I betrayed my people and joined the Emporium, there was a popr legend of ancient Godyers capable of rending entire collectives apart," Cecelia began.

    "You have never mentioned anything like this to me before," Victor raised his gaze at her.

    ***

    "Sir, you see me as nothing more than a weapon on the days when your mood is best, it wouldn''t have made a difference to you who only see Vatui and Godyer kind as resource."

    "...fair enough,"

    From one system to another, from one gxy to the next, breaking through multiple barriers and venturing deeper into the Kha-Nova Collective Sol leapt and kept moving using the reserves he had sparingly and leaving no evidence of his presence behind.

    "When these Godyers were pushed to extreme lengths they could do unbelievable things -in fact, the great war before my time was said to have ended because of one Godyerying waste to both sides, but I always believed it was a mere children''s story, a fantastical lie to entertain us,"

    "And now, do you still think this is a children''s story, Cecelia, when we have all seen him move an impossible mass and then steal it from its ce, do you think he could be such a being?"

    "I... Don''t know, even if he is strong, I am stronger, there are many others who are stronger than myself who didn''t die in the war and are still unounted for, from both Vatui and Godyer sides, Ikaris is the first contact we have had with Vatui nobility since their disappearance."

    ***

    Far in a remote system where the Emporium had yet to invade inside of the Kha-Nova Collective, Sol appeared in the atmosphere of a sentient and habitable bustling with life, crashed through the clouds like a meteor from deep space and decimated an entire forest upon entry causing a ditch several miles long as thend served as brakes when he failed to stop himself, but even with all the destruction he had caused and how weakened he had be, by the time the locals could make it to his location he was long gone.

    Thousands of miles away he finally stopped moving,ing to a halt beneath arge tree reselling redwood and slumping against it with a sigh, looking at his severed hand and thinking about everything he had been through in thest day. "Unforgivable," he mumbled.

    "Absolutely unforgivable, I''ll never let go of this grudge!" He ced his hand against his chest and extended his stump of a hand, using the most basic mana to restore it before falling unconscious.

    Time passed, it was unclear how much time but when his eyes opened again he was not in the forest, he was not in a clinic or hospital either, it was a bedroom, sitting next to the bed was Ikaris with a sleeping child in herp as she hummed a familiar tune, and further away A was stirring away over a pot and slightly sweating, visibly exhausted.

    "..."

    He blinked several more times and then raised his hand and rubbed his eyes causing the entire room to go static. "A, Ikaris, what''s going on, where are we?" He asked.

    "Master!" A eximed dropping the spoon she had been using, running to the side of the bed and falling to her knees, she was dressed as amoner and these clothes were most definitely not modern, in fact, they seemed even more dated than Arkadian fashion. "Master!" A cried out again and took his hand hugging it to her cheek. "You''re awake..." She smiled and wept at the same time.

    "Wee back, master." Alpha greeted him with a bow, and Sol took a moment to gather his thoughts before he rested his hand on A''s head and looked at Ikaris when she stood, she didn''t seem her usual self, there was an air of seriousness to her that he hadn''t seen since she first introduced herself, but even more than that Sol''s eye twitched and his anger began rapidly surging when he saw a mark on her cheek, the distinct mark of a handprint from being pped.

    "Who put their hand on you?" Sol tried sitting up but was attacked by a headache that caused him to slump and cradle his head in shock.

    "Do you wish to hear the full story, Dear?" Ikaris asked in a calm and soft tone calming Sol down without raising a finger.

    He took a deep breath, ced his hand over his left eye and shook his head in the negative when she smiled sweetly and approached him, sitting on the bed next to him and then resting the baby in hisp.

    The Emporium, generals, captains, Vatui, Godyers; everything that had happened in thest month of his life suddenly felt irrelevant the moment Sol''s eyes locked on to the child in hisp, her little lips curved in a toothless smile and she raised her hand and reached for his face pinching his lip and then beganughing.

    "Hi," So whispered in a soft and delicate voice causing her smile to widen when she heard him. "Hey there, do you know who I am," He raised his finger above her chest and she grabbed hold of it and began squeezing tightly.

    Upon her flesh touching his flesh Sol saw his entire life sh before his eyes, every right, every wrong every little deed he had ever done, and at the end of this trip, he raised and kissed her knuckle as tears began falling. "My name is Sol," He sniffled and smiled at her. "I''m your dad," He sniffled and then broke into more silent tears biting his lips and kissing the baby''s hand again.

    "Don''t worry, Daddy won''t ever let those bad men touch you, I won''t ever let themy their mitts on your precious little self." His tone was soft but his anger was evident and it caused the baby to scrunch her nose and begin whimpering same as him. Continue reading on m|v-l''e -NovelBin

    "Master..." A had sobered up seeing Sol cry like that.

    "She has been a joy to wake to every morning, and a blessing to fall asleep with just like her dad," Ikaris smiled and kissed Sol''s cheek. "We''ve missed you, my love, I have missed your voice."

    "How long have I been unconscious?" Sol asked.

    "Two weeks," A answered and Sol nodded and looked down at the child again. "Did you-"

    "I would never," Ikaris shook her head. "I have waited, that honour belongs to you, her father and my saviour, she is the miracle born of my womb through your blessing, our blood flows through her..." Ikaris rested her finger on the baby''s forehead and her other hand on his cheek.

    "Husband, my love, Sol, I present to you my greatest and most beloved creation, sired by you and blessed with your gift of unconditional love; our daughter, I beg that you bestow our firstborn with a name befitting her noble existence so that we may rejoice her birth atst." Ikaris drew closer and rested her cheek against Sol''s chest and smiled at the child who stared at them both curiously.

    "Then..." Sol smiled and kissed Ikaris''s head. "From today onwards, I and everyone else will call you Talia, let the heavens know your name and let hell fear it, you are a gift from the aether, a blessing of light and a promise of hope; Heaven''s Dew." Sol kissed her clenched fist again and watched a shimmer of light pass through her eyes as she began crying for the first time since being born.

    "Talia..." Ikaris smiled. "My first, as I am eternal life, I will protect you till my dying breath andy my soul second to yours, I will cherish and love you till the day I draw myst eternity," Ikaris began weeping above the child.

    "I love you, I love you with all my heart, body and soul, don''t worry you won''t be alone, I hope to bring you a baby brother soon," She blushed and smiled when Sol''s lips pressed on her head again. "As many little siblings as will make you happy."

    "I pray your name be a blessing for your allies and judgement for your enemies." A smiled and rested her palm against Sol''s leg staring at him and Ikaris. "My life too will beid before you, Princess of all Heavens."

    [All hail Talia Vestic, Firstborn daughter to the throne of creation.]

    [A new entity has been sired atst, born from the union of the two greatest powers to ever exist]

    [Long live her Highness the Princess.]

 Chapter 248: The Envy of all Men.

    Amotion outside alerted them that something was rapidly on the approach and Sol raised his head with a smile and looked to the only door in the room waiting for a few seconds before Dina and Sara ran through, and then after them, a young man and then an older woman stopped there before another older man came and stood behind her resting his hand on the woman''s shoulder. Experience more tales on m v|l e''-NovelBin

    Of the three new faces, the man had light brown hair with blue eyes, he was also tall and muscr with visibly calloused fingers and a tired expression on his shocked face as he stared at Sol who smiled at Dina when she grabbed his cheeks and began kissing his forehead repeatedly while Sara fell to the bed on his other side and held on to his hand.

    The woman at the door also had brown hair but instead of blue eyes she had brown eyes as well, she was adorned with a few wrinkles and seemed to be the eldest of the three and she too had the figure of someone who was used to hardbour, and the young man that had walked in after Sara and Dina had the lightest of the three''s eyes and hair he sighed and smiled when he saw the women surrounding Sol who sat with the baby in his arms and a slightly confused expression on his face.

    "After two weeks he truly did wake, hm?" the woman spoke first and behind her the man nodded with a serious expression as he regarded Sol''s appearance, he had been sceptical of Ikaris''s words but seeing the young man she and the others had adored awake and seemingly healthy had eased his doubts.

    "I am a little shocked," The woman spoke seriously and then turned and pushed the man out of her way as she left. "You have the rest of the day."

    "There''s a lot I need to know..." Sol took Dina''s hand from his cheek and stared at her palm. "Dina, you''ve been doing fieldwork?" He furrowed his brows seeing the light scratches and feeling the altered texture of her skin. "Why?"

    "Our stay here has been... Conditional," Ikaris answered in Dina''s stead since she was in the middle of waterworks.

    "What does that mean?" Sol slid across the bed and rested his feet on the warm wooden ground. "Did they force you to-"

    "No, not force, I would never force ady to do such work," Therge man at the door entered scratching his bearded cheek and shaking his head. "They offered this service as an alternative..."

    "...Alternative? Alternative to what?" Sol looked from the man to Dina and she lowered her gaze, as did A and Sara while Ikaris stared at him with what he could easily sense to be discontent. "Ikaris?"

    "For one man to have three wives and a maidservant, you must be of noble birth or a soldier of the Empire, but this is no ce for idle hands and extra mouths, when you didn''t wake after the first ten days I suggested marrying one of these four women to my son there, he is of age, but my suggestion was met with hostility and nigh violence, I have never seen women defend themselves so furiously, they nearly attacked me," the man stroked his scrubby beard as he spoke watching for a reaction, but all he got was Sol''s peripheral stare.

    "Who hit her?" Sol asked, looking at the marks on Ikaris''s cheek again. "Who did it?"

    "Calm down-"

    "Was it you?" Sol''s eyes widened with rage as he looked around at them again and the man stopped talking while the younger male took a few steps towards the door neither of them had any power capable of sensing Sol''s hostility, but his stare alone was a chilling one which left them at a loss of words when it became evident that he could in fact kill them of he wished to.

    "Master," Ikaris rested her hand on Sol''s leg and knelt between his thighs kissing the baby in his grasp. "Be nice, they were kind enough to take us in and allow me to nurse you back to health."

    "Someone hit you-"

    "Do not let it trouble you so." Ikaris shook her head again and kissed Talia''s soft cheeks on e more. "Your mood affects us all, my love."

    "I am f Kivanc, this is my son, Berk, and the woman from earlier is my older sister, Halga, I am sure that you have a lot of questions about what has happened over thest two weeks of youra, I will wait for you in the field tomorrow morning, we can speak about your future," f nodded seriously and then gestured to his son who took the queue and left before his father did.

    "Do not take too long to wake, I am not a patient man." He stated matter-of-factly and then left, closing the door behind himself.

    "Haah~" Ikaris sighed and rested her cheek on Sol''s leg. "You scared us to death, why did you take so long to wake?" She asked, but Sol could not answer what he didn''t know, thest thing he remembered was the forest.

    "Talia," Dina whispered, looking over Sol''s shoulders and hugging him from behind. "Heavens Dew, such a sweet name."

    "Indeed," Sara smiled.

    "How did you get out of The Grey?" Sol asked. "Was it Lumi who helped you?"

    "You do not remember?" A stared at him, shocked. "You summoned us, Master," She stated, falling to his side and curling up next to him. "It was awful, we could not heal your wounds, not even Ikaris."

    "You hid the entire collective within yourself and passed out from the pain, after you brought us out we immediately started seeking shelter and that eventually led us here to f Kivank''snd, he is a farmer, in fact, this entire is a farming, far removed from the Emporium by what Alpha has told us," A answered while Dina sighed and Ikaris closed her eyes falling asleep with her head in hisp.

    "They saw your condition and refused us at first "We don''t want any trouble caused by outsiders" Halga said, but her brother let us stay in this shed and fed us while you were asleep, he is crude but he has good character, he is our benefactor." A continued.

    "He just wanted to have you for himself." Sol had a downcast expression, a violently irrational one as he thought of several wicked ways to murder the man who had set his sights on his women.

    "That may be true, but this ce called Central Province has seriously messed us up, we couldn''t just fly away, we walked for two whole days before we even found them," Dina added and Sol rested his hand on the top of her head and looked at alpha who had appeared again now that they had no visitors.

    "For Dina, Sara and Ikaris, they could likely fight off a few hundred people here, but for A, this ce is quite difficult to interact with," Alpha sat and stared at Sol.

    "The Kha-Nova Collective has drastically dampened her abilities, and this resource is an ancient one ...even after two weeks I am yet to grasp a singlew or manipte anything outside of this room," Alpha raised her hand and an apple appeared in her grasp. "It is the perfect ce to hide and recuperate but it leaves us all at a disadvantage, yourself included.

    "I went across the mountains and tried using [Pulsar] earlier, it was barely fifty metres and the destruction was surface level, this ce has left us all far weaker than we ever were on Arkadia." Dina stared seriously and A nodded...

    "Sara, will you take Talia for a walk?" Ikaris carefully took the babe from Sol''sp and the maid quickly saddled her in her grasp and smiled when the child chuckled at her touch.

    "Hi little sister, we will go on another adventure today~" Sara began ying with her as they left.

    "Sister?" Sol looked at Ikaris.

    "She will make a great elder sister for Talia, Sara is a wonderful role model," Ikaris chuckled waving her hand and conjuring a small pool of warm water above her palm for him. "Drink, love," Ikaris rested her breasts on his legs and braced herself onto him while A held his hand and Dina hugged his body.

    "Drink," She smiled when Sol reached down and sipped the water and then drank the feat when he realised how thirsty he was.

    "How are you feeling, Master?" Dina asked guiding her fingers across the scar on his left eye. "I tried healing the scar over your eye, but it refuses to leave."

    "It''s fine," Sol smiled at her and then looked at A who had buried his hands in her breasts and her own hands into her dress. "Did you miss me that much?" He asked.

    "Did you?" Ikaris asked resting her fingers against the tent in his pants and smiling up at him while Dina began undoing his shirt. "I have craved you, my master."

    "I just woke up from aa," Sol raised an amused brow at all three of them as they aggressively undressed and Ikaris straddled hisp.

    "You are already at peak health," Ikaris paused over him.

    "Of course, I wouldn''t ever neglect my women, you''ve all taken such good care of me, now let me take care of your needs in return," Sol roughly grabbed Ikaris''s nipples and tugged at them causing the tiniest bit of breast milk to squirt out as she closed her eyes and locked her hands around his neck moaning softly in his ear.

    "Master~"

    "I wish to be envied by all men tonight as I am pleased by my women," Sol smiled and turned his head kissing Dina as his erected manhood pressed against Ikaris''s belly and A took hold of it with her eyes coated over in lust.

    "I will not hold my voice," Ikaris sighed and released another soft moan in his ear when his hand found its way between them both, cupping her muff while his finger slowly spread and intruded her.

    "I''ll make up for lost time."

 Chapter 249: A Promise.

    "Three wives," f sat on his roof with arge jar of ale between his legs and his son sitting a few paces away with the same as they both stared across the fields at the small cabin that Sol and everyone else was in. "I have faith in my ability to perform but that boy amazes me."

    "That one who works the field with Dina; Sara, isn''t she a bit cute?" Berk asked taking arge sip of his drink and looking at his father.

    "She has already expressed her distaste at the mere mention of courting, it is unfortunate son, but the only way you have a single one of those four women is by force, and I am sure you''ve already realised it, right?" f looked to the skies with a serious expression.

    "Aye, that man is dangerous, not just him either, all of them are, they are skilled with knives and anything that even remotely resembles a weapon, but he feels different, like I might really die if I touch his women," Berk answered with a nod, sipping from his keg again and releasing a deep sigh,

    "We are simple farmers, maybe it is best if we drive them away peacefully."

    ***

    At dawn after the small family had settled, Sol arose ahead of everyone else and left, he went to the highest point of therge farm atop a windmill and scanned thend, it spanned thousands of acres and was full of fresh and healthy crops of varying sizes and types for what seemed like an endless stretch.

    Sol watched the other workers slowly emerge from other cabins spread across the farm like his and start their daily chores and routines and then he went back inside and greeted Dina with a kiss on her cheek and Sara with a head pat before leaving A and Ikaris sleeping with Talia cushioned between their bosoms.

    "As expected." f didn''t seem the least surprised when he pushed his door open and the first sight that greeted him was that of Sol standing by a column on his porch with his hands in his pockets as he watched the sunrise. "Let''s talk, Sol," he slipped into his shoes and walked past him towards a random unupied and unploughed area of the field, picking up a pickaxe and handing it to Sol.

    For the first hour, the man worked diligently, watching Sol perfectly copy his every swing and effortlessly work by his side until he finally stopped and took a breath.

    "Well?" Sol asked.

    "So, which is it?" f asked and stuck his axe in the ground raising his head, wiping the sweat from his forehead and staring at Sol. "Are you an enemy, a fugitive, or something else?" He pressed.

    "You shouldn''t ask what you''re not ready to be answered,"  Sol continued working. "Are you sure you want that answer?" Sol looked up at him.

    "Hm... maybe not, but I do want you to understand that I''m prioritising my family first, if troublees knocking I won''t protect you, and I am under no obligation to protect any of the women or your child either, maybe if you would give one of them to my son I would consider-"

    f stopped talking when the axe in Sol''s grasp stopped just short of his chest as Solzily regarded him.

    "Listen, I''m grateful, I''m really grateful for you taking us in, but let''s make one thing clear, if you try toy yours or anyone else''s hands on them you''re gonna lose that hand, and then you and whomever try again will lose their life, this is non-negotiable, it is a deal breaker, speaking it is enough to warrant a response..." Sol threatened the man with his farming tool, and very slowly something shocking caused him to lower it:

    That something was fatigue.

    Sol''s eyes narrowed in shock when he felt the strain of holding the axe horizontally for a little over a minute, but he kept hold of his calm and hostile facade as he lowered it, insisting a bountiful amount of fear inside of f who had never been directly threatened to his face before.

    "...which are you, a rebel or a fugitive?" f stared at him, responding after Sol''s hand was at his side again.

    "My money''s on fugitive."

    "What?"

    "If you knew who I was, there would be no way in the skies you would threaten me to my face like this-"

    "I''ve threatened far scarier, I don''t give a shit who you are, if you can''t agree to this one simple rule and stay away from my wives and my sister -you''re already a corpse in my eyes, human, god, demon, it doesn''t matter, I''ll kill you," Sol narrowed his eyes.

    "Ie in peace, I''m eager to live peacefully, but if you somehow manage to cross me I will level this entirend without so much as batting an eye."

    "I now understand a little of why you ended up here in Central Province." f scoffed and began chuckling.

    "Without a doubt, someone ogled and covered your wives in the past and suffered terribly for it, someone with more influence than you, someone nobler, a simple conversation is able to reveal so much about a man and those he associates himself with, isn''t it?" He asked and looked down the slope at his sister who was approaching with tworge steaming dishes of food in her grasp.

    "You think you know me because I threatened you?" Sol looked at Halga as well, taking a passive stance and rxing himself to seem less threatening.

    "I think I can trust you because you threatened me," f smirked.

    "You are definitely not aligned with that filthy empire, you may be violent, Sol, but you are also honest, I don''t actually care if you''re a criminal or not you''re not the first refugee I have taken in and you won''t be thest, just work diligently and we won''t have any problems, you can keep the cabin and add another room with what you earn...

    is that eptable?" f smiled at Halga and took the food from her and watched as Sol gave her a polite bow and smiled as he took the other.

    "Well?" Halga stared at Sol standing before him and waiting for an answer as well. "Will he stay or should I gather the farm to drive them out?" She asked and f cleared his throat and shook his spoon at her.

    "Sister, you should better learn to pick your fights," f poked her shoulder.

    Continue reading on m|v-l''e -NovelBin

    "I have faith in my strength, but I don''t think the entire farm stands a chance if we cross Sol here, the only reason he was injured and on the run was because he had something worth protecting, three loving and doing wives, a little sister as previous as the stars themselves and a newborn baby girl, do not threaten him or them in the future, I promise he will behave."

    "And if he doesn''t?" Halga raised her brow at her younger brother and ced her hands in akimbo.

    "Ms Halga, f, I''m grateful for you not turning my family down when they were in need, in essence, you saved us, you don''t need to worry, I won''t cross any lines as long as neither of you or anyone else doesn''t cross them first, you have my word," Sol smiled at her while f chuckled and began eating.

    "You say that, but how can I possibly believe a word from your mouth?"

    "Because this man is an enemy of the empire you hate so much, Halga," f answered in Sol''s stead. "Can you trust the enemy of your enemy?"

    "The empire eh, what crime did youmit?" She stared at Sol.

    "None, someone of rank tried stealing my wife away, he tried taking her when she was still heavily pregnant he coveted her beauty and sought to take her and intended to kill our child within her, we went on the run because I killed him and his entire regime, and I''ll do the same to anyone who dares to look at her like that again." Sol''s eyes narrowed as he gave them a half-truth.

    "That''s a promise."

    "Interesting one you let in this time brother." Halga stared at f. "Very well, I can believe you, after all that Ikaris of yours is incredibly pure, even by normal standards, she is nigh perfect, she has been envied by the other women here since arriving as have Dina and A, and Sara too, they are all good women," She nodded and took f''s empty te.

    "One more thing," Sol ced his empty te in her grasp and kept his and her gazes locked. "I know you''re the one who hit Ikaris, I don''t know why because she refuses to tell me, but just know that you having a hand at all is a blessing currently, I''ve harmed others for merely staring at her, she is my everything, do not every your hands on my wife again."

    "...understood, for what it''s worth it was my own impudence, I am guilty of being envious as well." Halga sighed. "She merely responded after I crossed a line by also crossing a line."

    "Okay enough talk, there is plenty to do before noon, Halga thank you for the meal," f picked up his axe and drove it into the ground again.

    "Then, I will leave you two to each other''spany, it seems my brother finally found someone who can keep up with him," She gave Sol an apologetic bow and left as promptly as she had arrived.

    "What of Halga?" f asked. "She was too strong a personality to marry by the men who tried courting her, but I think a man like yourself could agree that she is fair enough to bed, right, even if it is only to tame her and get her off my back, you''re not from Central Province but I wouldn''t mind it if you somehow managed to make her a part of your harem-"

    "I have no intention of ever being with another woman, I have no eyes for others outside of my current family they''re not a harem," Sol quickly answered.

    "But you have multiple -"

    "They aren''t a harem," Sol interjected f''sment again. "A harem is the selfish desire of a man who is unsatisfied and desires more, what I have is a family of three wives, I love them and cherish them they''re irreceable and I''d dishonour their love and trust in me if I titled them as anything other than the loves of my life, it''s not a harem, I''m not that selfish," Sol looked at him.

    "We all came to an agreement that we couldn''t live without each other, that''s all."

    "So where are you from, Sol?"

    "Hm?"

    "Don''t kid yourself, there''s no way you''re a noble from Central Province, and there''s no way you aren''t nobility, Ikaris is as regal as a Queen herself which is what led to her and my sister''s disagreement, that short one...

    A is so well-mannered and humble that I can never see her as anything but nobility, and Dina is feisty but also carries herself with the pride and stiff neck of royalty, which gives me the impression that you are also high borne nobility, probably royalty since even your sister has dered herself your maid in an attempt to hide the fact that she is noble.

    "You''re pressing too hard, f," Sol kept his attention on ploughing thend.

    "... Ah, yes, you''re right, old habit, maybe another question then?"

    "Sure."

 Chapter 250: Killers.

    "Master!" A called out, and f raised his head and looked while Sol sat with his eyes closed, she was holding a basket full of food and smiling as she skipped through the plot without disturbing a single de of grass, something the owner of therge farm noticed and furrowed his brows at along with her came Ikaris with Talia and behind them walking with another basket was Halga.

    "Master, I made something yummy for your first day," A excitedly stopped by Sol''s side and gave f a small bow. "Sir, Kivanc."

    "Please, there''s no need for such a noble formality, you can just call me f like everyone else does," He chuckled and scratched his beard.

    "Then... Mr f...?" A stared at him innocently proving that she was incapable of being too formal with anyone regardless of how much she knew them, she was broken into being polite as a child and it never left her.

    "Good grief, this one has a real thumb up her-"

    "Halga," f stared at her. "You must at least try to act a littledy-like yourself y''know, otherwise-"

    "Fuck you," Halga scoffed and pressed the basket against his chest.

    "You, A,e back now there''s things to do in the kitchen-"

    "But I wanted to-"

    "Now I said!" The woman stormed off impatiently while A pouted and sighed.

    "She does not like me much, or I should say at all." A sighed again while Sol stood and petted her head with a smile. "I am sorry master, I will return as soon as I can," She closed her eyes and epted Sol''s kiss on her cheek.

    "Don''t lose patience, A, it won''t be forever, I''ll see youter," Sol poked her cheek and watched her leave in disappointment.

    "Halga is a bit strong-willed, but she means well I promise," f opened his basket and took out what his sister had prepared while Sol held Talia and Ikaris unloaded A''s prepared meal chuckling when Sol raised the baby and kissed her belly.

    "It is so strange how the child never cries, is she alright?" f asked genuinely concerned.

    "She takes after her father, in all the time I have known and been with Sol I have only seen him shed tears once, and it was when he named Talia," Ikaris made a gesture and Sol opened his mouth and epted the food from her hand.

    "You''re not supposed to tell anyone about that," Sol pouted with a mouthful and then looked at Talia who silently stared at him eating. "What are you looking at, I''ve never shed tears and you''re here making an old man cry and then judging me?" He narrowed his eyes at the baby and she just kept staring. "Got nothing to say, huh?"

    "What a unique name, I have never heard it before."

    "Where Ie from her name means [gift from God] or [heavens Dew]," Sol answered.

    "She is a gorgeous little thing though, hair of silver and bright curious eyes, she is destined for great things, but is she okay to be outside so soon, she was a newborn when you arrived, right?" f sat and continued eating.

    "She will be fine so long as I am with her," Ikaris answered and stuck another portion of food in Sol''s mouth causing him to hum in satisfaction as his taste buds were blessed by A''s craft.

    For the next hour, the three of them stayed in that peaceful little setting and conversed about light topics and silly little things with Dina and Sara visiting for a few minutes and at the end of their lunch Sol and f picked up their picks and walked back to the field while Ikaris left with a sleepy baby in her grasp.

    "Your wives, I truly envy you man, they are all precious and adoringdies, you would think one having a child would sprout seeds of jealousy but they seem to share the same mind," f began working again. "No wonder you ran away from the empire, who would want to give up that kind of peace to chase ghosts across the collective?"

    Sol said nothing to refute or confirm the man''s words, he instead just started working again signifying that the big guy was close to crossing the line again.

    "Can I ask, what happened to Berk''s mother?" Sol stopped and looked at f. "You''re healthy, and he''s fine too, your sister is the picture of perfect health, but I haven''t seen or heard you mention her even once.

    "She died at childbirth, bled out," f answered sadly throwing his pick over his shoulder and sighing to the sky. "She was a charmer, strong and full of life, it broke our families apart."

    "I see," Sol continued working. "Sorry I asked."

    "It''s fine, I''m more curious about something you said earlier, you told your third wife that your stay won''t be a long one..."

    "It''s for the best, Talia is young, but we can''t stay here with civilians, I don''t want to endanger innocent people-"

    "I already told you, you''re not the only ones, my farm at this point is a refugee camp, haha!" fughed and began working again but Sol retained his seriousness as he thought about his enemies.

    "I''m being serious here, if someone finds us here, if a report is made, forget the farm, they could end up targeting the entire, when I say leave I mean we''re getting away from this ce entirely."

    "Is it that bad, who did you make an enemy of that would cause such a dramatic reaction?" f asked, but scoffed when he realised that this wasn''t something Sol would answer, there was a lot he didn''t know about these people, they were adaptive, they had settled in nicely in under a month and they neverined about the tasks they were given even though they were clearly high-borne their humility was admirable, Sol had woken from aa a day before and was already working more effectively than everyone else on the farm.

    Dina and Sara had offered their services free of charge to ensure that Ikaris and the baby were taken care of by A uninterrupted, altogether they seemed perfect; perfectly in sync, there was not a blemish one could find when observing them from the outside, and the longer he talked to Sol the more he realised that they weren''t bad on the inside either, there was no facade, aside from the fact that they were keeping things secret as any normal person does, they were without me.

    As the day passed and evening came all the workersid down their tools and began gathering and enjoying each other''spany in what almost resembled a town''s square around a fountain before a bar, usually f would have joined them for a bit but he was exhausted from spending the whole day with Sol so he went straight in as did the mentioned neer to hisnd.

    "You spent the whole day with that man, usually you leave them to work alone after the first few hours," Halga confronted her brother as soon as he had freshened up and entered his living area. "Is there something wrong with him?" She asked, and f chuckled and sat.

    "Quite the opposite, he''s running from the empire to protect his wives and his daughter, some high ranking officer tried stealing them away from him and he made an example out of not just the officer but his entire regiment, I won''t say he''s innocent, but he most definitely isn''t guilty," he replied and folded his arms closing his eyes as one of the maidservants for his great house took a seat in hisp and began feeding him small delicacies from a te.

    "He''s an honest man with a troublesome past hunting him.

    "Do you think he would fight?"

    "He will fight, but not for something as simple as the federation, he will only raise his fist if he feels threatened or if his women or child is threatened, he''s strange though, I thought he was a Godyer at first, he certainly fits the stereotype of one, but he doesn''t have a shred of power within him, he''s one dangerous motherfucker." f sighed and rxed when another maid started massaging his shoulders.

    "What about his wife, Ikaris, can I-"

    "Weren''t you listening?" f opened his eyes and locked on to his son who was standing by the door. "To covet after his women is to covet death itself, do not make an enemy out of that man, he is easily capable of killing us all, but he is a kindred spirit, he wants to see his child grow and he hasid down his sword to do so...

    It doesn''t make him any less dangerous, it makes him a sleeping explosive!" f snapped.

    "Ikaris, Dina, A, forget them, if you can manage to passively persuade his sister then that would be fine but if you dare court her by force I''ll disown and kill you myself before we incur his wrath, do you understand?"

    "Yes... Yes sir." Berk huffed and left the room.

    "He is not even a little suspicious of how the women on your property outnumber the men 7 to 3?" Halga stared at her brother with her brows furrowed, if he''s not from Central Province then he wouldn''t know of our customs-"

    "The man is as sharp as a de of blood-grass, he''s already noticed, he just doesn''t care, he doesn''t and his women don''t seem to give a fuck either, they know something''s off about his ce but they still walk around fearlessly almost as if they''re daring us to do something." The man sighed as he was enveloped in the warmth of the maid''s moans as she enveloped his phallus with her body and slowly rode him.

    "I sensed it when I tried giving them an ultimatum as well..." f stuck his finger in the maid''s mouth and stared up at her.

    "They''re all killers seeking peace, they aren''t the typical family."

 Chapter 251: Forget.

    "Dear, what are you doing?" Ikaris asked Sol.

    He was seated next to the bed with his hands folded and his eyeszily locked onto the ceiling while the baby clung to his finger and slept soundly in hisp meanwhile she had the shirt he was wearing earlier in the fields sewing a tear in the shoulder.

    "I''m looking at them, just as they observe the skies thinking of me," He answered regarding the great tree inside of his soul which flourished and grew, expanding his power and strengthening his body.

    "Dr''ul and the other gods and everyone else on Arkadia, Usami and everyone else that went back to earth; every cluster of universes inside of the collective, they now exist as a part of me, I can see everything clearly without any effort, I can see their hearts and desires, I can feel their sadness, their pain, I hear their voices like little whispers asking for guidance and protection...

    Little prayers."

    "Billions of sentients, septillions of lives dependent on me, there''s no heavier responsibility."

    "It is a responsibility that even I as the first goddess have never shouldered," Ikaris smiled and looked at her work again and then turned her eyes to him once more. "I am proud of you, Sol, proud of the man you have be, although you do not believe yourself so; you are indeed our god, our protector," She smiled once more when he looked at her.

    "I remember I hated being called a god, I still do, how can I have two contradicting titles?"

    "The Godyers are gods though, the gods that other gods rely on for protection, isn''t that a correct assumption?" A who was sitting with Dina and Sara on the other side of the room asked and they all looked at her and then at Sol and Ikaris. "I apologise, but my ears are their organ, I cannot stop their function even if I alter their appearance."

    "How are they?" Dina asked.

    "Thriving, since I took them with me and my body adjusted to the chronology of the Kha-Nova Collective, all the dtion disappeared, time flows evenly throughout the collective, even in Origin." He answered and Dina''s eyes lit up.

    "So it''s just been two extra weeks then, not years on earth?"

    "That''s right, for Eve we''ve been gone a total of maybe four or five months since departure, for humans that''s still a lot, but if the time hadn''t adjusted she''d have already been an olddy." Sol hummed, it''s safe to meet her whenever you want, I can make this happen," He stared at the roof again.

    "No, no, I''m fine, what''s happening here is far more important, Master, I don''t want to leave your side, not at a time like his."

    "If I may, what exactly is happening to us?" A asked so with aplicated expression etched across his face, Sol closed his eyes and sighed deeply.

    "The Kha-Nova Collective is massive, the rules that this ce abides by are strange the very makeup of it is different, it''s another case like Origin again," Sol slightly wiggled his finger causing Talia''s grip to tighten when he felt like she was going to release him.

    "My powers are severely dampened, as are yours, at first I thought it was just the collective itself but there''s a high possibility that anywhere else we go inside of the emporium it''s gonna be the same," he peeled down at his daughter and began ying with her.

    "What do you mean?" Ikaris asked.

    "It''s the same reason the emporium soldiers are far stronger than the average human should be, I mean think about it, why are we who should clearly be many times more powerful as massively nerfed as we are?" Sol asked.

    "At best with all the power I have now, I could destroy a gxy, just one and it would burn through my reserves faster than gasoline in the open air, there''s only one exnation and it''s been staring us in the face all along."

    "...LAW," Dina snapped her fingers, in realisation.

    "Correct," Ikaris answered.

    "I don''t know what LAW is, but they''re spreading it somehow and nobody seems to have noticed, the fact that we''re here in a sister Collective that had nothing to do with the original war and are being affected by it is proof of that theory,w tries to even the ying field between gods and men, if we didn''t have mana we''d be indistinguishable from the people here in both strength and otherwise.

    "Then the Godyers under the Emporium''s thumb-"

    "They''re barelyary level," Sol lowered his hand.

    "That''s why they''ve been so shocked by what I can do; none of the younger generation has a clue that they''ve been empowered to this degree, LAW grants power to the powerless and divides the power of everyone else, so humans and other lesser species have gradually gained while the Vatui, Godyers and Gods have been severely weakened, isn''t that right?" Sol stared at the roof leaving an air of confusion to everyone except Ikaris who stared upwards with a smile.

    "Lumi?"

    "Indeed, you are perceptive beyond the regr and the irregr, Godyer," Lumi appeared without her glow andnded silently on the floor before him. "I did not intend to poke my nose in matters unrted so I have been silently watching."

    "As usual," Sol scoffed. "What happened to the gods of this collective?" He asked.

    "They are all dead; killed by their people, by the emporium, by other gods, when a deity is weak they be the target of greed, Kha-Nova is no exemption to this rule, they have been through a lot," She answered.

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    "The same fate befell the Godyers and Vatui who once roamed, when their powers dwindled minor wars were waged against them, battles that destroyed many worlds and sent others like Central Province back to their past.

    "Ah, so that''s the feeling I''ve been getting," Dina snapped her fingers. "Their technology doesn''t make any sense, their buildings are modern, they have electricity to some degree and I''ve seen traces of modern technology buried or in storage, but there''s nobody using that knowledge it''s like the smart ones all died and left the strong ones behind."

    "There was a war here on Central Province about two centuries ago between a group of rebels and the Emporium which wiped out most of their civilization, they are in the process of recovery." She answered.

    "That''s all."

    Upon Sol''s question being answered, Lumi nodded daintily and disappeared the same way she had arrived not even sparing Ikaris or the others a second nce as she went.

    "What of light and dark?"

    "LAW affected them as well but on a much smaller scale than it did to the others," Sol answered. "They''re here too, not in this room or this in, they''re out there hiding somewhere, weakened and vulnerable..."

    ***

    A month of diligently workingter and Sol had finally had enough of farm life, he dropped the axe in his grasp and walked away from the forest he and the other workers had been clearing as soon as something rang in his head. "It''s time."

    "Hm?" Dina stood from picking in a garden and looked towards the forest, at the same time Sara dropped the dough she was kneading in the kitchens and walked out causing the women she was working with to call after her but to no avail, she just ignored everything else and kept on walking.

    "A?" Halga called to her, but like the others, she seemed almost entranced as she responded to her Master''s call. "Oi, I''m talking to you!" Halga snapped again, but the usually reserved andposed woman turned and stared at her hand being held with pure hostility as her sigils began emitting a faint glow.

    "Unhand me at once," A stared at her, and Halga released her shocked at her appearance as she had never seen or heard of anything other than Vatui or Godyer possessing power of this kind.

    "W-where are you going?" The woman asked.

    "Home." A dragged her hand away and then turned and burst into a full sprint, vanishing from Halga''s sight in a matter of seconds.

    "... What the devils?" Halga stared at the door slowly closing and the trail of dust left by A''s sprint, on Dina''s end, it was far more shy as the women she had been working with sat in the dirt baffled beyond movement and belief after she''d leapt into the air and then flown away like she was riding the winds.

    "Finally, I was starting to feel stupid just picking and nting foods and carrying stuff all day every day," Dina swerved andnded before Sol at the entrance of the cabin they all shared.

    A arrived nexting to a halt and shing her hands across her body erasing any evidence of herself doing housework.

    "I quite enjoyed my stay here, it was peaceful."

    "Surely," Ikaris opened the door and looked at them while Sara appeared from inside the cabin.

    [Preparations areplete, Master, I have found and mapped every Emporium outpost within this universe and I have finally made contact with my alternate consciousness with Jenifer in another, she is safe, but still being watched closely.]

    "Never mind her for now, she knows what to do and when to do it," Sol closed his eyes as ck rings appeared beneath them and a pair of horns slowly grew from the sides of his head facing backwards.

    He opened his palm and everyone aside from Dina vanished as he took them into the grey and then sent them directly into his vast and open soul which housed his collective.

    "What the hell are you?" f came to a halt several paces away from Sol, there was a weapon resembling a gun in his grasp but he dared not raise it against him.

    "Sorry about this, but you never saw a thing," Sol raised his hand and squeezed his fingers together. "None of you did, there was no Sol, no Ikaris, Dina, A, Sara or Talia, there was no crash in the mountains and forest and there were no strangers, life as you know it has been the same as always, now go to sleep, all of you, and forget."

    "What are you talking about?" f raised his brow.

    [Divine arts; memory erasure]

    *Snap*

 Chapter 252: Terrorist.

    [The Kha-Nova Collective is quite basic inparison to Master''s] Alpha alerted Sol and Dina telepathically while they were in the midst of an empty field walking away from the farm.

    [ording to my alter-ego, the vast majority of its lesser species were wiped out thousands of years ago; all across the collective simultaneously there was a culling, it took only a hundred years.]

    "A culling?" Dina stared at Sol''s back while he walked ahead of her. "Is something like that even possible for such a massive collective, didn''t you say it was at least five times the size of ours?" Dina asked. "I know numbers are subjective, but I couldn''t fathom the size of ours, and this one is supposedly 500%rger, that''s impossible in such a short time, isn''t it?"

    [Indeed, it should be, the "how" is still very unclear, but the fact is, Dina, it happened, all across the entire collective there are dead systems withs packed with corpses, someone somewhere made the decision that humans should be the only species and they did everything in their power to make it a reality across an entire multiverse.] Alpha answered in their heads again.

    "[It is quite bothersome, this ce is not as simple as it seems]

    "Alpha, did you find out the number?" Sol asked somethingpletely unrted to their current conversation.

    [Yes,] she answered.

    [A full investigation by Jenifer Law has revealed that there are currently 17.2k known sentient universes in the Kha-Nova Collective, and of that sum, there is an outpost in every cluster of five, so there are approximately 3.5k outposts across the entire collective with the average number of soldiers being anywhere between thirty million to a billion per outpost.] She replied promptly.

    "God... That''s a lot, I wonder how many of them are guilty..." Dinamented as she walked and a momentter bumped into Sol''s back after his stride halted.

    "Turn it off."

    "Sorry?" She stared at the horns protruding from the sides of his head andying t as they pointed into the air behind him.

    "Turn it the fuck off; your conscience, do I need to remind you why this has to happen?" Sol looked around at her. "Do I?"

    "Of course not, they''re a threat to all of us, more specifically to Ikaris and Talia, we''re doing this so they don''t have to live with the threat of the emporium over their heads at every turn," Dina lowered her gaze, it hadn''t been her intention to speak that out loud. "It''s just... your appearance troubles me a little." She spoke when they started walking again.

    Minutes of silence psed between the two of them before Sol''s curiosity got the best of him and he stopped and turned to her, closing the connection he and the others shared and blocking Alpha''s perception as well.

    "Exin yourself," He stared down at her it wasn''t meant to be intimidating but Dina hesitated when she thought that he was mad at her.

    "Master, I-I- didn''t mean to-"

    "Come on, Dina, calm down and answer the question, do I look like I''m gonna hurt you?" He furrowed his brows and Dina lowered her gaze alerting him that this was exactly what she was thinking.

    "Right now, you''re using demonic mana, I know it''s because the Emporium has never encountered demons and can''t find them on their scanners, but whenever you were like this in the past you''ve been..." She averted her gaze when her eyes focused on his crimson pupils for a moment.

    "In the past, Master, you''ve never made the best decisions when you were like this, your judgement bes clouded and you''re quick to wrath." She exined and Sol nodded and rested his hand on her shoulders.

    "Look at me," He instructed her and watched her eyes travel across his shirt, up his chin and nose and then lock onto his eyes once more. "Do I seem like I''m not in control?" Sol asked her, and she shook her head. "Are you afraid of me, Dina?" He asked again and once more she shook her head. "Then why did you flinch when you thought I was angry with you?"

    "I..." She lowered her gaze once more and started ying with the hemming of her blouse. "Because I''m afraid of you being mad at me more than anything else, Sol," She dropped the "master" title and grabbed his hands falling to her knees before him and resting her forehead on his leg. "So much has happened recently, I''m afraid that the choices you make will tear us all apart...

    Even if I know in my heart of hearts that it won''t happen, it''s my greatest fear..."

    "Then I have no choice." Sol pulled his hand free of her clutches and held on to his horns gritting his teeth and then breaking them off at the roots with a grunt.

    "Master!" Dina leapt to her feet and cast [heal] on him immediately when she saw the crimson blood running down the sides of his head. "Don''t harm yourself because of what I said-"

    "Thest thing I''d do is manipte your emotions through harming myself, I''m not a bastard, Dina," Sol lowered her hands and focused on his mana causing the crimson in his eyes to turn into a brilliant green.

    "We''ve all been traumatised by demons, I should''ve thought about your fears before I mimicked their appearance and mana like that," he smiled at her and then waved his hand over his brown hair turning it ck, he now looked like an entirely different entity and inside of him was a mana signature that not even she could sense, she just knew that he felt safe. "Is this better?"

    "Master, can I... kiss you?" Dina stared at Sol and he burst outughing.

    "What, is it too much?" Sol asked, suspended in disbelief at her sudden formal request, but before he could react to her again she leapt onto him and began kissing him furiously while he caught and supported her weight.

    "You beautiful argh!" She held on to him tightly and continued kissing him as her eyes watered. "Why are you so good at this?" She asked and Sol locked his hands beneath her legs and raised his brow.

    "What?" He asked between getting attacked by kisses until she had calmed down enough to stop herself.

    "Sol," Dina called him by his name again, holding his hand as he led her across the ins and he stopped choosing where they were as a goodunch.

    "Yes, Dina?" He turned to her and stared at the skies above.

    "You know that I love you, right?" She asked him and he smiled and held her head to his chest in a soft andforting hug.

    "Of course, I love you too, Dina, I know I don''t say it enough, at least not to you individually, but I do love you with my everything," he closed his eyes as he felt her mana radiating around them.

    "Let''s get out of here," Sol locked his hands while she held on tightly and like thrusters were lodged beneath the souls of his feet Sol shot off into the clouds in a matter of seconds holding one hand upwards and blocking them from the intense heat that stemmed from ripping through the atmosphere at the speed of aet and then continued gaining more speed leaving a ming crater in the shape of an eye that destroyed an entire mountain range from his leap.

    "It turns out that we aren''t that far away from the first outpost, the emporium usually takes an entire for their military operation each time, so this should be an easy fix, we can worry about the aftermath once we''ve moved on," Sol looked down at Dina who still had her eyes closed as they moved at speeds she had never experienced before, her hair glowed and her mana protected her beneath his own barrier.

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    "Yes?" She asked, peering an eye open and staring at him.

    "There''s nothing to fear, I''m right here with you." Sol released her from his hug and hugged her from behind resting her heels on his toes and kissing her ear.

    "You''re already built for the cosmos, you''ve been using cosmic mana since you were a regr mage on Arkadia, there''s nothing to harm you out here," He tightened his hands around her waist and smiled looking forward and waking Alpha again, using her augmented vision to create guidelines towards the outpost.

    "It''s been over a month since we got here, so the general has likely made countermeasures to stop or kill me," Sol''s expression turned dark as the thrust from his feet thinned and then exploded causing them both to zip across an entire gxy in the span of a few seconds. "This isn''t the Father that they tried killing..."

    "What''sing for them is destruction the likes of which they''ve never seen or heard of before, this is the enemy they feared I''d be, don''t consider them innocent, everyone on that, every single one of them has signed their souls to the Emporium, they''ve killed mine and Ikaris''s kind, they attacked our family; they''re all irredeemable!

    "... understood."

    Dina''s eyes inverted and the glow in her hair shone brightly as she steeled her resolve.

    "They wanted an enemy, they''re getting a terrorist, I''ll drive fear so deep into their bones that merely mentioning my name is enough to cause hysteria."

    [Ten minutes until arrival]

    [Malice has been overclocked]

 Chapter 253: Ive Come For You All.

    Emporium base 2999: NeuPort

    23M personnel on standby

    5M nonessential personnel

    2.9k Visitors.

    "Sir, are we sure he will attack a base this soon?" The head Captain of the 100th, Cecelia Kroft asked General Victor Flint.

    "I''m sure, we need every base on high alert, this ising from the upper echelon and our leader himself," Flint answered his second inmand while sitting impatiently with his fingers tapping in synchrony as he stared through the screen of his ship.

    "I''m telling you Kroft, the bastard will attack, I can feel it, his Majesty can feel it, everyone who knew Ikaris has agreed that a Godyer bred by her hand is a monster worth taking seriously..."

    Cecelia was going to sceptically ask another question but the rms on her dashboard started going crazy as thems from one of the close-by sectors started going off with thousands of SOS calls.

    Emporium base 2990: Gris Neb Sector*

    Dwarf: Nekka

    Poption: 13M

    Emporium soldier count: 13M.

    The of soldiers was in a panic as giantets tore through the skies destroying every major base before they could get a single ship from their fleet into the air, the groaned when it waspletely covered in a great pink haze-like sentient cloud that rained concentrated beams of mana like magnified rays of sunlight the size of the Eiffel tower incinerating everything in their path.

    "It''s him!" Viktor arose from his seat and punched his dash leaving a hole as deep as his elbow. "What are you waiting for!?" He snapped and dragged his hand free of the hole. "The emporium is under attack, the empire is under the threat of that madman, let''s go!" He snapped a second time and his pilot punched the calctions and started flying in 2999''s direction. "How soon can we get there?"

    "Half a day at full overclock, Sir," the captain answered and Viktor groaned in annoyance and closed his eyes. "Isn''t there no way to go faster?"

    "N-no, sir,"

    "This thing isn''t fast enough, that bastard is capable of disappearing from sensors if we can''t keep up with him then he''s gonna keep getting away!" Flint sucked in a breath and hissed.

    "He''s gonna keep attacking outposts, I don''t think that this is something I alone can do, if he''s in the Kha-Nova Collective then we ought to consider spreading our resources and covering the outposts with extra manpower, my soldiers of the 100th are far more powerful inparison, if he struggled with Jedrek then there''s no way he can handle everyone else..." He theorised, but then closed his eyes and shook his head.

    "No, he was able to keep up with me and escape from right under my thumb." Viktor sighed and took his seat again.

    "Then, how are we supposed to stop him, sir?" Cecelia asked and he hummed and shook his head.

    "I don''t know."

    ***

    Back on outpost 2990; Nekka, an entire half of the small was already on fire, the enemy had put up a fight, but with their attacking out of nowhere and bypassing the defences thanks to Alpha they were like prey before two predators as Sol and Dina caused a literal apocalypse within the span of a few minutes with dina raking in thousands of experience points thanks to Alpha as she tried to level up.

    [Master, I have found something quite peculiar,] Alpha appeared at Sol''s side and gestured to a building that had been spared the destruction and Sol nodded and looked at the building as well.

    "I know, I sensed them as soon as I arrived here," Sol descended and sped his fists dragging his hand upwards and watching as an invisible force ripped the ceiling as well as several floors off the building and then dragged a man out of the debris, he was weighed by chains that had a slight blue-ish glow to them, but with a snap of his fingers, Sol destroyed the binds andnded before the man.

    "Who are you?" The man asked while Sol stared at his white glowing hair and his inverted ck and white eyes, he was full of gratitude as he stood before Sol rubbing his neck, wrists and ankles and staring at him, this was the first living Godyer other than himself that he had found, the man was being held captive.

    The funniest part was that ording to Alpha and Sol''s acute senses, this was the only one there.

    Aside from the living corpses in the ships, the entire of encampments had only one prisoner.

    The man was shredded, he had wounds that weren''t healing, his hair was missing in some parts and his skin was full of cuts and burns, the clothes on his back barely hung on to him at all, it was clear he was a victim of severe torture, after all, it was a war, and he was a prisoner of war.

    "What are you?" The Godyer asked another question, watching Dina zip above their heads being chased by several dozen warriors and then spin and dismantle their formation using [inversion and causing them to crash into each other before melting them all away with [Pulsar].

    "I have never seen a being who looks like you do, and I have never seen humans with the power of Godyers either," he looked at Dina again. " How is she so powerful, what the zes?" He shielded his face and flinched when Dina crashnded next to Sol and whipped her hair behind her dramatically.

    "The captains areing, Master," She gestured to the far side and Sol nodded and extended his hand to her and his other hand to the Godyer before him.

    "Be careful, if he does anything to my collective while I''m busy you have my permission to kill him, if he even breathes funny, turn him into minced body parts, and incinerate them," Sol instructed her and then looked at the Godyer and gave him a serious re. "Stay put and don''t make me regret saving you I''ll answer whatever I can after I''ve dealt with the others here."

    "U-understood!" The man nodded furiously reaching out for Sol''s hand and then screaming in shock when he was whisked away to an alternate space where the air was so rich with power it felt like he would suffocate from overexposure, the skies were the bluest he had ever seen and the grass greener than any flora he''d everid his feet upon.

    "Did I already die and end up in heaven? He asked when a great golden structurey before him, he couldn''t see the ends from either left or right and it seemed to stretch on forever into the sky. "What is this great thing?" He asked again reaching his hand into the air and causing a small extension of his power to reach from his fingers.

    "Stay where you are, Master said don''t move."

    Dina sternly warned him and waved her hands fusing the matter around them and creating a chair beneath his ass as a force pushed him in it to sit.

    "You are beautiful, but you are not very friendly, are you?" The Godyer asked Dina but she remained silent as she folded her legs and began floating with her side turned to him, he watched her almost in a trance, her eyes barely twitching, he lips when she bit them, he watched her glowing hair wave around her head and her short cloak float along with her. "Wow...

    You are among the most blessed and beautiful beings I have ever-"

    "Shut up!" Dina clenched her jaws and red at him.

    "Ah- right, my apologies... Lady..." He tried getting a name out of her but she only red at him again causing him to do the "zip it" gesture and go quiet.

    "What is it?" One man spoke, he was a captain but unlike the ones that Sol had met before this one responded in the midst of an emergency, he didn''t even get the time to equip his nano-suit, several more were like this, but most of them were fully equipped and ready for the fight, not that it even mattered, while the Kha-Nova Collective did reduce Sol''s power, he was not at any kind of disadvantage, he had an entire collective inside of him, endless power growing infinitely, all he needed to do was summon it, he waited patiently for the entire response units to arrive, he watched them cloud the skies andnd around him with their numbers as they tried to intimidate him.

    "Creature, surrender yourself to the emporium and face your crime-"

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    "Creature...?" Sol looked at himself and then at the captain who had spoken. "All I have are horns, are you so dense that you truly don''t recognise any other lifeform than yourself, stupid Emporium filth?" He asked and the man flinched and ground his teeth.

    "It speaks, and fluently too, where did this monstere from?" Another Captain held her mouth. "It is also strong, far too strong-"

    "Ugh," Sol closed his eyes and ran his fingers across the smoothly broken horns and then turned his emerald eyes towards the army facing him. "Idiots," Hemented as his ck hair shed several times and became a glowing white and rings appeared before and behind him.

    "Glowing rings on his chest and back, I-It''s him!" A Vice-Captain snapped and drew a de from her sheath. "The Godyer that killed off the 3795th!"

    "That''s a better reaction," Sol nodded.

    "Make sure you get my good angle I want to make an impression," He summoned his hammer and snapped it in two, revealing it to be tworge battle axes.

    "I''m not a part of the rebellion, I''ve no interest in your politics; my name is Sol Vestic, and I''vee for you all."

 Chapter 254: Eleven Months.

    "Don''t hold back, destroy the Godyer at whatever cost!" Voices echoed through the darkness followed by bright shes of light and explosions, and an entire half of Nekka was pitch darkness after Sol had continued Dina''swide storm and destroyed every source of electrical power sending them into a state of chaos.

    "Destroy him, stop him!" The captains moured together and attacked Sol consecutively over and over again leaving him barely enough time to breathe.

    "Stop me?" Sol blocked several weapon projectiles and swung one axe cleaning a ditch through thend and sea which rapidly tore across the surfaces before turning into an arc and racing off into the cosmos after escaping Nekka''s gravity. "Stop me!?" He sped his axes together reforging his hammer and dropping it in the back of an attempted surprise attack.

    "There''s nobody here that can stop me, there''s no power here that can-" Sol leaned forward with his eyes narrowed after someone else tried attacking him and failed, crashing through the soil and then re-emerging explosively from beneath the surface, except this one was many times faster than the others, and by the sensation, she was also many times stronger.

    He inclined his head with intrigue and stared at the short blue cape fanning weightlessly on her back and before he could control himself, Sol''s lips curled into a smile and he began chuckling at the sight of her.

    "It took this much to bring you out, General?" He asked watching the woman slowly turn and face him, like General Flint, she was not drugged up with PowerPoint nor was she using the artificial Vatui drug, she was a pure human without augmentation outside of the norm which meant she was likely more dangerous than the others.

    "You''ve done enough, let''s take this elsewhere and settle it like warriors-"

    "Yeah, no," Sol snickered and scratched his head raising his hammer out of the crater and off the corpse it was resting. "You brought an entire armada into my collective and threatened my wife and child''s life, I was willing to y fair at some point, but after I found out what you people were..." Sol closed his eyes and opened them anew, bringing a bright golden glow.

    "There''s no fairness, there''s no honour, I don''t give a fuck anymore, my sole goal is topletely destroy you all!" Sol spun and mmed his hammer into the ground with a roar.

    For a few seconds, nothing seemed to have happened, but then the ground beneath her began to tremble and quake before a rebound force sent her flying into the air and through the clouds, before she could gather her bearings from the suddenunch into the air the general of the 2990th outpost raised her hands and deflected Sol''s hammer spinning several times and then stopping herself and holding out her hand.

    "This is the strength that toppled an entire armada?" She asked, but a few secondster the ground beneath the clouds began turning to mes asva began pouring up from every angle, she could see waves of thend rise and violently fall and great cracks ripping through thend from one end of the horizon to the other.

    "Topple?" Sol raised his brow. "Me?" He asked. "I didn''t even get to fight them, that was the work of the ones I protect, my precious little brothers and sisters," Heughed. "You lot haven''t seen the extent of my power, I''ve always had to hold back or retreat in fear of harming someone I care about, but for the first time in almost a year I''ve been given the chance to let loose."

    ***

    "General," Cecelia stared at Viktor''s anxious face as they watched and listened to Sol through the general sharing her feed live to the army''s data banks. "We won''t make it in time-"

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    "We keep going," he answered. "We know where he is now, he''se out of hiding after a month -this is an opportunity, if the general of the 2990th can keep him busy long enough I can reach him, I can kill him and clear our names, thanks to my poor decision we''ve been scrutinized by the 99th, I''ll take any chance I can." He dered and Cecelia hummed in agreement.

    "But that all depends on the ability of the 2990th General to keep him there, we both know that the bastard is far more powerful than he lets on, he is the ultimate enemy, and with his status as the ultimate enemyes the ultimate prize; Ikaris," Viktor added.

    "Sir,"

    "Hm?"

    "How sure are you of a victory should you fight him?" Cecelia asked, her crimson eyes shaded beneath her white hair and her shoulders slouched as she was heavy in thought, although she seemed to have asked the question absently, the general could tell she was taking this matter seriously, in fact, she was taking the matter far more seriously than he was considering the stakes.

    *Two weeks ago*

    .

    "You let the most powerful Godyer in recorded history escape from right before you?"

    "That''s an affirmative, Sir," Viktor answered, staring up at the screen of his ship at a figure shrouded in a silhouette, at his side was Cecelia and aside from her the entire vessel was empty. "He is faster than anything I have ever seen before-"

    "Is that any excuse?"

    "Absolutely not, your majesty," Viktor answered rubbing the back of his head. "It won''t happen  again, I swear it on my-"

    "Of course, it''s just like you to begin making promises to avert your failures from yourself; you humans always have some trick or another to get yourselves out of trouble," the silhouette spoke, staring at the Captain next to her general.

    "Not this time, General," He spoke. "Either you bring me Ikaris and her Godyer dog, or you hand over your own little Vatui pet, is that clear?"

    "Sir..."

    "Is that clear, general?" The silhouette spoke again and Viktor nodded and lowered his head.

    "Affirmative, Your Majesty, I will not fail a second time. Ikaris will be at your feet, and the Godyer will be killed.

    "You have a year to make it happen."

    "But-"

    "Eleven months."

    "Understood," Viktor closed his eyes and lowered his posture. "Thank you for your mercy, your majesty, I will not disappoint you."

    After speaking his piece, the figure on the other side of the call walked away, leaving it running, and the general sighed and turned it off and then looked at Cecelia next to himself with a worried expression. "Cecelia,"

    "Sir, I have faith in you," She smiled at him. "I believe in your strength more than I believe in my identity as a Vatui; we will ovee this as well," She smiled at him, and Viktor nodded with his chin bouncing left and right and huffed.

    "Then allow me to take the lead on this case, do as I say when I say without exemption, we will clear our names and get your head off the harvesting block.

    ***

    "I''ve been thinking, General," Cecelia looked at the general drawing his and the pilot''s attention.

    "What is it?" He asked her gently, void of his usual harshness when he''d address her.

    "If we manage to lose against him, against Sol Vestic, I know this is against the will of his majesty, but if you would sir, I would rather be your ything than that of the Emporium, I would rather lose myself to your methods than those of the empire, it is a cruel way to lose myself-"

    "Cecelia, you won''t have to worry about anything like that. Don''t even think about failure; I''m not allowing you to fall into anyone else''s hands; that''s my promise," the general scoffed and rested his hand on his sword. "Trust me won''t you?"

    "Of course, sir," she answered and closed her eyes. "With my everything."

    "Good..."

    Nekka was already gone; destroyed beyond recognition after Sol had released his hammer like a projectile and allowed it to crash into the suffering surface, just that small amount of pressure was an overburden that it could t withstand and it quickly ruptured from all the molten crevices, popping Luke and egg inside of a microwave and sending chunks scattered throughout the collective.

    With the destruction of the outpost, Sol had eradicated nearly everyone else leaving only the most powerful captains and the general in the wake of his wrath as he had spared no attempt to hold his punches, no matter how hard he hit them and how far they flew he brought them right back to where the dwarf once was, resulting in their fight remaining rtively stationary despite it being a cataclysmic one of multi-gxy proportions

    "-do you hear me, general?" Viktor asked the general through her Comms. "Can you copy?" He asked.

    "Sir, it''s impossible; he''s too powerful for me to keep contained; this is just impossible for me to aplish even with the aid of the remaining forces that I have, she shook her head and raised her hands offensively as she prepared to fight Sol once more.

    "He is too strong."

 Chapter 255: Hes a Monster.

    "Use PowerPoint," Viktor spoke after a few seconds of silence. "General Keele, I know you have your reservations and I know you''ve gained strength all on your own, but if you use PowerPoint I am sure it would put you right up there with any general under the 500th, at the very least that''d be enough to keep him at bay without dying-"

    "I refuse." Keele shook her head. "Absolutely not, do you have any idea what that drug is made of?" She asked and Viktor clicked his tongue and ground his teeth.

    "Of course I do, I''m part of the team that created it!" He snapped.

    "Sir-" Cecelia was about to make a suggestion but was stopped in her tracks by him raising his hand.

    "General Keele, this is a direct order from your superior; use the PowerPoint drug now and stop the Godyer from escaping-"

    "I said there''s no fucking way I''m using it!" Keele blocked and parried Sol''s flurry of attacks and slid beneath his defence, delivering several quick jabs at his torso and shing her hand in retreat when her knuckles almost exploded against his hard skin.

    "PowerPoint was created using the broken down spinal fluid and tears of Godyers, I have a code I''ll never break and I drew that line after I found out what the emporium does to these people, I don''t care if they''re my enemy, I won''t use a drug made by torturing someone until they cry ck blood!" She raised her hands and flinched when Sol broke her guard, but the blow never connected.

    "Hm," Sol stared at her. "Is that the official method?" He asked and she froze again, staring at him in disbelief; this monster that had gone silent after dering his name and purpose had finally stopped his advances after hearing something interesting. "Is it?" Sol stared at her with his fist hovering right before her forehead.

    [Don''t you dare answer that question, General!] Viktor clenched his fists so tight the arms of his suit tore and healed from his muscles ripping through them. [Keele!]

    "I''m not proud of it, I found out long after I had been named Vice-Captain and I swore to never use it, it''s wrong what they do to your kind, but I have a duty to protect my people and the Emporium is the only way I can do it, so I didn''t resign, I just made myself strong enough to not need PowerPoint or the Vatui essence." Keele stared at Sol''splicated expression.

    [This one is strange, Master, what should we do with her?] Alpha asked in his head knowing that if she appeared, they''d know he had help.

    "I''m thinking."

    "Damn that woman, I swear I''ll have her head, I''ll execute her myself, how dare she disobey a superior''s order at a time like this!?"  Viktor seethed as he paced back and forth in the cockpit staring at the screen which showed Sol''s conflicted expression as he stared at her.

    "She seems to be doing a good job at both halting his attack and keeping him distracted, sir." Cecelia pointed out and the man stopped pacing and stared at her with his mouth half agape.

    "General Keele, I''ll be there within the next hour, keep him distracted, do whatever it takes, you just might get a light punishment rather than be executed-"

    "That''s not gonna work, Viktor Flint." Sol stared at Keelezily while he spoke and her eyes opened wide in horror as did everyone else''s when they heard Sol''s voice in their ear.

    "I already told you that I''m going to kill you when we next meet right, I''m going to destroy every outpost across the Kha-Nova Collective first, I''ll have you and all the others thate after you chasing ghosts and false leads until your faces turn purple, but no matter what you do, you don''t get to choose when you fight me," Sol scratched his head watching the woman before him fall to her knees and stare at her hands in defeat.

    "H-how long have you been able to hear our Comms?"

    [I don''t just hear you, I see everything that the Emporium does, every order every leak, I have the names of every single soldier at my disposal, every outpost in this collective has been mapped and thoroughly investigated by me already] Sol answered with a message that only her eyes could see.

    "I knew that PowerPoint was created with Godyers as the ingredients, but I avoided all other information because I didn''t want to end up in another blind rage, Sol turned his back to the general and began walking on the small chunk of what was once a dwarf. "I willfully avoided that information..." He folded his arms behind himself and sighed.

    "He''s let his guard down, kill him!" Another general watching her broadcast snapped.

    "Kill the bastard now!"

    "Kill him!"

    "You idiots, he''s able to hear us why are you still shouting over the Comms!?" One general snapped furiously and the entire system went silent.

    "She''s already lost this fight, she knows this, just as much as you all do, don''t lose patience, I''m not going to leave a cluster untouched, I won''t abandon you generals of the emporium, I''lle for you all one after the other, base after base, outpost after outpost, universe after universe, I''ll destroy everything you''ve built, I''ll eradicate you all." Sol continued walking casually.

    "She''s the only one left here, there''s no harm in letting someone who''s unable to raise a finger at me live."

    [Attack me if you want to live, General Keele, I''ll take you away from here and put you somece where the Emporium never finds you.]

    "While I do appreciate the consideration, I am still a general of the Great Emporium, I will not be swayed by the words of an enemy, I''d sooner die!" She leapt to her feet and rushed at Sol and he smiled as he turned and saw what was clearly a smile painted on her face.

    Sol avoided her sloppy attempt at attacking him and mmed his hand in her back frying every system imnted inside of her causing her augmented eyes to go out along with every device imnted in her body, she fell to the ground unconscious.

    "What the fuck happened?" General Flint snapped smashing his dashboard and turning towards the office areas.

    "Her vitals all stopped sir, she''s dead."

    "Fuck!" He snapped again causing an indenture across the ting of the floor beneath his feet from stomping too hard. "Cecelia,e with me!" He snapped a third time and the mentioned Captain flinched and looked in his direction rubbing her arm and sighing deeply.

    "Yes, sir..." She responded and lowered her gaze to the floor as she began walking after him.

    "Don''t disturb me until we get there!" He looked at the cockpit and received a bunch of salutes before he vanished behind the door she entered.

    "What''s that all about?" Someone asked.

    "You were stuck in analysis in another deck so you''re unaware, but ever since the general lost the Godyer the other day he started taking out his anger on the Captain, I mean he used to do it every now and then but he''s been beating her almost on a daily basis recently, I know we''re not supposed to sympathise with the woman but I''ve been working as her subordinate for ten years now," Someone whispered back to him and he looked at the woman with his brows furrowed.

    "He''s beating her?"

    "Yeah, Vatui have the fastest healing factor in existence, she recovers almost as soon as she''s damaged, I''ve seen her chop her own hand off to prove a point before, but that''s irrelevant, Captain Cecelia suffers under his hand every time he fails or loses something, the general is a monster who finds satisfaction in destroying people, it is his nature.

    "I never noticed."

    "She can always hide her injuries with healing, but she can''t hide the small droplets of blood that sometimes get on her, or the scent of blood either..."

    Inside of the office, Cecelia stood stationary with her hands at her sides and her head lowered, biting her lips with her eyes shut tightly as the general walked around her slowly.

    "Fuck that bastard, I''ve been busting my ass off and he just appears and destroys an entire outpost; thirteen million dead in a matter of hours and he''s just gonna vanish again before we get there," He mumbled, resting his hand on her neck and getting a flinch out of her. "For fuck''s sake."

    "Sir, please, I''m married -hnn!" She stifled a groan of surprise when he tore the suit off her upper body with a single yank and sat behind her. "General..." Experience tales at m v|l e''-NovelBin

    "Finish undressing, take it all off down to the boot, I told you when you decided to marry and I''ll say it as many times as I want, that body you regard as a temple is mine, without me you''re nothing but an experiment, I''ll do what I want when I want, you sold your soul to me to prevent yourself from getting harvested, just as I want your power as my weapon I also want your body for my selfish pleasure." He stared at her lustfully when she had to bend over and take her boots off revealing herself before him.

    "You promised you would stop..." Cecelia stood and turned to him as he undid his buckles and she sunk to her knees and held on to his pants. "You said I had a choice."

    Viktor held her cheeks with his hand and smirked wickedly with a scoff, and her eyes averted to his erection growing as he began thinking of what he''d do to her.

    "I lied."

 Chapter 256: Dina Vs Keele.

    "There''s not another living soul in this entire gxy," Dina opened her eyes and looked down at the unconscious General who slept on the ground next to her. "What happened? I thought you''d kill everyone so why did you leave this woman?" She looked up at Sol who was watching the stars with a distant gaze having tamed his power and assumed the untraceable aura he had simted before his fight.

    "I felt sympathy for her, she''s been fighting a war she hates, she has people to protect but the means by which the emporium has granted power goes against her mortality, she was suffering in a ce of power," Sol answered, looking around at Dina and then Keele.

    "She wasn''t very strong to begin with, maybe a bit stronger than you are, but her skills as a fighter are top tier, even when I attempted several times to seriously damage her I was left hitting empty air."

    "So, are you just gonna let her go then?" Dina reached for her head and delivered a strong current of electricity right into her brain shocking her awake.

    "Fuck!" Keele snapped flipping to her feet and swinging against the air several times before steadying herself and taking a breath, with the imnts inside of her body removed she couldn''t tell what was happening around her, and with her imnted eyes not functioning she stumbled forward and fell onto Dina when all she could see was ck.

    "Where am I?" She asked, holding Dina''s hands and carefully feeling for her face. "Who are you, where is Sol Vestic?" She slowly turned, listening to the sounds of birds chirping and a nearby river flowing. "I can hear someone else breathing-"

    "Hold still," Dina helped her stand steadily and looked at Sol who nodded in approval when he saw a faint pink glow over her palm. "I''m going to ce my hand against your face, I''m not going to hurt you, so just try to remain calm until I''m done," She instructed her and the woman nodded and clenched her jaw.

    "Will it hurt?" She asked, and Dina took a second to think about it thoroughly.

    "I''m unsure, I''ve never actually healed something asplex as an eye before."

    "Heal?" Keele chuckled. "My eyes aren''t even there, they''ve been reced how can anyone heal something that doesn''t exist, that''s-"

    "Ridiculous?" Sol spoke up and the former general froze again. "Sure, almost as ridiculous as the existence of a being that can fly through outer space, who can travel across universes," He stated, and she bit her lips and huffed.

    "We live within the impossible, just do as you''re told and don''t ask too many questions." He instructed her and she nodded obediently and went still once more while Dina held her hands before her face.

    [Dominion magic: attraction]

    Within a single set of motions, Dina cast heal across Keele''s entire head and then used a telekic skill to carefully remove her augmented eyes then she cast [Divine Heal] over her and the woman stood there shaking as she felt het nerve endings grow through the numbness until finally, her eyeballs pressed against their lids and tears began flowing from them.

    "My eyes..." She had her eyes wide open staring but all she could see was white for the first few breaths, but slowly her vision cleared to the beautiful scenery of a golden wall that stretched upwards forever, a small stream behind her and a meadow of green grass and golden flowers that stretched as far as she could see, birds of all shape and species, most of which she had never seen before, and Sol standing before the wall with his hands in his pockets with a smile on his face.

    "You..." She quickly looked around at Dina, by her voice, she hadn''t known what to expect, but now she could see a beautiful young woman with glowing hair and strange eyes. "You healed my eyes..."

    "How does it feel?" Sol asked.

    "Itchy." Keele began crying again as she held Dina''s hands and sank to her knees. "I haven''t been able to feel my eyes for so long, I forgot how having eyes was supposed to feel!" She pressed her forehead against Dina''s leg. "Thank you, thank you so much!"

    ***

    "Are you sure this is a good idea?" Ikaris was seated in Sol''s study with her hands folded neatly on the desk and A standing behind her holding Talia. "She was once of the Emporium, I am reserved of trusting her ability to remain peaceful or keep her word," She stared at Keele who was seated before her with Sol standing to the side with a book in his grasp.

    He was inside of the collective, and the collective was inside of him, it had taken a while for him to get it right but by creating a null space, he used The Grey to manipte a constant infinity thatpletely erased his presence by folding reality onto itself repeatedly, he needed no tether to keep himself from getting trapped there, he existed within his domain, and his domain within him; an impossible concept that only someone with his level of entricity could achieve.

    "I swear, I will behave," Keele responded before Sol said a word, she had been privy to Ikaris''s existence in thest thanks to her connections within the emporium, before her was the most ruthless and feared being in all the Grand Collective, she would never act out of ce or dream of doing anything to bring Ikaris to wrath, especially not with her husband being the most terrifying existence she had ever seen or heard of and especially not when the two of them had a child together, she was afraid to even breathe around Ikaris.

    "I promised I''d bring her people here, it''s not much just a singr so it''s not a big deal, when I get them I''ll ce them in a universe to themselves," Sol exined conjuring a spotted apple from Arkadia through a portal and biting into it while Sara served Ikaris a cup of tea and took her seat in the corner like a secretary.

    "Is that all?" Ikaris asked, and Sol shook his head.

    "I think she''d do well to teach everyone some of her fighting skills, I looked into her, the only reason she was the 2990th General is because she refused the PowerPoint drug or the artificial Vatui essence, she also refused a lot of imnts, she''s this strong through LAW alone, it''s quite impressive." Sol gestured to her.

    "It''s also for that reason that I even considered sparing her at all; she might have been a part of the Emporium, but she never agreed to nor did she indulge in the evils theymitted."

    "I see," Ikaris nodded and unfolded her hands reaching across the desk. "I''d still like to verify, if that''s fine with you, dear," She looked at Sol again and he agreed with a nod. "Thank you,"

    "Um...?" Keele looked at Sol worriedly and he gestured to Ikaris nonchntly.

    "Take my hand, and be judged," Ikaris stared at her seriously. "If your heart is untrue then you will be purged of all your memories and rebuilt from the mind outwards, if you are what you appear to be then you will feel no pain, and suffer none; it will just be another harmless handshake."

    "Gosh, when you say it like that, Ikaris, I don''t even want to do it," Dina shook her head while a droplet of sweat raced down Keele''s neck as she raised her palm toward Ikaris and locked hands with her.

    Keele watched Ikaris''s eyes change from their beautiful shade of blue to an ominous crimson as her grin tightened and she saw her hair sh white several times, this of course caught everyone off guard as they''d never seen her appearance react like this, and they''d never felt her mana be unrecognisable before, but as soon as she released Keele''s hand the fluctuations stopped.

    "Are you okay?" Sol asked Ikaris and she nodded and smiled, standing and walking over to him. "Well?" He gave her a knowing smile and she sighed and admitted what he''d already checked.

    "She is sincere, once the generals reach a certain rank they are forced to indulge in one of the two artificial means of power, she has been avoiding said promotion for the sake of retaining her beliefs and morale, she means no harm to us," Ikaris dered and as she did Dina released her divine mana and calmed herself, A did the same with her cosmic mana calming down and causing the glow in her eyes to dwindle while Sara''s eyes that had been entirely ck returned to normal as well.

    "Alright then," Dina nodded and stepped forward extending her hand toward Keele. "I''m Dina, when can we fight?" She asked and Sol startedughing.

    "Whenever you desire, ma''am." Keele stood and took Dina''s hand firmly. "For freeing me from the clutches of the Emporium, I am eternally in your debt; whatever you ask of me, I will dly carry out with my all."

    "What if someday down the line I ask you to fight against your former allies?" Ikaris looked at her again while A left the room with Talia followed by Sara.

    "I will do everything in my power to assist you, I never considered the Emporium and ally, as I said; my people have been under oppression, only aided by myself whilst I too was being heavily restricted," The former general answered and Ikaris looked at Sol again and then hooked her arm with his resting her head against his chest while Keele and Dina vanished in a sh of golden light from his gesture.

    "Darling," Ikaris nuzzled against Sol''s chest and purred. "Where will you go next?"

    "I''m gonna take a few days and rx with everyone," Sol answered, running his hand through her hair and smiling sweetly at her as she bit into his apple. "After that, I''m going to shred a path of destruction across the Kha-Nova Collective and destroy them all, but first, I want to witness this fight between Keele and Dina."

 Chapter 257: Untapped Potential.

    "How do you want to go about this, Master has left us in a ce where we are able to fight as freely as possible," Dina spoke first after Keele and herself appeared in a great snowy valley with several mountains littered around them forming a range.

    "Where is this?" Keele asked, and Dina shrugged.

    "I don''t really are, if this is where he''s sent us then that means I don''t have to worry, I can fight to my heart''s content," She admitted and Keele frowned, from the way Dina carried herself she didn''t seem like thebat type at all, but simultaneously she had been the one to utilize strange powers from her hands and heal her eyes.

    "Are you sure you belong on the battlefield?" The former general asked and Dina paused in thought for a few seconds and then regarded her with a smirk. "With the power to heal you could be a great doctor or-"

    "I asked about the Kha-Nova Collective earlier, Keele, what ce would I have here other than that of an outcast hunted and killed by frightened and ignorant people?" Dina''s smile was smeared away as she issued a serious question to the woman. "Long ago, the collective experienced a purge that killed nearly everything that wasn''t human."

    "You are human, though."

    "No," Dina closed her eyes as the roots of her hair lit up and light travelled through every strand like pipes, igniting pink across her scalp while her nails turned ck and her lips were shaded by her transformation, Keele''s eyes narrowed when her eyes and Dina''s inverted gaze met for a second time. "I''m not human, I am a demigod, I am a divine," She dered taking a fighting pose. Read new chapters at m_v-l''e|-NovelBin

    "I have never heard of a race called divine before," Keele also went into a stance as she prepared to fight.

    "The gods were all killed by the emporium at the beginning of the purge and with their deaths their divine powers scattered across your collective, all that remains of their once great thrones are debris in a ce in the heavens you can''t even reach." Dina inched closer by sliding her feet, and Keele did the same, the cold winds howled around them and the snow turned sideways until a cloud of white rushed through and blocked their visions.

    "After fighting Dr''ul, Dina has be quite eager to prove herself in battle," A stared at the fight through Alpha''s eyes while Sol and Ikaris observed directly.

    "She wants to fight alongside me, if she doesn''t keep up and keep getting stronger, she''ll have to sit on the sidelines more, she doesn''t want to give up so she''s putting in the work, hm?" Sol smiled at the elf and she closed her mouth with her lips folded in thought, aside from her stagnation everyone else seemed to have grown many times stronger already.

    A''s thoughts were halted when Sara eximed and intrigued, "Oh!" From Ikaris''s side when the cloud of snow that had been obscuring their vision evaporated after Dina used an infernal skill against Keele melting everything within a mile of them and turning the ground into molten rock and steam from the ground up.

    Keele was in retreat with her eyes narrowed in surprise; this wasn''t like any skill she had seen Sol use, he was more of a melee fighter, but after her initial sh with Dina the woman had immediately turned their surroundings into hell and then pressed to do it again when she exhibited an incredible amount of speed, catching up to and attacking her before her feet touched the ground a second time.

    "Interesting..." Keele thought with a half-smile.

    "She is a different ss of fighter, I''ll have to assume that being too far from her will yield more destruction than being close...!" She parried Dina''s hands after she tried grabbing her sending one upwards and the other downwards with simple motions andnding a blow in Dina''s chest with her palm stopping their momentum and sending the mage crashing back through the burning ground she had created.

    "Don''t underestimate her, Dina, she might have been weaker than her rank demanded because of refusing the drugs but Keele is an extremely skilled fighter who has made up for herck of power with extraordinary skills and endless training, as far as her fighting ability extends, there''s not another like her in the ranks, I heard it myself; with her level of skill if she had taken either of the drugs she''d easily be above the 500th rank, considering she was 2990th that''s an amazing leap," Sol spoke causing Ikaris and to look at him along with Sara and A, he''d left that detail out before.

    "She is skilled beyond her rank to that degree?" A asked.

    "That''s right," Sol nodded.

    "Keele was weaker than all of her Captains and a lot of her Vice-Captains again, but until she met me the woman had never suffered defeat at anyone''s hands, not even once, not even to General Viktor Flint; she''s a fighting machine that''s honed every skill that evernded in herp to perfection, she''s a monster in her own right." Sol smiled, knowing that Dina couldn''t hear him.

    "If she''s never lost, then how does Dina who isn''t even stronger than her going to fare?" Ikaris asked Sol with her brows furrowed in concern.

    "Have you set her up for another losing bout like you did with Dr''ul?" She queried seriously and Sol shook his head watching Keele run circles around Dina and deliver several fast jabs at her joints taking her down like a robot, only for Dina to hit the ground and then explode with a wave of power flipping back to her feet and grabbing the woman''s leg with a roar and tossing her clean out of their battle zone and chasing after her.

    "Dina is an adaptive fighter, that''s why she''s been able to evolve so rapidly," Sol watched Keele crash into a mountain range and fold in shock when Dina''s fist collided with her jaw immediately and sent her ripping through three mountains in a sh of pink that ruptured the third mountain as she hit the ground beneath it and bounced free of the avnche her crash had made.

    "Her mind is clearest when she''s in the middle of a fight, she evolves at a scary pace, far faster than I ever did, she already achieved the same level of power I had against Sitri in a year when it took me ten years of endless fighting to get even close to that power, she''s the perfect mage, facing off against the perfect warrior," Sol held on to Ikaris''s shoulders kneading them slowly as they observed together.

    "A match made in hell!"

    [Mana spear]

    Keele dodged a sudden blue projectile set to skewer her and then leapt away from it when she felt fluctuations of energying from it, a momentter the spear that had dug itself halfway into the ground exploded with brilliant white mes rupturing everything in a hundred metres of itself like andmine and sending Keele spinning out of control from the wave of force it produced.

    [Mana spear\\s]

    "What the-"

    Dina was going to cast a multitude of spears but lost sight of the former general for a brief moment and then watched the world around her turn upside down when the woman grabbed her leg from beneath the ground and spun her, mming her into the ground and catching het by her face and mming her into the ground a second timepressing and causing the solid ice beneath her to explode from the pressure of her impact.

    Keele intended to attack again but arched her body on instinct, dodging a sudden rush of mes that came from Dina''s mouth and then grabbing her chin and smelling her jaws shut only to retreat when Dina''s eyes lit up and she shot off a Lazer-like st from her pupils ripping thend in half and slicing the mountains around them apart as she tried getting it under control again.

    "She just created another [pulsar] variant in the middle of a battle!" A gasped, shocked.

    "Dina''s instinct is to improvise, to cancel her enemy at any cost, to win regardless of how she weaponizes herself, Keele''s technique works specifically to counter someone who relies too much on their skill by neutralising that person''s defences, they''replimenting each other and raising the stakes without even realising it," Sol chuckled in amusement when Dina''s erected barrier was smashed and she and Keele shed fists several times leaving indentures in the snow.

    "Slowly, Dina will stop using magical attacks without even realising it, at least the conventional ones we''re used to."

    On queue with Sol''s exnation to A, Dina blocked nearly a dozen of Keele''s attacks directed to disorientate her and roared out a great pir of pure mana fire forcing the fighter to retreat from her again.

    "This is fun!" Dina grinned, locking her teeth with a snap and shutting off her mes as the magenta fire seemed to ignite her inverted irises and make them ze brighter as her hair which had only glowed to that point, began flying about like wild mes.

    "I always get paired with unrealistic enemies, it''s been a while since I fought someone who only uses melee!" She eximed, ripping the coat off her shoulders and imbuing her body with mana seemingly catching her feet and hands ame.

    "She noticed, then," Sol chuckled, and Ikaris nodded.

    "Not a single one of my magical attacks has hit you, the only time I''ve made contact is when I attack you with my fists!" She mmed her fist into her palm and vanished causing Keele to pause for a moment and then duck when a foot came swinging at the back of her head.

    "If you''ve finally decided to drop your fancy tricks and fight, then I can stop avoiding you," Keele spun and leapt out of Dina''s rangending and falling into a fighting stance." I get a vague idea that my new job revolves around teaching you some of my hand-to-hand skills; I won''t be holding back; experience is the best teacher, so I''m going to beat you down to build you up!"

    Keele and Dina shed at their elbows and then the aforementioned parried Dina''s fist and delivered several punches in the blink of an eye sending Dina cascading with her arms in a guard after she''d somehow managed to block them all, the zing hair atop her head seemed to fan brighter and grow taller in response to the woman''s taunt, Dina was falling into a zone, and Keele could sense it, her senses were sharpening and it was getting harder to connect a hit.

    "This sensation..." Keele mused, watching Dina slowly sh her head from side to side and then angle her torso sideways, exposing her shoulder as she took an unusual stance that she recalled seeing someone else use, she didn''t see a weapon but somewhere in Dina''s stance Keele could almost envision a massive hammer in the girls grasp.

    "It feels like I''m fighting Mr Vestic again...!"

    "She''s simting every time she''s seen me use my hammer; Dina is a natural at this," Sol mused, discarding his humour and staring with his brows furrowed as he hadn''t expected to see her do this either.

    "Ikaris, I think she''s gonna surpass me someday, she''s a reservoir of untapped potential."

    "What?"

    "Dina has the potential to be as strong as we are, she''s on her way to bing a Celestial Deity."

 Chapter 258: Talent Vs Hard Work.

    "After this, is there any chance of me being able to catch up to her again?" A watched alongside everyone else as Dina made a real-time simtion of Sol''s technique to counter Keele''s fighting style. "I am happy for her.

    I have always seen and nurtured her potential, but this goes beyond even what master had envisioned!"  She mused in shock, watching the ground around Dina rise and fall with her breath, condensing and creaking before she vanished like a trip of thunder, leaving a singr footprint where she was prior.

    "Hm," Sol hummed when Dina crashed recklessly into Keele and was parried away easily but disappeared and reappeared where she was a moment before her attack and dropped her heel, causing Keele, who had barely recovered from her parry to bend a knee as she blocked the kick with her arms.

    "An entire attack as a feint?" He wondered, seeing Keele spin from beneath Dina and strike at her abdomen with her palm again and then clicking her tongue in annoyance when Dina blocked that as well.

    "Dina is closing the gap between not just their speed but their strength as well," Ikaris narrowed her eyes as she carefully watched the two exchange blow after blow unsessfullying to what appeared to be a stalemate.

    "Well, not quite," She added with a slight huff when Dina mmed her bare hand against Keele''s raised guard and mana exploded from her palm, igniting the cold air and setting off a massive chain explosion that sent the woman flying into a mountain made of ice and leaving a great indenture the shape of a crater in the side of it. "Dina still has ess to her destructive power," She stated.

    "And Keele has been gradually removing her limiters to ensure a fair fight, if she truly wanted to win from the start she could have ended the fight with her first strike, I wouldn''t have shown interest in her skills if even Dina could beat her, she hasn''t shown any true percentage of what she''s capable of yet," Solmented, and Ikaris looked up at him and then back at the woman curiously.

    "I haven''t seen you praise anyone''s skill like this since your fight with Sorath where you admitted to her being a more skilled warrior and paid your respects," She smiled, "you are a hard man to impress, but this woman seems to have captured your interests, do you perhaps like her?"

    "Don''t be ridiculous, Ikaris," Sol scoffed and pinched her cheek.

    "I''m only interested in her skill, she''s been in the Emporium army for a total of thirty years, she''s one of the youngest captains and she is also one of the weakest, yet despite her many reservations she managed to maintain her 2990th position without losing rank or respect amongst her peers, that is because throughout the entire army on a whole, she is undefeated.

    "Even the likes of Flint?" Ikaris looked at Sol and he nced at her weirdly; there was a sense of familiarity to the way she said the man''s name.

    "Especially him, he would have ordered a retreat, but when he found out where I was attacking he requested that she do everything in her power to keep me there, when I found this out I entertained the idea that there was more to her than meets the eye, and I turned out to be right, she has honed her fighting skills to perfection, that''s not something Dina is going to ovee in their first fight, we have a prodigy versus a grinder, talent versus hard work."

    "Unexpectedly, I forgot that she was capable of using more than just her fists because of how she has leaned onto the fight adaptively, I let my guard down..." Keele pulled herself from the rubble andnded on her feet slightly leaning her head and raising her palm to the side where her face was catching Dina''s palm and bending her hand until her glowing palm was pressed against her own abdomen.

    "That''s not a mistake I intend on making twice." She stared at Dina''s shocked expression before her attack backfired and sent her crashing through another cluster-type explosion lodging her into the opposite mountain this time.

    "She''s easily capable of killing Dina," A furrowed her brows. "Master, is it a good idea to allow them to fight unsupervised like that?"

    "Keele isn''t stupid, she was prepared to abandon the Emporium on a whim to ensure the safety of her homeworld, she''s aware that I''m easily capable of destroying them even more than the empire ever was, she''s not gonna double-cross me."

    "Are you certain of that?" Ikaris smiled at him and Sol confidently nodded. Experience tales at m v|l e''-NovelBin

    "The fight has to lead to a victor somehow, and it''s clear that Dina won''t win; not unless she does that, which is what I''m banking on." Sol smiled.

    "You want her to do it?" A gasped. "She has been terrified of using that power ever since it was gifted to her-"

    "Exactly, I want to know where her true limits lie, if she hesitated in the wrong moment it could lead to her death, she needs to embrace the chaos inside of her, it''s been growing proportionallyrge, almost at the same speed as her personal growth, inside of Dina lies a parallel power that could essentially topple an entire gxy in one fell swoop but she''s keeping it at bay because she''s afraid of the consequences."

    "The skill could kill her-"

    "I can''t always be there in the moment to protect you."

    Sol''s words came out dry and sudden, cutting Ikaris''s statement off and eating away at thefortable atmosphere.

    "Ikaris, when you were inbour, I was nowhere near you, when that general and his captains attacked, if they hadn''t seen value in you and Talia I''d have returned to corpses, Dr''ul and the others failed, A and Sara nearly died, Dina was at death''s door more than the rest of you were, and I was too upied in another fight to do anything about it, I didn''t even know; I could have lost all of you in an instant." He admitted.

    At Sol''s admittance the air around his body became charged and his eyes and hair turned golden, reacting to his loss ofposure.

    Keele blocked several of Dina''s attacks head-on and then parried her leg throwing her off bnce and mming her head into the ground several times before pulling back her elbow and delivering a single punch that caused the ice to explode into dust as Dina was sent cratering through it like a rock through water.

    "Lumi warned me, and I see it now after they''ve set their sights on you; the Emporium is terrifying."

    Dina arose from the ice in another explosion, floating out of the crater with her hands slightly lowered at her sides and her feet together in ascension taking the form of what appeared to be a godly figure as her eyes glowed in obscured light.

    Thend of white around them was darkened into night because of her powers brightly manifesting.

    "Are you that afraid?"

    Keele dodged Dina''s initial attacks and then parried a randomly spawned [mana spear] far into the air where it exploded harmlessly, slipping to the side and avoiding several hundred more when they all came crashing through the explosion at her while she was still locked in a fist-to-fist engagement with Dina, she knew these were less likely to explode with the caster being right next to them, so she grabbed one and mmed the body into Dina''s abdomen and then tossed it to the side and leapt out of the field of them when Dina was far enough to safely detonate them.

    "Ikaris, I''m not scared; I''m terrified; the thought of you getting hurt keeps me up at night; the thought of Talia..." Sol stopped talking and took a deep shaking breath.

    "I want to fight them and destroy them all to make sure that they don''te after you; I know you''re capable of protecting yourself and Talia, or at the very least, you can avoid getting caught and run away with her," He admitted.

    [PULSAR]

    Keele''s eyes widened in horror when she felt the energy build and release at nigh nk range from her after she had managed to corner Dina, but then Dina and everyone else watching stared in shock and disbelief when the woman took a deep breath and stood her ground rather than avoid it, she seemed to weave the very fabric of reality around her as she curved her hands and diverted the beam causing the cosmic death-ray to bend and rip an arc behind her as she maintained the technique.

    Dina was so captivated she missed Keele moving again until she was right before her.

    Keele''s eyes burned with a strange passion, and her lips were folded in focus when she decked Dina in the jaw so hard it caused the air around them to implode thrice and then explode in a dome that covered the entire mountain range as she was sent crashing clean across the snowy terrain and into the surrounding rocky nds.

    Neither of them had any idea howrge the environment Sol had sent them to was but for Dina, her cascade felt endless as she uncontrobly crashed across mountains and valleys tearing through them and then regaining her footing after she ripped through a dense forest and ended up in a crater on the side of a cliff, she shook her head and staggered out of the crater stopping short of the edge and staring into the chasm as she held her jaw, snow had been reced by an endless rocky desert.

    She had just survived what was essentially a-ripping punch.

    She didn''t hear the approach of her opponent until she was right before her again, Sol, Ikaris, A, and Sara winced when Dina received another three of those punches consecutively, leaving evident marks across the mega from outer space before Keele caught her by her leg and smashed her chest-first into the ground before she flung her clean off the itself causing her to rip a hole through a great moon that hovered above them.

    "How heavy do you think it is?" Ikaris stared at the moon as it rapidly descended the skies turning the night white as it began burning the atmosphere, Keele had never seen anything like this, she had never witnessed destruction on this level, her outpost was smaller than that moon.

    "They think I can teach anything to this monster?" Keele asked herself as she balled her fists and prepared.

    "It''s roughly twice the mass of earth..." Sol had his hand to his chin while Ikaris and Sara copied his posture;  all three stroking their long white beards and nodding in disbelief while A gasped in horror.

    "Mhmm~ she''s definitely not holding anything back anymore." The three of them hummed in unison.

    "This is overkill, Dina!"

 Chapter 259: Ascension to Godhood.

    [Dominion Magic]

    [Telekinesis; Unknown Tier]

    The moon shook and vibrated violently as it approached the, growing more unstable as the seconds passed by with giant cracks racing across it as Dina roared from the cosmos using her powers to their max and swinging her hands wildly applying more pressure from the opposite side intent of blowing everything apart, white blood escaped the corners of het mouth and her nose but she kept using more power regardless.

    "What a frightening woman," Keele stared at the smaller chunks flying above and around her crashing into the ground and waking the terrain. "She is already as strong as most Godyers," Keele tightened her fist and took a stance, inhaling deeply and then staring up at the moon again.

    "I wonder if the others are like her..." She mused and then went silent holding her shaking fist steady and hovering her other hand above it as if protecting a small me from the howling winds around her.

    "Do you see that?" Sol stared intently at what was toe while Ikaris nodded next to him. "How interesting... if in another reality, we weren''t enemies, the emporium could have been great allies against demons, hell, maybe I wouldn''t have had to raise a finger, to begin with, you wouldn''t have been put directly in harm''s way, a lot of tragedies could have been avoided..."

    "Love, some things are best left in your mind for the sake of those who are with you," Ikaris rested her head on his shoulder, and Sol looked at her and then around at A and Sara who were staring at him withplicated expressions masking their faces; she was right; if the emporium had been allies, he wouldn''t have met any of them, it''s more likely that he''d have died miserably and been forgotten on earth, everything he currently had, his love his wealth and his happiness was all thanks to the emporium being the enemy.

    Ikaris supposedly fled the Emporium at the end of the war, without her needing help to defeat the demons, he wouldn''t have been summoned, if the emporium had been allies in their universe he wouldn''t have been able to be Godyer, he''d have never been to Arkadia... he wouldn''t have met anyone he was with.

    Sol dly ate his words and shook his head, resting his palm on Ikaris''s cheek and looking at A and Sara, he wouldn''t have suffered on A, but he also wouldn''t have healed thanks to his wife and lovers, his maid, and his daughter, his friends from Arkadia, the gods... None of that would have existed if the emporium had rid the collective of them.

    "Sorry, I said that without thinking," He stared, but they knew as much; what he thought about at that moment he slipped up was Ikaris losing their first child and how much pain that brought them.

    "We understand, Sir," Sara smiled and then looked at the fight through Alpha''s many eyes again, gaining different angles and perspectives as if she was omnipresent herself.

    Keele''s body shimmered with a slight light, it wasn''t anything any of them had seen before- she was powerless, sure, she had strength, but that was all, aside from her suit aiding in her ability to regenerate and enabling her to fly Keele had no powers whatsoever, but they could see something clearly fantastical about her here, she was nigh glowing.

    She huffed several times and then bent her knees and leapt leaving a crater in the the same size as the moon that was about to crash into it leaving them all at a loss for words, she spared like an ascendinget leaving a trail of mes in her ascension before she roared out and swung her fist inches short of the moon causing a gigantic wave of pressure to explode from her fist, Dina on the opposite end couldn''t feel anything at first she was askance of what was taking ce on the other side.

    However, the cracks that she had been staring at suddenly all erupted in mes and the moon exploded violently back at her sending everything out into the cosmos in an instant while one particrlyrge chunk rapidly ascended and mmed into her pushing her out into the great field of debris.

    She didn''t get time to recover from the shock of what she''d just witnessed since Keele emerged from the debris and spun delivering a kick in her side and reaching for her arm catching and spinning her back into the chunk of moon causing it to stop moving from the contrasting momentum.

    "...Fuck," Dina hissed in pain and raised herself from the crater she''d made, staggering when smaller chunks hit the floating fragment and shook it violently. "A general is a general, regardless of the drugs in their system; she''s a whole different breed of warrior," She mused, casting [Divine Heal] on her side and undoing the damage Keele''s kick had caused.

    "If I do anything big, she just responds with something big in kind; it''s like a game of who can make the bigger boom; I won''t win if I expend my mana so recklessly and I won''t learn anything like this either," Dina admitted to herself, shing her hands and summoning more mana over her hands like a glove while the intensity of her hair dimmed and the length shortened to its original length again.

    "Have you abandoned your tricks?" Keele asked enthusiastically staring at Dina for a response, I cannot teach you something I am also incapable of," She balled her fists and went into her fighting stance again, and Dina blew a clot of blood from her nose and simted Ikaris''s bare-knuckled stance this time causing the mentioned to raise her head and lean her gaze with intrigue masking her eyes.

    "I was just thinking the same, you can''t expect me to y by your rules though, this is a fight I want to win regardless of learning anything, if there''s something to learn I''ll grasp it while driving my knuckles into your flesh!"  Dina pumped herself full of mana and dug into the moon-turned-asteroid dashing the full length of it twice and then snapping in Keele''s direction and delivering a punch akin to Sol''s [Clockwork] punch without any kind of windup, Keele hadn''t expected the attack to reach her that quickly so only managed to block it as it forced her feet off the terrain and shot het back towards the they were escaping.

    As though no barrier existed and no gravity could hold her, Keele made a crater almost as soon as she passed the clouds leaping out of the way when Dina''s fist connected right where she hadnded creating a crater that began sinking the entire continent and started flooding it with water from the ocean surrounding it on all ends.

    "Jesus, they''re both crazy..." Sol stared with his brows furrowed as he saw Dina and Keele sh fists several times and break apart only to return and smash their foreheads into each other and leap away again.

    "Keele is many times more durable, but Dina is making up for it by casting a continuous [heal] across her entire body; it barely consumes any mana at all to use [heal], so she''s doing it passively and focusing on dealing as much damage as she can!" He shook his hands. "Ikaris-"

    "Yes, dear," she chuckled at his excitement. "I am seeing it as well."

    A fight that could have ended in a few minutes if white had gone all out and caught the other one off guard hadsted five hours, trading blow for blow and destroying not one but all thirteen continent-sized masses ofnd in the world, triggering volcanic eruptions and earthquakes that could be considered apocalypses because of the sheer destructive force they held, and yet all they had to show for it was Dina''s fatigue as she faced Keele right where they had started, though now, the mountains had been reced by debris from the Moonfall from earlier.

    "Your power is admirable," Keele smiled at Dina. Your next chapter is on m v|l-e''-NovelBin

    "I''m afraid there''s nothing left for you to try though, you''re a brilliant fighter but this is where our bout ends," She stood upright before Dina and huffed, calming her breath as the suit healed some minor scratches she had sustained while Dina in contrast had many bruises being passively healed while she gasped and huffed on one knee out of breath.

    "No," Dina heard Sol''s voice in her head when she was about to give in. "Keep fighting."

    [Mana is at 0.3%] Alpha gave her an indication of how much power she had remaining without any prompt.

    "I can''t keep fighting-"

    "You have plenty of power to spare, Dina, stop hiding behind your fears, we''re watching over you, just let go," Sol answered before she couldpletely refute.

    While Dina spoke to him in her head, Keele stood there staring at Dina for a response. The woman seemed like she was on the verge of surrendering a few moments ago, but now she had an expression of conflict and fear in her eyes.

    "Are you...?" Keele wanted to approach Dina but started sensing dangering from her person again, unlike before though it was a lethal amount something foreboding that she hadn''t sensed before not even when she fought Sol.

    "Let out your chaos,"

    At Sol''s prompt, Dina clenched her fists and stood without the aid of her hands, biting her lips as the colour in her hair vanished and the glow went with it, turning it ck from the roots outwards and her eyes inverted a second time, causing her iris to glow red while her sclera turned ck again while her pupil maintained a pink glow.

    "What is this?" Keele leapt away as the sense of danger she was feeling became greater.

    "This..." Dina hissed as she immediately began feeling pain. "This is me not giving up."

    [Special magic; (Daughter of Chaos) has been activated. For the next twenty minutes, your mana will be multiplied a hundredfold and converted entirely into chaos incarnate; please be careful; even a second of overuse could have fatal consequences.]

    "Yeah," Dina ground her teeth and fell into the same stance as Keele did. "I''m aware."

    "Keele."

    "Mr Vestic!?" The woman jolted when she heard his voice in her head.

    "You have neen minutes left, after that she''s going to stop fighting on her own, but just know, the being before you is no longer just a mage, she has be an emissary of Chaos and destruction; a god manifest in human flesh, if you slip up you''ll lose your life in an instant so don''t hold back, understood?" He spoke in her mind.

    "Wh... Yes, I understand, this is what would be considered a trump card, right?"

    "That''s right, good luck."

    [Conditions have been met; your feet have firmly been nted amongst divinity; you have achieved total divinity through the simtion of pure divine chaos. Would you like to ept your evolution?]

    [...ept]

 Chapter 260: A Dangerous End.

    "What is this...?" Keele stared at Dina''s appearance after acknowledging Sol''s warning.

    "What exactly did she do to achieve such power?" She wondered, but a momentter her vision was upside down and the ground was as far as the clouds once were, she blinked several times in shock trying to absorb the information to get a grip but before she could get her racing mind under control she felt an invisible force take hold of her and drag her towards the ground again.

    "Focus, Keele!" She snapped at herself righting her body as she collided into the ground with so much force her battlesuit''s legs shredded up to her thighs and the ground around her liquified into magma and then exploded outwards.

    "What the hell?" Keele staggered forward and leapt out of the pool before the magma could touch her, but she was immediately met with a hand descending towards her face when Dina blocked her path.

    "Did he mean take her down or survive for neen minutes!?" Keele spun out of Dina''s reach and kicked her in her side gaining more speed as she leapt clean of the crater, but right at her side in the blink of an eye was Dina again, wordlessly pursuing her with pure determination and a rather static and unreadable expression.

    "She''s an entirely different being, what happened?" Keele arched and hit the brakes on her momentum causing Dina to race ahead before she turned and attacked again.

    "I get the feeling that if any of her attacks connect, I''ll die. Was I wrong to ce my trust in Mr Vestic''s hands?" The woman began questioning her decisions parrying Dina''s hands away and spinning beneath her grab, kicking her in her chin and rolling out of the way, but without breaking stride Dina snapped downwards again and bit at her, almost taking a chunk of her leg in the process.

    "She''s gone wild!"

    "Hraaaaah!" Dina''s crimson irises red up and she grabbed Keele''s leg leaping into the air and spinning epically several times with her and thennding and mming her into the ground so hard it sent cracks the size of fields in every direction, Keele, unable to bear the brunt of the attack screamed out in pain when she felt her leg muscles tearing beneath Dina''s grasp, she shed her leg desperately and thrashed spinning out of her clutches and kicking her in the side of her head with a roar,nding on her good leg and huffing.

    Without the aid of her battlesuit, she wouldn''t be able to heal herself, and the one who healed her thest time was her opponent, the woman epted that this was a do-or-die situation and ced her leg on the ground again, taking a deep breath and falling into a stance through the pain of a severely bruised and torn leg.

    "Seventeen minutes to go," Keele took a deep breath and released it as the shimmer from before appeared around her body again. "Come at me;e at me with everything you''ve got, you won''t ever gain the upper hand again!" She straightened her fingers and went into an alternative stance almost taking the posture of a dancer. "I won''t lose to you!"

    "I never expected to win against someone that master intentionally put me up against," Dina finally broke her silence swinging her hand and causing a sudden change in the weather as the winds violently caught Keele and tossed her into the air, tornadoes began reaching for the ground and thend itself was being torn away from her powers taking root.

    "I''m not stupid, he surrounds us with the strong because he wants to constantly test us, that''s how he pushes us without getting directly involved," Dina raised her hands and opened them wide resulting in the annihtion of everything around her.

    "Compared those of the past whom I have faced, your strength isughable, until you are capable of besting them, I will not see you as a true opponent, you''re merely a sandbag designed and delivered for me to test my wits against!" Dina dropped her hands and the atmosphere began screaming as everything came to a halt and her divine chaos began running rampant.

    "Then I have no choice but to force you to see me as a threat!" Keele descended from the skies and punched just as she had done to shatter the moon, everything Dina had been cooking up til that point vanished in a massive gust of force that sent the mage tumbling uncontrobly while Keele closed down on her.

    "You''re relying on power beyond your control and you think you''ll ever be my opponent!?" She leapt andnded in Dina''s side only to dodge a secondter when dinas hand swung at her cleaving and arc through thend around them as they both came to a stop.

    "It won''t work!" Keele mmed her hand into Dina''s chest and flipped over her offensive strike kicking her across her shoulder andnding gracefully as the shimmer around her body became more distinct.

    "This will be the hardest fifteen minutes you''ve ever experienced, Dina!" Keele eximed and then clenched both her fists and brought her elbows to her side.

    "I don''t need to butcher the innocent to be stronger than anyone else, I''m equipped with the greatest asset humanity has ever been blessed with!"

    "Here ites," Sol started paying keen attention.

    "Hm?" Ikaris looked at him confused as did the others. Enjoy more content from m-v l''e|-NovelBin

    "The utilisation ofw like we''ve never seen before, Keele is the only one of her generation who figured out how to use the blessing granted to her by the high heavens and fate itself," he slightly chuckled as an excited grin crept across his face.

    "Ah.... Haaaa!!" The clouds in the air created a circr ring as a massive tunnel of energy invaded Sol''s collective bypassing his infinity and crashing into the woman creating a dome of mes and destruction that epassed half of the in an instant and filled the skies with red and golden particles of energy Dina had never seen or felt before.

    "LAW is my greatest weapon-"

    "I don''t need it, I am a Divine!"

    The two of conflicting forces rushed in at each other and began trading blows rending the soil beneath them and ripping mountains apart as their fight mauled the verynd it was happening on, what resembled a at first quickly became a barren red rock of molten death as their fight continued to raze mountains and evaporate the very oceans.

    After a few minutes though with the two fighting on basically equal terms, Dina stopped and dodged Keele''sst attack and then retreated several paces away, staring at her with a troubled expression; unlike herself, that couldn''t force herself to get any stronger on ount of her powers being so dangerous Keele was fine raising her strength, the shed again and once more she felt like something was trying to rip her apart, and it wasing directly from the woman''s fists.

    "My time is almost up," Dina admitted and Keele stopped as well and retreated several steps. "I propose-"

    "This fight will not end in a draw, Dina, either you fall, or I do," Keele objected when she saw what was apparently a smile on Dina''s face.

    "I don''t want an unfair conclusion, I''m proposing one final move, a minute from now I won''t be able to ess this power, if I win before then you have to acknowledge divinity as superior..."

    "And if you lose?"

    "I will admit that LAW is humankind''s greater ally."

    "That sounds impossible to say for me," Sol spoke up. "But Keele''s already right; LAW is undoubtedly the best thing that ever happened to them, I don''t know why it happened and I doubt that the records of history have been kind to the losers of the war, I have to admit that LAW is something amazing, beyond divinity when used in the right hands such as hers," He nodded.

    "I''ll have to do thorough research, or at the very least try to get a grasp of it, ording to Alpha it isn''t impossible to learn LAW or utilize it, the fact that it just bypassed an infinity so easily is proof that it''s not something that is purely human.

    "Master..." A looked at Sol weirdly. "Are you going to use their only weapon against them?" She asked and Sol looked at her and shrugged.

    "If that''s what needs to happen then I absolutely will, we''ve met at most a Vatui woman who is almost as powerful as Ikaris, that Ceceliady is broken, but General Flint is only the 100th captain, he''s nowhere near the top of their echelon, I shudder to think of the people who upy the top ten spots and just how powerful they are, for all we know they could all have power that can stop me without resistance, I''ve been thinking long and hard about such an enemy showing up..."

    He watched the fight against Keele and Dina again as the two of them nodded, Dina taking the stance of his clockwork punch as mana circles appeared around her body and arm, and Keele going into an offensive start as the powers of LAW around her quickly vanished through absorption.

    "Their fight is about toe to a dangerous end, I have to pay attention now."

 Chapter 261: In The Backyard.

    "Um..." A looked at Sol as the sigils on his right arm lit up, causing hers and Ikaris''s to brightly re up as well.

    "Master?" She addressed him timidly, but Sol''s eyes and attention were focused on Dina and Keele; even though she was right next to him and they shared the same double vision where they saw the fight and everything before them in tandem, he still seemed topletely miss her calling him, even after she repeated herself.

    "Let it be," Ikaris smiled at A, taking Talia from her grasp and smiling at her. "Do you see that little one?" Ikaris smiled at the child sharing her vision of the final moments of the fight. "Look how beautiful it is~" She chuckled closing her eyes and nuzzling against the baby who began smiling as she held her face and left a wet kiss on her cheek.

    "I''m going-" Sol spoke in the middle of vanishing just as Dina and Keele moved to attack each other.

    [Infernal magic]

    [Cosmic mes magic]

    [Divine me magic]

    [Chaos of divination]

    [Incineration-maximum has passed the threshold; this is entirely different. Would you like to name your new technique?]

    "ANNIHILATION!"

    Dina screamed out as she took off with so much built-up speed and momentum it seemed like she was running in slow motion with the ground beneath her feet turning into puddles of molten magma upon contact.

    "Release."

    Keele in contrast was fairly calm, her technique had no name since she was the one who created it, but even without mana surging around her the ground still evaporated as she ran towards Dina covering the ground even faster as the two of them spun around each other gaining footing in the direction the other had beening from and then thrusting their hands intent on shing to see who''s power and resolve was greater.

    A microsecond before Dina''s palm and Keele''s fist made contact, Sol appeared without the fanfare of his golden aura and diverted their hands, turning Dina''s palm over Keele''s shoulder and directing Keele''s fist upwards at the skies; for a few seconds nothing happened Sol had Dina pressed to his back and her arm on his shoulder facing Keele with his hand firmly keeping hers to the skies, his hair turned white and then blinked and res up in gold and all three of them were engulfed in his mana as the rings manifested like a shield.

    "Wow," Ikaris stared in awe as the atmosphere above them exploded out into the void and the star in the gxy they were inhabiting suddenly exploded in the opposite direction from them forming a tail as Keele''s attack ripped through the gxy in an invisible fury turning multiple other stars into spaghetti as it travelled out into the gaping darkness between gxies.

    In the direction of Dina''s attacks the entire half of the starting from right behind Keele disappeared in white particles, and then the rest of the sr system became a zing pit of Divine Chaos mes rushing outwards into other systems and burning even the stars that it caught, unlike Keele''s though it didn''t go that far, but opposite of Keele''s attack that left evidence of anything in its wake Dina''s new skill took everything with it; as her mes rapidly subsided they left a gaping hole in the gxy where no light existed.

    "At the epicentre of the destruction Sol had only ever seen Dr''ul and the elite of the Emporium pull off, he stood between the two of them and waited for their chaotic attacks to run their course before he stood and raised his hand, Keele flinched and closed het eyes thinking she was going to be attacked and Dina did the same as she knew she had gone overboard, but what they heard was a snap instead.

    As if nothing had happened, as though there was no fight at all, Sol snapped his fingers and the entire region was reset in the blink of an eye; the sun appeared above them, the world was fixed anew, and the moon that had been shattered reappeared in perfect condition, all the stars were remade all thes reappeared, it was as if time itself had been reversed, but in truth he had simply recreated everything as he had designed them before.

    Dina opened her eyes first when the warmth of the sun kissed her cheeks and a bird started chirping above them, and following her Keele peeked one eye open when she realised that she was still alive.

    "I said friendly, didn''t I?" Sol stood next to them staring at Dina as her transformation was undone and she slumped forward holding on to his hand and taking a deep breath before she began coughing.

    "Sir, you also said to not hold back, and indeed, if I had held my punches, I would have died at this crazy woman''s hand," Keele rested her hand on Dina''s shoulder, staring at her concerned.

    "Same..." Dina looked up at him, usually there was always some hint of glow within the highlights of her hair, but for the first time in a while she seemed to have lost that glow and he hummed and stared at her.

    "How are you feeling? I know [Child of Chaos] doesn''t have a punishment aside from the one rule of overuse, but are you okay otherwise?" Sol asked, and Dina nodded and stood upright, using her sharpened canines to cut into her finger and watching her previously white blood drip out golden.

    "Thanks to the nourishment of the divine tree feeding my mana I managed to suppress it without any issues, I feel great; like I''m ready to go again-"

    "Absolutely not." Keele furrowed her brows at Dina. "You may feel fine, but you do not look fine, you look like you''re sick," she gestured to Dina and she looked at Sol who nodded in confirmation.

    "Even though I''m a Divine now?" Dina furrowed her brows.

    "We still have our limitations regardless of what we are, Dina," Sol raised his brow at her and snapped his fingers again bringing them back to the others who were seated in arge backyard around a big circr table full of food waiting for them.

    "You can''t expect that using such destructive power wouldn''t have any effects at all, that''s why I asked," he gestured to the table and then towards the entrance to the backyard area where Eve was standing politely with her hands folded before her and Mark standing several paces behind her staring in shock.

    "What the-" Dina looked at Sol again and then the familiar estate off to the side. "We''re on earth?"

    "Yes, we have been to a lot of ces recently, but inside or out of our collective there is only one ce that can feel like this, there''s something magical about this world," A answered and Ikaris nodded in agreement as did Sol and Sara.

    "Of course, he is the light of our collective and the nexus to every living being within it, here is where Master''s story began, Earth holds tremendous significance as his birthce." Alpha appeared in her maid outfit and following her appearance someone rang the doorbell of the estate and she quickly went towards it while Sara continued setting therge table.

    "Yo Sol, Ikaris!" Usami walked out of the main building, waving her hands with Uriyu behind her and Gia sitting on his shoulders,ughing and waving as well.

    "Hello, everyone, Alpha," Uriyu greeted Alpha and the house happily and then turned ushering through another young red-haired woman after himself before Alpha closed the doors and turned with a polite bow.

    "Is there gonna be a party?" Mark adjusted his sses and stared at Eve.

    "I have no idea. I was just told to be here, and I thought I''d bring you along since it meant they wereing back," Eve smiled through her teeth and then entered the space when Sol gestured to her. "Sir, it''s great to see you in good health," She greeted him with a bow and Sol sighed in eptance and gestured to her.

    "Thanks foring, Eve, how''s earth?"

    "Hectic, sir," She chuckled. "People are hard to handle."

    "Is this everyone?" Ikaris asked, and Sol shook his head and extended his hand to an empty corner in the backyard creating a rift in the shape of a door.

    "The main man has arrived!" S''mael walked through first, though, he looked human aside from his sharp zip-like teeth.

    "What''s up main man?" Sol extended his hand and bumped fists with the god of destruction.

    "Master Vestic," The woman who had walked in after Usami and her family greeted Sol with a bow and then looked at S''mael. "Brother, are you well?" She asked and he hummed and rested his hand on her head. "It''s good to see you''ve recovered."

    "What about you, Renia, how are you fairing away from Arkadia?" Dr''ul walked through the rift next, regarding the redhead with a smile. "I miss you,"

    "I miss you too, Sister," Renia leapt into Dr''ul''s arms and sighed when her older sister hugged her back. "How is home?"

    "As bothersome as you remember it, even in times of peace Arkadians find a way to disturb some kind of natural order," Adonai entered after Dr''ul and then the rift closed behind him.

    "How has earth been for the retired Goddess of Chaos?"

 Chapter 262: Celebrate Life.

    "Dude, I can''t believe you''ve been back for over a month and didn''t tell me you had a girlfriend, she''s gorgeous," Mark slipped around the crowd of chatter and stood next to Uriyu. "What''s her name?"

    "She isn''t my girlfriend, Mark," Uriyu chuckled. "And if you want to see her name just use the system what the heck?"

    "Are you kidding me, with the way you look at her I thought for sure you''ve already f-"

    "Stop it."

    Uriyu raised his brow at his friend and huffed.

    "Don''t say what you can''t take back, everyone here has spent thest four months defending us from threats beyond your wildest imagination, she''s gone through a lot for your sake, she''s suffered so you get to live a trivial existence; show her the respect she deserves, she''s an honoured guest, not someone who''s name should ever be dragged through your filth of a mind." Uriyu stared at Mark seriously.

    "Jeez..."

    "Besides," Uriyu smiled as he nced at the goddess happily chatting with Sol and resting her hand on his arm yfully. "She doesn''t see us, from what I gathered of the story, her heart was stolen long ago, she just hasn''t noticed it yet." He huffed.

    "What are the two of you up to this time?" Eve shimmied her way towards them and stood next to Mark, leaning on his arm. "Uriyu''s got lost puppy eyes again."

    Experience tales at m v|l e''-NovelBin

    "Just catching up on some college stuff, you know... Guy stuff." Mark scratched his cheek while Uriyu cleared his throat.

    "So, how has Earth been for the retired Goddess of Chaos?" Sol rested his hand on Renia''s shoulder with worry etched on his face and watched her smile slowly wane as a crack in her mask showed the trauma thaty underneath.

    "Master Vestic..." Renia ced her palm over his hand and smiled. "I would rather not be called the goddess of chaos anymore," She stared at him, and Dr''ul along with her brothers, Ikaris and Dina looked around at her as if an invisible tether had pulled their eyes in her direction.

    "You all keep telling me I am not to me, but I am burdened by so much guilt and hate that I could never wear such a noble title with light shoulders again, if it causes no bother, simply calling me Renia is enough..."

    "The title doesn''t belong to anyone else but you-"

    "Please," Renia squeezed Sol''s hand and he looked around at everyone else seeing their worry for her as well. "Please, for my sake," She smiled sadly at him and he conceded with a sigh and a nod.

    "Okay, Renia," Sol dropped the topic and squeezed her shoulder. "You look a lot better than thest time I saw you, still," He smiled at her warmly and she chuckled and sighed as the warmth of his hand left her.

    "Thank you, Master Vestic."

    ***

    "I wish I could be there with them," Jeniferid on her bed with her gaze to the ceiling as Alpha shared with her the real-time happening of the gathering, she stared at the food, and at the faces of everyone both old and new. "Even he realised Keele Hawke managed to be a part of his group, and by the looks of it her transition is a lot smoother than mine," Jenifer pouted.

    [Quite a lot has happened between then and now, with the most notable being the massive increase in strength amongst the Arkadian gods, once you would be able to fight them, but currently you are nearly the weakest amongst them all, fourth from the bottom after Usami, Sara, and Lady A.] Alpha answered in Jenifer''s head and she sighed and licked her lips again

    "Thanks, Alpha," Jenifer responded and the system seemed to hesitate as she left a nk reply screen in Jenifer''s body before her words came through vocally in her head at the same speed they appeared on the panel.

    [Why are you thanking me, is your desire not to be at the gathering?] Alpha asked.

    "I mean; it is, but I''m thankful that you''re here with me, if it was a case of constant radio silence I don''t think I''d have been thisfortable, but thanks to you I can freely speak to sir or anyone else who would ept a conversation with me," She smiled and closed her eyes taking in the gathering in more detail. "How are we doing now?"

    [We are nearly 30%plete; your universe is arge one] Alpha hummed in her mind, and she nodded with a small smile.

    "When it''s fully under your influence and control sir wille, that''s in another three months, I''m d," Jenifer tapped her belly as she salivated over the food Sara was sharing around the table. "I just have to wait until then. Hopefully, I don''t get-" She stopped and opened her eyes, sitting up in surprise when a chiming sound came from her living quarters. "Yes?" She spoke outwardly.

    [Chey Law is at the door, shall I let her in?" Alpha asked; she had already reced the UI of the apartment and hadplete control over everything it used to do, doing this meant that Jenifer now had ess to doing whatever she pleased since Alpha could tamper with or create 100% fabricated footage and audio of her and fool any other intelligent device that came anywhere near and tried probing for information.

    "Good afternoon, Head-Captain Chey Law," Alpha greeted using the UI''s voice while the door opened with a click letting the woman in at Jenifer''s confirmation.

    "Mother," Jenifer exited her room closing the door behind herself and greeting her with salute. "What brings you here today?"

    "Your UI must be broken Jenifer, it still calls me captain, but I have no regime and no general to lead me, quite literally us two and my crew that were courtmarshalled with me are the only ones who survived the encounter with the Godyer, he killed everything," Chey returned the salute and then rxed her shoulders and posture holding up a small bag of groceries.

    "Can''t an olddye visit her daughter to celebrate her life every now and then?" Chey asked and Jenifer rocked her head and gestured to the kitchen as her mother''s couldn''t be more perfect.

    "Sol Vestic," Jenifer looked over her shoulders as she began taking down pots from a hangar.

    "Hm?"

    "His name, it was released a day ago, he''s Sol Vestic; and since his collective was unnamed and disappeared they just named it after him, it''s official; the Sol Collective."

    "Huh," Chey mused quietly while she removed the food from her shopping bag. "I''d say it''s more than he deserves but you have to admit, that fucker deserves to be recognised, even if he is the enemy I still think he''s pretty dang amazing to have pulled off what he did and gotten away with it; now that I think back we were lucky," she looked at Jenifer meekly.

    "Indeed," The daughter replied with a serious nod.

    "Hepletely destroyed the entire 3790th fleet and vanished into nowhere and then popped up again and destroyed an outpost inside of our very own collective, he faced and survived an encounter with the 100th general and even dered war on the Emporium, everyone''s in a fit about him, he''s the most popr name since the announcement of Ikaris''s return, and the dessification of her sealed files," Jenifer looked at Chey for a reaction and found her mother staring at her.

    "You have been keeping tabs, I see," Chey nodded.

    "Well, I consider myself blessed to have faced and survived an encounter with the most powerful Godyer of recent times and not only that but it turns out that the woman we tried taking from him was Ikaris from the Vatui n of that same name, we''re lucky, mother, lucky to still be in one whole," Jenifer chuckled at the irony and Chey smiled and started pouring water in a pot.

    "Indeed we are kid, the Emporium well and truly pissed him off and he struck back like an exploding star against our face, we managed to meet him while he still had the naivety and innocence of a man who simply wanted to protect his family, I believe he will keep his promise and keep destroying outposts until someone manages to stop him," Chey hummed.

    "You think anyone will?"

    "There are people out there who are unbelievably powerful, monsters among men, he may be the great Sol Vestic now, but he is still only one Godyer, he will have his run but at the end of the day the Grand Emporium is a superpower that will remain uncontested by all foreign forces; if he couldn''t handle and had to flee from General Viktor Flint then what hope does he have of facing the upper echelon of the Emporium''s finest?" She asked and saw Jenifer pause in wonder.

    "I don''t think he''s fought to his fullest yet, at the time he had to protect Ikaris who was going through childbirth, she was in a weakened state and vulnerable, just look, he disappeared with a promise of retaliation and a monthter hepletely wiped out an entire fleet in a matter of minutes."

    "You don''t seem to think he will lose," Chey paused and stared at her daughter''s back.

    "After what he did to me..." Jenifer huffed holding her arm that had been shredded beyond recognition by Sol''s most casual attack.

    "I don''t think he will."

    "Then I''m lucky to have struck that deal with him, I kept my word and he was able to go back to his wife, hopefully the day we meet again he will remember I am the woman who chose resignation over confrontation." Chey chuckled and Jeniferughed in response.

    ***

    "We''ll see," Sol leaned his head watching their interaction.

 Chapter 263: Episode.

    "See? See what?" Ikaris looked over at Sol after he spoke out of context in the middle of a conversation causing him to lean his head and stare at her, it took a few seconds of staring before he realised that the entire table had gone silent because of the serious re and his nose slightly scrunched after he had fallen into deep thought because did Chey and Jenifer''s conversation.

    "Are you thinking of what is toe, Master?" A asked from his other side and Sol looked around at her and then at everyone else.

    "Sorry, don''t mind that," Sol slightly raised his hands and reached for Ikaris kissing her forehead and then standing. "I''ll be back in a few minutes," he left them quickly and went into one of the estate buildings pressing his back against the wall and taking a deep breath as his eyes and hair began flickering gold and white. "Keep it down..." He whispered to himself, taking deep breaths. "Keep-"

    "Sol."

    Ikaris rested her hand on his arm after walking up to his side, she saw the shock on his face when she did; he was so focused that he didn''t even sense her approach.

    "You promised to share your troubles my love and I swore to be your ear so tell me," she smiled at him, concerned.

    "Master," Dina came running around the corner next, and everyone at the table sat there quietly ncing around at each other when A excused herself and ran after the other two while Sara sat with Talia, ying with her as if there wasn''t something clearly wrong about what had just happened with the others.

    "I''m fine, I promise, it''s just residual... animosity." Sol looked at them taking another deep breath again as his eyes and hair continued to flicker while he struggled between Divine and Godyer.

    "Sol."

    Ikaris addressed him seriously once more and then went silent, staring at him for an exnation. "What are you fighting to keep down?" She asked, raising her brows in concern holding onto his hand again and hugging him to herself then resting her head against his chest.

    "A," Dina looked at Sol and then at her fellow lover. "We should get back to the others."

    "But-"

    "Come on, read the room, he stepped away to avoid being around a bunch of people," She took the elf by her shoulders, sharing one more nce with Sol and then leaving towards their guests.

    "We aren''t just people Dina," A argued as they left.

    "Of course not, but Ikaris understands him better than the two of usbined, even if she doesn''t know what''s wrong she''ll know what to do, he chose her first."

    "Breathe, love," Ikaris slid her hands around Sol and held him, tightly closing her eyes as she took deep breaths with him, "do not mind anything else, just breathe."

    "I''m breathing," Sol huffed and slowly hugged her tighter to himself as he ran his fingers through her hair. "I''m breathing."

    ***

    What seemed like a few minutes psed into an hour of them just standing in the corner holding onto each other; Ikaris silently humming and Sol listening as his mana calmed like the surface of an undisturbed pond until he finally broke their silence.

    "Ikaris."

    "Yes, love?"

    "Thank you," Sol opened his eyes and smiled at her.

    "I swore before the light and all the hosts of heaven, my love," Ikaris smiled and cupped his cheeks, pulling him down for a chaste kiss. "I will never look away when you are troubled," She kissed him again. "I''ll always present myself bare before you in your time of need, I will love and adore you until my eternity has ended," She kissed him once more and then brushed her fingers through his hair.

    "I love you, Sol Vestic," She smiled cheekily at him and he sighed and pressed his forehead to hers.

    "And I; you, forever and ever."

    "Oh," Dina ced her hand over the sigil in the shape of a heart above her breasts as it brightly lit up and made a low humming noise, causing everyone else to stare at her as she began smiling, and then at A who had the same experience of having every drop of mana in her body vibrate to the sensation of Sol''s mood being scraped off the floor and raised to new heights.

    "Hey, what was that earlier, are you okay?" Usami asked as soon as Sol was near the table again, walking towards them with Ikaris at his side holding his hand.

    "Sorry about that, there was an unruly amount of negative energy that I had to expel..." Sol paused and stared at the table. "Nobody''s touched the food?"

    "They decided to wait on your return, Master," Alpha answered appearing at his side like a ghost and staring up at him as the food began getting warm again and steam began rising from it.

    "Right, well let''s not waste any more time then and dig in!" Sol effectively equipped his mask once more and pped his hands like a curator bringing a bout of joy as everyone began conversing and smiling again like they were up until his episode.

    "Okay, but what actually happened though?" Usami asked After a few hours had psed, might have fallen and everyone had broken into smaller mixed groups having more personal conversations, she had waited the entire evening for him to have a moment and as soon as he did she sprung the question on him.

    "I don''t want to pretend like I didn''t see it happen, you''re the centre of our collective, something that affects you effectively means trouble for everyst one of us, I shudder to think of anything bad happening and you disappearing and leaving us alone."

    She raised a bottle of beer towards him and he sighed and smiled at her. "So?"

    "I had an episode," Sol answered honestly, but unable to believe his words Usami started chuckling, thinking he was making it up until she saw the serious expression on his face.

    "Wait, seriously?"

    "Yes," he smiled at her prompting a sudden clearing of her throat as she perked up and rested her hand on his back, concerned.

    "Was it like a... Y''know, mental episode?" She asked and Sol scoffed at the question and shook his head in the negative.

    "If I had a mental episode and then came back and pretended it didn''t happen I''d be the biggest psychopath I know, no, I''m not a mental case, Usami," Solughed out for a few seconds and then shook his head again. "No, it was anxiety."

    "You had an anxiety attack?" She furrowed her brows and sighed. "Can you tell me why, or...?"

    "It''s the first time anything of the sort has happened since recent times, I used to have them back on A but I was pretty good at covering it up, this time though Ikaris realised right away and came after me..."

    "Anxiety..." Usami mused.

    "Yes, constantly thinking of the Emporium made me ufortable, I would like to not be afraid but I''m scared for Talia''s sake, on the asion of my demise or failure to protect her and Ikaris she''s gonna be targeted and possibly harvested; the thought of having my baby girl turned into ab experiment triggered some awful thoughts, in the history of the Grand Emporium this is the first time anyone like her has been born, Vatui aren''t supposed to be capable of reproduction, and Godyers aren''t naturally as strong as I am, Ikaris has a reputation of bloodletting that precedes her so when they realised who they were dealing with they sent Flint."

    "Is that man really that strong?" Usami stared at him in shock.

    "Strong enough to kill Ikaris?" She asked back.

    "No, but they don''t know that, and that''s why my anxiety was triggered, none of them know how powerful Ikaris has be; inside of her is a part of the collective a greater portion -she is far more powerful than she once was, the only being with greater strength to hers is me, the moment they realise this they''re gonna send someone troublesome and that''s why I''m gonna destroy them before they do." Sol huffed.

    "I hate being nervous, but these people make me extremely nervous."

    "Even if I can''t rte to most of what you say and go through, I can at least understand your stress about Talia," She nodded and patted his back roughly. "Don''t worry, you''re a great father and the most amazing shield in existence, you don''t need to shimmy around over the small detail, you''re the one and only Sol Vestic, y''know." Usami raised her drink when she saw Aing over.

    "I''ll leave you to your girls," She promptly gave A a wink and left before the elf could fully reach them.

    "Master, are you still troubled?" She asked and Sol nodded.

    "It''s not a feeling that I can get rid of that easily, I''m... What are you doing, A?" Sol paused when she walked right up to him and pressed her breasts against him resulting in the button of her blouse snapping.

    "I often fail to offer the right words. I am well-spoken, but I alsockmonpassion sometimes; I am sorry I am like this," She stared up at him.

    "Master, if you don''t mind, I would like to offer you pleasure in ce of words."

 Chapter 264: Take It All.

    "Should we just pretend we didn''t see them slip away?" Mark stared at Uriyu and thetter nced at him, annoyed and furrowed his brows.

    "Were you always this nosy?" Uriyu asked with a straight gaze. "You realise any number of them here is easily capable of erasing your mind or turning you into an idiot, right, why are you so nitpicky about the things happening around you, we''re surrounded by gods but you can''t seem to stop sticking your nose in one person''s business."

    "I''ve told him time and time again, but the idiot just doesn''t seem to get the hint," Eve shook her head, sitting on the opposite side of Uriyu, facing Mark as well. "You don''t need to point out every single thing you see-"

    "He''s married to Ms Ikaris, isn''t he? Don''t they have a daughter?" Mark furrowed his brows and Uriyu pped his forehead and stood walking away from the two of them, and after his departure Eve stood as well.

    "Mark, I honestly love you, but you brought this on yourself; I can''t keep having to monitor and cover for you either way; you''ve already spilt their secret twice in three months and caused a major incident calling on your connections," Eve shook her head watching Alpha walk towards them. "I''ll see you at home, okay?" She kissed his cheek and went over to Dina who was observing their interaction.

    [Your friend, Mark, has shown an increasingly troublesome personality, I have no choice but to alter his memories for his own safety, Master Vestic is not partial to those who continuously meddle in his personal life especially now when he is under tremendous stress from outside forces; he will lose all memory of everyone''s identity and their secrets, he will have no recollection of anyone and will only know of them by your mention should you decide to mention them]

    The window before Eve continued to blink as it faded away while she watched Alpha ce her hand on Mark''s head and closed her eyes.

    After a few seconds, the man stood and walked away without a word, leaving the property and heading straight for home to sleep and wake anew.

    "Will he be alright?" Eve asked Dina and thetter nodded with surety and rested her hand on her shoulder.

    "I also think It''s better that he doesn''t know; his personality''s just gonna get him in trouble again; if you want to talk to someone, there''s always Uriyu," Dina assured her with a smile. "We haven''t had a chance to catch up yet Eve, how have you been?"

    "Oh no, you first, I know you''ve been through some crazy shit recently; I just don''t know what that is yet," Eve chuckled, seemingly forgetting that her boyfriend just had his memories erased and altered.

    "Well for starters," Dina guided her to a seat and took a calming breath. "I''m not human anymore."

    "Not human -what does that even mean?" Eve raised a brow so high it vanished under her bangs. "Did you turn into an elf or something?"

    "I didn''t swap races, I evolved,"

    "Like a Poumon?"

    "Eve I''m not a Pouch-Monster, don''tpare me to anime, Dina chuckled. "No, what I''m saying is, I ascended humanity, I''m a Divine now..." She watched Eve''s brows furrow in confusion at the term she hadn''t heard before.

    "A Divine, as in... Divine being -holy shit you''re a god?"

    "I don''t think I''m a god, I just became a divine being now, there''s a difference, you can think of it as more of... an angel maybe?" Dina answered and Eve leapt to her feet and gestured to her in disbelief. "I don''t even look like this anymore," She gestured to herself.

    "Are you serious?" Eve snapped excitedly. "Does it make you look way different? Do you have wings now? Do you glow?"

    "A little glow, yes, but no wings," Dina took a deep breath and then barely released her mana, causing her hair to slowly glow from the roots outwards, drawing everyone''s attention when her Divine mana spread across the estates and throughout the surroundingmunity harmlessly.

    She had expected Eve toe with another outburst of excitement, but upon looking at her friend once more she found the woman too stunned to even speak, she just stood there staring at her inplete awe and shock.

    "Dona!" Dr''ul came to her side and dropped her hand on her shoulder with a grin of excitement. "We must fight once more, I wish to see the reaches of your strength!" She chuckled but flinched when Ikaris stood at her side, took her hand and raised it off Dina with a shake of her head.

    "Absolutely not, you have influenced this girl enough already," Ikaris continued shaking her head. "She''s out here asking for fights as much as you are!" Ikaris shook her finger at Dr''ul like a big sister and the goddess of war shrunk under her scolding.

    "You can''t just spring a fight every time someone shows signs of growth and progression; even as the goddess of war, you need to show some self-control, do you understand?" Ikaris stared at her seriously and Dr''ul pouted and huffed like a child.

    "That does not sound fair, you know I love to fight-"

    "Then..." Ikaris''s blue eyes began shining brightly and her ears slightly elongated as she took on a serious expression in regard to the redheaded woman before her." if you want a fight so much I may be willing to entertain you for a few minutes!" She red, and Dr''ul shrunk even further, abandoning her fighting spirit entirely as she felt the urge to hide away. "What say you, little sister?"

    "A-ah!" Dr''ul pped and looked over at Adonai who was staring at the encounter with intrigue; he seldom got the chance to see his sister humbled but this time she looked terrified as she thought of her near-death experience the first time her''s and Ikaris''s ideals conflicted.

    "I think Renia was saying something earlier, I should go listen." Dr''ul sped off towards Renia while Ikaris withdrew her power and chuckled at the Goddess''s antics.

    "Good choice," Ikaris smiled and then looked at Sara who was quickly approaching with Talia while she reached for her mother with her eyes slightly shimmering.

    "Mdy," Sara stood before Ikaris and she took Talia with a bright smile.

    "Look at you~" Ikaris cooed. "You''re using your mana like Papa already, you''re such a fast learner~" She pressed her cheek against the child and she beganughing between kisses as she clutched het mother''s hair staring at her in wonder.

    "Some day you''re gonna be big and strong like your mommy and daddy Talia and then we''ll punish those bad Emporium bullies together~ isn''t that right?" Ikaris blew farts against Talia''s neck, causing her tough as more of her mana seeped out, casting firefly-like particles around them.

    "By the light, that power horrifies me," Dr''ul stared at Talia''s mana shocked, even though it was a small amount no more than that of a regr Arkadian civilian; this was a baby only a month old, she was exuding mana so dense it took physical form and so pure it felt divine, her power felt like the Grey itself was reaching out into the physical world.

    "This child will either save us all or lead us by hand to put demise," She thought not daring to say such words in Ikaris''s presence, or even behind her for that matter.

    "That''s enough now, Talia," Ikaris smiled at the baby, and everyone gawked in shock when the Mana floating around them slowly dispersed and the child closed her eyes smiling. "Well done."

    "What the fuck just happened?" Usami stared with her brows furrowed and her face set in a confused frown. "She understands?"

    "She does, is that unnatural?" Ikaris asked and everyone nodded in tandem. "Hm, she has always listened and understood, though," Ikaris hummed and looked at Talia again when she began cooing. "Come now, my little blessing, it is time to feed and rest; you''ve been awake for hours," Ikaris brushed off the apparent weirdness of the fully sentient baby when she began squeezing her breast.

    ***

    "Hah~" A sighed, tapping her head against the wall when Sol''s hands slid up her sides and his fingers roughly squeezed into her nipples.

    She released another pleased moan locking her legs around his waist and humming when his inserted muscle twitched and slid deeper into her as he slowly buried himself to the waist, her fingers dug into the wall and her head left a dent when Sol pulled out halfway and then roughly repeated his thrust several times forgoing his usual forey as he focused on his pleasure rather than hers.

    "Bare with me, A," Sol picked her up by her ass and dropped her onto himself again causing her to reach forward and bite into his flesh with a muffled yelp, sucking in a deep breath and tearing his shirt with her nails as he began pumping rough thrusts into her once more, she thrashed and groaned madly in his embrace and her sigils lit up like fireworks in the dimly lit room as she was stimted by his mana seeping into her body through their connection.

    "God..." Dina sat outside staring at the building she could feel their lust in. "I want to~"

    "Nonsense, let them be," Ikaris smiled next to her as she breastfed under a sphere of light that hid them from the others who were still happily chatting away. "You heard A; she doesn''t know what to say, and truly she is quite bad at words of console," she continued smiling. "She is using her love to express what she has failed to do otherwise."

    While Dina longed to be there and Ikaris hid her lust and catered to her sleeping child, A''s mind slowed down when Sol pressed her into her bed and continued to roughly fuck her, locking one hand around her neck and his other in her hair leaving her bathing in the sensation of being possessed as the air to her brain was cut off and her tongue lewdly stuck from her mouth as she breathed mana against his hand.

    "This... Love... Daddy," she struggled to form her words coherently.

    "My dream, Master, is to have you overflowing with pleasure as you steal my mind and fill my tubes with your nectar, this painful pleasure, your merciless pounding against my womb as you brutally fuck my senses away into more pleasure, your hands, your body, your seed, I give you all I have..."

    "Take everything away from me, my love!"

 Chapter 265: Whatever it Takes.

    "Cecelia." Discover hidden stories at m,v l''e-NovelBin

    "Yes sir!" She replied promptly to Viktor, standing at attention and saluting the 100th general as he entered her quarters and stood at the door nodding and then gesturing to a chair in the middle of the messy room. "Please, go ahead," She gestured to the seat as well and then quickly went back to packing her things away.

    "Sir, is there something I can help you with?" She asked, hiding her nervousness by avoiding eye contact and turning her back when the door behind him smoothly slid shut and he took a seat silently. "I only get a few hours per week and I usually take that time to clean-"

    "Come to me."

    "Sir-" She meant to protest, but upon turning and seeing the general''s face Cecelia swallowed her words and stood upright, dropping her belongings at her feet and walking over to him without a rebuttal, unlike her usual uniform, in her privacy she wore a loose-fitting gown that hung on her shoulders revealing much of her impressive bust, but now, she was wishing she had worn armour that couldn''t be removed.

    This man had no mercy, he had no consideration, he did what he wanted whenever he wanted, he had even gone as far as informally touching her in the presence of lower-ranked officers, and he was getting worse by the day.

    "I am yours, General; I owe you my every breath for saving me from execution, so please, do as you desire with me," She lowered her gaze and raised the straps of her gown, releasing them and allowing the fabric to fall to the ground and pool at her feet. "I only ask that you be gentle-"

    "You can survive the explosion of a star in your face and having your brain blown out, you''ll be fine," he held on to her hand, dragged her onto himself and took a deep breath. "Now," Viktor furrowed his brows and removed his gloves resting his hands on her breasts and squeezing them roughly. "As I taught you."

    "Yes, sir." She replied, skillfully using her hands and feet to undress him without raising herself and then leaning onto him and hugging him against her body with a disgruntled gaze to the door, lowering herself onto him, biting her lips and hissing when his fingers sank into the flesh of her legs down to the first joint and she began bleeding while being impaled on his phallus.

    ***

    From one anguished and tormented face to an expression of happiness and contentment, A sighed and hugged Sol to her body, as she rode him in the exact same position on a chair in the middle of her room, the heat of their passion had given way to a rather cosy environment as the room was filled with their mixed mana slowly floating around while she breathed more crimson mana into the air and he did the same with his golden mana.

    "Once more," Sol locked one arm around her waist and firmly grasped her ass with his other, raising his waist and dragging her down onto himself in tandem, causing the elf to leave another irritated crescent on his neck with her teeth as she bit into his flesh and dragged his hair as he pumped her full to the point of overflow.

    In the aftermath of their lovemaking, Sol carried her to the bathroom and proceeded to enjoy her body to his fullest once more while they cleansed themselves, in total, another hour had psed with him being absent and the get-together in the backyard spaces had been moved inside of the estates to the lounge room where Ikaris was in the middle of exining the concept of a TV to Adonai while Dr''ul and S''mael had found fascination in Renia''s phone.

    "The Godyer returns," Usami raised her head when she saw Sol and Aing down the stairs in fresh fits of clothes after tearing up the ones they were wearing earlier; Sol''s mana was again as still as an abyss while A had a beaming smile as she blushed and hid behind him.

    "All is well?" Ikaris nced over her shoulder.

    "Yes, mdy," A answered with that same shy smile and then quickly went over to Dina and Eve while Sol sat and took a deep breath, rxing in his seat like his limbs were made of jelly.

    "You good there, buddy?" Usami queried and he nodded and gave her a goofy thumbs-up with a blush across his face. "Damn," She mused in thought. "Good job, A."

    The rest of the night was spent with everyone leisurely hanging about with no mention of the Emporium or anything serious at all, they yed games and watched TV, having a normal night until Dr''ul and her brothers were sent back to Arkadia and Renia went upstairs with Usami and her family departedst, leaving Eve and the Vestics with Keele who had more or less blended in nicely the entire day.

    "How long will you be here this time?" Eve sat in the kitchen next to Dina sipping from a ss of wine andzily poking her cheek. Some time ago she had changed into something morefortable since she had intended to stay the night upon Dina''s earlier request.

    "It''s not really my choice, I already told you that," Dina answered, sitting opposite of her with her own ss of wine and the bottle dangling in her other hand. "A lot happened in the few months we were gone."

    "It''s been a year for us here on earth." Eve stared at her but Dina didn''t acknowledge the difference in time since she already knew that Sol had fixed the dtion by adjusting everyone''s simultaneously regardless of the size or age of the sector.

    "I go wherever Master goes, I''m always ready to leave, so I never truly know how long I''ll be anywhere," Dina admitted and Eve nodded, figuring that was the most likely answer.

    "What''s it like?" Eve asked again.

    "I mean; it''s been nearly two years now since you guys changed the earth and gave us Alpha, a lot of crazy things happen every day that I have to oversee and amongst those, flight is bing moremon and increasingly troublesome, just two months ago some crazy bastard shot himself to the moon and had to be brought back by someone in my division, it''s bananas out here; but what''s it like having so much power that even what I just said doesn''t cause you to bat an eye?"

    "Well," Dina mused, thinking of her most recent fight.

    "The stronger you be the easier it is to be conceited, but Master and Ikaris''s presence is a constant reminder, the Emporium which we fight is the shadow that keeps me humble, take Keele as an example, she''s powerful, ridiculously powerful, it would take a single strike from her bare fist to destroy Earth and I had to fight her just days ago."

    "How is that even possible?"

    "It shouldn''t be; but after you''ve seen the things I''ve seen, then the only thing that surprises you is what Master and Ikaris are capable of," Dina took another swig of her fermented drink and stared at Eve. "I''ve done some pretty ridiculous things myself."

    "Like?"

    "When we first went back to Arkadia, I had a friendly fight with Dr''ul, little ol'' me against the mighty goddess of war," Dina tapped her chin in thought. "That fight concluded with the destruction of a Celestial body the size of Earth, a moon; I didn''t expect that to happen, but whenever I mimic Ikaris''s abilities, and she imitates mine, crazy things happen." She admitted with a chuckle.

    "Adonai spent a month recreating Sett after I turned it into space dust."

    "...What?"

    "Yep."

    "I can''t even imagine-"

    "Currently, I''m more than twenty times as powerful as I was back then," Dina looked down at her empty ss and then stared at Eve nonchntly. "Leaping to the moon is something that any of us in this house could do leisurely."

    "It''s too hard to wrap my mind around that idea," Eve shook her head and cradled her skull. "I really can''t imagine any of what you just said!"

    "It''s no idea, Keele is capable of destroying the world with a single blow, I''m capable of doing the same, Sara can wipe out all of humanity within a single night, A can blow it up as shily as you can imagine, and let''s not even mention Dr''ul and the others, they''re each able to destroy entire gxies Dr''ul in particr can annihte an entire universe if she overexerts herself..." Dina spoke casually as she recalled what she knew.

    "Master and Ikaris are the peak of creation; apex amongst all other beings, they''re able to end any and possibly all reality on a whim,pared to them and the Arkadian Gods, A, Sara and I aren''t even walking yet, we''re still babies, they''re gods Eve, as real as you can conceive them; beings beyond fathom, and there are others like them, possibly thousands more," Dina hummed and turned the bottle to her head.

    "That''s why I want to get stronger even faster than I am currently, I know I have the ability to do it..."

    "I want to be as powerful as they are as quickly as I can, even if the cost is what remains of my humanity."

 Chapter 266: Lucid Nightmare.

    "You promised me, you made a promise; after everything I''ve done for you, after all the suffering I had to endure, after everything I lost you left me, you abandoned me, you betrayed my trust, Ikaris!"

    "Sol, no, I promise I would never, I made a vow before you on my soul as a divine-"

    "Nothing but lies fabricated in your head, if you couldn''t even keep the most basic promise as a goddess how could you possibly keep any other kind!?" Sol roared, looming over Ikaris who knelt before him weeping, bitterly. "An entire life built on nothing but lies; your existence itself is a lie..."

    "Please, Master, do not say such cruel words-"

    "Don''t ever call me by that title; don''t ever refer to me at all."

    "I am your ve, I have been loyal in your service ever since you defeated the Demon-God, Master-"

    "As if I would ever be master to the likes of you, cheating, lying, cowardly bitch, Ikaris, I hate you more than I''ve hated anything else in my entire life, after what you put me through on A what the fuck would ever make me ept you as a ve?

    I don''t even want to see your disgusting face." Sol stared at her, eyes burning crimson and his brown hair fanning around his head as his scarred body shook from anger.

    "You''re still stronger than I am, you''re still the goddess, so if you care about anything I say at all just leave; leave and never return, don''t ever show your face before me again."

    "What about Talia, and-"

    "I said go!" Sol roared summoning his cursed de and driving it through her stomach. "That abomination is no child of mine!"

    Ikaris screamed out iling and forced herself to heal as hers and Sol''s eyes locked onto each other. "Like Jun and the others did... just die; just disappear forever!"

    "No!" Ikaris leapt backwards, mming through the wall and creating a path of destruction as she ripped a trench across the estate in a panic stopping in the front yard as her eyes burned crimson and her breath came out wildly, the roots of her hair had be white and her canines had grown into fangs.

    "Ikaris!" Sol came running after her, but as soon as she saw him she panicked and attempted to run off again, but with speed superior to anything he''d ever aplished before Sol caught her arm and hugged her onto himself sinking to his knees and holding her arms against her body when she began screaming to the skies waking not just the neighbours but the entire country and thend shook and the skies screamed with her.

    Thunderstorms rolled, appearing out of nowhere and volcanoes threatened to explode as she walked and tried escaping his grasp.

    "Ikaris..." Sol held on to her. "Calm down, tell me what happened," Sol spoke calmly while she tried her hardest to escape his grasp, but he had utilized the fullest of his powers to keep her under control and prevent the earth from shattering as he held her in an isted space while Dina and A, and then Keele rushed to them, with Sara arrivingst holding onto Talia.

    "Come on, feel it in, I''m right here!" Sol locked his legs around her waist and held on tighter when she began overexerting her powers causing the world to shudder when a crack appeared across the small sphere he held her in.

    "That''s fucking enough, Ikaris, stop it!" Sol roared out in frustration, cranking the [control] of their ve contract all the way up to the maximum and causing her sigils to light aze and burn her flesh, but in the wake of that burning sensation Ikaris froze and looked around at him, and then at Talia who was crying in Sara''s arms; her eyes flickered and returned to normal, and her hair became ck again as the heat of her sigils dissolved and she spun and tackled him to the ground, crying even harder than before as all her powers were violently suppressed to the point that not even Sol could sense them.

    "Master, I''m sorry!" Ikaris rubbed her face in Sol''s shirt hugging him as if the world had ended. "I''m so sorry, I promise, I''ll be good, I won''t ever betray you, I won''t ever abandon you, I love you, I adore you, I worship you...!" She cried out again, losing all her strength and slumping against him, falling into deep sleep as if she hadn''t been awake at all.

    "... What the fuck happened?" Dina spoke up after several minutes had passed and Ikaris released a light snore snuggling against Sol who was still so shocked by what had happened that he hadn''t moved from their spot on the ground, he slowly used his powers to walk through her memories of every interaction she ever had with him but nothing in there had caused this.

    "Why was she so frightened, why is she so sad?" Dina asked and Sol slowly looked up at A and her, finding streams of tears as they shared in Ikaris''s shock and sadness. "Master, did you say something to her?"

    "No," Sol replied briefly. "She suddenly leapt out of the bed screaming and went wild, I think... she was having a nightmare," His voice had an unusual weight to it that caught Dina off-guard. "I''ve never seen her like this before."

    "Should we wake her before she has another?" A suggested, but Sol refused the idea, shaking his head and staring at her. "Then...?"

    "Let''s get back inside," Sol waved his hands and all the damage Ikaris had caused was reverted in an instant as the world went quiet again in the face of a calm sunrise on the approach with the skies turning indigo.

    "Okay," Dina turned to everyone else and started ushering them back inside, the world was quiet, even the birds that usually sang that time of the morning had gone still. Your adventure continues at m v|l-e''-NovelBin

    ***

    "Master," Ikaris mumbled as she slowly opened her eyes, reaching for his face and tearing up again after waking in hisp. "Are you still mad at me?" She asked and Sol furrowed his brows at her. "Will you forgive me?"

    "Ikaris, you had a pretty bad nightmare earlier, you-"

    "It was no nightmare, Master," She rebutted, flinching away from his hand when he attempted to caress her cheek, then leaning into his touch when she saw the shock on his face. "Do you forgive me, Master?" She asked again, and Sol sucked in a breath of patience and leaned over her, kissing her forehead and then raising her into a hug. "Please, I''m sorry."

    "Ikaris," Sol held her tightly, feeling the waves of sadness she was emitting through their link while Dina and A sat quietly across from them. "Tell me what happened."

    "You were yelling, and cursing me, you said awful things Master," She held him tighter. "You... attacked me,"

    "Ikaris, we were all there, he didn''t attack you-" Dina arose to Sol''s defence, but A held her mouth and rested her hand on Dina''s shoulder, pointing at her now slightly exposed back where Sol''s eyes widened in disbelief when he saw a healed stab wound, a small irritated cut in the shape of a de.

    "I..." Sol stared at the mark in disbelief. "That''s the cursed de..." He stared at it. "I never bothered retrieving it after my fight with Orion, I haven''t seen it in over a year, how could... what the-" Sol was at a loss of words as he searched his mind, closing his eyes and searching Origin. "It isn''t there anymore; it''s not in the dark universe, how?"

    "Where is it then?" Dina asked, equally confused since she was sure with every atom of her being that Sol would never raise his hand against Ikaris let alone stab her with the de holding A''s malice.

    "I don''t know, I''m searching but it doesn''t seem to be anywhere within the observable collective, it''s like it doesn''t exist," Sol held out his hand and his hair and eyes turned golden and began shining brightly. "I can sense it, but I have no idea where the sword is... and it won''t respond to me!"

    "Master," Ikaris held his arm and lowered it. "Please, do not summon that thing," she made a request and Sol''s arm sunk. "All I seek is your forgiveness, for what I did, for leaving you and causing you so much pain."

    "What the hell is going on here?" Dina furrowed her brows and scratched her hair wildly. "This is fucked up, what''s happening?" She asked.

    "I was sleeping, the two of us were, but then she started mumbling in her sleep, the next thing I know her powers red up and she tore a hole through the wall running away, it happened in the blink of an eye," Sol answered. "I didn''t curse her, I didn''t attack her, I''d never do anything to harm her; I don''t know what''s happening here either," Sol shook his head.

    "Ikaris," he raised her and let her sit properly before him. "Tell me everything that happened as clearly as you remember it; start from the beginning."

 Chapter 267: Grand Theft: Cosmic.

    "Mr Vestic," Keele stood after Sol walked out of the room leaving Ikaris with A and Dina.

    "Is she alright?" She asked; although their power had been isted to a small space the woman had been exposed to the nigh fullness of their power and it was horror, Ikaris''s power left the world and atmosphere trembling in fear, and Sol''s power which suppressed it had caused every fibre of her being to tremble in horror; simply staring at him caused her to shiver.

    "Do you actually care?" He regarded her with tame hostility balling his fists with an expression of irritation.

    "I have ced my life in yours and your wife''s hands, sir, if something is troubling her it is also going to trouble me..." Keele answered seriously and Sol scoffed and continued walking.

    "I''m going to fulfil my promise and get your people out of harm''s way, then, I''ll let you live amongst them as I said I would, but should the daye-"

    "Understood, I''m ready to fight for you at a moment''s notice, Sir." Keele stood and saluted, then hesitated and quickly dropped her hand to her side and cleared her throat. "I promise I won''t let you-"

    *Thump*

    Sol vanished, leaving the ground he was walking on steaming in his wake.

    "...down," Keele finished her deration and looked to the slightly cracked door again, stepping across the hall and knocking on it. "Is there anything I can help with?" She asked after A acknowledged her presence then came and pulled it open.

    "I am sorry, but could you wait elsewhere in the meantime?" A gave her a slight gesture of apology. "You can roam wherever you please, you''re free to go anywhere until someone calls upon you; Mdy requires quiet today," she exined and Keele nodded and gave her a small bow excusing herself without another word.

    "Ikaris, we all observed his memories together, there''s nothing in there, isn''t it possible that it''s someone else that somehow attacked you?" Dina asked, sitting next to Ikaris and lightly pressing her hand on the scar casting [Divine Heal] over her skin and cleansing it entirely. "Master would never..."

    "I would never allow anyone else to attack me, I do not know how, and I am confused about why, but I am positive it was him, Dina, I could never mistake his mana for that of anyone else''s, I felt it, I felt him when I held his hand begging him to forgive me, he..." She sucked in a breath when A sat on her other side. "It was him..."

    "Master has gone above and beyond to keep you safe, why would he suddenly attack you?" A asked, confused. "It makes no sense."

    "And yet I had the scars to prove it."

    "No matter how you say it and how sure you are; the sol Vestic we know and love would never," Dina shook her head and sighed, depressed as she shared Ikaris''s mood.

    ***

    [Master,]

    Alpha called to him and then appeared at Sol''s side after he exited the infinity loop and took it within himself. "Is it possible you erased your own memories ?" She asked and Sol stared down at her furiously causing her to recline and lower her gaze.

    "I''d never attack her, Alpha, never in a billion years; any animosity I held towards Ikaris died the day she brought me back to earth; she gave herself to me, body and soul, how could I take advantage of her?" He asked and the system nodded and floated to his side when he began moving through the void.

    "Then, could it be a manifestation of her fearsing to life somehow?" She asked and he gave it a minute of thought before shaking his head.

    "No, that was a real stab wound, she truly was attacked, and she was attacked with my weapon; I just don''t know how or why," Sol admitted. "I didn''t do it, but I can''t prove my innocence, she looks at me with fear in her eyes and I can''t assure her that I''m not the one who did it, nor can I tell her it won''t happen again, it was me, but it wasn''t."

    "You have found yourself in quite a precarious position, Master," Alpha sighed and slowly vanished. [I will seek answers and try solving this matter while you are upied with the Emporium, should something happen or catch my attention I will immediately inform you] she spoke in his head and then left him to his thoughts.

    Now alone Sol''s expression slowly turned foreign, he ground his teeth and clenched his fists knocking himself on the head in an attempt to try and think of a solution, trying to figure out what had happened; but the more he thought the less his mind worked and the more he remembered the fear in her eyes, Ikaris had never once feared him for any reason at all.

    "I hurt her."

    "I''d never!"

    "She was stabbed with a weapon that only I can summon and control."

    "I didn''t do it..."

    "But what if I did?"

    "She''s the most precious -"

    "Don''t lie!"

    Sol felt the void creeping in on him, squeezing against him, crushing his body and sleeping into his skin like cold metal against a fresh wound, burning his insides and making his blood boil.

    "I''m not lying, I love her, I''d never!" Sol screamed out unleashing an explosion that caught several surrounding gxies in a bright sh and then rapidly subsided back into his body as he stared at his destination, eyes zing gold, hair weightlessly waving at the stars, and the circles before and behind him appearing disproportionately massive before shrinking down to their original size in loud cosmic pops.

    "What if she''s not safe around me anymore?" Sol slumped forward grinding his teeth until blood started floating away from the corners of his mouth.

    "What if I cked out and that''s why I don''t remember?"

    "No, don''t think of it right now, focus, Sol!" He angled himself and started moving again propelling himself so fast that his form vanished in a straight line of light like a Lazer had been fired off into the cosmos.

    It happened in the blink of an eye, the generals were all made aware of a massive spike in Godyer energy the likes of which nobody had ever seen, and then just as quickly as it appeared the readings faded away leaving them baffled as they scurried to find out what was happening again.

    "It''s him, it has to be; the readings are different from the makeup of his previous energy signature, but what are the chances of another Godyer being appearing at the same time as he did?" Viktor stood at the front of his ship in his cockpit with Cecelia before him, slumped against his dashboard with her lips folded and her eyes focused on the screen before her as she tapped at a holographic keyboard full of runic letters.

    His dash was like a desk that raised as high as his lower abdomen with no way of seeing anything on the inside unless he lowered or opened it to leave, and on the inside was his seat but now Cecelia had been subjected to more cruelty as she had to endure his hand while the crew were forced to pretend they didn''t know what was happening.

    "Did you lock on to his location?" The general asked, and she raised her head and then shook it.

    "No sir... I''m sorry, he disappeared before we could lock on, but... I got a general location and trajectory... h-he''s headed towards the iplete Y?r Dyson Sphere." She spoke between stifled gasps.

    "Why there?" Viktor asked sitting down as the pilots changed their trajectory. "Sit," He ordered, the woman before him hesitated for a moment and was rewarded with a stinging p across her bare skin that echoed through the entire cockpit. "Sit."

    "The Dyson Sphere was funded by General Keele Veegan; the Emporium agreed to it in order to keep her on board," Cecelia answered, sitting in the general''sp obediently slowly following his guidance into a slow grind against his pelvis. "Sir..."

    "General Keele is dead, there was no evidence of her body when we got there much like the rest of her outpost, there aren''t any other posts anywhere near her home either, why would he go there, is he nning to destroy her homeworld as well?" He asked, confused.

    "Never mind that, set a course; he can''t run forever."

    "A distress call from Y?r!" An analyst shouted causing the general to stand abruptly which caused Cecelia to m into the dashboard and slide to the side quickly fixing her clothes as her and the general stared at the analyst.

    "There''s another spike in energy!" Another analyst snapped and the general exited his cockpit and walked over to them.

    [There is something massive approaching, it looks like a giant... A humanoid figure, the size defies all science, we are requesting immediate assistance it''sing right at-]

    The transmission abruptly ended, and with its end, Sol''s reading vanished once more, and then all contact with Y?r was cut offpletely.

    "What the hell just happened?" The general snapped at the analyst and the woman shrunk and looked at Cecelia, terrified.

    "The Godyer and the entire Y?r gxy are gone, sir; it just v-vanished-"

    "Fuck!" The general snapped furiously and mmed his palm against the dash causing it to short out.

    "Who steals an entire gxy!?"

 Chapter 268: Cold and Alone.

    "Stop, let''s head back," General Flint sat in his chair again and sighed resting his hand on the handle of his chair and then sighing again with a string of inaudible curses lined from one end of the ship to the other. "That fucker is ying with us."

    "Sir, what about the Godyer?" The head pilot turned in his seat and nced at the general curiously.

    "We won''t find him unless he wants to be found, the same way he disappeared with his entire Collective inside of the Kha-Nova Collective, he''s able to take whatever he wants and vanish without a trace whenever he pleases, he said it before and I simply ignored it because it has never been done before; he will confront us when he wishes, I''ming to ept that there''s nothing I can do about that; senselessly chasing and waring our resources down is just ying into his hand," He admitted and then looked to another section of the dash where several people were staring at him, ready for an order.

    "Report to the Emporium, Sol Vestic has disappeared without a trace again, this time taking the Y?r Gxy with him, I''m requesting assistance to deal with this monster, we need a general in every sector that can respond immediately-"

    "Sir!"

    "What now!?" The man snapped and smashed another part of his dashboard, causing sparks to fly around as the cockpit shook from his rage surfacing like a tidal wave across the closed space. "What is it!?" He roared.

    "Sir, he appeared again, he''s at the 2000th outpost... Eighty-thousand Pins away from where Y?r was!" The woman stared at those numbers and did a double-take after saying them.

    Note: "Pin" is the unit of measurement from one universe to another (made my own because NASA doesn''t have such measurements)

    "That''s physically impossible, nothing travels faster than light without teleportation, the amount of energy needed to make a leap like that is..." Viktor slowed his speech until he stopped speaking and looked at the screen when the woman sent it to the main dash for everyone to see... "Send an emergency broadcast to the emporium immediately, Sol Vestic has to be hunted and killed immediately,"

    "What''s happening?" The woman started tapping away at her keys.

    "He is utilizing an entire collective''s worth of energy at will, request that he be made a maximum level threat, issue a kill on sight order, have his face be put on every screen across the Grand Emporium, request a bypass of all the coalitionws and the use of section 669-B on the Kha-Nova Collective, effective immediately.

    "Sir it has never been done-"

    "Cecelia I didn''t ask for your opinion, stay silent and sit down," Viktor red at her; askance of his previous agitation the man was calm as he spoke.

    "Outpost 2000 was just destroyed, there is no estimation, everyone including the 2000th general is dead..."

    "Send the requests immediately," Viktor stood stiffly as a trickle of sweat rolled down his cheek. "Request the assistance of the 99 as well," He ordered, and everyone nearly gasped at his words; the man hated the 99 generals that outranked him, but Sol had forced him into a position where he wasn''t evenining as he urgently requested their aid.

    "Hey... What''s Section 669-B?" A guard of the cockpit asked the other guard standing opposite of himself. "I think I slept through the sections, I don''t remember that-"

    "Keep your voice down," His fellow guard snapped in a whisper.

    "Section 669-B is martialw, but on the scale of an entire collective, he''s requesting the full aid of the Emporium and all of its resources, every general, every noble, he''s going to lock down the collective and start a purge from one side to the next, they''re gonna sweep this collective inch by inch, meaning any resistance they find will be eradicated without a second thought." Experience tales at m v|l e''-NovelBin

    "Damn, that Sol Vestic has really done it this time, ey?" The first guard asked with a chuckle but his counterpart seemed more worried than anything else.

    "Are you stupid?"

    "What?"

    "Have you ever seen what happens when a Godyer is cornered, kid?

    Sol Vestic is the most powerful Godyer they have ever encountered, there''s no doubt he''s the most powerful enemy in the history of the Emporium post-war, if they manage to corner a monster like that the casualties are going to surpass human reason, he just wiped out an entire outpost in seconds for crying out loud; as far as I''m concerned the general is sentencing us all to death, you don''t corner a healthy dragon and expect to walk away alive, this is suicide."

    "Hey... Why are you a guard again?" The first asked finding the older man far too informative to be a simple guard.

    "I failed the physical test, I was ipatible with the suits," The man answered without hesitation. "I was posted here on the 100th because I had full scores across the board everywhere else.

    "Wow..."

    "I don''t think I''ll be sticking around much longer, I don''t want to be a casualty of a war that has nothing to do with me, y''know," The older guard sighed.

    "Careful, you could be killed for saying such things-"

    "As opposed to what, getting turned into space dust because we foolishly tried cornering the harbinger of death?" The man snapped again.

    "This is madness, the war ended billions of years ago, why are we still hunting these godly beings like they''re livestock, did you know that across the Grand Collective over a trillion Emporium soldiers die every dozen years, do you have any idea how high that number is?"

    "Ites with the job-"

    "More than half of that number is directly caused by hunting Godyer and Vatui beings, they''re hiding and they rarely ever instigate a fight but we''ve attacked and kept attacking them relentlessly for aeons, I don''t want to be a part of someone''s estimate chart, I want to live to see my grandkids again!"

    "Is that so?" Viktor stood before the man and the entire cockpit went quiet. "Are you thinking of abandoning your post as a guard of the 100th fleet''s general?" He asked and the man stood at attention and saluted nervously.

    "I can''t say I don''t understand, Sol Vestic alone is trouble beyond anything we''ve seen in the longest while, but there''s apparently an army of Vatui warriors of the Celestial Order and higher that are willing to die for him, that''s without even mentioning Ikaris; his wife," the general rubbed his forehead and chuckled, I may be walking into a massacre..."

    "General-"

    "Take an escape pod and leave before 669-B is initiated, make haste, once the order is in effect any escape pod headed in the opposite direction of the Kha-Nova Collective will be shot down, you have my permission to leave, Stanley, go back to your family, send me regards to your wife too."

    "Sir..." The man sucked in a breath of shock and saluted the general again as his eyes watered, running off immediately. "Thank you!"

    "As soon as the coward is clear of the ship, send him to hell." Viktor turned around and huffed.

    "There''s no room for weakness on my ship, if you''re afraid of the Godyer utilize that fear and turn it into a weapon, there''s no room in the 100th for cowardice, we are an order of power feared throughout the cosmos on a grand scale, a deserter is an enemy sympathiser, regardless of your rank or your personal rtionship with anyone inside or out of this ship, you will be killed upon discovery."

    "How cruel..." Cecelia thought, staring at the general as he returned to his cockpit.

    "I always knew I made the wrong decision when I surrendered, but I had to find some way to keep them safe, these days I can''t even contact them," She stared out through therge screen at the vast emptiness before them with a sad and longing gaze, highlighted by the spectrum of colours around her as her crimson eyes glistened casting the image of an angel that had lost her wings.

    "My Godyer, my n, husband, I hope you''ve all been well; I promise I''ll find some way to escape this devil, and when I do, I''lle running into your arms again, I swear it."

    ***

    "General Flint has requested the execution of section 669-B, Master," Alpha quietly stood at Sol''s side while he sat on a piece of floating debris staring at what was once a gxy, reduced to a cloud of destruction rapidly spreading through the void. "Your n to get them all in one ce ising to fruit."

    "Yeah," Sol sat hunched with his eyes tracking the debris before him, his gaze was distant, and his voice was tamed and several octaves deeper than it usually was as all the humour, all the life seemed to have been sucked from his personality at Ikaris''s mistrust in him, he could feel the link between them wane, tethered by a single string, she was still very attached, but at the same time, it was weaker than Dina and A''s.

    "Do you wish to return to Mdy? I am capable of overseeing everything here for a while-"

    "No," Sol sighed lowering his head and rubbing his arms, before him was an image of Ikaris''s shocked face and in his head her voice asking him for forgiveness, it felt like des were scraping across his heart and stomach, his chest had the sensation of thousands of pins sticking into him, and his back had an unusual chill, for the first time he couldn''t feel the same kind of affection he had grown used to, out in the void he felt cold and alone...

    afraid of his own power.

    "Just leave me alone and let me think for a while."

 Chapter 269: Animosity.

    "Master, you are also troubled by these recent events, not just Mdy, I do not advise you to be alone-"

    "Alpha, if it''s not rted to my current goals, shut the fuck up," Sol nced up at her and the system went mute and righted herself nodding and disappearing without another spoken word.

    With thest voice of reason gone Sol stood and released a long breath of cosmic mana as his Godyer powers began slowly manifesting, he gently leapt off the chunk of floating debris, closed his eyes and locked on to another outpost and began moving towards it.

    *Three weeks prior*

    "A you''re brilliant! I only thought about making the journey personally, but this works far better than my original idea!" Sol praised her, nodding as she showed him her teleportation powers, they were still on Central Province. "I feel kind of idiotic for never thinking along this line..." He admitted reluctantly and the elf chuckled and kissed his cheek.

    "I figured it woulde in handy, although I am barely able to utilise it here on this dampening world, outside there is barely a limit to how far I can go, what hinders me is what my mana has recognised as a target and the necessary amount of mana needed to travel greater distances," A opened het palm and an apple she had thrown in the rapidly flowing river earlier appeared in her grasp with a ssh of water.

    "Alpha already knows the direction of the outposts within this collective thanks to her alternate mind which stays by Jenifer''s side, if you can condense your mana and send it in those directions urately with time you would be able to instantaneously appear wherever you pleased, the only matter which would hinder you is the massive amounts of power it takes to teleport," she exined and Sol nodded and took the apple from her grasp, throwing it in the river again and watching the runes in her palm light up as she summoned it once more.

    "What are you two up to this time?" Ikaris called at them, seeing them chatting andughing idly when they were supposed to be working.

    "Master was telling me what a genius I am!" A boasted, huffing steam and setting her hands akimbo proudly.

    "Haha, was he now?" Continue your adventure with m|v-l''e -NovelBin

    "No, seriously, A''s a walking idea factory, she''s full of amazing insight!" Sol made exaggerated gestures as the three of them beganughing.

    After A''s suggestion, Sol spent the rest of his free time on Central Province shooting off dense and untraceable beams of mana out into the void, to everyone else he seemed to be exercising, but for his women, this was another step in his grand n to remove the influence of the Emporium by making himself the most feared and hated being, they would know his name and tremble at the thought, that was always his n.

    *** Presently at the 2988th outpost ***

    "The General''s been in a fit ever since the attack earlier, he''s convinced himself that the Godyer is gonna attack us next," A guard sat before a dash in arge tower at the highest point of a ridge overlooking a massive army base with thousands of ships stretching as far as the eye could see on a teau below,zily tapping his fingers.

    "That''s not possible, the outposts are arranged as if a child was picking up random rocks and tossing them away again, we''re nearly fifteen thousand Pins away from the 2989th and there''s eight outposts between us and them," he spoke across to another guard sitting parallel to him. "You think we''re next?"

    "Do you ever shut up, Maxwell?" The man asked, annoyed. "You''ve been at it for thest ten minutes, we just got word of 2889s destruction, even if we''re next it''s gonna take weeks, by then the whole Collective will be under lock we''ll be fine, damnit."

    "Heh," Maxwell chuckled. "I thought as much; you do agree," he scoffed. "Sol Vestic can kiss my ass, when the 99 get here it''ll be all over for that bastard."

    "That''s when they get here, what if he shows up before then?" The other guard sceptically queried, and almost in queue with his damning question, the rms started going off; their post became alive with deafening sirens, and they saw thousands of soldiers taking to the skies along with the startup of several hundred ships simultaneously.

    "Respond!" He mmed his hand on arge screen but the return feed was a chaotic one full of people running to and fro.

    "What the hell?" Maxwell took off his hat and stared at the skies above the teau, there; he saw beams of gold descending like stars falling from the sky. "Gold, just like we heard from the first two outposts," he mused. "The harbinger..."

    The clouds all parted above them and as many soldiers began falling from the skies as there were soldiers that were flying upwards, the ships that had started taking off became targets of massive bombardments of golden beams which easily tore through them despite their shields being erected.

    [Creation tier Forced Sun; Nova]

    From the core of the eating it all the way to the outside a wave of golden destruction vaporised everything swallowing all the emporium soldiers and all of their ships and weapons in one fell swoop, a few dozen stragglers managed to make it off the, but Sol didn''t hesitate as he summoned his hammer and tore them apart wildly,ing to a stop on top of another escaping piece of debris and sitting just as he had been before.

    "I''m not in a good mood today, I think I''ll just vent and keep venting until I''m satisfied," Sol spoke to an eyeball which floated before him, wiping a trail of blood off his cheek and sighing as the message was ryed to the Emporium.

    "I''m d you guys exist today, you''ve given me somece to direct my frustration..." He red at the eye and then reached for and smashed it with his bare hand while Alpha appeared in his peripherals again.

    "Master-"

    "If it''s not about what I''m doing-"

    "Mdy is asking for you," Alpha shook her head and Sol raised his gaze at the skip of a heartbeat, staring at her curiously.

    "Is everything okay?"

    "She is requesting you," Alpha gave him a vague answer and Sol arose robotic ally, evidently hesitant as he thought about what Ikaris wanted to say after revising what had happened.

    "Okay," Sol raised his hand and took hold of the emptiness before him spinning inside of it like fabric and vanishing with an unusual humming as the space he upied warped and then returned to normal.

    Wordlessly, he appeared over the estate and slowly descended, cleaning himself as his feet touched the ground with a light tap; there at the entrance watching his descent was Ikaris, and at her sides were Dina and A, with Talia in her hands and Sara standing further down the stairs.

    "Is everyone okay, did something happen?" Sol asked, and Ikaris wordlessly walked down the stairs, approached him slowly and pressed her forehead against his chest while the baby was squished between them.

    Shocked: Sol raised his head looking at A and Dina for answers but the two had already turned and was in the middle of a quick retreat while Sara had already dipped into her shadows and vanished.

    "Ikaris?" Sol looked at her once more as she continued rubbing her forehead against him before raising her eyes and smiling softly.

    "Sol, my love," She smiled sadly. "I made a grave mistake."

    "What?"

    "In doubting your sincerity towards me I have sinned greatly, please, I ask your forgiveness -"

    "Ikaris... your fears are warranted," Sol shook his head and rested one hand beneath Talia and the other on her shoulder. "If I caused you harm and have no recollection-" He pressed his finger against Talia''s cheek and smiled at herughing face.

    "What''s to stop me from doing the same to you again; to our daughter?" He asked, but Ikaris seemed adamant it wouldn''t happen as she shook her head and released Talia in his care.

    "You are in fact the one who attacked me, but at the same time you did not do it, my love; I spent the time you were away thinking about it, so hard my brain hurt in fact; and it just couldn''t have been you, not the Sol who stands before me, you are my saviour, my deliverance, my healer and security, my benefactor and my king, you have always put me before all else; you have cried for me, bled for me, and died for me, Master would you hurt me, truly?" She asked and Sol held his daughter close and smiled warmly at Ikaris.

    "No, Ikaris, I''d never," he answered slowly in a solemn voice.

    "Then it was not you who cursed, it was not you who struck me, it was not you; it was indeed Sol Vestic, but not the Sol Vestic who is standing before me," She stared at his confused expression as she tried making her point.

    "What are you saying?" Sol asked.

    "I believe there is another, Sol, one who holds animosity towards me from A."

 Chapter 270: Prickly Situation.

    "That''s impossible," Sol started walking away from the estate while Ikaris followed at his side. "He smiled at their neighbours and nodded while they waved, but since his scaring of their son, the people had yet to utter a single word to him; they were polite but silent. "How could there be anyone else there? You checked; isn''t A still in the middle of getting purged?"

    "I said there was another, I did not say there was someone else," Ikaris had her hands neatly folded before her; although Talia was in his grasp it felt like they were taking a stroll on Arkadia again, a danger on the horizon, uncertainty behind every new decision, yet the moment they shared was peaceful even with their current problems, she looked at him with that same calm smile.

    "I think it was you who was left behind." She finally admitted the direct problem, and Sol stared for several seconds, searching his memory before the contract came to the forefront of his mind.

    "The reason you were weakened after taking me back here to earth in the first ce? Sol''s eyes widened in shock. "Him?"

    "Correct, it was much weaker back then and easier to manipte, I never imagined that recreating a copy of your soul would cause such a misunderstanding," Ikaris chuckled. "It is quite ironic, he gained sentience and woke up all on his own, he is no longer just a soul-"

    Experience tales at m v|l e''-NovelBin

    "He hurt you." Sol stopped walking. "I have to get rid of him, if he''s capable of harming you once he''ll do it again, this is only the beginning," he stared at her.

    "He is in hiding, I don''t know how much of what has happened he is aware of, but he is you, Dear, if there is a chance he can be saved-"

    "He isn''t me, Ikaris," Sol shook his head. "He is a variant, a hostile one, just think back, what did I do after we left A?"

    "You promised to live to the fullest of your abilities, but that was because you left, he was left alone in an empty void, likely reliving the same ten years over and over again for two whole years he never got the chance to heal, he never got the chance to live again,"

    Sol couldn''t refute her argument, it was sound logic; so instead he went along with it. "All the more reason to get rid of him, Ikaris, I couldn''t harm a hair on your head back then, you could have done anything to me but you chose to serve me instead."

    "And that is the best decision I ever made," She smiled.

    "He''s harmed you, that means he''s strong; strong enough that you were terrified of his existence, and doubted everything you''d done for me to this point."

    Now she was at a loss for words, there was one Sol on the outside who cared for her, and a doppelganger within A who wanted to see her and everything she had destroyed, the only options were to destroy the fake Sol who had yet to be freed from his pain, or release him into the Kha-Nova Collective and let him roam, the problem there was the fact that him leaving didn''t guarantee that he wouldn''t immediately turn around and try harming her again.

    Sol didn''t want to risk it, but looking at Ikaris''s expression he could tell this woman was truly his devoted, even a malevolent Sol was exempt from her hate, even though he was confirmed to be a variant that she unwittingly created two years prior.

    ***

    "There''s no way of telling what''ll happen if I let him go, he tried killing you, Ikaris, he attacked your soul directly!" Sol paced around in the lounge area, with him were the other gods, Keele Usami and her family, along with Renia and Eve.

    Ikaris was seated in the middle with her hands sped and her elbows rested against her knees.

    "I agree, he is not Sol, not truly, he may cause irreparable damage if we unleash him into the collective.

    "He shares all your memories up to the point of his creation, he has all your scars and wounds, how can we simply kill him for rightfully being angry?" Ikaris rebutted. "From his memories, I promised to take him away from A and then I trapped him there for two years, his anger is justified-"

    "Ikaris, he has the powers of a Godyer, he''s an angry me; a furious me, if we don''t destroy him he''s gonna escape on his own, I''m telling you, he''s better off dead, just think how awful the fight with the demons were, now imagine all that hatred being directed at you, he can''t live."

    Sol reached for Ikaris and she reclined and held out her hand in a gesture of mercy.

    "Please reconsider, Master it is eating me up from the inside, why must a broken Sol Vestic be harmed, he is innocent, just as you were!"

    "This feels like an intervention." Dina looked at A and thetter nodded with a worried frown.

    "I agree with Sol, ikaris, what waits inside of your An universe is not the real Sol, please look at it logically, he will wreak havoc on everyone and everything the light touches if he''s freed and allowed to do as he pleases." Adonai offered advice.

    "If I lose him I lose all of the contract which binds us!" Ikaris snapped and hugged herself when Sol raised his hand and tried reaching for her again.

    "Ikaris... For fuck''s sake he tried to kill you!" Sol cursed and spun on his heels grabbing his hair and screaming to the ceiling. "This is too dangerous, think about Talia''s safety!" He snapped in frustration.

    "I can''t react to a threat I don''t know about, I can''t sense him because he''s being protected by another small collective within you- let me do this before it''s toote, it''s not a hard decision, if what worries you is the contract, we''ll form a new one, I''ll renew every vow and remake every promise I''ll turn time itself backwards and do everything all over again."

    "It won''t be the same-"

    "Ikaris."

    "Sol, please understand." She held her hands to her chest and fell to her knees before him. "This tether is the first free choice I ever made, my very first act of freedom, to destroy it would psychologically alter me," she begged him.

    "Only if you believe it will, Ikaris; you''re not just a Divine, you''re Vatui, your mind is your greatest weapon," Sol replied kneeling before her and holding her cheeks.

    "Ikaris, I don''t want to lose you to something avoidable, I don''t want to lose you at all; your family, your descendants, your friends, we''re all here before you, we aren''t going to leave you or treat you any differently, trust us; trust me, this is what''s best."

    "You certainly have a way with words..." Ikaris averted her eyes and stared at the small golden ring before Sol''s chest as it slowly grewrger. "Is there truly no other way?" she asked.

    "We can''t let him stay there, he''s a threat to your eternity; to our family."

    "A malevolent Sol Vestic, what a terrifying thought," Renia stared at them as they stood and barely floated off the ground.

    "Why were we gathered then, it seems he could have handled it had he just used their contract from the start." S''mael shuffled, but Dr''ul at his side shook her head and sighed.

    "Not once have I ever seen or heard him force her to do a thing, from the moment they first arrived on Arkadia Sol has been leading her with her free will at the forefront of his mind, he called us here to help him persuade her; she is stubborn," Dr''ul admitted with a softened expression, barely smiling as she watched Sol take Ikaris high into the sky and then the two of them vanish in a sh of gold.

    "That is correct," A affirmed the Goddess''s im. "Master did not want to break his own vow and force her to do anything so he went through the trouble of personally asking you all to be here when he spoke to her, to prove to her that we are her family, and nothing internal or externally would change that fact."

    "For setting aside what you had anding all this way; thank you," Dina stood before them all and bowed, and at her side A did the same while Sara also followed.

    "When he said he needed help with Ikaris I wondered what the problem was, but aftering here and getting the full story I understood what was at stake, just as much as she needs Sol, he also needs her to be herself, they are dependent on each other, one does not exist without the other and there can only ever be one of each."

    Dr''ul went back inside and sat before the television set.

    "Now that they are out of sight we can only wait and see whates of this prickly situation."

 Chapter 271: The End.

    A dying star, a copsing ck hole, ruptured gxies and emptiness surrounding it; Sol took Ikaris to a dying universe and severed it from the rest of the collective sealing it inside of a dome of his own making and then extended his hand towards her.

    "Is there a need for such measures?" She asked but took his hand nheless.

    "A was the origin of your branch, severing it might cause a serious bacsh," Sol stared at her, giving his honest opinion.

    "But, it has to be done, right?" Ikaris stared at him smiling sadly in eptance.

    "That''s right, leaving him there is too dangerous."

    "I have never heard of a soul''s cloneing to consciousness while the original was still alive," Ikaris sighed. "Even Sitri, with all her quirks and power, had to die before her clone awakened..."

    "The power you wielded when you forged a Godyer soul is many times greater than Sitri''s; there shouldn''t even be aparison, you are the first goddess, a Vatui herald, she was just a demon-god, a lesser being," Sol shook his head and then stared at her as his hand illuminated with golden mana. "Rx your mana and allow me passage, Ikaris."

    He ced his hand on her abdomen and rested his other on her back to make sure she didn''t flee in case the pain became overbearing.

    "Okay."

    Slowly Sol''s hand sunk into her exposed abdomen and she winced and flinched several times as she tried her hardest to not resist the difort of having her soul intruded upon ultimately ending with both her and Sol''s consciousness getting sucked into a parallel space where a great golden tree resided much like his own; the grass was golden, and the flowers that bloomed were white, the skies in contrast were the darkest umbra and endless in all directions with clouds of white that gave the atmosphere life along with small butterflies and birds that borrowed into the ground and flew like shooting stars across the expanse of the great tree.

    "I never spent any time exploring my soul''s garden as Dina did," Ikaris leaned over and picked a flower from the grass before her. "Such treasures ...they bloom with energy," She smiled as the flower in her grasp turned to glowing dust against the winds and another grew from where she had plucked it. "It is beautiful here."

    "Ikaris, focus, he''s already here," Sol cast a small barrier over her and pointed to the base of the tree, although the structure was unfathomablyrge, the small ck crack in the otherwise perfect gold was quite evident.

    "He already has enough power to escape, there''s no telling what we might-" Sol''s words fell short when he spun and erected a shield of golden mana before himself blocking a bolt of ck mana that crashed from the umbra skies above.

    "This is..."

    "Demonic Mana," Sol frowned as he watched the residual mana slowly disperse in the winds. "Why don''t you show yourself, fake?" Sol multiplied the barrier around Ikaris and lowered his hand. "If you are Sol Vestic then there''s no way you''re fine with sneak attacks, face me," He spoke calmly whilst his body was slowly fitted with golden armour.

    "Sol-"

    "Something''s off, I still can''t sense him," Sol cast another barrier around Ikaris for good measure and then vast another shield before himself again when another bolt of mana appeared and nearly smashed into his face, this time the attack came with so much force it blew him off his feet and caused a crater separating him and Ikaris.

    "What kind of power is that?" Solnded safely and summoned Ikaris over with a wave of his hand, staring at the shield he had erected as the ck miasma residue from the attack contested his Godyer mana for dominance.

    "I have never seen anything like it," Ikaris reached out to touch it but Sol caught her hand and vanished the shield into the outside world where the substance could not interact with anything inside of her.

    "Don''t let your curiosity get the best of you, I''m certain that whatever he is is unlike anything either of us has faced before, the fact that he has no presence I can sense, to his power being the inversion of mine... It only leads to a few possibilities, and I don''t like any of them, he eroded the walls of A to escape, and he''s been trying to get out of here since then...

    I know that letting him out isn''t a good idea but it''s a worse one to fight him inside of your soul''s garden."

    "Then, will you free him?" Ikaris asked and Sol shook his head. "You still intend to kill him?"

    "This other me, whatever he is, I''m a hundred percent sure that he will never stop until you''re dead, my only option is to kill him now before he gets any stronger-"

    "You can''t kill me, none of you can, no god, no devil, no man, but go ahead; set me free, let me out of this ursed ce," Sol heard his voice ahead of them and watched as more miasma erupted from the golden grass eroding and killing arge circle of it as another who shared his face emerged, clutching tightly to his cursed sword and waving it menacingly at them.

    "Free me, you imposter."

    "You think I''m the imposter?" Sol raised his hand and pointed at himself with a smirk. "You''re a fabrication of the real deal, don''t get it twisted; ever-"

    "I would never align myself with that creature which calls itself a goddess, not after what she did to me, not after she abandoned me and left me trapped in that ce, stranded, alone, why would i ever call that thing an ally!?" He roared shing his head and wing at his face, causing ck blood to drip from his eye and the corner of his mouth.

    "I''m the real Sol the one who would never go back on my ns to destroy them all, the one who promised he''d kill every god, every fucking one wherever they are!!" He shrieked, pointing his sword at Ikaris.

    "Master..." Ikaris drew closer to Sol.

    "He''s not that strong yet, but his power is way more potent than Dr''ul''s, if I let him out it''s gonna destroy multiple universes within Kha-Nova just to take him down," Sol furrowed his brows.

    "I just said it''s impossible! I can''t be killed not by the likes of you; the imposter, or her; the bitch who trapped me, I wouldn''t ever die to the likes of you assholes... Gaaah-e on!! LET ME OUT AND FIGHT ME FOR REAL OTHERWISE ILL START RIGHT HERE!" He started emitting a pungent ck mana that caused Ikaris to flinch as she could feel the world around her weaken because of it.

    "What the fuck..." Sol raised his hand and suppressed everything with a wave of his finger. "Is this what I would have be if you never returned?" He looked at her and she held on to his arm and shuddered. "I hate this, he''s giving me no choice but I know it''s gonna be chaos once he''s out-"

    "COME ON!!"

    [CLOCKWORK: DOMINION]

    Sol cast and then turned his eyes to the ck crack in A at the base of the tree, sealing it with another wave of his fingers.

    "K-"

    Sol and Ikaris snapped in the direction of his opposite when he began shuddering although time had stopped.

    "Weak!" He broke free and burst into a sprint at them, but a momentter he was staring at an endless void where he could no longer feel epassed in Ikaris''s mana. "Free..." He stared into the darkness and at the many stars that littered the ever-going stretch of Kha-Nova.

    "I''m free-" He was decked in the back of the head by Sol who grabbed him by the hand holding the cursed sword and snapped his arm taking the weapon and then sending Ikaris back to earth with a wave of his hand.

    "Ikaris!"

    She was greeted by Dina as soon as she appeared in the lounge. "What happened?"

    "He is powerful, Alpha, where are they?" Ikaris spared no detail as she spun, but the system stood there silently, staring at her. "Tell me!"

    "Master has ordered me not to," Alpha answered and then vanished when Ikaris appeared at her side and attempted to grab her. "Mdy, please do not try to override mymands, Master has asked me to keep you away."

    "What''s going on?" Dr''ul stood when she saw the urgency on Ikaris''s face while her eyes began burning crimson.

    "His mana erodes Godyer powers, they are opposites and he is at the least as strong as three of you," Ikaris looked at the goddess of war and saw her and everyone else''s eyes widen in horror. "Master would not have sent me away if it was a fight he was sure to win, he may be quantities more powerful, but that creature holds an unfair advantage over him!"

    "So it truly is an evil Sol Vestic!?" Renia asked.

    "Yes, and his sole purpose is the destruction of all deities and powers of all kinds," Ikaris waved her hands and Alpha appeared against her wishes and vanished again.

    ***

    "Why go to this length? Isn''t it good enough that you''re free already? You can do whatever you want!" Sol had his evil counterpart pressed against the erupting violent surface of a yellow star by his head, and then a momentter he vanished and appeared at his side swinging his hands after summoning the cursed sword again, utilizing more power than Sol had ever been able to conjure while using it.

    "You don''t get it!" He roared, sticking his thumb in his eye and popping the membrane causing it to heal as an inverted red eye with a golden iris and a ck slit for a pupil, a true demon''s eye. "You''ll never get it, you fucking cunt!

    Ten years fighting a war and losing everything I loved, and seven more years trapped in that forsaken nightmare having her power torment me as she took and took, never seeking where she was taking it from; I''ve been in hell for seventeen years!!"

    He swung the sword again and Sol avoided the de watching the arc it created slice the star perfectly in half and continue into the dead gxy. "How could you understand when you were the one benefiting from her wickedness!!?

    Fuck!!" He screamed out as horns and a tail violently burst from his head and his spine while his teeth all sharpened into fangs and wings began growing from his shoulder tes. He paused, though, and leaned his head, staring at Sol as the rings appeared around him and his hair red up golden again.

    "What is that power? It''s different."

    "The beginning...?" He asked, as if he was inside of Sol''s head, though the information wasn''ting from Sol, it was manifesting all on its own. "Interesting... you''re a little frightening, aren''t you?" He asked, watching Sol''s ears grow as he spared no words and dug deeper into his power broadcasting himself like a beacon for the Emporium unwillingly.

    "The power which manifested within me hates you as much as I do; it contrasts you as much as I do, it is the Grey to your Grey..." He smiled, spreading his arms as the foreshadowing Sol had thrown out the window as a matter of concern two years ago, mmed back into his memory and his eyes widened in shock.

    "No..."

    "If you are the beginning... then it is clear; I am your end."

 Chapter 272: SOS.

    "You don''t pose a threat to me," Sol stared at his clone askance of any fear or worry, sighing and scratching his head.

    "You''re not any kind of end to my Beginning, I don''t know how you found out about it but that''s not a power anyone can contest," He took a step towards the imposter and the imposter took a step backwards out of instinct.

    "You''ve been asleep for seven years while it''s only been two years for me since A.

    What happened to you isn''t your fault, but that doesn''t mean I''ll forgive you for attacking my wife!" Sol held out his hand and summoned his hammer ring as waves of gold began streaming from his eyes and his every breath caused mana to escape him like a fog.

    "That doesn''t mean you''re gonna live, not after you threatened my child!" He gnashed his teeth.

    "I''m not afraid of you, Sol Vestic!" The cloneughed mockingly at the infuriated Godyer before him. "You may be able to fool everyone else with this confidence but not me; I know you, I am you, we''re-"

    "-nothing alike!" Sol finished his sentence in the same breath as his hammer smashed into the doppelganger''s chest, cratering it as he vanished in a st of mana and mes.

    "For a moment I thought I could find some way to bring you peace; that maybe there''s some version of this where I don''t have to kill you, but then I remembered, I''m inside your head, the same hate you feel I once felt, the same resentment you''re so proud of is the very same that I had to ovee, so I''m fully aware that you n to do what you say," Sol spun his hammer and burned the blood away with his mana.

    "I won''t show any mercy -"

    "I don''t want the mercy of a sellout!" The clone appeared before Sol and spun, dropping his heel intent on breaking Sol''s head, but with a flick of his finger the clone''s foot evaporated in a st of golden energy, and Sol watched annoyed as the missing limb made full regrowth and perfect recovery in matter of seconds. "I want your head!"

    Sol blocked several other fast kicks before raising his hammer and mming it into the clone''s stomach discing his organs in a brutal swing that left him curled over the weapon and barfing up blood.

    "I won''t stoop to your level," Sol grabbed his head and smashed it into his hammer several times breaking his skull and damaging his brain.

    "I won''t entertain your madness," Sol released him and mmed the hammer in his back and then began mercilessly wailing therge weapon against him causing ripples throughout the universe they fought in, stars began distorting and the fabric of that reality began twisting as he increased the weight and mana of each hit. "You don''t deserve a proper death!"

    "I never asked for one!" The clone roared and punched the hammer with his bare fist leaving a dent in the weapon along with miasma that clung to it and began eating into the metal. "All I want is to see you all suffer!"

    "Won''t happen!" Sol snapped and spun out of the way of telling clone''s attack with the cursed de and punished him once more with a strike from his hammer.

    With the head being deteriorated by a foreign element the hammer shattered upon colliding into the clone, but he was also hit so hard he disappeared in a golden streak while Sol huffed and released the hammer, balling his fists and flying in the direction his opposite had flown.

    ***

    "Just how strong is he exactly?" General Flint sat in his seat cradling one side of his head as he stared at the new screen of the fixed dashboard before him.

    "One second his readings are high which we''ve now been calling average despite it being several dozen times that of any Godyer of recent history, but then; other moments reveal horrifying readings that could only be contested by the highest ranked soldiers, he''s broken so many sensors recently that I''m starting to contemte whether I need to keep using them, he makes no sense." The general nced at Cecelia for a response but found her gaze straight and her posture rigid.

    "Are you okay?"

    Nothing, she was so entranced she barely heard his voice at all. "Cecelia!" He called to her again causing those near them to raise their heads, especially after Cecelia still had no reaction to his call.

    "Ma''am," Her subordinate waved her hand before Cecelia''s face and called to her. "Ma''am?" She called again when Cecelia blinked and turned to herm.

    "Is something the matter?" She asked and the woman gestured to the general with a worried expression. "Hm?"

    "I''m saying there has to be a better way to sense him, or scan a different frequency for his unique trail, depending on his powers spiking or even showing up has caused nothing but headaches," Viktor stared at Cecelia with a wary expression. "I called to you over five times, didn''t you hear me?" He raised his brows and she stared at him for a moment and then smiled and shook her head

    "Sorry sir, it won''t happen again, I got distracted in my head."

    "Yeah, make sure it never happens again, we need to stay vlear-minded if we stand any chance of catching that slippery asshole."

    Cecelia found humour in these words, she saw it as an ironic punch to her gut, she had fallen asleep with her eyes closed because the general had been relentlessly chasing her down for thest month without break, she was exhausted both physically and mentally, he had worn her patience thin and she could think of nothing else but attacking him on sight but he was stronger, she knew she''d lose that fight.

    "If only he was a little stronger," She thought to herself envisioning Sol''s face in her mind. "He already has several other Vatui under his wings, I''m stronger than most of the Emporium; I could be of use, I would dly fight for him...

    If it was Sol Vestic I wouldn''t feel like shit about giving myself whenever he pleases, he''s proven himself a worthy warrior unlike this degenerate sack of shit..." Cecelia leaned forward, lost in thought once more until her subordinate''s hand swung across her vision again and she snapped out of it and looked at the woman. "Yes?" She asked, seeing the woman''s nervous stare once more.

    The woman pointed downwards discreetly and Cecelia checked her dashboard, finding a small chart showing Sol''s reading, she was going to snap but stopped with her mouth half open and looked around at the general and then everyone else; what was this woman doing?"

    [What is the meaning of this?] Cecelia sent her a message.

    [His powers are spiking again, but as I am the head analyst I''ve hidden the signature from the other analysts, ma''am, I figured, if you''re able to somehow get away from the general you could find peace within the Godyer]

    [Are you an idiot, Sal, do you realise this is the highest treason?] Cecelia quickly sent a message and saw the panic settle on her face.

    [Ma''am, I have known you for many years now, I''ve seen you struggle time and time again to escape the general''s hands, there''s a chance right here, I know about your family, and I know about you-know-what, you saw the Godyer take an entire collective away, if anyone can help you; it is gonna be him, if it''s treason to look out for the best interest of my superior...

    my friend; then I suppose I die here today, unless you never considered me a friend, that would mean I just sold my life for nothing]

    "Is there something wrong, ma''am?" Sal asked and Cecelia blinked and looked away when she realised she''d been staring at the woman for a while after reading thest message and seeing the encryption eat it away like a virus

    "No... I guess I''m just not feeling myself today, chasing the Godyer around like his has left a bitter taste in my mouth, and it''s getting exhausting being unable to reach him even though he is right before me." She spoke and Flint nodded in agreement, though he remained silent.

    [About that, ma''am] Sal sent another message and Cecelia eagerly opened it up, she was evidently not the smartest but she also knew that Sal was trustworthy, at the very least she needed to protect this foolish woman from being discovered.

    [I was going over thest interactions with the Godyer and something struck me about him as quite odd, he has been using our encrypted systems tomunicate with and even spy on us, I don''t know why nobody has seen this fact yet but it means he''s aware of every move we make, I think, if you sent a secret SOS he might get it, he''s been intercepting our private dealings for a month now, he''s keeping track of everything.]

    "What...?" Cecelia mused.

    "That makes so much sense, how has nobody said anything yet?"

 Chapter 273: Only One.

    "We shouldn''t, if either of us gets caught the Emporium will kill us and our families," Cecelia stared at her friend in the privacy of their room after Sal had deactivated her security and monitoring system. "Sal,"

    "Cecelia, how long do you think it''ll take before the general decides that you''ve done enough, how long until he''s had his fill and chooses to do away with you?" Sal asked, sweeping her long hair behind her and huffing.

    "I''m telling you, this is the only way out for people like you, I''ve seen it before, I was an analyst before you showed up and I''ll be an analyst long after you''re gone." She made fancy gestures with her hands and pointed at the white-haired woman. "You know this just as well as I do."

    "Viktor took me in when I was going to be executed-"

    "Don''t give me that crap, he''s been using you, the things that man has done to you Cecelia; they''re beyond criminal, if he did that to anyone else he''d be killed but they let it pass under their noses because nobody cares about you!" She held her shoulder and ced the tab she had been holding in Cecelia''sp.

    "For your sake and the sake of your husband and the others, do it." Sal nodded at her.

    "Why?" Cecelia stared at the tab with her brows furrowed. "Why are you trying so hard to help me knowing what happens if you get caught?" She stared at the woman, and she scoffed and closed her eyes with a smile, making a gesture to herself.

    "I joined the Imperial army because I wanted to make the Godyer and Vatui terrorists pay for what they''d done, that was so long ago I can''t date it, I''m almost as old as the end of the war itself; but ever since my first day as an enlisted cadet, to my promotion as an analyst I haven''t seen a single one of those supposed terrorists and evildoers attack on their own, there''s always provocation there''s always antagonism," Sal shook her head and closed her eyes.

    "Even in your case; you were hiding, they attacked you first, you surrendered while the others ran, and then offered yourself to the Emporium to keep them away."

    "Vatui aren''t benevolent beings, Sal," Cecelia shook her head. "We had everyone under our thumbs, that''s a fact-"

    "That has nothing to do with anything anymore, time has long passed the age of the Vatui and Godyer reign, your people and those you serve are being hunted and ughtered like dogs, there''s no excuse that makes it okay, what we''re doing is wrong," Sal shook her head and pointed to the tab again.

    "Come on, I''ve already encrypted the shit out of this thing, it''ll break after one message so make sure you write fro the heart, you can say whatever you want nobody will ever know."

    "...okay."

    ***

    Sol was standing on a rapidly moving spherical body norger than a stadium which was rotating around another small Celestial body, his armour of gold was bent, misshapen and had cracks across the surface, and his skin had blemishes of impurity from where his clone''s miasma had touched, it may have looked and felt like demonic mana but it was far more pungent; far denser, and far more dangerous than any, it was something akin to darkness itself except it seemed to be drawing power from a reverse Beginning; he was truly Sol''s opposite in every way.

    "All that talk and all that power and look at you," The clone chuckled, his right arm was mangled, his head had a wound that showed parts of his skull from a split above his eye which travelled around the crown of his head and stopped above his neck, and he was breathing heavily from a wound in his side that exposed a bit of his lungs and ribcage.

    "I told you; you can''t win, I know what you''re gonna do before you do it!"

    "It''s not that he knows what I''m gonna do, the problem is I''ve been using the same fighting style and same techniques since the first day, I haven''t created any new techniques, just variations of the old ones, and none of those variations are strong enough to kill him, I can''t just crush him with my hands either; that power harms me..." Sol thought with a serious frown seeing the wounds on his opponent heal.

    "He actually managed to damage my hammer; the same hammer that even Dr''ul''s durability couldn''t dent was destroyed by this creature, I have to think; he''s strong enough to withstand and break free from all forms of cosmic powers including the forbidden [Nightmare Prism] and [Reaper''s Calling], I''ve been too concerned with the consequences of an overspill, it''s impossible to kill him without wrecking everything surrounding us," He pondered watching the clone disappear several times as he confidently tried confusing Sol with speed in his approach.

    "First, I''ll strip him of this annoying confidence, it''s making him do reckless things..." Sol easily matched and then surpassed his speed appearing in both his peripherals and delivering two simultaneous kicks at his chest, when those kicks were blocked Sol appeared directly before him with his knees at his chest and then thrust both of them forward, recreating the scene with himself and Sitri as the clone tore through the small celestial body they were standing on and crashed into the other one ripping through it as well and then flying off into the deep.

    [Clockwork: Stacked ��2]

    "I haven''t been able to decide how to fight him because I''ve been wary; I don''t know what that corrupt power will do to Ikaris and the others if it gets inside of my body or even if I''ll be able to remove it, I need to keep myself clean of further corruption," Sol stared at the miasma withering away from his heels.

    "It''s clear I don''t have the means to contest it''s potency..." He steadied his stance and turned his torso, balling his fists as thin magic circles began appearing around his arms and legs.

    [Stack ��5]

    "I can''t keep holding back, he''s getting stronger with every passing moment!"

    [Stack ��5]

    "If I can''t find a safe way I''ll abandon safety and destroy him with my bare fists; until I can find a way to contest that ck mana I''ll make sure he''s too terrified to attack me or anyone else!"

    [Stack ��10]

    Sol watched his double tearing across the destroyed beneath him in his approach as he formed what looked like [forced Sun] except it was as ck as the void it upied and there was a powerful mass within it which pulled matter towards it much like a ck hole, except it didn''t form any rings, it had no horizon, and it wasn''t eating light; it just appeared and existed as a mass.

    "Do you honestly think you can take any attack of mine head-on after what you''ve seen it do to you?

    You''ve be soft, Sol Vestic; your senses are dull, hahaha, you lose!" The clone shrieked gleefully, thrusting his hand forward andughing when the mass swallowed theary body Sol had been standing on; a momentter though that same ck mass had cracks of gold racing across it towards him, and his eyes widened in horror when he felt Sol''s power spike several hundred times what it was a moment ago.

    [Clockwork: Dominion Release]

    "You''re right, I AM Sol Vestic; I''m fathering a beautiful child, I am husband to the most amazing wife, mate of the most loyal servants and lovers, protector of quintillions of lives; falling to a weaker and selfish variant of myself would be a sin against all who have given their lives to ensure I lived before I gained this strength, and all those who look to me as their shield!

    I am the herald of change which guides my collective, I am the golden dawn, I am the strongest!" Sol emerged before him unscathed as his mana was being eaten away by the miasma slower than he was replicating and expanding it.

    "I''m the Godyer feared by the greatest power ever known in all existence!" He grabbed the clone by his chest te when he attempted to dodge.

    "You''re just a broken copy, a corrupt anomaly that needs correcting; sure, your powers do harm me, but don''t forget who you''re dealing with!" Sol grinned as all the light around him vanished and his fist alone started glowing. "Going dull, getting soft?" Sol clenched his hand so hard the armour in his grasp folded in ordance to his fist.

    "Don''t make meugh, do you think I''ve been enjoying a carefree existence since A?!"

    "You want to kill the gods so badly, I have entire universes filled with them, and you''re never gonna get there-" Sol tanked several punches and kicks from his clone expelling torrents mana to disperse and blow away the corrupting miasma off his skin.

    "Let go of me!!"

    "I''m a god too; I''m the god that the other gods pray to and seekfort and protection under; I''m their deity; ME!"

    "Then I''ll kill y-"

    The clone bent and spat up his guts along with ck blood when Sol''s stationary hand mmed into his chest and slowly began tearing through him.

    "As you''re dragged into hell remember these words and remember them well..." Sol bent in the shape of a "C" in thepletion of his punch and disappeared before his clone was even sent flying, appearing behind him with his hands formed and [Clockwork] stacking rapidly to the point where his hand started shaking and atomising the emptiness around it.

    "There''s only one Sol Vestic, there will only ever be one Sol Vestic, tell the devil how you got there and make sure it''s a good story!"

    [CLOCKWORK: DOMINION ��1002]

    [Release]

 Chapter 274: Amazing.

    "Viktor, are you sure this is the ce?" A question was asked, and the general looked to his captain for confirmation.

    "Are we, Cecelia?" He asked.

    "The readings indicate he''s here, Sir." She nodded staring warily.

    "There''s nothing here but an empty space," Viktor stood on the top of his ship staring at the empty space before him. "There''s never been anything here, this is one of the only ces in Kha-Nova where nothing resides yet it still exists inside of a sector as if it is its own universe, it''d be too obvious for the Godyer to hide here." He stated.

    "After all this time, is it a wise assumption to say he does not hide for his own sake?" Cecelia asked standing on his left with her weapon at the ready while his sword was also drawn.

    On the General''s right was another General with her sword at the ready just as he was and to the right of them there was another ship with the number 95 on it; the first of the 99 had arrived just in time to catch on to Sol''s readings, and at her side was the first captain of the 95th fleet.

    She was blonde at the roots of her hair with silver eyes and blue highlights that almost seemed to glow behind her as her hair flowed weightlessly, and her left eye was patched while her Emporium Generals'' uniform neatly fitted over her battlesuit without crush or wrinkle, and the Captain at her side looked almost identical to herself, being her younger sibling, with the only thing separating them being the Captain''s green highlights rather than blue, and the fact that she wore a Captain''s uniform instead of that of a General.

    "So this Godyer, I''ve seen his face and I''ve heard of what he''s done, but you''re the only one who''s met the bastard, what is Sol Vestic like in person?" the 95th General looked at Viktor with a smile, but shook her head and stared ahead again when she saw the focus on his face; he was ready at a breath to attack the first thing that showed up and she could feel it from just a stare.

    "General Stark, he has been named most wanted, most dangerous and has caused an entire collective to be put under martialw until his capture or death, what do you think that means?" Viktor asked and she nodded and tightened her grasp on her sword.

    "He is beyond being reasonably powerful at this point, he has shattered every known record or scaling he''s in a whole other dimension, I hate it but something as obvious as a sneaky attack is the only way we''re gonna defeat him if it''s just us," Viktor admitted, and Stark stared at him with her brows furrowed and her eyes slightly narrowed.

    [Generals, the readings are intensifying; something is about to happen!] Sal pointed out as the leading analyst. [It may be wise to retreat several-]

    "Yes, take the ships away from this location and stay on standby," Viktor answered before she even finished speaking and as his ship slowly retreated from what they assumed would be ground zero, Stark''s ship also began retreating with them.

    "If this goes bad, it won''t change anything, you''ll just have to keep looking for another way, you hear?" Sal spoke directly into Cecelia''s Comms and the white-haired woman nodded and held her weapon firmly.

    "Something is happening!" Cecelia raised her gun and pointed directly at the part of the void where she could see energy escaping the most. "There are massive amounts of energying from that point, Sir, I think we''re too close!"

    "She may be right," Stark agreed with her. "I''m not able to sense power, I''m not some Vatui freak like she is but I can easily tell that something isn''t right here, it feels like I''m gonna die if whatever is inside of that emptiness catches me; that''s what my gut is telling me!" She sheathed her de and turned her back.

    "Flint, I know you''re a stubborn man, but know your limits, don''t die a pointless death." She nced over her shoulder at Viktor while her sister sheathed her sword as well and turned to leave.

    "How many more chances like this will we get?" Viktor looked at her.

    "None, you won''t get another chance because you will be dead, Sir!" Cecelia began panicking when she started feeling the waves of invisible Godyer mana pouring out of a small rift. "This is beyond terrible; there will be nothing left to salvage if we stay here; this entire sector is about to disappear!" She cancelled her weapon and grabbed Viktor''s arm. "Retreat, now!"

    Viktor stared at her for several seconds, he had never seen Cecelia behave like this, not with him privately or with anyone.

    Her usually rounded canines had sharpened, and the hair atop her head was beginning to glow in resonance with Sol''s power, she felt safe, but for every living being that was neither Godyer nor Vatui what happened next would be fatal; she knew this.

    "Get us out of here..." Viktor sheathed his sword and turned as he and Cecelia were summoned back to their ship while the Stark sisters were summoned to theirs.

    "How far away do you think we should retreat?" Viktor stared at Cecelia sceptically as soon as they were behind the screen of their vessel.

    "As far as possible, within the next sector," She answered without even batting an eye.

    [Flint, what''s that woman saying?] Stark asked from her vessel and he sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose as he contemted.

    "Sir, please listen, the thousands who serve you will die if you stay here-"

    "If it''s a matter of fighting Sol Vestic I am overly qualified -"

    "This has nothing to do with a fight," Cecelia shook her head, looking at the space outside while the ship rapidly retreated while they requested a breach to the neighbouring sector.

    "No, it does, he is already fighting someone, within all the power I see and sense, there is something ominous that has warranted him to exert the power to destroy an entire universe within the span of a few seconds, that''s why... we''ll all die if we get caught in the crosshairs of this battle!"

    "Did you hear all of that, Stark?" Viktor asked removing his hand from his ear.

    [Loud and clear, I also streamed it to the other generals so they wouldn''t carelessly enter upon picking up the same signals I did; let''s retreat for now and observe from a safe distance; I suppose you had some level of foresight, having a Vatui on our side capable of sensing and reacting to powers we don''t understand can have its uses after all.] She scoffed and then ended the transmission.

    Cecelia stared out and gasped as the first shred of light appeared in the void, and with its appearance the rms of both ships went off and broke almost immediately as a massive tear across their current in spanning several gxies tore the void in three directions and began exponentially expanding.

    "Quickly!" Viktor snapped when he finally started feeling the danger Cecelia had been sensing from the start.

    "This is the power of a Godyer!?" Stark snapped just before her ship was whisked away by a breach that quickly closed before the mass of energy could reach them. "What the fuck!?" She snapped as soon as they were on the other side of the breach.

    "He is beyond reason and reality!" She pressed her hands on the screen of her cockpit staring into the void as the entire expanse of a universe was swallowed in golden light right before her eyes. "It''s impossible to hold this much power within any singr vessel!"

    "My god," Viktor stared from his cockpit as the void above them was epassed by golden light spanning from one edge of reality to the next and spreading golden roots towards the universe they had retreated into. "What have I done?"

    "Sir?"

    "If I''d left him alone, he would never havee to the Kha-Nova Collective, he''d never have waged war against us, this is the might of a sole being; he is a singrity, if all the Emporiumbined its power we''d be able to do the same, but that''s as a whole, there''s no living or dead member of the Empire who could do something so..."

    "...Amazing," Cecelia finished Viktor''s sentence staring in awe while he was too distracted to even hear her as was anyone else.

    "Beyond the legends, beyond reason and belief, he is... Amazing," She fully acknowledged Sol''s power, cing her hand against her chest and releasing a short breath of frosted air which caused the entire cockpit to change by several degrees.

    "If someone like this had shown up during the war we''d have won, but it also makes sense; Ikaris, the most powerful Vatui warrior, the most feared enemy of the Emporium...

    the war Angel; it makes sense that she would be the catalyst that ushered the rise of such an unbelievable being as her Godyer, has she been in hiding all this time plotting her revenge against the emporium for killing the king?"

    "Did she do this out of grief and vengeance at the loss of her father?" Explore stories on mvl

 Chapter 275: Pa.

    "Viktor, have you been dealing with this monster by yourself all this time, or is this a recent development?" General Stark asked, staring at the root-like paths of destruction that rapidly spread from the great and seemingly infinite wall of gold zooming past them into the sector and erasing several thousand gxies within the span of a single breath.

    She couldn''t believe her eyes; she couldn''t believe her own mind for convincing her that she had just witnessed that.

    "Maybe he''s expended too much power, we ought to return as soon as that abominate power subsides; it''s just not fathomable for a being of whatever descent to be able to do something like that onmand," Viktor stared, ignoring her question in favour of what seemed like the only n he could conjure.

    "Let me know when the path is safe, Cecelia." The general turned to her but where his captain usually stood was empty, it was only then when he huffed in shock that he saw his breath floating before him and realised that the inside of the ship was almost as cold as dead space.

    "Cecelia...?" He looked to the floor after hearing her exhale again and found her clutching her chest and crying with an unrecognisable expression, her tears came out silver but instead of floating like they usually did which he found fascination in; her tears fell heavily, freezing on her cheeks and leaving sharp icicles on the ground when she wiped the frozennes of tears away.

    "What''s gotten into you?" Viktor stared at her in disbelief.

    "Sir..." Sal spoke up when she saw his jaw clench in irritation as he started reaching for her. "She is showing extreme levels of stress, I think, she may be in shock!"

    "Shock?" Viktor paused and stared at the analyst.

    "We''ll die, he''ll kill me, he''ll kill all of us, he is Ikaris''s Godyer, we threatened the most terrifying beings in existence-"

    "Snap out of it!" Viktor swung his fist backwards, catching Cecelia''s jaw with his knuckles and breaking her skin as she was sent flying across the cockpit, but even as the Captain collided with the wall and tore a hole through it, the crew only found her cradling her head and shaking when they checked on her. Fuck, get her out of here, she''s useless to me like that."

    "Take over for me," Sal looked at her second and ran off to Cecelia before anyone else could. "Hey-"

    "It''s the end of the Emporium, I''m gonna die here!"

    "Come on," Sal held her and raised her to her feet. "Walk with me."

    "Let me know her condition as soon as possible," Viktor rubbed his forehead and looked out the screen again. "It''s unfortunate that the best analyst is also the leading physician, make sure she''s stable and then return to your post."

    "Yes sir," Sal answered and gestured to one of the guards. "Carry her for me.

    "Where to, ma''am?"

    "Where else?" Sal stared at him with her brows raised, ncing behind her and seeing the general staring at them again. "Idiot, she''s the head captain, her quarters have a medical facility." Read exclusive content at mvl

    "O... oh," the guard stared as he hefted Cecelia up easily, blushing when the woman rested her head against his chest and began sobbing again. "I didn''t-"

    "Go."

    "Yes ma''am."

    ***

    ***Inside of the SOL collective; the moment Sol unleashed his reality-ending attack.

    "Something-" Ikaris ran outside and stared at the skies, she had been waiting for over an hour for Sol''s return, but all she could see from standing under the stars were the great golden roots continuously shing as he exerted more and more power, but then she felt a significant drain and ran out in a panic taking a single leap and ending up in arge open field several hundred miles away with, there at her side in an instant was dina, and then A while Sara rejoined them cradling Talia and then Dr''ul and the others caught up once they figured out where they were.

    "What the devils...?" Dr''ul stared into the sky along with everyone else seeing the great golden streak across the cosmos rapidly retreat and disappear and the night turned to day when the root returned several timesrger and brighter than before with a blinding glow, in resonance to Sol''s awakening of the powers within himself Ikaris shook and fell to her knees, and with her A and Dina also did the same.

    "Master''s power," A mused. "I thought I had an understanding of his power, but this is simply unfathomable..."

    "What is happening?" Dr''ul stared at them.

    "Close your eyes, Dr''ul, you are Vatui by nature, god by title; close your eyes and extend your reach to the stars, tether yourself to the light and feel it," Ikaris continued staring. "Master has achieved another realm of power, I regret doubting him, I am ashamed of myself, utterly ashamed," Ikaris held her hands to the stars and closed her eyes as more tears flowed.

    "He is an untouchable deity, the pinnacle of all lifeforms!"

    "What is happening?" Keele asked, staring with her brows furrowed as she saw Dr''ul, Renia, Adonai and S''mael fall to their knees in reverence to the light which seemed to grow brighter by the second.

    "We do not deserve one such as him..." S''mael shook his head. "Master Vestic is beyond this meagre reality; he is what a god should be."

    The spectaclested an entire hour, and upon thepletion of Sol''s mana ring everything went dark again before the golden vines returned to normal, pulsating with rich new energy.

    "It finally stopped," Usami blinked and shook her head. "I lost track of everything, it''s almost like I couldn''t look away from it," She admitted and Keele nodded and rubbed her eyes. "I don''t even think I was blinking," Usami rubbed her eyes as well and looked at her daughter who was doing the same, and then at her brother who had tear stains on his cheeks.

    "Is everyone okay?" Ikaris looked around at them all and everybody nodded in tandem. "Then... we should return and await his arrival," She waved her hand, and as a force of suction had possessed them, everyone instantly appeared within the lounge of the estate again, filling the room while Alpha began bringing them refreshments, which they dly took after noticing how parched they all were.

    "Is everything okay here?" Sol appeared before his seat with the most casual andfortable flop in his chair. "Did I miss something important? The air feels different," he stated, taking his drink from Alpha and turning it to his head.

    "Master... Vestic?" Sara stared at him with her brows furrowed and her eyes slightly widened, not just her but everyone had an expression of shock. "Sir?" She called at him again.

    "Don''t worry about it, Sara." Sol finished his drink and then looked at his stump of a right arm. "This isn''t the first time I''ve lost an arm, and it isn''t the first time I''ve felt like shit either," He chuckled and ced his hand over his cheek expelling the miasma with a bright sh and banishing it elsewhere.

    "Love!" Ikaris rushed over to him when his head was about to fall backwards and cradled his neck with her arm. "Are you..."

    "Yeah, I''m just a little tired; it took about ten times the amount of energy from the punch to get this nasty stuff out of my body; I''m fine, Ikaris," He smiled and looked up at her.

    [Divine Heal]

    Ikaris held her hands over Sol''s arm and immediately began weaving his limb back to normal, and everyone else silently sat and watched as she did so with uracy only she could manage.

    "Truly masterful work," Adonai hummed in fascination. "First, I witnessed the ultimate feat of destruction, and now I see with my own eyes the purest form of true creation; I am at a loss of words; I am at a loss of thoughts," He mused.

    "Pa..."

    Ikaris stopped dead in her tracks as a flush of mana revitalised her body and almost escaped her while Sol was no different as he leaned his head and looked over at Sara who was staring at the baby in reverend shock.

    "Pa..." Talia repeated, and Sol''s eyes bulged and he appeared before the maid like a sh of lightning, and right at his side startling everyone was Ikaris who appeared much in the same manner.

    "Pa," Talia reached out for Sol when he drew closer and held on to his hair smiling with her gums. "Pa, pa, pa."

    "She''s not even three months old yet..." Usami held her mouth as she saw Sol''s hair re up in gold and his ck mouth refocused into a wide smile.

    "You brilliant little sunbeam," Ikaris smiled brightly when she saw Sol carefully usher Talia from Sara''s grasp and hold her out as she kicked and iled trying to reach him, chuckling when she saw his hair brightly shining. "Truly," Ikaris held her mouth as Talia''s mana barely surfaced in resonance to Sol''s and his remaining finger instantaneously regenerated in reaction to her power.

    "You are beyond a blessing."

    "What the hell...?"

 Chapter 276: Umbra.

    ***

    The ships of captains could reach the size ofrge cities to a small country from Earth''sparison depending on what kind of backing they had within the Emporium, but the vessels belonging to Generals were many timesrger; Viktor''s ship byparison was least the size of a small country; it spanned a hundred miles from the tip to the tail and nearly forty from one side of the deck to the other, so to make up for the massive size they had a nexus of elevators which could move in any direction at blistering yet safe speeds, and for emergencies there were special pods charged with Godyer energy which could teleport anything and anyone in a matter of seconds.

    "I''ve never been in one of these before," The guard holding Cecelia stared at the decor within the luxurious pod as he stepped in, and Sal behind him scoffed and cleared her throat scanning her arm in a small chamber and giving it the order to take her directly into Cecelia''s room; aside from the general, she was the only other person on the whole 100th''s ship that had such ess when it came to the secretive and extremely introverted Vatui noble.

    [Destination confirmed; ess granted, lieutenant.] The pod spoke and vibrated for a single second before the doors slid open again and the interior of Cecelia''s abode came into view, since she had managed to clean recently without interruptions the room was spotless causing the man holding her to nod in admiration since it was always rumoured that she was a germaphobe who couldn''t stand the sight of anything even remotely unclean.

    "ess medical unit, protocol 79-c" Sal spoke and the room lit up from the corners and hummed before the table in the living area flipped and revealed a medical table with several drawers and storage cabs sliding from the walls; the entire room turned into a hospital facility right before the man''s eyes leaving him speechless as he stood.

    "Set her down and return to your post, soldier."

    "Huh, you don''t need me to help with anything?"

    "No," Sal stared at him. "ce her on the bed and leave, that''s an order," She gestured to the table as she pulled one of the drawers open and a pair of mechanical arms emerged holding gloves for her to stick her hands in. "The room has state-of-the-art automation; I can manage from here."

    "Right," He rested Cecelia on the table and went to the pod. "Um..."

    "Use the door, the pod is for special personnel, and since such personnel have been transported you can return leisurely, thank you for your help," She didn''t even spare him a nce as she made a nudge at the door with her head. "Doors, override."

    [Confirmed, Lieutenant]

    "Well, okay then," the guard nodded and left through the doors and Sal turned and watched them seal shut before taking her gloves back off after clicking a device bedded in her teeth turning off the surveince and ying the recorded footage of the room in a loop.

    "That was quite the performance, I was convinced all the way up until your room didn''t go into emergency mode from what was supposed to be a panic attack, did youe to a decision?" Sal looked around at Cecelia and the white-haired captain sat up and wiped her tears away taking a deep breath and smiling gently.

    "He is perfect," Cecelia stared at her, reaching into another drawer and taking out the tab Sal had given her; turning it on and revealing that the message was unsent. "If anyone can help me, it would be him, what remains is whether he''ll believe me, or if he''s gonna just reveal to everyone that I tried contacting him..." Cecelia stared at the "send" button hesitantly.

    "I am nervous, Sally."

    "Nobody will know you sent this message, even on his end; as soon as anyone reads it their device will break as well."

    "That''s one hell of a virus," Cecelia scoffed and then took a deep breath and tapped the send button, watching the encryption turn the ink on the inside into fire as the device melted in her grasp upon message delivery. "There, it''s done."

    ***

    "She spoke, she said her first word at only two months!" Sol smiled with Talia in his grasp as she continued kicking and saying "pa".

    "Sara, did you teach her to say this?" He looked at the maid but she raised her hands defensively and shook her head.

    "No sir, this was not my doing-"

    "It was me!" A skipped over and stopped before him and Ikaris. "Talia has shown many signs of heightened intelligence and self-awareness, I started telling her words a few days ago," She admitted and Sol nced at Ikaris and then looked at her again.

    "You taught her more?" Ikaris queried.

    "Yes, Master," A poked her cheeks proudly and grinned widely at them. "I taught her to say papa, mama, Aunty A, Aunty Dina, and big sis Sara, and believe it or not-" The elf''s eyes widened. "She can already say all of that!" She gestured with shock written on her face as well.

    "What, seriously!?" Usami snapped aloud causing everyone to stare at her; Gia was considered smart beyond her years because she started speaking before she was a year old, but what the hell was she hearing right now? Even if it was Sol and Ikaris''s daughter, wasn''t it a bit too much for a two-month-old baby to suddenly start talking?

    "Ma...ma," Talia repeated the word after hearing A say it again and the elf jumped and pointed at her. "Pa...pa."

    "See!" A eximed with joy causing her sigils to sh crimson in ordance with her mood. "Little Talia is a living breathing blessing!" She swooped closer and held Ikaris''s hands. "I apologise for doing it behind your back, Mdy, but I wanted to surprise you and Master!"

    "Consider me surprised..." Ikaris stared at her at a loss for words. "Talia has always obeyed my little prompts since birth; she responds to me within her mind, not in words but with emotion, that is how I was able to keep her from crying while always knowing what she wanted, but I never considered she would be able to form words already..."

    "Papa."

    "Yes, my little angel, that''s right; I''m your Papa!" Sol melted like y in water and took a seat again, blowing kisses against her belly while sheughed and yed with his floating golden hair.

    "Master, I hate to do this but... the clone," Dina spoke up.

    She was just as invested in Talia as the others, one might even argue she was more attached to the babe than even Sara was, but after seeing Sol''s state she couldn''t stop thinking about the reason he came back exhausted in the first ce.

    From Ikaris''s exnation Sol had generated enough power topletely destroy twenty universes in a single moment, and yet he had made no mention of his clone since his return.

    "He''s alive," Sol looked up at her, and the room once more went still as he continued ying with Talia.

    "What?"

    "He took the hit; at least, the initial hit connected I mean; but before he could die he vanished from my senses, if he''s in fact like me, with the abilities I have in reverse then it makes sense he''d be able to get away, that''s why I tried killing him by burning through my power like fuels, he''s a danger to not just mine or Ikaris''s, but every existence out there," Sol continued ying with Talia while he spoke.

    "Umbra,"

    "What?" Dr''ul furrowed her brows at the word she had never heard before.

    "That''s what he said before he disappeared, Umbra," Sol looked up at Dr''ul.

    "Umbra is a Latin word, it means shade, or darkness; the opposite of light and sun; the reverse of Sol," Dina stared at Sol while she exined it to the goddess. "So he is everything you''re not, all the darkness you overcame is what he became?" She asked and Sol nodded.

    "Lumi, he also has his own grey; his own beginning, I think he''s already been visited by emissaries too, if I''m guided by light then he''s undoubtedly guided by darkness," Sol rested Talia in hisp and rxed his shoulders.

    "What?"

    From thin air Lumi appeared next to Sol, staring at him with her head leaned and her brows furrowed. "None who call themselves darkness would ever-"

    "I sensed something within him when before he vanished, a second consciousness, much like yours, they who dwell in the dark always seek to destroy the light, isn''t that right?"

    The emissary of fate stared at him with her eyes wide in shock unable to answer.

    "If I''m guided by your fate, then for sure; he''s being guided by something which opposes it, he''s evil down to the core; ck from the inside out, an Anti me." Sol looked at her. "I''m assuming by the power he has that he does have an emissary backing him, I''m assuming he has his own grey, or whatever you''d call it inversed, it''s funny, I never thought my greatest enemy would be my reflection."

    "This is terrible..." Dr''ul took a seat as she thought about the amount of power Sol had utilized but still failed to kill his inverse.

    "Don''t," Sol raised his eyes from the child in hisp once more. "Umbra is my responsibility; he can''t get in here any more than I can ess THE END where he resides; I''m the only one who''ll be able to fight him, so don''t ever think of challenging or revealing yourself to him, understood?" Sol stared at them and then looked at Ikaris who had her head hung low.

    "This is because of me-"

    "Master, I apologise for the interruption," Alpha interjected and rested her hand on Ikaris''s arm while she stared at Sol.

    "I believe there is a secret message directed towards you within the Emporium''s army," She stated.

    "For me?" Sol asked.

    "I traced the origins and it appears to be a secret messageing from General Viktor Flint''s right hand, the Vatui woman; the message is untracable by other means but the malware used to destroy it was created by one, lieutenant Sally Howl, friends with Cecelia, I checked several times, thisnis undoubtedly a plea for help."

    "Cecelia?"

 Chapter 277: Cry for Help.

    "I do not trust her, anyone who would join hands with an enemy set on destroying their race is untrustworthy, this is a trap in the making," Ikaris stared at Alpha. "There''s no way that a traitor to her people would want help from the people she betrayed; for all we know, this is the General''s doing."

    "I agree," Dina spoke up. "They''re desperate to catch or kill you, master, there is no way she''d suddenly want your help, not at a time like this."

    "Well," Sol furrowed his brows looking at the message and how put-together it was. "Let''s look at it from another point of view first; I''m sure all of you agree it''s a trap, right?" He asked and they all nodded, even Lumi agreed that it was a trap.

    "Then, what if we direct our thoughts positively for a moment and think of the possible reasons it wouldn''t be a trap?" He asked and Ikaris''s brows furrowed as she took in his words.

    "She would be truly desperate, but why?" Ikaris asked.

    "Maybe she was forced into the role, it is not unlike the Emporium to use underhanded means to get their way," A stated.

    "But adversely doesn''t the emporium prefer turning Vatui into a resource, sure, she''s useful to them as she is but if they harvested her she''d be more valuable; with the power she has she would probably be amongst the ten most powerful artificially imnted consciousnesses within the entire Emporium, coupled with the right Godyer that ship could potentially dismantle an entire collective within a month by itself," Keele spoke up.

    "You don''t seem convinced that it''s a trap," Sol looked at her.

    "That is because there were once rumours about her, granted this was a long time ago before my birth; but I once heard that the Captain to the General of the 100th fleet is the General''s ything, it was a popr opinion within the military that she would be better off harvested, but the general refused to kill her and instead kept her at his side as a ve, and she willingly stays there to deter him from searching for the others she surrendered to help escape."

    "Others?" Sol turned his attention to her as he saw Alpha close her eyes in an attempt to search the Emporium database and fact-check her statements for validity.

    "I see, the records show that Viktor Flint was once the 90th General, but after encountering the resistance of Cecelia he lost ten ranks because he willingly let Vatui escape his clutches in order to acquire her after a battle thatsted ten days where she alone destroyed half of his fleet.

    Even though he lost his rank, his performance and sess rate have quadrupled with her at his side, he uses her to scout for others because of her skills in detection,"

    Alpha exined.

    "She sold herself to the enemy to ensure the others escaped, whilst also turning her back on everyone else." Ikaris stared at herp. "I would have rather died than do that," she mused. "I would never allow my body to be touched by another than my love, the torment would destroy the purity of my soul."

    "Master Sol Vestic, Godyer, I seek amnesty and sanctuary," Sol started speaking from the text he was reading again.

    "I understand that my request might be unexpected, and you have many valid reasons for deep scepticism; however, I am in a situation where I urgently need your help, I''ve witnessed your power firsthand and I know what you did for General Keele when you made her homeworld disappear, I ask that you do the same for me, I''mmitted to adhering to any and all of your directions without hesitation even at the expense of my body and my pride, I willingly offer myself as sacrifice.

    My family is currently in a critical predicament, and I am unable to provide any form of support to them or even to myself." He paused and looked at the room finding silence.

    "I must confess to havingmitted deeds that have caused me to be cast out by mymunity, I am apprehensive about the repercussions that may befall me once Her Highness bes aware of my actions, however, if there is any possibility of aiding my n I am willing to surrender myself willingly and ept whatever consequencese my way.

    This message will self-destruct after a single viewing as I have reason to believe that you possess the capability to intercept it, should this be the case, any form of response would be greatly appreciated.

    My only request is that my identity remain confidential and out of the General''s perception as its disclosure would jeopardize the safety of my people.

    I am anxiously anticipating your response, whether it be rejection or eptance."

    Sol finished reading the message and looked up at everyone again; not a soul made a peep. "Does that sound like a trap to you?" He asked, and Ikaris leaned her cheek on his shoulder and rxed against him, hooking her finger with Talia''s hands as the babe cooed quietly.

    "It sounds like a desperate cry for help from someone who is driven so far in a corner the only way out is digging another grave," Renia answered. "Even if it is a trap, master, you can always escape unharmed, they are nowhere near as powerful as Umbra is, nor are they anywhere as lethal, right?" She asked and Sol nodded.

    "Sol, what will you do?" S''mael asked above the silence that festered and swelled after Renia''s words sunk in.

    "Admittedly, I believed her since I first read it, I already know what kind of person she is as one who has sought safety with her enemy; Cecelia is an opportunist, she will always seek the safest option, if not for herself, then for her people, I did extensive research into her after Alpha got ess to the Emporium, I''ve been waiting for something like this, I simply wanted to hear what you all had to say on the matter."

    "So you always intended to help her if she asked?" Ikaris furrowed her brows.

    "No, my initial n was to reject and kill her, but, I can''t get myself in the right mind to do it, she''s been in that spot for a long time now, it''s like you said Ikaris, you''d rather die, I know for a fact she feels the same, but shecks something you have in mass quantities."

    "Pride?" Ikaris raised a brow at him and Dr''ul scoffed, almost breaking intoughter.

    "...no, hope, she lost hope at the end of the war, by the period of time that she surrendered; it wasn''t that long after you disappeared," He stared at her and saw her eyes flicker crimson briefly.

    "Me?" She asked.

    "Of course; the Emporium knows who you are so I gathered every bit of information from them that I could, every ount, every record, every mention that was digitised," Sol nodded.

    "So... I have another identity...?" She seemed overly troubled by that revtion. "You withheld this from me, why?"

    "I didn''t want to upset you," Sol answered. "Your past was many times worse than what I went through in A, I''m afraid of what you''ll be if you''re triggered and suddenly remember, but I''m also aware that you want to know, the only bit of information I''m unaware of is why you don''t remember any of this," He caressed her cheek.

    "The mostmon piece of information is your identity; everyone who knows knows. And those who don''t know.

    "Then... who am I?"

    "You''re Ikaris," He answered.

    "Sol-"

    "I''m serious," He smiled and then turned to Talia who was now yawning against him as he held her onto his chest.

    "You are Ikaris from the House of Eternity, the royal family who spearheaded the war against the Emporium, also the only royal family, you were heralded by King Javan, and Queen Aiyanna, Ikaris, first daughter of Eternity, whose nameter became the house she resided in, they named their empire after you."

    "I had parents?"

    "I thought Vatui were incapable of natural reproduction, isn''t that why they tried so hard to get Ikaris after they discovered her?"

    "They are to some degree an unnatural and entirely divine and mysterious existence, when a pair is formed they spend years crafting their child carefully from their own bodies conjoined, they do not show themselves until this process isplete and they have no memory of how it is achieved, they disappear for years and return with a newborn, except a Vatui child has no umbilical attachment, their navel appears during childhood, so in truth, nobody knows how it''s done," Sol responded to Keele and then looked at Ikaris again.

    ""I had parents..."

    "That''s wild," Usami scratched her head and shook it. "That''s insane... Ikaris isn''t just the queen of this collective, by title she''s supposedly queen of the entire grand..." She stared at Ikaris. "That''s... Wild."

    "-The Queen died at the hands of the Emporium; with the emergence of LAW, the hand the Vatui held over everyone else dwindled and she was murdered in cold blood, this is what led to the war in the first ce," Alpha answered. "I have spent an extensive amount of time dedicated to scraping data together to form a coherent story." She looks at Ikaris.

    "At the height of the war, when the parties were at their most violent, the king was killed, and after his death, you disappeared."

    "With the leader of the Vatui forces gone the ranks slowly fell apart and the Emporium made use of that chaos and started hunting them, Ikaris, it is unclear why you fled the fight, but the current state of the grand emporium is directly linked to the disappearance of you; the Vatui War Angel."

    "I haven''t put all the pieces together yet, but if you truly want to know everything, I''m d to do his with you," Sol smiled at her. "Anyways..." He stopped Alpha when he saw Ikaris''s mood deteriorating faster than she could respond. "I''ll help her, but not yet," he looked at Keele whilst cing his hand on Ikaris''s shoulder and gently squeezing it.

    "I have to deal with you first."

 Chapter 278: Point of No Return.

    "I assume our services in the meantime are not needed?" Dr''ul spoke up when everyone remained silently digesting the information Sol and Alpha had ced on their tes.

    "Are you in a hurry?" Dina looked around at her and the goddess of war smiled and held her fist towards her.

    "It is quite umon, but as of recently, we rted the information of the Grand Collective and the Emporium to the newly extended pantheon and a lot of the gods have been training; actively getting stronger in the hopes of one day joining Sol''s fight against those who would see us harvested for our power," Dr''ul answered and Dina nodded with a hum while Sol dismissively raised his hand and a gateway back to Arkadia opened up before her.

    "I appreciate what you''re doing, Dr''ul," Sol nodded at her. "Hopefully it never reaches that point."

    "I can only pray for the same, but in the meantime, I wish you the best of luck," She smiled and gave him and Ikaris a small bow and turned. "Brothers."

    "Yes," Adonai paid his respects and left, and then after him S''mael waved his hands shily and departed after a small exchange with Renia.

    "Master, Mdy," A sat on the opposite side of Sol.

    "Would you mind not leaving today?" She asked, pointing out the fact that even while they had been present recently the two of them had been going through several different things and hadn''t spent their time together being together, they were just present, From Sol''s attack on the collective to umbra attacking Ikaris and nearly killing her, they''d been upied.

    "I already said I''d deal with Keele''s situation-"

    "If it''s no bother..." Keele spoke up.

    "I would rather stay here, I know that you have already ced my homeworld somewhere safe within your collective, my family and friends are safe, that is all I wanted, but I believe that being here would have me be more useful rather than staying on call, if it''s a matter of letting them know what happened; I could send a message or speak to someone at a distance," She stared at them.

    "With your permission, of course."

    "Are you sure?" Dina turned to her and asked. "There''s no telling what''s gonna happen in the future, you may never see them again."

    "Yes, ma''am, I''m certain of my decision; I''ve already given it some serious thought," Keele answered and saw Usami who was sitting on the far end scoffing and patting her brother on his shoulder while he too chuckled.

    "Ma''am?" Dina repeated with a vein popping up over her left eye. "Do I look like a ma''am to you?" She asked and A began snickering when she saw Keele begin to panic and search for an appropriate response.

    "You are a mistress to Mister Vestic, I assumed-"

    "But do I look like a ma''am?" Dina turned her head and crackled her knuckles. "You''re picking a fight, aren''t you?"

    "Wh- huh?" Keele reclined and raised her hands defensively while Sol beganughing almond with Renia and Ikaris.

    "Keele," Alpha stood at her side and held out a smartphone.

    "This device can connect and clearlymunicate with your homeworld, you have ess to anyone you know, every president, every prime minister, every mayor, every single person who has any form ofmunication can be contacted by you, so you can speak to them at your leisure." She exined watching the woman slowly and carefully take the device from her grasp and turn it, staring at the simple features.

    "Contact anyone from another universe? That''s amazing, how did you do that so quickly?" Keele tapped the screen and blinked at the interface. "It looks so simple."

    "That''s right," Sol spoke up, resting his cheek against Dina''s when she stood behind him and leaned over, resting her chin on his shoulder and kissing his cheek. "You didn''t meet Alpha officially,"

    "I thought she was just a maid," Keele stared at her, but the system only smiled politely and walked over to Sara''s side taking a seat and straightening her maid''s outfit on her legs.

    "Alpha is what''s known as a system, she is a fully sentient artificial intelligence created through the powers of divinity from Arkadia, you actually met her creator, Adonai," Sol pointed out. "She has powers simr to mine, but even more precise in what she''s able to do; by simply being present, she is capable of mapping and seizing control of the veryws of any universe she finds herself in.

    Currently, she''s mapped over 30% of the Kha-Nova Collective.

    "That being said, I am not a biological lifeform, the avatar you see is merely an attempt to appease master''s tastes, and interact with physical lifeforms" Alpha gestured to Sol. "I have no real body, I am an existence akin to the atmosphere should it gain a mind."

    "She''s also capable of granting power and life to anything and anyone, as well as interacting with any form of technology; it''s with her help that I''ve already infiltrated every dataset belonging to the grand emporium, she can change the form and nature of anything that crosses her path." Sol added and then looked at Alpha with his brows raised. "She is a terrifying existence; she is an omni-god."

    "Omni-god..." Alpha mused. "I have never seen myself as anything other than your servant and tool, Master." She shook her head. "Free will would be too much for me, I must only act ording to your desires, I would only rather be the system which aids you."

    "Have it your way," Sol raised his brows, unamused that she rejected the title so quickly. "My point is, if you need anything Alpha is the one you seek, if it''s a decision that requires personal guidance she will forfeit the issue to me, but otherwise she''s the equivalent of my secretary, as is Sara." He gestured to the maid.

    "Sara?"

    "Correct," Sara nodded and gestured to her politely. "We have yet to find the time to converse, but I am sure that your staying here will lead to many opportunities."

    "You must be incredibly strong as well," Keele smiled at her. "I am surrounded by amazing people."

    "I am not that strong inparison to everyone else," Sara answered with a smile. "My roles do not require strength; Alpha takes care of the matters Master assigns outside of his personal life I am simply his personal handmaiden." She chuckled.

    "You say that but you exist on a ne that nobody, not even I can interact with without you." Sol furrowed his brows at Sara.

    "So, overpowered..." Keele nodded. And saw everyone agree.

    "I will be taking my leave as well, Master Vestic" Lumi who had silently stood and observed them interacting finally spoke up and at her words all heads turned to her.

    "Master?" Ikaris furrowed her brows at the emissary.

    "I can''t seem to escape the title, that''s why I''m d for people like Jenifer, she doesn''t call me anything other than Sir."

    "Jeniferw, the first to escape your hands?" Keele asked shocked.

    "I let her go, she''s an ally." Sol chuckled.

    "I knew it," Keele muttered under her breath with a snap of her fingers.

    "You are far too lenient on your enemies, mister Vestic," she looked up at him, but then shook her head and almostughed at the absurdity of her statement; this is the same man who has wiped out entire forces in the past for simply being allied to his enemy, he wasn''t lenient at all, he simply had a soft spot for those who were capable of being saved.

    Everyone seemed to share her sentiment as well.

    "Well then," Lumi made gestures to everyone. "Best of luck, I will continue to watch from the sidelines." She waved and vanished in a sh of light.

    "Who was that anyways?" Keele asked. "She has such a terrifying gaze.

    "Lumi is the emissary of fate; she is pure light and creation, a being that has existed before time was conceptualised and before any Godyer or Vatui existed. She is currently the most powerful being within my collective."

    "Even-"

    "Yeah, she''s stronger than I am, even with all the power I''ve amassed," Sol stared at his baby girl and smiled at her sleeping form resting against him. "Lumi could still kill me if we went into a fight to the death."

    "Yet she does not want to help?"

    "She is passive, if you provoke her she will kill you, but otherwise she remains an observer to all that happens in order to protect the will of her previous fate." Sol scoffed. "It''s ridiculous but since she doesn''t antagonise or interact with any of us I kind of forget she even exists sometimes."

    "... Again, you are surrounded by the most amazing individuals..." Keele mused, Alpha an omni-consciousness, and Lumi, an existence that even he speaks of with reverence as the man capable of ending universes on a whim.

    ***

    "The General is calling me back to my post," Sal stood from her seat watching Cecelia who was intently staring at the residue of the molten tab on the floor.

    "Go, I''ll stay here for the rest of the shift and returnter."

    "Okay," She stepped into the transportation pod and sat down. "Let me know if anything happens."

    "I will," Cecelia answered watching her friend leave before locking her hands and fiddling her thumbs. "Did I make the right decision, after all?" She wondered but negated that thought and shook her head.

    "I''ll wait, there are only two ways this goes, and both of them are more desirable than remaining his ything, if I die then that is the end of it, and if he decides to help me, I will remain loyal for the rest of my eternity," She said something akin to Ikaris''s usual derations.

    "Either way, there is no going back."

 Chapter 279: Regnarok Incarnate.

    She sat there with bated breath for the entirety of her free time, not moving an inch, not even blinking as she listened for anything new, but there was nothing; in the end, it was Sal that woke her from her state ofplete focus after she sent a message.

    [Times up,e back]

    "Well," Cecelia stood and made a gesture to the molten debris on the floor and a small cleaning bot came from the wall and began neatly scraping it up. "I suppose I was reaching too far by expecting a swift response, he is constantly moving around, Sol Vestic must be a busy man who doesn''t even have someone like me in his sights-"

    "The Master simply decided not to respond immediately."

    "I figured that was the case, I just meant... that..."

    Cecelia started responding but slowly quieted as a form that wasn''t there a second ago suddenly showed up in her left peripheral just as she was about to enter the pod, on instinct Cecelia swung her fist at the intruder; not hard enough to kill anyone who''d be able to sneak up on her, but with enough force that if they weren''t skilled they''d be killed on the spot, but she froze when her fist missed its target and the small woman appeared next to her again staring at her intently.

    "Is this how you intend to show your gratitude after gaining Master''s attention?" Alpha asked, and Cecelia did a double take as she continued to stare, bbergasted.

    "Master...?" Cecelia stared at her. "Are you referring to-"

    "Did you contact someone else?" Alpha asked and the woman blinked several times, snapping herself out of her stupor and standing at attention.

    "I-It''s my mistake, I apologise...!" She averted her eyes when Alpha kept staring.

    "Anyways," Alpha brushed her apology to the side. "Cecelia."

    "Yes ma''am-"

    "Master has no intention of helping you for free, I hope you understand what this means," Alpha gestured to the elevator instead of the pod and Cecelia obeyed her gesture without a hint of hesitation, standing in the elevator and watching Alpha step in with her.

    "I figured such was the case, I''m ready to do whatever it takes to escape-" Cecelia stopped speaking and held her mouth.

    "I have disabled all the audio devices, you are free to speak."

    "Whatever it takes, I''ll do it," Cecelia dered. "As long as I can be free and escape with my people, there''s no sacrifice too great."

    "You say you''d do anything, but what if I ask you to kill the general, can you do that?" Alpha raised a brow at her and Cecelia swallowed and rubbed her arm nervously staring at her feet as a bead of cold sweat rolled down her forehead.

    "The thought alone makes me shake. I could try, but he would eventually kill me; he does not trust me; it''s impossible to attack him with his guard down as it is never truly down," Cecelia shook her head. "If I wanted to only die I''d have attacked him long ago, but I need to know that you would protect my people before I did something so reckless."

    "You want my word?" Alpha asked.

    "No, I have no idea who or what you are."

    "Of course, my manners, how could I be so careless," Alpha snapped her fingers and in an instant Cecelia found herself standing in a field of grass under a blushing evening sky.

    Aimless, the woman reached downwards and picked a small flower that was at her feet. "I am his assistant, should you pass my evaluation I will be your escort, but as I said earlier; Master has no intention of meeting anyone else today, he is busy elsewhere," Alpha made another gesture and Cecelia found herself at the doors of the cockpit with the flower in her grasp.

    "Until he is ready, resume your duties diligently and do not draw attention to yourself, you''re of no use to him as a corpse."

    "... Understood; I have a question, though..." Cecelia looked at Alpha. "About what happened earlier-"

    "If you are worried that it was the limits of his power then fret not, it was merely a demonstration and a warning that Master has the capability to kill you all whenever he chooses," Alpha replied. "If that is all then I''ll be going now... and another thing, that woman, Sally..." She rested her hand on the doors preventing them from opening.

    Experience more on mvl

    "She is your enemy."

    After warning her, Alpha disappeared from her sight as though she never existed at all and Cecelia was left there staring as the doors slid open and the guards looked at her and then stood at attention and saluted.

    "Ma''am."

    "At ease," Cecelia nodded at them, straightening her uniform and walking in; there she found the Stark sisters standing and conversing with the 100th General.

    "She has returned, what the hell happened?" General Stark raised her brow, it was evident in almost all of her actions that she didn''t like Cecelia, but after finding her presence of use she was trying a lot harder to be more tolerant of her, considering she practically saved their lives before she had her attack.

    "She had a panic attack in the face of the Godyer''s power, it is understandable, from what I know of them; they are capable of sensing each other''s power the same as a scanner can pick up signatures from great distances, they''re like beacons to each other, so while our systems were only fried a d we witnessed a spectacle, Cecelia experienced his power to the fullest," Viktor answered and looked around at her.

    "Is everything okay now?" He asked, and she stood at attention and nodded.

    "Yes, sir, I apologise for the disturbance... I was overwhelmed." She responded with a weak salute.

    "Good, can you pinpoint his location again if we get close enough?"

    "There is nothing there, sir," Cecelia responded, looking past him at Sal who was watching and listening intently and immediately having a shback of Alpha''s warning. "With the retreat of his power, it has gone back to being a barren space, as for the other sectors that the explosion spilt into, my senses don''t reach that far." She stood at ease and ced her hand over her chest. "I''m sorry."

    "If not for your warning we''d all be dead," Viktor admitted.

    "If I didn''t have something to live for, I''d have kept still and died, my life has been misery for the vast majority, I''m tired of suffering at your hands, you bastard," Cecelia thought to herself, still in the process of nervously rubbing her forearm.

    "I''m d I didn''t though, I got Sol Vestic''s attention, I could turn everything around and stop aiding in the destruction of my people, I could even... with Her Highness..." Cecelia sucked in a breath and looked up at them with a small smile.

    "Don''t worry, we''ll get them, we''ll get them all," She dered and General Lina Stark narrowed her eyes at her.

    "Where did that sudden confidencee from, weren''t you terrified of dying a few hours ago?" She asked and Cecelia nodded.

    "I am still terrified, but the fact that I can''t sense his power means that''s not something he can repeatedly do, it''s likely he''s resting, it was dangerous and incredibly powerful; to be anywhere near it is a death sentence, but if he can only cast it once before needing to hide and rest again then we can capitalise on that weakness in the future," She balled her fists.

    "I''m confident, if we can corner and force Sol Vestic to use that power again, we can defeat him."

    "Interesting evaluation," General Stark looked at her sceptically. "Are you sure?"

    "It''s not set in stone, but the fact remains; before it happened he was exerting mass amounts of power that we could track, but now he has gonepletely still, even though we''ve returned to the point of the eruption I can''t sense a single shred of power from the Godyer."

    "It goes without saying, but we still need to amass power, if we want to get rid of him," General Flint added.

    "Of course, after seeing that I am sure I alone would never be able to take down such a beast, he is Ragnarok incarnate," Lina nodded and closed her eyes. "What remains to be known is where he goes to recover, if we can find a way to infiltrate that ce wherever it lies we will have an advantage.

    [Such a ce] Cecelia heard Alpha''s voice in her head and almost jolted, but managed to keep still as she realised they were being monitored by the little mysterious woman who could go anywhere undetected.

    [Master is not hiding, he is taking a break at the request of his loved ones to spend time with them, why would the pinnacle of power hide from these lesser creatures?" She asked and Cecelia scoffed and held her mouth.

    It had been a while since someone said anything to humour her but thinking of them as lesser once more gave her a sense of pride as she foundfort in the truth that Alpha was still with her in this hostile ce where she had no allies.

    "Something funny?" Lina looked around at Cecelia again, annoyed, and the Vatui woman shook her head and gestured to them again.

    "Of course not, please, continue..."

    "Lesser indeed," She mused silently tapping fingers along her forearm. "I never saw it before but looks how scared they are, they are terrified even more than I am, they simply findfort in each other''spany, nothing more than the weak bonding together in the face of absolute power!"

    "I can''t wait to meet Master Vestic."

 Chapter 280: Giza.

    "Awaken; the son of Darkness does not give in to defeat; you merely suffered a setback, my Lord," A silkily seductive voice scratched at his consciousness, gently ushering him from his rest where he found himself in the warm embrace of a woman he had never seen before.

    Trying to get up he, found that her fingers that were locked on his neck were unmovable, so with a deep sigh, Umbra rxed his shoulders again and spread his armsying as he had been before, from his position, his cheek was rested on her abdomen just below her breasts while sheid on her back and breathed slowly.

    The two of them were in a small room as ck as the darkest ck with a single candle highlighting the bed theyid on and the wooden furniture decorating the limited space. "You saved me?" Umbra asked, staring at the candle; at the singr me steadily burning before him with not even the slightest breeze disturbing it.

    "I did no such thing, my Lord, you saved yourself." She responded, pulling her fingers apart and resting her hand against the back of his head,bing through his tall hair with her nails.

    "When you were beseeched by the light, you sought me; you sought the darkness, and I responded to your call, Umbra; child of the shadows," She let go of him and slid from beneath him with such ease she seemed to be ink as he was gently ced on the bed. "Arise, face me."

    "I don''t know who you think you are, but..." Umbra sat up immediately summoning his cursed sword, but was met with a finger across his lips, in just a single motion the fight escaped him and he was left speechless as the form before him smiled and ran her fingers down his chin, leaving a red mark as her nails irritated and nearly broke his flesh.

    "My Lord, do not turn your de at me, I am your ally; I am your only ally," She smiled, though her touch was warm; her skin was pale and ghastly, her eyes had no pupil or irises and her lips were dark and purple resembling poison and embodying toxicity. "I was happy when you chose this path, never before has anyone managed to reach out to me so strongly...

    There was one in the past who stood at my doorsteps, but he shied away from my beautiful darkness and instead decided to walk the grey and ept the filthy hand of light," She furrowed her brows as a tear of ck rolled down her cheek.

    With all the attributes of a corpse and death she still managed to be the most beautiful creature he had ever seen; she carried a beautyparable to that of Ikaris herself, and her very presence invited his sexual attention as he swallowed and took her hand from his chin holding on to her finger and staring as though he was in a trance.

    "Walk the grey... took the hand of light, is it who I think it is?" He asked, and she smiled and retreated another pace from him on the bed like a cloud of smoke, hugging herself as more tears of darkness fell from her, she was barely clothed, with ck tendrils from the roof tethering fabric together like strands of hair that left almost nothing to the imagination.

    "Are you talking about Sol Vestic?" He asked, and she nodded and shrunk from his touch when he boldly approached and ced his hand on her cheek wiping her tears away.

    "What is he?" Umbra asked. "I thought we were the same, but if you hadn''t taken me away in that final moment I would have been killed by him in a single strike; I thought I''d amassed so much power but he managed to overwhelmingly best me within a single move," Umbra stared at her. "You know what he is, right?"

    "Sol Vestic is the progenitor of change and the beacon of light that exists across the Grand Collective, he does not know it yet but he is the ambassador of his race; the Godyer race, and the Vatui race that Ikaris belongs to, he is the tether which holds their species together he is destined to do great things, he is my enemy, for so long I wandered the endlessness alone praying for someone to free me, and yet, when he finally appeared before me he rejected my suffering and chose The Beginning, he allied with The Grey; he cast me aside and fell to the seduction of Light!" She covered her face with her hands and lowered her head, how much more can I endure, how long will it be before you too find the light and abandon me, Umbra?" She asked and he shook his head and drew closer to her once more.

    "He did the same to me, left me to suffer alone forever, but I escaped that fate... He may be destined for greatness, but so am I," He looked at her and opened his arms wide. "I won''t run away from you; I am Umbra, child of darkness, remember?" He stared at her void of anything even closely resembling a smile. "What is your name?"

    "I have none; I have no name, neither do I have any form, the me before you has manifested in ordance to your desires, here, I have existed in nothingness since genesis, I am what you want me to be," She answered sobering up and crawling towards him, resting her head against his chest and curling in hisp as he locked his arms around her. "What... would you name me, my Lord?" She asked.

    "Giza," Umbra replied, caressing her hair. "I will call you Giza, I will be the king of darkness, and I will make you my queen; as I am he who dwells in the dark, you will be my weapon; you will be my armour, my shield, and my de.

    I will use your power, you will be the ultimate weapon against all who dwell within Sol Vestic''s light, just us, Umbra and Giza, we''ll destroy everything the light touches, and then we will destroy the light itself."

    "Give me everything, Giza; give me your all, and together we''ll end The Beginning."

    "Of course," Giza''a eyes narrowed to slits as she held on to Umbra and smiled wickedly, revealing sharp fangs beneath her beautiful smile, she reached around his waist and undid the binds of his pants as his hands slowly began exploring the curves of her body, dragging along her pale skin and exposing more of her as his fingers brushed the darkness away.

    "Of course, my power is yours; my knowledge is yours, my body is yours, I will grant your every desire, your every wish is mine to fulfil, my Lord."

    "Set me upon the world of light and I will destroy it all in your name, my King."

    ***

    "I felt a chill just now," Sol stopped running causing Dina who was hot on his tail to bump into him and the two of them to fall to the ground while A made a show of doing the same and falling over them, followed by Ikaris.

    "Goodness me, that was chaotic, are you all alright?" Sara asked with Talia cradled in her grasp, leaning over them as theyy thereughing. "Master Vestic, what happened?"

    "It''s funny, I had an ominous feeling for a moment that sent shivers down my spine," He answered and watched their smiles slowly fade as they stared at him.

    "Was it some kind of premonition?" Ikaris asked.

    "Let''s not think about it today, we''re taking some time off, remember?" Sol shook his head and wiggled his finger before her, standing and holding out his hands as they all held on to him and he pulled them to their feet. "Alpha''s on watch, if something happens she''s gonna be the first to tell me, since she hasn''t shown up it means whatever it was can wait."

    "Very well," A brushed herself off and smiled at the people who had stopped what they were doing to observe them. "Shall we go again?" She asked, and Sol looked at Dina with an using smile and then poked her forehead along with A''s and Ikaris''s.

    "You''re all IT," he chuckled spinning out of Dina''s grab and avoiding her head before leaping away from Ikaris and A causing them to burst outughing as he fanned his face with a taunting expression.

    "Come on, do you expect to catch me like that? I could sleep and still get away!" He chuckled and then ducked beneath Ikaris''s sudden pounce and rolled out of Dina''s grasp, springing to his feet and leaping clean over A''s head.

    "Whoa!" An observing kid bumped his brother. "Extreme tag!"

    "Hm!" Sol raised a brow when he saw the three exchange nces; he could tell they were cooking something up privately using their connection to secretly plot. So with a lot of fanfare he spun and started goofily running while the three gave him serious nces and started chasing after him again.

    It wasn''t long before the people in the park made way as the four yed their game, they took to the sides and started recording what bit of it their phones could catch as Sol and his girls continued to defy physics with every new tactic they used to try and catch him with Dina taking to the skies, A used ice magic and Ikaris had white mes boosting her speed and leaving traces of flowers with every step she took, but they soon found out why a fight with Sol made no sense; he was unrealistically reflexive, nothing they did seemed to work.

    At the end of the day Sol remained the resigning champion after they gave up in the evening.

    "That was strange, even though I used only enough mana to freeze a house at best I am winded!" A panted as they all sat beneath the first tree they had a pic under.

    "Master wasn''t ying fair," Dinained.

    "ording to the rules of the game it was the three of you who were ying unfairly," Keele chuckled epting the meal from Sara and taking a bite with anotherugh when Dina and A turned to her. Read new adventures at mvl

    "It is like trying to catch a feather in a tornado," Ikaris pouted, wiping a trickle of sweat from her forehead and putting her handkerchief away. "But yes, even though we hold so much power he still made us work up an appetite with a bout that was restrained to the confines of a single park.

    "What can I say; I''m amazing~" Sol ced Talia to sit upright before him and made a little me on his finger watching her make "pa" sounds and praising her as she grabbed and manipted it into an incoherent shape that quickly whizzed out of existence.

    "If only every day could end like this..." A sighed. It was at her request that Sol had taken a break, and although they hadn''t spent the day cuddled or in an intense round of sexual activities, she had a strange feeling ofpletion.

    "Someday, they will," Sol looked around the table at her while Ikaris made more mes for Talia to y with.

    "Someday soon, they''re all going to vanish, and we''ll be able to travel as we please and just have a banger of a time without any threats lingering over our heads; not having to stay within the confines of my collective."

 Chapter 281: Come With Me.

    "Jenifer, did you hear?" Chey asked, barging through her door without even knocking, effectively breaking the unit.

    "Hear what, mother?" Jenifer asked, looking up from her tab and staring at the broken door.

    "Sol Vestic''stest feat, something iprehensible-"

    "I told you I''ve been keeping tabs on everything that happens, of course I know, I didn''t know he was that powerful but I was sure he''d be able to do something so over the top the entirety of the Grand Collective would stop and stare in fear and horror," Jenifer huffed a d stood. "Mom, you broke my door-"

    "Never mind that," Chey shook her head and activated a small spherical device she had been holding on to, causing a pulse to vibrate through the entire apartment and knock out everything electric.

    "Listen, I''ve been thinking, they say he''s able to pick up on everymunication passed across the Emporium, I don''t know whether it''s true or not, but it''s worth a shot if we want to get on his good side, right, we should surrender before shit really hits the belt."

    "What?"

    "I''m saying we try bing allies with him, he''s made several things disappear off the face of reality without a trace I''m sure there''s somewhere he''d be able to freely leave us, this isn''t a fight worth dying over, the Emporium has met its match, we need to get out while we''re able to," Chey made gestures shily with het hands as she exined, missing how her daughter seemed to go through several emotions of excitement before settling on her usual stoicism.

    "Are you sure about that?" Jenifer asked and her mother huffed and dipped into her pocket, taking out a keypad for her personal ship and gesturing through the window.

    "I already have everything packed and I''m ready to get the fuck out of here; Jenifer, all that truly matters to me is your well-being, if not for you I''d join the fight against him death by an enemy of his calibre is a great way to die; it''s an opportunity that defies time itself another may never show up again, but I don''t care about any of that; not now."

    She scratched her head and gestured to the window again. "I''d rather live under someone''s thumb than see my most beautiful achievement get killed for the sake of an empire we''ve never met and a war we didn''t start." Experience more content on mvl

    "Mother..."

    With a gesture of impatience, Chey shook her head and held up her hand. "Don''t think too hard, just pack whatever you want, we can leave in an hour, there''s a station built into the ship that will disable and remove our trackers and turn off our augmentations permanently-"

    "I think she''s ready now." Jenifer suddenly spoke up and at doing so, the clone alpha had left with her appeared before her in the form of a child and looked up at Chey.

    "It appears she is." Alpha nodded seeing Chey slowly raise her hand toward the weapon on her waist. "Chey Law, by the powers vested in me by my original self under Master''s orders; I wee you into Master''s care, please note that I may be intangible at will so you might end up harming your daughter if you attack me."

    "Who the hell is this, what Master is she talking about?" Chey''s hand trembled as she lowered it and looked up at Jenifer.

    "She means Mr Vestic, mother, the ship is unnecessary, when we leave we''ll be shown a whole other world, nothing from the Emporium is of importance," Jenifer answered with a chuckle cing her hand on Alpha''s head as the system closed her eyes and smiled childishly, Chey didn''t miss the bit where alpha actually looked like Jenifer''s child, but that aside-

    "You... you''ve been allied with him this whole time?" Chey''s mouth slowly hit the floor while her daughter smiled and walked over to the side picking up a small bag of her most treasured childhood items and then turning at her.

    "Sir saved my life and exposed me to the evils of the Emporium; originally I was supposed to be a spy, but after Alpha made it inside of the Kha-Nova Collective and they connected to my mainframe the entire Emporium became essible at just a thought to her, she''s been feeding them information this whole time.

    "Alpha...?" Chey looked at the child again.

    "Focus, Mom," Jenifer snapped her fingers at her. "Are you serious or was this a bluff?" She asked.

    "Jenifer, what if I had decided to turn you in to the Emporium?" Chey stared at her, shocked.

    "Thanks to Mr Vestic''s intervention, I have already be many times more powerful than anyone from the 3795th ever was, that includes the General, currently, there''s nobody on this and nobody above the rank of 500 that could overpower me, I''d be fine," Jenifer answered.

    "Come on, make up your mind, you''ve brought an opportunity to my doorstep and I n to exploit it; if you don''t answer now you''ll probably never see me again, Mom, I''m leaving, will youe with me?" She asked and Chey lowered her gaze with her shoulders rxed and then looked up at her again, smiling.

    "Jenifer, you''ve been doing well for yourself, I was worried for nothing..." Chey chuckled with her eyes teary and her lips quivering. "I''d never stay behind if you wanted to leave, I always hoped you''d quit the army so I could finally have a reason to do the same, y''know."

    "It is settled then," Alpha pped her hands drawing their attention to herself again. "Wonderful, I have already ryed the information to my original, she will take over from here, Jenifer, Chey, please rx for a few seconds and try not to scream, the Master is not fond of pointless noise." She smiled at them before the world around them started getting strangely bright.

    "What''s happening?" Chey asked covering her eyes when the light became unbearable.

    "Finally," Jeniferughed with her eyes wide open. "It has been worth the wait!"

    ***

    "Cecelia," Viktor was in his chair staring into the void before them, upon calling her both Lina and her sister looked at the Vatui captain and General, they''d noticed her uneasiness around the man, which made no sense seeing how they were partnered for longer than most universes had been in existence, then again they also knew that he didn''t treat her well, on the surface she was a good actor, she yed the role of subservience perfectly, but there were small hints every now and then which pointed to him being abusive toward her.

    "Yes sir?" Cecelia looked up from her tasks.

    "Can you still sense nothing?" He asked.

    "...I''m sorry, General," Cecelia answered sitting straight and looking at him. "Currently the entire space has residual bits of his power but nothing has changed, he has shown no sign of resurfacing," She replied.

    "What about else-wise?" General Flint asked, and Cecelia''s pupils contracted into dots for a few seconds before she regained herposure and huffed.

    "Nothing sir, the Godyer remains a mystery, I''m sure we''ll find him as soon as he shows his face again, and when that happens... We''ll strike." She responded and rxed in her seat again.

    "I suppose in the meantime we have no choice but to wait patiently, there''s the added bonus that every moment passed is an advantage given our numbers grow." Lina spoke up from her seat next to the 100th general passing him a note on a piece of paper. [The Vatui woman is lying]

    "Cecelia," Viktor called her again, and Cecelia looked at him a second time, this time evidently concerned as she had noticed his strange behaviour as well, not to mention Sal had been giving her side nces since she returned.

    "Yes, General."

    "I heard that Sol Vestic has means to contact anyone he pleases, this is also backed by the fact that he has repeatedly sent messages throughout all our systems, what do you think about this?"

    "If he''s in our systems then there''s a chance we can reverse-engineer whatever program he''s using once we manage to intercept-"

    "I was thinking the same thing," Captain Stark nodded from her seat close to Cecelia. "Have your analysts been trying?"

    "They have but so far the technology he has used is beyond our grasp," Cecelia answered and then looked to the captain who had spoken.

    [Cecelia, stand.]

    She stood upon hearing Sol''s voice directly into her head.

    "Is something wrong?" Flint looked at her, resting his hand on the hilt of his sword and narrowing his eyes slightly.

    "No sir, I grew tired of sitting."

    [Walk to take ten steps forward and two to the left]

    She obeyed once more without batting an eye, standing in the clear and staring out into the void.

    "Cecelia-" General Flint was about to say something again but he and the entire cockpit froze in shock when a sudden sh of light revealed Sol standing next to Cecelia. "Vestic!" The man snapped, destroying his seat and the surrounding monitors in a mad dash towards his enemy.

    Along with the 100th, the 95th General rushed from her seat as well, drawing her weapon and striking, but the two of them found themselves in the back end of the ship crashing through cargo as they were teleported away, leaving Sol there with Cecelia and captain Stark who was so shocked she had failed to move.

    "Cecelia, you''lle with me-"

    "Saviour..." Cecelia took several steps away from Sol and started falling to her knees but he caught her shoulder and pulled her to her feet again and then looked at Sally who was on the floor in horror and then at the captain who was frozen in fear.

    "One week, I''ll return in one week''s time, I''ll kill you, and everyone aboard this ship, and the ship flying next to it, you''re free to run and hide, but you''ve all been marked," Sol gestured to her hand and the captain looked at her palm in another round of horror when a circr sigil was suddenly burned into her skin.

    "I''ll be back."

 Chapter 282: First of his kind.

    "Take my hand," Sol extended his hand to Cecelia and the woman paused with her breath hitched and stiffened, she stared at his fingers hesitantly praying that this was not some borate and deviant trap to kill her, and then she reached out and took his hand.

    "You..." Captain Stark finally found the courage to breathe after being too stunned to speak when she came face to face with the being who had earned the fear of the very foundation she existed for. "You won''t win!" She snapped, standing from her seat in a simr manner to how General Flint had rushed from his and drawing her sword. "The Emporium-"

    "-Is not even my greatest concern currently," Sol chopped into her deration, releasing Cecelia''s hand and looking at her. "I know this''ll be hard for your one-tracked minds to grasp, but currently there is another like myself who seeks to destroy everything the light touches."

    "How is that any different from what you''re doing?" The captain queried doubtfully regarding his words like poison she dared not ingest. "That''s exactly what you''re doing!"

    "No, my goal is to destroy the Emporium that threatened my wife and child, my goal is to wipe you the Emporium, off the face of the Collective once and for all leaving nothing but whispers of your existence, the one I speak of doesn''t intend to spare anyone from the grand, his goal is to destroy everything under any form of light and plunge everywhere in perpetual darkness, bare with me for a little and try to understand..."

    Sol scratched his chin, giving the woman an awkward re of pity. "He''s a threat to everything even more than I am, so I need the Emporium to fuck off for a little bit until I can determine how to get rid of him."

    "Are you... are you out of your mind!?" Captain Stark snapped with an irrational amount of shock mixed in a cocktail of misced rage and rushed at Sol, but he needed not raise a finger when Cecelia stood before him and easily caught the sword being swung with a casual pinch of her fingers.

    "I don''t know what''s happening but I think what Master is saying is...

    The Emporium isn''t a threat to him as much as they''re an annoyance that he''d rather destroy in his leisure, there''s an imminent and very present enemy out there which he faces for the sake of us all, so you need to know your ce and stay in line until he''s prioritised you once more," Cecelia exined, watching the fight escape the woman''s body once more when she saw cracks rupture across her de from it simply being casually held by someone she had believed she was more powerful than moments prior.

    "Is that correct?" Cecelia asked and Sol hummed and rested his hand on her shoulder.

    "Then..." Cecelia looked around at the others who were staring, and toward the direction she could feel the two generals rapidly approaching from, she saw General Flint break through the final wall, stopping to catch a glimpse of everything before locking on to Sol again. "Goodbye-"

    They vanished in a sh right before his hand could reach them.

    "Cecelia!!"

    ***

    "..." The Vatui woman, after an endless servitude to General Flint stopped breathing when she was greeted with a gentle breeze, she stood still and slowly observed every detail of her surroundings:

    Cool air and an evening sunset, it was not the most beautiful she had ever seen and yet somehow she couldn''t recall seeing anything as beautiful as that evening-kissed sky before, she could hear people chatting out of sight, speaking not of things rted to the emporium but of trivial matters, getting their hair done, system points, festivals, who has a stronger skillset; she did not understand anything that was happening, but it sounded amazing to her.

    "I''m... Free," She whispered, staring into the skies above and smiling at the racing clouds painted over with the twilight blush of dusk. Stay updated through mvl

    "Oh my," Amented, expecting Cecelia to react since it seemed to her and the rest that the seemingly confused woman had yet to notice anyone, but her and everyone else who had gathered warily reclined in shock when the woman looked at Sol with her eyes watering and then passed out while still standing up.

    "The hell?" Dina lowered her hand with her brows furrowed. "She''s out like a light."

    "I have seen this before," Ikaris looked at Sol and he nodded with a frown, folding his arms and walking off toward her while Alpha waved her hands and an invisible telekic force swept Cecelia off her feet and gently held her to float along with them.

    They had all gathered in the backyard to greet Chey and Jenifer, and the two had been present for Cecelia''s arrival as well, they were terrified of her, Jenifer who had boasted of her new strength was shocked when she found out that this monster was going to join them; Cecelia; the Vatui traitor from hell known for her ruthlessness toward her own kind and anyone who crossed the general.

    With an unwavering loyalty she had served that man for almost as long as the Emporium itself existed, she was now the most powerful ally under Sol and Ikaris, her presence shook the entire dynamic of their power tree.

    "So... Why''d she pass out?" Usami walked next to Cecelia staring at her while she was suspended in the air.

    "Fatigue."

    Both Ikaris and Sol answered simultaneously. "Sol was like this as well, I guarantee that attacking her would be unsessful in this state, her battle senses have been sharpened to the point that she passed out from exhaustion as soon as she tried rxing, but at the same time she is more dangerous than her usual self while aware," Ikarispleted the sentence and looked at Sol.

    "How did you know?"

    "I knew as soon as I met her for the first time, I know what someone surrounded by enemies looks like, I could have even offered a hand that day if I wasn''t so ensnared in my own rage, but after what the Emporium did I was reluctant to spare anyone at all," Sol''s gaze lowered into a grimace, and he sneered with all the malice he felt surfacing in an invisible wave of mana.

    "I can''t escape myself, it seems."

    "Once a hero..." Ikaris smiled at him warmly, locking her arm with his and resting her head on his shoulder as the two of them entered their estate''s main building.

    "Always a hero," Dina finished her statement with finality, causing Keele along with Jenifer who apanied them to nce at each other while they walked side-by-side.

    "Hero?" Jenifer asked, and A hummed and nodded in front of them ncing over her shoulder.

    "Correct," A waved her fingers casting the door shut after everyone had entered.

    "Master, Dina, Lady Ikaris and Usami, they are all the true definition of heroes, summoned to another world granted power, and then let loose on the forces of evil, they have defended the powerless and the innocent without so much as a whisper of reluctance, I never mentioned it but the true reason they were summoned is because deep down they had all the traits that qualified them for the role, the summoning was never random."

    "And thus, I got summoned not once; but twice," Sol scoffed.

    "It turned out to be for the best." Ikaris chuckled taking a seat at his side andfortably cuddling against him with her legs across hisp and her cheek against his side. "Don''t you agree, dear?"

    "I do," Sol nodded.

    "If we hadn''t been summoned again, Umbra would have escaped on his own, he would have probably been the one in my position right now with full control over the Collective, there''s no telling if any of us would be alive, Arkadia would have been destroyed, sure; we''d have been happy for a while, but with your powers limited and mine being sub-par, we wouldn''t have been able to protect what was important to us."

    "Umbra?" Cecelia peered an eye open all of a sudden, regaining consciousness as she looked at Jenifer, and Jenifer looked at Keele who then looked at Dina for permission, to which thetter nodded with a gesture of her hand as shezilyid her head against A''s thighs and sighed in relief when the elf began stroking her hair.

    "Here on earth, inside of Sir''s Collective, the word Umbra, represents total darkness, ack of light, perpetual Void," Keele exined while Cecelia was set down and immediately fell to her knees before Sol and Ikaris resting her forehead on the floor and sping her hands before her, submitting to the two of them totally.

    "Umbra is Sir''s alter-ego; the true enemy of the Grand Collective, birthed from the same soul, he is a being with unfathomable powers just as sir has.

    He is evil''s own incarnation, he wants nothing but ruin and destruction for all who have allied themselves with light which is every living being, sir as a Godyer has allied with The Grey seizing control of The Beginning; an imaginary space where all power across all realms converge into one infinite singrity.

    Umbra is the advocate of The End; a simr space inverse of The Beginning where nothing exists but infinite darkness, he is the first of his kind."

 Chapter 283: All in the Past.

    "I believe wees are in order for Cecelia." Ikaris drew everyone''s attention back to the woman as soon as Keele finished exining Umbra''s existence.

    "Your Highness..." Cecelia abruptly stood from the seat Alpha had left her in and gracefully fell to the floor before Ikaris lowering her head and pressing her forehead against the cool ground. "I am honoured to once again be in your presence, it is a blessing to see you alive and in good health."

    "Hm," Ikaris looked at Sol who had his hands on her legs slowly massaging them. "It''s kind of annoying, isn''t it?" She asked him, and Cecelia felt her heart fall to the pits of her womb when her previous fear of Ikaris being hostile seemed to actualise right before her.

    "Indeed it is," Sol answered remaining vague as Ikaris sat properly next to him and stared down at Cecelia again.

    "What should I do about it?" Sol queried again. "My offer still remains, we can do this together if you desire to."

    "I think..." Ikaris paused seeing the woman on the floor before her break into cold sweat and shudders. "I don''t think I want to know, after all, it makes me ufortable seeing someone from my past who is supposed to be an ally this terrified of me, I think the current me is a much better version," She shook her head and leaned forward. "Cecelia, I am not going to hurt you, right yourself."

    "Yes," The Vatui woman raised her head and averted her eyes.

    "Cecelia, am I supposed to know you, personally?" Ikaris queried, and after locking eyes with her Cecelia''s lips slowly parted as a shocked expression crept across her face, her eyes widened with her pupils shrinking, her jaw hit the floor, and her breath hitched as she disyed a ghastly shock, had her hair not already been white there was a chance it would have turned white.

    "You... you do not recognise me?" she raised her voice and almost stumbled to her elbows again.

    "I have no memory of my time outside of Sol''s collective; until a few months ago, I was sure there never existed a Grand Collective, I had no idea that I was Vatui, I didn''t even know what that word meant, honestly; I still don''t know," Ikaris scoffed. "Do not think of me as the one you knew, this is our first encounter."

    "Is this true?" Cecelia''s brows furrowed while her gaze found Sol.

    "I had no idea of any of this either, I only became Godyer a year ago,"

    "Became... Godyer?" Cecelia was delivered another shock. "One does not be Godyer, they are a people; a race... How could you be Godyer?" She looked at the ground evidently racking her brain for answers.

    "Her Highness, is the only known heir to the Vatui throne, I thought that your return meant you would rechallenge the Emporium and take what was rightfully yours, but..." Cecelia stared at Ikaris who leaned against Sol and hooked her arm with his. "Forgive me for saying this but you look nothing like your former self, you resemble a housewife."

    "Haha, isn''t it wonderful?" Ikarisughed, causing Sol and everyone else to chuckle.

    "Admittedly, when I met her I hadn''t expected that she would be this way either," Chey spoke up. "The reports only said she had been weakened because of childbirth, but she seems like an entirely different being than any of the records indicated."

    "And I am," Ikaris huffed. "I can''t imagine myself being any other way."

    "How did he be a Godyer?" Cecelia asked, though her question was aimed to nobody in particr and she seemed to be thinking out loud. "Was such a thing possible, did Her Highness have something to do with it?" She droned, going in a stoop and hugging her legs right there on the ground.

    "This makes no sense, how did he even amass that much power if he was not originally Godyer?" She asked, biting her thumb, only breaking from her train of thoughts when Sol cleared his throat.

    "My apologies!" Cecelia stood and bowed to them again, quickly sitting in her seat and smiling as if she hadn''t shown clear signs of lunacy seconds prior.

    "When Master said she was fearsome, thest thing I expected was this..." Dina whispered to A, and Cecelia slowly leaned her head and stared at the two of them.

    "I am sorry, does my presence somehow offend you?"

    "If your presence offended her, I would get rid of you myself," Ikaris''s yful demeanour evaporated like water against hot steel, and her eyes narrowed and turned crimson in a sh, causing even Sol to stare at her surprised after she arose to Dina''s defence.

    "Do not mistake my warmness as an invitation to do as you please," Ikaris held Sol''s hand away from herself when he attempted to calm her down by cing it on her arm.

    The air around them began to tremble within the sh of a second the entire earth was suffering under her hostility, man, woman and child; everyone stopped, everyone woke up, and every single person was made aware that someone was very close to pissing off the wrong person.

    Upon seeing Ikaris''s glowing crimson gaze Cecelia fell to her hands again and lowered her head.

    "I was against outright saving you so beautiful careful of the things you do and say around me, I will not tolerate a single act or even a thought of hostility towards my family."

    "I- I meant no harm, Your Highness!" Cecelia apologised in a series of gestures with her hand before raising her head with a bright smile. "I see clearly how it is," She grinned.

    "See what?" Sol raised a brow.

    "She has suppressed her Vatui instinctpletely," She exined. "Only through an awakening of some sort or threats will you reveal that terrifying power, I am d; it used to be hard to be near you without feeling the urge to run away..." She scratched her cheek sheepishly while A nodded.

    "Three neers in one day, how hectic," Dina spoke again and Sol nodded and looked over at her.

    "That''s why I started the new expansion, I like privacy, it''s be too lively around here, I don''t want you all sharing the same house as me just because we''re allied, I don''t even want you on the same estate grounds; I liked the way it was before," Sol spoke gesturing to Keele, Jenifer, Chey and Cecelia.

    "There''s also the fact that you''re all female, it just doesn''t make mefortable, you''re only allies."

    Sol gestured to the side where Renia was sitting seemingly uninterested in everything else as she yed mobile games quietly with her ears plugged. "She''s a family friend, and she minimises her presence willingly, but you all want to help so I''m always aware that you''re there; it only makes sense that you don''t stay here, I''ll keep you close enough that you can be at my side at a moment''s notice."

    "That is fair," Jenifer sat upright and nodded at her mother, then at Keele who also understood what he was trying to say, she then looked at Cecelia and gestured to Dina, A, Sara, and Ikaris who seemed to be ignoring everything as she showered Talia with kisses. "His immediate family takes precedence."

    "Master, Mdy, while we are on the topic of family, I have a rather presumptuous question to ask," A looked at them curiously, gaining their full attention.

    "Don''t you always?" Ikaris raised a brow, gaining a dryugh from A, who couldn''t refute such a im, seeing the truth in the rebuttal. "What is it?"

    "I know there is no reason to, but something rather curious crossed my mind after Master''s fight with his alter ego," She crossed her legs and leaned forward with her chin resting on her hand.

    "True Goddess Ikaris, Ikaris of the Vatui n with the same name, time and time again she has shown us glimpses of her power but we have never been able to see where the limits lie, we have only spected and heard by herself that she is able to destroy an entire universe at will, yet when Master did it she created quite the ruckus..."

    "An entire universe?" Cecelia mused, thinking that she could attack across universes because of her peculiar powers, but to destroy an entire universe took potency that no Vatui had ever possessed, that was within the realm of ancient Godyers like Sol.

    "Ikaris can destroy multiple." Sol looked at his wife who went back to ying with their daughter. "The number is unclear but currently with her soul being strengthened she''s capable of many feats that she couldn''t in the past," He exined.

    "And don''t forget A; I may have caused an explosion that upied the space of one universe, but the power generated was enough to destroy a dozen in one fell swoop, I''d hoped it would have been enough, but he still got away becahse I tried talking to him prior." Stay connected through mvl

    This Umbra fellow..." Chey looked at Sol curiously. "Does he truly pose a threat to all life?"

    "To see it in simpler terms Chey; Umbra is what I would have been if Ikaris hadn''t gone the extra mile of saving me from myself."

    "True, Master Vestic was quite the antagonist when he faced the gods of Arkadia," Sara chimed in. "He used to mercilessly beat them and with a clear grudge too, it is amazing how some of them are now his closest friends," She gestured to Renia who cursed and shook her phone after dying in-game because of teammates.

    "It''s all in the past."

 Chapter 284: The Origin of Mana.

    "it''s all in the past," Renia spoke up, putting her phone on the table before her and crossing her legs. "Honestly; it was quite the fun turn of events seeing the gods in a fit of rage and shock every day especially my sister who until that point had never been humbled, such a pity, I secretly wished for that time tost much longer."

    "As do I," Ikaris smiled at the recent memories of Arkadia before that smile slowly faltered.

    "No, I rejoiced at the end of the war, too many lives had already been lost, too many families had been torn apart, ours included; I know that it was brief, but I still trusted Eris, I still gave Han the benefit of the doubt even though we all know he was irredeemable," She paused and conjured a tiny shield in her grasp.

    The shield had a hole broken in the shape of a hand through it and there were small bits of dry blood covering the arm straps.

    Dina upon seeing the shield held her mouth and stood, approaching quickly and holding her hands under Ikaris''s bringing the object closer to her face.

    "This... this is thest shield Bruce used before he died," Dina looked up at Ikaris. "How is it still active so many years after his death?"

    "Adonai retrieved it before it vanished and trapped Bruce''s residual mana within it to keep it from disappearing, after our wedding, he gave it to me in secret, a lot of people like Bruce died, they had no right being on the battlefield; they simply had no choice because of circumstances," Ikaris replied and closed her eyes.

    "Aye, of the six who became heroes, Bruce was the only one who didn''t belong on the battlefield, he tried his best and died fighting our war, it is a tragedy and a heartache to recall hisst moments," A added. Discover hidden tales at ��??

    "There was a war here, a terrible one by the looks of it,"  Cecelia thought, furrowing her brows as she saw Ikaris''s expression go dark and her mood sober with everyone else''s as she rested her hand on her belly and looked at Sol who gave her a small smile and kissed her forehead. "Something terrible happened to Her Highness."

    "Right then," Alpha broke the depressing atmosphere with a well-needed interlude, gesturing to the kitchen. "Before everyone loses their appetite there is food to be enjoyed," She smiled at them.

    "Man," Dina stood first and stretched. "I don''t know if earth is the most endangered or the safest in the collective now, there are so many people here who could destroy it with a flick of their finger..." She wrapped her arms around A who was also in the middle of stretching.

    "Aren''t you also someone capable of doing that?" A gave her a gesture of emphasis. "I feel you often forget your own strength, Dina."

    "She is indeed strong, and from what I understand, she will continue to grow exponentially stronger, someday even surpassing Mr Vestic if his prediction is urate," Keele hummed as she walked, causing Cecelia at her side to nce at Dina, who was poking A''s cheeks with a carefree grin andughter.

    "Is that even possible?" Cecelia raised her brow at Keele while Jenifer also chimed in to hear her answer since she had been absent and didn''t know of Dina''s evolution into divinity.

    "She evolved from human to apex, from apex to demigod, and from a demigod into a true divine, all within the span of one and a half years," Keele spoke, to put it simply, by her time, Dina waspletely powerless two years ago, and within the span of two years she went from being able to destroy a small cottage to being able to destroy half a gxy, imagine what she will be able to do in another five years, or even ten?"

    "Goodness, that level of growth is... Intimidating."

    "Indeed it is, but Mr Vestic despite praising her growth is even worse; he went from a threat capable of destroying a gxy to a multi-collective threat within the same timeframe," Keele sat watching Jenifer and Cecelia take their seats at either side while her mother was off to the side speaking to Renia.

    "Granted; he was endowed with his Godyer powers at the same time, such growth is inconceivable," she added.

    "It still makes no sense." Cecelia looked at Keele seriously and then nced at Ikaris, who was ignoring them in favour of watching Sol y with their little girl while Sara and Alpha continued setting everything in order.

    "Vatui are incapable of bearing children, yet she did it, and Godyers are born, not made, yet he exists, the two of them are bizarre beyond reason and belief, I can''t imagine what the child will grow into," She furrowed her brows seeing Sol conjure small mana orbs and watching the baby poke and disperse them,ughing haughtily.

    "Talia," Jenifer interjected. "Her name is Talia, and by Alpha''s calctions, she already has enough power to challenge her mother, but Lady Ikaris sealed it upon her birth to prevent idents, so her mana appears as a small pool rather than the gargantuan entity that it is."

    "Mana?"

    "Magic."

    "Magic?"

    "Mana is the name given to the power which drives our collective forward at such astonishing speeds," A answered from the other side of the table, alerting them that though they were trying to not disturb anyone, they were all far from discreet.

    "The Grand Collective drives by what you call Law, but thew did not exist here until Keele brought it here with her fight against Dina," She gestured to Dina and smiled.

    "You fought her?" Jenifer looked at Keele and she nodded with a proud grin.

    "How else was I going to dere the woman a monster if I hadn''t tested her power and seen her growth with my own two eyes?" Keele nced across at Dina who scoffed at being called a monster.

    "This ...mana; where did ite from?" Cecelia asked, thinking that it was the reason Sol was so broken in his every feat.

    "I discovered it, rather, I am responsible for its creation," Ikaris spoke up, and Sol along with everyone else around the dining table froze and slowly turned to look at her; she had managed to draw every eye to her person.

    "What?" Renia asked, staring at Ikaris with an unusually bright and horrified re. "What does that mean?"

    "As I recall; mana did not always exist here, I generated the first spark when I tried to fight Void before I shattered my soul,"

    "She shattered her soul..." Cecelia mused and stared at her hands. "Is that a phrase for something?"

    "No, I literally tore my soul apart and scattered it across the collective to escape my pursuers," Ikaris answered nonchntly since this was by nowmon knowledge. "Renia, and eighty percent of all divinity within Sol''s collective are my direct descendants, I am the first goddess,"

    "...What the fuck?" Cecelia''s mouth hung.

    "I named it Magicul at first, but over time, many different cultures have renamed it Mana across multiple universes where it is abundant enough to reshape the very structure of their realities."

    "How the fuck did she tear her soul apart, isn''t she supposed to be dead then?" Cecelia continued on her train of thought.

    "I could always feel it within myself, but I never had a reason to utilize its power until I was threatened, and after my consciousness was torn apart mana followed all the paths my death-defying stunt created."

    "This is news, even to me," Sol stared at Ikaris at a loss for words; it suddenly made sense why she seemed to know everything about it above all else, she could manipte mana in ways that defied reason and logic creating parodies of reality dwarfing anything he could do with it; even now with his current strength and experience as Godyer he still sought her guidance when it came to mana-rted matters, Ikaris was always limiting herself to tangible magic for the sake of simpler understanding.

    "This makes a lot of sense, though," Sol turned his attention to everyone else.

    "Ikaris, for as long as I''ve known her, has casually exined things pertaining to mana that took even Adonai and Dr''ul the most dire and enlightening situations to barely understand; her eyes perceive a world where nobody but her can see," He nced at her while a bead of sweat rolled down his cheek. "Why would you keep that bit away from everyone?"

    "Because," Ikaris sighed.

    "With all the understanding I have, I still don''t have that much; mana, magicul, whatever you want to call it; the driving force which I exposed the collective to has always been a force I couldn''t properly control, sure, I can follow the pathways in my mind and before me to do things others can''t, but if I can''t exin the thing I''m doing then what''s the point of letting them know, it''ll just create unnecessary trouble," She sat Talia before herself and made a little ball of light.

    "If you treat mana like matter, then whatever you can perceive bes possible, but mana to me exists in the fifth dimension; I barely understand anything that happens there; it''s all formless and... Confusing."

    "Oh my," Keele stared at Ikaris shocked. "LAW was determined to be of the third dimension, it is like air, intangible but physically present, sometimes like water, other times like stone or steel; mana inparison is a power we cannot interact with without the permission of a higher being; someone from this reality, I''m intrigued."

    "That''s usible when you consider that only the gods have been able to manipte mana and grant it to the worlds they preside over, it also exins why even a monster like Void and Darkness herself was unable to use it, only Sitri who had gained mana as a side-effect of existing within the system," Renia nodded.

    "You continue to fascinate me, Mdy."

 Chapter 285: Im Sorry.

    "How many more times can I be shocked in one ?" Cecelia thought to herself, staring at Ikaris who held a pout after thinking about the power they called mana.

    "I have never heard of a being possessing the power to interact with fifth-dimensional entities, yet mana is something broadly essible to everyone within this collective, not only that, but the fact that they speak of dimensional beings so lightly could only mean they regrly interact with them, how does one even fathom a being of a higher dimension in the first ce?" She pondered in her head as she stared at the meal Sara and Alpha had served.

    "Cecelia... This isn''t going to be a regr urrence, you should take in the moment and spend less time in your head," Sol looked up from his food at her while Ikaris once again ignored everyone in favour of Talia who was making gestures with her mouth and breathing mana''s rawest form like puffs of smoke in the air. "Talia, don''t do that at the table, we have guests."

    "What the...?" Cecelia stared at the child shocked when she looked at Sol and then closed her mouth with a smile. "She understood that?"

    "We share thoughts all the time, even though her gestures of thought are basic she has no problem understanding what anyone else says," Ikaris stared at the woman.

    "To an outsider, that makes no sense." Renia raised her brows. "You are not normal; Sol, Ikaris, A, Dina, Sara and now Talia, not a single one of you have any semnce of normalcy, the things you take for granted and do on a whim are what others dream of, even more than dream, it is what they fantasize about in the craziest parts of their imagination," She huffed.

    "You are an oral and verbal race, it''s not normal to be speaking to each other in your heads with nothing but thoughts, it isn''t normal to read each other''s minds and the minds of others at will."

    "Well," A tapped her chin in thought. "Master is the only one who can read the minds of others, he is the ruler and absolute power over this collective, after all; thews of nature and supernatural bend to his will," She pointed out.

    "But what of the outside?"

    "No, A is correct," Sol backed up her statement. "I can easily read the mind and hear the deepest wishes of everyone within my collective, but on the outside, it isn''t something I can do without causing some kind of harm to them as was the case with Jenifer when we first met," He gestured to her.

    "Something happened to Jenifer?" Chey asked, concerned.

    "Don''t worry, Mother, I''m fine-"

    "What happened?" The woman defiantly looked around at Sol.

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    "When I searched through her memories I did so carelessly, she couldn''t remember who she was for a while, luckily I searched everything, so I could reconstruct all that I saw from my own mind and help her remember," He lowered his hand and stuck more food in his mouth when Sara came and started serving beverages. "C''mon, eat up, we''ve ces to go."

    "ces?" Ikaris raised her brow at him with a pout, sighing. "You do keep busy these days hm?" She poked his arm with a teasing and yful grin.

    "I like closing loose ends; Chey and Jenifer are here, Keele''s homeworld is safe, now what remains is Cecelia''s family and n, when she asked for help that was one of the main points of her request, she needs help getting them out of the clutches of the Emporium; can''t truly say that I helped her without helping them," Sol spoke with his mouth half full.

    "Don''t worry so much, Ikaris, I promised you I would be more careful, and I have been."

    "Oh please; Sol, you hardly understand what that word means these days, you have made a hobby of over-the-top gestures of grandeur that is why your enemies and allies alike are afraid of you, I would rather you tell me you will not lose than saying you will be careful," Ikaris chuckled when he poked her cheek with his free hand. "Such a statement only works on the weak."

    "Very well," Sol smiled and ced his hand over hers when she rested her palm against his cheek. "Come with me this time."

    "Hm?"

    "Is that a good idea?" A spoke up, immediately addressing her concerns.

    "They have her energy signature locked, don''t they?" Dina added.

    "They have an old record of my Vatui power, if all I use is divine mana they will be entirely unaware of my presence," Ikaris objected. "Besides, this is a retrieval, right? So there will likely be little to no fighting as we prioritise those we have set out to save."

    "That''s right," Sol immediately agreed with her. "Let''s finish dinner and get this ship rolling.

    "Before then, I have to alert them, I imagine they will resist with their all if you just showed up and tried taking them away, not to mention..." Cecelia hinted at what might have probably been an obstacle.

    "Go on,"

    "...They are on an outpost under the guise of a military unit."

    "Huh...?" Chey stopped, along with Keele and Jenifer.

    "You had them disguised as Emporium this entire time?"

    "The best ce to hide is always in in sight, they''re far enough from me that we never resonated and we usually spoke in random group chats about things unrted to ourselves to keep in touch, it was a measure suggested by my husband; although it kept us apart, it kept them safe the general was none the wiser, and neither was my friend...

    former friend, Sally," Cecelia exined seeing Sol nod in praise of the man''s ingenious n working for as long as it did.

    "If that''s the case then this simplifies things a little," Sol leaned his head and cracked his knuckles.

    "Ever since you disappeared with the Godyer, the Emporium has been in emergency mode, General Flint has been making a ruckus, I can''t imagine he''s gonna be pleased when he realises that your people were hidden right under his nose this whole time, it''s almost a littleedic, hehe," Sol giggled. "We''ll set out as soon as you''re finished eating."

    "Understood," Cecelia nodded with her cheeks turning red as she was ovee with excitement. "I thought it would be a little troublesome, but you have treated me well, with no hint of ulterior motives," She sighed. "I am relieved."

    "Ulterior motives?" Ikaris paused and looked at her, cing her utensils on the table and staring intently. "Cecelia, even if I don''t remember who you are, it''s clear as day to me that I owe you an apology, I know enough of my past to know that the position you are in today is because of my disappearance..."

    "Never," Cecelia shook her head. "I could never ept such a sentiment from Her Highness; I could never." She continued shaking her head. "Princess, Master Vestic, there are two things Vatui and Godyer nobility never do, a Royal Godyer never gives in; they will fight until theirst breath even if the one they fight for is long dead they will never stop, and Vatui nobility are prideful.

    I am also of noble blood, the sacrifices I made are my own weight to bear, and I will never apologise for what I did, I still think it was the right choice, as such, Princess, please refrain from any apologies, it is unbing of the Vatui Heiress; even if you do not remember, or choose not to; you are still the most feared warrior of our race, Ikaris; the War Angel."

    "Hm, unexpected," Solmented thinking what the woman had to endure for such a long time and then seeing her pride still intact.

    "I see, I have always been overly prideful, but Cecelia, I am indeed a different person, relieving someone of responsibility by taking me does not diminish your pride, it simply reinforces your maturity as a person, I find no harm in apologising, it is the right thing to do," Ikaris exined, thinking how her first apologies were on Arkadia to the party of heroes and how prior to that she had never done it.

    "I''m sorry, Cecelia, understand that I would never change a thing, otherwise, I would have likely never met my beloved which I consider the greatest and most important event of my existence, but I apologise as the one who was your leader for abandoning you, I''m sorry for leaving you all this time to fend for yourself, I swear it on my soul, I will never turn my back to any of you again, together with Sol, we will reunite you and your n, your husband; you''ll be whole again."

    Her words weren''t heavy, at least they didn''t seem that heavy, but everyone watched solemnly as Cecelia''s hands quivered after she clutched and bent the spoon in her grasp at the binding vow of the one before her. "Her lips formed a smile and she lowered her gaze to the table when her tears began flowing uncontrobly.

    "Is this the power of an apology?" She asked, staring at her tears forming a pair of pools before her. "I have never felt a weight lift off my shoulders like this before, there is so little tension, I could fly..." She smiled as she continued crying. "By the Fire...

    Thank you, thank you so much, your Highness, thank you foring back, thank you for saying those kind words, thank you for being alive," Cecelia rubbed her eyes and sniffled, looking up at Ikaris who shared an empathetic gaze.

    "Thank you."

    "Say," Dina broke the atmosphere with a serious tone. "How many of them are there?"

    "About two thousand," Cecelia answered.

    "Whaaaa~?"

 Chapter 286: Doomsday Clock.

    *Sector 124779: Kha-Novan outpost 1789*

    "Sir,"  A woman with blonde hair, with eyes of emerald walked into an office staring at the back of an individual who stood staring out the window as a blue sunset was cast over him. Discover exclusive content at ��??

    "I told you not to disturb me today, Zara." The man answered her abruptly, he too was blonde down to the roots of his hair but the azure light of the evening cast the same colour as his eyes.

    "And where do you go about calling me sir while we are out in the open, has Cecelia''s disappearance shot yourmon sense?" He asked, and the woman smiled and closed the door behind herself, pressing a button on the wall five times and watching as a small electric veil fell across the walls like water, blocking invoking and outgoing signals.

    "That is just what I havee here for, sir," She stood at the opposite side of his desk and held a small device showing a videogame chat log, on this log the man saw a message.

    [Mobilise; get everyone within the hour and congregate to a single isted location, do not allow any outsiders inside of the gathering, I aming for you; Sol Vestic.] The message read.

    "Is this for real?" He asked, taking the device from her grasp and staring at the message again and then looking at the sender. "Red-eyed_Fairy," he mused; that was Cecelia''s user, he even went through the trouble of checking the user profile and looking at her stats. "Ten minutes ago, why did it take so long to get to me?" He asked and the woman gestured out the window.

    "I already started calling everyone, I made a few steps along the way as well-"

    "Have you considered that Cecelia disappearing was a trap set by that bastard who''s had her prisoner all this time?" He snapped at her.

    "That would have been quite bothersome given where you lot are, but General Flint is still unaware of your identities as Vatui," Alpha appeared, sitting in his seat and slowly spinning.

    "The messagees from Master Vestic who thought it necessary to..." Alpha paused when the man drew the gun that had been holstered on his hip and shot a hole through her stomach causing the chair to spin and hit the wall falling over.

    "Where did she go?" He asked aiming his gun to the other side of the room after Alpha had disappeared.

    "How rude. Is it the policy of everyone in the Emporium to shoot first and ask questions afterwards?" Alpha appeared on his desk with her feet swingingzily.

    "Do not fret, I-" she stopped talking again when another st from the weapon flew through her and left a hole in the desk this time, this time though she did not vanish, she just sat there staring at him silently as he fired three more times before lowering his gun, confused.

    "Sir," Zara called to him but blinded by fright the man drew a de that was hidden on his person and struck at Alpha again, causing the system to sigh as his hand passed through her and then sighed again as she made her body tangible and his elbow became stuck in her torso.

    "How have you managed to lead two thousand Vatui refugees for thousands of millennia with such a sloppy and easily shaken mentality? Alpha asked, staring at his shocked face as he tried to move but found that no matter the strength he utilized she wasn''t even budging.

    "Ie bearing a message of confirmation From the Godyer; Sol Vestic, if you continue to interrupt me with acts of violence I will retaliate and immobilize you, do you understand?" She asked, and he nodded after taking a calm breath and then stumbled backwards when her torso opened up and his hand was released.

    "What are you?" He stared up at her, but she huffed and opened her palm, showing a projection of Celia sharing information with Sol around a table full of individuals and eating happily.

    "I am Alpha; Master Vestic has ordered that all the Vatui refugees of Lady Cecelia''s n, her family included be ready within the hour in an isted area, this is an outpost so be sure to know and note, that this is his next target and it will be thoroughly destroyed without a single survivor, anyone who fails to gather will be counted amongst the casualties without remorse from either My Master or Lady Cecelia, you failed to respond to your messages so we had to send it to another, you have 45 minutes left to prepare for their arrival, make haste."

    After her warning Alpha disappeared with a huff; usually she was friendly, but not after had the man showed ipetence, he also showed impatience after his ipetence, it was her first time dealing with someone like that and it bothered her, even as a system, she had standards of intelligence which she preferred.

    "Sir?" Zara stared at the man worried. "I will start mobilizing everyone from across the outpost, don''t worry about it, I''ll take care of gathering and return to you before the timer runs out with a n of escape," She stated, and he lowered his gaze, staring at his destroyed office and at his hand, debating mentally whether he should give the order or not. "Sir?" She called at him again.

    "Sir we barely have a window here we haven''t even decided where we''ll gather yet, word has only been spreading," Zara stared at him for an answer.

    "Why now?" The man asked, staring out the window at the sunset again while Zara shook her head and left without another nce in his direction. "Why now, why so suddenly? We do not know if this is a trap or not yet, it could be some sinister plot devised after Lady Cecelia finally broke her vow of silence because some unforeseen event revealed us to that man..." He pondered.

    "That man who assumes the role of leader, he is inadequate, for such a position how did he end up the leader of such an important secret after you left?" Alpha appeared next to Cecelia with her brows furrowed in frustration while the Vatui noblewoman stared at her having a bead of sweat roll down her cheek. "He is an idiot."

    "Hudor... The only way to keep his mouth was to give him a role where others depended on him, the alternative was to abandon him and send them somewhere he did not know of, but that is the same as killing him, the others are well aware of who he is and why he''s in the position he''s in, which is why I appointed Zara, my younger sister as his shadow, she remains in constant contact with me-"

    "Yes, you already exined all this, but the man is still an idiot." Alpha sighed and ruffled her hair. "He drew my temper where nobody else has ever managed to," She admitted with another sigh while Sol and Ikaris sat staring at their interaction.

    "Over two thousand..." Ikaris turned her attention to Sol, "Where will we send them after taking them away from the emporium, and have we thought about the possibility of there being some who will mean us harm and others who would rather not be taken away from where they are?" She asked, and he hummed and raised a brow.

    "That''s a no-brainer," Sol answered closing his eyes and huffing as he raised her and himself into a stand and then looked at her with a smile.

    "They''ll disappear along with the outpost, I already sent alpha to take care of any slow reactions, she returned rather quickly and with a headache; in a situation like this one I can''t afford leniency, they are a lot and their departure is bound to cause a ripple, the outpost has to be destroyed before they know what''s happening, otherwise their whole exodus would be for nothing."

    "Hmm" Ikaris smiled at Sol, and at Cecelia who stood opposite of them.

    In that small triangle facing each other for the next thirty-plus minutes, the three went silent; Sol made no sound, Ikaris was the same, and Cecelia, thinking that was some sort of pre-battle ritual, respected their silence and remained quiet standing as she faced them as well.

    "Have you already thought about what you''ll say to them once you''re safely reunited?" Sol looked at a clock on the wall and then at Cecelia who was bing more nervous as the final minute counted down quickly.

    "No, I am not good with greetings nor am I good at goodbyes, these things usually sort themselves out at the moment they were meant to," Cecelia answered seriously, and Ikaris nodded with a huff of approval as her sense of ease that had kept the tension light vanished while her mana began seeping out of her body in tiny waves.

    "Alright, that''s time." Sol pped his hands and the three of them were enveloped in golden light as his Godyer appearance manifested calmly.

    "Let''s go."

 Chapter 287: Ikaris Rejoins The Fight.

    "If this doesn''t work, we''re going to run, there''s no way we can return without suspicion, it''s the same as delivering ourselves to their arms for harvesting," Hudor stared at their outpost from a neighbouring moon and behind him stood Zara with her hand rested on a small hairpin resembling Cecelia''s on a tform-like podium which stood before her.

    "It was a gamble, yes; but he directly ordered the evacuation and gathering of all the Vatui forces hidden across the, and that girl went as far as showing us my sister, our leader conversing with the Godyer in a setting with others, it''s a gamble worth taking, I''ve long grown sick of hiding amongst my enemies." Zara admitted, a lot of us grew too used to the emporium over the aeons that we''ve been stranded here, I would love nothing more than to be ordered to destroy it myself."

    "Of course, you''d say as much," Hudor scoffed, kicking at a small moon rock. "It''s exactly because of that reason that your sister chose me to lead our people instead of you, Zara, you''re far too impulsive and easy to anger-"

    "My sister didn''t choose you as leader, Hudor, she left taking care of her people in my hands and gave you a useless position to shut you up, you never stopped drowning on and on with your jealousy, so she did it to silence you," Zara signed smiling as the man slowly looked around at her and then at the thousands of people who silently stood behind them.

    "We''ve all grown tired of your foolishness, but that''s changing today, so I have no need to listen to you anymore, even if nobodyes and this turns out to be a trick by the enemies, I''d rather die than spend another day having you think you''re leading me," She stared at him seriously. "You are ipetent."

    "How dare-"

    "I am ��lo��n Zara; Shadow leader of the ��lo��n n, my orderse only from my elder sister ��lo��n Cecelia, I have been secretly leading our masses the entirety of Cecelia''s absence, Hudor, I''ll say it again, you were never needed, you are ipetent as a leader, as a nobleman of the ��lo��n n and as a Vatui soldier under our n''s name," She narrowed her eyes while Hudor''s went wide.

    "You''re kidding, right?" Hudor asked fully turning to her and clenching his fists while she held on to the hairpin tightly and defiantly stared up at him "Zara, I''ve been leading for-"

    "Stop it, both of you; is this how you had nned to wee me?"

    The two of them heard a voice and went mute as all eyesnded on a golden phenomena which appeared at their sides, and as the lights declined, three individuals came into view.

    "Zara," Cecelia stared at her seriously. Her hair had a slight glow, but her eyes were menacing as she approached her sister and stood before her, then looked at Hudor with a smile. "If you were not discovered, then you did a good job, Hudor.

    Don''t let her words so easily affect you," She turned to Zara again and rested her hand on her head, seeing her little sister''s hair slowly turn white as her green eyes shifted to ck and then turned red. "Well done, Zara, thanks for keeping him in check all this time."

    "��lo��n Cecelia," Zara stared up at the taller woman and ced her hand over her chest. "Thank you for-" She stopped as her eyesnded on Ikaris behind her. "M...

    Majesty!" Zara roared out passionately falling to her knees in shock while Cecelia stepped to the side, after Zara''s exmation the entire mass of people who had been observing silently fell to their knees again, and Ikaris watched surprised as she witnessed and felt a resonance as everyone''s hair floated around their heads morphing into white and their eyes turned to crimson.

    She felt it as well; a powerful link between herself and the people before her which caused her powers to almost manifest the same as theirs had, but all Sol saw was her eyes glimmer in crimson for a few seconds before returning to their usual glowing blue.

    "We greet Her Majesty!" The mass roared leaving ripples of Vatui energy extending into the void around them.

    "Well, there goes my surprise attack," Sol chuckled. "Are you sure you''re up to it, Ikaris?" He smiled at her. "Previously, you didn''t want to have their blood on your hands, don''t you think fighting then now would affect you?" He questioned her decision one final time to test her resolve and she shook her head in the negative immediately.

    "I thought they had nothing to do with me; I thought the Emporium was simply an empire that resented my kind, but the more I learn the less I feel for them, I have long dismissed them as innocent; they all deserve to die for what they''ve done to us, billions harvested and more than twice of the harvested Vatui have been killed overall after the war''s end, Love, dering war on them was the right choice, it simplifies and streamlines my intent and malice," Ikaris stared at therge in the distance.

    "Then, have at them," Sol stood to the side with a gesture and Ikaris clenched her fist as her mana erupted like an explosion.

    He withstood the initial impact of her mana resurfacing after months of being suppressed, but for Cecelia and the others who had not expected this level of energy suddenly surfacing they were blown off their feet as the moon was torn in two from her mana''s manifestation.

    [Divine arts have all exceeded the threshold into the realm of forbidden and unknowns]

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    "It doesn''t matter," Ikaris clenched her fists tighter and then made a swiping motion with her index finger in the direction of the outpost.

    For a few seconds nothing seemed to happen and the mass behind her slowly arose to their feet confused, but a momentter Sol raised his hand and conjured a translucent barrier around the moon when the sun behind the violently exploded.

    "It seems someone noticed everyone here," Ikaris stepped through Sol''s barrier and into the void floating off towards the outpost and extending her palm.

    "This should be interesting," Sol conjured a chair and sat while Alpha appeared at his side with a cup of coffee on a tray with some biscuits. "It''s been a while since I''ve seen her fight.

    "Who''s this guy, isn''t he too rxed, I thought the Godyer was going to show up but all we got was-" Someone was speaking from the crowd behind Sol causing murmurs and more whispers but Cecelia turned to the person, singling him out directly and gesturing to Sol with reverence in her posture and tone.

    "You should be mindful of what you say; Master Vestic sees and hears all." She warned the man, and again everyone went silent.

    It was odd, Vatui were by definition more powerful than their Godyer counterparts or equal in most cases, but while they had not seen anyone of legend appear within their species before; the Godyers had several legends of unfathomable beings being born into their strongest ns, and again in this age Sol had gained a name as such an entity of legend.

    "Come on Cecelia are you trying to make them afraid of me?" Sol grinned sipping his coffee while Zara and Hudor stared at Alpha who had her eyes closed as she stood next to him in a maid outfit.

    "Master Vestic..." Zara lowered her head in reverence as did everyone else. "Your presence has shaken the foundation of the Emporium and caused a great deal of hope to bloom within us after a long period of suffering between both our people, we thank you."

    "There''s more," Cecelia nudged her sister''s side. "Master and Ikaris are wedded, and already have a firstborn," She wiggled her brows as Zara''s eyes widened.

    "Then... Doesn''t that make him..." The woman fell to her knees and mmed her forehead on the half of the moon they upied unaware that the lower half had been shot off into space because of Ikaris. "Your majesty-"

    "That''s enough," Sol responded seriously before anyone else followed in her example. "Let me exin my intentions as well as my drive and purpose," Sol took another sip and ced the cup on Alpha''s tray, crossing his legs and sticking his hands in his pockets.

    "I don''t care for any crown, I hardly want to be the leader of anything, and Ikaris feels the same, you see, the time she spent absent she was in solitude, she has no memory of the Emporium and even after discovering her heritage she has decided to remain as she is," Sol exined.

    "What?" Hudor stared at Sol''s back.

    "Ikaris wants to live a peaceful and carefree life where she is not bothered by the politics of her people or wars, I want the same thing, but before that, we have determined that the Emporium must be eradicated down to thest man, we aren''t continuing a war that ended billions of years ago; we''re waging a new war after they threatened our family, she isn''t fighting for her sake, she''s fighting for her daughter''s."

    Sol''s words sunk in bitterly causing many of the hopeful gazes to dwindle.

    "Does that mean the princess doesn''t care about us any more?" Someone asked biting her lips in frustration.

    "She cares," Sol answered without ncing back at them. "She''s here because she cares, she''s here because despite losing her memories of the Emporium, of her Vatui people and her life before my collective she has seen your suffering and heard your cries, she decided toe back after vowing to never fight again," He exined. "

    "She will take up the mantle of your war angel," Sol epted a biscuit from Alpha and bit into it with a hum. "Ikaris is your saviour, not me."

    "Then what of you, Master Vestic?" Cecelia asked.

    "Me?" Sol narrowed his eyes and smiled menacingly as his hair shed gold and then returned to brown.

    "The emporium isn''t my fight anymore now that my wife has taken action; I will leave this up to her and the others who follow her; Ikaris has more than enough power to finish what I started, my purpose now lies in protecting the Grand Collective from Umbra, I have to put an end to him." He exined and she nodded in understanding,pared to an empire enving and killing people, an individual with the capability to end all life took priority; especially when said individual was targeting him first.

    "Umbra?" Zara looked to her sister after seeing her slightly shudder at the name as well as seeing Sol''s shoulders stiffen after he mentioned the person.

    "If master Vestic is the light which can save us all, then Umbra is the darkness that threatens to destroy us all," Cecelia spoke briefly.

    "I will exinter, for now I am interested in the power of Mana which Her Majesty discovered."

 Chapter 288: Enraged.

    "Mana?" Zara stared at her sister, confused. "Is it some kind of weapon?"

    "Not upon conception," Sol responded, knowing that Cecelia didn''t know enough to even begin exining.

    "In a nutshell, mana is everything you can see and perceive, and everything you can''t, the moon we reside on, the empty void; that star which has recently copsed, everything the light and dark touches exists within the perception and influence of mana, it is a force more powerful than the soul, yet it has no mind to control itself and so can be made into whatever the wielder wishes it to be, mana is the power of creation itself."

    "ording to Her Majesty, Mana is of the fifth dimension; an unrecognisable and unfathomable in where none she knows of but herself has ever witnessed," Cecelia added.

    "Then how does she know of it, how did she discover something of the fifth dimension?"

    "She doesn''t know either, she simply came into contact with it... Ikaris has undergone many evolutions since her disappearance," Sol epted a treat from Alpha and bit into it. "The most drastic is her evolution from Vatui into a divine; in my collective, she holds the title of Queen of all gods.

    My guess is that she became a divine after discovering mana and since then has only grown stronger while using it, but recently, she has undergone another great evolution." Sol stared at her stats while he spoke.

    "She became a god?" Zara stared in shock. "Aren''t divine beings an entirely different existence?"

    "You underestimate your own selves," Sol looked over his shoulder.

    "Vatui and Godyers have unique traits that have helped them evolve since their conception I don''t think what you currently are is anything close to what your ancestors were, for starters, your title as Vatui and Godyers are subtexts under an ancient Celestial species which branched off into many smaller species before the time of the grand collective before the rule of Vatui and Godyers, before the war.

    "In the same way you can mimic the cells of other living beings and disguise yourselves perfectly as other species as a Celestial being; you have the ability to evolve from Vatui altogether, in her case She became a goddess with the help of mana while subconsciously suppressing all her Vatui traits, and more recently, her mana has started to resemble mine as she pushes for an even higher evolution."

    "I have never heard of our species being anything close to ancient Celestials before, how did youe by this information if you only recently became Godyer?" Cecelia furrowed her brows, and Sol tapped his head.

    "The one before me left something of a library of information, you can call it the print of his soul, on the same day I became Godyer I gained ess to The Grey, or as you probably know it; The Beginning, what I discovered when I essed this information is that a Godyer is only a title, I have long surpassed the power of a Godyer.

    "This is confusing, are you saying that Godyers are..."

    "The truth is in the title, Cecelia," Sol started paying attention to Ikaris again. "Godyer; one capable of killing divine beings and I have been killing gods long before I was one, to that end though I believe the only reason I made this leap in evolution is because Ikaris introduced my soul to mana."

    "What you think of as a species is probably the result of one person''s ancestry, I wasn''t born a Godyer, I evolved into one after another died and his soul reincarnated through me, I still had to earn that title," He bit into his pastry treat again.

    "I was once human, and from human I evolved into a demigod and then from a demigod I evolved into a pure Divine, it was only after True Divinity that I was able to evolve into Godyer," He exined.

    "I think there''s more, but I have no idea if I''ll be able to reach that height in my lifetime."

    "Simrly to myself who was born human, Ikaris was born Vatui, but hers is a far superior race to mine, she didn''t need to be a demigod because of her Vatui construct; when she discovered mana she was able to evolve directly into a goddess; the most powerful of any divine, and now she is on the cusp of a greater evolution once more."

    "Are you saying her majesty will be Godyer?" Zara asked.

    "No."

    "But you said-"

    "Whatever Ikaris bes in the future will be the height I''m unable to grasp, she is the progenitor of mana, the first and most affluent wielder of the sacred source, she has a far greater understanding of it, once she tries to truly understand it her potential will force explosive growth within her, I can only dream of such a miracle happening within me," Sol looked at Alpha who had a scrunched up nose.

    "You disagree, Alpha?"

    "I do, master,"

    ***

    "Ikaris..."

    "The full title is Ikaris Vestic," She replied, slowly approaching the man who opposed her by himself while the outpost behind him was in a panic at the sudden eruption of the star in their system.

    "Of course, I heard that you were the wife of Sol Vestic; the scourge of the Emporium, but to have you here before my eyes admitting to being his wife with your own mouth fills my heart with dread, it makes my bones shake."

    General Percival Aile of the 1789th Outpost; He had arge scar across one side of his head where no hair grew, while the other side had mid-length hair whichzily floated in the weightless void around them white from Vatui cell imnts, he had eyes as ck as coal from Godyer and Vatui infusions and pale skin to entuate his many augmentations.

    The rest of his outpost was busy trying to find means of evacuation, so he had personallye after their sensors scouted thousands of Vatui signatures on the farthest moon; thinking it was an attack the general had rushed to greet the enemies only to meet the one person he expected the least.

    "You do not seem of the mind to battle," Ikaris stared at him while her casual wear slowly morphed into sweatpants, a tank top blouse and a sweatshirt over it with a pair of sports sneakers all white to contrast her ck hair and blue eyes. "I am disappointed."

    "I dare not raise a finger against the great and horrible war angel of the past, we had all been warned that those above the 500th rank stood no chance of survival once met with the Godyer, you are his spouse, I think such a warning extends to you as well," The General drew his de and released it into the void pushing and watching it float away.

    "I have fought Vatui and Godyers before, I am scared of your power, to face the one they revered as their champion is a clear death sentence so I would rather not bother with the struggle; I only ask that you make my death a painless one," He stood at attention watching her slowly approach. "I already know what the penalty for killing your people is."

    "You might be the smartest enemy I have ever faced," Ikaris rested her palm against his chest sensing hundreds of individual Vatui and Godyer cells within him and frowning deeply as her eyes morphed from blue to a terrifying crimson. "You have my permission to die."

    "Her first act of offence since her fight against the demons," Sol stared with a wide and almost sinister smile, sitting on the edge of his seat as everyone paid attention. "And she''s been pissed off on top of it."

    [Unknown Tier Divine Magic; Total Annihtion]

    The General, the behind him, the exploding star and the gxies behind that...

    A great golden beam expanded from Ikaris''s palm soundlessly eradicating in the shape of a sphere it covered every aspect of their field of vision from one side of reality to the next leaving the only ce it didn''t touch the area behind them as that entire side of sector 124779 disappeared in the same manner as Sol''s attack had done to the empty universe days prior.

    Without batting an eye and without fanfare, Ikaris destroyed half of the universe and everything within it, then extended her hand to the side and summoned the sword the general had tossed into the void and sheathed it.

    "All those who were harvested, and all those who have been suffering under the hand of the Emporium, know that I have returned, their sins will not go unpunished, I have been enraged and I will not let go of this grudge until nothing of the Emporium remains." She spoke calmly turning to the half moon and descending towards them again.

    Cecelia along with everyone else stood there with their mouths agape and their eyes wide in horror, as aparison, Cecelia''s attack which could be fired across universes could only be cast once every few days, it took up most of her energy and left her in a weakened state, so she would always target the core of the universe, the supermassive which held it and moved it, this was a whole tier above that, she understood now what Sol meant by Ikaris''s power and control over mana being terrifying, even after using that much power Ikaris''s power only felt like it was growing.

    "Are you okay?" Sol lowered the barrier staring at her crimson eyes as shended before him.

    "Master... this anger doesn''t suit me," She fell to his side and rested her forehead against his neck as he gave her head pats.

    Sol huffed and snapped his fingers causing golden light to epass the area beneath them all.

    "Don''t worry," He calmly responded to her. "I''m angry too, Ikaris; the anger we feel won''t go away, not until they''re all gone."

 Chapter 289: Terrified.

    General Lina Stark sat in the seat she had been previously provided next to General Flint''s, and her sister Lana stark, the head captain of the 95th stood next to her with her hands neatly folded behind her as the two of them and everyone else in the cockpit watched Viktor with keen eyes as he floated a small distance away from the ship staring off into space, they weren''t anywhere near the explosion Ikaris had caused.

    In fact, they were several sectors away; but a universe even at a distance upied such an unfathomably massive space that they had quite clearly seen Ikaris''s power, unlike all the other times when their sensors had gone alive with warnings the readings didn''t register any Godyer activity, nor did it register and warn them of any Vatui energy readings.

    The man had his sword drawn and his eyes had dark circles beneath them as he stared at the space where the void had be bright and golden, hemented his luck, he cursed his fate; he shook with anger at everything that had happened over the course of a week.

    "What is the status of the 1789th, General?" Viktor asked from the outside, and Lina stared at the screen and hummed as she watched the dead signals.

    "Unresponsive, it is likely that the entire sector has been destroyed without a trace of life, General Flint," she answered. "Thest log was a distress call and an incoherent message pertaining to the sudden copse of the star in their system, but I doubt a star exploding could have caused that phenomenon." She borated. "It was likely the hand of a third party somece out there.

    "Of course, it was Sol Vestic again." Viktor stared matter-of-factly.

    "We don''t know that for sure-"

    "Who else could it have been but him?" Flint turned around and stared at them from the outside.

    "The sensors didn''t pick up a thing, it''s most likely that the asshole broke them, are you expecting me to believe otherwise; am I supposed to ce my bets on the possibility of another entity being able to destroy god knows how many gxies in one fell swoop just a day after we saw him do the same?" Flint asked exasperated, shing his free hand and staring at General Stark with clear and visible worry etched across his face.

    "He''s the one who did it, the same way he was able to convince that bitch that she had a chance against the Emporium again; the same way he made her abandon her post; the traitor..." General Flint made a choking gesture with his hand as veins popped up all across his body.

    "I want nothing more than to kill them, everyst one, Those Vatui scum, and those Godyer filth that think they still have any kind of im to put Great Emporium; who think their lives are anything of worth in the eyes of His Majesty!"

    "Viktor-"

    "I''ll kill everyst one of them and turn their bones into a drug, I''ve spent such a long time abstaining from it, refusing the Vatui cell imnts as well as the Godyer transfusions, but just look at the power they possess!" He grinned showing even greater signs of lunacy as he continued staring at his palm, I already took a little... He chuckled as his eyes shed crimson.

    "It''s a rush I hadn''t expected, it made me so much stronger too; imagine what I''ll be able to do after a full transfusion; imagine the powers a simple little human like myself will be able to wield after I''m fully transformed artificially!"

    "Sister..." Lana Stark stared at the General before her. "At this rate, he will be long gone within a few more days, We should report him-"

    "No, it''s fine," Lina replied, raising her hand and staring at her forearm. "I pretty much feel the same as he does, actually," She admitted, but her sister was drawing a conclusion that disagreed strongly with that sentiment since, on the one hand, the man was visually and evidently mad to the core, while her sister was as calm and still as the void they upied.

    Lina stared at the mark Sol had left, the death sentence he had promised every member of the two ships that had been actively seeking him out.

    "I want Sol Vestic dead at whatever cost, we have only six days left before he turns all his fury upon us, remember?" She turned the circr burnt crest to her sister who lowered her head and stared at the one on her own forearm with aplicated frown.

    "I never once questioned it before, but after he said he''d kill us I kind of lost my head in thought for a good few hours yesterday," Lana furrowed her brows in thought and trepidation. "Lina, isn''t it possible that we; the Emporium, went too far with the culling of their kind?" The captain asked.

    "Of course, it is; what else could have caused the rise of that monster?" Lina answered without batting an eye.

    "Without a doubt, this is a direct result of our sins against his people, I don''t even think it has that much to do with his child or the fact that his wife is the renowned War Angel; Sol Vestic has arisen as a champion amongst our enemies in a time when they were in desperate need of one, he is the answer for all the terrible things we''ve done to them."

    "However," General Lina Stark added after a brief moment of silence between her who was speaking, everyone who was listening, and Viktor who was fuming and huffing raw white matter from the opposite side of the screen. "I don''t care if I''vemitted one sin, or a thousand; I don''t care if my neck has been stiffened into steel from turning a blind eye to their suffering."

    "I couldn''t care less about the Godyer and Vatui people, not one bit, all that matters to me, sister, is you, and the Grand Empire whom we serve, that''s all there is to it," She clenched her fist.

    "I don''t want to die, so I''m going to ept the transfusions as well, it takes hours without fault or ident, I''m going to raise my battle prowess through the roof in every attempt to level the ying field against that monster."

    "Lina..."

    "Denying the augmentation is the same as epting death, he''s going toe, you can count on that with every truth to his name as the strongest; he''s gonnae and he is going to target us directly, he''s gonna hunt us down with the sole intent of killing us off; you heard him, he wants us to try running, he''s treating us like prey, well to that I say fucking hell, there''s no way I''m turning tail, General Flint is right, if we don''t stand up now there''s going to be a shift in the dynamic, we need to urge the others to get here faster.

    "There''s already ten more from the 99 and dozens from the top 500 who have joined us, we are effectively the most powerful concentration of elite Emporium soldiers within the entirety of the Grand Collective, not even Sol Vestic has the means to challenge us anymore, not with someone from the Ten here.

    "He wiped clean an entire Universe, Lana." Lina raised her head. "Has anyone from the Grand ever done anything of the sort?" She asked.

    "No, but-"

    "Underestimating him is how you''ll lose your life, sister, don''t ever let me hear such confidence in his presence again, he is the harbinger of deathe from the depths of the unknown to smite us; that is his purpose, if we don''t stand together as our ancestors did in the great war we faceplete and utter annihtion."

    "How''d I get dragged into this mess, I swear I was gonna ask toe with her if it had worked out; I don''t want to die like this either..." Sally was sweating from her analyst seat after listening through thems to the panicking Generals and the overconfident Captain. "I''m so scared I can''t even work..."

    A week prior***

    "I think Cecelia intends to betray me soon." Flint sat in Sal''s room with her sitting across hisp half naked and resting as they both sweated.

    "She''d never, sir, she''s been loyal to you almost as long as the Emporium has been the Emporium," Sal responded, shaking her head.

    "If that bitch was truly loyal then she''d have long disclosed the location of her n, I know she hid them and I know she keeps contact somehow but she''s managed to not slip up for the entire time I''ve known her, but everything''s different now." Flint raised Sal off himself and set her to sit on her bed.

    "Sol Vestic exists, it''s only a matter of time before she tries reaching out to him; she''s an opportunist, after all." He stated and the woman pulled a sheet over her exposed torso andid on her back resting her legs across hisp as he slid his hands across her leg. "You get it, right?"

    "Of course, she doesn''t have faith in the Emporium; she''d rather ally with someone she thinks has the means to destroy us," Sal smiled up at him, snaking around him and resting her cheek against his phallus with a soft smile. "She''s wrong though, there''s no power greater than the Emporium, we were able to drive them in a corner before and we''ll be able to do it again, it''s only a matter of time.

    "She doesn''t know nor does she believe ...that," the General sighed as his fifth limb was swallowed down to the base and the woman began expertly milking him of his essence like a subus. "Sally... in the case of Sol Vestic doing anything out of the ordinary, where you visibly see her conviction and loyalty wane, I want you to try and convince her to contact him."

    "Hnn?" Sally loosened her throat from around his meat and released him, staring up into his eyes with a devilish lust. "Why?" She asked, driving her tongue around the tip of his limb and causing him to shudder as she swallowed him whole again and began expertly moving her head and throat, simultaneously holding onto his hips and hugging him to prevent him from escaping her clutches.

    "If we can catch the bastard off guard there''s a chance we''ll be able to turn the whole Sol Vestic situation around before it gets anymore out of hand, do you understand?" The man asked, and Sally responded to his order by inflicting more pleasure causing a rapid and uncontrolled burst of ejaction straight down into her throat.

    "Understood, Sir," Sal took a breath spreading her mouth with her two hands and sticking her tongue out as sheid on her back. "Can you please focus on fucking me now...?"

    "Of course."

    Neither of them could have foreseen that Sol''s next big act was the destruction of a space the size of a universe, and that was exactly what happened a day after their conversation which kicked everything into high gear, an act of betrayal which led to Cecelia being free after Alpha had ryed the conversation to Sol after spying on them.

 Chapter 290: Preview of Hell.

    "Goodness me, this is a lot," A stood amazed as she stared at the multitude Sol had returned with.

    Unlike the first times with the individuals that he brought directly home, he had taken them all to Keele''s and then summoned his family along, the restedfortably in Earth''s universe far enough that human ingenuity would take hundreds of years to even find them, but close enough that he could always find them in the night sky at a nce.

    Unlike Earth which was divided into countries and races, Keele''s homeworld, Rhoss, had long foregone such segregation after many wars and mistakes along with the upation of the Emporium forced them to work together, they had a singr representative that the people had decided upon after carefully studying him for years.

    While the Zenith of Rhoss was not rted to Keele in any way, the woman shared a close rtionship with him as she was the one directly responsible for preventing aplete Emporium upation of her homeworld by joining their ranks; she held a title simr to that of royalty there and above even the Zenith''s her word wasw, but she had never before exercised use of such authority for the sake of peace.

    "Lord Kree," Keele greeted him with a small salute standing casually and dressed the same. "It''s good to see you after all these years," She smiled at the robed man approaching. "He looked to be in histe forties at most, with a head of short brown hair and dark azure eyes and his wardrobe was a robe resembling a pope but his mitre was rounded with a crest nobody had ever seen before.

    "Mdy, it is an honour to be graced with your presence after all this time," He extended his hand and took hers, kissing her fingers and lowering his head. "You look the same as thest time I saw you."

    "LAW keeps one''s youth." Keele chuckled and then stood at his side and gestured to Sol and Ikaris who walked hand in hand.

    "Lord Kree," Sol extended his hand, but the man lowered his head and kept his hands to his side, bending a perfect ny degrees and sucking in a breath.

    "Please, I am not pure enough toy my hand upon the Godyer that liberated Rhoss from the clutches of the Emporium and brought our dear Keele back to us," The man took the headwear off and held it to his chest in what was supposed to be the highest gesture of respect on Rhoss.

    "You don''t need to be so formal," Sol raised a brow, looking at Ikaris but she seemed to enjoy the gesture as the man turned to her and repeated his action a second time and then slowly went on his knees cing his mitre on the ground before them and lowering himself in a perfect kowtow.

    "Master Vestic, Princess Ikaris," Kree stayed in that position while Keele at his side took a knee and smiled with her eyes closed. "I was ted when I received word from ourdy that you had a request, I am happy that you considered us for such an important ordeal.

    "You may raise your head, Lord Kree," Ikaris spoke, and the man quickly took his headwear and stood again, as did Keele.

    "It is an honour, your holiness, to be able to house your sacred people in our humble world; I am touched."

    "Gods, this man is even more respectful than me," A sighed with a soft smile while Dina at her side huffed hopelessly; both of them stood a few paces behind Sol and Ikaris, behind them Cecelia stood with her sister and Hudor and then behind the three leaders of the ��lo��n n was said n, Sol had created a great park upon arrival and left them to explore it freely while he and the Zenith of Rhoss conversed.

    "Considering who Master is and what he represents to them, it makes sense though," Dina answered, and the elf nodded in agreement. "If Master and Ikaris had arrived on Arkadia with this kind of power and solved all their problems overnight they''d have revered them just the same."

    "Most certainly," A nodded.

    "Cecelia," Ikaris called for her beckoning with a wave of her hand and the requested woman promptly excused herself from her sister''spany and joined the four.

    ***

    "I wonder just how much you understand," Sara sat with her hands in herp and a calm smile as she watched Talia holding her hands above her and reaching for a small floating mass of light that she had created to keep her distracted until she fell asleep.

    "Papa."

    "Of course, Mdy did an excellent job of teaching you to say papa, but can you say Sara?" Sare opened her eyes and looked at Talia who had gone still. "Hm..."

    "Are you talking to the baby again?" Sol walked through the doors, and following him were Ikaris, A, and Dina. "I told you she already understands everything you say, she just hasn''t learned how to form her words yet."

    "Master, that is quite the chilling thought," Sara chuckled as she stood and gave them all a bow, then looked to the doors expecting morepany. "Where are the others?"

    "They''re back on Rhoss with Keele," Dina answered. "They suggested spending a little time away from Earth to give us more space, not that it matters; they''ll be back in a few hours anyway.

    "In the meantime, it feels like we have not truly had our home to ourselves in a while," A smiled and rolled on the floor stopping before Talia. "Everyone will be getting busy again soon from now..."

    "You included," Ikaris spoke up and the elf raised her head. "Sol will be busy keeping an eye out for Umbra and refining his control over the collective, thereby strengthening himself, which means it will be myself and the two of you in charge of everything rted to the Emporium unless something happens which he absolutely must step in to resolve.

    "I never imagined I''d be a part of it, the enemies you are facing are many times stronger than Dina and myself," A furrowed her brows in worry.

    "I''m aware, and I am also aware that the real reason you are not stronger, A, is because you have barely pushed your limits in recent times," Ikaris retorted with her brow raised as well. "I understand what it is like to only live through warring times, but that just won''t do, not anymore; I need you as my left hand to pick up your staff and grow with me."

    A sat there with an unusually determined expression gracing her; her eyes glistened with traces of mana, and her sigils all resonated with Ikaris''s as she nodded seriously and clenched her fist. "Understood, Mdy," She replied to Ikaris''s call to arms. "I will break through the veil and achieve new heights in your name."

    "And you as well, Dina, you''ve bezy because you keep getting praised for your talent and growth, but you need more; I need more out of you," Ikaris looked at the other. "What I want right now more than anything else is your strength."

    "I won''t let you down, Mdy," Dina smiled and clenched her fist as her sigils and mana reacted to Ikaris as well, and then the aforementioned slowly turned and looked at Sol.

    "Should I also say something cool to add to the moment?" Sol asked sitting up and clearing his throat when Ikaris and A nodded while Dina rolled her eyes at their antics.

    "Ahem, alright, you three, Ikaris, Dina, A, I have big hopes for the three of you, I know you wont be alone but I can''t help but worry nheless, so just know, when you''re out there; all you need to do is call my name, I''lle running, otherwise though, you got this," He gave them a thumb''s up and Ikaris chuckled and shook her head.

    "That was a little cringe, even by your usual standards, love," The goddess smiled and kissed Sol''s cheek. "Remember though, you have one task to carry out before you pass those reigns entirely," Ikaris raised a finger at him, and Sol''s eyes slightly narrowed after he realised what she meant.

    "Of course, how careless of me; I was here ready to start another chapter of my life when such a crucial event had yet to happen," Sol snapped his fingers whilst thinking of the several thousand signatures his mana could easily lock onto. "I still have a promise I need to fulfil," Sol spread his palm and stared into it.

    "I did say a week, though, so for the time being, they have no choice but to suffer under the impression and impatience of promised doom; it can be considered hell before their true hell."

    "That''s if such a ce will even ept them after their bodies have been entirely eradicated from existence."

 Chapter 291: The Plane.

    "Hey, Flint, this will work," Lina stood at the head of his ship alongside him, and to her side were several other generals and to his left another few, totalling ten altogether, though, the general who stood left of Flint somehow stood out from the rest, he had eyes as ck as a starless sky, and his hair was a brilliant shade of crimson resembling Renia''s; there was even a slight bit of glow to it as he silently stared out in the void.

    He was the ninth ranked General for the Emporium, the ninth strongest and by far the most powerful person standing amongst the Generals only known by his rank of nine.

    "You are nervous, General Stark," Viktor smiled as he confidently stared into the void, his eyes bore crimson and his skin was painted pale while he had ck pulsing veins that easily showed in great detail through his flesh across the visible parts of his neck, face and arms.

    "There is nothing to worry about, we are a united front while he is but a single entity, and right now I''m so pumped I feel like I could destroy multiple systems with nothing but a wave of my hand."

    "An over-exaggeration, obviously," The man to Flint''s left huffed. "No augmented power can make up for your weakness, do you think drugs and bodily modifications have any merit or ground against true evolution; against a force of nature as powerful as Sol Vestic?" He asked and Flint''s smile slowly faded as those words sunk in.

    "Even if the Godyer doesn''t kill you here today, Viktor Flint, I will do it myself; you''re a stain on the Emporium''s Great name and a shame to the  Generals who stand by your side," Nine stared at Viktor, causing his expression to turn sour as the implications hit him.

    "Those were my orders and I will carry them out thoroughly after I deal with this bastard that you have let rampage in the Kha-Nova Collective for over three months because of your ipetence,"

    "I was ranked hundredth before, do you think I have grown weaker with the use of the technology within myself?" Viktor scowled. "When this is over I will be challenging you for that position amongst the nine." Flint boastfully responded, but gained a passive stare from Nine who only scoffed in dismissal of his defiance.

    "Times up," Lina announced to them all.

    "It''s officially been a week since hest showed himself, outside of what he did to the 1789th, if he''s as punctual as he''s been since first appearing, he''ll show-" Her breath hitched and she stopped speaking when a hand rested on her back, simrly, all the generals present seemed to react in slow motion when Lina''s chest exploded outwards and her pupils shrunk as she began slumping forward.

    "Correct, General Lina Stark," Sol responded catching her by her hair and holding her there while Flint and the other six Generals present stared in shock.

    "I expected you to survive my initial attack after spending seven days pumping your veins full of the blood of my people and augmenting yourself with their DNA, I suppose I overestimated you once more," He released her and vanished without a warning and without any fanfare; not even a sh of light, he was simply gone.

    "Disappointing," Sol appeared before the generals once more, unlike the other times that he had shown up wearing some kind of armour, this time he wasn''t wearing any since he''d realised that the armour was less durable than his bare flesh, instead he was wearing a tight-fitting white shirt with simrly white baggy training pants held together by a ck belt weaved through the pants along with a pair of martial arts footwear that wereced halfway to his knee, and finally, his hair that had begun growing out was caught in a ponytail that poked out behind him.

    "Sol Vestic," Nine called out to him, stepping forward and staring up at him as he floated leisurely before them with his hands in his pockets, amongst the Generals he was the only one who hadn''t reacted to Sol''s presence at all, he didn''t even look when Stark''s chest exploded before them. "Before we take another step forward, I was asked to extend an offer to-"

    "Rejected," Ikaris answered, floating from behind Sol with no evidence of being there, appearing as if a gateway existed in his back. "You can take whatever you were going to offer and shove it right back up your Empire''s ass," She added with a smirk and Sol chuckled as she came to a stop facing them correctly while he was still upside down with his hands in his pockets.

    "You haven''t heard what I-"

    "Hey, it seems that they sent away all of their soldiers in an attempt to save them; I mean, I did mark them and tell them to try running but I didn''t expect the sheep to obey the words of a wolf so thoroughly," Sol looked at Ikaris and she chuckled; bothpletely ignoring Nine.

    "Not that it matters," Sol held out his hand and his brown hair red up in brilliant white as he snapped his fingers summoning everyone into the empty space resulting in over half of the multitude dying immediately while the others who had augmentation started panicking.

    "Ten generals gathered to face me," Sol righted himself as the generals were looking around at Viktor and Lina''s crew all dying one after the other. "I''m short on mercy today, so you''ll have to forgive me for being brash."

    "Or not, it doesn''t matter any," Ikaris added, like Sol who''d foregone his armour, she was once again dressed differently; like him she wore baggy pants, but her tight blouse was covered by her sweater like before and her hair was also caught in a ponytail.

    "Ikaris..." Nine stared at her almost at a loss for words, he knew she was alive, the Emporium had confirmed it, but to see her in the flesh gave him a sense of nostalgia as one of the former captains who battled against her in his earlier days, it didn''t show on him but he was one of the few who predated the war.

    "Enough talking," Sol appeared before Nine with his fist cocked behind him unleashing a short punch like a pistol and seeing the man easily catch the blow which amassed a shockwave that blew all the others away from them and destroyed the ship they had been standing on. "I can tell you''re a cut above the rest so I''ll y with you and leave the others to My Wife."

    "You underestimate me," Nine scowled as he shed his palm against Sol''s fist. "Nevermind, with your refusal I have no need to y along with your charades, I''ll promptly dispose of y-"

    "He says he has no need to y around but he sure talks a lot," Sol raised a brow after swinging his other hand and connecting a left-handed punch that sent Nine vanishing in the stars.

    "Let''s change venues!" Sol raised both his hands and sped them causing every living soul to vanish from their location, leaving the two abandoned ships floating aimlessly.

    "Gah!!" Sal mmed into a surface after spending almost a minute falling with her eyes closed, the ground was made of rock and dirt which resulted in her kicking up a plume of dust as she rolled to a stop and sprung to her feet then stumbled and fell on her ass and hands.

    "Where am I, what just happened?" She thought, feeling her face and clutching her abdomen as she took a deep breath and began coughing while continuing to check herself for injuries.

    "I''m... still alive, but where the hell is this?" She looked up seeing ck skies above and what seemed like entire gxies in the distance. "Where?" She pondered, but shook and backed away when someone else fell next to her coughing just as she had and rolling to his back much like she had.

    "Hey, you''re from analysis, right?" The man asked as soon as he could find the strength to speak after spending an extended time slowly dying in the void of space.

    "Yes."

    "Can you identify where we are?" He asked staring at the stars. "Maybe if we figure it out we can get away before they find us, I got a good look of the ce while I was falling and there doesn''t seem to be an end, it''s not some or a tform, it''s an endless mass ofnd as far as the eye can see in every direction," He raised his head staring at her.

    "Sorry, I don''t recognise the system we''re in, and even if I did, how would we get away from this ce? Onlybatant types can use their suits to fly; I''m an analyst!" Sally snapped at the man, but he kept a calm facade as he responded in kind.

    "Which I also am."

    "But we''re also marked, I swear, I was hiding away on some remote moon, I don''t even know the name of, then I heard a snap and the next thing I know I was right in front of the Godyer again, and not I''m here, I don''t think we can get away..." She sat and sunk her fingers through the dirt. "Might as well just sit and wait for death toe for us.

    [This ce is called The ne.] Alpha appeared close to them sitting on a rock in her maid uniform and eating a piece of cake off a small dish with a fork. [Master Vestic had me create it for just such an asion. I admit it took quite a while, but it turned out to be well worth the trouble; I am impressed at the thought that went into it] She smiled, humming as she ate slowly.

    "...Who are you?" Sal asked after she and the man spent an extended duration staring at each other, confused about where the girl came from.

    "I am the grim reaper who will collect your souls as nourishment for the Sol Collective after you have been disposed of by the executioners, of course."

 Chapter 292: Divine Retribution.

    A sh of white and the roaring of an object falling faster than the speed of sound led to a crater hundreds of metres wide when Nine crashed into the terrain of The ne.

    He was unfazed by the crash as much as the punch hadn''t caused him any damage, what did bother him was how easily he had been forced from one ce to another; as the smoke and dust from his crash cleared and he stared into the air it became obvious that he wasn''t anywhere he''d ever been before, not a single constetion he could see made any sense.

    "This Godyer," Nine mused, fanning the dust from his face and walking out of the crater he''d made. "At first, I believed he simply had the rare powers of teleportation, which enabled rapid transportation from one ce to another, but this isn''t just another location; this is inside of another collective entirely."

    "Aren''t you the perceptive one," Sol walked from behind a cloud of dust with his hair still glowing white. "In order to prevent the entire Kha-Novan collective from suffering a disaster, I brought you into my Collective," Sol exined, crackling his knuckles.

    "This is The ne; an artificial universe created solely for the sake of fighting people like you, there''s no escaping here; this is a closed space where every point of escape leads back to the surface, and that''s all there is, and entire half is solid terrain and the other half is full of stars made for the sole purpose of creating light," Sol gestured to the ground and the sky where there were indeed multiple sources of light but each was spread so far apart there was no ovep, simultaneously casting day everywhere.

    "A universe where the Void is only a painting and there''s breathable air wherever you go..." Nine mused, removing the cloak on his shoulders with a flick of his wrist and staring at Sol as a breeze picked it up and tossed it away. "To create something of this magnitude, you are iprehensible, Sol Vestic," He admitted.

    "Coming from you that feels like an insult, Ninth General," Sol stared at him seriously, balling his fists as his mana began condensing inside of him. "I''ll be sure to send your head back to the Emperor wrapped in your cloak as a pre-arrival token, so give it your all, you won''t be alive for much longer."

    ***

    "Murderer!" Lana Stark wailed as she tore through mountains with her fists balled in Ikaris''s jacket dragging her along.

    "Where is your pride as a warrior, you killed her in cold blood!!" She screamed, breaking through the other side of the range and raising her fist to strike, but Ikaris swatted her hand away without fanfare and grabbed hold of the other hand breaking her wrist and freeing herself from her grasp, then raising her knee in her stomach and stepping in her chest sending her plummeting back into the ne like a beam of light.

    "Raaaagh!" Lana roared as soon as she hit the ground. "I''ll kill you!"

    "You''re too weak to even harm a hair on my head," Ikaris brushed off her clothes while staring passively at the woman on the ground as she descended.

    "Your dear sister wasn''t any better, are you lecturing me about murder when you and your Emporium, have been ughtering my people for millennia, where were your morals at those times, where was your empathy when you were imnting Godyer and Vatui cells into your body?" She asked calmly, staring at Lana''s white hair and ck eyes, and at her snapped wrist as it healed.

    "You''ve ughtered and tortured billions of my people, you''re lucky she got a quick death by my husband''s hand, if I had arrived first, she would have suffered, you all deserve to suffer!" Her blue eyes turned grey and then very slowly morphed into a bright glowing crimson.

    "You''ll burn in a thousand hells for what you did, Ikaris!" Lana lunged with all her might causing chaos as the area of impact with her foot turned tova as she dashed across the terrain, but her advance came to a sudden halt when out of the blue Cecelia came crashing with her heel in the side of her head sending her in another direction and then looking at Ikaris while thetter nodded and slowly ascended.

    "I''ll leave her to you," Ikaris nced once more at Lana and then vanished in a sh of crimson mana.

    "Will you be alright on your own?" Alpha asked Cecelia appearing at her side and eating cake again.

    "Of course, there is no weight hanging over my head, there''s nobody in trouble that I need to be looking out for, Lana was always strong," Cecelia paused when she sensed the approach of the enraged woman, taking the clip from her hair and holding it forward as a massive cannon appeared in her grasp.

    "But I have the power to contest with anyone below the 100th rank; I''ll deal with her in a snap and rejoin Her Majesty!" She dered, linking her power to the weapon and firing off a concentrated beam that ripped a trench through the ground, blinding Lana as she was struck with the beam dead centre in her chest and sent tunnelling across the terrain for miles.

    "She thinks she has the power necessary to defeat me, a retired soldier who has been hiding while her people died off," Viktor floated inches above the ground causing a consistent discement of dirt and dust beneath his feet. "You are a failure, and I will make an example out of you the same as-"

    "Get to the point," Ikaris stared at General Flint with a raised brow. "There are seven of you and only myself to contend, yet you are vastly outmatched," She raised her hands while Alpha appeared behind her and neatly removed her sweater.

    "I haven''t had a proper fight in nearly a year, try to keep up," Ikaris leaned forward, summoning the sword of the 1789th General and staring at her seven opponents.

    "How did we manage to end up so close to them?" Sal asked hiding behind a rock with the man from her initial crash staring at Ikaris and General Flint along with the six other generals all below the 500th rank.

    "You are indeed quite unlucky, first you betrayed Cecelia who turned out to be your only saving grace as an officer of the Emporium, then you ended up in mdy''s range, your demise will be a terrible one," Alpha turned and looked at her after appearing in a crouching manner the same as she was hugging her knees and smiling eerily. "You''re cooked."

    As soon as she saw Alpha a second time, Sally snapped in a fit of fright, bouncing from her crouch and into a full sprint away from them, but after a few seconds of running what was probably a marathon of distance because of her enhancements a wave of shock and destruction collided into the woman''s back, throwing her almost a hundred metres forward into a cascade that ended with her getting caught by someone and held upright.

    "Wh... Huh?" Sal shook her head and looked upwards,ing into contact with a pair of light greens and glowing pink hair. "Who are you?"

    "I wanted to be a part of the main fights, but there''s apparently a bunch of Captains headed this way to aid their seven remaining generals, right?" Dina looked to the side, and Alpha nodded while A patted herself; along with her, there was Keele, Jenifer, and the host of Arkadian gods who had been summoned to deal with the strays and keep them away from Ikaris so she could focus.

    "Apparently, they are supposed to be significantly more powerful than the ones we faced before the grand Collective was opened by Master Vestic," Dr''ul answered and Sal''s eyes widened as she witnessed that like Dina, this other woman had glowing hair resembling that of the Godyer, though hers looked like a cosmic radiation storm taken form aftering into contact with the rings of a, at her side was Adonai in his [PREDATOR EVOLUTION] form, with S''mael next to him visibly amped up after witnessing Ikaris''s destruction, shifting into his [BLACK JACKAL] transformation with a roar.

    "Let theme, I barely managed to scrape by thest time, but we have not been idle, my power after actively nourishing it has grown many times over!" S''maelughed. "I''ll destroy everything hahaha!" He continuedughing.

    "Allies..."

    "Indeed, your simple mind didn''t think for a second that The King and Queen had surrounded themselves with trustworthy allies?" Renia asked, being thest to step out of the portal before it closed behind her.

    It had taken a bit of convincing on Dina''s part to get the goddess of Chaos to open her mind to the battlefield once more, after herst encounter with the emporium warriors and her devouring the Vatui essence from her enemies, she had sworn never to raise a hand in violence again, but Dina used her status as a hero to persuade her, after all; they didn''t want to fight Sitri''s demon horde either, but they did it anyway because it wasn''t about them, something bigger was at stake.

    Sol''s prompt was a simple yet serious and time-sensitive one.

    Umbra wille, and before he does the Grand Collective needed to be rid of the Emporium, having multiple enemies on multiple fronts was a terrible sensation, they needed to get rid of the ones they could so he could focus on the imminent disaster at hand.

    "L-let go..." Sal held on to Dina''s hand when she realised the predicament she was in, but it was Renia who stood before her and took a deep whiff of her bleeding forehead from her crash earlier.

    "She has Vatui cells in her body, but she is human, she also has traces of PowerPoint inside of her blood, not a lot, but it''s there," Renia righted herself and looked at Dina.

    "Do with her what you will, I am going to intercept those approaching Captains," Dr''ul turned and took off leaving a pool of magma where she stood, and with her the other gods along with Keele and Jenifer left as well, leaving only A.

    "Alpha, have you pinpointed the others?" Dina looked at her and the maid daintily curtseyed and nodded.

    "Of course, after master marked them with his mana, they are easy to locate, I will create a map for you, amongst the marked, there are several vice-captains who have chosen to band together so you ought to be careful of them, they feign weakness," Alpha answered.

    "Alright, A, let''s get out of Ikaris''s way so she can stop holding back." Dina looked to the elf after another concussive wave mmed into them, she held on to Sal and the woman watched shocked as her body limply fanned from the winds yet the two who had remained were perfectly fine, tanking the force like rocks.

    "And her?" A stared at Sal.

    We know who our allies are, it doesn''t matter if they fight back or not; Master told us that The ne should be empty, we will dispose of them all.

    "Wait... Please, let me go."

    [Casting Divine skill]

    "You''re the one that betrayed Cecelia," Dina stared at her name as it floated above her head. "There''s no mercy for the likes of you."

    The skies above them became alive with electricity as portals from a pocket dimension opened up and A retreated several hundred feet away.

    "Please, help me, I''m sorry!"

    [Judgement has been maximised and is undergoing evolution, will you rename the skill?]

    "I''ve lived as a hero," Dina stared at her releasing her to the ground and binding her with a [Mana Spear] through her stomach. "But today I''m not that hero; today I''m punishing those who have wronged my loved ones and their people, this is only the prologue."

    [Divine Retribution]

 Chapter 293: My Win.

    "I was looking forward to destroying the Emporium with my own two hands, I wanted to relish in that feeling of crushing you after you dared to tread into my domain and threaten the safety of my family," Sol casually parried Nine''s fist to the side, he''d stuck a hand in his pocket and gonepletely on the defensive blocking and diverting every attack thrown by the man without moving from the spot he was on, resulting in him standing on a floating mound of rock above a giant crater made from his opponent throwing out devastating attacks one after the other that failed to reach or affect him.

    "I wanted to see what the strongest had; granted I was a bit hesitant about the idea that there might be someone in the Emporium stronger than myself, it just meant I would have to work that much harder to fight for what I loved," Sol caught the man''s fist and swung him like a towel several times, shing him mercilessly before releasing him and walking off the rock.

    "I thought that I could enjoy the destruction of my enemies like I used to," He closed the distance between the two of them in a single stride, stopping behind Nine and holding out his hand causing the man to m into his palming to a sudden halt.

    "What''s going on!?" Nine''s eyes widened in horror as soon as soon as he could find his bnce again, this man had been toying with him for nearly an hour even going as far as ranting and casually fighting him. "How can he be this powerful? This exceeds even his Majesty''s court''s calctions!"

    Nine bent forward and coughed up a mouthful of blood when Sol blitzed before him and raised his heel in his chest and then he spun and delivered another kick to the back of his neck plunging him into the pit of the crater beneath them then pulled him back to the top with a whip made of mana and punched him again, repeating the same act a third and fourth time before he finally kicked him to the side.

    "Everything changed when he appeared, though," Sol caught Nine with the whip and dragged him towards himself once more, catching him by his face and mming their foreheads together.

    "I can''t divert my attention for even a moment, knowing damn well that if I do something catastrophic and irreversible will happen; do you understand what I''m saying?" Sol asked, ramming his forehead against Nine''s once more and then releasing his face and pressing his hand against the man''s chest. "Are you even listening?"

    [Force Sun]

    An oval phenomena of burning cosmic mes manifested in a rapidly growing explosion against Nine''s chest pushing them apart as it copsed in on itself and vanished before appearing again as a great star-shaped explosion, leaving miles upon miles of molten ground in its wake.

    "There''s more out there; something iprehensible which you couldn''t even begin to fathom, of course that''s not making light on what you''ve done, the Emporium deserves destruction for their years of tyranny, and their many genocides, it''s not even just Vatui and Godyers."

    Sol swiped the disced strand of hair that had gotten loose from his [Forced Sun] explosion.

    "You killed off most of the other species in the grand collective, elves, beastmen, so many races on the brink of extinction!" Sol tightened the [mana whip] and dragged Nine right into his heel, sending him cascading down onto the ground and then releasing it.

    "I don''t understand," Nine mused, crawling out of the crater he''d made as Sol slowly descended before him taking a passive stance as he watched the ninth general coughing from the blow to his stomach and chest earlier. "How?

    I am the Ninth General of the Emporium; even if you have powerparable to a universe, my power is supposed to far outscale yours; I am the Ninth!!" He roared mming his hand on the ground so hard that the entire area beneath the star giving them lightpressed and erupted into the air, casting nigh-total darkness as the light was blocked.

    "You think I scale to the power of a single universe?" Sol killed the momentum of the explosion with a simple wave of his hand, dismissing everything which obscured his view as he took his other hand from his pocket, staring at Nine while his hair morphed from white to gold and his true Godyer form was slowly revealed.

    "Gold...?" Nine stared in disbelief, if his memory was urate; he had never seen a Godyer of gold before, like the Vatui, they traditionally had white hair, even though their powers had always been more obscure and on the mystic and iprehensible side, he had never seen one with a golden aura before, and what were those rings on before and behind him supposed to be, he''d never seen anything like this.

    "While you are here making daily existence a pain in the ass for me; a greater threat looms with the intent to destroy not just my collective; not just the Kha-Novan Collective or a single group or cluster, race or structure... There is a pir of festering darkness that will inevitably swallow up and destroy everything the light touches, and I''m the only one who can stand against it."

    "I don''t care if you''re the Emperor himself or his First Lady!" Sol pressed his heel against Nine''s forehead and guided him to the bottom of the crater that his outburst had made forcing him against the ground and grinding his heel into his flesh until it began stripping off and bleeding against his white shoes.

    "With the bnce of all realities weighing on my shoulders, how do you suppose one such as myself would scale to anything inside of the Emporium''s scope of expectations?" Sol asked driving Nine''s head further into the ground and grinding his teeth.

    Thend around them began trembling and quaking.

    Sol, who was ready to make true to his promise and swiftly end their fight, paused and stared at the man under his heel when something started changing within him; something familiar, changing rapidly, violently.

    "Nobody asked," Nine chuckled after his head was buried so deep that his body was arched. "Nobody at all asked!" He reached for Sol''s foot, and Sol Raised his leg and kicked him clean out of the moon-sized crater with his brow raised after stomping on him once more for good measure leaving cracks the size of small inds ripping the terrain apart. "Your power scales higher than a sector? So what?

    So does mine!" Nine appeared behind Sol like a blur attacking but finding his speed and power once again inadequate as Sol didn''t even bother moving other than looking at him and watching his hand break when he tried striking him down.

    "Nobody asked you to fight for them, that''s a choice you made all on your own; nobody cares for you and your kind, Vatui and Godyers are nothing but resource, elves, beastmen, what of them? They''re lesser, humans are the absolute peak!

    The emporium is the greatest power there is and nothing will ever change that; not even you, Sol Vestic." Nine''s hand healed with a snap and he drew his sword, causing Sol''s eyes to narrow even more when he started sensing dense Godyer mana inside of it; the weapon felt like it had beenposed entirely of mana.

    "Mana...?"

    "No matter the power you hold, the Emporium only masses to a single percent of the entire Grand collective on a whole, you can''t speak for everyone," Sol answered calmly as he stared at the man ripping his torn up shirt away and revealing his battlesuit beneath it.

    "You''ve oppressed and destroyed, piged, murdered and ravaged for far too long," Sol stared at the sword in his grasp, sensing hundreds of millions of souls trapped inside of it.

    "You Hypocrite!" Nine snapped madly iling his hands and roaring into the sky.

    "Why do you think we were at war in the first ce, where do you get off saying such bullshit when your kind have been doing the same for three times the length, at least we incorporated LAW into our daily lives and made our people stronger in the process, you bastard, Godyers and Vatui are all demons the things you did are unforgivable!"

    Sol kept his eyes locked to the man, passively observing him.

    "Something''s not right here," He moved out of the way slightly, watching the de slice through the air and leave a cleave through the ground that went on as far as the eye could see.

    [clockwork]

    "This isn''t LAW, he isn''t using any tricks, so why?" Sol pondered watching the weapon slowly drift past him a second time, reeling back and delivering a brutal punch to Nine''s chest before returning time to normal again as the man hit the ground and left a circr hole through to an underground cavern.

    "Why am I sensing the powers of a Godyer inside of him, what''s going on here?" Sol wondered, breaching into the cavern and reaching his hand outwards when the darkness gave way to the glint of the sword reflecting from his light as it came after his neck, when Sol''s palm came into contact with the weapon everything that had been confusing to him became as clear as day; Nine wasn''t Godyer, but he was choked to the neck with imnts and constantly forcing himself to withhold power.

    The sword wasn''t purely physical metal as he had suspected, millions of Godyers had been killed and their bodies ced inside of a pressure chamber, there, they were forced intopression so powerful their bodies and everything that made them was ground into matter and then slowly over the course of several years those bits and pieces were mended together, this was the highest grade of weaponry in all of the Grand Collective, it took over a century to form, and oncepleted only someone within the range of the top ten most powerful had the skill or mental fortitude to control the living weapon.

    Sol was at a loss for words while his mind was flooded with the simultaneous memories of millions of Godyers who had been killed in cold blood, the Ninth out of ten weapons speciallymissioned which had a mind of its own; twisted through tortured souls and anguish.

    A weapon that could and would cut anything it touched, not even his cursed sword which was now in Umbra''s possession was capable of being this sharp, his mind slowed down as the de of the weapon seamlessly cut through the barrier he had preemptively set up and sliced into his skin, taking four of his fingers and a chunk of his forearm while Nineughed, angling the sword upwards at his neck to cleave his head clean off his shoulders.

    "Heh-hahaha!" Nine''s eyes widened after the weapon had done it once again; causing the mind of a powerful opponent to short out.

    "This is my win, Sol Vestic!"

 Chapter 294: Fight for Me.

    "Aaargh!"

    His teeth all sharpened and his golden irises started shining brightly as mana began pouring out of his mouth when Sol clenched his teeth in the moment of impact and caught the sword with his mouth, then very slowly turned his gaze towards Nine once more.

    "With his teeth!?" Nine went mum from shock as he saw a golden crack appear across the surface of the de.

    Sol made no fanfare of it, he didn''t try to be shy and he had no intention of covering his actions, with his teeth locked on the sword, he balled his fist and slowly raised his hand, and then punched Nine right in his nose breaking it as well as his skull as he vanished into the dark of the cavern causing massive stumbles and cave-ins.

    "Hundreds of millions," Sol held on to the handle of the weapon and took it out of his mouth, watching it heal itself of the cracks his teeth had left.

    "Now in his grasp he could feel the malice the weapon possessed, but something strange began happening the longer he held on to it; the sword began calming down, rather than the endless river of acres and voices it had been prior it started quieting, their voices one after the other became whispers.

    "I''m not sure how it works, I know that I''m not truly like the rest of you who were born Godyer; I was chosen to be a part of your people, but even then," Sol stared at the sword with a sad expression as the voices continued to quiet. "You are my people, and what happened to you is unforgivable; I''m sorry."

    "You have a choice," Sol continued speaking to the sword as he dodged Nine who hadunched himself back like a projectile.

    Sol ducked beneath the man a second time and grabbed him by the back of his head by his hair when he tried reaching for the sword.

    "I can destroy you," Sol''s fingers and forearm that had been sliced through healed in an instant as he folded his fist and broke Nine''s jaw with a single punch, catching him by his leg before he wasunched away and mmed him into the ground beneath them attempting to step on him again.

    This time though, the  Ninth General dodged Sol''s foot and flipped away escaping within the dark of the cavern with a chuckle.

    "You''re a powerful weapon, that won''t change, I can''t free you from your current form without killing you, so I give you an alternative option," Sol stared at the sword which floated near him following his every move after he tethered it to his mana.

    "Princess Ikaris has returned as the Queen of Divines, and she''s more powerful than ever before; she''s going to undo the Emporium and destroy them thoroughly, her path is vengeance," Sol crossed his palms holding them to his chest just fast enough to block Nine''s enraged uppercut which sent him tunnelling back upwards to the surface, breaking through and flying directly into the face of the star which lit that area, and right there with him was the sword, nowpletely still.

    "I wanted to do the same-" Solunched himself back towards Nine,nding and blocking several fast jabs before the man spun out of hisst counter-punch and grabbed his hand spinning midair with him and tossing him into the ground causing it topress and explode like a volcano sending fire and debris in every direction.

    "I''ll just keep getting stronger, I AM stronger!!" Nine roared grabbing at Sol''s arm a second time but getting parried as Sol leapt to his feet and dropped his heel in his shoulder then spun out of his reach while simultaneously delivering a powerful kick to his temple which stunned him just long enough that Sol could stack clockwork on his arm for a few seconds.

    [Release]

    "I have a different purpose, though," Sol ignored Nine as he continued speaking to the sword slipping through the General''s defences and stopping an inch short of his stomach with his fingers slowly approaching him.

    One.Inch.Death.Punch.

    Nine''s spine turned to powder, and hisrge intestines before it, along with a small portion of his pelvic bone and his lower ribcage, when Sol''s fist mmed into him.

    The terrain shook as the man was sted clear from one side to the other spanning the full length of the universe in a sh and mming into the barrier Sol had set up flying through it and appearing above Sol again only to reel in shock and horror when Sol positioned himself perfectly beneath him stopping him an inch above his straightened hand pointing at his chest this time.

    "Wait-"

    One.Inch.Death.Punch.

    Nine lost the ability to speak, breathe or even think when the second attack hit him shattering and grinding everything beneath his flesh and sending him into the star above them like a needle through a balloon, he flew so fast and so hard that the star had a visible hole torn through it when he collided into the barrier and appeared inverted cascading down towards The ne once more as a ball of fire.

    "I want you to be a part of that purpose," Sol stood upright and stared at the sword once more. "Rather than be extinguished and die forever, angry, anguished and in pain, Join my fight against the real enemy which hides in the shadows, what will soon be the most powerful and most dangerous enemy of the Grand Collective, my alter ego, Umbra," He exined.

    "He has allied with darkness itself and found an emissary to strengthen him in an inverse Beginning within five years he already became powerful enough to challenge me despite my being several hundred times stronger than he is, I could use the help, will you fight for me?"

    Sol looked at the silent sword and then at the ball of fire descending.

    "As I expected from someone of the highest tier in the Emporium," Sol stared at Nine as he burst from the fire, screaming at the top of his lungs. "You''ll be a cockroach unless I atomise you."

    Sol took a moment once more when he felt another great release of strengthe from Nine.

    This was going to be a sh of strengths, the man was still getting stronger even having his bones vaporised beneath his flesh and his organs boiling proved to not be enough to kill him, "Think about it," Sol nced at the sword and then balled his fist, sending it to a different location Via teleportation as his and Nine''s attacks shed onto each other.

    *Shhhhhh-BOOM*

    A raw explosion unlike anything they''d ever seen; it wasn''t charged with mana, there was nothing but pure physical force behind it yet a gaping hole opened up inside of The ne Ikaris''s fight despite being the equivalent of gxies away was caught up in the explosion, Dina shielded A from the concussive force that followed the cosmic eruption of fire and wind, Dr''ul''s siblings all sought shelter inside of her mana when they nearly died, being even closer than Ikaris was, and Cecelia stuck her cannon in the ground and rode out the waves of destruction while Keele and Jenifer who were farthest away sought shelter from the storm.

    A majority of those who had been hiding died instantly as more than sixty percent of the surface of The ne was destroyed by the force generated between Sol and Nine''s punches colliding onto each other; in a sense; all the weakest ones had been purged.

    "Are you okay?" Dina lowered her shield exposing herself and A to more strong winds after a few minutes had passed.

    "That was scary," A ced her hand over her heart with a huff. "Being within Master''s range while he fights; I have forgotten how scary that was," The elf admitted with another huff and a sigh. "The ones we were fighting all died from that concussive wave that you shielded us from."

    "I didn''t think my barrier would hold, but it''s like you keep saying; I underestimate myself a lot, but this won''t change, I''ll remain the underdog and keep giving it my all, humility is better than overconfidence," Dina hummed as she looked around at the destruction.

    "There''s not a single person left near us after that." She opened up the augmented map Alpha had given them, staring at the location of everyone and seeing them all in good health. "Only the vice-captains and above remain; the real fight is about to begin."

    "I am ready," A nodded, and Dina did the same as the two of them took flight towards the closest one.

    "Remember what Alpha said, they''re all pretending to be weak so we drop our guards, don''t fall for their trickery; the sooner we take them out, the sooner we can be done here."

    "I am well aware," A''s smile remained as she raised her mana to the max internally, preparing for the sudden emergence of an enemy from any side at any moment, and their caution paid off when seemingly out of the blue they were attacked by a group of nearly a dozen Vice-Captains.

    [Swap]

    [Inversion]

    Both Dina and A utilised their techniques in different ways to evade their enemies,nding next to each other as the vice-captains above them scrambled to reach them a second time. "A,"

    "In one fell swoop!" A released her charged mana like an explosion, forming a triangle in with her palm and catching four inside of the space while Dina took a deep breath umting mana in her throat and clenching her jaws tightly.

    [Divine tier ability; COSMIC SCREAM]

    [Pseudo-Divine tier magic; MAXIMUM PULSAR]

 Chapter 295: Unknown Tier Magic.

    [MAXIMUM-PULSAR]

    [COSMIC SCREAM]

    The two high-tier abilities conjoined at thest minute and formed a cone-shaped vortex of destruction catching ten out of the fourteen Vice-captains and shredding them to bits after a few seconds of going rampant.

    While A was thrown off her feet because of using the highest grade [pulsar] she could without being a divine, Dina stood her ground, tanking the force of the two attacks fusing into one and applied even more mana to it resulting in a great explosion after the initial expulsion of two of their strongest attacks shing.

    "Haah~" The pink-haired mage leaned forward and rested her hand on her knee when after the explosion nearly threw her back as well, expanding high into the sky and causing a great cosmic cloud to rapidly spread in every direction.

    The four vice-captains; two males and two females, who had managed to evade the tandem attack retreated several hundred metres and rejoined with visible fright on their faces, none of them had ever seen anything like this; they were of the impression that the people that pursued them were Vatui and a Godyer but they''d never seen any power like that from either race before.

    "I''ve never seen a Godyer with pink hair, and that redhead we thought was Vatui just created a cosmic event, I know enough about Vatui to know they can''t do things like that!" One of the men of the four eximed in shock while he scratched the mark on his forearm.

    "How''d they even find us so easily?" He was the generic example of an Emporium Vice-Captain, with eyes of ck, hair of dark violet and slightly pale skin; all four of them had the same kind of appearance with no variation in their uniform and no weapon to set any of them apart.

    "The information we got from that useless analyst was incorrect; figures, she died and still couldn''t do anything right; first, she fucks up with Cecelia and got us in this mess, and now, even after she''s dead, she''s still causing problems for us!" The other male spoke, shaking his head as he watched the debris that had fallen to their feet behind moving in the direction of the explosion that had nearly killed them.

    "This is fine, it doesn''t matter what they are; as long as Sol Vestic, Ikaris, or Cecelia don''t show up we can still find a way off this endless ce and get out of here.

    "It''s an infinity, there''s no way off it," Dina spoke from behind them, and the four spun around ready to attack but witnessed in horror as the woman who was just behind them turned into a small stone and appeared from another angle with lightning crackling across her fingers.

    "Don''t get cocky!" One of the womenshed out snapping so hard at Dina that the mage blinked in shock, but a momentter the woman''s fist was making contact with a pebble and Dina was at her side with her fingers pressed against her ribcage after A activated [SWAP].

    "You''re the one who shouldn''t get cocky, Amanda Weller; a vice-captain is only a vice-captain!" Dina stared at the others who were in the process of retreating while the woman Dina had caught began screaming out in pain as [Retribution] manifested inside of her, sending terrifying bolts of divine lightning tearing up the terrain from her hands and feet while her skin darkened and her eyes bulged before popping from her head.

    "What the fuck, Amanda!" The other woman snapped, turning to run, but came face to face with A''s sped hands pointing to her and slowly descending against her forehead with an ominous white glowing from the spaces between her fingers.

    "No!" She tried changing directions while the two men attempted to help her, but all of a sudden the men crashed into each other and the woman''s back was turned to A when Dina assisted with [INVERSION].

    [Divine tier magic;]

    "Copsing Star!" A roared as her crimson mana expanded across several miles of terrain in an instant just as a beam escaped her hands and crashed into the woman''s back, it didn''t break her skin much to A''s dismay, but the sheer force of the attack ruptured every blood vessel in her back and snapped her neck upon impact shredding her battlesuit as it dragged her across the ground for miles before finally exploding sending cosmic mes high into the air in the form of a dome, easily reaching the size if a small moon.

    "Sid..." The taller of the two remaining men sank behind a rock and held his mouth, frightened when the woman''s vital signs stopped reading after she was hit with another beam from A, who pierced the mes of her first attack to deliver a deciding blow. "There''s no way!" He thought.

    "We have no data on either of these two, they''re definitely not stronger than the captains and generals, but they are killing us with ease, what the fuck''s happening!?"

    On the cusp of a mental breakdown, his fingers sank into the flesh across his mouth tearing his skin and splitting his lips as he started hyperventting, but he caught something in his peripheral; a small woman dressed like a household maid bent down and eating a cake casually while she stared at him. "...a maid?"

    Alpha didn''t respond, instead, she pointed upwards with her fork and the man followed her gesture and came face to face with A''s fist descending, he managed to avoid the punch and even countered with a kick meant to break her skull, but she disappeared like a ghost and caught him by his hair mming his face into the ground and then leaping away when his fellow Vice-Captain came to assist.

    "I suppose two is as much as I could realistically manage," A frowned, thinking that anyone but her would have already made short work of these lesser vice-captains.

    [Earthen Wall] was useless against them, and so was [Absolute Zero], two of her signature spells, never mind something like [Flood] or [Hurricane].

    She needed too much prep time to cast [pulsar] or [Cataclysm] which only left her forbidden magic and [Copsing Star], but now that they''d seen her use [Copsing Star] there''s no way they''d allow her to get off another one knowing what it did to theirrade.

    "She hesitated!" The Vice-Captain that nearly lost his head to her a moment before leaned forward and lunged at the first opportunity he got. "Amateur!" He grinned, grabbing A''s chest te when she failed to react fast enough and angling his fingers in a piercing motion in an attempt to skewer her, while the other went on the defensive when he realised that Dina was missing.

    "A grabbed his hand before hepleted his thrust and raised both her heels in his chest using him as a tform and breaking free by tearing her armour apart with brute force and then vanishing from his sights when he used the chest te as an extension and nearly gut her.

    She appeared just feet away from him, sliding backwards and holding on to her torn blouse that had revealed much of her cleavage almost resulting in her breasts springing out while Dinanded from the sky next to her like aet, taking a step forward with fury smeared across her face, her hair swaying menacingly and her eyes burning brightly, but A grabbed her hand after the man leapt backwards and stood upright.

    "Are you okay?" Dina looked at her.

    "Yes, I am unharmed," A nodded sucking in a breath and regaining herposure. "Sorry, I hesitated and nearly got myself in trouble, fighting demons all my life has resulted in some bad habits," A admitted. "Allow me to try again,"

    "You sure?" Dina stared at her concerned, and the elf nodded confidently.

    "Yes, your intervention has allowed me to recover more than just myposure," A nodded once more and began walking towards her enemies at a casual pace.

    [Casting Holocaust]

    [Double casting Holocaust]

    [Triple casting Holocaust]

    [You are casting over ten simultaneous magic spells you''re at your limits]

    [You are casting over twenty different magic spells in tandem with Holocaust]

    [Casting ��??]

    [Casting ��1??]

    [Unknown Tier magic achieved]

    [New spell achieved]

    [Divine ability achieved]

    [You have taken another step to true divinity]

    The system announced and continued announcing as more achievements appeared while a trickle of blood dripped from A''s nose.

    The good thing about special casts was that after the initial discovery or achievement of said cast, a recast became ten times easier each time you sessfully achieved it, as was the case for something like [Pulsar] which Dina could now cast at will and without any preparation, even from her mouth and fingertips like Sol and Ikaris could.

    Simrly, A had dozens of basic magic that she was readily affluent in and could cast without chants or preparation some without even raising a finger, so she began stacking them onto each other repeatedly until they all underwent evolution at the same time.

    "Unknown Tier;" A mumbled to herself as the crimson mana surrounding her body became violent and her hair started glowing steadily. "Unknown Tier..."

    [Stack]

    "Unknown Tier?" Dina looked around at Alpha.

    "Indeed, she managed to achieve an unknown Tier skill by repeatedlybining her magic and applying all the knowledge she has as a veteran warrior, you have yet to achieve an [Unknown Tier] level magic, it is simply a case of experience." Alpha replied.

    "Unknown what?" The shorter of the two vice-captains who had overheard her took a step backwards when the hairs on the back of his neck started standing on end after A''s armour repaired itself and her form became obscured because of the atmosphere bending and twisting around her.

    "We should run while we still can-" the man turned to escape but his friend was already on the ground frozen in horror. "H-hey-" he tried reaching for the man but slumped when the power in his legs gave out and his body started shaking. "H-hold on... No..."

    "Unknown tier is scary, I can physically feel my mana reserve and my core expanding, I feel enlightened."

    "What?" Dina stared at Alpha for an exnation.

    "Achieving an Unknown Tier ability for the first time, and consistently using it afterwards is a hit and miss, the grade of ability could easily rise or fall if you don''t control your mana properly, it''s a euphoric sensation that raises your battle prowess by 100% upon a sessful cast."

    "That''s wild..."

    [Are you ready to name your first Unknown Tier magic?] Alpha asked and A nodded and went into a crouch.

    [Unknown Tier Apocalypse magic;]

    "Extinction."

 Chapter 296: Heavenly Constraint.

    "I feel... incredible," A mused taking deep breaths with slow steps and watching the ground beneath her feet flee from her.

    Across the vastness, Ikaris stopped and stared at the skies whennes of clouds began racing away from them, Sol paused and raised his hand blocking the sun above him and staring into the void in her direction, the Arkadian gods all took reverend breaths as A''s mana continued to rise until she began feeling the full brunt of her own power.

    "She stacked holocaust until it evolved with the many other dangerous magic she had kept to herself," Alpha stared at A''s back with a somewhat troubled smile. "And she calls it, [Extinction].

    [You have the chance to evolve directly into a named god, will you ept this title?]

    "I''ll have to decline, Alpha," A stood before the cowering men with a small white phenomena in her grasp like a fairy light.

    "This is far from enough to satisfy my ego; when Master became a demigod the heavens trembled and when he became Godyer the very universe bowed to him, I want a simr evolution; I want to be remembered for eternities after I am gone for that moment, achieving it here where there are no witnesses does me no service," A answered, leaning her hand and releasing the slow projectile orb of glowing mana with a flick of her finger.

    "I want my Masters to bear witness to the moment I be a divine with their eyes, not with their senses, I want them to be overwhelmed and shocked in the flesh; not from a distance, when I finally step into godhood, I will make the very fates tremble.

    "A watched the orb touch the man''s forehead and then snapped to her senses, spinning and grabbing Dina after appearing at her side when the man and his friend vanished into strands of evaporating flesh.

    "Too close?"

    "Far too close!" The elf responded in a panic, sping her fist again and disappearing with Dina before the entire area turned white, at first it was just light; a bright light that outshined the stars, but then the ground began trembling and that light quickly began taking form behind them, A had gone so far from their original destination that she couldn''t identify where they were anymore, and yet when that attack of hers finally came to material realisation, it seemed to be visible from every angle and chasing them down

    For some, it looked like a faraway dome reaching into the skies, but for others like Ikaris and Cecelia, it was a great white hell several times the size of a star and with so much potent mana not even Cevelia was sure of avoiding serious wounds if she ventured inside of such violent and resentful magic.

    "The second stage is about to take effect," Alpha sat before the explosion drinking daintily from a teacup. "Magnificent, A, truly worthy of your title as devout lover to the Godyer, be proud of your achievement and pray you need never use such terrifying power again, considering how little mana such a frightening spell consumes."

    "Hm," Ikaris blocked several iing attacks with her head turned in A and Dina''s direction, ready to move at a moment''s notice, but she went back to her fight when Dr''ul came from out of nowhere and caught them both in a hug disappearing through sheer speed and appearing so far from the dome of white light that it once again resembled a small mountain in her perception.

    "Your Excellency!" A stumbled and came to a screeching halt when the goddess of war released her and a frightened Dina to the ground, but in answering, Dr''ul held her head and turned her in the direction of her magic in the distance.

    "Pay close attention, A, you have entirely stepped within our realm with this one act of destruction, nay, you have kicked the doors open by force!" Dr''ul stared as well as the dome suddenly vanished, five seconds, ten, nothing seemed to be happening but then out of the blue another eruption of white appeared, many times greater than thest; it arose from the ground like a fireball, shooting off hundreds of thousands of tails of white fire into the sky as it arose and spread distorting the air and warping the space around itself.

    "What is-"

    "Here ites..." Dina stared intently, fortifying her body with a thinyer of Mana as she sensed the discement of the ground beneath her. "A, you''re amazing...

    the best!" Dina eximed as the three of them witnessed the ground before them liquify in reaction to the utter annihtion of the terrain as giant cracks miles wide appeared row after row in hundreds of shockwaves in every direction.

    "Let''s take a look!" Dr''ul cackled, excitedly grabbing both of them by the backs of their armours and flying up into the air as she continuedughing.

    It was only after taking to the skies that A understood the weight of a power meant to extinct; it was only when she could see no end to a gaping hole that she understood the power she had created in a moment of inspiration. "What utter madnessing from a creature who has yet to even evolve!

    This is pure unbridled chaos and destruction, A Amastacia!" The goddess continued tough while Dina and A stared, realising that they were unable to see the opposite side of the hole, and they could not see the bottom of it either.

    "This..." Dina mused, activating her flight chants mentally and escaping Dr''ul''s clutches as she ascended even higher and stared. "This magic is even more dangerous than Ikaris''s [incineration maximum]!" She eximed in horror. "It took out an areapatible to three earth suns!"

    "Wonderful!" Dr''ul continuedughing, looking at A who was too stunned to speak. "What is the name of this abominate power?" She asked. Chapter Your:

    [Extinction]

    "Extinction..." The goddess of war mused with a nod smiling from ear to ear. "A, you are firmly upon my radar after this feat of strength, I wish for a rematch after this is all over and done!" Dr''ul released her and watched her bob several times in the air before stabilising.

    "I want to see what happens when you push that level of power to the extremes you did with your [Copsing Star] which destroyed the entire surface of Arkadia''s moon."

    Dr''ul seemed distracted but vanished from their sights and reappeared at Dina''s side swatting away the fist of a sneaky attack and then grabbing the man by his head and crushing it with a chuckle.

    "There are still quite a few lingering Vice-Captains, here and there," Dina slowly turned revealing that she had sensed and had been ready to counter the man''s attack as well. "A, can you still fight?" Dina asked, staring at the elf, who seemed to be in a daze even now.

    "I am ready to tackle anything, Dina."

    "Then, let''s finish what we started and set a course for the rest who are trying to get away," Dina suggested while Dr''ul nodded to them both and vanished again to rejoin the fight she had left her brothers and sister in to witness the shattering power A had manifested from enlightenment in the midst of a battle.

    "I ...I think I can do it again," A looked at Dina.

    "Really, I''d imagine it took a lot out of you, but... after Alpha''s exnation, I get it now; Unknown Tier attacks don''t consume nearly as much mana as they should," Dina nodded, flying while A caught up and listened, both leaving in a direction opposite of the hole.

    "Meaning?"  The elf tilted her head as she observed her mana for abnormalities.

    "Unknown Tier magic is an anomaly achieved in the midst of a fight, you gain a boost of focus, a boost of mana, and your overall stats are increased by a hundred percent after your first cast, the way she made it sound, that percent falls after each sessful cast but the first one is definitely a hundred percent onrease in all your base stats; in a nutshell, your mind, your body, your mana; everything about you for the next few minutes to an hour is operating under a drastic increase across the board, everything you do will have twice the effect, twice the destruction, twice the potency, but the first sess depends entirely on luck and enlightenment."

    "So... Aside from [Extinction], every other magic I possess has had a potential increase of 100%..." A mused.

    "Yes, the more you use it the lower the percentage drops, but every sessful casting of Extinction resets the timer, you have the ability to achieve a thousand percent of your original power safely without causing your body any harm; after that threshold is breached you will have no choice but to evolve to continue using that level of power, or you face the heavens reacting with hostility.

    "I''ve never heard of that before, did something like that happen to Master?" Dina asked.

    "Indeed it did, Master Vestic''s Heavenly Constraint came in the form of Sitri, it puzzled me greatly until I witnessed A''s power with my own self; how did that demon gain such power so scarily fast?" Alpha looked at A while the three of them travelled.

    "It was because of him; his very presence was the trigger, Sitri was the only being in a position where she would destroy him without a just cause, so the heavens chose her-"

    "Is that even possible?"

    "The will of the heavens knows no allies," Alpha responded to Dina''s doubt.

    "Sitri was granted power by fate."

 Chapter 297: Dark Mana.

    "I refuse to believe that the heavens would choose the enemy of the gods to carry out an act of constraint on one man," A shook her head, thinking of everything Sitri had done. "Fate shows no ally either, so how could it possibly have been the entity that gave Sitri her powers?" She added.

    "You should not think of fate as a sentient body or a consciousness, Fate is a single will, this much I am aware of; Fate''s role is bnce; much like a Godyer is supposed to mediate Vatui, fate mediates the bnce of power for all living beings, Master Vestic thwarted that bnce by simply existing, so Fate made even an uneven equation, do you not see the truth behind my theory?" Alpha looked at her turning her back to their destination and eating.

    "

    "You speak as though you have encountered Lumi''s Fate," A stared at her, and the system went silent and turned again, saying nothing else for the duration of their flight until they arrived at another location where she soundlessly slipped through the ground and left without an utterance.

    "Come out, we know you''re here," Dina stared at the small bed of jagged rocks, but as she had expected, nobody approached or even made a peep, had it not been for their heartbeats wildly thumping against their ribcage, they would have been invisible to their senses.

    "Fine then, be that way," she raised her hand and her hair began iling around her head weightlessly while the bed of rocks began superheating.

    [Infernal arts; microwave]

    One by one, there were explosions of blood behind the rocks, seven in total, each from someone''s head popping when Dina focused on their brains and fried them from the inside.

    "Was it necessary to be that cruel?" A asked, but the mage before her didn''t even respond as she walked through the scorching heat and stared at the corpses one after the other, confirming each kill with her own eyes before she slowly began ascending in the direction of their next target. "Dina, are you-"

    "I''m fine, A," she replied with a serious gaze.

    "Let''s justplete our tasks and move on, don''t think of them as anything other than creatures we have to get rid of for the greater good, don''t even consider them living, what we''re doing is morally unjust, and I know that if I stop and give it too much thought I''ll probably break down, so don''t; just fight until there''s nobody else left to fight."

    "...Okay," The elf bit her lips, staring at Dina''s back while they approached another group of individuals.

    ***

    "He disappeared again," Umbra was seated on a moon the size of a house staring into the void. "Where does he go, why can''t I do the same?" He asked, and Giza, who was suspended in the air behind him with her back pressed to his, stared at the void as well with a thoughtful gaze. "I know he''s not in The Grey, if he was, I''d be able to sense that he was," He mused.

    "Sol Vestic holds a collective within his soul, I don''t know how he did it, but I know that is what he did, I sensed the moment he did so," Giza replied.

    "The entire collective...?"

    "Yes, that is what empowers him so greatly, he utilized the power of The Grey and controlled it with his will, even if he is my enemy, I still find fascination within that man, he has done amazing things so finding a ce where not even you can find him is not so hard to believe- ah!" She stopped speaking when Umbra''s hand clutched her neck and his gaze found the back of her head, unlike before where she was nigh intangible; she now had a full physical form and was caught off-guard when the man locked his fingers on her neck and leaned her head, bracing himself onto her and pressing his free hand against her side.

    "M... My Lord?" She questioned his actions hesitantly.

    "What are you doing? I told you not to speak of him that way in my presence again, he''s not some deity, he''s a monster," He hissed behind her, pressing his hand against her ribcage until he heard the first snap and felt her body shudder beneath his control.

    "I won''t keep warning you, the next time you utter his name in reverence I''ll take your tongue," Umbra dered squeezing tighter and staring down at her. "Understood?" He asked and then released her back to the small moon watching her disfigured side fix itself as she gasped and took deep breaths.

    "Yes, Lord Umbra, of course!" Giza gasped repeatedly then turned to him after a moment of silence, crawling on all fours and resting her cheek against his leg as sheid her head in hisp. "Forgive me, my King."

    "I don''t care for forgiveness, you''re useless to me as a fangirl, what I''m interested in is power, it''s barely been any significant passage of time but I''ve already amassed arge amount of power thanks to you, just keep doing what you''re doing and don''t stray from our goal; this collective, every collective; we''ll plunge them all into darkness forever and annihte everything the light touches."

    Chapter Experience:

    "... On the matter of how he did it, my Lord," Giza spoke after he began holding his hand across her back and sensually ying with her neck. "I do not know, but it could be a case where he simply erged his soul to epass all and then shrunk it once more, you were once inside so you should have felt the countless living beings within him; innumerable."

    "Yes," Umbra answered, looking up from her hair at a gigantic mass of ck before him and staring intently at it; for the moon he sat on there were several other empty moons, many of which wererger than Earth''s moon, and they all orbited a megastructure that had been plunged into perfect darkness by Giza, he sat there listening to the billions of people screaming as they panicked and wailed from the agony which he found asfort.

    "It seems they''re ready," He spoke again, and the woman in hisp raised herself and extended her hands towards the structure.

    "Then let us continue," She began taking the darkness from the structure, except the more she took the more of the structure and the living beings upon it that came with it; torn into small ink-likenes of rapidly condensing darkness which formed and shrunk into a mass in her palm, after an hour of absorption there was nothing but a skeleton of a megastructure left with no signs of evident lives ever existing there, and the mass in her palm had shrunken to the size of a small golf ball holding within it a conversation of whispers after she had destroyed their bodies as nourishment and taken their souls as fuel.

    "And this will work?" Umbra stood before her, taking the small mass from her grasp and staring at it with his dead ck eyes locked in focus.

    "Yes, my King, this is life in its purest and most primal form; before light, darkness existed, all that exists was once formless and void, eat my flesh and be enriched with the greatest source of power to ever exist," Giza ced her hand beneath Umbra''s hand and pushed the mass closer to his mouth watching as he opened wide and collected the entire thing with a single gulp, swallowing it down with a pained expression as his veins all turned ck and he began breathing small ck spots so microscopic that they looked like smoke.

    "What is this power?" He asked, staring at the mass he had exhaled. "It doesn''t feel like the Magicul I''m used to, it''s far more potent," he reached out and tried grasping

    "This is called mana, my king, dark mana; Sol Vestic uses a variant of it born of light, but I as the original vessel of darkness and the first consciousness am the one who discovered it before any being of light ever did, this is where my poweres from," She exined and he fanned his hand through the mass and breathed another huff of it, finding fascination in the small white outline which distinguished it from the darkness around them.

    "Mana is solitude, the end of all things; it is death and absolution; forget about An magic and focus your strengths on mastering my power instead, it will make you more powerful than fate itself, you will be the true god of the Grand Collective, able to turn any and everything into a source of power," She gestured to the Sun nearest to them and watched him extend his hand to it.

    "Teach me," Umbra grabbed Giza again cing her to stand before him as his one hand remained extended over her shoulder and his other now locked around her neck. "Show me how," he began moving slowly towards the distant star.

    "I want the power to destroy any being I touch and turn them into what you just fed me, if I can do this then defeating him is within my grasp again, with this power I can make him suffer, I can take everything away from him just as he left me with nothing!"

    "Sol Vestic, just wait a moment longer... everything you cherish, everything you love, I''ll destroy it all and force you to watch as it turns to darkness and dies!"

 Chapter 298: Extermination.

    "Why is it like this?" Viktor Flint huffed, staring at his shaking hand while he clutched his other arm which bled ck blood, he hissed and shook his head and spat to the side visibly disgusted by himself. "The Ikaris of the past would have long been killed by this power, and yet..." He trailed from his mental breakdown and stared up at Ikaris.

    "How?" The man asked.

    "How, Ikaris!?" He roared, shing his hand free after it had healedpletely and stood from his crouch staring at Ikaris who had quietly waited, aside from himself the other six generals had already been killed off, but true to her word she had continued to torture him, after all; his arrival was the reason they had to hide for two months, he was the one that chased Sol into the Kha-Nova Collective, she held nothing but a deep loathing towards the man before her.

    "The means of my growth is unimportant, Flint, what matters is that you are weak, you''re a pathetic existence, that much is obvious," Ikaris answered him in a monotone so sharp it wiggled itself through his walls and attacked his pride with a knife resulting in him wincing from the insult.

    For him this was twice the insult, his fleet had been destroyed by Ikaris once before, back in thest days of the war, like Nine who had personal history with her, Flint''s fleet was a subdivision under the same general as Nine, she was strong back then, but the Ikaris of the past was iparable to the being before him.

    If Cecelia''s growth over the millennia had been an exponential one by his assessment, then Ikaris''s growth wasn''t even on the chart, it waspletely vertical; only ascending as more time had passed.

    "I have given my everything to this battle; to this cause, and yet-"

    "And yet you''re drasticallycking," Ikaris finished his statement, holding out her hand as a small portal appeared next to her.

    "Pretending to be strong has never made the weak strong, you are a living facade, Viktor Flint, with all the power you have boasted I expected more, but not only are you weak and pathetic with that weakness; you''re also a sad excuse for a warrior, I should tell you that the only reason Sol ran was because I had just given birth and we had injured among us, even his strength back then; though much lesser than what he possesses now would have still been enough to destroy you if he had steeled in his mind to do so."

    "General Viktor Flint," Ikaris slowly pulled her hand from the portal, revealing the sword that she had taken from the 1789th General. "What happens next; happens because you''re too weak to protect yourself and too cruel to those weaker than you are."

    She unsheathed the sword causing the general''s eyes to widen when he saw the de slightly glowing aftering into contact with her. "This is your final moment; stand and fight me with everything you''ve got; die like a man and not like a worm."

    "...Die, like a man?" He asked, unsheathing his sword as well and staring hatefully at her. He wanted to at least refute her power, but their battle had been well over an hour long, and it was clear to see that his power was inadequate, his skill inparison to hers was subpar, and his experience, despite being active for so much longer than she was had proven to be severelycking.

    "I''ll die like a warrior on the day I choose to die!!" Viktor abandoned everything, the Emporium, his title, his pride, his greed; he threw it all away in an instant and threw himself into the pits of hell, using his thumb and puncturing a blood vessel in his forehead, another in his right shoulder and then one in his chest right next to his heart.

    "Ever since I discovered you and that damned Godyer, my life has been nothing but misery and chaos- I''ve had enough!" He bent his body abnormally and threw the sheathe of his sword at her with all of his strength causing the rocks, the soil and everything else in his surroundings to get disintegrated as the sheer force of the projectile''s speed passed over them.

    Ikaris who had not expected this sudden boost of power reclined and caught the thing after dodging it and luckily too since the weight it carried dragged her away just as he appeared in its wake with a swing destined to chop her head off had she not moved.

    "I won''t let you live!!" He screamed shing his de a second time as the restrictions set upon his body began burning away and his skin began turning ck from the blood overflowing in his body while a portion of it burned on the surface of his skin like a smokey miasma giving him the appearance of ck mes while he huffed more ck burning blood through his nostrils.

    "I won''t let any of you live!!"

    It was painful, extremely painful, so brutal in fact, that he couldn''t even tell that he was in pain, his goals had all been streamlined to killing Ikaris and then whatever came after her.

    Flint caught up with her in an instant and swung his de again; the attack was basic and easy to predict because of his loss of control, but the power behind it couldn''t be ignored, after she had avoided it she was sent skipping across the terrain trying to regain her bnce when the wave of shock it generated ripped through the ground like a hot knife against butter leaving giant cracks and one canyon so massive the sides were out of sight.

    "Stop running!!" He came again, this time with an audible sound like an explosion beneath water, he made to swing again but Ikaris regained her footing before his cycle waspleted and mmed her hand against his chest, sinking beneath the sword and digging her feet in the ground when thendscape behind her disappeared from his attack.

    [Creation Tier Magic;]

    Ikaris''s eyes began glowing brightly as she ground her teeth, tanking the punch that he swung as a counter in the side of her head after missing his initial attack and then hissing out a gigantic cloud of white mana as her mana surfaced once more. "Running? Me?!"

    [INCINERATION MAXIMUM]

    Point nk, Flint had never seen anything like this outside of Sol''s attacks, the first one and the second one she had caused that they all thought was him, in a moment the general was in the canopy of The ne and thend was too dark and too far away to even be seen as the great white explosion stole his bnce and ripped a hole through his torso.

    "Keep at it!" Ikaris grabbed him by the hair on his head and spun several times causing the void itself to warp when she sent him tunneling through the air back towards The ne.

    [Creation Tier Magic;]

    Ikarisnded before he reached and began running generating heat and electricity as each step she made left a burning indenture in the ground, she sped from one side of the ne to the next in a single sh causing several thousand tornadoes to form from the atmosphere being changed because of her actions, she waited a second more and then made a straight dash again, passing Sol''s fight against Nine which was as one-sided as hers, passing Cecelia who had pinned Lana to the ground and rested the mouth of her cannon over her face, she passed Dr''ul and the others, as well as A and Dina, blighting thend when she came to a stop with her fist sped and her sword dismissed.

    "I had no idea of the grand collective and I was happy enough to keep living in ignorance, I''ve lived a terrible life and I had finally started making an effort to change my ways, I have a family, a beautiful daughter whom I cherish more than myself, and a doting husband who would destroy every ne of existence to keep us from harm, but you have forced him to fight again, you tried killing him on the day of his daughter''s birth!" Ikaris roared as her hair turnedpletely white and her mana suddenly stacked on itself.

    [Creation Tier Magic;]

    [Unknown Tier Magic;]

    "You don''t get to dere anything, you''re not allowed to threaten us, you''re not allowed to breathe a moment more, Viktor Flint, enemy of the Vestic household and stain on my past-"

    "Oh, shit!" Sol snapped his fingers summoning everyone to his location and giving Nine a side nce after they''d all stopped when Ikaris blitzed past them twice leaving apocalyptic phenomena in her wake.

    "Master!" Dina snapped releasing a man she had been holding by his arm and looking up at him. "What''s happening?"

    "I can sense her rage, she isn''t holding back, you lot aren''t safe here," Sol responded sending them all back to earth just as Alpha connected their vision with The ne and began watching the moment Ikaris''s fist made contact with Flint''s forehead.

    "Disappear; disappear with everything and everyone; vanish into the depths of hell and let them know it was I who sent you; remember my name and seethe in the abyss, forever tormented by my face, Flint!"

    [EXTERMINATION]

 Chapter 299: Inconceivablely Cruel.

    "By the light..." Dr''ul stared, mouth agape and her eyes wide in horror.

    Next to her Renia had an expression of disbelief as well while her, her sister and everyone else stared at Sol who wore aplicated smile with his hands spread wide and his mana rapidly spreading as he tried to catch up to Ikaris''s [Extermination].

    This made three times in recent history where someone had caused such a phenomenon; first was Dr''ul''s attempt to overpower Sol which had led to her breaking the fabric of reality and almost destroying the Arkadian universe, and next was Sol who had generated powerparable to an entire universe exploding a dozen times over, and now they all bore witness to a fully released Ikaris; she hadn''t been joking when she said that although powerful, Dr''ul''s power was still leagues lesser than hers.

    "This is absurd...!" Sol ground his teeth and spread his arms wider watching as the great white lighting his way evaporated everything in its path.

    "The ne; she''s gonna destroy all of it," Dina stared in horror, alongside her, A gasped as well as they watched from the safety of The Grey as Sol struggled to contain her power until he abandoned the idea of preservation entirely and ejected the entire universe out of himself by force leading to him coughing up golden blood as he sealed everything shut once more and watched and held his chest.

    "I considered the possibility that this would happen, but I never expected that Ikaris would lose her temper this badly," Sol huffed and righted himself as he watched every inch of The ne get swallowed by Ikaris''s mana in a great sphere which then rapidly subsided and underwhelmingly popped at the epicentre of the explosion.

    "haah?" Ikaris huffed another great cloud of glowing white mana and turned in Sol''s direction after she sensed his approach towards her, but just as Sol''s eyes narrowed and his fangs gnashed in irritation, Ikaris''s eyes widened when she was almost blindsided by Nine attacking her from out of the blue.

    Viktor Flint had been erased without a trace and the ninth General had withstood the full impact of her attack which had done so, demonstrating that though his strength was not a match for Sol''s, it was simply because the Godyer was freakishly powerful, even as someone who was already overpowered from the start.

    Ikaris raised her hand on instinct and blocked the strikeing from above her, diving to the side and spinning around as she summoned her sword again, and then Viktor''s sword in her other hand as her and the only remaining enemy faced off.

    "I have determined that you should be exterminated at whatever cost, Ikaris Vestic," Nine red at her, his hands and legs were burnt almost to the third degree, but had already begun healing, his hair had been singed and there was a trail of blood sticking to his chining from his nostril.

    "Has that not always been the case, or are you only showing your face so boldly because you think you stand a finer chance against me than you did against my beloved?" Ikaris queried nonchntly whilst adjusting her blouse. "Shameless."

    She would admit, seeing Nine alive after the feat she had just aplished was quite the surprise, even if he was empowered by LAW and had Godyer and Vatui imnts within himself; no creature that considered themself human was supposed to have walked away from that attack, even if he didn''t walk away unharmed, the fact that he was alive at all concerned her greatly when she thought of what those of a higher ranking than himself were capable of.

    ording to Cecelia, the nine Generals were all powerful beyond reason, and the real reason she had surrendered was because one of them, the fifth, was en route to her location after she had struggled to fight Viktor and his fleet on her own.

    They were all strong, and each ascending rank was exponentially more powerful than the previous one, which was to say; though strong in his own right, Nine was nowhere near powerful enough to hold his own against the eighth-ranking General, and the same sentiment stood true for all the others until the first General of the Emporium, someone who had not even been present in the war and was rumoured to be a celestial of the highest degree; a god of origin who served the Empire selfishly for the alure of greed.

    "The oue of this fight has already been decided," Ikaris huffed.

    "Indeed, it has," Alpha observing from The Grey nodded in agreement with Ikaris''s words.

    "She has aplished not one, but two perfect Unknown Tier casts simultaneously, if my calctions are true, which I am sure they are, then her current output of power is near equal to Master''s, there is no version of that confrontation where the man who calls himself Nine will survive, his only option remaining is a retreat, but with Master overseeing their exchange that leaves his chances of escape at 0%."

    "What is that?" Cecelia asked, finding it hard to believe that anyone could ever match Sol''s power aside from the First General and Umbra; his alter-ego and pr opposite.

    "A magical term," A answered. "It speaks of her current state of mind and battle prowess, in short, although she shows no signs of it Mdy has entered a state of total concentration, if you recall, she just parried an attack which she should have had no way of countering, yet she did..." She trailed off when Dr''ul looked around at her and then sucked in a breath and continued.

    "Achieving a state of heightened awareness, her instincts are sharper than usual, and her output of mana should be upwards of 300% since every sessful Unknown Tier cast raises it by a hundred percent and she achieved a double-cast, negating the drop in percentage, that is the truth behind an Unknown Tier cast."

    "Correct," Alpha nodded. "At current, nobody in their right mind should be attempting to piss her off, Master included, with the power they both possess at this moment the entire collective could potentially be destroyed if they fought without holding back."

    "That''s never happening, though," Dina scoffed. "Master and Ikaris fighting is an impossibility, neither would ever raise their hand against the other under any circumstance."

    "Nothing is impossible, Dina," Alpha raised a brow. "But I can at the very least agree that they are likely incapable of fighting each other," She responded and then looked at Ikaris''s expression of nonchnce again. "She knows that she has won, she simply wishes to trample on that man''s pride and steel her victory as mboyantly as she usually does."

    "That is uncharacteristic of the Princess; she ought to conclude the fight before someone else arrives," Cecelia creased her brows, but her remark elicited scoffs from not only A but also Dina and Alpha, as all three considered Ikaris''s notorious temper.

    "He''s really in for it, huh?" Dina mused.

    "Yep, he''s cooked."

    "You don''t get it," A stared at the Vatui woman with her brows furrowed as well. "Ikaris, is inconceivablely cruel to her enemies."

    ***

    "I am waiting," Ikaris looked up from her clothes at the General who despite his deration had hesitated after seeing her reaction to what he considered a serious and dire situation for her.

    Sol Vestic had disappeared along with all of her allies, likely in retreat after she unleashed her attack, she was alone, so why was she this confident?

    He was confused, but after minutes of pondering the General gave up the hope of understanding what she was doing and shifted to attack her, but like a phantom, Ikaris disappeared from his sights, and it was only after a few seconds that he realised there was an extra weight on his shoulder.

    Slowly that sensation drew Nine''s attention, and when he finally raised his head, he found Ikaris''s folded fist rested against his neck with her finger preventing him from looking aroundpletely when it poked his cheek.

    "You-"

    [Pulsar]

    An explosion at point-nk right in the side of his head that sent him reeling and spinning uncontrobly through the starless darkness, halted only when Ikaris raised her foot causing his forehead to collide with her heel as she aimed her hand down her leg at him.

    "Y-"

    [Pulsar]

    Ikaris cast another directly at his face again, and then vanished once more before the end of the cast catching the back of his head and pressing him against the attack until it exploded into rays bursting off in every direction.

    Before Nine could regain his focus Ikaris pressed her sword against his back with a sadistic grin across her face, chuckling at his helplessness.

    [Pulsar]

    She already knew [pulsar] couldn''t kill him, but she knew it hurt like hell from the way he screamed each time the concentrated beam tore into his flesh.

    "What was that about exterminating me earlier?" She asked holding onto his neck and firing off the same attack every few seconds, preventing him from being blown away while she spoke. "Where did all that effort fall off, you''re only screaming here, aren''t you?" She asked pressing her hand against his back after sending the sword away and digging deeper into her mana.

    "Come on now, put your back into it!" She released him with another [Pulsar] blowing him into and through the wall of another sector in the Kh-Nova collective.

    "Not yet!" She snapped, summoning him back before her and grabbing his face as she crashed into the barrier again, mming his head against it until it broke and then spinning and tossing him back where they wereing from.

    "Master said he wanted your head as a gift to the Empire, right?" Ikaris summoned her swords again, waiting as the Ninth General floated until he regained his senses and righted himself weakly staring at her as she followed him.

    "You wench!!" The man snapped as soon as he realised there wasn''t an attacking from behind or next to him again, balling his fists and charging towards her madly.

    [Unknown Tier, de technique;]

    Her swords were coated with golden mana as she tapped into the [Godyer] power which resided within her, amping her already heightened mana several more times as she closed the distance and made an X with them.

    [Skill has reached its final form]

    [Upgrade avable]

    "Cross impact!"

 Chapter 300: Responsibility.

    "Cross Impact!"

    Ikaris unleashed her attack with a roar and disappeared as soon as she did, returning behind him and releasing another [Cross Impact] against his back and then cancelling the summon of the twin swords with a wave of her hands.

    Usually, her attack would travel at rtive and easily avoidable speeds, which is why she had made a task of utilising it in a scenario where her opponent was distracted or unable to avoid it from either injury or were unaware of its approach; but not this time, [Cross Impact] moved faster than Nine could react, and all four of the arcs of mana tore into him simultaneously, the first two collided in his raised arms rendering them unusable as they pushed him into the other two behind him that had somehow grown evenrger.

    After failing to anticipate the weight of the two crossed arcs behind himself Nine was too shocked to even yelp or make a sound when all four attacks enveloped him within a prism of pain and then exploded with the force of a sun but the heat of several, recreating a miniature of her previous [Extermination] cast.

    "And yet, he lives," Ikaris stared at her dissipating mana and at Nine who was at the epicentre with his arms folded before his face and his eyes wide in horror at what he had just endured, that shock though, was short-lived as the man tipped forward and slowly shook his head. "Not a matter, I will continue until you break-"

    "-me...?"

    She heard thest word of his mumbling and looked at him with a foreign and estranged expression.

    "You have the power to end the fight, so why bother attacking me with the sole intention of harming me?"

    "...Are you fucking serious?" Ikaris leaned her head to the other side and released a long sigh of irritation, her crimson eyes red daggers through him and her white hair started waving violently around her while he found the will and courage to support his bnce once more. "Are you trying to encourage me to drag this fight on even more?

    Do you think that if you withstand enough; that if you endure enough, then you''ll live when your allies arrive because of your lockdown? Are you even aware of where you are?" She asked, prompting the General to raise his eyes and stare at her.

    Indeed that was his goal; he was sure that someone was on their way, specifically someone else from the top nine Generals of the Emporium, but hearing her words and seeing the cold expression on her face gave the man chills across his back and neck, and then his entire body broke into shivers, what was going on, anyways?"

    "In case you missed it," Ikaris added as she began walking across the void towards him and her mana began burning gold around her.

    "In case you''ve been too blindsided by the pain you''re experiencing to understand what''s happening; Nine, you''re no longer inside of the Kha-Nova Collective, I sent you flying through the walls half an hour ago and we''re on the opposite side of where we were before, sure, someone''sing, but it''ll take them upwards of a entire month to get here, they first need to cross the Kha-Nova and then they need to cross the passage between, she looked at him with a deadpan when his eyes started widening and then summoned her swords a third time, casually tossing one of them at him.

    "Let me say it once more, Nine; fight and die like a man and stop this insistent worm-like behaviour, you''re starting to irritate me even more than I already am," She stated with a huff of mana through her nostrils.

    "What the hell are you doing giving me a weapon?" He stared at the sword confused as his hand grasped the handle tightly and while his eyes followed the subtle gestures of her fingers on her own.

    "Giving prey ws doesn''t deter an apex from killing them, it just makes the hunt more interesting," Ikaris answered rolling her shoulders several times and popping her joints as she did so.

    "I want to enjoy whates next but it''s clear you''re too overwhelmed, I; at the very least want to take your head in a way which stings the most, and I don''t mean decapitation," She chuckled and held her face mimicking something Sol always did when he had the upper hand against an enemy as she stared through her fingers and grinned wickedly.

    "I''m saying I want to chop your head off without you thinking it''s unfair, I want to see the defeat in your eyes, I want to see your will to fight crushed along with your will to live like the insect you are-"

    "That will never happen!" Nine eximed epting her challenge as he made a direct dash towards her having regained his confidence when he was handed a weapon after Sol had stolen his by merely speaking to it.

    The General blitzed like a bolt of lightning leaving a visible trail in the void behind himself as he seemed to move in slow motion while the stars before and behind him in the two respective collectives seemed to race and mix into one while he drew the sword and swung it.

    This was more than Ikaris had expected, she knew he was leagues more lethal with a weapon, but she hadn''t expected that it also increased his strength directly.

    When she blocked the attack, she experienced something simr to what Alpha had done to Sol when he was escaping Flint''s pursuit as she was flung across the passage faster and harder than she could stop herself and as a result she received a second shock when her back mmed into the barrier of the Kha-Nova Collective again.

    "Heh, bastard, that''s not funny..." She took a quick gander behind herself and then looked ahead once more.

    "Don''t get cocky just because I gave you a stick!" Ikaris raised her hand, and just like Nine''s earlier feat, the stars before and behind her blurred out of existence as she psed the space between the two of them in a fraction of a second and swung her sword, unlike his attack which she had been able to block though, when Ikaris''s attack collided with his de the weapon rebound on him and tore into his chest, sending him back where he wasing from resulting in him hitting the walls of another collective again.

    "Your goal here is to be defeated, that''s the only thing you''re going to aplish today!" Ikaris closed the distance once more before Nine had managed to heal, driving her de through his arm when he raised his guard and grabbed his head with both of her arms, mming her forehead into his and then spinning with him and doing it again, sending him downwards with ck blood escaping his mouth, eyes and nose.

    "Fight me with everything you''ve got and make it interesting!" Ikaris shed her head and descended with her heel in his damaged forehead, her eyes widening and her mouth slowly forming another grin when she heard and felt his skull crack beneath the weight of her kick only to raise and drop her other heel in his face and then spin and kick him a third time so hard the bindings of her shoes became undone.

    "Whoops," Ikaris watched the General flung across the passage as she stopped and raised her heel to her torso with a frown. "No good, I should employ the same footwear as dear does, his seem to be able to withstand much more pressure than these," She slowly waved her hand around her foot, repairing her shoe and then looking at the man again as she witnessed his approach.

    "I''ve never seen a fight more one-sided than this," Dina peeked at Sol in her peripheral after he had taken them all out of The Grey and created a small space for them inside of the passage where they could rx, considering that moments ago they were fighting powerful foes it was a bit surreal, others like Dr''ul and S''mael had yet to get into the meatiest parts of their fights but Ikaris''s attack had killed every living soul who wasn''t an ally and destroyed The ne down to thest square foot of soil that Sol and Alpha had created.

    "Indeed, master had struggled more when he fought Orion," Alpha responded.

    "That''s before awakening, so it doesn''t really count, does it?" Sol huffed from his seat watching the fight with his hands folded beneath his chin as he saw them trading attacks rapidly through the passage.

    "Ikaris is amazing though, she always beats the brakes off her enemies; I can''t recall any of her fights ever bringing her close to death''s door; that said..." He trailed off thinking about what Alpha and A had been saying about the Unknown Tier Casts he and Ikaris usually achieved without noticing how much it amped up their power.

    "Assuming she''s this powerful with a three hundred and seventy-five percent boost in power, Nine is still pretty strong to be going toe to toe with her, and also..."

    "The Eighth General," Cecelia answered when he stopped speaking, epting a beverage as well as a piece of cake from Alpha and thanking her with a nod, epting that these people took very few things seriously as she watched Dina and A eating casually while Sara had been summoned and was ying with Talia.

    "That''s right," If I''m going to leave the Emporium to Ikaris then she needs to gain more strength," Sol stared intently at the fight seeing his wife smile as she summoned her second sword from Nine''s hand and proceeded to leave hundreds of shallow wounds across his chest with a barrage of cuts so fast they seemed like a single swing and then ended thebo by chopping his left hand off and delivering a deafening kick in his right ear.

    "Exponentially more powerful than the previous General," Sol mused.

    "If we''re working under the assumption that Ikaris at her base was already stronger than Nine, then she''d struggle against Eight unless she managed several perfect casts, that said, the implications of exponential power might suggest that she doesn''t yet have the strength to face the Eighth General even if she has this much power again."

    "What will you do?" Dina looked at him.

    "Ikaris has a collective''s worth of power within her avable for use, the problem is that her output is still closed to her initial output when she was whole as a Goddess before darkness and Void attacked them; that simply means she hasn''t really grown all that more powerful in actuality."

    "I''m going to break the limiters holding her power down and help her achieve the next stage of her evolution, I was initially right when I got chills thinking about the Emporium''s power; thinking of what the First General may be capable of is pretty terrifying and also exciting, it gives me the same feeling I got when I wanted to fight Sorath; goddess of the sun, but I won''t have the luxury of fighting him.

    "I need to keep growing stronger in preparation for Umbra''s inevitable attack.

    "The Emporium is Ikaris''s jurisdiction, mine is the Grand Collective; it''s my responsibility to protect them from the monster I created."

 Chapter 301: The Sadist.

    "You did not create him, master," A answered Sol as soon as he tried iming responsibility for Umbra''s malevolence.

    "And before you jump to her defence, we''re not saying Ikaris''s fault either," Dina spoke after A. "Umbra was born of A; A made him into a monster the same it would have made you into a monster had you remained there for as long as he had, he is the part of you that was cured through Mdy''s love and devotion," She spoke formally.

    "And yours," Sol added gesturing to her and A with a small smile, I don''t mean it in that way, Dina, A; what I''m saying is that Umbra became the way he is because we did not consider that the clone of someone''s soul could gain sentience and be a separate entity; it still puzzles me when I try making sense of it... how?"

    "Mdy has already exined that the reason he gained sentience was because his and your souls are the same; you are both the incarnation of the Godyer who saved her when darkness attacked many aeons ago and she split her soul," Sara spoke up without sparing a nce at them.

    "Master, you are strong, you have always been strong, I do not see why you were able to ovee everything you did yet he strayed to the dark and started plotting to take your happiness away..." She added, speaking slowly while the baby yed with her cheeks.

    "I was at my wit''s end when the An war came to a conclusion with the death of the demon-god, getting offered a second chance by Ikaris to me back then was a silver lining against ck clouds poisoned and raining acid to the ground; I was so ted, so extremely happy that I had been taken away from that hell that I made a full recovery as soon as I realised I was no longer on A, at least."

    "I made a full recovery on the surface, if Ikaris separated him and myself in the same moment that we left for earth then it meant that she went back on the whole deal that convinced me to work for her in the first ce, just the thought of being abandoned like that is terrible beyond what I can bare."

    "He was denied freedom, and she was drawing power from him while he was in a state of conscious paralysis, unable to speak or even think for himself, when I stopped drawing power from Ikaris the stockpile remaining within him became his and from there, he has only grown more powerful, if I were him, I''d be pretty mad too...

    no I''d be furious; I''d want to burn everything and see those who used me brought to their knees and kowtowing while I take their heads; everyst one, so I will say it again, even though his actions are his own, Umbra is my responsibility, I was the cause of his creationI''m the reason he was denied the freedom he deserved, even if he is just a clone, even if he wasn''t supposed to exist, he does, so I have to do what is best for everyone and deal with him."

    "Wow, I never even bothered to look at it from such a perspective before," Dina raised her brows in thought while A narrowed her eyes wondering and staring at the ground before them.

    "Ah," The elf nodded and looked to Sol once more. "Master, I get it now!" She eximed drawing everyone''s attention as she pped her fist in her open palm ans shook it. "This is primarily the same reason everything got out of control, correct?" She asked him with a knowing nce ans Sol began watching Ikaris and Nine''s fight and nodded.

    "Yes," He replied with something of a solemn expression.

    "I hadn''t realised just how evil he was yet so I considered letting him go in an attempt to right our wrongs, like Ikaris did, I wanted to find some remaining good in him and help him grow into a god person, but he was already too far gone by then and it ended with me banishing him into the Kha-Nova Collective with a deration of my and my family''s annihtion," Sol winced when he saw Ikaris turn Nine''s right arm into spaghetti with one of the most brutal swordbinations she had ever used, not that she was known for any.

    "That is quite the situation you ended up in," Ceceliamented with a strange expression as she tried to understand the concept of someone having two souls and the second soul having a grudge with the first; to her, it sounded like a fairy tale or some fantastical adventure cooked up by an imaginative writer for a book, and yet she knew that Umbra was real.

    Over thest week she spent going to and from the Vestic estates with Keele and Jenifer she had learned that everything which happened within the Vestic household was an impossibility; from Talia a newborn being the most powerful being in the universe after her parents, to Sara, a maid with the powers to essentially live forever by sleeping in her literal shadows, and then topping the impossibility chart was Sol and Ikaris who were so incredibly powerful while using mana that they lived their lives as parodies of the worlds they interacted with.

    "Quite the situation indeed, Cecelia,"

    ***

    "I can sense him again; that horrible power of light which nearly killed me..." Umbra stared into the deep of space in Sol''s direction.

    "You are not yet ready, my King, you are far from it; facing Sol Vestic with your current power is the same as-"

    "I know, Giza, I''m not an idiot, I need to have equal or greater power to his to stand even the slightest of chances against that monster, if we meet before I have achieved either of the two then I will die immediately, I know how he thinks so I know that he wants me dead after what I did, I know that I put him in a state of unrest where he no longer views me as human and simply wants my head; I know all that, I won''t go near the bastard until my victory is guaranteed."

    "Good, it would be a shame to lose the only Godyer who exists within my realm of dark," Giza nodded and he slowly looked down at her with his brows raised and his lips spread into an unusually thin and eerie smile.

    "What did you just call me?"

    "I thought such a truth was obvious; I have already exined the descent of celestials into the mortal world, and you who are a direct and indistinguishable copy of the original soul of Sol Vestic are just as much of a Celestial as he is; he''s the reincarnation of one of the most powerful Celestial beings to ever exist across all nes, a Godyer, making you the same." Giza raised her eyes and looked at him when thest of the star they were corrupting turned to ck.

    "Like Sol Vestic, you have the limitless potential to be the strongest, amongst the heavens, across the mortal nes, he is honoured as a vessel of hope, of peace and an omen of good fortune..." Giza stopped speaking and held her jaw when ck blood began dripping down her lips.

    "You''re not the best at taking instructions, are you?" Umbra''s ck hair menacingly fanned around his head and his void eyes locked on to her hands held out before her as her tongue slipped from her mouth and fell into her grasp.

    "How many times are you going to make me repeat myself, Giza?" The man rested his hand on her head while she stared at her tongue in her grasp too shocked to move or even react.

    She just stood there with her irises shrunken and her breath quivering.

    "Heal yourself and let''s move on to another system; you aren''t actually hurt, are you?" He asked, and she very carefully nced up at him and then smiled opening her mouth wide and regrowing her tongue with a breath of ck miasma.

    "My Lord, your cruelty is arousing; to steal my ability to speak without me even noticing, I pray the dayes where I find it impossible to resist you in any other way, I await that day eagerly, to have you force yourself upon me and take everything, such a chilling and terrifying dream, but I know if there is one who can, it shall be you, my King~!" Giza hugged herself and swooned while residual blood dripped from her purple lips.

    "With such an attractive and wicked personality, I can only love you like the shadows do night."

    "Keep on topic, you fucking sadist," Umbra red at the woman, and she blushed again and smiled cordially at him.

    "Certainly," Giza calmly took a seat next to him on emptiness and crossed her legs as they began waiting for the darkness to eat away at the sun.

    "My Lord, you have a long way to go, but not even the Godyer of Light backed by its emissaries grew this quickly, you as the Godyer existing inverse of him have shown growth that not even he has."

    "How long will it take then?" Umbra stared at her while he aimlessly floated upside down, copying Sol without even knowing it.

    "With your power growing this quickly, I believe you will surpass him in the next two years'' time."

 Chapter 302: Primordial Darkness.

    "Two years; you speak as though two years isn''t a long time," Umbra narrowed his eyes at the emissary and she chuckled and leaned her head, taking his cheeks into her palms and kissing his upside-down forehead.

    "Indeed, it is not, I have existed timelessly; the power which circtes within you is the same that which dwells within me, your soul is as old in essence as my existence, time is of no concern to beings like us, my King, it is a construct created by weak mortals who try to make use of their worthless existences by doing as much as they can while they still breathe air they do not deserve," Giza sighed with a helpless shrug.

    "You will correct the Grand Collective and make it whole again, when you kill Sol Vestic and destroy the root of all life, then death and chaos will rule once more, and I... I will be the humble servant to your eternal throne."

    "Sol," Lumi appeared at his side, startling everyone since she had never shown her face anywhere aside from inside of his collective. "Her expression was that of worry, and even Talia seemed to be troubled as the emissary stood at Sols''s side staring at him.

    "Is there something wrong?" He asked her with a raised brow, standing and straightening his torso. "Lumi?"

    "Indeed," Lumi responded, much to his shock.

    The humour on his face dried up and then all of a sudden, the sounds that they produced became muted and their images distorted making it impossible for the others to see or hear what they were saying.

    Seeing the entity take this measure, Sol slowly nced around at the others and then looked at her once more, seriously.

    "Okay, tell me what''s going on, or do you intend to keep me guessing?"

    "Earlier today, a few hours ago, an entire civilization disappeared without a trace, the council usually takes no part in the matters of mortals and of the flesh but based on how this advanced culture disappeared, I was requested to warn you as the one who intends to deal with the problem."

    "Umbra," Sol''s eyes narrowed at her and she nodded, seeing the glow of his irises as his expression became dark and even more bothered. "Where is he?"

    "Outside of your grasps," Lumi answered promptly. "He is currently in another collective several units away from here, even with your power it would take weeks to get there, and it was confirmed that he is also not alone,"

    "He already has allies?" Sol asked expecting that aside from the darkness his enemy shrouded himself with, there wouldn''t be anyone for a while, given his personality. "Who is it?" He queried curiously.

    "We do not know who she is, but we know what she is, and we know where shees from," Lumi narrowed her eyes and gave him a nce as he scoured his mind until he happened upon their conversation of a simr topic in the past.

    "Another Darkness, like Her Below All," Sol mused but furrowed his brows when she shook her head and folded her arms.

    "If that were all then any emissary of fate would have been enough to handle her immediately; no, this is not another entity like the one which you sealed using the power of The Beginning, carelessly approaching that thing is suicide, she is too strong, leagues above any emissary, myself included," Lumi stared at Sol and sighed when he reacted as she had expected; with his eyes wide and his mouth slowly parting in shock.

    "She is a sole entity, lone darkness beyond anything we have ever encountered, she is the embodiment of pure hatred and absolute evil... Primordial Darkness, ckest of ck, timeless and eternal; she is malice incarnate.

    I do not understand why we were unable to sense her before."

    "The same reason I can''t sense Umbra''s presence," Sol responded with a heavy breath, scratching his head.

    "Darknesses before light, in order for light to exist there first has to be darkness, she only showed herself because she wants to, just as Umbra could have existed forever without myself or Ikaris ever being the wiser, she is your natural enemy a predator for your kind; you should stay away at all costs unless you crave death, or decide to join the fight with your lives on the line," He sat again while she lowered the veil around them.

    "What will you do... what should we do?" Lumi asked, sitting next to Sol on the handle of his seat. "This concerns us all beyond just the Grand Collective, Sol, it is a matter of every existence, every lifeform, every living being." She used his name informally for the first time.

    "I''ll deal with Umbra first and focus on that afterwards, as long as her goals align with his, then there will be a way to deal with it," He replied, taking a snack from alpha while everyone stared at them, unable to make sense of thest thing they said in exchange.

    "I hope so," She nodded and then stood, leaving after ncing at Talia and smiling at the maid who held her. "I will take my leave, please call me if you manage to make a decision."

    "Master-"

    "Not now, A," Sol answered sharply, epting a beverage from Alpha and leaning forward as he ignored everything else and allowed himself to sink and drown in a pool of thoughts, thinking of what the presence of what Umbra''s new ally meant and how drastically her emergence had overshadowed everything and how dramatically the scales had shifted.

    "Hey, you good?" Keele asked Dina when she noticed that the mage''s hand was tightly balled into a fist and her body was slightly shuddering while she looked at Sol''s back, the sentiment was entuated when her breath hitched and A held on to her hand sporting a simr expression with the biggest difference being her tall ears shaking in agitation, it eventually drew the attention of Cecelia, as well as Keele who were paying heed to Ikaris''s fight.

    "It''s..." Dina tried answering, but her lips began quivering again and she sucked in a breath and shook her head.

    She looked at Sol''s back as she felt his mana rampaging within him. "I have seen him worry, he has even admitted to things scaring him," She continued staring, but never before has it ever felt like this... whatever they were talking about has left a scar that he hasn''t processed yet, that''s what''s fucking with me; he''s terrified."

    He was so deep in thought he hadn''t even noticed the effect that he was having on those who were connected directly to himself; A, Dina, Ikaris and even Talia and Sara; the five of them experienced dreading from Sol''s person, his expression, his aura, his mana, his emotions, everything had settled into a deep fear of the unknown as he found misery in the idea that something out there existed that not even an entity like Lumi dared to challenge let alone stand up to; she treated the conversation like the Grand Collective''s the best guarded secret and then sought his advice at the end of it.

    ***

    "...Was it all just a bluff?" Nine wondered, staring at Ikaris''s expression after she had stopped smiling and broken into a cold sweat, even without his arms the man had continued fighting with his all, but seeing her like this gave him hope; merely losing his arms weren''t enough to break him, he had steeled in himself to fight until hisst breath as she had requested upon realising that he was nowhere near strong enough to make good on his deration and exterminate her, but now the man had been given an opportunity and he took it without a moment''s hesitation.

    Nine clutched the handle of his sword with his mouth and bent himself gathering the forces of LAW at the soles of his feet and using it to propel himself after his suit had been exhausted trying to heal his many wounds, he clenched down on the weapon and attempted to strike her down while she wasn''t guarding herself, but upon his de making contact with her skin, what was supposed to be a cut that sliced through her bounced off her torso when Ikaris blinked several times and then looked at the General next to her again.

    "I have to stop now, something more important has presented itself," Ikaris held on to the de and took it from him whilst her knee broke his ribcage, and her other hand smashed his nose in from a palm-strike to his face.

    "General Nine," Ikaris held him suspended by his hair and stared him in his eyes while his face registered shock and horror.

    "For destroying the lives and livelihood of my people, you are guilty; you are guilty of killing my brothers and sisters, of murder and torture, harvesting a species for personal gain and greed, you are guilty of many war crimes-the list is almost endless, the lies you and the Empire have fabricated will all be made public, all the atrocities and the real reason you have been hunting my kind down will be made public," She stared at him while her eyes returned to azure and the shade of her hair thickened and became pure ck once more.

    There was no more fanfare, there was no more hatred in her eyes; as though whatever she had just experienced had rewritten her entire personality, she grabbed him by his face and let out a huff of pure mana and then took another deep breath.

    "Remind the devils why you arrivedte, and who sent you."

 Chapter 303: Sleep.

    [Creation Tier Unique Skill; Annihtion]

    Ikaris''s palm which pressed against the General''s forehead glowed golden, and the man let out a single gasp before cracks emerged across his entire body and light burst from him, spilling into the void and burning the reality it upied around them.

    His body faded from before her like dust scattering with the particles dissipating while Ikaris stared in Sol''s direction, their fight had been overshadowed by something much more serious, ending on a low note as the man had been unceremoniously erased from existence with his soul banished to a greater hell, where he would answer for everything he had done.

    "Sol," Ikaris sped her hands as if in prayer, and hearing his name Sol snapped out of his train of thoughts and looked up, linking to her mana and summoning her to his side.

    "What happened?" Ikaris asked as soon as she arrived, leaving nces at everyone and then diverting all her attention onto him with a concerned and worried expression masking her face.

    She sunk into the seat next to him and held his hand passing through the veil which Dina and A had been too afraid to approach, looking directly at him and smiling worriedly when he stared at her with his eyes slightly narrowed from still overthinking.

    "You are scaring everyone, Dear," Ikaris rubbed her thumbs across the back of his hand and raised it, kissing his fingers and smiling again. "You have yet to take a breath."

    "Oh..." Sol suddenly gasped, releasing the tension in the atmosphere and smiling at her when he could feel her mana seeping into his body and calming his own. "Thank you, Ikaris." He smiled at her again and then took another deep breath slightly exerting himself as he and everyone present vanished into a warping infinity, reappearing inside of his collective on earth by the front of his estate.

    "All of you; I''m sorry about what just happened, I wasn''t thinking clearly for a moment there," Sol looked around at them and then towards the Estate grounds."

    "Are you going to keep us in the dark?" Dr''ul asked, and Ikaris hummed taking his hand and leading him up the first flight of stairs.

    "I sensed Lumi''s presence, did shee with some kind of warning or threat?" Ikaris quizzed seriously while Alpha pushed the doors open for everyone. "Is it something you are unable to disclose between everyone?" She asked again, looking behind them at their allies from all walks, but Sol shook his head and fanned that idea away.

    "Nothing of the sort, Lumi only raised the veil back there because unlike here where we can speak freely and without causing a fuss; the Grand Collective is filled with beings who are always watching, always listening, it was a countermeasure she made to prevent that information from falling onto the wrong ears," He exined taking a seat and gesturing to all the other avable seats in therge lounge while Sara ced Talia in hisp and retreated to the kitchen with a bow.

    "And what information would that be? What caused you such worry, love?" Ikaris sat in his seat resting her head against his shoulder and smiling at their baby girl, creating a small orb of mana and cing it in her grasp while Renia stared worried, seeing the child y with something packed with enough destructive power to easily level an entire city block with ease.

    "It concerns Umbra," Sol added more mana to the orb causing Talia tough as she sloppily handled it, inciting more fear in everyone around them when it became visibly unstable.

    Sol then went on to exin his and Lumi''s conversation to them and at the end of it he wore no shock when Ikaris took the little ball of doom from Talia and gave her a regr ball while her and the others showed visible signs of panic.

    "Is... is it even possible for someone to possess that much power, that not Lumi nor any other emissary, not even as a collective body of emissaries would dare challenge?" Ikaris asked, unable to raise her head from looking at Talia who still yed without a care in the world.

    "Primordial Darkness; the first darkness, the first consciousness in existence, how could such a pure entity be evil?" Adonai asked with a visible lump in his throat, looking at his sister for an answer, but like everyone else, the knowledge of Giza''s existence and who she had allied with left the goddess of war speechless, how are you supposed to win against a being thatmanded the power to end a collective with just a thought?

    "Abandonment," Ikaris answered Adonai''s question after mulling over it for a few minutes in their shared silence.

    "However she came into being, it only makes sense that she has existed all this time alone, likely bitter, if she has existed in the inverse of The Grey from the start of time then Umbra is the first being she has ever truly made contact with, she has been in solitude since the birth of creation, or worse, she was ignored by the light after it was born of her existence; light cannot exist without there first being dark, but darkness cannot exist where there is light, so it has to be abandonment." Ikaris theorised.

    "Well, be that as it may, she has sided with Umbra who has openly dered that he wants to destroy everything the light touches, so I can only assume that is also her goal, this makes her our enemy, this makes her the enemy of the grand collective as much as he is; the Emporium would do good to heed my warning but from what I have seen from them, both from Alpha''s spying as well as personal encounters, they will not listen; the Empire is full of shallow-minded people who can only see the greed before them and nothing else.

    "Indeed," Cecelia agreed with that sentiment.

    "They will never listen, and they will never heed any warning until it is far toote, they will continue to pursue you and her Highness with everything they have; especially now that their n to capture you has failed and led to the destruction of the 100th fleet and the death if the ninth General, asking them to see reason is impossible, they want nothing but our heads."

    ""Yeah, that''s a given, I suppose," Sol answered her statement with a sigh. "It wasn''t like they''d have been of any use either; not against the ancient darkness."

    "I apologise," Cecelia lowered her gaze, and along with her everyone else did the same, the only one who raised their head was Ikaris. "With the power we have, it is impossible to help you, Master Vestic," She stared at her hands depressed.

    "All this time, I used to consider myself strong, especially after I had surpassed her Highness'' peak before she vanished some years ago, but after meeting you I have been humbled, there is no way I could be of use in such a fight, yet I had boldly dered that I would offer myself as a weapon." She sighed.

    "I already told you all," Sol shook his head at Cecelia and then at the others who he knew shared the same sentiment as she did. "Umbra is my fight, your jobs are as Ikaris''s retainers, you stand by her until the Emporium falls to its face and then you stomp it out ofmission, you don''t rest until there''s nothing left, understood?" He stared at them one after the other.

    "Understood," Cecelia answered first, and then there was a chorus of replies from everyone else in the room one after the other, ending with Ikaris smiling and nodding as she too uttered "Understood" and then fell into a brief silence.

    "And what of you, Love, what will you do about the current tipping of the favours?" Ikaris asked with her brow raised, genuinely curious since with all her knowledge she had fallen on nk thoughts every time she thought of the Dark and Light struggle for power over all which resided beneath them; such a topic was Sol''s to handle indeed, he seemed to have bad luck and the most experience when it came to encountering Primordial and Celestial ssed entities.

    "I don''t know just yet, I''ll sleep on it and try thinking of a solution, or apromiseter."

    "Sleep?" Sara stopped from sharing his meal and stared at him shocked. "You?"

    "Indeed," Ikaris nodded. "You already know how he gets when something he would rather not dip his hands in surfaces and leaves him no choice," She wiggled her brows at the maid who nodded with a nostalgic smile.

    "Ah, it has been a while has it not?" Dr''ul asked with a chuckle.

    "It truly has," Renia answered confusing the new members of their alliance when Sol stood and walked away without uttering a word more, and Ikaris followed suit with Talia in her grasp, and then Dina and A after the two of them, and finally Sara after bowing to them all.

    "Take care of him, Sara, Master Vestic has a lot on his te this time," Renia added seeing the maid quickly follow the others up the stairs and then looked at the remaining cast.

    "What just happened?" Keele asked, confused.

    "Master is tired, he will sleep," Alpha answered, conjuring doors to the guest rooms in the estate for everyone. "You should all sleep," She gestured at the doors.

    "I still don''t understand what''s happening," Jenifer admitted but walked towards the door and stood there looking at Alpha, but the system/maid only smiled and gestured again.

    "It will make sense after a good rest; I have prepared special luxuries and elixirs for you to help you fall asleep if you find it difficult."

    That evening, alpha sat in the kitchen eating cake with her smaller Variant that resembled Jenifer who she had let remain a separate entity for days like this where there was nobody to serve for whatever reason.

    "They have all fallen asleep, the gods included," The little Alpha looked at the original also eating cake and swinging her feet like the child she personified.

    "Wonderful," Alpha ced her fork on the table and stared nkly.

    [Starting Assimtion; Targeting All]

 Chapter 304: "Master."

    "You look beautiful, Ikaris," Sol stood behind her while she was staring at herself in the mirror of their personal bathroom; even though she possessed otherworldly beauty and seemed to ce her physical appearance above that of all other beings, the goddess seldom spent any time admiring herself.

    "Thank you," She blushed taking his hands from her hips and holding him onto herself in a hug from behind after locking his hands across her tummy. "Is it strange that I miss having a big belly?" Ikaris asked, staring at her husband from their reflection, and he chuckled loudly and looked down her blouse at her t stomach.

    "Women usually say the opposite, Ikaris," Sol smiled, holding her tightly as sheughed at herself for saying it.

    "Honestly, I miss those days of just being normal now, the little things we have chased in the past are tied to some of my happiest memories, I never imagined that sitting and watching Dina and A try to catch Sara in a game of tag would be something I missed this badly, or just the few of us enjoying a lively dinner with the neighbours.

    "I miss being ignorant of the Grand Collective, I would give all those memories away if I could, and trade them for more walks in the park," Ikaris replied with a smile riddled in nostalgia. Yet here we are, preparing our friends and loved ones for another war after we swore never to fight in one again, Dear, it makes me sad to see them fight."

    "I know, but we don''t have a choice this time, we truly don''t; Umbra and his new ally are a breath away at any given moment, the Emporium is going to be breathing down our necks, I wouldn''t be shocked if some fourth party joined opposing us," Sol sighed and squeezed her one more time before releasing her and stepping away, sticking his hands in his pockets and standing at the door.

    "It isn''t fair to you, rejoining a bloody war..."

    "They need me though," She hummed when he returned and gathered her hair in his fist pulling her onto himself as he began skillfully braiding the sides. "The same way the Grand needs you."

    They would have continued speaking in hushed tones while Talia slept quietly, but someone came and stood at their door with a hand hovering before it in hesitance.

    "Jenifer?" Sol looked at the door with a raised brow. "What is it?" He asked, staring still.

    "I have a request, Sir," She answered respectfully after several silent seconds pondering how to respond to him, and Ikaris looked at him with a bemused smile, since although they were considered allies she was not totally agreed to their presence given where they were and the cause which they served, this also made thingsplicated given Cecelia''s involvement in the Emporium, and the knowledge that there were other Vatui and Godyer beings working for the emporium to save themself from the cruel fate of being harvested, though they hid well there was always a chance one could find and expose them.

    "Does it have something to do with being trained in how to use magic?" Sol asked, and Jenifer on the other side of the door stood at attention with her eyes wide and her arms slightly shaking as her body exuded small amounts of the entity known as mana.

    "You know?" She asked surprised and Ikaris scoffed and walked to the door, pushing it open and staring at her. "M-Mdy-"

    "Do you think you suddenly acquired mana by chance, have you not been paying attention?" Ikaris asked with her brow raised, ncing behind herself at Sol who smiled and waved, leaning over Talia with a gesture of endearment as she quietly closed the door and gestured that the woman follow her.

    ***A few minutes earlier***

    [Congrattions on sessfully meeting the requirements for mana usage, your stamina has been duplicated and the secondary pool converted into the magical property, seek a tutor to begin training immediately]

    Jenifer saw the message as soon as she woke up, it just sat there in the air before her floating like a regr notification and giving off a faint humming sound, the window glowed, but the light didn''t seem to touch and physical object in the room and only interacted with her, and when she tried touching it the window disappeared, leaving her sitting there with her hair messily spread and her thoughts in utter disarray.

    "Seek a tutor to start training how to use mana...?" She mused, still in disbelief since she felt no different than she did before falling asleep, she hadn''t even taken any of the things alpha had left out for her since unlike the others; she was tired for real and needed to sleep to recover even a little. "Should I take that seriously?" She asked herself.

    "Seek a tutor..." Jenifer mused once more as she prepared herself to leave the room and even after she had left she still repeated the message unconsciously while she walked without aim or purpose,ing to her senses only after she had stopped at the door and heard Sol call her name and ask her what she wanted, it was like she was in a trance.

    At present, upon descending the staircase Jenifer was surprised when she found Keele and Cecelia already sitting in the lounge waiting quietly while they stared at what was supposedly empty air before them.

    "You two as well?" She asked and they both nodded with Cecelia standing and bowing before Ikaris as soon as sheid eyes on her.

    "Alpha, well done," Ikaris spoke and the little maid appeared at her side with a dainty courtesy crossing her legs and bowing gracefully as she extended her arms to her sides with the hems of her uniform pinched between her index and thumb fingers.

    "What about the others?" She asked and alpha cleared her throat and conjured a window before Ikaris showing a full chart of all the Vatui refugees from Cecelia''s n having been gifted mana.

    "Wonderful, let us go there first, it is time we made some real progress, if possible I want to be avable when master is fighting that monster, although I have no I[idea if i will be able to help I want to show my support in whatever way I can," Ikaris dered and waved her hand using the system paired with her mana to create a portal door directly linked to Keele''s homeworld in the middle of their temporary encampment.

    "Princess," Cecelia spoke up when Ikaris stood stationary rather than entre as she had expected she would.

    "I understand why I call him master, I am subservient to his will as he is the one who saved me, and I know that the others refer to him as master out of reverence and respect, but you are his equal; his wife and other half and yet I have observed you calling him master on multiple asions; why is that?" She asked and a smile graced Ikaris''s face as she thought of how they would react upon knowing the truth.

    "I am his wife, yes, and as his wife I do hold that title as his other half; sure," Ikaris hummed with that same amused smile.

    "However, to call him my equal is something I would never be presumptuous enough to confidently do; he owns my life and my soul, he is my master in every regard and meaning which you could think of the word, I am his goddess, I am his property," Ikaris lowered her cor showing them the crest and then stuck her tongue out as the crest there slightly glowed, he is my Godyer, my saviour, my benefactor, my god, my everything, I am his ve, tethered to him and bound by contract to always remain his most loyal," She finished, proudly resting her hands akimbo and huffing a little puff of golden mana from her nostrils.

    "It feels wrong to not call him the title he is due ...no?"

    "...Huh?" Cecelia stared at her princess shocked beyond any intelligible response.

    "Indeed," A interrupted Cecelia''s brain-melt as her and Dina descended the staircase, both of them showing their crests proudly as well.

    "Each has a different story, each has something he has saved us from; for me it is a life of fear, istion and self loathe, giving me the opportunity to believe in the good of man and the beauty of love for the first time in my life, Master saved me from myself," She stood next to Ikaris.

    "Master saved me from my fear of istion, he broadened my horizons and gave me the opportunity I could never take by myself, and Ikaris saved me from my doubts when she epted me with open arms, she is my first true friend; my best friend, and he is my first and only love," Dina added.

    "This, Cecelia is the reason why no matter the strength you possess, you can never stand at my side, these girls are as much his as they are mime," Ikaris gestured to the door and began walking.

    " I am his support, and they are mine, A my left, and Dina my right, never mind the power you think they possess, a year ago they were not even capable of a quarter of what they are now, as I grow, and as master grows, so do they, it is only a matter of time before they surpass you all and stand at the top."

    "Even now when we have the same advantage of mana that they do?" Keele asked, remembering well Dina''s monstrous growth whenever she engaged in any fight.

    "Especially now."

 Chapter 305: Absurd Power.

    "But Alpha said that our stamina; our strength was duplicated and then the duplicate was turned into a mana pool, it would make sense that the power I possess is far beyond hers," Keele looked at Dina, but A shook her head and gestured to the mage next to her.

    "If it is mereparison which you base your strengths on then her mana still far exceeds yours, Keele," A gave her a small smile and sped her hands going into tutor mode.

    "The mana which has been converted within you has been done so in its simplest form, I as an example possess Cosmic mana, for every count of mana that I possess you would need a thousand counts of your mana to match it," She exined.

    "There is arge chasm between the potency of normal and divine mana, even if your physical strength exceeds hers by leaps and bounds using Ms Cecelia as an example, you are still leagues inferior magically, there is no debate." She looked at Ikaris who nodded in agreement.

    "Mana is not an easy way out, it is not just another simple source of power to utilise, and ites with many risks which take many different forms," Ikaris exined to Keele as she began walking towards the doorway portal.

    "It has a mind and will of its own, it can give and bless just as easily as it can take and curse; along with you three the system has been granted permission to gift the blessing of mana to all the Vatui refugees on Rhoss, and I know that mana''s original intent is no that of a weapon but we don''t have much of a choice as things stand, the Emporium is powerful, I need your strengths."

    "Do you intend to rebuild, princess?" Cecelia asked and Ikaris nodded, gesturing with Dina and A going through the spacial anomaly first.

    "I do," Ikaris answered after the others had gone through, leaving just the two of them standing and facing each other.

    "I know it is asking a lot, especially from me who disappeared and caused a lot of the problems I intend to rectify, but we need more warriors on our side, I want to crush the Emporium as Master intended me to do, we will destroy them and everything they stand for, saving as many of our allies along the way as we possibly can."

    "It would be my pleasure and an honour to fight for your cause once more your Highness, there would be no greater joy and no greater sacrifice than to live as your retainer once more...!" Cecelia dered once more

    "I know from the way you talk to me that we used to be close, but please Cecelia, I urge you to remember-"

    "The Ikaris before me and the Ikaris I know from the past are two separate entities and minds, you have no recollection of anything which happened before you were a Divine; I know," Cecelia repeated what she had heard almost on a daily basis whenever the topic of Ikaris or the Emporium was raised while her or Sol was present.

    "I still find the time to makeparisons, though, and as I have said on many asions, your past self is not that different from the person you are now, the only great change that happened has to be your kindness and the way you treat the others around you," Cecelia walked through the doorway and sucked in a breath when the Estate''s warm and weing atmosphere was immediately reced with the wild winds of an explosion.

    "What the devils...?" Cecelia shielded her eyes from the bright sh of light and then nced behind herself at the settlement where her family as well as the rest of the n resided.

    "Apologies," I could not help my curiosity," Keele raised her voice approaching Ikaris and lowering her head in a sincere kowtow. "I wanted to know the difference between a count of regr mana versus the count of divine mana; I needed an example." She exined shyly while Ikaris watched Dina descend towards them.

    "I made sure to detonate it safely in the air where nond or structure would be harmed," Dina exined with a sheepish smile after causing an explosion equivalent to the size of a football field in the air and then turned from Ikaris to Keele with her hand outstretched and her palm open creating a tiny burst of raw mana the size of a football.

    "That inparison is the scale of a count of your basic mana."

    "If I may," Jenifer raised her hand as if she was a student in the middle of a lecture, thinking of the time Sol had faked arrogance when he was sending her back to the Emporium.

    "If those scales are urate ording to the math you have given us calcting the potency of different stages of mana, then what of Sir?" She asked, and Dina''s smile faltered as she thought of Sol as an entity of mass destruction and creation like everyone else seemed to do and not as her spouse and Master.

    "Can you give us the measurement needed to calcte such an absurd power?" Jenifer asked, but both Dina and A looked at Ikaris since they had never once asked him for an urate measurement, and he hadn''t ever offered one, but also because Godyer mana was something neither of them knew how to exin with words.

    "Here is your example," Ikaris spoke up, conjuring a small mass of golden mana in her palm and turning it solid and holding it firmly. "Godyer mana cannot be measured using numbers, it is infinite, so we never bothered calcting an equivalent medium, however, this is an estimate of what such a medium would be."

    The orb was norger than a softball, and it seemed incredibly light by the way Ikaris casually held it while she spoke. "Come on, try holding it," She gestured to the inquisitive and skeptical woman, and Keele took the bait and grasped the orb from the top and then nced at Ikaris''s smile and held her hand beneath hers as well, expecting something incredibly heavyweight.

    When Ikaris removed her hand however, the orb stayed stationary, causing Keele great confusion when she found moving the object from the space in the air where Ikaris had left it impossible no matter how much force she exerted, causing veins to pop up in her forehead as she ground her teeth until Ikaris rested her hand on her shoulder and shook her head. "Enough."

    "What is this?" Keele gestured to the object, wiping the sweat off her forehead and staring at everyone else, including Cecelia who regarded her with a nce of pity whilst she slowly shook her head.

    "Godyer mana," Ikaris answered.

    "This is why it is impossible to measure his power, it is mana born from a realm exceeding divinity, immeasurable, unmovable, pure and most importantly, every single count, or what should have been considered a count is infinite; I have a finite amount stored within me, residual of his mass quantities, but that small amount is infinite, it can be used infinitely; that is to say I have a very limited view of his power and am still confused by it.

    "I have also attempted to make calctions of Master''s mana, my calctions have alwayse up inconclusive with an error, his power is immeasurable." Alpha added appearing while the doorway leading back to earth closed and the encampment began moving towards them.

    "My attempts yielded repeated failure after failure; it would be a better investment of your intelligence to spend your time studying mana and its many applications rather than trying to attain an impossibleparison between the stages it goes through to reach that level; unless you have evolved your mana to make itparable in potency to Master''s, or are another being of greater power like Lumi, you will never be able to grasp his power."

    Damn, no wonder I never even tried," Dina chuckled.

    "I pretty much came to the same conclusion on the day he became Godyer, he was always powerful, even before then he was leagues more powerful than you guys with the exemption of Ikaris and the demon Void he was ultimately the strongest, but the moment that Master became Godyer his mana disappeared from our senses, his power multiplied until we could no longer sense or ascertain its limits, hie first act as a Godyer was eating the core of the collective and recing it with another he created on the spot; why bother trying to figure someone''s power after they eat thergest ck hole known in existence like a casual snack and then recreate a brand new one?" Dina stared at them.

    "He is a mystery, and I like being unable to understand everything about his power."

    "Agreed," A added with a chuckle. "There is no point to it."

    Greeting Her Majesty and her subsidiaries," Zara approached first and curtseyed while the area continued to fill with more Vatui.

    "We all received a message in our heads about mana and assimtion, we do not know what any of that means but we obeyed the voice under the assumption that it was Her Highness''s doing," She made another gesture of respect to Ikaris and then closed her arms before herself and nodded to her sister. "We all received another telling us to be here promptly."

    "Let''s wait for everyone to gather then," Ikaris stood, facing the encampment with a serious gaze, and seeing her attitude shift the others all adjusted themselves and did the same, taking her right and left with none while Zara retreated several paces back and stood ready to hear more.

    [Casting Voice Amplification]

    *ahem*

 Chapter 306: Hesitation.

    "I know that meing here before you all is not ideally what you expected after being freed, and that the way I am approaching this matter is extremely straightforward; some might even say a bit forceful," Ikaris opened her introduction with her hand raised in a bid to quiet them, drawing everyone''s undivided attention when she did it.

    "I ask that you at least hear me out before you cast any judgement and make any decisions," She continued, seeing thest of the refugees join in the back.

    Ikaris''s voice burrowed directly into their minds while she spoke.

    "The Godyer Sol Vestic cannot take part in the liberation of our people and our Godyer allies," Ikaris stared at them baring the full brunt of an uproar of murmurs after her words fully registered.

    "What does that even mean, doesn''t this sound like a call to arms?" One man asked rubbing his head with an expression of disbelief. "Are we supposed to follow a princess that left us behind and our n head who spent aeons ughtering her own kind?" He asked.

    "And who are those other women with them, one of them looks familiar," He drilled scepticism into those around him, dividing the crowd between those who listened intently and those who wanted to be elsewhere but had shown up out of obligation and curiosity. "With how lightly she is treading the topic I can already tell she is unsure if she deserves to even lead us anymore, what is this, this...?"

    The man found breathing extremely difficult all of a sudden, holding his shirt and wing at his flesh wildly and it was only after his eyes fell on Ikaris that he understood that he had spoken out of turn and nearly lost his life, not to her, but rather to Cecelia who still held Ikaris in the highest regard as the leader of their people, her stare had left him speechless and breathless with the lingering sensation of someone squeezing his throat.

    "Choose your next words vert carefully, you have tread upon the Princesses name once and that one time is an offence worthy of death by a thousand swords!" Cecelia snapped from behind Ikaris staring at the man with a promise of pain in the near future with her fists clenched.

    "Cecelia, don''t," Ikaris looked around at her and then looked at the man again after she was sure the woman was calm enough to control herself.

    "Listen to me all of you; the entire duration of my absence I was unaware of being any princess, I don''t remember about your struggles and your suffering, I lost my memories and existed in solitude, going through struggles that had nothing to do with the Emporium or the Grand Collective, I still have no idea what kind of person I was before, whether I was a good or a bad leader, if my n is alive or not, the state of the rebellion is unknown to me, I know none of it; I have no idea whether I was looked up to or hated, and I have reached a point in my existence where such things matter not to me," She stared at them seriously.

    "What matters now upon my return is that I see the struggle of the Vatui and Godyer races, not as the princess who disappeared but as a mother who was targeted and chased, as a wife who had to wait in hiding while my husband fought to protect me and my unborn, as the herald of an entirely new species of Vatui beings, Ie before you not as some forgotten noble wanting soldiers to dirty their hands in her stead but as one who has suffered at the hand of the Emporium just as much as you all have and wants to drive them in the ground once and for all!" Ikaris raised her voice.

    "I cannot do it by myself, I need your help, all of you if possible and that is why I employed the help of the system," She gestured to her side where they all saw a small woman in a maid''s outfit appear out of thin air standing next to her and lowering her head at them from the small rise they stood on.

    "I did note emptyhanded; I returned with the knowledge of mana; the gift of life and the source of creation, the primary source of power which drives the entire Grand Collective."

    "So that''s what mana is supposed to be?

    I thought it wasing from a Celestial god, but it is actuallying from the negligent princess," The same man who had raised his voice before spoke again and Ikaris looked at him silently for a few seconds before she vanished from their sights and appeared before him, frightening him so much he yelped out and fell on his ass failing to scurry away when she grabbed his arm and continued staring at him.

    "I see," Ikaris stared at her hand joined with his and chuckled. "Youck belief even though the first thing I did upon rejoining the fight was destroy the equivalent of half a universe."

    "Who in their right mind would believe that?" The man asked skeptically, dragging his hand away and scowling. "I never believed in you then and I don''t believe in you now either, some things are beyond even us, we aren''t gods-"

    "Except, Ikaris is a god," Dina spoke from next to him raising him by his shirt and releasing him to stand on his own. "She is exactly what you thought she was; a Celestial God, she discovered mana, and has mastered use over it, how else do you exin what she has been able to do, or are you so stiff in the neck that you''re unable to believe even the things that are proven right before your eyes?"

    "Everyone knows the Royal family has always had special abilities, our n leader is also of a Noble bloodline, and she has inherited skills outside of Vatui understanding, who is to say the Princess is not just another case like hers, this fake god is trying to sell us to the Emporium after the Godyer saved us from the mistakes she made in the first ce!"

    "This one is quite rude, is he not?" A asked from the man''s other side staring up at him with a chuckle. "Teaching him will be bothersome, Mdy," She looked at Ikaris who sighed with a smile and regarded him with her fist.

    "I have changed quite a lot after all, something tells me that this sort of thing in the past would have led to me making an example out of him, violently." She stated, looking around at Cecelia who stood stationary on the small rise ring at the man like a rabid animal as if he had stepped across her food.

    "I do not have the patience to deal with the unbelievers; we don''t have the time to convince anyone that the threats we face are beyond this very Grand Collective," She spoke casually with an absent re causing those in her immediate surroundings to flinch and wonder in awe at what could make her wear such an expression.

    "I will leave him and anyone else who shares his views to Cecelia and her sister."

    "Very well, I will be sure to make fine examples out of all of them, Your Highness," Cecelia answered from the rise, ring at the man who now had an expression of horror as he thought about what she had carelessly said about Cecelia when he was in the heat of the moment. "I will ensure that their correction is thest they ever need."

    "Wonderful," Ikaris looked at the crowd spread around her and slowly ascended off the ground. "I will start again then," She stated with more confidence than the first time, addressing the mass as she returned to the rise along with A and Dina.

    "I am not the Ikaris that you knew, nor am I the Ikaris that you think you know, I may not be as intolerant as I was in the past but that doesn''t mean I''ll give you permission to speak to me as you please, I remember nothing, I owe you nothing, I am not your long-forgotten princess, I left a child and returned a woman, I have a family I wish to protect, I have friends I want to shelter, I have an entire race of descendants I never want to see this war, I fight for them, and I am asking you to fight for your people alongside me, I am handing you the greatest power across the Grand, and in return you finish the war that we failed to win once before, we avenge our fallen, we grow until there is no power in any collective or sector capable of standing before us; reim your title as the absolute race."

    "Is mana all that special?" Someone asked and Ikaris scoffed and raised her hand.

    "Mana is the source which powers Sol Vestic, Mana is the only power capable of empowering him."

    "How can we take your word for it?" Someone hidden in the crowds shouted.

    "You can take my word for it," Cecelia appeared at the woman''s side, blitzing their senses with speed alone.

    "I have already surpassed the power that the former War Angel possessed, I had no idea that she was still alive, but I always thought that she was the peak of power, I never believed the legends of Godyers being able to shake the foundations of entire collectives, yet I saw him make this one vanish without a trace, we exist within him, he is hosting us effortlessly inside of his soul, and Vatui; I have never before heard of any Vatui of royal blood or otherwise possessing as much power as Her Highness does, she is a living breathing Vatui being turned Divine because of mana; she evolved, Dina there on her right used to be human but she wields mana so terrifying now she can rupture entire gxies, and the same of A on her left, the three of them have be the peak of their species, and they want to share that power with us."

    "This is the power to usurp the Emporium, why are you hesitating?"

 Chapter 307: Unlimited Power!

    "This is the power to usurp the Emporium, why are you hesitating?" Cecelia asked, standing and gesturing with her hands spread wide.

    "If it is a matter of distrust towards me because you believe I do not deserve your trust as one who sacrificed the lives of our kin to keep the Emporium off your backs, then trust the judgement of Zara and Hudor, at least!" She snapped raising her voice to traverse the entire gathering through their links as nsmen.

    "Master Vestic saved you for two reasons; the first is because he promised that he would, and the second is because he believed that you are useful to his goal of eradicating the Emporium."

    "But he isn''t even going to fight with us, who would follow the orders of someone who won''t even fight with the people he wants to fight for him?" Another asked, trying to make sense of what Cecelia was saying in contradiction to what Ikaris had said earlier.

    "The Godyer won''t fight them, so why should I?"

    "How does that make any sense?"

    "Ugh, they have gone soft from hiding amongst their enemy for too long," Zara rubbed her forehead as she heard the start of an uproar.

    "We have been hiding all this time, it will take a lot more than the empty words of a forgotten era and promises of power to motivate us into fighting them again," Hudor agreed with the protest beneath them while Ikaris watched the anarchy unfolding before her eyes with a disappointed gaze.

    "I think we''re wasting our time here," Dina looked at Ikaris with a deep frown.

    "I know that you''re trying to make good on your promises, but I can hardly find a shred of courage within this audience let alone someone with the makings of a warrior, they may be strong, they may have potential; but as it stands, I only see a gathering of tamed cowards, weaklings," She spoke her mind evoking silence as they all stopped to hear the thoughts of Ikaris''s supposed Right Hand; a human.

    "How dare that human, does she think that her backing the Princess makes her invincible, no matter what power she has a human, she is is ONLY human, still as easy to kill as the rest of them are," The man who had been soliciting the others with his tant scepticism raised his voice again. "With a fragile body like that I could pick my teeth with her, haha!"

    "Go ahead," Ikaris responded, conjuring a seat with a tired sigh and resting in it while Alpha brought her something to drink as she closed her eyes. "Dina is not empowered by LAW like the Emporium warriors are, all she has ever done is practice her skills in mana; and she has not even been a mage for ten years yet...

    go right ahead, attack her with as much force as you please, if she fails to defend herself I will withdraw my words and leave you be without another utterance."

    "Is that some kind of trap, why would she give him permission to attack her right hand? She is human, she will die if she suffers a single blow from any of us without the power of LAW protecting and enforcing her fragile body-"

    "Him?" Ikaris asked while Dina stepped forward and balled her fist staring down at all of them.

    "No, I am saying you can all attack her at once and the oue will still be the same; Dina will win against every single one of you, if you can prove me wrong, I will turn and leave without another word and you will never hear from me again, free to live your lives as carelessly as you want, I will find another way to acquire allies."

    Ikaris would have added the alternate of Dina''s victory but she already knew this prideful race would never imagine themselves losing against a regr human; there was only one problem with what they had understood of Dina''s introduction.

    She was human.

    "Don''t worry Keele," Dina nced around at her with a confident smile. "I will keep the damage to this area."

    "As I expected you would," Keele smiled and huffed. "Just don''t kill anyone by ident," She added whilst Dina looked around at the mass again.

    "Of course, I know as much," Dina held out her hand stopping the fist of someone who had intended to take her down with a single strike; the man was brave, the bravest being the one who attacked first, but with his fist hovered before Dina''s palm unable to reach her and nobody else even flinching at his attack, he and the others stared shocked.

    "Cecelia..."

    "You have my permission to educate them properly, Dina," The woman sat in a chair offered by Alpha watching the others around her do the same as they epted Ikaris''s parody behavior as normal and gave in to the temptation of acting nonchntly in the presence of danger and conflict as they had seen her and Sol do over and over again.

    "Heaven knows, whatever you do today will pale inparison to what I will do to those who fail to fall in line in the future; the ��loen n is supposed to be directly subservient to the throne above all else, I am already disgusted by their open insubordination."

    "Right," Dina looked at the man again with a small smile, watching him sweat as he was suspended in the air before her by her invisible mana.

    "I''ll keep the injuries to light fractures then," She released her mana and grabbed his fist, pulling him into a punch that broke his nose and sent him cascading through the crowds crashing into and causing several other refugees who failed to avoid his path to go flying as well."

    "The other day when Master and Mdy came to their rescue I had imagined they were too shaken and that is why despite the enemy approaching nobody had made an attempt or volunteered to join the fight, but I could have never imagined that it was cowardice that had stayed their hand," Dina shook her head, using her mana to stop severa others in their tracks around her and dispatching them each with a single punch.

    "The Queen of all Heavens has no need for weakings and cowards; mana is the only way to fight against LAW and win, you have failed in the past, but instead off epting the hand of mercy being offered to you and showing the grattitude she deserves after breaking her vow of raising her hand in battle...

    you show nothing but contempt and disrespect!" She caught a woman by her face and used her like a batton to swat several away before mming the woman in the ground and resting her heel in her shoulder with a sigh and staring down at her.

    "What is the matter here, I thought you said I was just a weak human," Dina narrowed her eyes at the woman as she squirmed beneath her heel in shock and fright. "Where are the Vatui warriors that I was told so much about? What happened to the race of super-powerful beings that used to destroy civilizations for merely speaking ill of their Kings and Queens, where is your pride?" She asked.

    "By the standards of those who surround me, I am one of the weakest, can''t you at least try to look like you''re worth her Highnesses time and efforts?"

    "This brings her full circle," Ikarismented, smiling at Dina''s back.

    "Indeed, I remember how she was afraid to face the demons on Arkadia, she was too terrified to even raise her staff," A nodded. "Han did a wonderful thing awakening the hero inside of her," She added, causing Zara who stood behind her confused at their idle chatter to lean her head as she stared at Dina bullying her people and knocking them unconscious one after the other.

    "There is no way that woman is human," She spoke up, and Keele chuckled and looked over her shoulder with a shrug.

    "Correct."

    "What?" Hudor snapped. "So, you lied?" He asked, looking at Cecelia.

    "I said she was human, I also said she evolved into the apex of her species after gaining the ability to utilize mana," She exined with her brow raised. "You all only heard what you pleased because you had already decided that you want nothing to do with Her Highness and the war she saved you from.

    "What is she if not human, then?" Zara asked staring and then wincing when Dina made a spear of light [Mana Spear] and began beating her attackers into the ground with it.

    "She does not like to admit to the term, but during herst fight with Keele she achieved the title of [Divine], she also has enough mana to epass more than one universe," A answered causing Jenifer and Cecelia who had not been privy to that information to look at her as well.

    "Born one of the weakest humans even by human standards, she has undergone hell and survived death many times, evolving as she overcame each foe... Dina is a Divine; she is a god who refused a title, it is for this reason that I refused as well; as her teacher I want the same of myself as she has achieved; to have Master and Mdy praise me after witnessing my power."

    "Just how strong can mana make you?" Zara asked and Ikaris looked at her with a smile after she had finally asked the right question.

    "Master was also once amongst the weakest caste of humans," Ikaris answered, noting how they made strange expressions at her calling him [master] like Dina and A did.

    "He went from being the weakest to absolute within a decade, he is the peak of Godyer power, he is the meridian of all evolution, the being I havee to worship as my dearest love and sire of my children, he is the answer the Grand Collective needs; the one who will correct the narrative and usher in the next era."

    "The answer is limitless; mana has no limits and it breaks the limiters of whomever uses it, as long as you strive for greater power and walk that path relentlessly, you can achieve your goals, whatever they are."

 Chapter 308: Only One.

    "Infinite...?" Zara stared outwards in awe. "How is that even possible?" She mused.

    "As exined before, mana is the source of all life and death, it was the first and it will be thest, when eternity itself has ended mana will still remain," Ikaris replied leaning forward when she witnessed someone who managed to block Dina''s [Mana Spear] strike with his bare hands, roaring with a wide grin as the two of them began a one-on-one bout while the others surrounding them tried escaping their path.

    "It seems there are some diamonds in the muddle after all."

    "Oh... that one?" Hudor scrunched his nose and shook his head. "He is no good, that man has nearly exposed himself as Vatui more times than I care to remember, we had to constantly cover his tracks to prevent a leak-"

    "He is proud of his n; proud of his heritage; proud of his race," Zara countered, looking at the man next to her with a raised broe. "If we''d had more warriors like him then we would have not needed to retreat and go back into hiding back then," She gestured to him. "��loen Cosmo."

    "I remember him, he was a part of my personal datail," Cecelia nodded crossing her arms and sighing with a smile. "Cosmo has a strong sense of self and an iron-d will, princess, he is a fine example of what you seek."

    "Cosmo," Ikaris reclined in her seat once more and smiled, she had begun thinking that that Vatui like Cecelia were the examption and that she was an enigma, but if she was vouching for him then he was at the very least worth a second nce, not to mention, he had not opposed the idea of fighting the Emporium; he was fighting Dina for the fun of it, that was evident by the smile on his face even as he was beaten into the ground by Dina who also wore a pleased smile after finally finding someone of worth amongst those who had challenged her.

    It left a question lingering in the back of her mind though.

    "Cecelia," Ikaris called.

    "Yes, Highness?" The woman stood at the utterance of her name and looked to her beloved leader with a curious gaze.

    "From your perspective, amongst the nsmen before you, who would you say represents the average Vatui in strength, whether that be as a warrior or as a civilian?" Ikaris inquired, ncing at the woman curiously.

    "The average," Cecelia mused, fiddling her thumbs as she stared at the mass that had gathered around Dina and Cosmo observing in awe as she battled easily with one of their strongest. "For civilians, I would say the average is the strongest of this multitude, but speaking for the warriors, the average would be Hudor behind me," She gestured to the man and he huffed and closed his eyes.

    "Ma''am, I am surely above the average warrior-"

    "Can it, you''re as average as theye; slightly below average in the intelligence department, no doubt," Zara pped her hand over his mouth with a deadpan.

    "This is a serious matter, I implore you to behave professionally, Hudor," She stared at him askance of the carefree attitude that Cecelia seemed to have while she interacted with Ikaris and the others who had arrived through the glowing doorway with her.

    "Then, by Hudor''s standards, would Cosmo be considered a cut above the rest?" Ikaris asked again and Cecelia hummed in thought, mulling over the idea of Cosmo being an elite before scoffing.

    "Not entirely, no," She shook her head. "Cosmo was among some of the weaker of the forces, granted, he is not weak himself, but he is far from an elite," Cecelia answered.

    "Then... the elites-"

    "They all died," Cecelia answered.

    "Aside from my sister and myself the main forces werepletely wiped out by General Flint and his fleet; Her Highness disappearing after the death of the King was a massive blow to the Vatui army''s morale, while contrasting our effectiveness falling, the Empire grew stronger with LAW as their support, eventually we were beaten into a corner and failed to recover," She lowered her gaze after A''s unfinished question.

    A looked at Ikaris expecting some kind of reaction to what was probably the greatest blunder of her past, but the goddess was sitting there staring at Dina''s fight and sipping her tea with an expression of indifference.

    "I see," Ikaris ced her cup in the tray and cleared her throat. "Do you know where we can find others like yourself and your sister or Cosmo?" She asked, aware that Cecelia along with Hudor and Zara were staring at her because of her estranged behaviour.

    "While I respect those who would be willing toy their lives on the line to see the Emporium dragged through the dirt and brought to ruin, I am not looking for soldiers toy their lives on the line and die for me, I am looking for warriors of the highest degree who can reach never before seen heights of power and destroy their enemies in my name." She dered, bringing with her derations a rush of mana from her body and a burst of wind crashing from the sky and washing across the chaotic foreground causing Dina to stop mid-kick and release a breath, extending her hand towards Ccosmo and smiling at him.

    "You pass, Cosmo," Dina pulled him to his feet and cast [Heal] on him, curing him of all his injuries before his healing factor even kicked in.

    "I was utterly defeated though," Heined, staring at his spotless arms in awe.

    "Consider yourself qualified to fight by Her Highnesses side either way, what we seek aren''t martyrs, we seek powerful allies, with your strength alone you can hold your own against a lot of the average soldiers under the Emporiums banner; you''ll be able to do so much more once you''ve learnt how to make use of your mana." Sheplimented him and saw his cheeks flush as he held on to her hand.

    "If you do not release my hand you won''t have one to fight with."

    "Understood..." The man let go of her hand with a shocked expression when she showed her true hostility, ncing around at the others who had also taken a fancy to her while she was beating the shit out of them, he saw the sigils on her neck and arms light up and felt a menacing aura as they hummed and emitted azure waves of mana around her causing the loose debris to rise while the skies began darkening whilst clouds raced from all angles forming a spiral above them.

    "If you value your lives, keep them to yourself, I will not allow it and ally or not, Masterwill kill anyone who tries to." She stared at the surrounding Vatui.

    "The Princess would kill us for touching her?" Someone asked with their brow raised in what seemed like disbelief.

    "She would probably break your arm or leg for it, but no, she is not my master; I am her right hand, her retainer, our master is Sol Vestic," Dina balled her fists suppressing her mana again and taking a deep breath. "Does anyone else wish to challenge me, or was there only one worthy candidate within this multitude of two thousand?" She asked with her expression darker than before.

    Like dina, A''s sigils had also been glowing after Cosmo had shared a lecherous expression holding her hand, and Ikaris''s sigils were the brightest, almost like a beacon.

    "What is wrong with them?" Cecelia asked, seeing their resonance for the first time with her own eyes.

    "There is nothing wrong," Alpha answered in her usual monotonous response.

    "Mdy is extremely territorial about matters concerning her Master as he is with her, their connection to Dina and to Lady Amastacia has carried the full brunt of said possessiveness over into their link with twice the effect, creating a rather interesting instinct within the three of them, you should be mindful, when their sigils glow they are resonant, when master''s sigil on his arm glows they are all entranced, but if their eyes glow be wary and do not approach, your life could end in an instant, this information may one day save your life so take heed." Alpha warned them.

    "Their sigils glowing in tandem is a sign of warning, Sir''s sigils glowing with theirs is a sign of entrancement, and when all their eyes glow they are hostile and will attack anything and everyone which ventures too close to them, understood," Jenifer made a mental note of the warning and then turned to Keele who was also nodding as she absorbed those words like a gospel.

    "She is truly not the Ikaris of the past, but I do remember her once saying that any man who could get her submission would have her unyielding loyalty," Cecelia mumbled, but Abeing A looked at her with a knowing smille.

    "In the end there was only one..."

 Chapter 309: For the Grand Collective.

    "I was not expecting a lot of them to pass Dina''s test, but only one person passing is too disappointing for me to keep my peace," Ikaris stared at the mostly beaten crowd and shook her head.

    "I do not understand, was the whole point of this excercise to point out how much they werecking?" Cecelia asked with a frown.

    "Even if you are looking for the best amongest the best there had to be more than just one person who could have been useful, you also exinedtent talent and the possibility of those who werete bloomers like Dina, maybe there are a few Vatui like her hidden in the crowd here as well?" She gestured to them, but Ikaris shook her head with a scoff and raised her hand toward the encampment while Dina returned, using her mana like a telekic hand to carry Cosmo a few metres behind herself.

    "That is unlikely," Ikaris answered shaking her head a second time casting [Greater Heal] across the encampment and mending everyone of even the simple scratches that they acquired in their scuffling with Dina.

    "Dina Levina, Han Young, Bruce Chaolong, Eris Schneider, Usami Takae and Sol Vestic, what set them apart from the rest is that they were the only ones capable of doing what they did," She exined, "Master is a special case, he is not just one in eight billion like the rest of them; he is one in a Collective, he was chosen by the collective itself to save it, the other five inaprison were the only humans on earth who qualified to be transmigrated and turned into powerful heroes, there won''t be anyone like them in such a small group, the possibilities fall too far below zero- we don''t have that kind of luck," Ikaris exined while A and the others nodded in agreement.

    "The heroes'' summoning exchanged the souls of the most powerful mages on all of Arkadia to carry us over," Ikaris stared at her hand after she had finished healing the masses, shing her fingers with a look of surprise when her mana turned from white to gold for a few seconds again.

    "Is your mana okay, Mdy?" A asked.

    "Her mana?" Dina looked up as soon as shended, staring at Ikaris with an expression of concern. "Did something happen whe I wasn''t paying attention?" She approached Ikaris and took her hand, looking at the residual golden mana while it disssipated.

    "No, this is fine, my mana has been undergoing change ever since Master became Godyer, remember, it is only a matter of time before it ispletely new in nature; I had only assumed that the change would have been a lot slower; my initial prediction was over a hundred years of metamorphisis but I can hardly recognise my mana currently, the process must have sped up somehow without me realising it."

    "Your soul''s garden, no doubt that must be the reason," A suggested. "I have yet to get mine, but from my understanding it is like gaining several thousand years of mana stacked over a small period of time," She spoke up and dina snapped her fingers in agreement.

    "Indeed, with master''s mana constantly multiplyig like that because of the new births it only makes sense that your alreadyrge mana pool would be influenced faster than you initially calcted, I mean look at me as an example; my mana doesn''t look or feel anything close to what it was before assimtion." Dina added and Ikaris epted that with a nod.

    "What the heck are they talking about this time?" Jenifer looked at Keele who shrugged and looked at Cecelia, but she also shook her head and shrugged since they had not been made privy to Sol''s ability to separate parts of his Collective safely and imnt

    raw mana along with the birthing universes inside if someone else''s soul as long as they could withstand the pressure and bacsh of their soul suddenly getting enriched with the pure power of something as massive as a universe.

    "Mine has multiplied to a few hundred now, I have ess to less than a percent of my dormant powers," Dina looked at Ikaris seriously.

    "Of course, I have been tapping into that power ever since Talia began eating my mana, it makes sense that my calctions would be off with such arge factor of my current strength changing with the use of his mana." Ikaris looked to the crowds again, walking forward and standing with her hands outstretched as she quieted their idle chatter after what had just happened.

    "Princess, we failed to meet your expectations, right?" A random face in the crowd asked.

    "You did, yes," Ikaris answered almost a little too quickly. "Aside from Cosmo, everyone else here has too little battle experience to go up against the heartless Emporium, for your safety as well as my peace of mind, it is better if you stay away from the fighting for now; mana was granted to you so you have the opportunity to learn how to properly utilize it before we return."

    "How long do they have?" Hudor aslked.

    "Not just them, Hudor, you as well," Ikaris looked around at him.

    "That is the best choice, you have a history of making bad decisions and making no decision when there should clearly be one, you need to learn a lot before you can fight by the princesses side," Zara pat his shoulder with a consoling smile seeing his expression falter and his shoulders slouch.

    "Cheer up, Hudor, take the time to be with your people and learn with them, you spent so much time leading them that you have forgotten that you too are a part of them."

    "I agree, even now I have yet to look at my husband..." Cecelia lowered her gaze. "I do not deserve such a loyal man, not after what I did in the name of keeping everyone safe from the General''s search." She closed her eyes and balled her fists. "I can feel his gaze, but I am unable to meet it," She shuddered.

    "With your mind in such a state, Cecelia, is it okay for you to be on the battlefield?" Keele asked but the white-haired woman shook her head of said thoughts and looked up with a determined re. "???"

    "My ce is behind Her Highness, I will do what must be done for the sake of the Vatui race, my happiness... my punishment, whatever he decides can wait."

    "I would never..." Ikaris shook her head in disbelief at what Cecelia had uttered; merely thinking that there was a chance that she would never see Sol or Talia again made her want to abandon everything and run home, but at the same time that she started faltering in her resolve she heard Sol''s voice in her head, along with Dina and A.

    [We do what we do because nobody else can do it, we keep pressing forward for the sake of the Grand Collective.]

    Like a newly converted believer, A sunk to her seat and sped her hands, staring into the sky while Dina did the same, Ikaris in contrast smiled and sped her hands, looking to the skies with an expression or reverence as their sigils hummed in tandem several times before going dark again.

    "Was that resonance again, what happened?"

    "Nevermind all of that, we have a lot to do and a limited pool of time to aplish it; we need to erase the presence of the Emporium from the Kha-Nova Collective as fast as possible, we burn through our mana and souls if we have to," Ikaris dered, staring to the mass onest time.

    "Everyone, train diligently, do not rest in my absence, I will return in exactly one month to take with me the strongest among you, likely with more refugees and possibly a new home, I do not have the time to exin so I am giving the system permission to answer any question in my absence, this concerns the state of the Emporium, The Grand Collective, and the true reason we need to purge them with such haste, everyone, we''re leaving."

    "It sounds like sometning big is happening behind the scenes," Hudor looked at Cecelia for a response and she nodded with a bead of sweat rolling down her cheek and then looked at Ikaris again.

    "I will check on you soon, do not ck off." Zara aimed her fingers at the pseudo leader and he raised his hands in defeat and nodded.

    "Understood, Ma''am," Hudor chuckled. "If mana is as amazing as you make it look, I want to be a soverign with it, I will grow fast and steer clear of my former attitude, Princess, thank you for believing in us; thank you for this opportunity to right our wrongs, I will not fail you a second time!" Hudor sunk to his knees with his eyes watering and sweat dripping down his forehead.

    "What is that idiot saying this time?" One of the men that had been mentally scarred by Dina leaned his head with a loud scoff. "He-"

    "You fools!" Hudor eximed after Ikaris and the others had vanished inside of a glowing door. "Don;t you see that we are to me as much as the princess is?" Hudor stared at them.

    "She was heading the war, she was at the forefront and those who were in charge of the King''s safety failed him, before she even disappeared we failed her as her trusted subjects!" He stomped then nced at Alpha who quietly stood next to him staring at them all.

    "There is something at stake here even more important than the Vatui crown, more important than who leads us, Her Highness is on a mission after so many years of being absent, she needs us again, will your pride not allow you to properly serve our Beloved Princess?!"

    "She doesn''t even consider herself ourbeloved princessanymore!"

    "This is not about her," Alpha spoke directly into their heads when Hudor nearly attacked the man. "The grand collective is in grave danger of being annihted by a being with power on par with Master Vestic.

    Master deterred him once before and he has gone into hiding, but the threat is more present now than ever before, the Emporium is in the way of allowing master to act freely in his pursuit of this threat, he needs the Emporium gone and he has chosen Ikaris as his acting voice and hand of eradication, set aside your personal feelings and try to understand something very important here; Alpha''s eyes glowed menacingly as she exerted mana for the first time ever.

    "You are at war with a force of darkness that has the power to end all realities on a whim, the Emporium is a stepping stone, Ikaris is another cog in the machine, and our only hope of being saved is Sol Vestic, advocate chosen by Light to fight said Darkness; raise your battle prowess and be reliable assets to my Lord, you do not fight for the Vatui nor the Godyer races, your fight is for the survival of the Grand Collective."

 Chapter 310: Seed of Despair.

    "I thought for sure he''d already have shown himself; Lumi pretty much keeps me informed every time something happens that I need to know about, but aside from that, Umbra has kept himself away from the Kha-Nova Collective, it''s frustrating, y''know?" Sol sat in his living area with Talia in hisp and Sara seated next to him.

    Opposite of him there was Usami who had been absent in recent times for various reasons including earth-rted matters, but she still showed up as usual for a debrief now that he was spending more time in his home.

    "It feels weird seeing you without everyone else," Usami bypassed Sol''s concerns and made a personal remark instead. "How are you taking the separation?" She asked him with her head slightly tilted and he smiled and shook his head.

    "I keep tabs on everything if that''s what you mean," Sol answered, clearing his thoat with an awkward smile. "Ikaris and the others take turnsing back every day so it isn''t a separation, not entirely; besides," He paused, his expression went serious and his eyes shed golden several times.

    "I know it is a risk but staying away from me might encourage Umbra to make a move against them, unitl I know where he ns to attack I won''t be as active as I used to unless my presence is needed."

    "Unexpected," Usamimented. "I guess I figured you''d be more careful not to endanger the people you love the most," She hummed.

    "It was not my idea," Sol stared at her.

    "Ikaris suggested it, I agreed because I know she has the capability to defend herself and everyone else around her long enough for me to make a move; better yet, I would be there instantaneously, if Umbra decided to attack my wife or anyone else with her, he would be falling right into my hands, he knows this, that''s why he isn''t even inside of Kha-Nova; wherever he is, he''s growing his strength in preparation to face me again." Sol scoffed.

    "I don''t care what power hees with, the next time we meet I''m sending him to hell, that I swear," Sol spoke in a chilling tone while he yed with his daughter. After what he almost did to Ikaris, and the ally I am now blindingly aware of I will do whatever it takes to erase him from existence."

    "You don''t seem too concerned at the possibility that he might get stronger than you are overtime," Usami stared at him concerned, taking his deration and promises as smoothly as her limited imagination of the scale of these new enemies could handle them.

    "Are you referring to me being currently inactive while he is out there seeking power?" Sol asked and she nodded, confirming his question with an air of hesitance seeing his expression unchanging. "You don''t need to worry about that," He nodded.

    "I passively amass power thanks to the ever-growing collevtive inside of me; it fuels me like an endlessly turning machine, but elsewise, I am constantly in a battle-ready state, even now as we speak, I am refining my mana, condensing it and practicing."

    "Wait, seriously?" She sat forward surprised at what he was saying since she couldnt sense a shred of manaing off his being, she could sense Talia''s mana and even Sara''s next to them, but Sol didn''t hava an ounce of manaing out of his body.

    "This isn''t some fight that determines whether the gods live or die, it isn''t a fight that decides the fate of a single world or even a collective, once we start there''s a real possibility that it will never stop, it might drag on for years without a break.

    Unlike me who learned to rx, Umbra is my past self, just think of his mindset as that moment on Arkadia when I lost it and went after Sitri with everything I had, He''s that version of me cranked up by a thousand, I can''t take him lightly, I know what I''m capable of more than anyone else.

    "Indeed," Sara spoke up drawing their eyes to herself.

    "Master in his right mind was capable of destroying an entire full of billions of lifeforms and has gone rampaging across the Collective obliterating dozens of outposts in the past months, I struggle to think what someone with his same resolve would be capable of when their mind and heart are corrupted by absolute evil, the implications alone are inconceivable," She concluded and Sol huffed in agreement.

    "A motivated Sol vestic is a terrifying concept." Sara added and Sol next to her went silent as he tried thinking about what the people around him thought of him, he was the strongest, but that also meant he was the most respected and the most feared, his existence was a double-edged sword even to his loved ones.

    "The bottomline is; even on the brink of sleep I am ready, once Ikaris is finished with Kha-Nova we will move on to the next Collective, and then to the next, I know where he goes because his ally is making herself more and more visible to the emissaries of light, daring them to make a move against her, I know that Umbra is with her; it just means that I will keep following their path, it is slow but a hunt is a hunt, just as his hate is unrelenting, so too is my resolve, I will chase him down to the ends of the known Grand and whatevery beyond those horizons should they be limited."

    "Even if he flees outside of the Grand Collective?"

    "Especially if he flees the Grand Collective; he threatened my family, he threatened my friends, he''s a threat to everything that I have tirelessly worked to keep safe, his life is forefeit, his head is mine to take, that will happen no matter whates between us. I will kill Umbra even if it is thest thing I do."

    "I don''t think I have ever seen you this motivated," Usami released a breath to rx her muscles after Sol''s deration left her shuddering a little.

    "The situation calls for the most serious approach one can have or think of; do you not agree?" Sara asked and Usami nodded.

    "Of course... definitely."

    ***

    "It''s been two months since I left the Kha-Nova Collective, I expected him to at least leave it in pursuit, that''s what I would have done but he seems to be in it for the long wait," Umbra was seated in arge destroyed throne room with a man wearing a crown kneeling before him with his arms and forehead pressed against the floor as the room burned from the sides, to his left sat Giza with her legs crossed, drinking from a golden chce with red gens lining the side and to his right was a woman also on her hands and knees, battered and bleeding from a cut in her side.

    "He is waiting for you to make the first move, my Lord," Giza responded to his open statement with a smirk. "The Godyer may not fear you, but he is more than a little wary; he will not act as rashly as you would, he has others in his presence that require protection, after all."

    She took another sip of the crimson liquid in the chce and stared at the young man who was beneath her feet. "What will you do regarding his patient approach?" She askded and Umbra seemed to give it a moment of thought before he scoffed and looked down at the man before them.

    "He can do whatever he wants, with The End at my disposal; I am able to escape him if he shows up anytime before I am ready to act against him, you said that Ikaris and the others aren''t near him, that is obvioudly a ploy to lure me into attacking them; I won''t fall for it."

    "Good, it would be a pity losing you when we have known each other for such a short time, without a catalyst I would sink into the depths again." Giza chuckled and then stood, walking across the young man''s corpse and standing before the one who was bowing to Umbra. "Shall we continue my lord?" She asked draining the remainder of her drink on him.

    "Go ahead," Umbra smiled, releasing a chuckle of his own, taking the woman next to himself by her hair, raising her to her feet and staring in her grey eyes with a dismissive nce. "How many does this make?" He asked.

    "How many queens, or how many kingdoms?" She responded driving her heel in the King''s head and crushing his skull.

    "How many worlds have we destroyed?" Umbra queried, seeing the Queen before him tear up as she saw in his eyes her ultimate demise. "I stopped counting afted we passed thirty."

    "Continuing with this one we will have vanquished a total of a hundred and fifteen," Your power continues to grow my King, you are on the path to being the nexus of power, your absolution is inevitabe." Giza gave him a thoughtful gaze when she saw him release the woman after humming to her calction.

    "Hehehe, at this rate, we will have destroyed the entirety of the Kha-Boris Collective before he sets foot in here, I might actually be doing him a favour by killing this many, I have also destroyed several outposts along thest three universes we have crossed."

    "It is all in the name of power my Lord," Giza stared at the woman dismissively when Umbra stood and walked away from the throne, leaving her breathing heavily on the ground. "This world is now ripe with the seeds of despair, it is time to harvest."

    "Then, lets dine."

 Chapter 311: Last Warning.

    [Kha-Nova; the same moment that Umbra and Giza consumed their hundred and fifteenth sentient world]

    "This is much better than the previous two months," Dina stared at a crowd of several dozen people, gathered after she had aided in the destruction of yet another Emporium outpost.

    Before her stood Vatui refugees that hade out of hiding after their oppressors had been killed off, there were others which had been aiding the Vatui in secret mixed in the masses as well, but amongst that number someone had stood out to her and the others the most, one who had attacked the outpost before they even arrived; another Godyer, he was not arge man, in fact he didn''t seem older than eighteen, but his power was on par with Dina''s, he reminded them of Sol in a lot of ways stemming from the reckless way he fought to how he used his power.

    "Princess," The Godyer approached Ikaris while she was in the middle of speaking to Keele and Cecelia, promptign her to stop and avert her attention to him. "Rem, at your service," He lowered his head and gave her a dainty curtsey.

    As the Vatui did; he had a head of white hair, though there was a slight glow to it, and his eyes as well were white much like Sol''s regr divine appearance, what set them apart the most was that he had nothing resembling the rings or even the crescents that Sol had when he started fighting seriously.

    He was short though, at least inparison to Sol, he was a regr height barely taller than Dina and carried with himself an air of nobility and dignity with every step and gesture he made.

    "Rem," Ikaris repeated his name once and then turned to the others, dismissing them and then looking at him again. "Thank you for assisting earlier," She smiled extending her hand. "It was a surprise finding a Godyer here, that too, beating me to the attack, how did you know I would be attacking this outpost?" She asked him with a raised brow when he bowed again rather than take her hand.

    "I had no idea, across the collective there are countless signs of change, First Sol Vestic appeared with a threat that reignited our fighting spirits, and then we found out that the Princess of the Vatui had returned and was waging an all-out war against our enemies; It is not just me, hundreds of thousands more Godyers who were in hiding; millions have responded to your call and have been sewing the seeds of havoc across Kha-Nova, it is only a matter of time before the outposts are all destroyed, though they are only small attacks because we do not have the power to challenge the Generals..." He paused when Ikaris gave him a strange glimpse and slightly narrowed her eyes, resulting in goosebumps forming across his neck and arms when he felt the sensation of a de pressed against his back even though there was nobody behind him.

    "Is that so...?" She responded to his exnation seriously. "You are a part of the resistance aren''t you? Why has it been so hard to get into contact with you, and what demon has possessed your heart to make you think you have the right to simply approach and casually speak to me?" She asked.

    "Do you have any idea how close you were to dying just now?" She seemed on the verge of attacking him but steeled herself and took a breath and on queue to her calming down Cecelia, Keele and Jenifer seemed to appear out of nowhere from behind him, while Dina, Sara and A walked from her shadow staring as he found himself surrounded, and then he felt a presence from above, something so terrifying that his bones began to ache and his body began shuddering out of his control.

    "I figured it wasn''t Umbra since there wasn''t a shread of hate in him, but this is my first time finding another Godyer who was conscious, isn''t he a bit... weak?

    Or are mey expectations too high?" Sol spoke disappointedly as he descended, his white hair iling in the winds and the crescent across his back with Talia in his arms, at his presence the multitudes went silent, never before had they seen or sensed such a being, could something this imposing even be considered a Godyer anymore?

    He was in a league of his own, and the child in his arms, it was just a babe but gave off the same terrifying energy he and Ikaris did, without an introduction they knew; this was none other than the Infamous Sol Vestic, and in his arms was his and Ikaris''s child, her name had not been made public, but she had been spotted twice already after the destruction of an outpost in his arms when he visited his wife.

    "Baby~" Ikaris cooed as soon as she saw Talia, walking past Rem and taking her from Sol, kissing his cheek and then turning to her retainers (Dina and A) who did the same as she had with kisses to his cheeks before Sol gave Rem his undivided attention.

    "Walk with me, Rem," Sol gestured, suppressing his powerspletely and sticking his hands in his pockets.

    "...Of course," Rem quickly fell in line next to Sol and began keeping pace.

    "A Godyer..." Sol stared at him. "By the Empire''s standards, you''re stronger than arge percentage of their ranks, hell, you are stronger than what I heard the average Godyer is supposed to be; what the hell have you been doing all this time?" He asked and the man swallowed and averted his eyes.

    "I am not strong enough to do anything by myself, and I am one of the strongest Allies to the resistance so I couldn''t just rush into the hands of the enemy and get myself killed or captured, I only came out because I knew that the Princess has been raiding in this direction so meeting her was a possibility." He answered honestly.

    "I found an outpost along the way and determined that the General may have been weaker than myself, so I attacked it, meeting Her Highness here today was a calcted coincidence."

    "Calcted coincidences do not exist, it was a deliberate act to gain her attention, are you trying to anger me with such a bullshit exnation?" Sol asked with a hostile re and Rem stopped walking immediately, standing stiffly with his hands at his sides and staring at Sol with an alien expression of fright.

    "Never, I would never do anything to get in your bad graces, Sir, I am honest, I made a guess and attacked on a whim-"

    "Forget it, what do you want with her? She has no intention of joining the resistance, if that was your aim," Sol shook his head.

    "No, I was sent by our leader to offer the position of Leader to her, she has done in two months what the entire resistance has been failing at since she disappeared from the war, it was a reminder of why she was the spearhead of the war to begin with, Princess Ikaris knows how to tear them apart, she always has."

    "I refuse," Ikaris approached after cing Talia in Sara''s careful hands. "If your leader was serious then he would have shown himself rather than sending one of his retainers."

    "How did you know that-"

    "Do you think we do not know who and where you are?" Ikaris raised a brow.

    "We have had ess to the Emporium''s systems and database for months, gaining the whereabouts of a shoddy alliance with meagre technology hiding them was an easy task, I have been sending messages ever since I began fighting against the Emporium, but instead of meeting me as I requested, you sent ackey in your ce, this is not enough to prove that you are who you im to be, nor is it enough to gain my trust," Ikaris shook her head and gestured to the pendant hanging from Rem''s ne which had a camera aimed wherever he looked.

    "My offer stands for another day as of this moment, cease your attacks on civilian outposts and disband your rebel army, what you are doing is wrong and targeted at the innocent.

    It shows with how warped your appearance has be, leader of the resistance," She ced her hand on her chest and stared at Rem.

    "If you do not cease and insist on attacking the wrong people I will personally put you down in the manner of the dog you behave like, we are not animals, we are better than the ughter of the innocent, do not fall to the same levels as the enemies who have tortured your people, join me instead and follow my lead as you once did, if you do notply then I will see to your demise myself, this is yourst warning."

    "We do not attack innocent outposts though-"

    "She wasn''t speaking to you," Sol interrupted Rem, resting his hand on the man''s shoulder.

    "Go back with this warning, we are trying to create a safer Emporium, we aren''t destroying one tyrant superpower to rece them with another, understood?" Sol directed the frightened Godyer, but before Rem could answer or refute again he vanished in a sh of golden light, reappearing in a small room somecepletely different and tripping over the bed behind him.

    "What the heck just happened?" Rem asked after sitting on the floor for over a minute staring at the flickering lights in the roof of his bedroom.

    "I thought I was gonna die so many times, who would ever refuse something uttered from the mouth of those monsters?" He asked, standing up and shaking his head as thest of the dizziness left him."I have to get back to master right now, Sol Vestic, Ikaris, their closest allies, I stood no chance against them, not even in my dreams, not to mention the ones who remained hidden staring at me...

    we need a new strategy if we''re gonna stay in business."

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 312: The Eighth.

    "It seems the resistance might be a problem in the future," Sol stood at the edge of a destroyed section of the outpost staring in the air at the floating debris left behind by the fight between Ikaris''s growing forces and the Emporium.

    "I assume the same, I have refrained from telling the others that the Resistance already belongs to the Emporium; in light of the fact that several of them are already among us I am trying to prevent chaos and internal conflicts, this is a matter that could cause mistrust so only those amongst my retainers and closest allies have been made privy," Ikaris answered, standing at his side with her arm hooked around his.

    "It is already troublesome; the others might get the wrong Idea if I suddenly attack the Resistance which they have seen as heroes in my absence, but they have been collecting and feeding Vatui and Goyer refugees to the Emporium for a very long time now."

    "Then, if nobody tries to contact you in the next day''s time I will act in your stead, I know where all of them are, I can wipe them out in a single night, you don''t need to have the blood of your people on your hands," Sol suggested but she shook her head.

    "A lot of them have no Idea that the leader they are so devoted to is under the Emporium''s thumb, no matter what course of action we take, the innocent will get caught in the crossfire, in that sense; maybe telling them why I would attack might be the right course of action."

    "Then I leave the decision in your hands, Ikaris," Sol smiled and pet her head causing what resembled a purring sound toe from her throat as she rested her cheek agaist his shoulder. "Whatever you decide, I will support your choice."

    "Thank you."

    "There are a total of ten who wish to join you this time, the others would love nothing more than to disappear and never be seen by the emporium again," Dina interrupted them with information from conducting a concensus amongst those they had rescued from the outpost. Master, Ikaris, what will you do about that Godyer from earlier?" She asked, standing next to Ikaris and looking at Sol.

    "For the next day we will do nothing at all," Ikaris answered. "I will make a decision after the time I set has run out," She rested her hand on Dina''s cheek with a soft and endearing smile. "You will return with Sol today, make sure you take rest."

    "Okay," Dina smiled in return and looked around at the others conversing away from them. "A seems in her element the most when she is in a warring surrounding, doesn''t she?" She stared at the elf in queston who nced from Keele to her and smiled, unaware that she had been raised as a topic.

    "I feel kind of bad for her, she didn''t want to get involved in another war but as long as she is around us then she won''t be free of some kind of conflict or another, even on earth she somehow got mixed up in our mess."

    "She has already epted that conflict is unavoidable, she told me herself that she will arise whenever a situation demands her take action, I don''t want to sound full of myself, but we; all of us, her included, are special, and special people attract dangerous curcumstances all the time," Sol raised his brow.

    "She enjoys the periods of peace and cherishes every waking moment of them, even when we were on Central Province, she told me that she enjoyed the experience of manualbour for the first time, but A has a deep love for battle that she can''t escape, she smiles when she finds new ways to make her enemies shudder, sheughs when she masters new magic, she is hardwired as a warrior, so don''t feel bad for her, she has her likes and dislikes as we all do."

    "Well," Dina lowered her gaze in thought, thinking how A had no qualms throwing someone off a bridge and killing them on the first night that she arrived on earth, and she had gone as far as dering that she had no moralpass, stating that if Sol one day became evil she would still follow him, even to hell; she would remain at his side indefinitely, which meant something as simple as fighting a war for him was well within her spectrum of possibilities.

    "I see..." Dina nodded and looked at the elf again. "Yeah, she isn''t letting it bother her so I''ll let it be."

    "Ikaris," Sol looked up from their conversation to the dark skies. "Do you want to handle them or should I?" He asked, making mention of an emporium ship that had suddenly appeared in the outer regions of the sr system they were in.

    "Master," Alpha appeared at his side, and afterwards the others in Ikaris''s party began gathering towards them. "They made no mention ofing this way in any messages, and their ships were aimed in another direction while they moved, this was unscripted."

    "Unscripted, or nned?" Sol looked down at her with an amused smirk seeing the expression of shock on her face. "Alpha I think you need to up your game, the Emporium managed to outsmart you this time." He chuckled.

    "Cecelia and Dina, go," Ikaris turned to them foregoing her rxed demeanour and going into a serious and authorative position like a switch had gone off in her head making Sol huff with an amused smile. "Alpha, I want to see everything that is happening out there, search the entire system for signs of any other ships sneaking about-"

    "Wait!" Alpha grabbed Dina''s arm while she was midway in a crouch preparing to take off, causing Cecelia to stop as well. "There is something off about this ship, the signature of the Godyer that is being used as the core is stronger than usual," She looked up at Dina who looked to Ikaris since she couldn''t sense anything that far away outside of her link.

    "She is right, it is stronger than Rem''s as well," Ikaris narrowed her eyes.

    Sol wanted to take a look but he also wanted to see them acting in person, so with his usual fanfare he took Talia from Sara and sat again, conjuring a veil around himself and the baby to shield her from the night air. "Unless I am needed," Sol looked up at Ikaris who shook her head and pouted at his nonchnce and then looked outwards again.

    "This reminds me a little of Arkadia," A stared at Sol, remembering well how he had pushed her to getting stronger when he refused to fight for the Demon Subjugation Army and left her with the other Captains and Heroes to fend for themselves.

    "What do we do?" Cecelia asked, showing signs of hesitance since Alpha had warned them to be cautious.

    "Dina," Ikaris looked to her right hand and without a word more the mage walked ahead of everyone and stood with her hand pointed in the direction of the ship, her eyes began glowing menacingly and her small cape began fanning when her hair ignited like pink mes.

    [Mana umted]

    "She is using thatagain," Keele started paying more attention, after Dina had used it against her the first time she had not seen the attack again.

    "Alpha," Dina called and the system gave her the direct coordinates of the ship along with virtual guidelines that left a path she could easily follow.

    [Your technique has evolved beyond the title of Cosmic, would you like to rename it?]

    "I leave such tasks to you, Alpha, I am bad at naming things," Dina answered Alpha as a ring of ck formed under her left eye when she utilized her Divine Chaos magic for even greater effect.

    "I just want to make sure that nothing of this vessel remains, I''ll st it away with one attack!" She sunk her heels in the ground while Sol raised his hand sensing the mana she was preparing and cast a small shield over everyone that wasn''t strong enough or able to utilize mana to protect themself from the inevitable kickback of her reckless attack.

    [Then I choose to keep the name as it is for the sake of simplicity] Alpha replied in Dina''s head as the notification popped up in her peripherals.

    [Divine Tier Ability; Cosmic Scream]

    It happened under the span of a single second; starting so fast and ending so abruptly that nobody outside of those who could percieve time slower than usual was able to see anything besides a sh of light, but for those who could see it was a great pir of Divine manapressed until it was white and released from her mouth with a scream that was inaudible, what gave away the fact that she had even done anything was the light and heat that followed, and then the sky began screaming when the atmosphere suddenly tore open in a dyed reaction to a divine beam of destruction ripping through it followed by a st of wind so powerful it tore the very terrain it grazed across andsted for well over a minute.

    On the recieving end, the ship wasn''t even made aware that there was anything iing, her attack obliterated the entire vessel and everything in it''s path for thousands of light years in distance before it slowed and dissipated.

    "That..." Ikaris looked at Dina with a proud frown and a nod. "That was many times more destructive than the one I created when I fought against the Demon Prince, Dina," Ikarismended her. "Had that hit anything resembling a it would have been vaporized, and you evenpressed and shortened the duration to prevent the atmosphere frombusting."

    "I didn''t even see it," Jenifer stared at Keele who had been too shocked to speak again after her initial excitement.

    "Someday I will be able to do the same..." Keele looked at her hands with bright and hopeful eyes. "Mana is amazing, LAW alone can neverpare."

    "And yet," Ikaris shook her head while Dina cleared her throat and stared at the rift in space as it rapidly shut.

    "Yeah, Just before the ship was destroyed, someone managed to escape," Dina narrowed her eyes and stared up again.

    "He didn''tmanage," Sol corrected her. "He outright dodged that with ease," He spoke calmly and then looked at Ikaris seriously from his seat.

    "Tred carefully, you are facing the Eighth General of the Emporium."

 Chapter 313: Lars.

    "The Eighth...?" Cecelia took a step backwards, staring out into the void and searching with her own to confirm his whereabouts. "Are you sure?" She asked a second time, slowly shaking her head.

    "We aren''t safe here, none of..." She froze and looked at Sol and Ikaris who were both regarding her with stares askance of anything resembling fear or even worry; Sol for one was slightly smiling, while Ikaris had a stare resembling excitement when she looked to the skies a second time and then at Dina.

    "Would you like to take a crack at an overpowered opponent?" She extended an invite to the mage who had an expression of annoyance after her appearance had returned to normal. "Dina?"

    "I want to say yes, but considering the gap in power between us, it could in fact get me killed before anyone else can react," Dina answered with a bitter expression masking her face.

    "This is dangerous, we know who he is but we have no idea what he is capable of outside of the fact that he is supposed to be exponentially more powerful than Nine was, and I stood no chance against Nine, so it is a bad idea."

    "Good call, I would never sit here and watch you fight someone of his caste either way," Ikaris hummed and turned to Sol who nodded in agreement with her statement. "The rest of you should retreat, allow me to handle this one myself, I fear you will only serve as an obstacle if you are near me or try to help."

    "Don''t worry, Ikaris, I''ve got them covered," Sol looked up at her again and smiled when she huffed and slowly began ascending.

    Like she usually did, as soon as Ikaris was out of in sight Alpha began rying a feed directly into everyone who had ess to the system''s head, showign them several simultaneous viewpoints which they could easily alternate between.

    Far into the void, the Eighth General stood on a piece of bed floating aimlessly as he stared at the star and at the path that the attack hade from, he was going to follow the trails left by what he considered a surprise attack but he stopped when a nearby became a beacon from a great white light shooting off into the outer system from Ikaris.

    "You wish to challenge me alone?" The man asked with a smirk, wondering who amongst his foes dare challenge him alone, but confident in his own power he leapt off the debris and flew ahead, arriving so fast and with so much force that the was pushed off its orbit destroying the entirety of the surface in the process and leaving it a glowing rock ofva and eruptions.

    It was not small, and the entire process took upwards of an hour to even show the signs, but Ikaris stood there patienty for the entire duration enduring everything like a casual wind and then walking pping her hands with a scoff, undoing the apocalypse he had created in an instant and setting the back on its course.

    "Oh...?" The general raised his brows in surprise when the hellscape before him was suddenly a calm daytime scenery again; a vast expanse of nothng but sand and stone with not a single sign of life in sight, then from a seemingly random direction Ikaris walked from thest cloud of volcanic smoke and stood facing him.

    "Not a shred of enhancements as far as I can see," Ikaris raised her brows. The eighth General was a tall lean man, and unlike all the generals before him that she had met he didn''t have ant enhancements at all, not even the suit, he waspletely bare of any evidence of tampering by the Emporium, he wore the uniform as it was intended to be worn with nothing on top of or beneath it.

    He had eyes of hazel and ck hair reaching the length of his shoulder with silver ends and highlights, but nothing of his physical appearance stuck out to the goddess; what she found odd about this man was the strange and slightly familiar energying from his person; she somehow knew what it was but she could not figure out why she recognised the strange power or even what it was supposed to be.

    "He doesn''t have a shred of enhancements on him, and that power he used a moment ago was not fuelled by LAW, and he doesn''t have even a shred of mana in his body; who exactly is the eighth general supposed to be?" Sol narrowed his eyes. "Or a better question should be whatis he?" He stared. "That man is not human, and I have no idea of any other species that can attain that level of power."

    "Could he have found another way to grow that strong, could there be other means of gaining power that we are not aware of?" A asked from next to him.

    "Someone capable of what he just did without utilizing LAW or Mana..." Sol mused.

    "I don''t know enough about the powers that be in the Grand Collective to say it''s an impossibolity, however, I should have expected somrone like this, the war began before LAW was the absolute power, and there is no rule saying that only mana exists and can empower us, it is merely the foundation of power which we thrive upon, Celestials and other beings out there exist which have utilised strange and terrible power before," He gestured to Cecelia.

    "She has the ability to destroy an entire universe by copsing the ck hole that pulls it, she has been able to do that long before she even knew what Mana was, Ikaris and many others I know of could do things like that without the use of mana, the problem there is, they are all Celestial beings of nigh unfathomable power."

    "A Celestial... hm?" Ikaris slowly repeated the word after listening in on their conversation for a moment. "What a waste, why would a Celestial work so diligently for the same people who are trying to eradicate his kind from the face of reality?" She asked, amd the general before her slightly narrowed his eyes.

    "You figured out I was a Celestial at a nce... well," He paused and looked around at their surroundings, thinking of how easily she had undone the destruction he had caused. "I suppose as a CElestial yourself and a self-proimed goddess, you would be able to tell what I am at a nce," He carefully regarded Ikaris from her head to her feet and then balled his fist and pointed it at her.

    "I am indeed a Celestial, but do not lump me in with your inferior species, I am High-bred!"

    ""What nonsense," Ikaris chuckled and raised her fist mimicking his dramatic pose. "Vatui and Godyers are the ultimate species, there is no denying that, they even surpassed their ancestor Celestial brethren, there are none higher, we are the peak of evolution!" She stared at him with a smirk.

    "No, that is not entirely true, my daughter is a new creation; a mixture of Divinity, Vatui and Godyer, she is the ultimate being, by the time she is of age there will be nothing in existence more powerful than her, not even My husband."

    "A mongrel birthed from divine misconception, that abomination you think of as your child is nothing but a filthy mudblood, how disgu-AAGH...!!" His rant turned into a scream of pain when Ikaris''s aimed hand suddenly unleashed a thinned and concentrated [PULSAR] directly into his chest from a distance she knew he hadn''t expected anything that fast toe from, it didn''t pierce his skin it didn''t even break his clothes, the speed needed to aplish this blitz of an attack had sacrificed much of the destructive power it would usually have, but he felt it in his gut like a punch from out of the blue, his feet raised off the ground and his kneesnded with a loud thud as the beam spread around him and tore two trenches through thend.

    "My daughter is the pinnacle of creation," Ikaris stared at him with her eyes zing crimson as her hair began turning to white in reaction to her emotions. "How dare you desecrate her name in my presence?" She pointed her finger at him and began walking.

    "Even as my enemy, keep your dignity, Lars, Eighth General of the Emporium, do at least that much before youdie, you bravely showed up by yourself, confident in your victory and proimed yourself superior, so tell me Lars, why are you still on your knees after that weak attack?" She asked.

    "You-"

    [Pulsar]

    Ikaris unleashed another concentrated beam directly at his face, but her eyes flinched when Lars raised his hand and blocked the attack with his bare palm causing it to disperse against his skin as he slowly stood, she already knew such an attack was useless against him, but the mere fact that he was fast enough to catch it when he wasn''t even looking made her more wary, of course she already was, which was why she intended to stick with what she knew rather than use new techniques with a higher chance of failure; the n was a simple one...

    [Unknownn tier; Pulsar]

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 314: A Very Generous Dog.

    [Unknown Tier; Pulsar]

    Lars thought that seeing her cast the attack a third time would be the same, but he was surprised when the same attacking from the same type of fluctuation in her energy threw his hand behind him when he attempted to catch it again. "What did she do?" He wondered seeing her aim her finger at his face again, her energy output was not increasing, but the force and poweer of her attack had increased three times over already. "Is something like that even possible?" The man thought curiously as he raised his hand before she even fired, casually standing as he prepared to challenge her casual attack a fourth time. "How did she make it stronger despite not changing the density or the power she is using to channel it?"

    [Unknown Tier; Pulsar]

    Ikaris fired a fourth time and Lars''s eyes opened wide in shock when the attack blitzed and nearly crashed into his face despite him clearly being ready for and anticipating it, the force it hit his palm with caused the back of his hand to m into his nose throwing him off his feet and into a slight cascade on his heels while the residual force of the fourth perfect cast dug a trench across the entire ripping through the void and decimating a moon that got caught in its path.

    "That was her fourth, Alpha, what happens if the next cast fails?" A asked the little maid.

    "I would Imagine the same cast failing would reset the effective buff of an unknown tier cast, but I do not have enough data to give you a proper and definite answer, I apologise." Alpha responded to the Elf while she was pouring a ss of wine for Sol.

    "Um..."

    "Out with it," Sol responded to Keele who wore a worried expression while she too watched the slow start of what she was still expecting to be a close and brutal fight between Ikaris and the eighth General of her forner employers.

    "I expected you to be more engaged in the current state that the fught is in, but you barely seem to care at all, even if she is strong, her opponent is Lars; the Eighth," She stared at the back of Sol''s head with a slightly disturbed facade.

    She was right, even Cecelia was ncing at him to see how he would react but Sol had yet to make any kind of gesture that hinted at him being worried for his wife''s safety, instead he seemed more calm and rxed than he usually did for some reason. "I hope your answer isn''t that the only one you consider a threat is Umbra, because-"

    "You were not there, Keele, you did not sense what Ikaris and I sensed within him, why do you think she volunteered to fight the Emporium in my stead?" Sol interrupted her rant in a serious tone, leaning forward and sighing.

    "You have no Idea the kind of monster he is; the Generals of the Emporium might be wicked from the heart, but he is pure evil from the soul, as long as Ikaris is not in danger I will keep finding ways to destroy him, Ikaris, Talia, A, Dina, Sara...

    they are my first priorities, not you or anyoe else, even if the war against the Emporium fails, Umbra stilles above everything else," He dered with a huff and leaned in his seat once more. "And just so you know," He stopped and looked at her. "There is nobody here worried about her well-being as much as I am."

    "You say all that but-"n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    "Get some perspective, Keele," Jenifer stared at her with a disappointed sigh. "Sir has proven his power time and time again, as has Ikaris, where is your faith in them?" She asked.

    "We fight against the Emporium, and Master deals with what we cannot even fathom, it has always been like this," Dina spoke as well. "We fight the demons, he fought the demon-god," She made gestures with her left and right hands as a show of bnce.

    "We fought against the prince of demons and he fought the demon king and all their hosts, and even the God of demon-gods; Master has always gone above and beyond whenever his sword was needed, he has always done what nobody else can do... that is without even mentioning what he had to do before we ended up on Arkadia, him alone; one mortal against an entire of demons, ten years of endless...

    ceaseless fighting..." Dina turned to Keele and walked up to her. "His fight has always been the paramount of everything current, do not question his actions in my presence-"

    "You-"

    "Don''t speak another word," Dina grabbed Keele''s blouse and balled her fist in it pulling the slightly taller woman down to eye-level. "Your opinion is ignorance from ack of respect and knowledge, I won''t have it!"

    "Dina!" A held on to her hand and tried prying her and Keele apart but found the strength Dina had manifested too strong to even budge let alone contend. "Dina, calm down, there is no reason to get this flustered over his affairs when master himself does not care about how others percieve him," A calmly ced her hand atop Dina''s and shook her head. "Let it go."

    "Ugh..." Dina closed her eyes and slowly released Keele who had been too shocked to react, not because of anything Dina had said, but rather because the amount of mana the woman had manifested in that split moment was so high and densely concentrated that she felt dizzy by just being near her.

    "Think before you say stupid shit next time," She unapologetically huffed and turned again, while the others all stared at her and then diverted their attention to Sol who had not even budged with what was going on behind him and had instead kept slowly drinking with Talia in hisp while he watched Ikaris and Lars.

    "What was that feeling?" Keele srtared at Dina''s back, confused. "Aren''t I supposed to be stronger than her?" She mused, thinking of what she had just witnessed with her freshly acquired mana sensing abilities. "When did Dina be this powerful? Even if I had attempted to, I would have failed if I had challenged that monstrous power, I couldn''t even breathe!"

    "Oh...?" Lars looked to the side after sensing Dina''s mana, though he had no idea what it was that he was sensing. "So there are other lesser Celestials like yourself corrupted with this strange power?" He asked, but Ikaris huffed and raised her hand a fifth time aiming her entire palm at him instead of one finger.

    "If she uses that attack again, her power will increase even more, even if I am not worried about a meager increase in power I am not stupid enough to allow my enemy to keep getting stronger right before my eyes... I will end this the moment she tries releasing that -"

    [Unknown Tier Infernal Technique; INCINERATION-MAXIMUM]

    Lars was blinded when the sh of light which was supposed to signify the release of Ikaris''s attack suddenly turned into a tsunami of mes which enveloped everything in a circr explosion around her body and began spreading.

    "The power I sensed earlier is many times stronger than any of these weak attacks, there must be someone else who leads the Vatui princess, she is merely acting on their behalf," Lars appeared above the attack watching it encircle the entire in a matter of seconds and fold on itself, turning the desert sphere into a roasting ball of white mes.

    "I should deal with the one who attacked my ship first and then capture this er, his Majesty would like her as a present-" He made to move but paused with his breath hitched when he caught sight of Ikaris in his peripheral in a rxed manner staring down at the burning.

    "Are you nning on going after my subordinate?" She asked, raising her hand and casually snapping her fingers causing the mes to all disappear as the was once again reset to its original state with ease, except this time the [Undo] was instanteneous. "Your fight is with me, Lars of the Emporium."

    The man stood there silently staring at her, also in a rxed state after hearing what she said.

    Power was absolute, no matter the era, time or ce, that one fact stood true above all else; power ruled everything and there was no way someone as strong as Dina who he could easily sense along with Cecelia and a few other entities would follow a princess that had abandoned them and then returned after that much time had passed, after they had suffered as much as they had under his and his Empire''s rule, which meant she had the power to control andmand them...

    His trantion:

    "Have you been... testing me?" Lars asked after a minute had psed with them staring at each other passively.

    "Of course I have," Ikaris answered with a smirk when she saw the vein in his forehead start pulsing as he ground his teeth in visible irritation. "You were even obedient enough to stay still and allow me to hit you a few times, you are a very generous dog."

    "The fight is about to begin," Sol announced staring intently along with the others when Ikaris beganughing.

 Chapter 315: The Thrill of a Good Fight.

    "... A generous dog...?" Lars slowly repeated Ikaris''s words, his eyes widening and his throat going dry in response to his rage blowing a cap in his sense of reason. "A generous dog?" The man asked a second time, staring in disbelief at the goddess who continuedughing at his expense, finding his shock amusing after he had foregone all defences and just stood there motionless.

    "This..." He lowered his gaze with his teeth grit and started fuming so hard that steam began escaping his nose and ears, his slim figure visibly bulked just a little, and his hazel eyes began shimmering with traces of something dark and primitive deep within him.

    Ikaris, sensing the change in the General next to her stoppedughing and began descending along with him, staring intently. "How dare you mock me...

    this is the problem with you lesser Celestials; you think the vast and endless worlds are yours to conquer and do with as you please, you treat all other beings as garbage without even thinking for a moment that there is something out there greater than yourselves, you fucking narcissists!" Lars rapidly descended andnded with a crash bending his knees as his General''s jacket burned away revealing a tight fitting ck in T-shirt beneath it.

    "Today, I will teach you a lesson you will take to your grave, Ikaris of the Vatui, I will make you beg for death and scream my name in surrender!!" He eximed, staring at her descent while a transparent white phemnomena appeared around his body further blowing everything away as he began screaming to the skies.

    "Then the time for talking hase to an end little dog...!" Ikaris, who had been humorous a few moments ago was now as serious as she could ever be as she altered her trajectory and sped towards him with her fists clenched together and her eyes burning with white mana. "Here is where you taste your first defeat!"

    "Orraaaaa!!" Lars roared outraged, thrusting his one fist at her while she descended witrh a double strike aimed for his head.

    His pride had been mauled at this point by the tant disrespect she had offered so willingly on a silver tter, and then gone the extra mile ofughing as a side dish, he challenged her descending strike, and to Ikaris''s surprise the punch he thrust managed to overpower hers, but rather than let herself be flung around as was the usual trope whever a punch outdid yours, Ikaris tanked a half of the blow to slow herself down and then spun out of the way allowing his own kic force to throw him off bnce when his attack met thin air while she righted herself mid-spin and delivered a kick right in the side of his head causing him to stagger to the side while she regained her footing.

    "Even though I have made five consecutive casts, this bastard is still so strong, and by the feels of it..." Ikaris dodged his wild attempt at grabbing her by diving backwards,nding on the ground and thrusting her heels into his chin causing him to stagger once more while she flipped to the side and pressed her hand against his side.

    [Unknown Tier basic skill; Explosion]

    "It feels like he has barely scratched the surface of his power" Ikaris mused when her attack made a circr ring in Lars''s side and blew him off his feet sending him crashing into a nearby mountain range.

    She tried hiding it, but she could feel something she had not felt in a while surfacing again when her heart began beating faster.

    "So, that''s how you intend to y, hm?" Sol smiled sitting at the edge of his seat as he took in every aspect of his wife''s fight against the eighth General. "I seem to have affected the way she percieves a serious threat because of the way I see my own fights."

    "Is she, smiling?" Keele asked shocked and in disbelief. "Her attacks have all beenpletely ineffective, the fight has only begun!"

    "Her smile has nothing to do with victory, Keele" Cecelia answered her concerns with a concerned re of her own directed at the goddess.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "She is excited because she is fighting an opponent that is stronger than her current self, what the hell, who smiles in a situation like that?" She looked at Sol, but found him also smiling widely from second-hand excitement, and then at Dina who held a smirk along with A who had more of a helpless smile as she looked at all of them, Sara who was seated next to Sol was also smiling daintily while sipping a cup of tea and eating biscuits, seeing such expressions on all their faces rubbed Cecelia the wrong way and made her skin crawl, she was not finding the appeal in Ikaris''s situation, she saw nothing that warranted a smile.

    "Are you all crazy?" She asked, but was paid no heed. "What the fuck?"

    "She is still...?!" Lars approached Ikaris with disdain and irritation when he found the smile on her face."

    "Heh... hehehe," Unable to contain her excitement, Ikaris let out a series of chuckles when hers and Lars''s fists shed again ans she was able to withstand his head on assaule this time. "Aside from mana, the system has given us a drastic advantage over all other lifeforms, he is a genuis...

    I am unaware if there is another god out there in the Grand Collective as intelligent as Adonai; he is truly one of a kind, and to think; he is my descendant, born from my own flesh and blood, birthed by my mana, I am proud to call him kin!" Ikarisughed, grabbing Lars''s hands as the two of them entered a battle of physical power.

    "Do you feel it, little doggy?" Ikaris grinned when he began overpowering her. "POWER! WELLING UP FROM DEEP INSIDE OF ME, BRISTLING WITH POTENCY, RAGING TO COME FORTH!!"

    "Raaaahh!" Lars seething, pushed Ikaris until she was almost parallel to the ground, but as she had said; there was power beneath the surface raging toe forth, and he bore the full brunt of that violent outpour of power when she opened her mouth, tightening her grip on his hands and raising her heels into his abdomen, pulling at him so he became immobile, turning the grapple into a tug-of-war.

    "What is tha-"

    [Unknown tierr; Cosmic Scream]

    The force of which the man had never once in his life experienced crashed into his face, charring his skin as he felt the full consequence of a ranged attack being released point-nk.

    Because of the nature of the attack, the shook as the sands all began turning to ss from just the lights being released. "Enough!!" Lars stopped pulling and forced himself forward, mming his forehead into Ikaris''s nose and then slipping out of her grip with a twist of his hands, catching her by her leg and spinning with her several times.

    "I have had enough of your parlour tricks!" He tried mming her into the ground, but Ikaris skipped free of his grasp andnded with her back turned and her palm aimed directly at his burnt up face again.

    [Unknown Tier; Incineration Maximum]

    [Creation Tier; Stream]

    "Burn away!!" Ikaris eximed with her eyes shut.

    [Magicbination; Divine Ray]

    Unable to reach her or dodge the attack, Lars crossed both his hands and leapt backwards as best he could, resulting in the unreasonably fast divine apparition tearing into his arms and blowing a hole clean though his right shoulder when he angled himself just enough that it would push him to the side and avoid any vital organs.

    "She gets stronger with every new attack..." Lars skipped several times across the loose sands and rocks,ing to a halt again when he found solid ground beneath him in the form of a small cylinder-shaped formation in a field of simr shaped rocks ranging from the size of a household cup to that of skyscrapers. "Thosest two damaged me more than I expected...

    how is she doing it, and what is that strange and endless pit of power she is so effortlessly essing? I need to know what she has been doing all these years to have grown this strong, if the Emporium could find a way to use such a power nothing in existence could resist us...!"

    His burns had mostly healed, but his lips had been burnt offpletely, revealing his skeleton beneath.

    The man took a quick nce at his shoulder, focusing on healing that wound instead and then looking up at Ikaris who was walking through the molten sand and across the burninf desert towards him, her eyes were alive with the will to keep fighting, and her smile had not faltered, even as her face had been soiled by the blood dried from dripping down her nose. "Compared to her, I have been on the recieving end this entire time, she indeed possesses the strength and power of a high born Celestial, but I will not give her the pleasure of believing she is superior in any way, I will crush her." He patted his shoulder and stood from his crouch.

    "It has been a while since I have needed to use my true power, but I understand your need to be destroyed faster, so I willply and erase you," Lars closed his eyes for a second and then opened them, the hazel had turned to a bright green, once again, his body was going through rapid change as it grew a tadrger with his muscles bulking up once more, the white translucent energy that had hugged him was now a light shade of green, and he wore a more feral expression, though calm.

    The greatest change was not that of his released power though, it was because in the second it took him to release his power, Ikaris''s fist was right before his face sending ripples across his skin as the waves of mana surrounding her made contact before the physical attack connected, and yet the man just stood there staring with no reaction to the threat at all.

    "I will wipe that smug smile off your face as soon as I figure out what method you used to gain the power if high borns, Ikaris of the Vatui."

 Chapter 316: Break your Limiters.

    She was supposed to be punching, she was sure that was the action she had been set on aplishing, Ikaris was certain her fist had connected with Lars''s face, but her thoughts and intentions betrayed her when she suddenly felt the ground pressing up on her back and found herself looking at the sky, guarding the back of her head with one hand and holding on to the man''s other hand which was fastened to her face as he drove her into the ground with a roar.

    "What the hell just happened?" She questioned her senses a sd time, twisting her body and kicking him in the side of his head, breaking free and leaping out of his arm''s reach.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "I''m sure I hit him, what happened?" Ikaris mused, confused, holding her nose and wincing from the pain of it being smashed in so hard her eyes were watering. "He got stronger again, are all these perfect casts against him amounting to nothing?

    I have already stacked enough power to defeat three ninth Generals simultaneously, yet this man before me..." Ikaris flinched when he slowly looked up from the crater she had just been in and stared at her, his irises were lighter yet, and the aura around him had be more tangible; more dense. "He is still getting stronger!"

    "No," Ikaris shook her head and swiftly caught it in a ponytail, standing properly and scoffing. "It seems I can''t keep this up, I have to end the fight faster than I intended to, no more dillying around; so..." She balled her fists and went into a stance while the mana slowly seeping from her pours became visible and turned from white to golden.

    There were no more words left to be spoken, no snarky exchanges, no more insults, just one warrior to the next; an exchange of power to rapidly determine the winner.

    "Come, Emporium dog!" Ikaris went into a lower stance showcasing her sticity and flexibility as she went nearly parallel to the ground and thenunched herself at him, spinning right before impact and dodging his arm that had reached out to intercept her like thest time and stepping on his shoulder.

    "Again!" Lars thought, raising his hand and blocking the kick Ikaris had aimed for the side of his head, and then raising his other hand and blocking the follow-up kick that was meant to counter his counter when the goddess spun, attacking with her heel.

    Seeing her second attack fail, Ikaris who was upside-down spun herself several times, delivering a whirlwind of kicks against his guard then grunting in surprise when her final kick was blocked and the General grabbed her leg, pulling her into a punch whichnded right in her unguarded abdomen leaving ripples across thend behind her before she was sent crashing through the terrain out of control.

    Before she could right herself again Lars caught up to her mid-crash and spun, matching her speed and stomping against her torso, this time though she was guarded, not that a guard from her light frame was enough to stop his mammoth strength, she was halted immediately, nted by his foot in the ground and left speechless when the man raised his foot a second time determined to crush her in that crater.

    Ikaris swiftly parried his descending foot to the side next to her head and spun out of the crater kicking the back of his leg and following up with several short jabs against his rabcage before ducking beneath the swipe of his hand and raising her fist in an uppercut that caught his chin and threw him into the air, but like a persistent boomerang the General only spun once before suddenly righting himself mid-air anding at her again with his fists balled together and another roar.

    "This is starting to get tedious, his attacks are getting faster and stronger while he is ignoring the majority of mine!" Ikaris shook her head and roared right back at the General raising her hands and tanking the full brunt of his double-fist m causing the entire terrain they had considered a battleground to smoothen when her mana and his energy shed and started sending ripples all across thends, ttening all the unique structures and rooting up some ancient ruins in the process, revealing that the deserted was once habitable by some species or another.

    "OOOORRAAHH!!" Lars eximed gaining yet another boost in strength and overpowering Ikaris after mere seconds of a stalemate between them.

    He forced his hands downwards with so much power she hit the ground and spun in ce resulting in her being disoriented and confused once more, and the man took advantage of that brief confusionpressing his hand against her abdomen as a wide grin appeared across his face and a light began brigltly flickering between his palm and her exposed abdomen.

    On instinct, Ikaris focused all her defences on that sole point stackingyer afteryer of barriers before and beneath her skin, and it was a good idea in the end when he unleashed a beam of raw energy from his palm so devastating the mere shock it created ripped the entire in half, though just like her fight with Saleos; the demon-god prince, it was not apparent that there was a rift across the desert.

    Ikaris bearing the full brunt was sent cascading so fast that the gravitational pull of therge failed to keep her grounded and she was slingshotted around the surface once and then escaped the pull altogether still reeling from shock all the way until she crashed into a neighbouring moon.

    [Ikaris,] Sol spoke in person causing the others to look at him while his voice ryed into her head. [That was bad, you''re aware of what I''m talking about, right?] He asked, watching her wince as she violently dislodged her arms and pulled her head free of the sunken body-shaped indenture she had ended up in.

    Her blouse had been torn up from the attack, and her hair was once again a mess as she groaned, arising and casting [repair] on her clothes to mend the fissures, then she cast [Heal] on herself and winced when she felt her ribcage adjust.

    "Master, that was my fault," Ikaris groaned once more, seething when the residual pain came crashing against her abdomen. She coughed and tapped herself several times, leaning forward and coughing up a mouthful of residual blood that had escaped her. organs being damaged.

    "I failed to anticipate that he had any kind of projectile oe energy-based attacks; I let my guard down adn ended up losing the advantage that the stacked casts had given me by casting dozens of imperfect barriers around myself on a whim..." She spoke aloud.

    "Even for me, focusing on a perfect cast when an attack was about to drive a hole through my torso proved a bit ...difficult," She huffed and wiped her mouth. "But, it was not in vain!"

    "What is she even saying right now, the only reason she has been able to stand up to his absurd strength is because she had the stacked casts working to empower her, what can she aplish without that level of power once more?" Cecelia asked, confused after listening to them both, and what is with the scale of their attacks, they are both beings that can survive so much more than the damage they have been receiving -"

    "Any single one of those attacks, even Ikaris''s simple jabs from earlier are enough to kill you several times over, Cecelia, not every fight needs to destroy a universe to showcase how powerful they are, they are simply so strong and evenly matched that even fighting in such a small space they are able to untilise their absurd strengths to the max," Dina answered, thinking back to how Dr''ul had been able to keep her and A on a singr ialsnd on Arkadia when all three of them had enough power at that point to destroy the entire, and yet her and A had been able to go all-out without consequence.

    "Besides," Dina added, staring at Ikaris with a knowing smil, as was Sol and A. "The goal of those many perfect casts weren''t supposed to be simply giving her an advantage."

    "They weren''t?" Jenifer looked away and stared at Dina, while Ikaris far away from them oblivious to the conversation leapt off the small moon and stopped in the void, staring down at the desert with a re absent of mercy and dry ofpassion, it was indifferent and seemed alien on her face as she inhaled arge amount of the mana surrounding her and then began descending.

    "Not at all," Dina folded her arms. "Like master, Ikaris and I have the capacity to house Living souls within ourselves, this is the reason something like a perfect cast would be so important, it goes beyond a temporary boost in mana output, density and overall strength," She started her exnation and then paused.

    "What is the reason then?" Keele asked, curiously.

    "At current, the mana we have ess to is nigh infinite, but out bodies, our vessels, can only handle so much of that power without breaking, you saw it after master''s fight with Umbra, even with all his power there is a physical limit on his body preventing him from using it all at once, Ikaris has the same limit on her body," Dinalooked at her hands with a downcast expression.

    "I have the greatest limitations of the three, obviously, but that is where a perfect cast is important, this is exactly where an [Unknown Tier] cast shines the brightest, those casts are specifically designed to bypass someone''s limiters and forcefully make them stronger!"

    "I see, Cecelia closed her eyes and took s seat as she gave Ikaris all of her attention. "I get it now, the constant breaking of limits is forcing your bodies to adjust to greater amounts of power each time you use those casts," She summarised and Dina nodded.

    "That''s right," Sol answered. "As of right now, Ikaris is seven times more powerful at base than she was at the start of her fight against the eighth General, another stack of one hundred times that power is going to make her next attack a brilliant disy, she is after all; a mboyant goddess."

    [Clockwork Stack]

    [Clockwork Stacked x30]

    [Unknown Tier]

    [CLOCKWORK: DOMINION]

 Chapter 317: I Will Win.

    "That level of scaling is absurd, you are cheating the system mana has ced, even as my allies I find it hard to ept that such a thing is fair," Cecelia admitted, staring at Sol with a wide and stupefied expression.

    "Of course it is," Sol scoffed. "Do you think that Umbra will be ying by the rules? Granted, I did this before I even knew he existed, I have every intention to make use of the advantage that I have grself whiotten, and to say it is cheating the system is also unfair given that it was the system hech offered this loophole willingly."

    "But, Alpha serves you does she not?" Keele questioned the direction of the conversation and Sol chuckled seeing a usible exnation to get them off his case.

    "Indeed, she does, which means I am above the system and qualified to do whatever I want, I am master of the system which you all need to abide by, I am on a different level, get off my back about it; we are not the same." Sol looked over his shoulder at them and witnessed the two pout when they realised they had been trying to make sense of something he had done; it was a pointless endeavour.

    He then looked to Ikaris again, having a small collective within her made her the next most powerful being presently there outside of apparent High Born Celestials and Emissaries, he wanted to see what she could do withiut shedding her flesh and exposing her direct soul, but also thinking about that gave him a muddied realisation; If Ikaris was Vatui, and the Vatui were flesh and blood, then what happened to her original body?

    As far as she was concerned she had always been Divinity, she had always been a soul without a physical form until she sacrificed that advantage to be with him and limited herself in an immortal body. Did that mean she had a body somewhere out there fully intact, or was it destroyed in the process of her evolution?

    Or perhaps it was a case where she simply evolved with her body the same as he and Dina did.

    ***

    [CLOCKWORK; DOMINION]

    A visible sphere expanded faster then Lars could dodge or escape it, stoppiing just short of the outpost where Sol and everyone else was, at the core of this massive time field that defied thews of reason, Ikaris continued to stack her mana onto itself watching the field slowly fhrink towards her while Lars who was supposed to be immobile started to move towards her from the he stood on, it was absurd; it seemed to her that after Sol''s fight with Saat, every opponent beyond that point had been able to traverse through his time-halting technique, with some of them being able to do so freely.

    It raised the question; was [Clockwork] bing obsolete, or was it a case of some beings being so powerful that thews that guided reality simply did not apply to them?

    Whatever the case was, seeing her enemy freely traverse through halted time towards her forced Ikaris in a precarious situation; her mana had not finished adjusting and her cast was still iplete; the whole reason she used [CLOCKWORK] in the first ce was to buy herself a little time in order to gain another boost of mana by performing a perfect cast intentionally, but when Lars came charging at her and appeared in her normal field of view she abandomed that thought and rushed towards him with the small me-like phantasm hovering above her palm.

    "As if I would ever allow you to do something else, I have seen your strength increase dramatically since he beginning of this fight, I will not be allowing you to do it again!" Lars clenched his teeth, unaware that he was moving through tampered time and striking at Ikaris when he was within distance. "Never again!" He roared, when his amnd Ikaris''s fists collided.

    The man''s eyes went wide when he saw the expression she wore though, as if he had yed right into her hands again Ikaris was smiling while she allowed the weight of his strike to spin her along his outstretched arm, stopping at his side and resting her palm against his ribcage in the same moment he did the same to her.

    [Forced Sun]

    "Ouu, she really likes using my skills, doesn''t she?" Sol asked, coverimg his eyes just a moment before the night sky saw what looked like a great expanding spherical star.

    "No way..." Jenifer hugged herself and began shuddering whsn she started feeling the waves of mana that Ikaris emitted while in an awakened state, with her was also Keele wearing a dreadful expression, they looked at Sol who smiled calmly in the face of this abominable amount of energy and wondered, but before either of them could ask he shook his head, and began frowning.

    "The answer is no," He spoke.

    "This level of power is nowhere near what Umbra was capable of two months ago, it doesn''t evene close, Ikaris back then was unable to even face him, her current self still wouldn''t be able to harm a hair on his head, given how powerful she is presently, I hope that paints a proper picture of the kind of being he is for you; Umbra is absolute power in its rawest and most hateful form, iparable to anything else that I can think of or know of as of this moment,"

    "The emporium has yet to produce something I consider a real threat, in my eyes, this fight which continues to scare the lot of you..."

    "It''s child''s y."

    "Well..." Ikaris looked at her shaking hand and her damaged palm after condensing the attack to fit inside of the orbit of a single, and then looked forward at Lars who had lost his shirt and had arge scar in his side that had already healed but still remained.

    "That was unexpected, I clearly saw your intestines, lungs and an entire half of your ribcage get turned to dust," She narrowed her eyes at him and the man smirked, though he did so with a pained expression choosing not to speak since it would reveal more of what he had just endured.

    "Aren''t you gonna say something?" She tried clenching her fist but failed when a static ran through her nerves, causing her hand to start shaking again.

    She would have been fine if she had been the only one attacking, but that same attack which had blown her out of orbit was the one she had endured at point nk without retreating more than a hundred feet, she had also overexerted her healing in an attempto to remain conscious after the General''s counter in her side which was also in the same state as his.

    "It was a little too much..." Sol narrowed his eyes. "She generated enough power topletely wipe this entire sector off the face of the Collective and he tanked it anyways, and even healed instantaneously, that eighth General is tough; I wonder what race he hails from."

    "Are you saying she is in touble?" Dina asked worried and Sol nodded.

    "She might be, it was a gamble casting an iplete techniwue and it backfired and ended up hurting her as well, even after casting [divine heal] on her right arm she has been struggling to get her nerves under control, that''s not to say Lars is any better off, since healing he has not made a single move other than smiling, which means he is terribly hurt, they''re both ying a game of endurance-"

    "Would you see your wife suffer like that and not-" Cecelia was about to berate the Godyer before her once more, but she felt apprehension bloom in her stomach when she even dared to speak on Ikaris''s behalf in that situation; her chest tightened, she broke out into shivers, and her eyes slowly turned until they made four with Sol''s.

    "Don''t say another word, Cecelia, not even a peep, do not make me regret saving you from Flint." Sol''s eyes shimmered in a brilliant gold, and there was half of a ring slowly manifesting on his back as well; to say he was perplexed was an understatement; in that moment Sol Vestic was immersed in a dark pit of rage at both her and the general fighting his wife, of course he was concerned; the fight had taken a turn for the worse and he could feel every bit of pain she felt, which was why his hand was also shaking.

    [Should I-]

    "No," Ikaris answered Sol''s outreach and forced her fist shut, grinding her teeth and staring at Lars.

    "Just as I am hurt, he is also hurt, Alpha is making them watch; all the Vatui who have followed me for thest two months, they want to see the resolve of their leader, if you step in at such a crucial moment I will lose their trust and respect, Master, no matter what happens, do not intervene this time, I will win this fight, I will prove myself to both you and them right here and now!"  She balled her other fist and red at the General before her.

    "Are you certain?" Sol asked causing Dina and A who was not privy to their conversation to look at him when he hefted Talia up and stood with his side turned, looking up at them.

    "I will win," Ikaris answered again out loud making Lars wary of the fact that she was conversing with an entity his senses had not detected.

    "I will win against the eighth General, Sol." She answered and he nodded and closed his eyes while Lars''s went wide and he started looking around for the mentioned Godyer that had been branded an extremely dangerous target with a flee on sight order ranging up to the top five Generals.

    "Then I will take my leave," Sol smiled, cing full confidence in her and vanishing where he stood, taking Talia and Sara with him.

    "Do not worry about him, dog, the Godyer you fear has no intention of intervening in my fight, I am your only opponent," Ikaris used her left hand and cast [Recover] around them resulting in the moon she had crashed in materialising under their feet.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    "Come."

 Chapter 318: Superior.

    "Hahaha," Lars chuckled, clenching his teeth so hard his gums began bleeding and tightening his fists until his knuckles had gone white while his eyes twitched as he stared at Ikaris. "You will win?" He asked her, mocking her deration.

    "You chose to fight me on your own when offered assistance from the only being possibly strong enough to defeat me; how foolish, how naive!" The man continuedughing while the phantasm surrounding his body continued growing and raging until it had covered the whole area from every angle pushing Ikaris who had her hands at her face shielding her eyes as she slowly slid away from him.

    "You continue to trample on my pride and tread carelessly, but no more, I will not tolerate this level of insolence any longer, I will destroy you, Ikaris, I will drive you to ruin and-"

    "It has all been said a before, but so far none have driven me to any kind of ruin, little dog, you and the ones before you always say the same and try to do the impossible!" Ikaris stomped, dispersing the energy beating against her and stumbling forward when the winds suddenly died.

    "I cannot; I will not be killed, not by you or by anyone else, I am and always will reign supreme over any who dare to raise their hands against me, so fave your death with pride dog of the Emporium, your end hase, and I am that end." She fell into a stance, slightly swaying with her hands facing him loosely.

    "By the hand of a lesser being, I will never...!" Lars stepped forward discing a continent''s worth ofnd and obliterating half of the moon''s surface in an instant in an attempt to reach her as fast as possible, Ikaris though having taunted the man into acting first countered his outstretched hand by grabbing him and heaving him weightlessly over her shoulder, spinning with a huff and a roar and mming him into the ground causing even more discement as the fractured moon developed an expanding ripple across a majority of its body stemming from their actions.

    "You are the inferior one!" Ikaris grabbed him by his foot after he had bounced off the ground and spun with him once more, smashing him in the ground a second time and spinning out of his reach creating a staff made of mana and ramming it into his stomach while she vaulted over him and stared down with her palm pressed against one end, staring at his hand which had blocked thest attack which nted him firmly in the ground.

    Their eyes made four and the General knew he had yed right into her hands once more; it seemed that he couldn''t predict her thoughts or patterns no matter how hard he tried; her victory at this point was starting to materialise in his mind, so he stopped trying and let everything go, the Emporium, himself, he released everything on his mind and gave in to the numbing sensation that had been gnawing at him.

    "His pupils, they vanished?!"  Ikaris''s eyes narrowed before she could cast any more attacks, instinctively she released the spear and used it as a footing to leap away from him, luckily so too since a momentter the entire area they had been fighting in erupted out into the void, resembling an asteroid impact with a green epicentre when Lars began screaming on top of his lungs.

    "I can''t sense a shred of reason within him anymore!" Ikaris skipped around several mammoth-sized chunks of moon debris, leaping atop a proportionallyrge one and stabilizing it on the tip as she went into a crouch and stared at the core of the emerald explosion while it continued to be pushed away by the explosion, wat hung Lars ascend from the pit of his own making like a malevolent deity with his arms slightly spread at hiabaide and his hair glowing an ominous green along with the now strikingly evident Celestial energy beaming from his body like a beacon against the ck canvas of the void.

    "It isn''t stopping," Ikaris narrowed her eyes further when she felt shivers through her body at the amount of power the man was emitting. "At this rate, he might kill me if I don''t guard myself and take him down sooner...!" She leapt off the skating debris, leaping across the field of crashing rocks as she approached him, resisting his power.

    "I can''t imagine how strong he would have been if he had the secrets of mana at his disposal, to reach this level of power without it is simply astonishing!"

    "And what''s worse," Ikaris leapt onto a rock the size of a car and crouched, shielding her eyes again when she was slowed down by another spike in his power. "He isn''t showing any signs of sanity right now, nor is he showing any signs of wearing, he''s burning through what feels like an endless pit of power!"

    Their fight hade full circle from the start.

    "I have to end this before he gains another boost in power and surpasses me again!" She crossed her arms and conjured two swords made of golden mana. "Before he gets a chance to recover from that injury I left in his side!"

    [Divine tier: Impact]

    With a roar, Ikaris waved the first sword, slicing a path through the torrents of raw energy beating against her and then went into a dash towards Lars who was screaming still while his power grew more dense with every passing second.

    [Divine Tier: Impact]

    She repeated the same attack but watched shocked when it didn''t even cut halfway as wide or deep as the first one.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    It felt like she was wading through a raging river with nothing but her body as an obstacle, the debris from before was starting to disintegrate as soon as they were torn from the terrain, and the man at the epicentre was starting to rise above ground level, leaving her no option but to nt her feet in the ground and conjure a shield of mana with negating effects and bearing the brunt of the wave.

    "What the hell is happening with him, I can see it with my naked eye, what kind of power is that?" Cecelia narrowed her eyes when the lighting from Lars finally reached them some fifteen minutes away. "What the hell?" She squinted when the light continued brightening. "Can she really...?"

    "She will win," Dina responded, and at her side, A nodded in agreement. "She said so herself that she would, trust in Ikaris, she will win." She balled her fist and pressed it against Cecelia''s chest. "Believe in her."

    "FFFUCK!" Ikaris was bent and being pushed backwards by the still-increasing wave of destruction the eighth General was emitting, but then all of a sudden that pressure halted and her bnce was righted just in time for her to see the general descending, his hair now emerald was spread around his head, and his expression spoke true primal instinct as she could find no trace of the man who was once in there, all that remained was the instinct to kill her; a deep grudge and dark ominous sensation weighing on her chest.

    Ikaris''s fright became evident when Lars''s feet touched the ground and then he disappeared from her sights and senses, reappearing at her side with his fist descending and a wide feral grin on his face while he roared.

    She managed to parry the attack, but the sheer force of his strike sent her cascading across the terrain and scurrying to her feet, trying to catch her bnce when she saw him approaching in her roll.

    "This is absurd!" Ikaris blocked the next attack bending beneath the weight of his strength and getting buried down to her knees in the ground before she had to cross her arms and block his iing kick towards her abdomen.

    She thought she''d have been sent flying with the destructive force of his kick but therge man proved to be swift as well when he caught her by her hair and mmed her face into the ground roaring and raising her head again before repeating the action several more times.

    "What am I supposed to do about this kind of beast!?" She spun in his grasp and locked her legs around his arm in an attempt to break it but he raised her and mmed her into the ground with another roar, releasing her hair and grabbing her by her head and punching her in her stomach before aiming his hand in the opposite direction and firing off a dense ball of his energy, shooting it so fast that the sphere grew a tail as it raced around the moon.

    "Damn it!" Ikaris began struggling when she sensed the object approaching behind her, kicking and trying to break his grip, but with a roar, Lars grabbed her leg and began spinning her so hard the terrain began tearing away from the waves of force alone.

    "Die!" The Celestial''s smile grew even wider as he grabbed Ikaris''s other leg and used her like an anvil, mming her into the ground once more and then raising her and spinning her before himself, dodging her iling legs and hands as the sphere he had shot seconds prior crashed into her back and vanished with her.

    Heughed and mmed his hands against the ground, baring his fangs and roaring to the skies when there was an explosion in the distance reaching the void from the ground in a destructive pir that blew a hole straight through therge moon and travelling into the void after the tips at both the top and bottom split apart again, creating a unique six-pointed explosion with a cylinder-like belly rotating and grinding against everything that it touched.

    "Ikaris!" Lars beat his chest and howled, stomping his legs as he created another small sphere in his palm.

    "I AM SUPERIOR!!"

 Chapter 319: Overflow.

    After the explosion had dispersed from one pole of the moon to the next, Lars stood triumphant, roaring andughing while his power continued to rise, breaking his limits constantly.

    "I cannot find her," Alpha narrowed her eyes, searching for Ikaris within the chaos and debris that surrounded the moon.

    "She''s there," Dina shook her head with her eyes narrowed as well and resting her hand on her chest. "She''s hurt, but she''s there," She nodded with a worried smile. "That man, he''s strong, I don''t know if he is as strong as the likes of Orion that Master faced when ites to destructive power, but on the scale of raw power he far surpasses anything we have ever seen before."

    "We should help her then," Cecelia, without hesitance took the clip from her hair and poured her energy inside of it, turning it into therge weapon and aiming it at them while alpha uponmand gave her the perfect line of fire to guarantee a sure hit.

    "No," A stood before the Vatui woman shaking her head and spreading her arms wide in obstruction. "Do not disgrace Mdy," She continued shaking her head while her sigils began humming and exuding crimson mana that fell like fog to the ground around her in a dissipating pool. "She said she would win, so she will!"

    "She''s losing right before my eyes!" Cecelia pressed the weapon against A''s stomach.

    "Move, I won''t allow the pride you all share to kill Her Highness after finally getting her back, she is the only living member of the royal family and the one hope we have for this war to end if what the Godyer said is anything to go by, I don''t care if you are her retainer or her closest friend, if it means she lives I''ll kill you right here..."

    [Ballista Cannon: Cross-Verse Cannon]

    "In her absence, I''m in charge, you are prohibited from attacking the eighth General, ��lo��n Cecelia," Dina rested her hand on therge railgun in Cecelia''s grasp and stared in her eyes, unlike A who was overreacting and nigh tearing up, Dina''s objection was calm, her tone was warm, and her hand on the gun was barely pushing against it, yet when the woman looked into her eyes she nearly lost her will to stand.

    Dina had no sense of sadness like they did, she wasn''t holding some kind of urgency like she was; instead she had an expression of unbridled rage while her sigils faintly hummed. "I already told you she is hurt, but I didn''t say she''s unable to help herself; do you honestly think you have the power to challenge what she struggles against?"

    "What do you-"

    "Ikaris is and always will be in her prime, she and Master are the same; once you put them against someone overbearing and they will reveal their true selves they will ovee everything, where is your trust, did youe back to her just so you could doubt her when she has directly asked that you rely on her?" Dina asked and then looked at everyone behind Cecelia who had observed the fight in shock and mortification.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "Master has said it over and over again, the only being he considers equal to himself is Ikaris, we don''t know nor do we care if there is anyone stronger than that because they have the power to ovee those who stand above them, she is the bride of the most powerful Godyer and the mother of the most powerful being in existence, she is Ikaris Goddess of all Divines!"

    "Well said, Dina," Dr''ul seemed to appear out of nowhere, standing at her side, and as she stood there Cecelia and everyone else felt their bodies stiffen at her presence, unlike the other times they had caught a glimpse of Dr''ul this time she was in a battle-ready state and her mana was so many times more powerful than Dina''s ever was, it was leagues more terrifying than anything they had collectively ever encountered outside of what they were currently sensing from Ikaris and Lars along with Sol''s iparable mana.

    "Who is this?" Zara asked, nudging Jenifer in her side knowing that she was the one amongst the three former Emporium warriors with the most information on who was whom, and the woman nced at her briefly and then stared at Dr''ul''s glowing crimson hair again with an expression of awe.

    "Her name is Dr''ul, she is the Queen of the gods under Ikaris''smand, the most powerful of her divine descendants, she is the Goddess of War, a being who feeds directly off the essence of war.

    "Trust in Ikaris!" Dr''ul raised her voice in a mighty cry of passion, folding her arms and standing with her chest proudly held high. "Trust in her power, she remains unbeaten and will always be an unmovable force of nature!"

    "She doesn''t look Vatui at all," Zara stared at Dr''ul baffled after the waves of her mana finally subsided. "She looks like..."

    "Like a god?" Jenifer asked, staring at the woman with her brow raised in amusement. "Be careful not to show too much interest in her, the goddess of war is as her name hints at and will start a fight with any creature she deems worthy of her attention."

    "You finally showed yourself," Dina looked up at the much taller goddess standing at her side. "What about the others?"

    "They show little concern, considering what is about toe," Dr''ul smirked with her eyes trained on Lars. "Hmph!" She huffed through her nostrils and grinned. "He is a worthy opponent for Her Highness, he has admirable strength, enviable by myself who is not his match!" Sheughed.

    "But for one such as the indomitable Ikaris, the Goddess of Bnce, that poor dog is merely a stepping stone!" Dr''ul''s grin grew dark, a bead of sweat rolled down her cheek and her hair began ring brighter. "His fate is sealed; a wrathful Ikaris is something that not even the King of all heavens himself would dispute..."

    "What are you saying?" Cecelia cancelled her weapon and stared at the area where she suspected Ikaris was supposed to be.

    "I''m saying, Ikaris loves the thrill of a fight she might lose, but when the thrill is gone and she stops smiling, her true nature shows itself, the being which can end realities shows itself, you may think you know her, but I have seen her, I have witnessed the real wrath of Ikaris Vestic and I would only wish that monster upon my enemies!"

    ***

    Lars continuedughing at his triumph over the presumably deceased Ikaris, but slowly, his smile began to wane when he felt a powerful thumping sensation race from the gaping crater and shot past him into the void; a sensation so powerful that the entire system they resided in shifted and trembled like a living breathing organism afraid of what was about to happen to it.

    "You wanted me to utter your name as a sign of defeat, right?" Ikaris''s voice invaded the man''s head like an explosion, rummaging through his body like microwaves causing fissures to form and vessels across his arms, legs and face to bloodily explode.

    "You wanted to see me beg right?" Ikaris arose from the crater, but unlike the benevolent being she had portrayed before, she emerged like a demon akin to Sol at his most wrathful.

    Her hair was ck again, every semnce of her Vatui cells had beenpletely suppressed by her Divine-Godyer mana as she crawled over the rocks at the edge, her nails had turned ck in ordance to her rage, and her very being had a silhouette of warped space around it.

    The clothes she had been wearing had been reduced to rags, but slowly her divine cloth materialised over her flesh and covered her wholely again. "You wanted to see I, Ikaris, goddess of Bnce fail, you wanted to trample over my pride and prove yourself a superior being, Lars," Ikaris began walking towards him.

    "I have spoken your name," She bit her lips and shook her head, closing her fists slowly. "I admit it, you are more powerful than Vatui, you are a superior being to the Vatui!" She gnashed her teeth whilst she continued walking, slightly shing her fist as her mana began melting the ground she walked upon.

    "You win, Lars, you have proven yourself superior to the Vatui!" Ikaris stared at his shocked expression as he fell to his knees, coughing and panting while he bled from his every orifice. "You are superior by leagues to every Vatui being I have ever met, and likely stronger than most of them will ever be!"

    "However, Her Majesty is not Just Vatui, she is Divine Vatui, she is the god of the gods who govern supreme over her species," Dr''ul grinned when she could clearly see Ikaris.

    "Lars," Ikaris spoke his name once more, though this time the panicking Celestial who had fallen from his insanity after her mana began condensing stared at her with dread.

    "Lars!" Ikaris stared at the skies with her arms spread wide. "I am not just Vatui, I am far beyond that meagre power which defines my people, I evolved, I am stronger, I am better, I am supreme, my pride is something the likes of you will never touch, my level is something you will never attain; something your dreams are too small to ever fathom, I am above Celestial, I am Primordial, I am...

    " She paused and slowly looked down her nose at him. "I am going to fuck you up, you filthy dog."

    [Error: Your mana is overflowing]

 Chapter 320: The Indomitable Goddess of Balance.

    "Huuuhhh!!" Lars sprung to his feet and held out his hands towards her. "HRAAHH!!" The General eximed, releasing dozens of those same attacks at her, but with ease Ikaris dodged them one after the other making countless speed mirages as she contimued movung faster until he had lost track of herpletely within the chaos, forcing himself to stop. "Above Celestial!?" He roared in fear and rage.

    "There is nothing above the Celestial realm, nothing is above me, I am the greatest, you are a freak of creation!" He held his hands hight when Ikaris''s crimson eyes revealed her position within the falling dust and debris.

    [Goddess Ikaris, your mana is out of control!] Alpha warned her again, but the goddess ignored the warning and pressed her hand against her forehead leaving a seal upon herself.

    "Nothing scales beyond my power!" Lars''s energy quadrupled in an instant and a great green phenomena appeared over his head, taking a spherical shape as it condensed and grew evenrger, scaling to the size of the destroyed moon they had been fighting on since the second half of their encounter.

    "You have the nerve to even utter such a sentence as the Eighth General, there are seven within the Emporium alone who you couldn''ty a finger on, aren''t there?" Ikaris asked creating a small ball of mana in her hand and applying [me] to it as it began rotating rapidly.

    "I asked you earlier, and you did not provide a satisfactory answer so it has been eating at my mind this whole time; why would a Celestial work under the same people who want to see him dead? Now that I have fought you, the answer is an underwhelming one..." Ikaris watched the sanity in his eyes disappear once more as the mass above them grewrger yet.

    "You are a delusional fool who thinks that the Emporium would spare you once their goal ispleted-"

    "Haaaaahh!" The man screamed angling himself towards her and lowering his hands as all the colours thatposed their surroundings were disced by the bright green of his attack and the glow of the small ball in Ikaris''s grasp.

    "Forced Sun," Ikaris calmly spoke the name of her attack after drowning out the system.

    In an instant there was a great golden ball of burning mana rapidly expanding beyond the size of the one Lars had manifested.

    Their attacks shed, but with Ikaris''s released power being fed by the collective within her, the [Forced Sun] which she had created rapidly overpowered and ate her opponent''s attack swelling and swallowing him as well while she continued to push it in the opposite direction of the system they had been fighting in.

    "That is amazing-"

    "It is far from over," Dr''ul urged Hudor to shut up with her hand raised in a geature of silence, keeping her gaze focused on the mana particles being pushed together as Ikaris''s attack continued to densen faster than it was growing, by the time it was outside of the system the sun which had dominated the area for aeons had started to be less spherical because of the massive gravitational pull Ikaris had created with thergest [Forced Sun] technique used since Sol had created it.

    It continued to grow, deep in the depths of the void where nothing else could get harmed the mass of burning mana grew exponentiallyrger surpseeing the size of the system until it could swallow thousands of suns easily, the edges became so defined that they seemed alive as it warped and folded into itself, repeatedly contracting and then further expanding again, much like a heartbeat, and at one such pivotal point Ikaris had her hand rested against it seeking Lars''s signature.

    "Even with this much power," Ikaris looked at her arm and the golen crack that had appeared across her skin revealing the boiling mana beneath her fighting toe loose. "He still refuses to die."

    She rested her other hand against the Supermassive burning star and closed her eyes. "Burn away, Lars of the Emporium," Ikaris seemed to pray while another crack opened up across her other arm, and then one more across her forehead.

    "Be vanquished; you have done enough, you have suffered enough, you have killed far too much; so begone, cease to exist, little dog," Her eyes widened and a smile appeared across her face as several more smaller cracks conjoined with therge ones and an especiallyrge one appeared in her back spewing mana into the void behind her. "ept your fate and disappear with this..."N?v(el)B\\jnn

    [Incalcble amounts of mana have been detected, your vessel will shatter unless you release this mass and retreat]

    "I will keep going, I will force it to concede," Ikaris spoke, grinding her teeth when she finally sensed a new realm right before her, she seethed and pushed through the pain eating at her inside and out, she bore the weight of thousands of stars copsing and the [Forced Sun] trying to absorb her as well with a weight of gravity that put the greatest of ck holes to shame.

    "You are my power, you are mine to control, mana, you will listen! You will yield! You will obey me!!"

    Ikaris let out one final agonising scream hissing while her physical vessel shatteredpletely and her An divine body manifested in its ce, summoned so that her soul would not diminish.

    [Primordial-Grade Mana Maniption; Divine Denigration]

    The great mass began to tremble, the gravity which it possessed began working against it, now with a new and far more durable body, Ikaris gave it one more push and the void around her copsed on itself shrinking the great explosion to the sixe of a singr star which ate and turned everything within it to matter and mana, and then she gave that burning mass another squeeze and it vanished with a loud cosmic roar that sted her backwards into the system she had tried her hardest to prevent from copsing.

    It sent ripples of energy far beyond the gxies, crashing past the edges of every sector and shattering the walls of -Nova in every direction, it all happened instantaneously, her evolution was announcedd to every Celestial grade being and higher for dozens of collectives across the Grand in a great spherical globe, but then as soon as she had achieved this new power, it slipped from her grasp, she devolved into a Celestial once more and continued crashing towards the warped sun behind her.

 Chapter 321: Whispers in the Cosmos.

    "Just so we are clear on the hierarchy of power that has been investigated and established thus far, the grades are as follow:" Sol sat in his study, Sara was in his chair with her pen at the ready listening intently, while he was in therger seat to the side holding Talia and staring out the window after just witnessing the explosive conclusion to Ikaris''s fight against the Eighth General of the Emporium; Lars.

    "Normal consists of those who are as the title indicates; normal," He began.

    "The next on the list is surely the Gifted, whether they are capable of blockwide or city-wide destruction, they are only gifted at best."

    "Above the Gifted, there is Apex; beings who are the peak of their species in one or more regards, they excel to threats capable of destroying countries, continents, and depending on the type of power they wield, small worlds."

    "Scaling even higher than the Apex are Cosmic beings, those who defy the very heavens; they can venture into the unknown and manipte powers beyond the fathom of regr individuals, they surpass the limits of mortality."

    "The greater evolution is that of a Demigod, aary being of disproportional power easily capable of shattering stars, sr systems, and in severe cases, they can scale to multi-gxies with ease and beyond like Dina was capable of."

    "Higher than Demigods are Divines themselves, beings who can ess a higher dimension of power and through exertion, destroy an entire universe, this is where the higher echelon Arkadian godsfortably rest."

    "Celestial is where the tiers begin to make less and less sense, as there are beings as Celestials capable of feats hard to fathom let alone imagine, The seven Arkadian Kings and Queens for instance are all Celestial-Grade entities, with the most powerful; Their leader, the Goddess of War, Dr''ul, capable of small multiversal destruction and possessing terrifying reality-ending power at her disposal."

    "Then there is Ikaris as an example, I have no idea where on the list her power was before, but as of this instant, she is undoubtedly the higher tier, she is a Celestial Divine, a god above gods so to speak, or a true god, her powers have evolved to scale an entire Collective, she has insurmountable strength and powers that defy creation, and just for a moment she was able to break into the greater power resting above her..." He looked at Sara who had an expression of disbelief while she neatly and quickly wrote every word he said, effortlessly keeping pace with his speech.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "What of you, master?" The Maid asked him, pausing from her calligraphy and looking at his expression which showed uncertainty deep within his eyes. "If mdy is of the Celestial-God realm, and you are many times her superior, then what realm do you find yourself in?" She questioned him, and Sol sighed and looked to the window again.

    "We have been throwing these titles around willy-nilly for a while now, but there are indeed higher levels, exponentially stronger than a Celestial Divine by leaps and bounds is A True Primordial, as of this moment I think this is where I am firmly situated, I can destroy an entire Collective if I need to, and beyond that I can wage war against the entire Grand Collective by myself, it is doubtful I would win against someone else of my tier which I am sure exists, with the existence of beings like Lumi also being True Primordials I have no faith I could fight an army of those, not to mention the results of such a war would leave no other being alive."

    "Are you saying you are now able to defeat Lumi?" Sara looked up from the book at him once more and Sol nodded with a smile.

    "Just recently, I became sensitive to her power, her location, her limits, I can sense every emissary of light the moment they look my way, I can tell who amongst them is the strongest, and I can determine who among them I can defeat with ranging difficulties," He dered, and for a moment the mansion shook after his words as the Emissaries which usually spied on him became wary and thought of attacking to cleanse what was clearly a threat to their existence, but just a sigh of mana from his nostrils quieted them all.

    "As of this moment, I am beyond their control."

    A bead of sweat rolled down his cheek when he finished speaking, and for a few seconds Sol hesitated and wondered if such a thing was truly possible. "Sir?"

    "I''m fine," He answered Sara and without a spoken word the maid looked to her texts again at everything she had written and the pattern they followed. "Next," Sol sucked in a breath and looked out into the Kha-Nova collective again. "Primordial Divinity," He spoke, and at his assessment the Emissaries investigating him all paused and turned their attention to him.

    "Amongst the Emissaries there is not a single one of these, to my knowledge there is only one being who is; as of this moment a true Primordial God, and that is the one who allies herself with Umbra, the darkness which shelters and hides him from me, when I reached Lumi''s range of power I became sensitive to her presence as well, I feel her power every waking moment, as if she is daring me to defy her she stares into the depths of my soul and strips me down to the bone with her gaze, I do not fear her, but I find her power suffocating, I don''t know how anything could ever be that strong and I don''t know if any other being could be stronger."

    "Master, what of The Beginning, or Mana?" Sara asked after Sol seemed to conclude.

    "They are not entities, the same as Creation is a concept and not an entity which can be scaled.

    "They exist, but not as a reaction, we all exist as a reaction to them; Mana is essence of soul, Creation; the concept of life, and The Beginning is a host which binds realities together, they all are, and will still be, even at the end of Eternity, when all that remains of us are whispers in the cosmos."

 Chapter 322: Lets Fight.

    "Behold," Dr''ul remained in ce staring up into the sky after Alpha had cut the feed to the fight, night had be day many times and visa versa since Ikaris challenged the Emporium''s eighth General, and finally there seemed to be peace in the cosmos as the fighting hade to a stop. "Behold, the might of your leader, never before has there been one as her, and never will there be another."

    Dr''ul smiled and extended her hand in gesture, lowering her head as Ikaris righted herself from her crash through the system and stopped just short of the ground before them, spreading her arms wide while a crater opened up beneath her from the force of her re-entry into the nearly shattered atmosphere, she lingered above the ground, staring at them all for several seconds as they lowered their heads in reverence, and then with a deep sigh the goddess finally rxed her raging mana andnded, leaving the ground steaming after contact with her divine self.

    "Ikaris," Dina approached her first but stopped several feet away and scrunched her nose; Ikaris was unapproachable; she sensed danger where the goddess stood; enough danger to warrant caution as her mana acted like a deterrent.

    "Are you okay?" Dina raised the question with a soft tone, and Ikaris in response looked her way and smiled with an assuring nod, she just stood there though, staring without saying a word.

    "Are you sure?" A queried, also slightly concerned when she remained mute.

    "My words in this body carry power, speaking directly to you might cause harm, approaching me carelessly might also harm you, so stay at hand, I am waiting for Master''s return," Ikaris ryed a mental note directly into Dina, A and Dr''ul''s heads causing the three to share nces with each other and then look around at everyone else who had no idea what was happening, but was too afraid to approach for various reasons, stemming from reverence, to fearing that her presence might harm them, they had not been made privy to Ikaris''s true evolution...

    a Celestial God is not something they previously believed existed, and they had no idea what that actually meant, but they were sure that she was far more dangerous than they first believed, even with all the feats she had previously aplished.

    "Well done, Ikaris," Sol appeared once more almost on queue with her message to the three. "That was brilliant," He carelessly approached and stood before her, watching as her mana began quieting and her glow began to subside. "You seem to have already healed," He smiled, resting his hand on her head and slowly rubbing it.

    "He was stronger than I anticipated," Ikaris looked at her hands, sucking in a breath while the corners of her eyes stung with tears that began floating upwards; falling in reverse.

    "I have cherished my body, I ced all my trust in its durability, but I had no choice, the power needed to thwart that level of madness was beyond what it could hold, even if I won, I have failed!" Ikaris leaned onto Sol and began sobbing. "Master, I am sorry."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Her sigils were gone, the memories her vessel had stored within itself had left when it broke, now holding Sol, he felt unfamiliar in her grasp, it was unsettling how much a body depended on memory, and it broke her heart that she had shattered her vessel created for the sole purpose of serving him, which to her was the tether that held him and the others so close.

    "Ikaris," Sol held her tightly, kissing her forehead softly and smiling when she locked her hands around his torso and continued to shake.

    "I have already told you, your body is not what I fell in love with, if you are worried about old memories then we will have to rece them with new and more beautiful ones, I understand that the sensations might be a little different now, but it does not change the fact that you are still the same person; you should view this as a rebirth, while in your concealed vessel you were weaker, merely Celestial, you stood out, but not to any notable degree," He raised his thumb to her cheeks and wiped her eyes, then like a child he pinched her flushed nose and smiled at her again.

    "You are Celestial Divine, mortals are not allowed to approach you, remember?"

    "But," She objected ncing athwart him at Dr''ul who was nodding to his sentiments. "What about what you said on Arkadia, about getting along and blending in?" She asked with a sniffle.

    "That was when you belonged to the cause of Arkadia, when you refused to lead and refused to show your true self, that is a time past, Ikaris, you are no longer on Arkadia, you are not hiding yourself to protect anyone now, you lead a great number of powerful beings who look to you for guidance and protection, you are not just Ikaris the Hero anymore."

    Sol turned with her and held her hand, gesturing to the mass that had yet to arise from their position on the ground. "You are the saviour of your people, a god among them; their shepherd, so raise your head and keep it raised," He looked at her again and then at Dr''ul who smiled and bowed a second time when hers and Ikaris''s eyes made four.

    "Calm your heart and still your mana," Sol tapped her head and she pouted like a child and closed her eyes, suppressing her mana until thereid no more danger in approaching her, and as soon as she did, in her usual fashion, A tackled them both, making the most noise as she immediately beganining.

    "That was so scary~" The elf sobbed and nuzzled her face in Ikaris''s chest hugging and squeezing her. "Mdy is amazing, I lost my nerve so many times, I kept worrying what-if-something-happaned-to-you-"

    "A, that''s enough," Dina peeled her off Ikaris who had been taken aback and remained still from shock. "How are you feeling?" She turned to the goddess, and Ikaris raised her hand and stared at it for a few seconds before lowering it and sighing.

    "I am tired, it was not a long fight but it was a stressful and taxing one, I exhausted a lot of mana and it has yet toe crashing because of the high I suspect I am still riding from consecutively casting [Unknown Tiers], more than anything else I wish to sleep a little, and just hold my daughter" She looked at Sol and he nodded and looked to Dina, who also nodded, passing her nce to Dr''ul who huffed and crossed her arms.

    "Very well, I will remain as a ceholder until your return," If any enemy rears his face I will dispose of him with extreme prejudice, take your rest; all of you," She looked at them and then turned to Cecelia and the others who held gazes of distrust and reservation toward her who they were meeting for the first time.

    "You there, you seem pretty strong," Drul stared at the Vatuimander with a smirk as soon as Sol took Ikaris, A and Dina away.

    "Let''s fight to pass the time."

 Chapter 323: A Mistake.

    "Excuse me?" Cecelia took a step backwards when Dr''ul took one towards her.

    "You heard me, Let''s fight, it is a good way to get to know each other, I sense distrust within you, most of you Vatui," She smiled at the woman, boldly walking up to her and standing before her staring down. "So fight me; any doubt you have about my character will be vanquished when our fists are one, do you disagree?"

    "She never changes..." Jenifer chuckled to herself, scratching her cheek with a worried expression.

    "I would like to give it a go, I want to see the power of A Vatui born directly from mana, I want to test the might of Her Highnesses direct descendant." Zara furrowed her brows in amusement, remembering well that Jenifer had warned her about Dr''ul already.

    The goddess looked over Cecelia''s shoulder at the woman ncing from head to toe, and then, with no fanfare at all, she looked at Cecelia again and shook her head in refusal. "No," Dr''ul declined the invitation.

    "This one right here alone piques my interest; she has done some interesting things while she was under the employment of the Emporium, shooting the General across the passage when he was in pursuit of Sol, I find that fascinating, the mere fact that she has enough power to disrupt and ultimately destroy an entire Collective fascinates me, I want to know if I am able to withstand her most powerful attack or if I am ultimately inferior in firepower."

    "No way in hell," Jenifer raised her voice, and Dr''ul looked over Cecelia''s shoulder again with her brows furrowed this time. "You are the Queen of a pantheon and the most powerful among us under Ikaris herself, picking a fight with Cecelia is by no means fair, you simply wish to bully her-"

    "I remember you ran away from a fight with me once as well," Dr''ul looked at Jenifer withzy almost dead eyes. "Must you ceaselessly try to ruin my fun little woman? When I have fought even A, what is there to be so disturbed about?" The goddess chuckled. "I promise, it is only a gesture of-"

    "I ept," Cecelia broke up the argument and held on to the pin in her grasp tightly. "On one condition."

    "Interesting, go on," Dr''ul''s eyes widened in anticipation. "Name your reward upon victory," She folded her arms once more, facing the Vatui Commander directly.

    "If I win, you and everyone who follows you will serve Her Highness under mymands, you will address me asmander and show respect where it is due," Cecelia dered and saw a fire deep within Dr''ul ignite as the excitement she had been feeling quadrupled and spilt over in a feral smile revealing her teeth. "Do you agree?"

    "This presumptuous little woman," Adonai materialised next to Dr''ul, staring down at Cecelia, and then on her other side, S''mael appeared, chuckling.

    "Let me," S''mael offered, almost begging as he stood there looming over the much shorter woman, but the goddess raised her hand and shook her head.

    "You two keep watch and make sure that we are not disturbed, I will ept this challenge and issue out the correct dosage of punishment myself." Dr''ul grinned wider, while Cecelia thinned her gaze with a questioning nce as the others vanished as easily as shey had appeared.

    "Punishment?"

    "Indeed," Dr''ul balled her fists while Alpha appeared at their sides dressed as a sports referee.

    "I offered a friendly match between allies who serve under the same leader, to strenghten our bonds and possibly create new friendships, I did so out of goodwill, but you Cecelia, you have made it personal and challenged my pride, how dare you?" Dr''ul continued to smile even as her words and tone grew darker and more harsh.

    "I will not let this go, you were supposedly strong enough to hold your own against the hundredth General, while I barely escaped death from the hand of a much inferior foe, but a lot of time has passed, you will find that the Deity before you is nothing like you have ever faced before." Dr''ul finally stopped smiling, and the moment she did, chaos ensued with the weather turning wrathful above them in reaction to her mana.

    Clouds of ck raced from one side of the horizon to the next, and within those clouds crimson lightning raced to and fro, reaching the ground in torrents of destructive strikes that ignited the soil and left pools of mana everywhere they struck.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "I ept your challenge," Dr''ul stared at Cecelia and at her eptance, the two of them vanished.

    "On a scale of one to ten..." Zara turned to Jenifer as soon as the two were gone.

    "Cecelia will lose," Jenifer stared at Zara with surety in her tone. "The Goddess of War has strange and scary powers, she ought to be called the goddess of nightmares, I remember watching their battle to keep Ikaris''s pursuers at bay; it was the figth that concreted within me that the Emporium will lose this conflict ultimately."

    "What do you mean?" Hudor butted into the conversation in the same moment that Dr''ul and Cecelia''s challenge went live, with those who wished to be able to watch, they already expected nothing the likes of what Ikaris and Lars had just pulled off, but they knew that Cecelia was strong in her own right, and they assumed Dr''ul the same since she was one who Ikaris trusted even more than she trusted Cecelia.

    However, nothing could have prepared them for what was about toe.

    "The Sol Vestic, Ikaris Vestic, Dr''ul and her brother and sister, Dina Levina, A Amastacia, these individuals have something within them which sets them apart from all the others," Jenifer dered, watching the skies with awe as a slightly visible materialised in the distance from Alpha creating a setting for the challenge.

    "Others fight so that they can ovee their adversaries, and then they may never fight again, but this group of monsters see fighting as a tool; they fight to be stronger, and from our personal observation I think it is safe to assume that their handle over mana ces them at the top of their tiers capable of pulling off feats far above what their power should be capable of; Cecelis didn''t just pick a fight with some Divine or even a Celestial, Dr''ul is a Celestial God like Ikaris is, attacking that woman''s pride in such a manner was a mistake."

    "Oh..."

 Chapter 324: The Meaning of Power.

    "I want to ask her why she did it," Jenifer stared at Cecelia''s confident posture as she held her peculiar hairclip at the ready, circting mana through her body to add to the alreadyrge pool of power which she possessed. "I want to know why she would dere war on Dr''ul, but the answer is kind of self-exnatory the more I sit and think about it."

    The woman was seated with her hand over her eyes, using the system to watch the fight without distractions. "Even if I do understand, I still think she is stupid for doing this," She admitted with Keele sitting next to her in total agreement as she too observed the two women facing each other.

    "Am I missing the point then?" Zara asked, seeing what her sister did as okay and not finding the wrong in her actions.

    "It is jealousy which drives her, Zara," Hudor huffed, staring at her with a conflicted expression she had not seen on him before.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    "I know this emotion all too well, I was often ovee with the same feeling whenever our leader chose you over me, but I learned to keep it to myself and do whatever was in the best interest of the n and our people, especially after I was left behind for a month to train and hone my abilities, everyone else mocked me."

    "I grew annoyed and evenshed out at them once, and it was that moment which gave me perspective, I was not fit to lead our people, I never was, you had always been right but the thought of losing my ce to someone I thought hadn''t worked for it made me bitter, I see that same bitterness in Mdy''s eyes right now, she is not thinking clearly, that is why I believe that even if she conquers her opponent, she is ultimately the loser of this fight, she has been since she attacked the Arkadian gods''s pride."

    "My sister would never-"

    "She has never needed to exert her authority, am I right?" Keele asked, cutting Zara''s defence in half.

    "I know a little about themander who was always at Ikaris''s side; ��lo��n Cecelia; the fearless and loyal, she is known far and wide for her betrayal because she was one of thest Vatui to surrender, she fought for her princess, putting everything on the line, her family, her n, her happiness..."

    "Now I imagine someone like that would feel even a little betrayal if the person they revered and served so loyally suddenlyy showed up with someone else as their most trusted, let alone several someone''s taking her ce and having more authority than her, she has been reduced to the base standard of being strong enough to apany Her Highnesses side, like most of us have," Keele shook her head.

    "I can''t imagine it has been easy for her to adjust."

    "Precisely, at the end of the day, we are just people, no matter how strong we are and no matter how many great feats we aplish, we are simple people with simple emotions that sometimes get the best of us," Hudor added and Keele along with Jenifer nodded at his sentiment, agreeing wholely.

    "Not Master, nor Ikaris, definitely not Dr''ul, they are not normal, for Cecelia to have made this personal by challemging the authority of a god, granted by her god," Alpha''s smaller variant stood next to Jenifer shaking her head.

    "She created split vision in their head, showing them the Arkadian pantheon, and what everyone saw was a terrifying host of powerful beings roaring in outrage and chanting the name of their Queen. "To challenge a god is to challenge the entire world and every existence they represent, not even master could escape the judgement of the gods."

    ***

    [Dr''ul, Cecelia, the rules are simple, whatever counts, but for both your sakes I pray you not kill the other as that would undoubtedly incur the wrath of Mdy] Alpha warned them as she stood between both parties, Cecelia with her hairclip in her grasp clutching tightly to it and Dr''ul opposing her with her hair zing in ordance to her mana raging beneath the surface.

    [This is a ghost, replicated to be twice as durable as the one Ikaris fought on earlier, the first one to concede will be the loser, there are no judges, you may begi-]

    Before Alpha even finished speaking a great pir of raging mana and Vatui energy rushed past her and crashed into Dr''ul''s chest, sting her off her feet and birthing a crater the size of a stadium when Cecelia acted out of rage and spite, firing preemptively, it was like a sucker punch the goddess had not expected, she already knew that this woman was not patient enough to get along with, but now she considered Cecelia dishonourable as well.

    "I will take initiative," Cecelia walked past Alpha and stood at the edge of the crater she had expected to find the goddessying in, but instead she found Dr''ul standing at the base with her hands folded and a disapproving re directed up at her. "You just need toy down and ept that there is no way you can defeat me, I am stronger, I am faster, I am..." Her eyes lost track of Dr''ul while she was speaking and she found herself staring at the crater in disbelief while Dr''ul stood next to her staring down there with her.

    "Save your words for someone who cares to hear them, ��lo��n Cecelia, you have dishonoured me twice, all that remains is my fist!" Dr''ul struck the woman in her jaw with the back of her folded fist when she attempted to distance herself, sending her crashing across the green ins resulting in several small craters in her wake.

    "Just fight, I have no interest in you or any word your mouth utters, when you lose, my wish is that you humble yourself and nothing more." Dr''ul continued looking in the original crater with an expression of indifference and disappointment, what was supposed to be a fun fight for her had be a chore. "I will teach you to know your ce."

    "I didn''t see her move."

    "I don''t think any of us did," Keele answered Jenifer.

    "Know my ce... how dare a mere copy say that to me?" Cecelia arose enraged, the strike itself held no power behind it but the way she had been humiliated had her reeling in her boots.

    "How dare you try to take what was never yours!?" The woman raised her cannon once more pouring more power in it than the first shot and firing it, Dr''ul was slightly amazed by this, she saw the weapon as clumsy and extremely cumbersome to heft, but Cecelia treated like it weighed lees than the mass of a simple pen, and she was sure the size of it had just been modified as well to prevent another attack like thest, therge barrel was now short and made maneuvering much easier.

    "I would say that I have known Ikaris for under a decade, and that I do not im any such spot at the side of the Goddess of Bnce, but this woman is too emotional to have a conversation with, I will have to knock her down a few egos before I can get through to her," Dr''ul shook her head, easily dodging a barricade of small oval shots as she slowly closed the gap between herself and Cecelia.

    "I thought, finally, I would have someone who could understand me, strong in their own right with the responsibility of her people on her shoulders, walking in the footsteps of those two; seeking strength, seeking glory, seeking to one day stand at their sides and not be in their shadows forever, but instead I find a child, she is twice my senior, but she is many times less mentally ready to be Ikaris''s retainer, how can you im to know someone and be so far away from their truth?" Dr''ul swat away one of the projectiles Cecelia shot at her with the back of her hand and recoiled with a stunned expression when a visible tear appeared on her forearm and she began bleeding heavily beneath her armour.

    "What is the purpose of bing strong if you only turn your de to your allies and those who could be allies?" Dr''ul wondered. "That is not the meaning of strength, Sol taught me that power was meant to serve, even when he is so mighty he lowers himself to our level, he speaks to us as equals and never abuses his power unless he is provoked."

    "Dina taught me that power is ever-changing, that even those with the worst starts and the worst mindsets can make better of themselves, A taught me that power can be love, and love can soften even the hardest surfaces, and Ikaris taught me the values of being a god are true only when you understand the path that the mortals you lord over walk."

    Drul shook her head raising her mana several degrees higher, coating her arm in a thick membrane of ming crimson mana and swatting away another ball that strayed too close to her in the endless spray of attacks, huffing when the projectile still nearly tore through her arm, showing no difference than the first one as she was pushed backwards again in recoil.

    "Even Sara, that little maid is amazing, she has taught me that power alone cannot win over the heart of everyone, despite her being worlds weaker than everyone else, she is respected and highly favoured by them all, she is their sweetheart and dearest friend, iming the title of sister to Sol Vestic himself; how can you be around all these amazing people and stillck the values they possess, you blind idiot?"

    "I am ashamed to call you an ally, so I will take it upon myself to teach you a lesson in manners first, everything else cane afterwards."

 Chapter 325 Godslayers Fist.

    "Beat her, don''t let up!"

    "Show that imposter the power of our people!"

    "Get her, n Head, take her down!"

    Their voices arose and fell in rhythms, shaking the ground beneath them and at the forefront of the Vatui forces Hudor had taken a seat with his hands folded beneath his nose and his eyes closed as he watched Cecelia relentlessly shoot at Dr''ul who was dodging most and parrying a few of the endless projectiles fired at her.

    "Just listen to them," He sighed while his ear twitched and his brows fidgeted in agitation.

    "They are so eager to see Cecelia win, that they have forgotten she is facing an ally, they cheer the same as they do for the defeat of an enemy, but the Arkadian Queen is as much Vatui as she is a Divine; she is also of our people, descended from the lineage of royalty, directly from Her Highness the Princess, Ikaris," He shook his head.

    "Have we already begun to lose the humility that the Emporium has forced upon us who thought ourselves invincible?"

    Zara for one couldn''t believe she was listening to the same Hudor of the past; the arrogant and offish, the proud and senile, the cowardly, there was not a single shred of any of those traits within him, in just a month after they parted ways in Keele''s homeworld the man had made aplete turnaround, he was humble, valiant, and though still proud his pride was generous.

    "You speak wisely," A woman sat next to him, aside from Keele and Jenifer nobody else had ever seen her, she resembled Dr''ul with hair seemingly ame in crimson, though there was not even a glow of manaing from her, her eyes were ck though and she unlike the naturallyrge goddess of war was the avreage height of a woman barely 5''5".

    "What is your name?" She asked, and without being presumpuous, Hudor gave her his regards with a small bow.

    "I am Hudor, mdy, and who might you be?" He returned the question and she smiled and pointed at Dr''ul.

    "I am Renia, Dr''ul''s younger sister; Goddess of Chaos within the Arkadian pantheon." She responded with a slight incline of her head and this was when Hudor turned to meet her fully and noticed Keele and Jenifer already having their heads lowered in respect.

    "Renia, I was not expecting to see you here today, is there some kind of emergency?" Keele asked with a smile, raising her gaze to meet the goddesses.

    "I am always readily avable when my sister decides to raise her hand in battle, we are synonymous, after all," Renia replied with a chuckle. "It benefits me to follow her around."

    "It benefits you?" Hudor raised his brow. "In what regard?"

    "Dr''ul is the goddess of war, whenever great battles are fought you will find her on the sidelines or in the fray, where she goes there is Chaos, thus, I will follow, and wherever there is chaos there will also be Destruction, which is where my older brother S''mael will emerge, and after destructiones Creation, the essence of our oldest sibling, Adonai; the four of us do well together we are strongest at each others'' sides, so we are the closest amongst the seven gods who rule Arkadia."

    "That is fascinating." Zara mused. "I imagined that gods were selfish beings, from myth and elsewise, gods generally always fight amongst each other, are petty, and ruthless."N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "Generally, yes, but nobody would dare start any unnecessary conflict under Dr''ul''s watch, she may be the goddess of war, but she detests a pointless fight, everything must have a purpose, we follow her because despite there being various gods who are smarter, our eldest included, she has proven to be the most powerful, and the wisest amongst us, even though she ys such traits low and never admits them," Renia smiled fondly as she stared at the fight intently.

    "Dr''ul simply seeks the meaning in existence a little differently; to her, power determines everything, and her concept of power varies in so many different ways that not even our god of wisdon can figure her out."

    "She sounds like an amazing person." Hudor continued watching the fight as well. "She also sounds like she has dealt with this kind of situation before."

    "Indeed, many times in the past many gods lost their way and were put down, others were punished, and others cursed into exile and eternal decrement," Renia thought of the most recent being Diablos, the god of dragons who thought to conspire against Sol and was cursed into eternal suffering as a bottom feeder, he who survived the destruction of Arkadia and still exists in his suffering.

    "My point is, that your leader is in very good hands, my sister will reach her heart."

    ***

    "... How long has it been?" Cecelia huffed, the was in ruins from one pole to the next, her arm was starting to tire from using her weapon in an unfamiliar manner to adapt to the fight, and yet despite being constantly injured, Dr''ul only closed the distance between them, as though she had a suicide wish she tanked attacks meant to destroy her and recovered from them without breaking stride.

    Even though she was the one on the offensive, she was also the one retreating the whole time. "What''s your deal!?" Cecelia roared in outrage. "I have already proven myself the superior, so why are you still pursuing me?!"

    "You have yet to see me attack so why are you still assuming yourself superior?" Dr''ul raised a brow, shing the golden blood from her hands and revealing herself unharmed once more. "If you give up then just say so, there is no need to throw a second tantrum inside of your tantrum, Dr''ul lightly chuckled and pointed her fist. "Or, do tell, is that all you, the superior one are capable of?"

    "Why you...!"

    At Dr''ul''s taunt, Cecelia felt power like she had never experienced before rush to the surface, her ego had been directly insulted and she meant to correct that right there and then, she raised her weapon and aimed at Dr''ul with the intention of blowing her, and everything behind her away in an attack simr to the one she had tried destroying the Sol Collective with. "How dare -"

    Before her eyes again Dr''ul exhibited speed the likes of which she had never encountered, she raised her weapon defensively to the side of her head out of instinct and prediction as there was where the goddess had attacked her the first time, to her surprise Dr''ul indeed came from that side, but to her shock the weapon which was supposed to bare the brunt of a ck hole imploding was cratered when Dr''ul''s fist collided into it.

    The knockback of that attack mmed Cecelia into the ground so hard that the surface failed to register it as an impact, causing her to make a perfect indenture into the soil with her body while her opponent ced her heel in her side and yanked the broken weapon from her grasp with a huff.

    "Unexpected, I will have Union create a more durable one." Dr''ul made a half-assed apology and pulled Cecelia from the ground with a smirk cing her to stand and resting the weapon in her hands again. "Continue or face me without it, the choice is yours, but know, if you continue from this point on I will not be lenient, rather, I will drive you into the depths of defeat, ��lo��n Cecelia."

    Experience more on empire

    Dr''ul retreated several paces away and raised her hand in an invitation of battle towards the woman who was staring at the weapon inher grasp in disbelief.

    "What the fuck just happened, it has never suffered a scratch for all the years I have used it, I have had it since I was a child, how did she break it in one hit?" Cecelia stood there too shocked to react, not her alone, but her sister who had a simr weapon was of the same mind on the sudden breaking of a weapon which could devastate entire universes and destroy gxies in one shot.

    "What did she do?"

    "Do you truly wish to know?" Dr''ul answered the woman as if she was hearing her thoughts. "It goes against me saying earlier that I would only fight but as it seems precious to you I will exin briefly why you are about to get the shit beat out of you," Dr''ul raised her other fist and assumed a fighting posture that had the Arkadian pantheon silent as they witnessed it.

    "Oh my, she is mimicking the fight between Sol and Sorath," Renia huffed through her lips making a bubbling sound and pping her hands. "It seems this fight will be a hard lesson."

    "I only learned this when I challenged and lost to Sol Vestic, but as the goddess of war I have no tether to any specific kind of power like my brothers and sisters do, I do not solely possess the divine powers of chaos or destruction, yet I do, my power bends thews of reality itself the same as the Godyer, I am defiant of every tether the same as Sol Vestic is, I do not adhere to thews of reason."

    "I may be a Vatui descent of Divine Royalty, but my power is more like his than hers; my fist is the same as the Godyer''s, only absolute power can defeat me!"

 Chapter 326 I am Better.

    "The same as the Godyer, is sheparing herself to an incalcble being?" Zara furrowed her brows. "Even as I understand her intentions and see why she is doing this, I will not ept that she is the same as Sol Vestic, there is none-"

    "You are missing the point here," Keele shook her head, with Renia agreeing immediately.

    "She is not saying that she is the same as Sol Vestic; She is saying that her power can only be bested by power, such things as weapons are ultimately useless against her, the fist of the godyer is one which tears through all barriers and all forms of defences, the only thing that can stop it is another fist." She exined and the Vatui woman furrowed her brows further and sighed.

    "The only way Cecelia will defeat Dr''ul is through overpowering her, and let me tell you, that will not be easy regardless of the power she has, because my sister''s power to alter the fabric of reality and destroy it surfaces rather easily, it takes massive amounts of energy in contrast to hers to quiet her once she gets provoked, and I have seen no such power from your elder sister yet," Renia added.

    "She is fighting an uphill battle, even if she may be stronger, which I doubt."

    "You doubt it?" Keele turned her gaze to the goddess of Chaos. "She barely managed to defeat the generals sent after her all of whom stood no chance of defeating Cecelia, even if they teamed up, that was only six months ago, how could she have grown so much stronger that quickly?" She queried with her brow raised in fascination.

    How indeed?

    "Her strengthes through warfare, there has been nothing but warfare in the Kha-Nova Collective, all scaling cosmically above anything we experienced in our home dimension, the four of us have experienxed growth unlike ever before, those aeons of evolving our powers inparison seem meaningless now, I for one, am more at home here than I am in my own collective..."n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Renia''s eyes narrowed and she unconsciously licked her lips while her hair red around her head with the rising excitement as she thought of the feasts of anarchy she had taken part in since rejoining the fight.

    "The chaos birthed by the Emporium over so many years is delicious, truly a regale unlike anything el-" The goddess stopped and looked up when she realised what she was saying.

    "My apologies," Renia stood and turned her back to everyone biting her lips and teking deep breaths, her hair continued to darken and her fingers sunk into the flesh of her arm and spilt her blood when she tried reigning herself in, in the end, she gave up and sighed. "I will take my leave."

    "Renia-" Keele tried stopping her, but the goddess disappeared in a burst of chaotic mana that left them all speechless. "Is she experiencing that again?" She lowered her hand and looked at Jenifer, with thetter shrugging with a concerned stare at where the goddess had been seated next to Hudor.

    "Is she okay?" Hudor asked. "She seemed extremely disgusted at her own words."

    "Renia''s chaos mana takes on a vampiric attribute sometimes, she can directly ingest the essence of chaos through other beings by draining them of their blood; when she was first introduced to the Emporium she drank the ck blood of thousands of soldiers in her fight against them, it was only afterwards that she found out that PowerPoint was the result of draining the essence out of Vatui and Godyers, ording to her, she had tasted their souls directly, she only recently rejoined the fight at the request of Master vestic," Alpha answered.

    "Her mana is closely tied to death, she is one of the few gods capable of directly interacting with the soul on a level where not even Master can freely manipte it."

    "How terrible, she witnessed the tormented souls of hundreds of millions of her people," Keele lowered her gaze at the topic. "The Emporium has to be stopped, we should not be fighting amongst ourselves, they should be wiped out for all the crimes they havemitted," She held her wrist when her hand began shaking from guilt. "I... do not deserve to be amongst you all-"

    "Don''t even go there," Hudor huffed. "Her highness considers you an ally, and you have more than helped with the relocation and protection of our people, Keele, you are a fine example of the good that cane from somece bad, do not undermine your value."

    ***

    "I am stronger... I AM STRONGER, I am the better choice, it is obvious!" Cecelia chanted in her head. "Why is she the one that was left in charge when I have been readily availible this entire time, what must I do to make you trust me again?"

    "How much more must I prove myself even after I abandoned my personal life to return to your side?" She pondered, tossing the broken weapon to the ground and raising her fists, clenching her jaws and breathing out a steady fog of mana from her nostrils as she steeled her focus, much to the glee of the goddess of war who was sure that this would be the most durable opponent outside of Sol that she ever faced till date.

    "Clear your mind, I want to beat you shitless, not senseless," Dr''ul shook her head seeing the confliction on Cecelia''s face.

    "You mock me at every turn, but know, this is where you will be put to shame, Goddess of War." Cecelia began to lessen the distance between herself and her opponent, one calcted step at a time. Continue your journey with empire

    She was confident in her abilities as a skilled fighter, she had been taking on the strongest of opponents in her ce as Captain of the 100th, shepared the muchrger pool of experience she had to a god twice her junior who had been in enough fights to count on two hands, the difference was supposed to be apparent.

    Cecelia swiftly understood what Dr''ul meant after she attacked and was put to the ground so fast that the soil failed to recognise that something had hit it a second time, resulting in the woman wheezing after Dr''ul parried her first attack and nted her fist in the side of her jaw causing her to flip before she hit the ground and was bedded in it.

    "Pardon me, but you deserve every one of these, I will not stop until you concede defeat or fall unconscious!" Dr''ul raised Cecelia out of the ground roughly by stomping so hard that the soil erupted around them.

    "To think I considered calling you elder," Dr''ul grabbed Cecelia''s legs and pped her into the ground a second time like a wet rag , spinning her with a twist of her torso and then raising her foot.

    "I understand your frustrations quite well, but to feel inferior andsh out at an ally when you have no need to, it is pathetic of a creature of your intelligence and power!" The goddess stepped in her stomach nting her firmly into the a third time and then aiming her hand downwards at her.

    "I have taken it upon myself to rid you of this absurd ego, you will do better without it!"

    [Divine Cast; mes of Anarchy]

    Dr''ul''s first named cast came with levels of destruction simr to Dina and Ikaris''s [Incineration Maximum] it hit Cecelia like a thousand suns exploding against her torso, driving her deeper into the crust of the ghost until she vanished within the chaotic explosion that erupted outwards into the cosmos like a cone of crimson and then burst a second time taking a half of the with it.

    "Come on," The goddess balled her fist sensing Cecelia''s mana rapidly approaching her. "Do not relent, give this everything you''ve got!" She raised her hand grabbing Cecelia''s hand after a sloppy attempt at a sneak attack and directing her towards the remaining half which burned as it slowly drifted away from the others into the outer.

    Skillfully, Cecelia spun andnded on the boiling surface several metres away from the edge of the exposed bubbling core that was jetting exhaustive fumes and torrents of mes high into the air, giving the half the appearance of a giant oval shuttle shooting out mes from a chamber the size of earth.

    "She easily scales stronger than the rest of us, I can tell at a nce that she has not even begun exerting herself yet." Zara praised Dr''ul''s power whilst also watching her sister. "Simrly, something seems to be preventing my sister from fighting at her best."

    "That something is doubt." Hudor announced his presence with words that once again drew everyone''s attention to himself. "She has begun seeing the faults in her actions, she intended to humiliate Dr''ul but on the other side Dr''ul, despite being perplexed has only shown her the honour she initiallycked when they first met."

    "Well, don''t you make a goodmentator," Keele raised her brow at the man with a chuckle.

    "Naturally, I have the voice of a narrator, I was born for this role." He chuckled back, but the two of them experienced sudden shock and looked to the fight again when they felt Cecelia''s mana spike dramatically, surpassing the already absurd Vatui strength she possessed when she went berserk and began exerting herself.

    She swiftly blitzed and grabbed Dr''ul''s legs returning the earlier treatment as she spun violently with the goddess and released her into the core of the then dived in after her, pummeling her through to the other side and catching her by her hair with a roar, mming her into the other half before taking a deep breath and screaming out again.

    "More!" Dr''ul arose from the hole her feet had made after she caught her bnce, she leapt into the air and matched Cecelia''s mana in an instant, blocking several fast jabs by the Vatui woman and catching her fist on thest punch, directing her toward the unravelling again and unleashing another devastating punch directly in her jaw.

    "Keep it up!" Dr''ul''s smile became evident when Cecelia tanked the attack and returned one of her own after holding Dr''ul by her chestte. "Do not falter, ��lo��n Cecelia!" The goddess of war threw her head backwards and mmed her forehead into Cecelia''s with her fangs baring in excitement. "Do not wane, fight me with your all!"

    "You freak!" Cecelia snapped, spinning and turning her back to the void as she utilized one of the few techniques she had grasped from her sessions with A. "Shut up and ept that I am better!" She mmed her palm against Dr''ul''s abdomen as they both began falling.

    "Prove it!"

    [Unknown Tier; Great Fireball]

 Chapter 327 Insolence.

    "Great, Fireball!!" Cecelia unleashed her cast directly onto Dr''ul''s stomach, for a few seconds there was nothing, but the goddess could sense the massive mana pool that was suddenly drenched in order to create it, so without wasting a moment Dr''ul sucked in a breath and focused solely on defensive mana, trapping herself and Cecelia within a gigantic barrier which epassed them as they plummeted into the core once more.

    "I think it has be unsafe here yet again," Adonai emerged from theground before Zara causing the woman to almost yelp at how quickly he had done it and the fact that he did so undetected.

    "I will retreat the masses several paces away," He extended his hands creating an instantaneous barrier around every living being in the gathering and then snapping his fingers much like Sol had always done, the result being a shift of the outpost they resided on into an entirely different system where it immediately locked into orbit with another sentient on the opposite side of the sun.

    "Show off," S''mael scoffed.

    Unlike his brother who had acted urgently the god of destruction emerged slowly and already in his [BLACK JACKAL] transformation, licking his lips as he looked at the system neighbouring them, seeing his sister and themander sink into the core of the broken. "What monstrous power," S''mael chuckled.

    "Yes, the goddess of war is a scary being-"

    "Dr''ul?" S''mael scoffed, turning to look at Hudor who had spoken after him. "You don''t get it at all, little man, I already know that my sister is a monster, I was talking about that arrogant woman fighting her; she has terrible mana; truly awful stuff running wild inside of her, I can''t wait to see where it leads this fight when she forces Dr''ul to put her back into those punches."

    The god of destructionughed just as the [Great Fireball] that Cecelia had cast over a minute ago finally went off, taking with it the entire as well as the whole sr system in a great explosion mimicking the [Forced Sun] Ikaris had used against Lars in the previous fight, everything waspletely incinerated almost instantaneously, remodelling the space into a dead ne of destion and dust as though a supernova had just gone off.

    "All that from a single fireball..." Dr''ul chuckled. "Did you think that small ball of mes was enough to harm me, or were you just trying to tickle me?" The goddess continued chuckling, keeping her arm locked on Cecelia''s, her armour was dented from the area of impact, but otherwise Dr''ul waspletely fine.

    Cecelia on the other hand had harmed herself, her skin along her arm had been irritated, and her clothes had several spots where the mana had burnt small fringes and holes in it, including the sleeve that had been burnt all the way up to her shoulder, Seeing her opponent unharmed, Cecelia heaved in frustration and weakly tugged her arm testing to see if Dr''ul was bluffing, but her reward for that half-assed test was another punch, this one significantly more powerful than any other.

    Zara flinched when she witnessed the goddess brutally drive her fist into her sister''s cheek and then winced once more when Cecelia grappled Dr''ul''s arm which held her and returned a punch of even greater strength than the one she had just received, the slow punches sped up until both had released each other and were locked in a flurry of blows against each other, every punch stronger than thest one, each faster than thest; all while Dr''ul and Cecelia refused to lose any ground, the waves of energy the two released became so dense that it started turning into a physical phenomena, reaching the ends and beyond as the lights created by the colliding residual dust of Cecelia''s perfect cast were washed away.

    "This is absurd..." Keele flinched as well when she saw the fight taking a brutal turn. Cecelia''s will to keep going kept her afloat while Dr''ul''s eagerness to teach her a lesson prevented the goddess from seeing the damage she was causing. "I have no Idea where their strengths and weaknesses actually lie, but if this keeps up, one of them will undoubtedly die...!"

    "Do not expect me or any of the gods to try and stop my sister, she is scary enough when she gets her way, but a miserable Dr''ul is a far more terrifying entity to deal with," Adonai chuckled, taking a seat of his own making and conjuring a cup of tea in his grasp, reflecting Sol as most others under his influence seemed to do.

    "When there is a victor there can be consequences, in the meantime I will stay my hand, lest I be killed in the crossfire of their absurd strength."

    "We have to do something, I agree with Keele this time, someone is headed to the grave unless they are stopped," Jenifer shook her head opposing Adonai.

    "Then by all means, weakling, go; go and stop them, I love destruction, but I do not find the concept of being destroyed very appealing," S''mael countered her and the woman had to take a breath to calm herself upon being called weakling so openly, she knew better than to get into it with this one with the dog head; he was even quicker to anger than the goddess of war was, realistically speaking, he was also the most powerful after her because of his ability to grow stronger being tied to any universe''s constant state of slow and cosmic decay.

    "Is there nothing we can do?" Keele asked, and Adonai shook his head with a sigh.

    "When the Queen gets like this only Sol I believe has the power to disarm her safely, she would even fight Ikaris, even though we fear her."

    "You fear her?"

    "Ikaris is to be feared, we are all Celestial Divine, but she is the goddess which created and rules over us, you think you have seen her power after that fight but she has done far more terrifying things, one such thing being her ability to tear the firmaments of heaven apart with her bare hands," Adonai responded in kind.

    "She is no joke, the goddess of bnce, a god ruling over all others, she is terrifying beyond words when she loses her will to abide by her ownws, she is immeasurable, her and Sol Vestic alike, and yet, Dr''ul would jump at the chance to fight either of them."

    "This is getting annoying...!" Dr''ul grabbed Cecelia''s hands and raised her knee in her stomach, and when the woman bent forward in pain she raised her other knee smashing her armoured leg in her nose and then releasing her with a kick to her ribcage, before themander had a chance to recover from the blows the goddess mmed her hand in her back and huffed as a bright burst of ming divine mana sted them apart sending her crashing into another system with Dr''ul following her suit.

    "This could be dangerous if it continues at this rate..." Dr''ul made a quick scan of the area they were in searching primarily for life, or potential life, but when the goddess found neither, a sinister grin appeared across her face, she caught Cecelia by her hair while she was still plumeting across the system and vanished, appearing on an outer where the whole thing was frozen and windless and throwing her forward whers she stumbled nefore catching herself.

    "Do you have the will to continue, or will you yield and admit your wrongs?" She asked seriously, and for an instance in their little exchange the Vatui woman seemed on the verge of giving in, but when she saw the look of disdain on Dr''ul''s face upon her consideration Cecelia sucked in a breath and released another puff of charged mana from her nostrils.

    "I am not wrong, I am better than you are," Cecelia wiped the dried blood from her nose and clicked her tongue.

    "I am and always will -" Her deration disappeared and was reced by a scream of pain when she disappeared from a punch that cracked her chestte and sent her off-world but before she could even tell what was happening, Cecelia was once again before Dr''ul, though her injury remained.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "I will ask again, do you yield, ��lo��n Cecelia?" Dr''ul asked once more, lowering her hand to reveal a small circle resembling A''s previous summoning spell circle before she evolved into a cosmic being. "Answer me while you still can, otherwise you might sumb and die from what I do nex-"

    "Fuck you," Cecelia spat and raised herself already recovered. "Imposter...

    you are a bastard Vatui and an imposter god you are a stain against her name, she was stupid to ever think a lowly being like you could ever be one of us!" Cecelia raised her hand preparing to cast her [Great Fireball] once more at Dr''ul, but a moment afterwards the world was upside down and her head was driven into the ground in a brutal suplex that sent cracks reverberating across the ice right around the malshaped floating celestial body.

    Dr''ul''s eyespletely coated over in crimson after she righted herself, they burned brightly and then became white when her mana started leaking out of her like a river, reaching miles across in every direction and returning in violent torrents, wrapping around her body while the ice under her feet rapidly melted away.

    "I have tried being lenient because you are important enough that Ikaris insists on keeping you around, I have exercised caution because you are kin and I do not want to break you, I have held myself from exerting any form of significant force because I am supposed to be protecting you, not harming you, but right now, I no longer care about breaking you beyond repair, you have crossed the line, first offending me by calling me a bastard, I can always walk away from that, but to stare me in my eyes and use me of being a stain on her name and then you mock the goddess of bnce, you spit in the face of her mercy, you have dishonoured the giving hand and I will not tollerate it, all voices raised against the benevolent Ikaris will be put down..."

    [Goddess of war: GODDESS OF WAR] Her head tag read as her armour began melting away and her hair began glowing brightly, while her mana rampaged across the surface as far as the eyes could see.

    "I have had enough of your insolence, from this moment on, you will face my wrath, and I will not stop until you are either begging me to stop, unconscious, or dead!"

 Chapter 328 Poisoned by the Emporium.

    "Is she implying that after everything she has done, she has been holding back?" Hudor looked at Keele, and without fanfare the woman nodded with her eyes narrowed and an expression of worry etched on her face, more than her, Jenifer looked like a child that had witnessed the death of their parent, surely she believed Dr''ul was stronger than this, but to see the ever-smiling goddess of war grow perplexed to the boiling point of rage filled her with unease.

    None of them though, had the same expression as S''mael or Adonai, the two gods were visibly worried with thetter clenching the staff in his hand as he watched intently. "Do you think we should intervene, after all?" Adonai asked his brother, ncing at him briefly with a knowing gaze. "She might actually kill the woman if she attacks her in that state."

    "I refuse to fight Dr''ul when she is like that, unless I have no choice, I would rather fight Sol." S''mael shook his head; like his brother his smile had also been erased.

    "She is exactly halfway as powerful as the goddess of bnce is, when we were on Arkadia Ikaris was able to tear the heavens in half with only a single percent of her power, have some perspective Adonai, it may look like a normal fight but I am sure as night turns day; if we get caught between her now we will die, nobody weaker than her should be anywhere near there."

    "I would mock the god of destruction for saying something so cowardly, but I understand and agree, I would rather fight a stranger with power greater than hers than my sister," Adonai sighed and crossed his legs, sipping his tea again. "I hope yourmander lives through this."

    "You two..." Zara thought of berating them, but reconsidered immediately.

    Cecelia started a fight because she insulted the goddess of war, before her were the gods of Destruction and Creation, she would not make the same mistake her sister did, she was fully aware that these two, along with Renia who had left and Dr''ul could singlehandedly destroy the entire ��lo��n n if they wished it, she chose preservation over pride.

    "What was the point of saying all that then?" Zara changed her tune when she found them both staring at her.

    "We considered, but the risk outweighs the reward." Adonai huffed.

    "Yeah... I don''t feel like dying today." S''mael agreed.

    "If it gets out of hand, I will handle her," Alpha responded to the theme and all eyes fel on her. "Do not underestimate the system, only Master is my superior." She added, not even turning to meet anyone''s gaze as she carefully watched the fight entering it''s final stages.

    "...Right," S''mael chuckled nudging Adonai''s arm, but the god of creation remained still, staring at her with suspicion and awe.

    ***

    "You think I fear you, just because your hair glows and you can take a beating, but you''re wrong!" Cecelia crossed her arms and guarded her face when the winds began picking up and pushing her against the ice.

    "You think that because you have mastery over mana, that will be enough to best me, but you are wrong!" She ground her teeth, pulling energy from deep within and pointing her fingers at Dr''ul in the form of a gun. "My weapon was a conductor meant to channel my power, I can do it all on my own."

    [Unknown Tier; Ballista Pistol]

    "I don''t need your approval, I don''t care what you think or say, what matters is what Her Highness thinks, and right now she has been corrupted by you and those parasites who surround her, She is Vatui, the likes of divinity are beneath us, as they always have been the only equals we have are Godyers!!"

    "Even in the face of my wrath she refuses to see reason and delusionally sticks to her ways..." Dr''ul stared at her hands as thest of her mana returned and she assumed a burning form, though unlike before the mes that had been a part of her only seemed to hug her, what remained of her armour had been obscured beneath the heat and glow.

    "It matters not, Ikaris is not here to discipline this child so I will take responsibility, even if it leads toplete discord between the Divine and the Celestials." She sucked in a breath and closed her eyes. "I do not have a choice, someone like this does not qualify to be at the side of Divine Royalty."

    "Disappear!" Ceceliaunched her attack and as she had mentioned, her weapon had indeed been a conductor, the raw powering from her was so many times more potent that it took an entire digit of her index finger and sent her flying backwards.

    The attack came with so much speed and force that not even Dr''ul could dodge it in time, at least, she was not able to move fast enough, but with her coverage of A''s teleportation technique the goddess appeared at Cecelia''s side with her fist cocked andunched an overcharged punch obliterating everything they had stood on sending her towards another solid object out in the void.

    "I have to thoroughly break her in order to get through to her, even if I could, this fight has no room for enjoyment, I have to focus on not getting hit by her raw power, one of those is enough to incinerate me." Drul admitted to the power she was sensing inside of the attack which had missed her.

    "Burn away!!" Cecelia after crashing through another solid body righted herself and aimed her hand again, pointing as she drew on even more power stored within her.

    [Unknown Tier, Buck Barrage]

    The void lit up with bright objects billions in numbers, spreading across Dr''ul''s field of vision before they began racing towards her, the previous speed had been sacrificed for quantity, but Dr''ul could still feel the power they held and could tell that getting hit was not in her best interests, unfortunately for Cecelia there was a seal on her back, left there after Dr''ul hadst struck her with a cast, so she was shocked a second time when all of her attacks failed because the goddess appeared at her side, striking her again and following up with another punch towards the body she had just crashed through.

    "How is she doing that?" She wondered, but before she could even begin to think of why she was so easily being outpaced the goddess caught up again aiming her hands above her head and her heels toward Cecelia. "How-"

    [Imaginary Tier Technique]

    Dr''ul''s feet made contact and the two of them vanished in a streak of crimson, tearing through the and reaching the other side in a third of a millisecond. "Extreme Fajin!" The goddess announced her technique after using it and then turned again when an extra glow appeared on her arm, watching Cecelia catch aze from exiting the atmosphere of the breaking beneath them.

    "Release!" She vanished once more appearing at Cecelia''s side with her glowing fist in the punching motion, but like a snake, Cecelia''s arm slid around hers and locked at her elbow and then the woman fully avoided the punch and locked her legs around Dr''ul''s torso with a wide grin.

    "This, is my win, mongrel..." Cecelia bore an expression of victory when she pressed her arm against Dr''ul''s chest and pointed her disjointed finger at her. "Death is your only mercy, you wed existence!"

    Dr''ul held an expression of shock contempt after hearing those words, her wrath subsided, and her emotions seemed to shut down entirely; she became a husk and then the entirety of that husk turned into killing intent.

    Cecelia felt her body begin to shiver, but pushed through the sensation and released her attack making a clean hole right through the goddesses torso, but something was off; Dr''ul had made no attempt to attack, deflect, or even escape her hold, she just quietly allowed herself to be sted through, she understood why a few secondster when her face caved in from a punching from behind Dr''ul.

    "I cloned myself at thest moment and let you release your technique there, well done, ��lo��n Cecelia," Dr''ul watched her crash onto the surface of the unknown body.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Y-" Cecelia was shut up when Dr''ul''s fist plunged into her stomach and she folded over her arm, she had moved so fast that the mes apanying hergged several seconds behind, covering her once more as she picked Cecelia off her hand and held her by her face.

    "You tried killing me purely from malicious intent." Dr''ul released her into another punch and then caught her before she could even move mming her into the ground and sighing over her, releasing divine mana so dense it was nearly ck from her nostrils, simrly, the mana coating her lost the beauty it had and was shrowded in a dark miasma.

    "You refuse to repent," Dr''ul stepped on her arm directing a surprise shot to the side and then kicking her in her jaw with her other foot before straddling her. "It seems that the Emporium did poison you after all; for you to go this far." She fought the woman''s arms until she had pinned them to her chest with one hand, overpowering her.

    "This is beyond repair," Dr''ul''s eyes widened and her pupils shrank as she balled her other fist and aimed to punch.

    "If your death keeps the others in check then I will be the vile being you are trying so desperately to make me into..."

 Chapter 329 The Consequences of Disobedience pt 1.

    "She has made up her mind," Alpha sighed and disappeared.

    "If your death keeps the others in check, then I will be the vile being you are trying so desperately to make me into, killing one to discipline the rest is well worth the trouble!" Dr''ul eximed and dropped her fist, unlike the first punch which had shattered the body made of Ice, this one missed because Cecelia had the sense to dodge it in time, and luckily she did.

    Dr''ul''s hand made a clean hole right next to her head while the kic force of her attack carried through and destroyed everything beneath them on a molecr level aside from a few feet ofnd which she stillid on too shocked to move again, the punch turned the thriving system into a dead zone in a matter of seconds as the star waspletely snuffed out, bing solid with no exnation while the gravity it emitted grew less and the light it provided subsided into a barely visible glow, plunging the system into darkness.

    Cecelia understood her position now, but she was unable to move, no matter how much force she exerted, Dr''ul was able to keep her suppressed with twice that amount of power, she still had so much power to spare, but in the face of this entity she started feeling smaller and smaller. "Hold still, do not make this any harder than it has to be," Dr''ul stared at her seriously.

    Her appearance was further obscured by the disappearance of their light source, and now she had begun resembling a devil with dark ming hair.

    "That is enough, goddess of war," Alpha appeared at her side and took Dr''ul''s hand before she could deliver another punch, sure to connect since Cecelia had given up on escaping in the face of this relentless force of destruction that called itself a Goddess.

    Read exclusive content at empire

    "You have won, your opponent has lost her will to fight or even resist," She stared at Drul seriously when the goddess slowly craned her neck and turned her sights to her, breathing another dark huff of mana.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "Who are you supposed to be?" The goddess of war asked, almost smilimg as her and Alpha locked eyes.

    As soon as the goddess had spoken, the feed to their altercation was cut from everyone else and Alpha registered shock for a brief moment.

    Regaining herposure, she held her other hand before Dr''ul''s face conjuring Celestial light from the midst of her palm and sting Dr''ul with it like a spray of water, doucing the mes of her hair. [Goddess Dr''ul, the light demands that you cease] She narrowed her eyes at her. [Stop now, or face the council of Emissaries in it''s full might!]

    Dr''ul went mute thereafter, but kept her re for several minutes in that static position until she finally took a breath and the dark miasma that had coated her mana was peeled away, revealing her usual self, fully armoured and perfectly whole but terrified as she stood and pulled her hand away from Alpha.

    "What just happened?" She implored the system for an answer with her eyes wide and her arm shaking. "That was not me, that was-"

    "The emissary of darkness trying to possess your power and make it theirs," Alpha was perplexed as she said this, and no sooner than she did Sol appeared at Dr''ul''s side and grabbed her hand roughly, scanning her for any more traces of the entity he had sensed as well, though muchter since he had been preupied catering for his wife, child and mistresses.

    "I remember seeing a simr transformation before," Alpha looked at Sol who nodded and released the goddesses hand with a sigh.

    "Yes, in my fight against Sitri, I vaguely remember, but it was right after she caused Ikaris to have a miscarriage... when she stabbed the baby inside of her.

    I despaired, I had promised myself that no harm of that kind whould evere to her but that incident brought me back to my darkest moment on A, I lost myself to rage and something else took hold of me, for a few minutes I was not in control of my body, I never bothered saying it to anyone because I just passed it off as being consumed by an unwavering hatred, but I just sensed that same power again, that strange sensation when something dark and evil tries to take a hold of you..."

    "What does this mean?"

    "I don''t know exactly," Sol replied patting Dr''ul on her head after she had asked.

    "What I do know is what it feels like and what it made me do, after that point in the fight everything went bad, millions of Arkadians died because of the actions I took, even if we defeated her in the end too many people died, I know, me saying this after destroying so many outposts makes me sound like a hypocrite, but back then I actually cared about coteral and people who were exempt.

    "Are you saying you do not care now?" Dr''ul raised her brow when Alpha began checking her again.

    "At the moment, it is inevitable that others will die, billions, trillions, and there is nothing I will be able to do about it, in fact, ording to the emissaries, Umbra and his coborator have been rampaging across the neighbouring Kha-Boris Collective they refuse to tell me what exactly he is doing, but I figured it might be some mass killing, that is the fastest way to grow stronger for us, it seems."

    Sol finished speaking and looked down at the one person who had remained silent, instead of standing Cecelia had remained on her knees with her gaze low and her hands pressed in herp, silently she awaited Sol''s judgement for her actions since it seemed he too favoured the goddess as much as Ikaris did.

    She was also aware that the things she had said could not be taken back, one such thing being the remark about Dina and A and her thoughts proved true when the silence ended with Sol standing before her.

    "All you had to do was behave; be humble, but the first chance you get you lose your shit and try to kill one of my closest friends," Sol stared down at her. "Get up, ��lo��n Cecelia, Ikaris has requested that I take you back."

    "Mast-"

    "Do not address me as Master," Sol released an annoyed sigh. "The people I cherish and respect the most call me Master, right now, I neither cherish nor do I respect you; you have proven yourself unreliable, untrustworthy and dangerous, in front of your people who look up to you, you have set the worst example as a liability," He shook his head and folded his arms when she arose.

    "I was the one who chose to take you from the Emporium, but I hereby wash my hands of you Cecelia, your fate lies in the merciful hands of my wife, whatever she decides; I will enforce her judgement thoroughly."

    "Dr''ul." Sol turned to her, and the goddess lowered her head and then slowly took a knee.

    "Yes," She responded.

    "I warned you against picking fights; the events that unfolded here today are a direct result of you disobeying that warning, even if you wereter influenced by some form of entity you should have known better," Sol condemned her actions.

    "Trying to discipline someone out of line is fine, but you ended up trying to kill her as well, as I am the one responsible for all matters concerning Arkadia, I am limiting your interaction with the Vatui of Outerworld, you will return to your home in the Arkadian heavens and remain there until I call upon you again," He spoke sharply and the goddess winced and kept her head lowered.

    "On the matter of what happened earlier, I will visit in the near future to get to the bottom of it."

    "Thank you, Master Vestic," Dr''ul sighed vanishing after Sol snapped his fingers.

    "Alpha," He turned to the system next and she looked up at him with a small smile. "Unless it is necessary, do not allow any fight to get out of hand to this level again, sparring is good, Dr''ul''s Idea to grow closer through battle was a good one, but be careful of how they interact, keep a closer eye on them."

    "Is that an order, Master?" She asked, and Sol nodded and cleared his throat.

    "Regarding your inclusion with the Council of Emissaries," Sol gave her an amused smirk, raising his brow when she seemed shocked at his knowledge of her affiliation. "You are free to do whatever you want I have no reason to stop you, but remember who it is that you first serve," He warned her and she too lowered her head and smiled.

    "I would never allow myself to be swayed by the politics of the Emissaries, Master, everything that I do is to better serve you, after all." She smiled, floating off the small tform and then looking around. "I will get to work with my creator in undoing the damage dealt to these two systems, please pardon me."

    "Go, on," Sol nodded watching her float several feet away before she disappeared from sight and sense as she usually would.

    Sol looked at Cecelia again and released another sigh, raising his finger as the space they upied began warping around them until they were sucked into an infinitely folding phenomena where the Sol Collective resided.

    There the first thing Cecelia saw was Ikaris standing with Dina and A to her left and right.

    "Cecelia..."

 Chapter 330 The Consequences of Disobedience pt 2.

    "Your Highness-"

    "Do not speak unless I ask you to," Ikaris silenced the woman with a mercilessly sharp tone, causing her to wince and lower her head in docility.

    "Do not cause trouble, that is all I asked of you; you were free to leave whenever you pleased, you had all the reasons to, I even offered you the opportunity to return to your husband, one which you declined from a sense of duty..." Ikaris shook her head, walking up to the woman who stood still with her gaze on the floor.

    "You disobeyed the only rule Iid out to you, and tried killing your ally, not just an ally, but a close friend of mine which also happens to be born of my own soul and flesh, Cecelia," Ikaris clenched her jaw and raised her hand in the ready to p her across her face, but she paused before she struck her and sighed.

    "You think I have gone soft and so you tried to remove what you deemed the problem, the issue with your judgement is that the people who you so brazenly threatened are the people I would happily abandon the fight against the Emporium for if it meant saving their lives."

    "I only-"

    "-Meant to preserve your..." Cecelia stopped speaking when a momentter she was staring at jupiter, it happened so quickly that she continued speaking without realising until the great electrical humming of the massive gas giant broke her focus.

    A second after her mind caught up with her eyes Cecelia was face-first on the ground heaving in pain when Ikaris''s hand collided in her face, knocking her centuries back and making her forget how to breathe for several seconds.

    It was a simple p but the power behind it was several times the attacks the Goddess of war had caught her with, it was pain unlike anything she had ever felt before.

    "Are you so insolent that you disobey me even in my face?" Ikaris asked, and the woman writhed several seconds longer and then fought herself to her knees and sped her hands before her.

    "I beg you, have mercy-"

    Cecelia once more found herself somece entirely different , this time in a system far away where no sentient life resided.

    "My gut tells me that you should die, my instincts are raging against mymon sense, telling me that I should kill you so nothing of this sort ever happens again.

    You insulted me, my husband, you dared to call my family mongrels, I have every right to erase you without a trace!" Ikaris grabbed her arm and raised her off the ground.

    "Do you think that because I smile more than I do in the past it makes me weaker, or that having a family somehow makes me less of the person I once was?" Ikaris seethed as she reviewed the fight in her head. ""What do you think would happen if you killed Dr''ul?" That I would apud you and thank you for opening my eyes?" She stared at her unblinking.

    "If you had managed to kill my friend, I would have already ended your life, Cecelia, matters of this nature require critical thinking, not whatever-the-fuck is happening in your head!" Ikaris took a long deep breath abd then turned away from her.

    "Unlike you, I have no grudge which requires me to kill someone to make a point, instead of killing you I will leave you to reflect on your actions, you will not hear from myself, my husband, your husband, anyone else of the ��lo��n n or any other living being until I have decided that your sentence has been served, Cecelia, I am hereby banishing you from any of the known realms until further notice, if I do remove you from this prison and you still hold malice towards my allies, I will leave you there to rott for the remainder of your life." Ikaris announced and looked around at her.

    "Consider this a light sentence and a merciful one."

    "The white-haired woman was confused, what ikaris had said made no sense from her perspective, the only unknown realm that existed was the Beginning, and even that was known to a degree but when she saw Sol appear at her side like a warden to carry out her judgment she tensed up and opened her mouth to repent of her actions, but considering what happened before, she shut her lips and closed her eyes in eptance, she had no Idea what was about to happen, but she knew she had been spared if only a little.

    She felt the tug on her body and the next thing she encountered was a scorching heat baring down on her.

    Opening her eyes the vatui woman was greeted by endless sand in every direction, ck sand contrasted by golden skies with three suns and no cloud in sight. "Consider this leniency," Sol spoke from behind her.

    "You are inside of a severed dimension made of imaginary concepts with creation magic, unbreakable from the inside and hidden from even the eyes of darkness from the outside, if Ikaris or I die then you will be stranded here forever." He gestured to the space.

    [Nightmare Prism; Endless Desert]

    "I modified it so that your fears would only manifest by night which is when the third sun sets, nightsts three days in here and every week spent here is only a day in the real world so even if a month has passed for us you will have been in here much longer."

    "My fears?"

    "The [nightmare prism] only exists to torture its inhabitants, in here, the worst fears you can imagine wille forth, and when you ovee those fears then new ones will be born, it is an endless cycle where your terrors have the power to kill you, the nature of this ce is hell itself, designed for those unworthy of death." He turned his back and opened a small portal as the first sun started dipping towards the horizon.

    Sol would have said more but the woman had already begun crying heavily, wanting to beg for a second chance but fully aware that she had fucked up massively and asking for any kind of leniency was the same as asking an inanimate rock to take off and fly.

    Wordlessly, Sol walked through the gates, shut them and even with the noise being barely audible, the woman still flinched when she heard the soft m and whirring of the static it left behind.

    ***Arkadia***

    "Is she not epting visitors?" One dog-headed guard god asked to another with the head of a tiger and thetter shook his head looking at the god of goats; Sven who had wandered into Dr''ul''s abode and nearly lost his life after the Goddessshed out at him.

    "When I; Lord Sven, god of goats tried earlier I was met with the wrath of the goddess of war," The goat-headed god snorted, rubbing his ear with a wandering expression of defeat. "Her Majesty is adamant that she will remain inside of her throne undisturbed until her judgement is passed," He exined.

    Continue your journey on empire

    "Judgement?" The dog-headed guard furrowed his brows. "Who would dare judge the Queen of Arkadian Divine?" He asked, but upon his query he saw the god of goats scurry to a corner and close his eyes, muttering with a low bellow of despair.

    "Indeed, it can be none other than the Godyer, is that not obvious?" The tiger asked shaking his head. "She won the fight but she acted against his wishes and nearly killed an ally, we all saw the fight and knew this might happen, what I want to know is what they spoke about after the fight, the way it ended left many questions in dire need of answering."n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "You will be informed if the situation requires it, for the time being it is best than none of you are privy of what happened," Sol who was nowhere in sight a few seconds prior was suddenly standing at the entrance of Dr''ul''s throne with a stoic expression masking his worry for the goddess he hade to meet.

    "Sven," Sol looked at the god of goats giving him a nod and then pushing past the veil which shrowded Dr''ul''s throne from the rest.

    "He entered..." Sven hugged himself and turned his head to the corner leaving the others confused and worried for him when he seemed to start shuddering there.

    [The God of Goatsments in a corner by himself]

    "Dr''ul," Sol stepped into the room and stopped at the entrance, finding her surrounded by dozens of jars of liquor and another in her grasp, her hair was iled about, messily entangled, while her eyes held within them a strange sadness he had never seen on her. "What are you doing to yourself?"

    "I allowed my body to be tainted by the forces of darkness, had Alpha not been there I would have been consumed and never even known, Master Vestic, I have failed," She sucked in a sob and took a big gulp of her drink. "I am a failure as a child of the light, as the descendant of the grreat Ikaris." She shook her head.

    "That could have literally happened to any of us, myself included: I have no defence against her if shees at me directly, but she is ying with us, we just have to keep preparing out of her sights until the dayes where we can defeat ther."

    Dr''ul was in a sad state, and the fact that she was gargantuan; the size of a fifty foot statue did little to help sol had no choice but to stand there awkwardly staring up at her.

    "Can we defeat something of that scale?"

    "I don''t know yet, that is what I aim to discover in theing future." Sol answered and snatched therge barrel from her grasp.

    "Now before I forget, we ought to be talking about you and your punishmend." He stared while Dr''ul gulped.

 Chapter 331 The Start of an Endless Nightmare.

    "M-my punishment?" Dr''ul leapt to her feet, sobering up instantly as she shed to the other side of her throne room standing with her hands on her cheeks and her head lowered.

    "Listen, I have never been punished, I do not know how this works, do Iy across yourp and get spanked?" She asked flustered, but Sol''s expression only went from seriousness to disbelief as he watched the goddess making a fuss and blushing at the thought of being spanked.

    "What the fuck," Sol shook his head and pointed to the ground before himself. "Dr''ul, don''t fuck around with me, I am serious here, thest thing we need right now is some kind of disunion between the Arkadians and Outerworlders, but that is exactly what your actions have caused," He sneered putting her antics to a stop as she sucked in a breath and averted her eyes.

    "I know, I apologise, but to my defence, she was wrong-"

    "And she has been dealt a severe punishment; Cecelia is inside of the [Nightmare Prism] serving what could end up being an entire lifetime of solitude if her perspective does not change," Sol narrowed his eyes watching the goddess shrink to an appropriate size as she walked across the giant rooom and stood before him showing regret at her actions through her inability toe up with something to counter what he had said.

    "What does that leave me to do as the one responsible for you and your actions?" He queried with a deep and stressed sigh.

    "If you wish to send me there as well; to the same ce I mean, it weighs on my mind that she would be alone in that horrible ce," Dr''ul stared at Sol seriously, balling her fist as a bead of sweat rolled down her cheek. "It is somewhere that the worst fears of those who inhabit it will manifest in wave after wave is it not?" She asked taking a knee before him.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Sol, even if she was wrong, it is still a horrible experience to endure alone, I understood that, after what happened with Han seven years ago, it is a true prison that humbles and hardens, but it also drives you insane if you stay there too long."

    "Are you serious?" Sol asked, considering it seriously. "Isn''t that the worst ce to be with someone you dislike?" He raised a brow. "Why would you willingly want to go into the [Nightmare Prism]?"

    "I am also in the wrong, even if I im she is, I could have set my pride aside and dissolved the situation otherwise, but my ego outweighed my critical thinking, I believe it is unfair to Cecelia that she alone endure hell, I am sure you intended on some further restriction as my punishment for causing this mess, but it is not enough, please, allow me to share this sentence with her, she has a life outside of all this, I would never forgive myself if she failed to return, I believe this to be the right choice."

    "... This is exactly why someone like yourself is unfit for the [Nightmare Prism]," Sol shook his head. You have always had pure intentions, Dr''ul," Sol rested his hand on her head while she knelt there staring at the ground.

    "Think about this; I have no control over what happens in there, if you share in her punishment then the consequences of failure are yours to share as well, you are giving up your seat as the Queen of the Arkadian pantheon to serve time with someone who you should rightfully consider your enemy based on her views of you and what she tried to do-"

    "I will serve the same sentence if you allow me to, Sol." Dr''ul stubbornly insisted, and the man huffed and rested his hand akimbo.

    "Think about what you are saying, whatever fear you have, will materialise and try everything in its power to kill you-"

    "Please," She insisted seriously once more, and Sol smirked at her, huffing through his nostrils and extending his hand above her head.

    "How''s that?" He asked, directing his thoughts outwards and like a chime Ikaris''s voice returned to him as she had an amused expression while she sat with Dina and A in their dining room, apanied by Sara who had a strange gleam of pride in her eyes while holding Talia. She too had been made aware of the goddesses proposal.

    "Dangerous, considering the two of them were trying to kill each other just moments ago, it is dangerous because they serve as opposites to each other and they will most likely fight to the death unless Dr''ul keeps her lust for battle conserved for the imaginary beings that wille for them, but if she is willing to sacrifice her freedom to right a wrong then it should be okay, she is stubborn, but her heart has always been in the right ce when it came to the well-being of others." Ikaris confirmed the request with a nod and the others in the room nced at each other with worried stares.

    "Okay," Sol looked at the goddess before himself once more. "Will you tell the others?" He asked and she took on a thoghtful gaze.

    "Did she get the opportunity to say farewell?" She rebutted, standing and looking to the floor as a cryptic mana circle appeared beneath her feet.

    "She was denied any such privilege," Sol raised a brow at the question seeing the oue before she even said anything.

    "Then I will leave without word, when you announce her punishment, announce mine as well, but for the sake of equilibrium, please refrain from mentioning that I went voluntarily!"

    She smiled at him before the world around her shifted upwards as she was left falling through a ck canopy with a singr source of light high above the portal she had fallen through being the only source of light until she started seeing shes on the horizon not too far away.

    "They appear at night and the nights herest seventy-two hours while the day cycle is only one hour long, I have been fighting for an entire night already, the first sun will rise soon, I hope it arises soon, I miss the light, I have only been here one night and I wish nothing but to leave, theye from the ground, they fall from the skies, they manifest from the sands and the air I breathe, relentlessly..."

    Cecelia heaved, with her palm on the ground, staring before her at the headless corpse of General Flint of the Emporium as it was eaten by the ck sands. "I thought my greatest fear was being alone, I was prepared to pay for my actions in solitude, I was ready to face this with an open mind, to meditate on and improve my sense of self...

    but why is this bastard here?" She asked, seeing another Flint corpse walk out of the sand with a sword in its hand.

    "I do not fear you!" The woman screamed, pointing her hand at him.

    [Pistol]

    "Except... you do." The corpse spoke in a sickly tone, causing ck sand to fall from its mouth when it opened it.

    "You fear being left alone with me, but I am your only friend so this is unnecessary,e back to me, let''s stay together forever Cecelia." It raised its hand in a gesture of wee, and she shuddered and released her attack ripping through his body as he was unguarded, but as soon as she did this another one appeared at her side pping her to the ground and shrieking in a shrill and deafening high pitch.

    "I am the only person who ever cared for you, look at what they did, look at where they sent you!" He screamed kicking her in her abdomen when she failed to stand while guarding her ears with her eyes tightly shut. "Me, Viktor Flint; I am, and always will be your saviour!" The corpse drew its sword.

    "Why are you resisting me even now when this is all that remains of the two of us, when death and destion os all we are!?" He screamed again while another grabbed her leg preventing her from standing and dragging her knee deep into the ck sand with a grotesque ck slimy smile as maggots ran across its teeth.

    "We will always be together, Cecelia!" Flintughed as yet another one emerged from the darkness grabbing her arms and yanking them under her causing her to fall onto her back as more and more of them continued to appear. "This is where people like us belong!"

    "No!" The woman shed her arm free grabbing the newly arrived by it''s face and blowing it away with a concentrated beam of pure mana, but as soon as she did two more grabbed her arm and pressed her palm against her abdomen. "Let go of me!" She screamed out in a panic, dragging her other hand free and forming her fingers into a gun against the chest of the corpse above her.

    [Casting Pistol-]

    [Cast interrupted by unstable mana]

    Cecelia iled and screamed after a sword was driven through her leg and the space upied began expanding with the pure presence of hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, they just kept appearing, forming a mountain on top of her as she struggled to free herself, emitting a constant burning mana around herself to no avail as it was not killing them fast enough.

    "I can''t..." She sunk further into the ck sand, closing her eyes and breathing a pir of mana like a burst of fire into the air, granting her the ability to breathe for a single second before the tsunami of corpses closed and crashed on top of her again. "If I cannot ovee this, do I deserve to be by her side?

    After what I''ve done, am I even worthy of seeing her again?" Cecelia closed her eyes once more as the many hands around her fastened onto her and her head was all that remained above the sand.

    "Maybe... dying here will properly attone..." Her thoughts froze when a brilliant pir of crimson light ripped through the corpses like a bulled through a thin membrane of skin granting her fresh air again as a figure descended and grabbed her arm beneath the sand and dragged her free, as soon as her feet pressed against the ground a wall of bright crimson mes appeared around them.

    "You?" Cecelia stared at the goddess, shocked.

    "Yes, me," Dr''ul responded, flinching when one of the corpses charged through the mes and attacked her screeching.

    "You do not belong here, you Imposter, weak, unworthy, infertile filth of a goddess!" The creature screamed dodging Cecelia entirely and striking at Dr''ul with the de, but the goddess dodged the thrust and raised her fist in its belly incinerating it and several others that attempted to do the same while simultaneously throwing curses at her.

    "We will speak after this is over," Dr''ul who had been shaken to her core by the insults nced at Cecelia, conjuring a physical de and extending the handle towards her.

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    "I propose a truce, ��lo��n Cecelia."

 Chapter 332 Power and Destruction.

    "The first thing Dr''ul did was extend her hand in a gesture of peace; now that I think about it, the two of them deserve to serve the same punishment, it is dangerous, but it will obviously lead them to making amends after what happened between them, plus there is the added benefit of oveing their fears with someone there to support." Sol sat with his legs crossed sipping daintily in his study with Talia before him on his table staring intently at his actions.

    "So, it will benefit us in the long run is what you mean?" Ikaris leaned her head and smirked at him.

    "I know you intended for this to happen, Ikaris," Sol raised an amused brow at her.

    She wasying on a massage table barely clothed, having a deep tissue experience by A who she had volunteered to be a test dummy for so she could learn. She was already quite good, but over thest few months the Elf''s skills had be phenomenal.

    "I knew that Dr''ul likes fairness, even as a warrior goddess, she strives for equilibrium all the time, seeking bnce in whatever she does almost as much as I do, I knew that with her knowledge of the [Nightmare Prism] she would not allow herself any lesser punishment as a part of the problem which caused Cecelia to end up there, though I expected her to ask to be sent in a separate one at first, thetter decision to go into the same ce as her enemy to right her wrongs is brilliant on her end." Ikaris responded through a groan.

    "In any case, thank you." Ikaris smiled at him once more closing her eyes and moaning when A started on her lower back. "I never imagined that the horrible Forbidden technique you developed in your time on A to seal me away forever would have solved so many of our problems.

    Han, Sitri, and Now Dr''ul and Cecelia will use it as a tool for bondong..." She peeped an eye open seeing Sol frozen in his seat with his eyes settled on the floor and slight guilt etched across his face.

    "...How long have you known?" He asked, and with his admittance, Dina who had been minding her own business with Sara and A stopped what they were doing and looked around at him surprised, they often forgot that his and Ikaris''s rtionship started with him hating her for what happened in his past.

    "I knew the moment you were able to trap Sitri in it, stripping her of her divine mana and tearing away all her demonic powers, cursing her as you wished and leaving her to suffer for eternity."

    "[A 2.0] ...such a horrible power in the hands of the man I trusted the most, it was the only forbidden technique I did not imnt in your subconscious when I was blessing you with the [Creation] skill," She admitted.

    "It and [Reaper''s Calling] the only other technique which not even I could have resisted in my divine form, I trusted you to not use anything of the sort on me, but secretly, I had epted that there was a small chance you would." Ikaris lowered her head and stuck it into the hole in the bed while A slowly began working again.

    "You trusted me to not use it," Sol stared at his hands, cing the tea down and narrowing his eyes. "But the truth is, I almost did." He admitted and she smiled with her face obscured and hummed.

    "Yes, after we first arrived back on earth and you realised that I was basically powerless to resist anything you did, I felt a lot of animosity, even though you smiled and treated me kindly, and even started making future ns for us...

    inside of the clothes store, that animosity was at its highest, you activated it secretly, and I prayed, when I sensed the nature of that cast I prayed that whatevery in store for me would heal your hatred, I did not me you, I knew what I did caused you to suffer more than any one person ever should."

    "That''s..." Sol sucked in a breath and averted his eyes. "Ikaris, back then I was a much different person than I am right now, the way I viewed the world, the way I saw people, I was not that different from Umbra-" Sol paused and opened his eyes wide in horror. "Oh... no."

    Simr to him, Ikaris and Dina nced at each other and then A when all four of them came to the same conclusion. "Sol, how long ago did you create the [Nightmare Prism]?" Ikaris raised herself, sitting on the bed and staring at him while A covered her with a towel.

    "I started working on it right after Jun...

    my n was to use it as soon as I was back home, or if not then when you least expected it, I didn''t know if it would have worked or not, so the first time I used itpletely was against Han, but it had beenpleted a year before I fought the Demon-God," Sol''s eyes widened as he realised his greatest and most busted skill was also in the possession of his alter ego and current biggest threat.

    "If he realises that the prism works, Umbra wille striking in full force." Sol stood and began seething in both worry and anger, staring at everyone.

    "If he uses [Reaper''s Calling] against me simrly, there is nothing I can do against it, if It hits I die, nobody, not even death itself can survive that skill, Sitri only did by fragmenting her soul and leaving her memories inside of someone else as a failsafe, but after him, there''s no way in the nine levels of hell I''m gonna fragment my soul again!"

    "So the two sure ways to defeat you are in the hands of the person who hates you above all else and has sworn on his soul and the existence of life and death that he will kill you and take everything you love away, no matter what it costs." Dina released a long sigh, allowing that fact to sink deep in her mind and marinate.

    "Oh dear," A sat with her hands in herp, and then slowly looked up at Talia, along with Ikaris and Sol. "Oh my," She furrowed her brows in worry. "Master, will you pursue him more furiously after this fact?" She queried almost in a state of panic.

    "I''m waiting on Ikaris''s Campaign against the Emporium to end before I start actively pursue him, thest thing I want is for Umbra to see any form of desparation from our side, and most importantly, his emissary can never find out about this, as I am right now I can cast either of these skills with perfect autonomy from wherever I please within my range of senses."

    "What?!" Ikaris slid off her seat to her feet staring at him, showing shock the others had never seen before. "Without effort?"

    "Yeah, it will lock on to them without my effort as long as I can sense their mana and know who it is, all I need is a location, the range is my senses, it''s the only limitation." Sol furrowed his brows.

    "After I used it on Sitri and became aware of the uses it held, I have been developing [Nightmare Prism] in secret, the same with [Reaper''s Calling], I have spent endlesss days and nights researching ways to make them powerful enough to kill and capture any creature regardless of their power, their defiance against reality, or their link with creation and the truest form of mana, I doubled down on that research after I was exposed to the Grand Emporium."

    "I wanted to always have an out, I was doing it because I know there are beings out there who are many times stronger than I am, I sense them when I seek them, I feel their gazes; there are so many Primordial entities out there in the Kha-Nova Collective alone that could easily kill us all, and on the top of the list of enemies is Umbra''s ally, the Divine Darkness above Darkness; the Primordial God."

    "If someone like that gains knowledge of any of these skills, the Grand Collective as we know it will cease to exist."

    "Jeez..." Sara rubbed her brows. "Master, forgive me for saying this but it just goes to show, wherever the culture, world or system lies, the pursuit of power is always what leads to ultimate destruction," She huffed with her eyes locked on him, and Sol nodded, agreeing with her.

    "I know that all too well, Sara" Sol sat again with a stressed huff from the corners of his mouth and rubbing his forehead.

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    "It has shown itself time and time again throughout all forms and mediums in history; power leads to destruction, but, in contrast, ack of power always leads to being the victim because there always exists someone seeking greater power to triumph over their adversaries, mostly with malicious intent."

    "It tips the scales of bnce; one may either conform to the system and change by gaining more power, or sumb to it and be consumed by the powerful."

 Chapter 333 Heritage and Ancestry.

    "Sometimes, void of the context, Master says the most interesting things, we should start quoting him," Dina hummed finding his words sagely while A and Sara nodded in agreement.

    "I usually do," Sara admitted, bringing a book from her shadows and showing it to the intrigued mage who snatched it from her grasp, gasping as she came across the first page.

    "Sara, this is literature gold!" Dina looked up at her, a lot of what she had seen from just a quick scan made her aware that Sol spent a lot of time speaking to his personal maid and best friend. "Can I borrow this?"

    "Surely not," Sara chuckled taking the book and smiling in Sol and Ikaris''s direction since their little interruption hadpletely disrupted the serious conversation they were having previously. "Master says interesting things every day, I need to be on standby in case he drops another wise remark or quotes heaven''s texts," She chuckled at Dina''s pout and quickly wrote down what he had said.

    "I can never be too serious around you lot," Sol smiled and sat again, rubbing his forehead while Ikaris waved her hands, changing her clothes and sitting next to him on the handle of his chair. "I think I might have spiralled into some pretty dark thoughts if I had continued thinking the way I was," He added, resting his hand on her leg while she picked up Talia and kissed her exposed belly.

    "Thank you."

    "We help in whatever way we can, even unintended, that is our purpose as your wives," Ikaris smiled while she continued kissing the chuckling baby. "No?"

    "Of course," Sol nodded and rested his cheek against her leg, but unfortunately, you are going to be a lot busier than before now that we havee across this crucial detail." He looked up at her, but rather than share his stare Ikaris continued to wordlessly y with the babe.

    "Is that an order, dear?" Ikaris asked, covering Talia''s leg with her lips and blowing, making silly noises as sheughed.

    "Unless you want to retire from the front and leave it to someone else," Sol smiled taking the baby and holding her with one arm using his mana to make her float.

    "Then yes, I will take part if need be as well, we need to find Umbra as soon as possible, unless she knows, then [Reapers Calling] is the best way of dealing with that monster protecting him, it has to work and there is only one chance that it does, after that then everything will spiral out of control."

    "You n to kill the Primordial God and Trap Umbra with [Nightmare Prism] right?" A asked, and he nodded. "How sure are you that it would be enough to kill her, even considering what you said about the technique being a sure hit kill?" She asked again and Sol took a thoughtful gaze and looked her way once more.

    "That is why I am constantly casting it to increase my chances of making a perfect cast, on the scaling of power alone she is so much stronger than I am that I have no idea whether my skill will work against her if it doesn''t reach a certain threshold, I need to be at my best, there can be no mistakes, because I am certain...

    if I fuck up and fail to kill her I will die right after, there is no doubt or debate."

    "So, the autonomous activation-"

    "Yeah, I want it to activate as soon as theirs and my mana cross paths, it sounds kind of cowardly, but it is my hoe that the confrontation ends as soon as it begins, this is something that I don''t think that I will win if I face them together firstly, or if I am forced into a long fight against them, Umbra''s mana works as a corrosive to mine, and I fail toprehend what the emissary will even be capable of doing," Sol answered Dina before she even finished asking her question.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "Is she that scary?" Ikaris asked him, not even his preparation for his fight against Sitri had left him with this much reservation and hesitation in his voice, she could feel his anxiety on the topic without tapping into the connection they shared.

    "Imagine if you had to fight Orion instead of Saleos, in the dark universe" Sol looked at her, and she narrowed her eyes, Saleos was strong, he had powerful skills and a dangerous berserker mode that very nearly killed her, but inparison to his father that Sol had fought, the Prince was fodder as she had seen it, Sol would have lost his fight against the Demon-Lord if he had not forced himself past all of his limits and evolved into Godyer.

    Compared to Saleos, Orion could have killed her with a swipe of his finger as she was back then, the difference in power was inconceivable.

    "I see," Ikaris lowered her gaze, raising her brows as the revtion of the power Sol had pit himself and spoke of killing, once more he had found himself going against an opponent so strong they defied his existence by simply being present, Drul...

    the Emporium which he still suspected of having elites as powerful as he was, and now this unknown, it seemed like every time he gained insurmountable power he was thrown before a great mountain as a small ant, starting from his days as the weak man on A to the Godyer capable of ending entire realities on a whim.

    "Nothing has changed," Sol spoke what she was thinking and she nodded once more.

    "Nothing?" Dina repeated.

    "That''s right, " Sol stood and looked out the window scanning the earth with a simple thought. "Every time I think I have found power above powers I am thrown into a situation which forces me into perspective, I have no choice but to ept that greater will always be out there, even Umbra."

    "He is not your equal, let alone anywhere as powerful as you are." A furrowed her brows.

    "And I want it to remain that way," Sol chuckled darkly.

    "What I mean is that he is I and I am him, Just as I once had Ikaris as my shield he now has the dark emissary, his power and hunger for greater heights is the same as I share, the only difference is that he is willing to go to lengths that I never was, he is willing to cross lines that I would never dream of even looking at, that one difference which can cause the gap between us to close faster than I can anticipate."

    "How fast are you thinking?" Dina raised the question seeing Sol prepare a gate back to Kha-Nova while everyone else prepared to leave with him.

    "It took me around eleven years of constant fighting to get this strong, but if I had broken my rules and did unthinkables to gain power at whatever cost then you could trim that down to about six or seven, he has existed for seven years, he has been free for at least four or five, with the aid of this new Darkness clinging to him, I would say that he may take three years the most and two the least."

    "Anywhere between now and the next thirty months, Umbra will be ready or damn fucking close to it." Sol gestured to the gateway, and with a deep sigh the mage entered, stepping into a courtyard on the other side where she found the Vatui forces patiently waiting with Adonai, Alpha, S''mael and Renia standing in wait.

    "It has been half a day since the Goddess Dr''ul and the n head were taken away after their fight, we were starting to think you would not return; that you had... abandoned us who cheered for a winner." Hudor stood and inclined his head towards the approaching group of respected individuals.

    "I would never do something so foolish, Cecelia and Dr''ul are not going to cause such a drastic decision, they are only two individuals," Ikaris walked ahead of everyone and stood before the masses, raising her hand at their reaction to her retort.

    "I will say it once more, those who wish to leave are free to do so, but if you remain and fight amongst yourselves like that again you will recieve a harsher punishment than they did, there is no guarantee that I won''t just kill you for insubordination, we are at war, in-fighting happens, but you must show restraint."

    "Where are they?" Adonai looked at Ikaris, and she narrowed her eyes at him and then turned to the mass again, responding: Experience new tales on empire

    "As of this moment the Queen of Arkadia and ��lo��n Cecelia are inside of a Time-Space rift called [Nightmare Prism] serving a month''s probation for their actions." Ikaris spoke causing the gods behind her to flinch and almost exim in protest, but the lot of them held their peace when they even thought of speaking out against her.

    "For those who do not know, it is a pocket dimension no less cruel than hell, fuelled and haunted by your worst fears manifesting to kill you day after day, night after night, a day here is equivalent to a month for them, they either emerge changed or never at all, it is equivalent to a death sentence."

    "Why would you go that far?" Zara spoke up when everyone else seemed too afraid to open their mouths.

    "They are the leaders of each faction, they should have known better, I disagree with the Vatui and Arkadians fighting, I absolutely condemn any further fighting of that nature, if you hate the idea of fighting alongside each other then leave now, the Arkadians are as much my people as the Vatui are, on one side lies my ancestry and on the other my heritage."

    "Cooperate or face the consequences, it is just that simple."

 Chapter 334 All Else Be Damned.

    "Just so you are all aware, leaving and turning your backs on the fight will not affect the oue of anything other than you being a part of it." Sol added harshly. "All you will have done is remove yourselves from this part of history, I will still protect you, I will still provide shelter inside of my Collective," He concluded, closing his eyes and turning to Ikaris.

    "Isn''t that a little harsh?" One person asked looking to the man next to him with his brows furrowed and his teeth clenched. "What the hell, they''re basically telling us that even if we stop fighting for the cause we will just be forgotten and cast aside, why are we even here?"

    "Of course, it is supposed to be that way, the Princess has given more for and to this war more than anyone else and we all know it, even if she disappeared for such a long time and lost her memories, the things she did before that point for the Vatui still ring, they still echo across the Grand Emporium, we came running when we heard that she had returned, but we have not met any of the standards that she requires of us, we are weak, dependent, headless birds," The other man huffed at theint from his friend.

    "You might want to leave after what felt like an insult, but I learned a lot here today after seeing two fights scaled so greatly that my mind couldn''t even be blown," He stared at his hand, balling his fist slowly until it began shaking as he tried channelling his mana to the maximum output, and then added it to the surging Vatui energy within himself.

    "I am weak, all of us are; the goddess of war could have killed the n head whenever she wanted despite being inferior in overall power, yet she perished the thought and taunted her into drawing ontent power, she made Cecelia stronger than she has ever been before while all she did was try to kill her."

    "That is true power, she won the fight, she won the test of morality, she is superior to us not just as a race, but as a person, no amount of power can make up for being a shitty person, berate me all you want for speaking of our leader in such low regard but I will stand by my words; we all need to adapt and be like the goddess of war is, her strengthes from more than the power she possesses."

    "It is strength of heart."

    "Do you know where else such power lies?" He looked up from his fist and to Ikaris who was staring directly at him as was everyone else.

    "The princess, Ikaris, she has so muchpassion that despite not knowing what a Vatui is, she still came running to our aid, despite our weakness she continues to urge us to grow stronger, she continues to be that shining beacon in the dark void that she has always been, and yet we have ungratefully soaked up her mercy and shown nothing in return, even when she has brought the greatest weapon to our doorstep freely." He shook his hand and raised his fist as high as he could.

    "I will continue to stand with you, Ikaris, even when the void is lit aze and my bones are burning with it, I refuse to be dependent on you forever, I want to one day possess power over all my enemies, I will fight whatever war you will and win at whatever cost, all else be damned!" He eximed. "I will follow the example of the strong, and forever walk the path of evolution!"

    The man''s friend shook his head staring at him in disbelief and whispering in a hushed tone: "They just said our presence is irrelevant, are you seriousl-"

    "ALL ELSE BE DAMNED!!" Cosmo, therge warrior that had been tested by Dina, raised his voice as well in the new salute, also raising his mana and energy in tandem until he could feel the strain of it on his body and then after that point; he continued to raise his power until he suddenly leaned forward and coughed up a mouthful of blood, causing A, who was the first responder to most wounds and injuries to step in his direction but Ikaris forbade her from attending to him with a raise of her hand.

    "Rrahh!" The man stood firmly once more reaching for the skies with his fist as a massive pulse of hybrid mana exploded from his body like a tidal.

    "Yeahhh!!" Another Vatui woman raised both her fists to the air summoning everything she had to the surface and grinding her teeth as the mana she exerted had a simr reaction as Cosmo''s did when she pushed herself too far.

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    "This is madness." The Vatui man shook his head when more than half of the overall seventy-plus people who were actively in the fight before, saluted and drove their bodies into strain in what seemed to him like a contageous bout of insanity.

    "Okay, I can see that she will be in good hands from now on," Sol raised his hand to everyone with a smile, quieting the uproar as his single gesture suppressed their mana and healed their injuries right where they stood. "This is good, I am proud of you all," He nodded and then looked at the first man who had protested.

    "As for those who disagree with the new rules," He gestured again, and in an instant they all vanished from where they stood. "You are free to stay under my wing and relish in the shame of your weakness.

    "I will only allow those with unwavering loyalty to stand at her side, these are dangerous times, there is an enemy around every corner, there are powers beyond your wildest imaginations lurking out there, so be sure to grow so strong that one day she may stand behind you as the one protected, be sure to be so overbearingly powerful that the enemies of bold will cower as they once did!" He raised his hand as well and then the crowd exploded into another round of cheer.

    "On the topic of enemies," Dina spoke after thr cheering had dwindled. "The Godyer who was here at the outpost earlier was sent as aide by the Resistance," She stepped up to Ikaris''s side and cleared her throat again. "He was sent to help, but he was also sent to spy," She rified herself when she saw the people before her get bright with smiles of more hope.

    "He is not an ally, and I say this knowing that there are members of the resistance here right now who joined our ranks within thest two months," She nced at several of them while the crowd grew noisy and suspicious.

    "The problem does not lie in the members of the resistance, do not me theman or the woman who stands next to you, nobody here is a traitor, the issue lies within the leadership, I know many of you only had the resistance as a backing and beacon for the longest while now, but while the double-faced organisation has been feeding you hope through a fence for all these years, they have simrly been meeting monthly quotas with the Emporium!"

    "Many millions of refugees who sought shelter in the arms of the Ressistance have been smuggled directly into the Emporium''s Harvesting camps, which is why as of this moment, the resistance is off-limits, contact with them will result in repercussions, and all those who are in their bases unknowingly serving their enemy will be pulled out with their leaders and associates facing the severity of his crimes by the hand that has been leading us," She gestured to Ikaris and the goddess stepped forward and nodded at her.

    "After the fight against the outpost, I extended a hand of mercy toward the Vatui Nobleman who leads the resistance; he has refused toply, he has refused to acknowledge my warnings, so I will beunching a full assault on his base along with my retainers and the strongest amongst you all, you will witness it with your own eyes; do not attack unless Imand you to, do not even raise a hand unless I order it, there are many innocent among them, is that understood?" Ikaris implored and recieved a loud chorus of roars in agreement from the people.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "This will be your first step in redeeming the name of the ��lo��n n for some, and proving your worth as inheritors of the will of power carried by the goddess of war for others, the [Nightmare Prism] will be opened and revealed in exactly one month, whether they survive or not is going to be based on their efforts, should they survive they will return triumphant and more powerful than ever before, and should they fail, it will serve as a warning be up to the rest of you to carry on after their failure and seed where they did not."

    Ikaris used her mana to create a physical tesseract with seven sides resembling the prism''s outward appearance in her palm, sharing the vision of Cecelia being banished into it and Sol added the Vision of Dr''ul being sent away directly into their heads as well, while the final timer for the resistance appeared above them showing thest five minutes remaining.

    "This is how much time remains of their mercy, at the call of your name, step forward and recieve my blessing."

 Chapter 335 Blessing of Sisterhood.

    "��lo��n Hudor," Ikaris called the first of her chosen and the man upon hearing his name walked to the small altar she stood on and took a knee before her. "It is broadly agreed upon by those closest to myself and you that you have shown the greatest progress considering how you were before we started this campaign," Ikaris summoned a sword from her inventory and imbued it with her divine mana.

    "Even Cecelia had praised your efforts, you are a shining example of the strength one can attain through humility," Ikaris smiled and ced the t of the de on his rifht shoulder nodding when the mana inside of the de hummed and was transferred into his body, strengthening him as he recieved the notification.

    [��lo��n Hudor, you have been granted ess to the system and gifted the blessing of (Retainer) by True Goddess Ikaris, raise your head and face your peers].

    Alpha spoke in his head and the man opened his eyes again flooded with new information he had never learnt as the intimate rtionship between his body and mana became more apparent, he could see the channels of mana in the cosmos, he could feel it in every breath he took.

    "A... amazing," Hudor lowered his head to Ikaris again and sucked in a breath. "Your Highness, I thank you for this blesssing, I will cherish this gift with my heart and soul, and remain in your graces so ling as I live!" He eximed passionately.

    "Good, now a part of my main force, Hudor, you have earned the right to fight by my side." Ikaris nodded at him and hestured to a vacant spot by the side where the man obediently stood and sucked in another breath, almost distracted by the presence of mana he could now perceive.

    "��lo��n Zara," Ikaris called again and Cecelia''s younger sister quickly arose and walked to the small altar, taking a knee with her eyes closed and her head loweresd.

    "I am honoured, Your highness," Zara breathed calmly when the cool de pressed on her Left shoulder and then her right.

    "Prove to me, just as you proved to your sister, why even at such a young age, you were eligible fot the role of n Head," Ikaris smiled raising the sword after the transferrence of power.

    [��loen Zara, you have been grated ess to the true use of the system and have recieved the blessing of (Retainer) by True Goddess Ikaris, open your eyes and see the worlds as never seen before, view the very nature of life and witness with your eyes what we strive to preserve] Alpha spoke to her as well while she was standing and Like Hudor she was ldirected to the side, staring at everything and everyone having been gifted [Sight] like Hudor was.

    "��lo��n Cosmo," Ikaris summoned therge man,, and he tapped the one who had rallied the masses from earlier on his shoulder as he walked past the man, smiling and giving him a nod.

    He turned to Ikaris with a broad smile and then quickly regained hiaposure and took a knee bwfore her. "Amongst the entire Eloen n, aside from Zara who is highborne and gifted with unusual strength evenpared to her sister, you are the greates achievement amongst my most recent allies," Ikaris praised him.

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    "You have constantly pushed past your limits at every turn and created opportunities for greater strength on the battlefied for yourself and your allies, I apud you Cosmo, you were tested and deemed the most worthy to be amongst my retainers, scaling higher favour than even Hudor who has shown the most personal progress.

    "Recieve this blessing Cosmo, I grant you the title of (Warrior) you have earned the right to speak in my name, In the absence of myself and the others who lead, you fall in the line ofmand above all else," She smiled when she saw a tear float away from the man''s face when the mana around them began humming. "Well done, Cosmo."

    Like the other two, Alpha ryed a message in his head while he took his position with the others, standing ahead of them as his new authority dictated.

    "I can see their names above their heads," Cosmo nced behind himself, looking at Zara and Hudor who both seemed confused at whar he was saying.

    "I can see the names and personal information of everyone who is a lower rank than myself, I never imagined that the system could do something of this nature, but based on how they s=describe her, and from her own deration she is clearly a power that exceeds the reaches of reality and into the realms of Primordial Ascension, this is amazing; she is amazing."

    After Cosmo two others were called; first the man who had rallied everyone; Shar Kahn, sole survivor of his n which was wiped out in an Emporium attack and a former member of the resistance converted after meeting Ikaris''s campaign and gifted the ability to utilize mana.

    He was granted the title of (Retainer) like Zara and Hudor, though, he was not granted any special privileges as the two of them were, and the next was the woman who apamied Cosmo in further raising everyone''s morale.

    Deja, she was a deserter from the first war, she left after Ikaris disappeared, predicting that the Vatui forces would fall apart and turn on each other, and that proved to be the right call since not long after she left, her camp was destroyed from a surprise attack after someone within their ranks traded them to gain favour with the enemy that same person waster hunted down and harvested when Project PowerPoint went online.

    She was granted the blessing of (Retainer) as well and given [Sight] like the others were, making, there were others who cloud qualify, but Ikaris decided against it since these others each had something that she saw as a weakness that could be exploited by the wrong people if exposed.

    "Dina Levina, A Amastacia," Ikaris turned to them and the two nced at each other and then at Sol who had been quietly observing the entire little event.

    "Come, now that I have four more retainers and a warrior on my hands, it is only right that you be given titles more deserving, as my right and left hands and personal aides, you are after all, the next in cpmmand after myself." Ikaris smiled when they nooth took knee before her, confused but still obedient to her every word.

    "To you A Amastacia, I grant the title Pdin, for now the title will not be of much use, but upon your evolution into divinity, you will be a force unlike any other, you who first percieved my true self and dared to defy my words, have be my most loyal follower, I thank you for your hard work, A," Ikaris rested the sword on her left and right shoulders and then extended her hand to her.

    "Arise,"N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "Mdy," A bowed againand then grabbed Ikaris in a hug causing the crowds to murmur when Sol chuckled at her usual self leaking out and revealing that she was not theposed healer-medic that they had taken her for. "I am honoured and overjoyed!" A snuggled a little longer and then released Ikaris when the goddess cleared her throat.

    "Dina Levina," Ikaris smiled and rested her hand on Dina''s shoulder, hugging her head to her abdomen and smiling when the woman before her remained humbly still. "You are my right hand, my best friend and closest confidant outside of Sol," She whispered.

    "You made me see the beauty in friendship and sisterhood; to you I will grant the title of (Kin) my true sister bound by blood and love, whatever I own will be yours, I will share in my sess and failures, I want you to live to see the end of this journey at my side, don''t die, Dina."

    "I promise," If it feels like I''m gonna die, I''ll turn tail and run right back where I wasing from." Dina answered in a low whisper as well and then stood and hugged Ikaris a second time properly. "Just in tome too," She gestured to the timer just a second before it went off and disappeared.

    "Do you want me to drop you there?" Sol asked them, but Ikaris refused the offer with a shake of heer head and smiled at him.

    "As much as I enjoy the luxury and convenience of a quick drop-off, Masrer I am inclined to make the journey this time," Ikaris smiled at him.

    "That''s..." Sol scrunched his nose and looked into the air, calcting the distances. "Five days to and another five from, so, a ten day journey, eleven if you check they day of arrical and twelve if it turns out to be troublesome," Sol kicked a little rock with a huff causing Hudor who was paying attention to burst outughing as the mighty Godyer pouted and groaned. "Very well," Sol sighed.

    "I''ll keep an eye on this lot and make sure they''re trained to the bone."

    "Haha, of course," Ikaris shook her head and then approached him closing her eyes and leaving a kiss on his lips while Dina and A came forth and kissed either sides of his cheeks.

    "When I return, I hope to be rewarded, master," A whispered in Sol''s ear before releasing his shoulder, and the man gulped from the tone she used and nodded with his cheeks reddened.

    "Go, give em hell."

 Chapter 336 Not Ready.

    "Umbra, my King," Giza hooked her arm with his as they stood on the bough of an interster cruise ship not dissimr to the ones the Emporium had designed and used for their conquests across the Grand Collective.

    "Why are we taking a break at a time like this, Ikaris and the others are separated from Sol again, you should strike them when they least expect it, you are already many times strong enough to kill Ikaris," She pouted, but the man kept his gaze straight and his feet on the solid tform, listening with serenity as the people around them went to and fro.

    "I simply want a moment to admire it," He responded after a few people passed them murmuring about Giza''s partial clothing which barely covered her. "Also, dress yourself properly, Giza," He huffed and she pouted again and unhooked her arm from his, looking at herself and raising her brow.

    "I do not see the point in dressing myself to fit into the crowd of peasants and mundane when we are going to destroy them anyway, and what is there to admire about that?" Giza looked ahead again.

    [Kha-Boris'' nucleus, Supermassive Quasi-Ster object; Delta 11]

    "I have spent years inside of Ikaris''s dimension, but there was nothing like this there, I have never seen a quasar before, and I know I might see more in the future, but having this perspective right now is a humbling one, I want to steel in my mind that there is always a greater power than the one before me, this is the beginning of the end for the Kha-Boris Collective," Umbra replied to her earlier question staring through the screen at the great phenomena that stretched from one side of his field of view to the next.

    "Destruction is beautiful." Hemented and she nodded, using her hair again like a veil and copying the dress of someone passing by.

    "Naturally, there is nothing as beautiful as destruction, not life, not love-"

    "Especially not love," Umbra narrowed his eyes, Like Sol, he too had witnessed the horrors of what happened to his party, to the priest, to Griffon, to Jun. "Love leads to unnecessary despair, if everyone were to let go of that disgusting emotion I would consider sparing them, they would be more like me," He turned his back to the Quasar they were passing by and stared at her.

    "They refuse to live without it, so I will kill them all and send them to a ce where love does not exist so they can writhe in eternal anguish."

    "How do I look, my Lord?" Giza twirled once, but umbra ignored her cutesy behavior with a scoff, leaning his back on the ss and extending his hand to her.

    "We managed to make it to the greatest source of power within the Kha-Boris Collective and you are here thinking about your dress, I simply want you to not be ogled by these walking corpses, it distracts me, I couldn''t care less if you were to dress in a unicorn suit and bark like a dog, Giza," He raised his brow at her when sheughed at his words and yed along, taking his hand as the two of them phased through the screen and appeared on the opposite side.

    "I alone am supposed to see your body, I alone will ever touch you, you are my property, Giza."

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    "And I always will be, my king," Giza looked around at the people who had gathered upon seeing them shifting through matter. "In the end, there will only be us, eternal darkness, and nothing else."

    Giza raised her hand conjuring a sphere of ck with violet eyes the size of a moon which opened its moith and swallowed everything before them. "When you absorb the essence of this great power, you will gain a great leap in strength unlike any you have ever experienced before," She smiled at him.

    "And yet, it will be nowhere near the power that Sol Vestic has, right?" Umbra rebutted and she nodded, causing a sigh of ck mana to escape his nostrils as they changed course and began venturing towards the Quasar.

    You must understand, He is the one foretold to vanquish darkness and bring forth an era of lightsting as long as timelessness, you must be prepared for him, he is favoured by the wills of fate and creation themselves," Giza replied, and Umbra quickly nced at her with his brows furrowed and his lips peeled back in a snarl.

    "You keep reminding me as if I am underestimating him."

    "You are,"

    "There is no fucking way I would; you are the one who keeps trying to urge me to kill that pestilent goddess at his side and those who ally with him aren''t you?" Umbra snapped in agitation. "He is my own self there is no way I would underestimate any power he has, I am here because of that same reason, right?" Umbra ground his teeth and began speeding with her.

    "If you would only listen to what I have to say about him-"

    "This again?" Umbra stopped, causing the woman clinging to his arm to bump into his back. "I do not care about any prophecy, I couldn''t give a rat''s ass about it, the next time I am face-to-face with that bastard who calls himself Sol, I will kill him, that is all I need to know."

    ***

    "Sol Vestic," Lumi took residence at his side while he was seated in arge office reconstructed on the outpost by Alpha, aside from Sara everyone else around him was a stranger, Adonai, S''mael and Renia had also gone along with Ikaris and the others, forming a proper party of twelve that would oppose the resistance and put an end to their lies; they were going to challenge a power that not even the Emporium had been able to suppress.

    "A word."

    Unlike the other times that she had appeared and made her powers lesser to prevent herself from hurting anyone with her presence, her appearence was quick and bright leaving him no choice but to cast a veil over Sara and Talia who were seated before him.

    "Yes?" Sol looked up at the emissary, reading the worry on her face and taking it as a sign that something she had not seening was about to happen. "What did umbra do?" He asked.

    "It is rather what he is intending on doing; Umbra is about to make contact with the nexus of Kha-Boris, he has been turning stars into physical matter and consuming them all this time, killing entire systems in the process, but he now seeks to consume the Quasi-Ster object Delta 11!" She walked across the room with her hands folded and rapid steps, further emphasizing the urgency of her concerns.

    "Delta 11... isn''t that the-"

    "Yes," Lumi nodded spinning from her stride and facing him.

    "If Umbra destroys the great mass holding the Kha-Boris Collective together the destruction following will be immeasurable even by our standards, we intended to dissuade you from intervening as that could incite the rage of the dark one at his side but at this rate there will be no Grand Collevtive left to protect and no point to any of this, you must act now, Sol Vestic, only you have the power to face him-"n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "And what about the crazy bitch following him around, I have felt her power... in fact, she''s gazing in this direction right now," Sol looked to the side, and Giza who had been prying blinked and chuckled sending a wave of oppressive mana as a warning for him to stop staring at her, one which ruptured the blood vessel in his eye causing it to start bleeding.

    "Presumtuous little Godyer," Giza narrowed her eyes.

    Seeing this happen right before her, Sara stood and hugged Talia tightly, turning to her shadows, but her shadow disappeared from beneath her as well as a result of Giza''s interference. "Master!" The maid soun looking at him for a solution, but Sol calmly shook his head and gestured that she sit again.

    "She can''t interfere with you beyond this without being closer," Sol ground his teeth ring his mana and stretching it to the absolute of its threshold instantaneously, covering the four of them in the room as another wave of Giza''s mana crashed across the Kha-Nova Collective like an invisible wave colliding with his and getting returned.

    "I may not be able to directly fight her," Sol looked at Lumi and Sara as a trickle of blood dripped from his nostril again. "But if she wants to hurn anyone around me," Sol raised a kerchief and wiped the blood off his face.

    "She will have toe here herself."

    "You..."

    "I''m aware of the consecuences, Lumi, I have already battled my demons on that matter," Sol looked at her again seeing her shock at his passive power struggle with the Dark Emissary and how much damage she had been able to so easily inflict on him from such a long distance.

    "The truth is; I have already given up on meeting them inside of the Kha-Boris collective, I am incapable of saving them, I need more time," Sol exined, suppressing his power once more as all his features went back to normal. "As you can see, I am far from capable of challenging her, and she likes to remind me every chance she gets."

    "As much as I don''t want to fight her yet, she seems avoidant of me fighting Umbra and has focused her attention on Ikaris and the others, I''ll ept the burden of all the lives lost, and repay her when I can, but for now... I am sorry Lumi, but my hands are tied."

 Chapter 337 I Am Nobodys Hero.

    "Your hands are... tied?" Lumi''s eyes slowly widened after she repeated Sol''s words for herself.

    "What is that supposed to even mean?" She asked, balling her fists as the air around her grew dense and her mana began making waves through the office-like room, bouncing from wall to wall and seeping through every crack it could find, casting light all across the makeshift camp which he was watching over.

    "I have seen your life through The Beginning, I have witnessed all the good you have done, even if it is just a small warning to deter him, Sol, you couldn''t possibly be okay with seeing all those people die, after all, you are a-"

    "A what?" Sol raised his gaze at her after his focus had been on dispelling her mana on the outside of the room. "What am I, Lumi?" His hands tensed and the mana within his veins began circting madly across his body casting a slight glow from his skin as he stared at her with his brows furrowed and his forehead wrinkled in agitation.

    "I hope to hell you weren''t about to call me a hero, Lumi, that isn''t it, right?" Sol arose, pressing his hands on the desk and leaning his weight on it, staring her in her eyes with an expression she only understood as pure hostility.

    "You are a hero though," She shook her head at him, that is exactly what I was going to say!"

    "Sol Vestic stopped being a hero the day he lost his fiance to the Demon-God, I threw that title away the moment I decided to exterminate an entire species; understand this, Lumi, and understand it well, I am no hero, every act which you have percieved as an heroic deed since that moment has been nothing but my selfishness and my moralpass at work, I am Ikaris, Dina, and A''s hero, sure because I am their spouce, everything I have done until this point has been done solely out of a sense of responsibility, I made promises that I intend to keep!"

    "Hero... haven''t you been paying attention, do I need to spell it out for you?" He clenched his fist causing his fingers to violently drag through the table leavingnes of shrapnel wood and steaming mana.

    "I don''t deserve nor do I ever want that title again, the hero Sol is dead; he died on A, there is nothing but vengeance against those who wrong me in the dark of my heart; greed and animosity towards those who threaten what is mine."

    "... Then, what do you im as your-"

    "Everything the light touches is mine to conquer, everything under creation is mine to control,"" Sol narrowed his eyes at her. "I said it once, and I will say it again; I will climb everydder and scale every mountain until I am the peak, I won''t stop, I won''t ever relent, I will be the strongest being in creation, and I''ll destroy everything that stands against me," He dered.

    "But... why?"

    "Because," Sol sat and folded his arms with a sinister sneer, suppressing his mana and taking a deep breath.

    "It is the only way I will see my children grow without fear, it is the only thing I can do to live a peaceful and carefree life, someone somewhere is making an enemy of me; someone I have no clue exists, someone that wants to steal, to destroy, to plunder what is mine, every time I rx, some new threat appears and tries taking my loved ones away, I will never allow a repeat of the past, NEVER, not even in the grave will I allow it, I will overturn death and as many times as it takes!" His voice trembled violently, reminiscent of a beast about to awaken from its slumber.

    "Have I been misunderstanding you this entire time?" Lumi asked Sol confused and almost at a loss for further words.

    "Most people do, somehow my deeds are always to someone''s benefit so they assume I intend to do good all the time, I don''t care about being an upright person, I would hate for my daughter to grow up thinking that the Grand Collective is not a dangerous ce, but at the same time, beings like Umbra and the Dark emissary simply have no right to exist, in order for my dreams to be realised there needs to be a home to grow in, and they are threatening the existence of everthing that I want." Sol folded hid hands and rxed in his seat looking in the direction of Giza again.

    "That little..." Giza snapped, disying an expression of irritation when she felt Sol''s gaze seeking her out a second time, although unlike the other times he had sought her, this time there was noticably more hostility, so much that even Umbra who was in the middle of exerting his power to the maximum to bring the Quasar under control paused and looked over his shoulder at her with a questioning re.

    "My King, fret not, he is unable to see you, he only seeks me," Giza quickly assured Umbra.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Why is Sol vestic even aware of your presence when you said earlier that nobody ever noticed you, that I was the first to make contact?" He rebutted and she blinked in surprise, finding it an odd, yet rtable question.

    "Yes, why indeed... unless I am making an effort not even the emissaries of light and fate can find me, yet at my leisure that man seems to locate me casually," She thought to herself staring at Umbra and ignoring Sol''s gaze until he stopped looking her way.

    "Mayhaps, there is some version of this where I can rece that pest of a princess at his side and have his power for myself, I am unable to act freely so I use Umbra, but he hesitates to attack her because of Sol Vestic''s presence, I need her dead, she has to die so the prophecy is undone, Umbra, what will it take to convince you?" Giza took on a thinking posture growing distracted and slowly drifting off.

    "How do I convince this stubborn fool to do my bidding without using THAT?" She wondered, tethering an invisible string of mana around herself and Umbra to prevent herself from drifting any further and closing her eyes with a frown. "There has to be a way to make him into a catalyst faster than this."

    "Giza," Umbra frowned.

    "Yes my Ki-"

    "I can sense your unease, we are on the same wavelength, remember?" He looked over his shoulder at her again. "Turn it off?"

    She floated there unblinking as she thought of what that was supposed to mean, promoting the man to sigh and p his forehead as he released the small hold he had on the Phenomena before him and grabbed hold of the ck between them, dragging her downwards and catching her by her face.

    "I said, turn it off, your fucking mind reeks of uncertainty, shut your brain down, you''ve been thinking so hard it started giving me a headache!" He released her when her dark eyes finally registered someprehension. "If you''re gonna make this hard just get the fuck out of here until I''m done!"

    "My apologies... I will leave you then," She shook her head and turned her back disappearing into the darkness she was trying to avoid earlier, vanishing from sight, mind and senses.

    Umbra remained there for several minutes staring and wondering, but when she showed no signs of return he hissed and turned to the quasar once more.

    "She is starting to act more and more human with every day that passes, I don''t care if she has never experienced life, the purpose of her existence is absolution and death to all, her dreams and aspirations outside of ultimate darkness are starting to be a problem, I need to keep a tighter leash on Giza."

    As she used to do in the timeless parrallel to reality where there existed no matter, no life and no light, Giza traversed the cosmos, unnoticed by anyone, venturing far across the Kha-Boris collective to it''s edge and staring at them, the creatures she had once longed to be a part of, the emissaries of fate as they moved through light mana just as unnoticed as she did with dark mana, they had each other though, they were never truly alone like she was, there were billions of them in every direction.

    "Some day I will reveal myself to you, emissaries of fate, and when I do, you will pay for your ignorance," She seethed, watching them smile amongst the stars, passing their joy around and frolicking in the happiness they did not deserve.

    "I will destroy this unfair reality and reset everything in my image, I will snuff out all of your lights and abolish the cruel concept you call fate, returning creation to it''s true state of dormancy and equilibrium." Giza stared at them, and then looked in Sol;s direction freezing for several seconds when her eyes and his met.

    "I am not strong enough to do it yet, and you refuse to take action yourself for some reason, surely, you aren''t passive, your goal is total annihtion, but that is what mine will be I promise you, Dark Emissary, I will destroy you and Umbra, so go back to him, bide your time and prepare him all you want," Sol kept staring directly at her after he received the clearest signal and discovered her closer than she had ever been.

    "No need to rush your doom."

 Chapter 338 Anxiety.

    "I see he is as obnoxious as ever," Giza stared at Sol, refraining from attacking him like she did earlier and instead just passing the time watching him until she grew irritated once more and turned to go back to Umbra. "I will make an example of you yet, Sol Vestic," Shemented, exiting the parrallel and entering the in of the living once again.

    "You will learn where it is beneath me that you stand, just as your clone is a tool I will use, so too are you; my goalsy far beyond either of you and the little piece of totality that your small minds can process."

    "Cleared your head yet?" Umbra looked at her as soon as she appeared again.

    "Of course, my King," Giza smiled and weightlessly stopped at his side staring at the insignificant bit of the ster object he was trying to seize. "I was merely overwhelmed by the constant prodding, I will be sure to keep them at bay in the future," She assured him and he nodded and looked to his task again. "How long do you suppose this will take?" Giza spoke once more.

    "By the size and how long it took to get this much in my possession, I think I will easily be here for several months, I will depend on you to keep the flies off my back, we can''t afford to start again, I have just enough mana to capture all of it and nothing more," Umbra looked at her, and for a moment Giza held a stare of indifference towards him that caused wariness to swell in his heart as he could no longer sense a shred of thoughting from her, as if she was emptying her head per thought that manifested.

    "Are you listening to me?" Umbra narrowed his eyes at the woman with his brows raised, silently expressing his difort and waking her from her thoughtless state.

    "I apologise, may I leave?" Giza blinked several more times and then looked at him properly again. "There is something I wish to take care of in confidence."

    "Do whatever you want, just make sure that you are there whenever I call, that is all I require of you, Giza," Umbra turned to his task again with a disturbed mind, she was acting weird all of a sudden and considering what she was and what he thought she could do that was dangerous.

    "Then... I will return at your call my king," She smiled and vanished into the dark once more.

    ***

    "You want to fight me?" Dina stared at Cosmo incredulously. "Why?"

    "I simply wish to test my strength, Mdy, I have already been warned and would never try to-"n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Do not tter yourself, I wouldn''t assume you had such an intention in the first ce unless you were tired of living," Dina scoffed and looked to the side at A who was watching their interaction after the man had approached her while they were eating in the cafeteria of a small ship traversing the void.

    "Why me though?" She asked and the man huffed and flexed hisrge hand to which she hummed unimpressed, Sol''s muscles inparison were many times more superior.

    "I want to see where my power now many times greaterpares to yours, that is my goal," Cosmo responded flexing his hand again.

    "Do you mind?" Dina huffed annoyed at him and his antics. "I''m sorry to be the bearer of bad news but you would lose even faster," She answered his request with a rejection. "My power is a lot like Dr''ul and Master''s," She exined.

    "You also possess the Godyer''s fist?" Cosmo looked at his hands, balling his fists with his eyes shimmering full of hope.

    "No," Dina shook her head. "They are two of a kind," She continued shaking her head while she popped another piece of food in her mouth.

    "What I mean is that fighting me is an uphill battle you will never win or feel satisfied about because I am almost twice as powerful as I was three months ago, my simrity to Dr''ul, Ikaris and Mastere from my ability to passively gain strength even when I am not engaged in battle or training," She stuck her spoon in her mouth again. "It serves you no purpose,"

    "Then-"

    "I absolutely refuse," A rejected him as soon as he turned his sights on her. "Amongst the allies here, I sit in an ufortable seat, nobody below my strength stacks even close to me, and I cannot hold a candle against anyone stronger than I am," She exined. "I still seek unique strength unlike anything ever seen before, I refuse to take part in pointless fights," She shook her head.

    "Then, how strong are you exactly, I have only seen you healing the injured after battles and teaching those who have the patience to sit through a lecture on mana, I have never seen you raise your hand once inbat." Cosmo insistently spoke to the elf, much to her displeasure.

    "I am second after Dina in power, I am her teacher, but she has long surpassed my reaches into godhood, while she is a True Divine, I remain A cosmic Deity, the gap is not a small one," She answered him patiently.

    "I still fail toprehend these systems, Cosmic, Divine, and otherwise, they confuse me, Cosmo shook and scratched his head. "How do I tell the difference?" He asked causing A to sigh and ce her fork on her te while Dina chuckled and stood leaving them to converse since she knew A found it hard to pass up on an opportunity to educate someone.

    "Dina was very thorough in her exnations previously, were you not paying attention?"

    "I was, but I have a hard time remembering such details."

    "... Are you, an idiot?" A asked, and Zara on the other side of the cafeteria burst outughing at the very serious question while Hudor shook his head in disappointment. "I will exin it all,e, all of you," She gestured to the others as well causing Hudor to shake his head once more as he obediently stood and sulked over while the others formed an arc before her with their chairs.

    "I was half expecting you to ept his challenge," Ikaris spoke, ncing over her shoulder at Dina and watching her take the seat next to her in the Pilot''s cockpit. "They need to be made fully aware of the differences between the mana they possess and Divine mana," She added, crossing her legs in the Pilot''s seat and Sighing while Alpha ced a small beverage in her hand.

    "He is stubborn, if I fight him again he will never stop," Dina chuckled, but slowly that humor went away as she nced behind them and then epted a simr drink from the System, nodding to her in thanks. "Did you feel it earlier?" She queried seriously, and Ikaris hummed while drinking and nodded afterwards.

    "He is alright, it was probably something getting on his nerve, you have to remember that Sol has a dark temper and a short fuse for bulllshit," Ikaris smiled warmly whilst speaking vulgarly.

    "I know he does, but didn''t it feel a little... different?" Dina pressed beyond the short response, seeing the warmth of Ikaris''s smile slowly fade away after she had spoken. "What is the point of reassuring yourself with a lie when you''re just as worried as me and A?" She sipped her drink and crossed her legs as well. "You know you don''t need to put on a brave face for us, right?"

    "Naturally, you two are everything to me, we share in everything and live harmoniously, I cannot hide my feelings from either of you, but they are not the same," Ikaris gestured to the others who A was preaching to.

    "They do not know the true dangers that lie beyond the veils of the known, they have barelye to understand the simplest things that are inside of it, they have no knowledge of emissaries, dark and light, of the fates and their opposition; the Dark Emissary, they are little fledgling birds that have yet to grow strong enough feathers to fly."

    "I may not have to be strong for you, but I need to be strong for them, right now they are all weak, the massive amounts of mana which they possess mean nothing when faced against someone like you or A who possess true divine and true cosmic levels of power, let alone myself, the difference is too great, so the only option is rapid growth, this is why I intend to start a fight, and force them into their first steps of evolution," She exined.

    "But you said that-"

    "I know what I said, Dina," Ikaris rested her cheek on her fist staring at the mage with azy expression blinking slowly and sighing for good measure.

    "Things like this have to change to meet our requirements and adapt to the situations we find ourselves in, Sol was attacked by the Dark emissary and mere momentster she nearly entered Kha-Nova, we need more allies, stronger allies, she copsed a journey that took her three months and shortened it into a few minutes, the power she wields is literally not of any dimension we know of, it is more obscure than the [Nightmare Prism] and more dangerous than anything known to the Grand Collective, Dina, forgive him for being a little anxious."

    "We all are."

 Chapter 339 Hand in Hand with Evil.

    "I kind of miss Dr''ul''s presence," Dina spoke up after several more hours had passed and everyone else had settled down once again, doing small mana exercises on A''s orders. "It would be around times like these that she would suddenly pop up saying she was bored and wanted to fight someone."

    "Indeed," A agreed while Ikaris nodded, thinking likewise.

    "She chose her path though, I can only hope she does not fail, that would be a severe blow to the power we have on our side, minus Master''s power scaling proportionally greater than all of usbined, she makes up ten percent of the might we wield," Ikaris added.

    "Just ten?" Dina asked surprised at the low estimate, from where she stood, Dr''ul should have been far beyond a mere ten percent.

    "Of course, I alone in contrast with our full force have fifty percent of the overall power we possess, Dr''ul holds ten percent while Cecelia probably has around eight, you are probably six and A three, the rest is shared between everyone else," Ikaris exined with a rather disappointed stare.

    "The five of us alone have nearly Eighty percent of the forces total power, somehow, that does not make me feel at ease, by losing the two of them we have lost eighteen percent of our effectiveness," Dina furrowed her brows in thought. "Considering our enemy, that makes me very ufortable, we are not in any position to lose anyone else."

    "Correct," Ikaris rxed in her seat and looked out into the void once more. ""This is why I need all of you to grow, it is asking a lot I am sure, but as we are right now it is not yet a usible goal to take down the Emporium, we need power many times that of what we already have," She tapped the desk before her, prompting a steering-station to rise out of it after reading her mana signature.

    She slowly held on to the steering device shaped like a wishing bone and slightly tilted it to the left, tossing the ship out of the smooth stream of horizontally stretched stars and gxies into a chaotic field of debris when they came to a halt.

    Hearing the ship''s engines and core cooling from slowing down, everyone gathered at the screen behind them, staring out into the deste field.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Is this how they deal with it, is this how they have handled their business all this time?" Ikaris''s seat slid backwards and she stood with a deep frown etched into her face.

    "Even when we destroy everything, I have never seen anything this cruel..." She watched a child''s doll slowly bump onto the screen as the ship began moving toward a shattered donut, scanning hundreds of millions of corpses floating in the void.

    "Analysis shows that these people were all killed by the void of space, the ring world has no gravity at all, the atmosphere is also gone, to my knowledge the Resistance was supposed to attack and destroy the outpost on the nearby moon, I will try salvaging any availible data," Alpha announced before she vanished.

    "The Resistance did this?" Shar-Khan asked, furrowing his brows and shaking his head. "This is not how I have seen them act in the past, this is the most extreme-"

    [On the contrary] Alpha interrupted him, speaking directly in their heads. [This is how the Resistance usually treats systems allied with the Emporium as strong supporters, they only came here to destroy the outpost, but instead they exterminated an entire civilization, it is all by the Emporium''s design though] She added. [The destruction of these people was predetermined and premeditated].

    "Did you find anything?" Ikaris entreated the System to remain on topic.

    [Indeed I did, Mdy, There have been anti-Resistance campaigns running on this world for years now with hundreds of thousands of Emporium applicants every single year, they are a weak people though, not human and more fragile than most human children on average, it was an extermination ordered seven days ago by the Empire, directly from the Emperor''s own mouth]. Alpha answered.

    [The destruction of this world was carried out by a Vice-Leader of theTesistance; Rem, Mdy, this was hisst stop before meeting you].

    "I should have killed him instead of offering any mercy," Ikaris seethed, walking towards a pod door to the side and entering the small area.

    "Where is she going?" Zara asked, but instead of Dina whom she had requested an answer from responding, it was Hudor who replied to her appeal with a deep sigh and his hands folded against his chest.

    "The Princess intends to give them a proper sendoff," He answered, looking at Dina who was lost in thought and nigh trembling with anger.

    "It would be fair to assume that Rem destroyed the power grids first, killing the artificial gravity and then he attacked the backup stations which primarily control and disperse the atmosphere, with no power this entire structure is nothing more than a floating object in space, they all died terrible deaths," Alpha appeared before them all, taking control of the ship and turning away after Ikaris suddenly appeared in her seat with her eyes closed and her fists balled while her brows twitched. Discover exclusive content at empire

    "Mdy, shall we?"

    "Yes, Alpha," Ikaris answered, opening her eyes once more as a small light began shining from the middle of the donut-shaped megaary structure. "There is nothing here to salvage and nobody left to save."

    After their departure, the light rapidly expanded, swallowing everything with a powerful gravitational field like a ck hole, turning all it swallowed into more energy to feed itself, over the next few days this anomaly swallowed all the corpses and grew staggeringly massive swallowing the star of the system and then harmlessly imploding on itself at the end of it''s cycle when there was nothing close enough for it to constantly feed on.

    [Divine Tier Skill: Perishing Gluttony]

    ***

    "Another one," Hudor stared in disbelief, this time it was a twin that had crashed into each other, but it was obvious at a nce that this was because of a great struggle on said celestial bodies, there were clear signs of fights, and again the cores of theses had been destroyed, causing the bnce they shared to copse and send them spiralling into each other, there were no signs of bodies, but the amount of debris was the most they had seen till that point.

    "This is the fifth site of mass destruction in just as many days," He swallowed and frowned.

    "They were attacked unannounced and unsanctioned by several powerful members of the Emporium for housing Fugitives of the Resistance, there was no such member, neither Godyer nor Vatui parties were found yet they still destroyed them after their search," Alpha announced her presence with that bit of information and then cleared her throat once more.

    "ording to the data provided before thestmunications were cut seventy years ago on the day of the attack, it was a high ranking General of the Emporium, the Eighth General, Lars, to be exact."

    "Well fuck him," Dina snapped her fingers. "He''s already dead so their revenge has been served." She added.

    "I don''t understand something," Zara looked at Alpha. "If there was no sign of either Vatui or Godyers on theses then why did the Emporium destroy them?" She asked.

    "There was probably no such threat to begin with, I think they did it for resource," Ikaris answered bitterly.

    "They missed a small pocket somewhere because I can sense a subnormal amount of the same material they use to make their ships here, it is faint but I would never mistake it for anything else, it has a very unique biology which can bond with living tissue and sentient forms, I believe they call it Araculite."

    "Correct," Alpha nodded at Ikaris''s pinpoint analysis and gestured to the side of the screen where an augmented slider exining the makeup of the organic living metal appeared.

    "Araculite was mined here by the Emporium for a long while, but after the governing bodies decided to stop selling their precious metals and weakening their eco-systems, the Emporium destroyed them and continued mining it until there was none left, it was never about the enemy, this was destruction brought by nothing but greed."

    "Humans..." Dina stared at the dead field of debris. "The humans of the Grand Collective are pure evil, I can''t believe the things I have seen over the course of this trip," She clenched her fists trembling with rage. "It makes my blood boil."

    "Aye," Cosmo had an expression of wrath as he stared outward into the void towards their destination. "I cannot believe that Vatui and Godyers alike would partake in the wicked ughter and cruel acts of genocide I have witnessed either, it is unbing of our species to do such horrible things, I am ashamed to have the same blood as them running through my veins-"

    "Sol has alsomitted simr acts," Ikaris pointed out, but Cosmo shook his head and gestured to Alpha.

    "I have requested information of the feats Master Vestic has aplished, I already know of the imminent danger which the Demon race posed in the Sol Collective, they were antagonistic viins which went about destroying worlds in the name of dark beings who sought to swallow all realms and destroy everything," He pointed out.

    "They are not the same... the Resistance and the Emporium; they both walk hand in hand with evil, they should all be destroyed!"

 Chapter 340 Babysitters.

    "You did it on purpose," Dina stood with Ikars by the screen watching the stars go by.

    "I was wondering why we were taking such a long journey in our way to the Kha-Nova head branch of the Resistance when Master''s mana has already reached that far and he could have easily sent us directly there, so this was it?" She asked, though there was no sign of her being impressed or any humour, she held a serious and almost scary expression.

    "Yes, this was my intention all along," Ikaris answered her after taking a deep breath and releasing a long sigh. "As a leader, my followers deserve perspective, it would be maniptive of me to simply order the death of so many people without giving them a reason and motivation to do so, they have that reason now, and they are motivated all the same," She rubbed her forearm and turned to Dina.

    "They needed to see what they were going up against, even on our end we have killed a lot, and released a lot who did not deserve death, but the Resistance has been working for the Emporium and killing their own, destroying homes and taking lives for as long as they have been inmission, which is almost as long as I have been gone from the Grand Collective."

    "The Emporium has been ughtering the innocent in the name of their Emperor, stealing resources as they see fit and destroying everyone who disagreed with their agendas and lies; I wanted to make sure our people understood the type of people we were about to face and what they are capable of," Ikaris stared at her devoid of the usual emotions she would show, she was more serious in expression and tone than the mage had ever seen her before.

    "They are also very angry, almost irrationally so," Dina nodded, to which her leader looked across to the corridor full of sleeping pods and huffed.

    "Anger is good in manageable doses, it keeps the mind sharp and ready for action and I am happy that their sense of justice is so strong, they all do this for the cause and are not driven primarily by any sense of revenge or unavoidable duty." She let out a small chuckle and then went serious again, "Alright, Dina, there is less than a day left of travel before we arrive at our destination," Ikaris shrugged at her.

    "Make sure you have enough rest and be ready, the ce we are about to attack will have us outnumbered a billion to one, minus the innocent within the poption that will think it is an actual enemy attack."

    "I''ll take the remaining time and meditate then," Dina nodded, stepping away from her respectfully and then turning and leaving towards her quarters, almost like a soldier.

    "Nervous?" Ikaris heard Sol''s voice as soon as she was alone, and without batting an eye she turned to the screen once more and smiled.

    "Not at all, I am only a little anxious, there could be an unexpected enemy there who is greater than what I can handle safely, one of my greatest fears remain my inability to hold myself back from over-the-top shes and excessivelyrge-scale attacks, a trait I no doubt picked up from admiring your fighting stances so much, Master," Ikaris answered him, making braids in her hair and smiling as if she was on a phone call.

    "I have faced some tough opponents, but I do wonder, there are countless Godyers and Vatui there, it is my hope that I have no need to turn my hand against all of them."

    "It would be kind of nice having a Godyer ally," Sol admitted.

    "Prepare for the worst, just in case, their leaders and vice-leaders did not surrender or make any attempts to do so, you have to keep your end of the bargain regardless of how you achieve it if you want to remain an effective leader," He answered again and Ikaris huffed and leaned in her seat, closing her eyes with her hands folded daintily in herp after finishing her braid.

    "Of course, love," She smiled, I have made peace with what I am about to do; I do not descend as their saviour or some long-lost princess, I am descending as the hand of judgement long overdue for the crimes against the Grand Collective and their own species, there are no allies until I decide there are," She dered.

    "Good," Sol nodded from his study and cut the connection, looking at Sara who returned a nervous smile and hefted Talia on her side.

    "I do not think that it will be as hard-fought as you are making it out to be," Sara huffed when the babe in her grasp held on to her hair and tugged it, causing her to lean forward with a shocked expression from almost losing bnce.

    "Goodness me, she has be stronger yet again," She peeked at theughing child reaching for her hair once more. "She is not yet a year old if she continues this way she could lose control someday."

    "Her strength and power are scaled ording to her growth and how much she can safely handle," Sol responded.

    "She will have ess to nearly all of her mana by the time she is Sixteen, unless something unpredictable andpletely out of my control happens before then, she will gradually grow without issue, that is the seal Ikaris and I ced on her back on the Central Province." He exined and then went back to his books.

    "Don''t worry too much, Sara, all you have to do is keep an eye on her and not allow her to stray off whatever path she chooses."

    "Master Vestic, Shall I take the young miss for a walk?" Sara queried excitedly and Sol without looking up from his work nodded and kept reading, allowing them to leave silently.

    "Keep an eye on them, Sara is very quick but she is not invincible, see that no harmes to her or my daughter," Sol ordered, and like a whisper of wind, both Jenifer and Keele appeared before him, bowing and then disappearing as easily as they left.

    "I did not expect to have the task of being the shadow of Sir''s shadow, I was doubtful of his request because of my allegiance under Ikaris, but in truth, we swore to serve him, not her," Keele sent a message to Jenifer who nodded while they walked along the threads of the winds obscuredpletely. "I never thought I would end up a babysitter."

    "It is no exaggeration when I say that I think Lady Talia is the most important being in existence at this moment, it is an honour being her bodyguard," Jenifer responded.

    "Although I would also love to oppose the Emporium, I am happy with this role, it shows his trust in us, aside from very few, nobody is allowed within arm''s reach of the little Lady," She pointed out and Keele nodded in agreememt.

    That aside, they were strong, Keele was still stronger than Dina in theory, she could take on anyone below the hundredth rank in the Emporium, while Jenifer was able to easily go toe-to-toe with anyone of the 500th rank and lower.

    "Is someone there?" Sara stopped walking and called, looking to the empty space behind herself causing the two to freeze in ce shocked. "Show yourselves."

    "I thought she was supposed to be unable to sense us, with the amount of power we have she shouldn''t even be able to percieve us," Jenifer nced at Keele with thetter sharing a look of surprise.

    "Um," Jenifer appeared first. "We mean no harm, Sir has asked us to be your shadows," She raised her hands approaching them and standing at bay.

    "We...N?v(el)B\\jnn

    so I assume Miss Keele is the other with you then?" Sara asked staring directly at the spot Keele was standing, prompting the woman to reveal herself as well, they were halfway through a camp that had been made in the week of Ikaris''s absence, it wasmon at that point that the remnants of the Force avoid the little woman who dressed as a maid and carried a child, but even here, they were cautioned to remain vignt.

    "Sorry," Keele gave them a small bow and then focused oh Sara. "How did you know that we were following you?"

    The Young Miss has a habit of staring at interesting things she does not understand, she has been looking at you, naturally I was already aware of your presences, but when she kept looking I grew curious and sought you as well, it is faint but I can still see your shadows when you are using [Wind Stride], there is also a disturbance in the air wherever you go; I may be weaker, but I am in a tier of my own when ites to discression, if I can find you then someone else might as well."

    "If your goal is Talia''s safety then I will teach you everythig that I know about remaining in the shadows when I have free time," Sara smirked at them, gaining nces of surprise.

    "It would be an honour to learn under the hand of Sol Vestic''s shadow." Read new chapters at empire

 Chapter 341 Ikaris is Here.

    *Kha-Nova: Abandoned Sector G.Gama; inside of a dead system*

    "It is a clever disguise, that much is obvious, I wonder how long it took for them to fund such a grand structure..." Hudor hummed impressed as he stared at the highlight of a Dyson Sphere hiding a still living star inside of the system. "I am impressed, it covers everything!"

    "Not just everything," Ikaris responded.

    "This sphere is reflecting the space around the opposite side of itself perfectly, not only is there an entire system inside of it, but they managed to build this megastructure so fast that the Emporium still does not know where it resides, they are still searching, but nobody would expect life inside of a zone where cosmic radiation is so powerful it eats away at the ships that try to pass through it," She exined and the man seemed to shudder at her words, closing his eyes and shaking his head.

    "How could they possibly survive here then?" Shar-Khan raised his brow inciting nces from everyone.

    "Are you unaware that Vatui are Immune to almost all spectrums of Cosmic radiation?" Dina asked, and the man furrowed his brows. "Not just yor, but the Godyer race is also immune to it, as long as cosmic radiation is produced through natural means they can withstand almost all forms without batting an eye, this system is the perfect ce to hide."

    "After the war there have been many other systems like these across all the Collectives, this is why the Resistance is so hard to get rid of, even when they are powerful, a mere human cannot withstand this kind of concentrated energy, it will seep into their bones and kill them, thus, these ces are called Dead Zones, their miscalction was believing that their enemies were as vulnerable as they were." Ikaris extended her hand and Dina took it and then A took Dina''s next to her.

    Seeing the pattern, Cosmo reached for A''s hand but was rejected the right by the elf when she swatted his appendage away from herself and huffed.

    "All of you stand still, I will guide us directly to our destination." Ikaris announced, her mana began seeping from her body and lingering in the air like a heavy brume, sticking to them and crawling across their bodies while the entire ship was filled with it.

    A few seconds afterwards though the twelve of them were gone, reappearing on a small isle on the nearest world to the star wich was hidden from the outside.

    "There are a total of fours within this system; the first and closest to the star which we are currently on is the target destination, here has the highest concentration of Resistance fighters as well as the base of their leader, Ikaris Curt," Alpha announced after a few seconds of silence, but her words only led to more silence as Dina and the others stared at Ikaris bbergasted.

    "The leader of the Kha-Nova Resistance-"

    "Is a noble member of my house which was named after me by myte parents, this is why I have been trying to get in contact with him, but the man has ignored and refused me at every turn," Ikaris answered Zara with her gaze sharpening as she slowly ascended off the ground.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "Let us be off, I do not want to spend too much time loitering," She added before she angled herself and jetted off horizontally, leaving a trench in the water as she flew.

    Without word, the other eleven took off after her, some leaping with the water as their foothold while the Arkadian gods, Dina, and A hovered like Ikaris did.

    "Another member lived through the extermination of her house, this is shocking," Dejamented. "I would have been too terrified to approach Her Highness if I was a part of her house, I know she seems kine and all, but she is scary even with a warm smile, her strength makes me feel like an ant!" Shemented.

    "That is to be expected," Zara huffed as she too skipped across the water behind Ikaris and the others. "She is the true Heir to the Vatui throne and an absolute powerhouse feared by the Emporium, nothing she does will change the fact that she singlehandedly defeated the Tenth, the Ninth and the Eighth Generals under the Empire, you are right to fear her," She added.

    "It is also fair that she be given tenfold the respect she had in the past, what she was then is insignificant to what she represents now," Hudor skipped next to Zara, humming when they all nodded.

    "I have a bad feeling," Rem was standing by the windows of a tower which reached into the skies. "Boss, we should leave here while we still have a chance, the time has already passed, they could arrive any day now." He turned and looked at the man who was seated around a desk with his hands boastfully folded atop his chest.

    "She made me gather my forces thinking she was going to attack as she said she would, but in the end she was a no-show, all that effort and I have no scars to show for it." The man, obscured by the light reflecting through the window chuckled.

    "What do you mean by scars, Sir?" Rem looked at him funnily. "Ikaris Vestic is powerful, far more than she was before she disappeared, thest thing you want is to be facing her, trust me on that," He seemed to shudder at the thought and then looked outwards again.

    "I do not want to be her enemy, but I especially never want to meet Sol Vestic ever again, he is a whole other being, unlike any godyer I have ever seen or met-"

    "Are you saying you would abandon my side if either of them showed their faces here, Rem, you forget who I was before this strange illness began eating away at my skin, making me grotesque and hard to look at, don''t you?

    I am many times more powerful than the Princess was in the past, even if she has returned after all this time she is still no match for me who has dedicated my entire existence to power?"

    He asked the question with evident hostility, raising the energy within him until the air began shaking, resting his hand on the desk and causing it to crack and crumble beneath his palm from the slight contact, shattering as if it was ss. "Not even the Ninth General of the Emporium can face me, what can the lost princess -now turned into some lowly Godyer''s bedmaiden do?"

    "I am only rambling Mr Curt, there is no reason for you to grow this heated," Rem chuckled nervously.

    "The truth is I don''t think I have a choice but to be at your side, none of us in this room do; she is just as insufferable as she was back then, rambling on about friends and loved ones, trying to do good everywhere she goes, I''d much prefer to destroy and loot than be such a being again, my days as a warrior for the good of the people have long expired," He nced over to the side where another three people were seated in the shadows and then at Curt again.

    Curt''s hair was the signature Vatui white, but that was all there was to the man, his face, his arms, everything was obscured by bandages wrapping him up from head to toe. It would seem like an aesthetic choice considering who he was and how the powerful of each faction was something of an oddball.

    In truth, he was hiding his appearence, underneath the cloth was a being scarred with the death and destruction of his own people, he was disgusting to look at even for himself, so he hid his sins from those he chose to decieve, making up the convincing lie that he had lost the fight against a higher ranking member of the Nine top Generals of the Emporium and had been left in a severe state that could not be healed, though he retained his power.

    His lie only worked thanks to Rem and his other three most trusted selling it for him, they were the strongest, they had the people''s trust and obedience.

    "The point that I am trying to make is; Sol Vestic touched me and I was here again, I still don''t understand how it happened but if he can do that then there''s no telling whether he could just show up out of the blue and-" He stopped speaking and went still, looking outside again when his senses alerted him of something amiss on the outside, "Curt, Sir, head to a pod right now and use the teleporters." He balled his fists while the three in the corner stepped up next to him and stared outwards as well.

    He did not even need to say what the issue was because rms started going off all across the Ind that their base was located on.

    His eyes began glowing menacingly as he was backed up by the others and a shadow obscured his vision from the other side of the window, blocking the sun and casting itself onto him, eyes the shade of the oceans of mineral richs, hair as ck as the starless great-beyond, and fair skin hidden under a casual set of clothing apanied by eleven familiar faces.

    "Ikaris is here."

 Chapter 342 False Saviour.

    *1 minute prior*

    "I thought that we were arriving closer to the base, we''ve been traversing this ocean for nearly twenty minutes now," Zara looked to her side at Hudor who skipped across the waters as skillfully as she did, both wishing that they had the ability to fly like Cecelia and the others.

    "Oh, so you have not noticed then?" He queried, looking above them at the ones who lead and then staring at her again. "I am many times older than you are and I have seen many more ces," Hudor gestured to the skies above them and then the water they tread on.

    "This is the biggest I have ever seen, it''s absolutely humongous!" Heughed out. "Imagine, this ce could hold trillions of people and have enough space for their extended families!"

    "Mhmm," Ikaris agreed. "I know Dina would have a field day here, in fact, any of us would," She hummed and Dina hearing her chuckled as she swayed a little to the side. "I thought Arkadia was a ratherrge, but this mass is easily the size three Arkadias, what a monstrous Celestial body."

    "It is the perfect ce to have a good fight," Dina continued to sway, doing a loop around Ikaris and A and then closing her eyes and releasing a small burst of her mana around them, disturbing the waters beneath and the clouds above. "The setting couldn''t have been better." Her face went dark with animosity after she saw the glimpse ofnd on the horizon.

    A would have added to their conversation, but all twelve of them stared ahead when they collectively felt the distinct presence of Vatui energy like a wave of wind crashing into them, it swept into the air and spread across the skies like the shockwave of a bomb and yet it carried no weight, to everyone else it might have been undetectable.

    It was at the same moment that Curt had grown agitated at Rem for his adamant warning and underestimations.

    "What the heck was that?" Shar-Khan blinked in surprise, while Deja who was keeping pace closer to him as the odd two out rubbed her eyes. "I have never felt that level of powering from anyone in our race aside from the princess!"

    "I expected that they would have powerful allies amongst their ranks, but I was not expecting our greeting to immediately reveal them," Adonai closed his eyes grey and opened them revealing hazel irises with slitted pupils as he rapidly underwent transformation into [PREDATOR EVOLUTION]

    Simrly to the god of creation, S''mael began cackling, summoning his des in his two hands and then arching his back allowing a second pair of arms with des to grow from his side when he assumed [BLACK JACKAL].

    Renia in contrast did nothing shy, she was about to engage in what might have been the first proper fight since she returned to the frontlines, so she remained reserved and focused on keeping her appetite at bay; thest thing she wanted was another incident like the one with the Captains.

    "Gaarhh!

    I am all pumped up and ready to..." S''mael took a reserved gasp when he started sensing more and more Vatui after the first outburst, there were thousands of them, millions, most of which had power scaling closely to the weakest among them Deja, who by his standards was a fair warrior, not just him, but the mentioned woman and the man at her side also showed hesitance when their skill [Perception] began feeding them information on the power of their opposition.

    "Dina, A," Ikaris''s smile was gone in in instant when she finished summing up everyone before her. "After me," She ordered them and in a rush of speed vanished fromn their sights appearing at the epicentre of the outburst she had sensed before slowly descending from the air towards the tallest building in the middle of a city full of skyscrapers.

    At the same time that she was descending her mana began spreading across the metropolis causing the sun which had already started descending to seem majestic as her mana captured and bent the rays of light, this phenomena also alerted the entire city that an intruder was present sending everyone into emergency mode resulting in the rms all going off simultaneously.

    "Ikaris is here," Rem stood on the highest floor of the tallest building staring out the window when her shadow was cast over him.

    "Rem," Ikaris acknowledged his presence and that of the two men and the woman at his sides. "I am disappointed," She huffed a golden mist of mana inching closer with ever breath she took until her hand was rested against the ss.

    "I gave you all ample time to decide, I have tried on multiple asions to reach you, but my warnings and pleas had all fallen on deaf ears, so now there is only destruction awaiting you all."

    "If you wanted to..." Rem''s words dwindled and fell off into the abyss of thoughtlessness when he saw Ikaris''s hand easily pass through the ss as she entered the office with them, standing before him as he an the three of them, the ss did not even woddle, there was no disturbance at all.

    "Princess Ikaris, do you have any Idea what you are doing?" Curt stood from his seat, slightly lowering his head in mock wee.

    "I imagined that the princess of the past would have gained some senses after her ipetence lead to the downfall of her house, but once again you demonstrate why it is that it did," He spoke through the wraps gesturing with his body rather than his expression as one usually would.

    "If you havee to surrender, I will dly call off the full force of the Resistance which is narrowing down on you, but elsewise you are unweed here, you are a traitor to the resistance and to the Godyer and Vatui races and will be executed for deserting the army, titles mean nothing anymore-"

    "I have no recollection of what happened back then, just as I have no interest in the title of princess amongst my people, Curt, I am a deity, not a princess, and as far as I know, Gods only bow to those who they respect as the strongest," Ikaris narrowed her eyes, taking another step inside of the office while the four blocking her path took steps in retreat.

    "Rather than bring up something as trivial as a title long outdated, I am here to execute you, Curt," She gestured to him and summoned a de out of thin air pointing it at Rem. "I came here solely to destroy this entire ce, I am going to wipe out you and everyst one of your coborators for siding with the Emporium and selling your people as resource!"

    "What proof do you have?" Curt lowered his head in defiance, reaching on at his side and unsheathing a de which caused her to almost gasp when she saw it.

    "The sword you so willingly sport is proof enough, that de is built using the pressurised bodies of Vatui as ore, mixed with the Emporium''s favourite; Araculite."

    "There is no point in arguing, I have ess to all of your systems, I have evidence of every recorded wrong you have evermitted, you are beyond redemption, today, you will be judged beneath my hand." Ikaris added and the man was silent for a moment thinking of how to respond to that.

    "Proof-"

    "The proof is being delivered to every able citizen of your fake utopia, all those lies you have told, all the lives you have ended in the name of your greed, everything you have ever done for the Emporium, it is already being broadcast to them all, I would note here starting a fight without reasonable ground."

    "Kill her."

    "And that reasonable ground, is that YOU, Curt, formerly of the Ikaris House have delivered on average seven times the number of your people to the hands of the Emporium as they have killed!" Ikaris raised her voice and stood still, feeling the rush of wind crash into her as Rem and the other three attacked her simultaneously only to be blocked when Dina, A, Renia and Adonai burst through the ss behind her shielding her from each of them.

    "Come on, think about this," Curn made a nonchnt shrug.

    "What will this aplish, you say that you have evidence but the people here worship the ground I stand on, they would never believe something that outrageous no matter how true it seemed to them, all it will look like is the jealous princess returning to im a throne that no longer exists and bullying me her former subservient into giving her the power I have amassed over these long years of her absence," Curt chuckled.

    "What... the Godyers and Vatui that I sacrificed all died so that this ce could be built, we have existed here for aeons without the Emporium finding us, are you willing to sacrifice revealing the location of our base to satisfy your ego, Ikaris?" He asked, and chuckled when he saw her hand holding the sword falter.

    "There is no version of this encounter where you do not lose, Ikaris, if you fight me and win, you will lose the trust of the people, and if you fight me and lose, you will be outright rejected and ridiculed as an imposter.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "If it means you pay the price for the billions that have died because of you then losing the faith of everyone is worth it, you were supposed to protect, but you have used that power to destroy with malevolent deeds born of the greed of the Emporium, even if the entire Grand Collective hates me after this day, I will persist." She answered him calmly.

    "As long as the loyalty and love of my kin remain, I can endure even the depths of hell for them."

    "Then you have forced my hand, false saviour," Curt''s white hair began glowing menacingly and the light from his crimson eyes shone through his wrappings.

    "Today will finally mark the true death of the house of Ikaris."

 Chapter 343 Cannon Fodder.

    There had been total silence inside of Sector G.Gamma ever since Ikaris arrived, specifically, on the Resistance''s main; Dredd, the cities were whispering, the farnds were left unmanned and the markets had alle to a standstill; all daily activity came to a halt when a chain-link from an Unknown was sent to every operational device on all four unnamed worlds.

    For some, the revtion was quite the shock, there were a few who had suspected as much, others had already set out to seek answers, but the vast majority of people simply stood confused as the lists of treachery carried out by the Resistance was revealed, there was coded proof, orders from their leaders and their closest allies.

    Friends that had gone missing without any exnation, family members who suddenly left and never returned, acquaintances who seemed to vanish into thin air, hundreds of thousands of missions gone wrong with entire teams getting captured or killed, so many names, so many crimes, the list was hours long if read out, but the summary presented by none other than Alpha, provided rity.

    Along with the ns, schemes and schedules ording to the agreement between the Emporium and the Resistance, there came a harrowing Message from the lost Vatui Princess, Ikaris addressing her most recent discovery and the people atrge, whomever they were, wherever they were, it was a broadcast thatter that same day reached out to every border of Kha-Nova every household, every ship.

    [The Resistance would not exist without the funds from the Emporium, the life that you have been provided inside of this bubble was tailored, so that you wouldter be sold as resource whenever the Emporium demanded it of your leaders, as was the case in the Kha-Boris Collective where the resistance has been entirely wiped out leaving the former leader, Ikaris-Curt, and his most trusted advisors who migrated here to the Kha-Nova Collective and started recruiting and building again...

    this man is a traitor to his kind that has been selling his people as livestock]

    [Across the Grand Collective there is a total estimate of Three Million Vatui and Godyers captured and harvested by the Emporium on a yearly basis, the Resistance alone is providing nearly Twenty-Four Million lives to the Emporium over that same time period, this is why despite the efforts of the people to raise their numbers they have failed overtime and are being killed off.

    Spread across the Grand, there is an unconfirmed estimate of Fifty Billion of our kind remaining]

    [It might seem like a lot of time when spoken aloud, but our kind are blessed with nigh immortality. it takes thousands of years for us to reach maturity; almost ten thousand just to reach adolescence, if things continue this way our species will be extinct within the next two thousand years!]

    "Just two thousand?"

    "Isn''t that the same as saying we have no time left?"

    "Why is sheing back mow, she should never have shown her face at all!"

    "Can we trust the words of someone who abandoned us for over Four Billion years, who does she think she is?"

    The reactions as expected were mixed, ,ostly negative...

    Ikaris; the Princess seen by some as a traitor and by others as a myth showed her face for the first time in Aeons, and it was with news of their extinction, it was not going smoothly but this was all within Alpha''s calctions, through Ikaris''s eyes, shared by the System onto those same devices, the people witnessed her arrival and confrontation with Curt.

    ***

    "Today, will finally mark the true death of the house of Ikaris; the Emperor had personally requested that if I meet you I should try to capture and deliver you to him alive, but as things stand now you are far too dangerous, Ikaris, it is better to kill you and be done with it!" He chuckled when A''s hands began shaking from the pressure that was being forced on her by the woman she had blocked from attacking Ikaris.

    "Everything else cane afterwards!"

    He leaned forward preparing to attack when his party began pushing those on Ikaris''s side backwards, but through the floor like a phantom, S''mael emerged slicing at him and ckling wildly.

    The silence was broken; it shattered with an explosion that stole the entire upper half of the building they were in, causing severe damage to the buildings that surrounded it as well and then from the explosion like beams of light, one golden and the other one white Ikaris flew off, being chased by the leader of the resistance while she sent a message to the others.

    "Whatever you do, keep away from the civilians, iste them and take them down, I will handle Curt alone!"

    "We have them outnumbered eleven to four!" Shar-Khan now seeing that he was not going to be facing Curt seemed to regain much of his confidence, but Dina served a reminder why he should remain alert when she was suddenly blown clean through the city with one strike from her foe, crashing far away in a deserted tundra while her attacker nced at the others and then went after her.

    He was a Godyer, and while he had no idea what it was, he could still sense the dense Divine mana inside of her.

    Thus, he had deemed her the most dangerous of the group and taken it upon himself to dispose of her.

    "I will handle that one and then return. Hurry and go help Master Curt," He spoke in a rough tone; his hair glowed brightly, and his eyes went feral while he flew within therge rend Dina''s body had left through each building while she was blown away.

    "That Ikaris, we underestimated her, I heard that she defeated the Tenth General on her own in a one-sided battle, but what she just aplished is beyond the power of a mere Celestial, and she called herself a god...?" He clenched his fists and his jaws, making haste as he rushed Dina a second time.

    "This one is the one Rem told me about, he assumed she was a former member of the Emporium that had been converted like the others had, but she has strange powers; it''s not LAW, so what is it and why is it making the highlights of her hair glow?" He approached Dina who had been blitzed by the first attack and craned his entire body, putting his back into the second attack while she was still recovering from the first one.

    "I won''t give her a chance to use that power again!" He thought back to Dina matcing his strength with a casual smirk until he had to exert himself to get her to budge a little.

    "Dina!" A snapped when she sensed the second attack and saw a massive shockwave across the horizon, unlike before, A had taken to the skies above the city, she already knew that the current enemies were out of her league, her purpose for emerging on the front was to test just how much so she could provide assistance when she needed to while preventing interference from anyone else, this also meant that the others who made up Ikaris''s party were also on standby.

    Find your next adventure on empire

    "Don''t worry, A, the further away I am the better I will be able to fight, remember?" Dina responded while she was in the middle of crashing, experiencing another change of scenery when she crashed on a beach that stretched from one side of her field of view to the next.

    Unlike the first time she was hit, Dina didn''t struggle to get up, it was instantaneous, so much so that the Godyer that had chased her halted when he arrived rather than attack her carelessly again.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Are you certain?" A asked once more and Dina hummed, rotating her shoulder and blowing a small clot of golden blood from her nose.

    "Yeah, I can handle myself," Dina looked over her shoulder at the man, seeing his hesitance. "If this is the strongest that the resistance has to offer then it makes sense why they betrayed their primary races to save their asses," She stared at him with a small smirk. "They are strong, butpared to someone like Dr''ul or Cecelia, they; aside from their leader, everyone else is cannon fodder."

    "You... what are you?" The Godyer asked; aside from his white hair, he was a fairly good-looking fellow; he was tall and lean, with an angr nose and attractive lips; his hair was silky as well, even noticeable while it glowed that brightly. "You are not human, I was told that you were-"

    "I am a Divine, you idiot." Dina answered watching his eyes widen in surprise at what she was saying. "The information Rem came back with was based on assumption and misdirection."

    "A divine... as in... a god?" He asked, surprised. "That is impossible, gods do not interfere in the matters of the Collective, no matter how bad it gets-"

    "Those are the old bastards who are afraid of the ones above them taking action," Dina looked to the skies, viewing the heavens above and staring casually at the few residing deities who all averted their gazes when she caught them peeking at her.

    "I couldn''t give a fuck about anything greater than a Divine, my Mistress is a Celestial divine, the peak of divinity and my master is so far above godhood that we could all stop breathing if he willed it!" Dina dered while the pink in her hair spread, even to her brows andshes.

    "There is no being above Divine-"

    "Of course you''d think that, but remember, you are dogs under the heels of the Emporium who has beings you could never dream of defying... the Grand is much more vast than you havee to know it!" Dina raised her hand and aimed it at him, the skies opened up and the seas behind her began roaring all of a sudden.

    Like the descent of a world-ending disaster, lightning from the heavens tore through the atmosphere and turned on him.

    [Divine Cast: Lightning Retribution]

 Chapter 344 Sinner.

    [Divine Cast: Lightning Retribution]

    "What is this?!" The Godyer swung himself free of the impact zone of the attack,nding severel feet away and then diving again when several more bolts crashed from the blue at him, ripping into the ground and then vanishing.

    "Huh... it was a lot less effective than I exp-" His smirk stiffened, growing ripe and turning into a shocked grimace when the entire area around himself and Dina erupted in purple and white lightning tearing its way back into the skies above and then exploding a second time, blowing him off his feet while he was bombarded with bolt after bolt.

    "Raiden is it?" Dina walked harmlessly through the destruction and stood with her hands folded, staring at him while he struggled to stand as the lightning continued to grow stronger beating him until his knees hit the ground andhis hands pressed down after them. "As far as Godyers go, you seem unimpressivem even By Rem''s standards, I was sure I sensed more power from you berofe..." She hummed.

    "Maybe I was wrong after all, this fight will wrap itself up before it even starts if this is all you have to offer."

    "This witch...!" The man ground his teeth, balling his fists while on the ground andunching himself at Dina, driving his hand through her stomach only to gasp when he flew right through her after she vanished in a puff of smoke and dust.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "What the hell is going on h...!!!" His thoughts this time were interrupted when his already wobbly trajectory was flipped and his head sunk through the molten sand as he crashed making a ditch.

    "Gaah!!" Raiden arose swinging his fists wildly, but everything hade to a standstill, the sands stood vertically, the lightning was frozen in ce, the only thing that moved was Dina, and she did so with blinding speeds, blitzing him as soon as his eyesnded on her and cing her palm against his stomach before he could even react.

    [INCINERATION!]

    He had never witnessed anything like it before, he knew that there existed several members of the Vatui race who had strange and arcane powers which could be outwardly projected like Curt and Ikaris while others had powers that needed conductors like Cecelia did, he knew of Godyers who could do the same like Rem could, but this woman was different.

    There was no lightning he had ever encountered that could harm him, yet he had received second degree burns on his arms and back from the attack, she had summoned lightning from the clear day sky with just a wave of her hand.

    And now... she was summoning destructive fire with that same hand.

    Dina''s Incineration attack tore across his abdominal flesh like a projectile had hit him at point nk andunched him into the sky, there was nothing he could have done to avoid that attack because of the constant shock he had been receiving over the short course of their fight; he thought he was going to hand,e her easily because he had overpowered her in the office, but now that was proving to not be the case, she had control over the weather and elements, how was amelee fighter supposed to counter that?

    "She keeps using the same hand,"  Raiden shook his head, staring at dina below when he finally began descending, it almost felt like she was toying with him, her attacks had the power to harm him but nothing she had hit him with had been enough to inflict any mortal wounds they were just surface abrasions at best, painful as they were they weren''t doing him any harm he couldn''t immediately heal over with a little focus.

    "There must be something special about her hand, which means if I can remove it she will be powerless!"

    Raiden came to the conslusion after seeing Dina ready the same hand again, while her palm started glowing with that same pink light, this to him would be her tell; right before sheunched an attack her hand glowed.

    "I''ll put all my focus on that then!" He craned himself and stopped descending using the atmosphere itself as a foothold and bending his knees while thest of his burns healed. "I have to calm down and approach her rationally!"

    "I''m still too close to the city tounch any attack that can kill him in one go, it''s meaningless if I don''t do that though," Dina furrowed her brows and thought to herself. "But," She contradicted herself. "Inside of the Beginning there is still that one Godyer that Master has been trying to revive for the longest time, If I want to kill him I guess I have to destroy his body entirely."

    Dina watched Raiden with her hand held towards him, "He is physically stronger many times over than I am, he''s all the way up there with the likes of Jenifer... no, he may be stronger than keele is when ites to raw strength alone so I have to control the pace of this fight," She narrowed her eyes when she saw his grin from earlier return.

    "He thinks he has the upper hand, right now that is exactly what I want him believing-"

    Dina''s train of thoughts derailed when through sheer speed the man vanished from her sights, her fingers twitched when his silhouette appeared in her peripherals, and her head snapped in his direction just fast enough that she could erect a barrier when she saw his fist descending towards her face with so much force that the air around it was twisting and deforning the atmosphere.

    "Luckily..." Dina''s mind began racing beyond what her body could process. "I have the [Awareness] time skill, even if I can''t move, I can still n out everything I will do, every step I want to take and every trap I want you to fall into," She stared at the name hovering over his head. "For every foot you gain, I will take a leap, Raiden!"

    Dina''s barrier broke from his fist crashing into it and she took the punch watching ite in slow motion and leaning her body in the opposite direction allowing most of the attack to only ze across her skin while her hand was in the process of swinging, everything happened slowly for her, but had there been anyone else observing then they would have seen Raiden''s fist connect solodly in the mage''s face and her tanking the blow and returning a punch of her own, breaking his nose as she was sent flying while he staggered and grabbed his face in shock.

    [Mana Spear]

    With her eyes still closed from the knockback and her body soaring above the molten and cooled sand tirned to ck ss, Dina managed to release one of her less effective casts, using it as a screen when thousands of themnded between her and him exploding in bright blue and white mes and allowing her to hit the ground and cast [Heal] on herself undisturbed by him.

    "I underestimated her again, she never showed that speed before...!" Raiden shook his head, blowing the blood out of his nose and adjusting it. "But," The Godyer grinned watching the smoke and dust clear and finding Dina on one knee holding her arm. "She is weak, this will be my win!" He began cackling when his victory seemed within reach once more.

    "You know my name, and you seem to know who I am, but I have never seen nor have I ever heard of you before," Raiden began walking forward warily staring at Dina as well as the neat round craters of ss created by her [Mana Spear] bombardment to buy herself some time earlier.

    "Who are you, witch?" He asked, and Dina scoffed and stood upright allowing her hand to fall to her side as she began gathering and storing mana in her palm again.

    "I am Dina Levina, Right hand of Ikaris Vestic and her bonded Kin," She answered proudly raising her chin and looking at him down her nose.

    "You, kin to the War Angel?" Raiden furrowed his brows in disgust. "A mere human dares try to ce herself on the same pedestal as the highest of vatui royalty, are you serious?" He asked, scrunching his nose even more.

    "I have already said it, Godyer," Dina began raising her hand. "I am Divinity!" She leaned forward the same as he did, and then the two of them vanished and the beach of ss and sand between the vanished when he parried her [Incineration] downwards and grabbed her hand.

    "Then die with that in mind!" Raiden raised his other hand and in a swift motion he swung dina mming her into the molten ground and then swinging his free hand chopping off her arm in one quick motion and then kicking her in her stomach causing her to slouch over his foot, unable to make a sound. "With that hand out of the way you have no means of conjuring your sorcery, farewell, Divine Dina-"

    Before he could strike her, Dina vanished from before him,nding several paces away and staring at her stump of a hand with a shallow and stoic expression, she could feel nothing once again utilizing her awareness of time and slowing everything by thinking faster than anything was happening she had numbed her arm when she realised what he was after.

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    "So, that''s what you were after, I allowed you to grab my hand on purpose to see what you were nning," Dina began chuckling as she passively cast [Greater Heal] on herself instantaneously healing her arm and shing it causing the Godyer to gawk in shock. "But you are far more simple than I gave you credit for!" She raised her hand showing him the brand new limb and then clenching her fists.

    "If you had tried killing me I would have escaped, but instead you went after my arm because you thought it was some kind of weapon granting me power?" Dina''s hair became wholely pink and her eyes inverted. "It takes a lot more than what you have to kill me," Dina dered standing her ground when reinfircemengts in the thousands started arriving at their location.

    "If you refuse to believe, then I will send you to your grave as a sinner, Godsayer."

 Chapter 345 Goddess of Calamity.

    "Her hair and eyes are those of a Godyer now?" Raiden stared at Dina, shocked. "What''s going on here, is she truly more than just a Witch?" He wondered, but dismissed the idea altogether and scoffed, righting himself and balling his fists.

    "You are a witch." Raiden dered.

    "...A Divine."n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "No, gods do not exist, gods are a myth born of the simple minds of backwater civilizations and lesser races who want to drown in the delusion that they mean something to someone other than fodder and resource, there are no races above Celestials, that is what I am, the superior, the peak of evolution-"

    "Yeah, someone else from the Emporium said the exact same thing before he was bested by a Celestial God," Dina scoffed.

    "It seems that the truly delusional ones that exist are the people who think that they are the greatest power in existence, and from what I have seen, a lot of you fall into that hole." She began raising her hand prompting wariness out of the Godyer who was now aware that her hand glowing was neither a sign of her power being active, nor were her hands her weakness.

    Without another shared word the two of them rushed at each other, with Raiden getting the better of Dina almost right away with his strength being overbearingpared to hers, but while he was strong, and incredibly fast, she could at least tell that this was what had carried him all this time, he had no technique, just brute strength.

    "Talk all you want, nothing you do today will change the pue of this battle!" Raidenughed, grabbing Dina by her hair and spinning with her intent on smashing her into the ground, but to his surprise he ended up throwing her in the air instead, and then when the many troops that had shown up aimed their weapons up at her they ended up shooting towards Raiden.

    "What the hell are you idiots doing?!" The man snapped arising after the short bombardment, but he too knew something was off, this was the third time he meant to harm Dina and ended up doing something he did not intend to. "If you can''t provide the basic backup then get the fuck away from me!" He growled, healing himself from the light injuries.

    "Haaaaaah!" Dina slowly spun in her descent, summoning arge [Mana Spear] in her grasp and hardening the mana it held before increasing the speed of her spin and dropping the de towards him.

    As she had expected, the Godyer was easily able to dodge the attack, but only a momentter the great spear shed against the ground and the winds that it conjured raised and swirled him around tossing him across the air and then releasing him towards the water.

    "He is nowhere near Dr''ul''s power!" Dina''s eyes suddenly becamepletely pink burning with mana after she had finally gotten him to turn his back to thend and face her.

    Her footsteps were like bolts of lightning hitting the ground, and her breath was like fire when she moved, parting the atmosphere with abominable speed and shing her hand against Raiden''s again, except this time she had prepared a big surprise for him.

    Raiden''s eyes bulged when Dina''s palm burnt his hand and he had to ce his other hand on top of that one when he started getting tossed, at first he thought he had fallen for another of her weak me techniques, but with more and more pressure building between the two of them the Godyer quickly found himself struggling to keep himself grounded at all.

    "Choke on your shock, AND BURN AWAY," Dina eximed, unleashing her cast when their hands parted atst.

    "INCINERATION, MAXIMUM!" The clouds that had formed from the atmospheric changes her previous attacks had caused vanished, and the afternoon turned dark when the Divine mes erupted several inches away from her palm capturing everything on the horizon in an instant as it exploded like thousands of nuclear divices being detonated sideways.

    The ocean beneath the horizontal explosion boiled and evaporated and the shoreline for that entire areapletely disappeared in an instant, then, after the initial explosion, Dina''s improvised technique exploded a second time epassing a range three times the size and devastation of the initial explosion, creating a giant trench in thend and swallowing the entirety of the area before her, causing waterfalls to emerge on the sides as the oceans surged back ind to fill the basin her attack had left.

    "What is this power?" One of the members of the resistance shook terrified while she asked, unable to even raise her weapon after witnessing Dina''s attack against Raiden and the annihtion that the mage had catalyzed. "I have never seen anything like that!"

    "All of you, Ikaris''s orders were clear, you get one chance toy down your weapons and leave, you have all seen evidence of their wrongs, you know exactly what they have done now, if you point your weapons at me a second time my orders are to cut you down, there is an omnipresence among you which sees and reports all."

    "If you even think of stabbing my mercy in the back, I will retaliate with lethal force, this is your first and only warning," Dina turned her eyes to the masses above her and to those on the ground and they were all shocked into inaction after hearing her voice in their heads.

    [The Cadre of the Resistance is still alive, Dina, or rather, it is safer to say he barely took enough substantial damage to call your attack a sess,] Alpha warned her, and the mage turned her attention to the basin again and nodded, taking to the skies like aet and vanishing in his direction.

    "I figured that this was the case," Dina frowned. "I may have superior firepower, but I knew something like that wasn''t enough either, my goal was to buy myself more time," She admitted.

    [By that, do you mean...?]

    "Yeah, I need topletely destroy the body of a Godyer, considering how durable Master was when he first became a Godyer, I would say I need power greater than that of Orion in order to defeat him, that''s just an estimate but at the moment it is where my goal lies, and the only way I can conjure that level of destructive power at the moment is through constant perfect casts...

    and then some!"

    [Activating Blessing: Child of Chaos]

    [Are you sure?] Alpha appeared behind Dina staring at her seriously, and she nodded gritting her teeth when the roots of her hair started turning ck and her fingertips started darkening as Divine Chaos began surging through her veins.

    Dina stared at her status window.

    Read thetest on empire

    [Your Blessing: (Child of Chaos) has reached the threshold and has qualified for greater evolution]

    [Benefits: Longer activation time; The blessing can be maintained with less stress on the body for one hour.

    Greater Battle Prowess; Your mana and physical capabilities will increase hundredfold from the previous activation limits, you will be at the peak of Divinity.

    The certain death penalty upon failure to deactivate will be withdrawn]

    [Consequences: Upon failing to cancel the blessing after the timer has run out you may suffer (Mana Paralysis)sting years to a lifetime, you may never be able to use mana again; losing all your Divinity and bing a regr human once more.

    Mana Crippling; Your mana might work against your body slowly and painfully poisoning your Divine cells until it kills you]

    [Bonus effect: When your body has matured in Divinity; all drawbacks will automatically disappear and your new blessing will be permanent]

    "Lady Levina, are you sure?" Alpha asked once more and the mage chuckled to herself, nodding and cing her hand on her chest.

    "Magic is science Alpha,, if we never push our boundaries and strive for higher heights then we will never discover the vastness of the universe, we must always strive for the next evolution!" She began descending towards the area under the water that she could sense Raiden''s power surging and growing stronger.

    "What kind of power is she using? I can sense her again," Raiden peered his eyes open staring at his hands, healed but still bruised. "Wait, what am I saying? I will not be beaten by this witch; I will make an example out of her...!!" The Godyer''s mind raced while the water pressed against him and he sunk.

    He thrashed his arms and legs, opening his eyes in the darkness and screaming to the abyss as it stared back at him. "I will win, I will destroy her, I will destroy everything, I will destroy the very fabric of reality if that is what it takes to kill this heretic bitch!!"

    [Dina, you have achieved a new title as your blessing, it will be a permanent title; applying for the first time will reward you with a 20% buff temporarily-]

    [ept and Activate!]

    The raging ocean beneath her sunk and opened up creating a basin within the basin when Raiden''s lunacy erupted, and at the same time Dina''s blessing was granted to her, the effects of [Child of Chaos] vanished and her appearance returned to her usual Divinity with the only difference being a crest with an upside-down crescent with a line cutting it down the middle appearing in the middle of her forehead.

    "Dina Levina!!" Raiden roared, causing the basin beneath her to vanish when his energy finally poured out, silencing the waters and sending mega-tsunamis in every direction.

    [Dina Levina; your new Blessing; (Goddess of Cmity) has been fully activated]

 Chapter 346 Impudence of a Godslayer.

    "Haah~"

    "Haah~"

    "Haah~"

    Raiden panted beastly, he had no understanding of what had happened, the attack which collided into him and turned the day to night and back came with so much power that it stole his rationality for a moment, even though it was nowhere close to killing im the attack itself was terrifying, it had forced him to acknowledge Dina, a lesser being, he was wroth.

    He wanted to attack her when he first emerged; the first thing he intended to do was attack and ughter her to reim his pride and prove that she was nothing special, but upon seeing the young Goddess a second time, the Godyer froze before he could attack this was beyond what he had expected. Read exclusive chapters at empire

    "Something has changed," Raiden thought even as his eyes were obscured in the light of his own power rising wildly within himself. "What did she do to herself, why does she feel like an entirely different entity from before, and what is that energy, there was no trace of it before...!"

    "No, it does not matter," He shook his head. "She has forced me to fight her seriously, a privilege that not even Master Curt was blessed with in the few urences where we fought in friendly bouts in the past, I will make her pay, this wretched creature-"

    "Are you going to keep talking to yourself?" Dina stared down at him, making aical gesture of "Come at me" with her fingers.

    "I can see that you are rearing to go, Godyer, soe on, your little minions will no longer interfere, from this moment on it is just the two of us," Dina smirked after she witnessed the twitch of his brow, "Or, could it be that you intended for them to distract me so you could continue to fight me like a coward?"

    "HUUUUUUUUGHHHH~!" A deep growl begam escaping the Godyer after he had been taunted atop his clear hesitance after witnessing the change in her mana. "I will absolutely kill-" Raiden appeared behind Dina swinging his fist intent on removing her h ead from her neck with a punch to her temple, to his shock though, Dina blocked the blow with one hand, spinning and cing a well-timed kick above his other fist as it descended towards her.

    The kick was an awakener, the blind rage he had been consumed by quickly evaporated into rity when his brain was rattled and he was sent soaring towards the upper atmosphere.

    Dina in contrast held the hand that she had used to block his attack, cradling it with a wince and casting [Heal] over it. As she had expected. [Goddess of Cmity] had made her so many times stronger, and she intended to test the limits of that new strength by irritating him and then tanking the blow without any magical defence.

    The results were not disappointing, his physical prowess was as fearsome as she imagined it would be when faced with the wrath of his fist, but it was far from satisfactory, this much power would have ced her closer to the likes of Dr''ul and Cecelia than any of her other peers, yet he had still nearly shattered the bone in her hand with a single punch, and by the way Sol had described it:

    "A Godyer will only grow more powerful the longer they fight, right up until a moment of rupture where their power either fades and copses on them or they undergo an evolution," She repeated the words of her Master; a sentiment shared by the likes of Keele, Cecelia, jenifer and Chey Law, who had all encountered and fought Godyers to the death on many different asions.

    Considering how powerful this one already was without truly exerting himself, it was a given that he was thetter of the examples rather than the prior, if he suffered a rupture and lost it would be for the best, but Godyers were like cockroaches when they became obsessed and invested in any matter, Raiden would definitely evolve, ording to Alpha''s calctions at least.

    "I can''t allow that to happen, if he multiplies his power again then it would take the likes of Dr''ul or Cecelia to put an end to him, Ikaris is dealing with the leader and S''mael, Renia and Adonai have their hands full as well. I can''t allow this one to interfere with her," She shook her hand and started ascending. "I just have to deal with him on my own, regardless of how I do it!"

    "You will not get the best of me!" Raiden initiated a mad descent causing the atmosphere around his body to burst several times upon his approach, he roared in fury and swung his fist with a punch he was confident she would be unable to block or dodge, but for the third time since they began fighting, he witnessed the world around him change when he was suddenly ascending with his fist hitting nothing but empty air.

    "Just keep going like that!!" Dina mmed her hand into his back, opening her palm as a chromatic orb appeared between then.

    "Let''s take this somewhere where we no longer need to hold back!" She mmed her other hand in his back, pushing him upwards so fast that his body arched around her and he became incapable of resisting thepulsion of gravity beneath them as it tried dragging them back toward the surface.

    "What''s goin-"

    [Pulsar]

    A massive pir of cosmic mana erupted from Dina''s hands afted she made a triangr formation in his back using it to propel him into the Void at light-bearing speeds.

    "Hooooo~" Dina took a deep breath and began gathering mana in the back of her throat, causing a humming sound as the mana within her whirred violently, circting and making her hair stand on end when he began approaching again, he was strong, this much was obvious, but the most annoying thing about him had to be his tenacity.

    That [Pulsar had hurt, it very nearly killed him, and yet the man had already recovered enough that he was returning, she cround her teeth opening her mouth while the umted mana began surging out.

    "This time she is going to breathe it?!" Raiden mused already caught up and in the process of dodging the attack that was about to emerge from Dina''s mouth. "I don''t know what she did to get this much stronger all of a sudden, but it is uneptable, I refuse to take another hit like that again...!"

    Her tell this time was too obvious, an attack from the mouth required too many steps to not show itself unless she was going to keep it hidden until thest second as she had nned to, but in her desperation to end the fight Dina had slipped up with a preemptive attack, one she suffered the price for when he bent his form around the initial beam andnded a sessful kick in the side of her head much like the one she had caught him with before, the only drawback being that he had rushed his counter as well and failed to deliver a killing blow on impact.

    "Good enough to disorient her, at least!" Raiden bent his knees using empty space as a tform and leaping towards her, he caught up to Dina before she could recover and grabbed her hand yanking her back into his other hand and driving it through her abdomen with a triumphant roar, celebrating his first proper blow when he saw her blood flying from behind her after she had not disappeared into smoke like the first time.

    "I won''t stop here, that power of yours...

    I want it!" Raiden having learnt his lesson after getting a feel for her power grabbed her head, locking his fists in her hair ready to snap her neck, but something strange happened, and for a moment the New Goddess lost her will to fight after getting her hair grabbed, the sigils on her body had reacted to mana, except it was neither A''s or Ikaris''s, nor was it Sol''s mana.

    Raiden had tried copying her mana and partially, he had seeded inying his hands on her soul; something that until that point only Sol had ever done; this broke her defences and caused a sense of familiarity that she found revolting to the point of nausea and repulsion, like fragile ss, her rationality shattered, her mana began multiplying explosively in protest, Dina held on to his hands and raised her legs, pressing her heels against his torso as her smooth hair turned sharp and wild again and the hole in her abdomen snapped shut with instantaneous healing brought by her new power.

    "Y-you bastard ...Let GO!" She opened her mouth revealing an even more powerful buildup than the fist one. "How dare you put your filthy hands on my hair, how dare youy your mitts on my mana; HOW DARE YOU LAY YOUR HANDS ON MY SOUL?!" Dina screamed.

    [Stack]

    The corners of her mouth began tearing as she forced it to open wider, her eyes which had been obscure because of all the light before became obscured entirely from all the mana she began exuding, and her teeth that had remained tame suddenly sharpened as she took on a rather feral and beastly appearance, digging her fingers through his skin and pushing against him so hard that the heels of her boots crackled and exploded from the pressure she was exerting onto them.

    [Dina, wait, there''s something odd about this Godyer at the moment��]

    [Mana Multiplied tenfold]

    "st you!!" Dina continued to roar as the skin of her lips began stripping whilst she continued charging the attack, ignoring Alpha''s warning and raising her mana to levels she never had before.

    "I''ll st you away, all of you, perish for daring to touch that which only belongs to Master Vestic, you impudent FILTH!" The crests and sigils on her body began discharging mana outwards like a reservoir had been ruptured, and Raiden beganughing as he struggled to free his arms from her grasp.

    "Is this the limit of your power, false goddess?!"

    [Dina wait, he is luring you into-]n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    The lights brightened like that of a star, and the whirring of her mana broke the void and started creating a small pocket atmosphere around the two of them.

    [Unknown Tier: COSMIC SCREAM]

 Chapter 347 Confronting Evil.

    *Several minutes earlier, back in the Capital City*

    A straightened her body and began flying in Dina''s direction after ascending above the city. "Dina!" She called, racing over.

    "Don''t worry, A, the further away I am the better I will be able to fight, remember?" Dina replied through their mark, causing the Elf to halt before she was beyond the city.

    "Are you certain?" She furrowed her brows, staring at the horizon where the mage was already beyond the reach of her eyes.

    "Yeah, I can handle myself." Dina replied once more and cing her trust in her student, A nodded and turned her back, facing a multitude of resistance soldiers that had responded to seeing her flying above them, they arrived in droves, thousands strong on small hovering tforms with weapons of varying sizes and shapes pointed at her.

    "I will leave it to you then," She spread her hands wide, defying the thousands who faced her. "None of you are permitted to pass," She warned them while Alpha did a scan.

    "Amongst the three thousand and eighty-seven who are before me, only seventy of you knew of the evils that the Resistance has been carrying out and actively partook in it, those who did not know are free to return to somece safe and wait for Mdy''s judgement to be carried out, as for those who have been confirmed as traitors of the Vatui and Godyer races; those who actively sold their own kind as ves and produce..." A''s eyes began glowing brightly.

    "You will be answering to me."

    "What gives you the right to judge any of us when you don''t even share the same blood as us, you who havee here as a judge... you''re not even Vatui, neither are you a Godyer, so what right do you have?" One of the men from the front asked, aiming his weapon at her head.

    "You are interfering in matters that have nothing to do with you!" He fired the gun and him, along with all the others witnessed the woman before them snatch the energy-based projectile from midair and hold on to it.

    "What the-"

    "It would seem that way, of course you who sold your eldest brother and his family to the Emporium would point out the one obscure reason that could potentially save your life," A stared at the energy once more and then crushed it in her grasp, shing the steam off her hand and staring up at him again.

    "Sold his brother? I thought his brother was killed in the crossfire when he was trying to escape-"

    "Isn''t he even going to try and deny her?" The crowds behind the man continued growing in noise.

    "D... don''t believe the words of this witch!" The Vatui at the front shook his head, ncing behind himself and then at A once more with his hands slightly shaking. "Nothing but lies, she is lying to your faces, this is all a scheme to cause distrust amongst us, she is lying just as that woman who calls herself Ikaris is lying-"

    "But, that is Ikaris, though," One of the elders of the multitudes shook her head. "I remember her well, something as simple as her hair being different does not deter the fact that she is irrefutably the same Princess of the days of old, you saw it, we all saw it, even Curt addresses her as his n''s lost leader."

    "Who asked you, you old shit!?" The man spun and turned his gun towards the woman who had opposed him. "They are the enemy, they attacked us unprovoked, we have lived here unbothered for countless years-"

    "-Feeding off the food we earned through the harvesting of our people..." The woman lowered her gun and then released it. "You," She looked past him at A who had remained passive.

    "You say that you can identify all those in cahoots with the Emporium, can you tell us how?" She asked and A smiled, it was only a matter of time before someone unsatisfied or skeptical started asking the right questions.

    There was already the seed of doubt cast by Ikaris, her and the others only needed to water that seed and allow the roots to take hold.

    "Alpha," A gestured to her side, and the masses gasped when they saw a young woman appear out of thin air. "She is not an illusion, nor is she any form of witchcraft."

    "I was given the name [Alpha] by Master Sol Vestic," Alpha spoke and then paused, having gained their undivided attention through Sol''s name; there wasn''t a being alive who wasn''t curious about the Godyer who turned the Emporium on its side, he was already a household name across the Grand Collective, but in the Kha-Nova Collective he was a name spoken with reverence.

    "I am no race you have ever heard of before, I am no race at all, I am the system; an entity birthed through Divine Creation, I am neither mortal, nor am I immortal, I am no god and I am no devil, I am a synthetic consciousness with the power to ess the secrets of life and the taboos of death, to travel everywhere and see everything all at once, I am an entity which bonds with Universes, with Collectives and can freely ess any information I wish, given enough time."

    She tried summarising the introduction, but she also needed them to know, or at the very least have an Idea of what she was supposed to be.

    "What does that have to do with what I asked?" The old woman queried with her brows furrowed, she understood what Alpha was saying but it only made her confused.

    "I am the one who made it possible for Lady Ikaris to speak to you all without hindrance," Alpha stared at the woman. [Just as I am freely able to bypass your mental walls and speak directly into your mind] She added and the woman''s eyes widened in horror.

    "I know the name of every living being inside of the Kha-Nova Collective, I know their age, their day, minute and second of birth, I can go anywhere that Master has been and I can divide my consciousness evenly with every living organism, I am the personification of omnipresence, but I am not all-powerful," Alpha paused and extended her hands towards them.

    "This is all to say, everything that exists has a code which can be read, whether that thing be biological, pure energy or cold dead metal, I can read it, so bypassing something as trivial as a firewall is child''s y.

    The Emporium keeps record of every transaction, every meeting, every Harvest, all I had to do was search their database, that is where my proofes from," She raised her hand showing one small glimpse of their databank and showing the face of the man who was opposing A before.

    "Kree ��man, born on the eve of the Vatui-Resistance war; has no idea of what his people endured and how much they had suffered, he was discovered by the New Empire in his adolescence and sold his family to save his skin, since then he has conducted smaller transactions every few centuries, Godyer children, Vatui elders, anyone that could disappear without a trace and their disappearance not be questioned fell under his radar," Alpha paused and looked at the man again.

    "Am I lying, Kree?"

    "You-"

    "His most recent transaction was Three Hundred and Sixty years, Seventeen days, Eight hours, and Twenty minutes ago, he sold a little Godyer girl, pre-adolescent, her name was Evangeline Hord, Daughter of Stefan and Eve Hord, they live on the farthest colony from your star; on Rafa, the fourth and farthest inside of this Dyson Sphere," Alpha narrowed her eyes.

    "The child he sold disappeared the same day her family arrived here, she waster killed and discarded, her body was too immature to harvest so they took her blood and tossed her into a dying star," She red at him, as did A who''s mana was rapidly rising while she heard this story.

    "Y-you''re lying!" The man aimed his hand at Alpha, but quickly found the gun he had been holding on to snatched from his grasp and pressed under his chin after A used [Godspeed] to approach him in the blink of an eye.

    "Her parents were made aware of their daughter''s fate as soon as I arrived inside of Sector G.Gamma," They have already agreed to join under Mdy''s cause, to wipe out the traitors within the resistance and put an end to the Emporium once and for all.

    "Her story is not new, many other children, elderly and otherwise have fallen victim to those who sought to explpoit their weaknesses for their greed; for their selfish pleasure, you, Kree, are among Millions of traitors that have gued their kind and betrayed them repeatedly, do you dare deny what you have done?" A asked the man with the gun at his chin and her other hand pressed against his abdomen after she had cast a paralysis curse on him to hinder his actions to speaking and breathing.

    "Do you have the balls to stand before me and continue to lie, Kree?!"

    [Applying Torture]

    [A curse of Authenticity has been cast on you, until you speak the truth you will experience pain simr to iling across your body]

    (note; iling is the act of peeling all the skin off a person while they are still conscious, it was a means of torture and punishment for criminals and war prisoners back in the day.)

    "Answer the question!"

    "Is it true, Kree?"

    "Do you admit or deny?!"

    "Why did you do something so cruel, and to a child no less?"n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "How dare you sit amongst your people after doing that?!"

    "I had no choice, it was them or myself, it''s always you or someone else, I want to live, just as all of you do, what was I supposed to do they kepting back! Its all just survival of the fittest!!" The man blurted out. "Fuck!!" He screamed. "I just wanted to live!"

    "Your life is already forfeit," A removed her hand from his abdomen and pushed him.

    "A being capable of selling a child does not deserve the breath of the living." Readtest chapters on empire

 Chapter 348 A Confession.

    "A being capable of selling a child does not deserve the breath of the living-"

    "A''s deration was interrupted by a wave of Dina''s mana mming into her back, it was unlike anything she had felt before; dense, and full of intent, it almost felt like the mage had self-destructed, the same wanr for the others who were near her, never facing any sort of power on this scale many of them shook, others cursed, while the majority just stared in awe as a great dome appeared on the horixon, somethinf so massive thzt they could neither see the top nor the sides.

    "An explosion the size of a," A mused, that was Dina''s [Incineration Maximum] in its full glory. "She might be struggling if she would risk deploying that technique on any surface, even if the isrge, that is simply too reckless, Dina," A furrowed her brows and then looked at the man before her once more.

    "That was caused by a person, not a ship?" Someone asked shocked after hearing A speak.

    "That was Dina," A answered honestly. "Be d I am the one dealing with you and not her;dy Ikaris''s right hand has far less mercy than I do, she is less lenient, amd far more cruel," She huffed with a worried frown, watching the man fall.

    "I am d that the ones among you who are guilty are all Vatui, elsewise I would have had to apply simr measures to destroy the Godyer''s regenerative cells," A admitted.

    "You speak of killing so casually, you are far too young to be so casual about taking a life, girl." The old Vatui woman approached A with her weapon lowered and her eyes sharp, she still would not trust A who was an outsider, but an ally was an ally, she did not need trust, she needed to know that they were on the same page; and at the moment; they were.

    "I was born and raised in warring times," A aimed her hand at the falling Vatui.

    [Forbidden Cast]

    "I was traded as a child, and I it was the efforts of strangers that saved me from my troubled childhood, but I lived the rest of my life afraid to even allow someone near me.

    [me of Eden]

    "I have seen nothing but death all my life, I have witnessed nothing but killing since the day I first opened my eyes, it doesn''t matter if I am youngger than you are; a lifetime for any being is still a lifetime," She sped her fist, locking her mana onto Kree as a sharp projectile whisled through the air and struck him in his forehead, immediately, his eyes reddened and he began gasping for air, stiffening as he fell.

    "It was Master who rescued me from that trauma, he gave me what nobody else had managed to, it is his wish to end the Emporium, Mdy is simply carrying out his will, and I am simply an extension of her body," A along witn everyone else watched the used hit the ground as nothing but a pile of ashes.

    "If I am told to kill everyone then I will do it without batting an eye," She looked at them again.

    "He died painlessly, frightened, yes, but he felt nothing, it is a technique that robs you of all sensation and rapidly ages you from the inside out, it happens so fast that you can''t feel it," She exined. Stay connected with empire

    "I already know your names and faces, I will give you this one chance to approach me, if you try to run, if you attempt any form of attack, I will force pain on you so vile you will beg for death."

    "Is she serious?" One person asked.

    "You saw what she did to Kree, didn''t you?"

    "But who would willingly step forward and ept death at the hands of an outsider? There is no honour in dying such a death, even if it is painless, it is still terrifying!"

    "Aye," One of the women on the front tilted her hover tform and approached A, keeping her hands raised and her gaze straight as she drew closer. "I confess, I havemited crimes against my people under the name of the Empire," She closed her eyes, handing her weapon to the elder who now stood by A.

    "I will ept this judgement, it may be at the hands of someone we do not know, but while we cowered and did the unthinkable to survive this woman has still offered us a merciful death," She turned to the crowd.

    "I am originally from the Kha-Boris collective, my way here, I witnessed the trade off between high ranking members ofthe Emporium and those of the Resistance, to silence me they offered me merits, position, and immunity, had I chosen to refuse I would have likely been harvested, but I offered my own child to sweeten the deal without any incentives from either parties, I have lived in guilt and regret ever since.

    "You have already made peace with your demise," The elder stared at her, showing both disgust and sympathy; for she was young, one would say too young.

    "I have," She replied and looked at A, but to her and everyone else''s shock A wasn''t even paying attention, she was again looking inthe direction of Dina''s fight, her eyes were wide and her hands trembling, she rarely showed them, but as she stood there suspended by her mana her fangs were revealed when her lips peeled back into a wide and almost maniacal smile.

    "What are yo-"

    "She has finally done it," A spoke, her voice had lost all the calm and warmth from before, it too reflected the madness they saw in her eyes and expressions. "Dina, you finally did it!" She turned her back to everyone staring with her arms alowly spreading while the sigils on her body began humming and exusing mana. "Marvellous!

    I only wish I could see you with my naked eyes, you beautigul freak of nature!!" A began cackling as she stared at the message before her.

    [Witness the monumental moment the heavens parted and bestowed the blessing of true Divinity upon your kin; wee the new Goddess of Cmity Dina Levina]N?v(el)B\\jnn

 Chapter 349 Awful Feeling.

    "What is she doing?" The woman who had offered herself asked, but the elder shrugged, just as confused as she was, what they could not see was the very skies above their world open up, and the hand of light descend, in a moment they felt it though, like a wave of pressurised wind passed across the continent, they felt Dina''s mana surge and copse several times, mimicking breath as it grew stronger with each exhale.

    "What the hell is this awful feeling?"

    "The birth of a new God, thest true Divine Birth was Master Vestic Two years ago, Seven if we count by your time," A shook her head in dismay and turned to the forces again, finding several other people standing there, the elder''s hands were packed with weapons. "Now, I am the only Cosmic being amongst us, yet, I am still not ready." She leaned her head ncing at their faces one after the other.

    "I would rather not face the wrath of that one," One man spoke. "I have no intention of suffering like that, I repent, please, kill me your way instead!" He lowered his head with his hands at his sides in eptance. "Please, have mercy on us!" He kept his head low.

    [A location has been prepared, Lady Amastacia,] Alpha alerted her privately.

    "We beg of you!"

    Several others eximed in unison.

    "Then, I will honour your wishes," A raised her hands, those who had not stepped forward and those who had; all of them vanished in a sh of crimson light appearing far away on a tform high in the sky while everyone else remained there, wondering what the hell just happened.

    "I am in an extremely good mood right now, I give you a minute to say your farewells to each other and then, all that is alive will cease to be so." The elf announced resting her feet on the tform with them and gesturing with the same feral grin on her face.

    "Will it truly be painless?" One woman asked, slowly approaching with her weapon at her side. "Am I not going to feel a thing>" She asked again.

    "You will feel a slight difort, something resembling sitting in a chair too long, I suppose," A''s expression went tame as she stared at the woman. "Do you intend toply though?" She raised her brow, staring at the gun.

    "Of course, not," The woman who had been passively approaching suddenly charged forward, it was faster than A had expected, and raising her hand the woman changed trajectory mid-air demonstrating that she was one of the few amongst her people with the ability to fly. "What the hell do you take me for? Lie down and Die? To a lesser being?!" Sheughed, emergign on the oter side of the tforl and firing her weapon at A''s head.

    It came as no shock to those who had given up that the Elf was able to not only percieve but also block the attack with her bare hand, it had literally happend just a few minutes before.

    "Come on, you idiots, help me out here, we can grab a ship and get away if we take her out and hurry about it!" The woman urged the others to react to her advance, but to her shock, not a single one of them moved a muscle, they all stood perfectly in the lines they had appeared in staring ar A without even batting an eye in her direction.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    "They say it is always the kind ones that have the most cruel demons," The woman who had repented first mumbled seeing her fellow Vatui sinner crash into a thin wall of light and then try to turn and flee only to crash into another as a prism of light thin walls encircled and trapped her so quickly that she could hardly react to it.

    "This woman acts on the orders of the Princess who carries the will of the Godyer, Sol Vestic, if she refers to the new goddess as Kin then that must mean she is the left hand to the Princess, it is foolish to pick fights without knowing who you are fighting.

    She even went as far as offering us painless deaths for the terrible things we did, she is merciful, why would I try to fight her, have you no shame? Do you not feel guilt over what you have done?" One of the other repentants shook his head seeing the prism slowly ignite with ck mes that began peeling the skin from her bones while she inaudibly screamed and wiggled inside of it.

    "I would rather die a honourabe death at the merciful hands of the left hand of Judgement than be killed with my sins still haunting me, what I did is irredeemable." Another admitted.

    "Then you have all epted your fate?" A asked once more and they lowered their heads. "What about your farewells?"

    Experience exclusive tales on empire

    "Vatui do not say goodbye to the dead, we will see each other again whether it be in tha heavens or hell." The first repentant woman answered and A nodded and raised her hands.

    "Then, farewell, for now," She sped her fists and simultaneously they all copsed to the ground showing the same symptoms that Kree disyed before their skin turned to dust and caved in on their empty husks. "What an unexpected day it has been-"

    The elf froze, for a moment, just a moment, she felt Dina''s soul stirr as their link was invaded by a foreign entity, and then as soon as it happened, the sensation disappeared.

    "What was that?"

    "The Godyer hasid his hands on Dina''s soul- she is not listening to reason, A, she is new divinity her current power is enough to destroy this entire Dyson Sphere several times over, she is losing control!" Alpha appeared at her side.

    "I do not have enough time to evacuate everyone-"

    "How dare hey his hands on her soul!?"

    Alpha thought that the mostposed of the three could somehow diffuse the situstioin, but it shocked the System when even A immediately lost herposure and began exuding torrents of violent mana, before she could utter another word, the elf was gone.

    [Master, please help!]

 Chapter 350 Sol Was Only Lucky.

    "Dina, wait, he is luring you into a-"

    [Unknown Tier:]

    Ikaris, who had managed to keep herselfposed, looked to the skies; she was not in a position where she could freely attend to this issue, as much as it grieved her like it did A, she was facing Curt, and he was not to be underestimated.

    Unlike everyone else who was fighting in ces where nobody would get hurt unless something unexpected happened, he insistently remained close to the poption, making it hard for her to exert any kind of forcs, so unlike the others, her fight to that point had been rather underwhelming.

    That all ended, though, with the emergence of Dina''s divinity reaching heights that only she could intercept, she could sense A rushing up toward Dina, as well as S''mael who had left his enemy in to face Renia along with Adonai, making it a two versus three scenario with the odds against the gods, not that they had been struggling much to begin with.

    "Do you think he will make it in time?"

    "Mayb-"

    [COSMIC SCREAM]

    Ikaris snapped to Dina''s direction again, even Curt paused and stared off into the void trying to find them when he felt the sudden spike in violent mana.

    The attack hit Raiden at point nk range and for a few seconds a second star was present in the Dyson Sphere, but, something was different; unlike all the other times her and Ikaris had used the technique there wasn''t even a sign of any movement.

    The light remained in a singr spot, there was no violent explosion, no mana or radiated leakage of any kind, not even the space around them which had simted a small pocket of breathable air had been disturbed.

    "Dina!" Alpha appeared at her side resting her foot on Raiden''s shoulder and easing him away while he was still unresponsive. "Are you-"

    "So that''s what it is, hahaha," Raiden stopped drifting and slowly raised his head, the white of his hair was now a slight shade of pink like Dina''s and there was a shadow of a crest in the moddle of his exposed chest, it was almost an exact replica of Sol''s Godyer ring when he was using it with his divine mana, the white crescent. "What is this power that you brought?" Raiden stared at them.

    "What the hell...?" Dina looked ar alpha who was still holding on to her.

    "I was trying to tell you, Dina, the moment he made contact with your spirit he has been eating away at your mana, and you just delivered him a dosagerge enough to destroy this entire sector," Alpha released her with a long sigh and stared at Raiden again.

    "Master has long theorised that he may not be that special of an individual, he was just lucky to have all the ingredients and the mana at hand to create the perfect cocktail and drink directly from the tree of evolution," She admitted.

    "Godyers are brings capable of utilizing the Beginning, it holds no moral code and does not differentiate between right and wrong, it grants usage to all who are strong enough to reach it." Alpha continued with her somber exnation, gesturing to Raiden who was experiencing mana for the first time. "He used the begining to store and absorb everything you just unleashed, from the start, this has been his n."

    "Mana," Raiden repeated what Alpha had called it.

    "How fascinating, it multiplies by simply being present within me, you selfish assholes have been gatekeeping something incredible,"

    Raiden began chuckling again holding out his hand and creating a small orb of pure mana in his palm. Continue reading on empire

    "How?"

    Dina paced away from him slightly.

    "He just acquired mana, how could he already have that kind of mastery over it?"

    She mused, raising her hand and conjuring one of the same potency as his in reaction when he raised his hand and aimed it at her.

    "He is a Godyer who has lived through the war, he has unprecidented amounts of battle experience andplete control over his body and all the energy which flows within it, mana is

    WILL,

    manifest as

    INTENT

    and turned into something our mind can understand; it makes sense that he could grasp the fundamental nature of a power already so close to the energy he possesed before." Alpha answered, not realising it was a rhetorical question. "The Beginning makes such things possible," She added.

    "It makes for a nice trick, but even if he now possesses Mana, he has no Idea how to cast-"

    "Relying on casting is the Arkadian way, Dina," Alpha shook her head, staring at the orb in the Godyer''s hand as it pulsated and began contracting into a solid object. "He is already at the stage of a Celestial Divine, do not drop your guard, do not underestimate him, especially not at this moment when he is high off the fight if you are thinking anything other than the moment Master became Godyer then do not even think of approaching him."

    "Dina!" A called to her after she had finally arrived, but her eyes never left the form of the Godyer who was opposite of the mage. "What happened!?" She almost made to attack Raiden, but paused when she saw the godyer crescent on his shoulder, she turned to Dina and quickly retreated to her side.

    "What is happening here, Dina?" The elf asked again, also noticing the crest on her forehead and how it slightly hummed.

    "I made a careless mistake, that''s what happened," Dina answered with her eyes downcast and her brows furrowed in worry. "I was hasty and thought I could handle him by myself, but I messed up, A," She raised her head again.

    [The extra 20% stst increase has been worn and exhaused due to severe mana depletion, your hour will start counting down] Alpha notified her and she hissed and shook her head again.

    "There are always drawbacks whenever we learn something new, how long will it take this time?" She stared at the system.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "Until your soul and body can hold your power, sealing it away is the only way I can assure your safety," Alpha responded without an ounce of sympathy for Dina''s situation, she would haveined but scoffed when she remembered that Alpha was the System they often forgot that she indeed had no Soul, no emotion, she was the System, built to serve a master; the perfect artificial entity.

    She had only assumed a physical form because it seemed that speaking to them in this way was more direct and effective.

    "I''m in a situation where I need to have everything I can use at my disposal, Alpha-"

    "Only under special and extreme circumstances will I allow such a backdoor to the guidelines which I was created to adhere by, I would also rather not be on Master Vestic''s bad side as he is the only one with the power topletely undo me, as my administrator."

    "Don''t you think that this counts as such a situation?" A countered, sensing the divine energy rapidly multiplying withinRaiden who she was sure was only waiting for someone to attack him first as he observed the mana around and within him with a keen and understanding eye.

    "Naturally, No," Alpha answered A with a shake. "Before the cast earlier wasplete, I sent out a distress call, no doubt is has been watching, if her decides to not intervene then I will take that as permission to release the limiters on your Divinity and let you do s you please," Alpha turned her back to Raiden and stared uo at the two fo them.

    "He is nowhere as strong as The Goddess of War, so you stand a chance at least."

    "Dr''ul does not even make sense as a benchmark," Dina countered clenching her fists while A began storing mana within her hands. "She is nearly as iprehensible as Master and Mdy are!"

    "Okay, time''s up, you''ve been droning about stuff that has nothing to do with me," Raiden chuckled, disappearing from their sights and attacking A who was clearly the weaker of the two, but the momentter he was at the starting point of his approach and his back was turned to them.

    "That again!!"

    The man roared infuriated.

    "A!" Dina made a punting gesture with her hands before the Godyer could turn to face them properly andunched the ready Elf at him like a bullet through the void, aiming her hand after A''s pat.

    [Unknown Tier]

    "Pulsar!" She called out the name and watched as it collided with A''s feer shooting her even faster, allowing her to p his arm before Dina''s attack sent her off into the dark.

    "Your fight is with me!" Dina drew his attention when hestarted seeking A out expecting her to return with another attack.

    "Don''t worry, I''ll kill the two of you either way, there is no need to be hasty-" Raiden''s eyes bulged when his counter to Dina''s attack went upwards instead of down and her palm connected with a t *p* in his face.

    "Pulsar!"

    "Enough of that pestilent attack!!"

    Raiden grabbed Dina''s arm, avoiding the beam of cosmic destruction and squeezing her wrist until it snapped in his grasp, but Dina barely even winced, she continued twisting herself until her elbow snapped and leaned her head to the side at him opening her mouth to reveal another great buildup, only to be denied that too when he dragged her and mmed the back of his fist in her throat.

    Even then, the mage persisted, continuing to inhale with [Greater Heal] already mending her injuries.

    [Unique skill has been triggered]

    Dina vanished from in front of him, leaving just her hand in his grasp as she appeared ways away next to A, balling her good fist with a wince and summoning her technique.

    [Divine Retribution!]

 Chapter 351 Solemn Surrender.

    Your next read is at empire

    "What is this?!" Raiden found himself unable to move when a bolt of lightning from the void crashed into him from behid, frying his nerves and causing his arms ald legs to stiffen while ot gradually grewrger. "This is not the same as before- Gaah!" He screamed out when another bolt mmed into his chest, rapidly growing as well.

    "Don''t look down on me, you bastard! I may have been born human, but the things I have aplished have only ever been overshadowed by my Master''s greatness, for me to be able to proudly say something that absurd can only mean I have always seeded, whatever it was that I set my mind to, I always achieve that goal, I may have lost some of my fights, but I have always been a winner!!" Dina raised clenched her fist once more and raised her other stump of a hand. "I am mated to the most powerful Celestial there ever was, and I follow the same path of power he walks!!"

    [Greater Heal]

    A cast the technique on Dina after she had already cast it on herself, causing her hand which had been lost to almost instantaneously regenerate, doing so from the bone outwards in great detail.

    "Your words mean nothing in the face of my power!!" Raiden freed himself from the constant heavy bombardment of lightning strikes from the unknown, exerting his newly acquired mana and rushing across the void to the two of them.

    The man gasped, suffering shbacks of what had happened to him back on therge world when he came face to face with A''s hands formed into a pyramid with a bright vrimson light extending from the middle of it, while behind her Dina''s hands were rested on her shoulders with her fists balled and her index fingers following his every miniscule movement.

    [Your passive time skill (Perception) has been utilized to the maximum effect; time as all see it has be 4x slower for you]

    [Unkknown Tier: Copsing Star]N?v(el)B\\jnn

    A released her attack first, and the Godyer before them raised his hands in a gesture of defence, tanking the initial blow and then wincing with his eyes bulged when he realised that the small woan who was suppsosed to be much weaker than Dina had cast an attack that was many times more powerful than the [Pulsar] attacks that Dina had used in the past.

    The projectile tip of A''s [Copsing Star] didn''t m into him with the same force that [Pulsar] did, instead, it started digging into his flesh, after blocking the initial force that it was released with his eyes widened in horror when the piercing capabilities it had reared its ugly head at him, wringing his skin in a spiral and ripping his flesh open, he was left with no choice but to deflect the attack upwards. and even then he was still shocked when his hands were gouged otu and the attack flew off towards the inner walls of the Dyson Sphere.

    [Unknown Tier-]

    Raiden''s eyes widened once more when he realised what he had just done and how it had left him open.

    "This woman; Dina Levina, it was her n from the start!!"

    Raiden ground his teeth as he tried lowering his hands once more, giving up on evasion in this situation where he needed to keep his eyes locked on her, since exposing his side or back in an attempt to evade was the same as giving the quick mage a target to hit.

    "Why did I attack so recklessly!?"

    He wondered when his hands formed the cross and were halfway dwn to protecting his face and chest.

    "Why does she get under my skin this much when I only met her today?!"

    Raiden caught Dina''s gaze whe his hand was above her face, but as his hand crossed his vision he found that only A stood opposing him, in the miniscule moment where time was of no significance, she had vanished from his sights.

    It was the perfect counter.

    Raiden''s hand continued to descend in what he too was perceiving as slow motion, and his left peripheral was alerted that there was something to his side, but with his constant momentum, even whenhe was actively trying to stop himself and counter once more, he could hardly move with the amount of kic force he had caused with his emergency block, which had turned out to be the ultimate feint born from his wariness of her.

    His eyes found her first, with the mage having appeared right at his side with both her fingers pressed against his ribcage, Dina was in a state ofplete focus after casting two simultaneous unknown tier attacks, that too at an already heightened state from her recent divinity reaching the paramount beneath Celestial.

    [Double-Gamma-Ray-Discharge!!]

    The light produced by the sun dwindled, a massive hole suddenly appeared in the side of the Sphere, Dina''s attack erupted like an unstable rotating pir that stretched from one side of the System-sized sphere, blowing everything in its path to kingdome and crashing into a star in the outer of the dead system turning it into a past tense as well as it continued travelling at speeds that warped and bent time around it.

    "Are you alright?" A flew over to her and grabbed her shoulder when she Mage slumped, but a momentter Dina raised her head, eyes still burning with fury before she took A''s hand off her shoulder with a smile and nodded.

    "I''m fine, A," Dina nodded, staring at the path of destruction her attack had faced. "Thanks."

    Down on therge world, everyone with higher senses could feel Dina''s mana as it continued to grow even after she had turned one of the strongest leaders of the resistance into a barely recovering mound of flesh several systems away.

    That woman, she is your subordinate?" Curt stared into the air with his eyes wide in horror, seeing the remnants of the attack still lingering while the cosmos screamed and whirred.

    "She is quite skilled," Ikaris held her foot on his chest having used the moment of Dina''s attack to pin him to the ground. "With that much power, she is now capable of shattering the dark core of a small universe, given that it was her first time using it, she will only improve the destructive force with every new cast, to put Dina''s power into perspective, she has achieved a proper three percent of my total power," Ikaris looked down at the man, seeing the fight leave his eyes as heid there and slowly released the handle of his sword. "She is far from the strongest beneath my hand."

    "Do you still wish to fight me, Curt?" The goddess asked, staring at him.

    "...Are you truly a god?"

    "No," Ikaris shook her head, letting her foot up and cancelling her weapon with azy stretch. "I am a Celestial God, there is a difference, you could fight and defeat her who is a god rather easily with the power you have as a Celestial, but against me who is already more powerful than the Eighth General of the Emporium, you could hold your own as long as I do not take you seriously," She stared at him while he sat up.

    "The Eighth?" He asked, shocked since he had been boasting of having simr power to the Ninth and knowing the exponential difference between the two.

    "Yes, I have already Killed Lars of the Emporium, there are only Seven remaining Generals that I perceive as a threat, the eleventh to Fortieth Generals are also a concern, but with the steady growth of my subordinates there lies no doubt that we will win this war this time, of course," Ikaris paused and looked at him once more. "You will not live to see that day, Ikaris Curt," She began ring.

    "What you have done is unforgivable,pletely unforgivable!"

    "I know," Curt fell to his knees and held on to the bands that wrapped his head tearing his fingers through them and ripping them off his head. "I wanted to do right, but surviving became harder and harder, the one time we truly opposed them in the Kha-Boris, we werepletely wiped out, but I was offered a chance to let my people have some semnce of normalcy before they were all hunted to extinction..." He admitted.

    His eyes were holes, literal eyeless holes that seemed depthless, and his mouth was missing the lips showing the fangs and his corner teeth bare, his nose was only a half, ans his skin had beenpletely overrun by fissures and imperfections; he looked like a corpse that had been reanimated several times already.

    "Ikaris, can you truly save the Vatui, can you save the Godyer races?" He asked raising his soulless husk and staring at her, and she huffed and nodded at him, seeing his repentant state as a sign of hope.

    "I see, this is one of those cases,"

    S''mael had Rem pinned to the ground, while Renia and Adonai were sitting on the other two''s backs all having witnessed Dina; the New Goddess of Cmity''s power firsthand.

    "He did a lot of wrong, and he was unrepentant for it only because he needed to be in order to live with what he was doing."

    The Jackal-Headed God scoffed.

    "If such was the case on Arkadia, we would have happily all died at the hands of the Demon Horde, we were afraid yes; terrified even, but we always had the hope and faith that those who fought in our names would ovee the Horde from another world; if you had already lost all hope and given up the fight then you should have led a charge and killed as many as you could before dying, rather than be the footstools of your oppressors!"

    He pped Rem in the back of his head with a loud bark and growl.

    "Pathetic!"

    "It seems that Dina''s demonstration was enough to kill the fighting spirit of your subordinates as well," Ikaris stared at Curt. "I am disappointed in all of you, even if I no longer represent you as the Princess of my people and rather as the hand carrying the Judgement of my Master, the things you did will never be forgiven.

    Never."

    "I understand."

    "I surrender."

 Chapter 352 We Are Binary Opposites.

    "Ikaris has seeded in subjecting the Kha-Novan Resistance, another opportunity missed," Giza was seated on a piece of what remained of the ship hse and Umbra had been a part of. "With just the demonstration of her subordinate''s power the entire resistance fell in line, even the ones who hadmitted wrongs against their kind and have been sentenced to death have all willingly epted their fate." She added and the man leaned is head and looked at her.

    "Your point?" Umbra asked, "You tend to keep me informed about that bitch far more than you do with the affairs of the Godyer, why is that?" He questioned her motifs and she chuckled.

    Read exclusive chapters at empire

    "My king, you are informed about everything that theyall do, it is simply that the Godyer is a lot less active than he used to be, staying true to his wishes of a leisurely life unbothered by the rest of existence in the embrace of his loved ones and thepany of his closest friends."

    "Do you honestly think that about him?" Umbra furrowed his brows. "I had a simr dream once, but then they all died, it''s good that he found happiness after abandoning me in that empty ce to be his battery." He grimaced. "Now I have even more to take from him when I face them, I will-"

    "Indeed you will, my king," Giza interrupted Umbra''s rant before he could get it off his chest and shook her head. "You have made the same deration many times," She looked up at him. "And yet you refuse to even hear of his feats, the thigs thet make him amazing are things you need knowledge o-"

    "I couldn''t care less about that, the only thing that matters is killing him after taking everything away from him, taking his hope and his dreams."

    "His power has grown," Giza spoke up and Umbra almost let go of the dark mana hemanded when he heard that.

    "Just a little time ago, he was unable to sense me, now he sees and stares whenever he pleases, he is able to percieve me with only a nce just as I can easily find him, even if I try to conceal myself, he seeks me out nontheless," She stared in Sol''s direction, and as though he was listening the Godyer in question raised his head and stared right back at her. The on;y ce he cannot find me now is the inversion of reality where his power holds no weight.

    "What does that mean for me then, is my growth not significant?" Umbra began seething when he thought of Sol growing even more powerful than the absurdity that was his realm.

    "Your growth is indeed significant, Lord Umbra, but inparison, what was once a marathon will be a voyage for you; you need to grow stronger faster than he does to ever stand a chance, there is a limited time to this clock, if you fail I will have no choice but to leave you behind," She warned him, seeing his eyes widen and his brows disappear into his hairline as that warning woke his conceit to a harrowing reality.

    "You would... leave me?" He asked her with his voice almost trembling when Sol''s image shed through his mind.

    "I would indeed," Giza confirmed her words once more. "You see, Sol Vestic is already at the realm of a True Primordial, he is a being amongst only a few million who have managed to reach that insane level of power, but unlike the others who have no idea of a being such as myself, the Godyer discovered my reach and is seeking more strength, he wants to be the strongest across all realms, meaning it is only a matter of time before he manages to reach the Primordial God realm, that is where I am."

    "Primordial God?" Umbra asked with his eyes narrowed. "Is is that much stronger than the Celestial God?"

    "The difference is an oceanpared to a grain of sand," Giza answered Umbra with utter seriousness. "The others all think that Ikaris holds the title of Strongest Cecestial God, but her, yourself, and Sol Vestic all know that the true owner of that title is you, my king, you are the strongest Celestial Got there ever was, stronger than Even Sol when he was of that Realm-"

    "Then that means I hold the upper hand."

    "Not in a billion aeons," Giza countered his confidence with the red pill of reality once again. "As I said, the difference in power is currently heaven and earth, he angry, he is wary of your dark mana, he will mercilessly ughter you if you show yourself before him as you are."

    "And yet you have been adamantly trying to convince me to go after Ikaris," Umbra scoffed. "You only keep on contradicting yourself-"

    "Because I know what she means to him, I have seen it, felt it!" Giza scrunged her nose in disgust. "If you will not listen to anything else, listen to this one truth and then do with it as you will, my King," She pleaded with him.

    "Speak," He instructed her after she had gone silent for an extended few minutes.

    "Arkadia; is a meg that now resides witnin the universe that was absorbed in his collevtive," She began. "To summarise the struggles they experienced there, Sol was too weak to protect Ikaris and it caused her to lose her unborn when they were faced against the Demon-God race born of the darkness within his collective, that moment Sol was at his most powerful, the others may think they surpassed his power, but the Sol of that moment was so unspeakably terrifying that it broke the universe and reset that reality when he unleashed his power."n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "That sounds made up." Umbra scoffed.

    "Let me finish," She pouted.

    "The power he had essed with his limited body was one he still possesses, as do you."

    "Me too?"

    "Yes, is was the power granted to you after you a mortal defeated a demon god; the [Primordial Chaos Demon-God] transformation is something that was lost to time, they are by essence the only offspring I ever had, I was the one who granted that power to him."

    "And why the fuck did you do that?" Umbra nearly released his dark mana over the quasar again. "It seems to me like the biggest issues rear their heads whenever you get involved."

    "Indeed, it seems they do," Giza admitted. "I was excited, Sol until the point of his victory over the demon-god waspletely under a trance of hatred and the greed associated withplete annihtion."

    "He was willing to do anything it took to destroy them; his every breath was dedicated to the destion of demonkind and he was within my grasp, I broke the veil between my reality and his and granted him a portion of my ancient darkness in Ikaris''s absence, it was with the hopes that he would find me, but instead, as soon as he defeated the demon-god his first wish was retirement, the darkness that I had nurtured was suppressedpletely."

    "That was until his fight on Arkadia, where he tapped into the darkness once more using it to force his Godyer body to mature and his divinity to surpass the threshold, it was here that he became a parody of his kind, so powerful that even the first

    True Celestial

    tiered enemy he faced,

    Orion;

    a being that had been created with the sole purpose of destroying beings of light, was mere child''s y to him when he awakened.

    "All this is merely my way of saying, Sol Vestic is always steps ahead, because until this point you have yet to ess this power yourself, even though you are blessed with it leaps more than he is thanks to your tether with me, My king," Giza stopped speaking.

    "Primordial Chaos Demon-God..." He mused. "Is it that big of a deal?"

    "If he finds a way to ess that power again his ascention will leave him directly at our doorsteps, and I will have no choice but to abandon you to save myself."

    "What about all that talk about remaining at my side?" Umbra huffed.

    "My king, I am not the Ikaris to your Sol, I will never ce your safety over my own, do you understand? There is no being I value more than I do myself, but I will still prostrate myself before you and do anything you ask of me, I will destroy Worlds, Universes, Collectives."

    "I will always surrender my body to youpletely and even my soul, you are every bit the man I respect and admire the most in existence, anything you ask of me is possible, I would even willingly cradle death and bear your offspring -you are my god, Umbra darling, but I will never surrender my mortality for you."

    "Then can you call itplete loyalty?" He asked, staring at her with a wary facade. "Can youpare to her?"

    "Ikaris and I are binary opposites." She shook her head and red at him, "We are notparable, as I said, I am not the Ikaris to your Sol Vestic."

    "Giza..." Umbra had finally had enough and decided to ask after seeing her expression every time she mentioned the Goddess of Bnce.

    "Yes, my King?"

    "What is Ikaris to you?"

 Chapter 353 A Painless Death.

    "What is Ikaris to you, why are you so insistent on killing her, yet you have not tried doing it yourself after all this time watching her grow?" Umbra questioned her actions which contrasted her urgent words.

    "Ikaris... is..." Giza contemted telling the truth, and the man before her found distrust in her eyes when he attempted to read her. "She is the one who stole my greatest opportunity before I met you, he was mine, his darkness was mine, but the moment she gave him her soul, I lost him, I do not harbour hate for any individual, rather I am hate itself, but if there were to ever be a being who deserved my concentrated scorn it would be her; she stole what was mine."

    "Hm..." Umbra turned to his task once more. "Is that the whole reason?"

    "Do you doubt me, my King?"

    Of course I do, I doubt and distrust your every breath and action." Umbra responded with his brows furrowed and a dirty smirk across his face. "You''re the least trustworthy being in existence as far as I am concerned."

    "Is that the whole truth, my King?" "Giza repeated his words back at him with an undertone of sarcasm.

    "You seem different than before, somehow..." Umbra, after taking a breath to calm himself, nced over his shoulder at her when she began idly hovering behind him. "Did something happen when you left earlier?" He asked.

    "Ah, nothing important, staying around you when you are upset at me is troublesome, mostly annoying, so I took a stroll across the collective to breathe a little, have I been offending you in some way, my King?" Giza settled at his side and rested her cheek against his shoulder. "If that is the case I sincerely apologise; you are all I have, I would rather not create a rift between us when I am son deeply connected to you."

    "I... honestly can''t take anythin you say seriously, Giza," Umbra kept his gaze straight, "Just remain at my side like you promised, even if we hate each other our goals are still the same as before, cooperate with me and I will kill Ikaris and Sol Vestic for you, with them gone, you will be free to act as you please."

    "Very well," Giza chuckled. "I look forward to the battle that will end all light."

    *** Sector G.Gamma***

    "This is all of them; everyone on the list has been ounted for," Alpha floated leisurely next to Ikaris using her power to leave a triangr upside-down red tag floating over their heads to distinguish them further in case someer decided to try and escape.

    "Princess," Zara approachedraising her hand to her chest once in selute when Ikaris acknowledged her presence with a nod. "Considering that we have now visited the fours in the sector, is there no possibility that there could be more traitors hiding amongst the civilians and the Resistance?" She asked, turning and looking at Hudor who had been the one to raise the question privately a few moments prior to her arrival.

    "Naturally, there is." Ikaris answered matter-of-factly, folding her arms with a sugh and turning to the great tform before her with nearly ten thousand Vatui, Godyer and Human traitors, amongst a few other minority groups. "We have only seeded in capturing the ones that have done official business with the Emporium; by Alpha''s calctions, this is probably seventy percent of the total wrongdoers, we will find the others soon enough."

    "It''s not like they''ll be able to run away either," Dina joined the conversation. "Master has agreed to take the entire sector inside of his collective and grant them mana, this is both to empower a newand more effective resistance, as well as to keep a closer eye on them, since with the system they will likely be exposed as soon as they mess up." She exined, leaving the Vatui woman to nod seriously and nce at the massive army of traitors once more.

    "How will you go about it?" Dina spoke up once more, staring at Curt who was standing, facing the consequences of his bad leadership and the terrible examples he had set over the years.

    "Privately," Ikaris answered. "Currently, only Sol has the power to deal with this painlessly, I am heartbroken to see this many of my people fall into the depths of greed, it''s arguable that some of them could repent and turn their lives around, but for the sake of those who have lost loved ones because of their actions, to settle their grudges and douce their immediate pain, we have to make an example out of them," She sighed sadly and walked forward standing next to Curt and resting her hand on his shoulder while he stood there quietly.

    "To think that the act of saving us, would see this many getting killed for crimes against their own; Your Excellency, I am deeply regretful," Curt admitted. "I was ready to fight for the greed of the Emporium, even after witnessing your return with my naked eyes, it was only through acknowledging your power that I was able to let go of those thoughts of evil and nonrepentance, do not be disheartened, the strong must lead the weak, otherwise there will be terrible cases like this where history repeats itself." Curt gave her a few words of wisdom.

    "Thank you for surrendering, Curt, it is not to my tastes to hastily execute, even an enemy deseeves the respect of a proper death... aside from the Emporium, I wish them all the worst deaths, and will go out of my way to see them suffer."

    "Hahaha, even with no memory of your past, you are still the same, Princess." Heughed haughtily and then looked to the great crowd again. "Brothers, Sisters, today we answer for the crimes wemitted against our kind, do not fear death, just as we did not fear sending them to theirs, the atrocities wemitted are unforgiveable, even if we are reborn a thousand times, let our incarnations do nothing but good deeds to repay that which we have taken!"

    "HUU!" The crowd resonated with cries after the man had finished his short speech.

    "Is this enough?" Ikaris asked, seeing Curt and a majority of the crowds fighing their tears while the others openly cried to the skies above.

    "It is all I will allow, as the one who lead them to this state of ruin." Curt answered, watching Ikaris walk ahead of him with her hands sped, and after her was Dina, and then A and the other Gods of Arkadia, followed by Cosmo and the rest of the apostles, all sping their hands as if they were praying for the souls of the damned.

    The skies darkened, winds began howling, and clouds of white began racing to and from the horizon, reaching into the ceiling of the atmosphere and fanning far and wide in every cardinal direction. Say turned to night, and the space that they had all upied was sealed off from the outside world when a great golden sphere appeared in the sky above them and a person d in gold armour came forth.

    "Sol," Ikaris stared up at him when he began descending towards them, unlike his earlier appearances, this time he really did look like a being of legend, his hair was neatly tied back in a low ponytail, his outfit was dazzling almost hard to look at or look away from, and his mana descended warmly, gracing them all with a sense of ease, it was orchestrated to feel this way, he had yed his part as the exacutioner brilliantly.

    "Ikaris," Sol greeted her first, gentlynding on the tform before her and raising her hand in his own, kissing her fingers softly while she lowered her head.

    "Master," Ikaris responded, and with her address the rest of them lowered their heads as well, the new Apostles had never seen anything like this before, his appearance of grandeur left them speechless and nigh thoughtless, Shar-Khan in particr couldn''t keep himself from tearing up, while others like Zara and Hudor who were a bit more used to him could only smile as his mana flowed around them.

    "You did better than I would have, there was not a single casualty throughout the entire ordeal, well done." Sol raised his right hand to the side and sped his fist lightly, summoning a gateway which Raiden fell through, fully healed and stationary when he beheld his power with his naked eye.

    Experience tales with empire

    "This goes beyond the reaches of a Godyer, this power is impossible to attain-"

    "Of course, not," Sol responded to Curt. "I was chosen by the Goddess of Bnce, and have since transcended," He added and then pulled his hand from Ikaris''s, facing them properly. "All of you, you have surrendered rather than fight unjustly, I admire your valour, I myself am not without fault, I am far from it, I am no perfect being, but I have to respect your resolve." He smiled at them all.

    "How will we die, your excellency?" Curt asked strictly from curiosity and Sol smiled and raised his hand summoning a scythe of gold hugged by ck mes which burned harmlessly.

    [You are about to proceed with a forbidden technique which can backfire if you miss your target/s, will you reconsider?]

    [Proceed.]

    [Forbidden Technique...]N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "Painlessly," Sol answered, and the man took a deep breath and sighed all his worries away.

    "Then, Master Vestic, Princess, I wish with all earnesty that you seed in delivering the Emporium to the hands of judgement."

    [REAPER''S CALLING]

 Chapter 354 No Greater Honour.

    Reaper''s Calling; an ethereal scythe manifest from the darkest part of Sol''s soul, created in his time back on A with the sole purpose of killing anything it touched, even himself.

    In order to attain the perfect killing weapon, he gave up on all defences while using it and ced an irreversible curse on it that would kill him if it missed, in other words, [Reaper''s Calling] had only one condition; something must die upon it being summoned, it had a consciousness that not even the real presence of death could ignore, it was absolute, inevitable, demise.

    "Forbidden technique," Sol spoke while Ikaris and the others retreated to a safe distance behind him. "Reaper''s Calling; Communal Killing," He raised the weapon high into the air, and the ck mes which held it together spread high and far splitting into tentacle aberrations and striking every single one of the used simultaneously.

    Because of the ethereal form it possessed, they felt nothing, all they witnessed was the sensation of falling over, but by the time they hit the ground, their souls had already been separated and blocked from reentering their bodies, they witnessed it with their eyes, everything in one whole, the realm after death which none had been able to return from.

    As Ikaris stared into the skies with her eyes divine, she saw them slowly vanish, parting ways with bittersweet smiles, repentant of their sins they had been given a second chance by fate, aside from Raiden who was dragged through a vortex of mes and teeth, cursing and shouting slurs at everyone, damning them all to a hell worse than the one he was already experiencing, even Curt had found himself in the embrace of warmth as he was pulled in the opposite direction. Read exclusive chapters at empireN?v(el)B\\jnn

    "If this doesn''t prove the existence of something that transcends the Grand Collective then I don''t know what ever will," Solmented, releasing the scythe in his grasp and watching it vanish while the space they were sealed inside of slowly opened up, revealing a mass multitude on the outside, some flying on their own, and others who used the hover vehicles to reach the tform.

    What they all saw were the countless bodies of the dead, neatly rested with their faces covered and their hands atop their chests, even if they were traitors, to see them rested so peacefully caused the multitude to break into sad murmurs and sobs, even those who had been wronged and exploited over the years seemed to have lost the hatred they thought they were holding for the rest of their lives.

    "All of you," Ikaris turned to her apostles and extended allies. "Thank you for today, I hade here resolute to take stain my hands with the blood of my own if the situation became uncontroble, and for a moment is truly was seeming like that was the only option," She paused and looked at Dina.

    "Especially you, Dina, had I been pushed to the lengths you were, I would have undoubtedly erased every single one of them, but to see you hold back at thest minute just enough to not kill Raiden in battle gave me hope, considering what he did to you, I consider you my better, I could never keep a straight head after something like that.

    "It was A," Dina admitted. "Having her with me made me keep myself in check just long enough to aplish the mission," She smiled, resting her hand on the Elf''s shoulder.

    "I did kill someone, though..." A lowered her gaze. "He attacked-"

    "We don''t me you, A!" The elder that had stood by her shouted across the tform. "A Amatacia, you have my total respect!" The woman went on her knees next to one of the corpses, removing the veil over his face and hugging her chest. "You knew my son was a traitor, but rather than shame him, you refrained from even telling me in the presence of the others.." She looked up at Sol and Ikaris. "May we?" She asked.

    "Of course, I would never hinder you from performing the rites," Ikaris answered, standing proudly next to Sol who was still shining as he oversaw the masses while they began retrieving the bodies of their friends and rtives.

    "Thank you."

    "Listen," Sol spoke up, his voice reverberated through their heads and across all four worlds, easily reaching everyone while his mana expanded, epassing the sphere in it entirety. "With that has happened here today, I think the Emporium has been made aware of your presence, your location," He announced, and while he did Alpha began a live broadcas that everyone was able to see, they for the first time saw Sol Vestic. "the Emporium has already dispatched several Armada in this direction."

    Sol looked at Dina, with a raised brow, letting her know thatit was her power which alerted the Emporium, something as significant as the birth of a true Divine was bound to send ripples across the Grand, none had been born in aeons.

    "What will we do now?" The elder woman that had been carrying her son ced him on a hovering bed module and turned. "We are in no condition to escape, nor can we fight them, the whole reason we are in this situation is because they are stronger than we are." She added, and for a moment there was a slight panic amongst the multitude.

    "You are right, they are stronger, but only for the time being, they only have the upper hand for now, but given enough time, and with the offer of a new power I will give you; you will reim your ce as the apex amongst all in the Grand Collective, the only condition is that you not be a part of the Grand Collective anymore."

    "What does that mean?"

    "Detatch yourselves from the Grand, give me your loyalty and I will open your eyes to a whole new reality." Sol dered, and Ikaris turned and looked at him strangely; this was not the usual pitch when they were trying to recruit, but as usual, she knew he had something in the oven so decided to let the man cook.

    "Poweres at a price, but for me, the only thing I am willing to ept is your loyalty," Sol continued. "Your princess has returned but the resistance as it is right now is unfit to serve her purposes, as it is unfit to serve mine, I want to rebuild you from the ground up, purge you of the impurities so that you may once again be a whole people."

    "What if we refuse, will we be exampt from your utopia, Lord Sol?" The woman drew closer.

    "Of course not, I am still providing shelter andplete asylum for all those who seek it, the choice is yours though," Sol answered and the Goddess next to him huffed, amused at his turnaround and how he had guided the message right back to where it once was. "You don''t even need to like me, what I am offering you is the power over Law, an ancient power akin to creation itself, and in return, you join the fight directly, for those who do not, this power is not availible, that is all."

    "Then where will we go?"

    "I have already made the decision to house you all within my collective." Sol smiled warmly at her. "You may think it odd, but inside of my soul is the safest ce you could all be, I will provide for all of you, I will cater to your every need, you will be granted your very own universe to do with as you please."

    "And the catch is that we the Vatui who will stand at the peak, will bend our knees to you?" The woman raised her brow sceptically.

    "Of course," Ikaris answered in Sol''s stead. "With every new member of his collective, he grows stronger, his goals and dreams are things we will never be able to fathom, to offer power to this being is insurance that we will one day be rid of all the darkness which gues us." She smiled, taking a knee and offering her hands to him, imitating famous murals of angels offering their power to beings of greater divinity when her wings slowly manifest and folded on her back.

    "There is no greater honour," A did the same, and then Dina, followed by all their subordinates. "Master is locked in a war that dictates the future of all life within the Grand collective, our fight against the Emporium pales inparison, to offer our presence and thereby our power to him, to give him our utmost devotion and worship, it is a blessing and a privilege." She stared up at her master.

    "A fight greater than ours?"

    "Yes, Master faces foes capable of ending existence, we are cleansing the Grand from the inside, while he shields it from the outside," Dina added. "Offer your loyalty and join hands with us; please consider it."

    "I promise you, I will not forsake nor will I make light of your loyalty." Sol smiled angelically at the masses.

    "Give to me that which you have never given another, and im the power of Celestial Gods; join Ikaris in this new ara, be the Children of Eternity."

 Chapter 355 You Are Not Alone.

    "Is he serious?"

    "The Vatui and Godyers have never lowered their heads to anyone before, even if it''s him-"

    "But look, Princess Ikaris is his supposed to be his wife, right? And yet, she still presents herself on her knee as his follower, there there has to be a reason."

    "He said he would take us into his soul? What?"

    "How is something so absurd even able toe from his mouth, still less possible?"

    After Ikaris and the others had made a spectacle of Sol''s presence and then openly revered him, the masses were equal parts confused as they were entranced.

    A godyer with the power to challenge the Grand Collective by himself; not even in the legends were such a being mentioned, his very presence was cause of concern.

    One by one though, those who could began taking to their knees in the example of the representative of their race, and those who had no tform to kneel on saluted with their hands across their chests, balled into fists above their hearts.

    "If that young woman is able to so freely follow you, I have no doubt that you are a man of stature,"N?v(el)B\\jnn

    The elder smiled, keeping her thoughts hidden while looking at A, who had gained both her favour and her respect after the respect in which she had handled things on their end.

    "Master, it seems they are open to the idea after all," Ikaris whispered, but sol shook his head and gestured to her, taking her hands and pulling her to her feet.

    "It was thanks to you all, I deliberately stayed out of this conflict to see how epting they would have been without me having to demonstrate my power," Sol exined. "I even made a show of exaggerating the pitch to join you, just so I could get a better understanding of their mindset, the strong can only follow someone who is stronger; these people," Sol gestured to them using the same manasphere that he had epassed the Dysos Sphere with and locking it on the entire system as he raised his hand and made a snapping gesture.

    "They follow the simplest structure of power, this will inevitably cause many conflicts in the future, but it will also be a lot easier to assess them by rank and ability, following thews of strength have always led to better constructs ofmunity... with the right leaders, of course," Sol smiled and then snapped his fingers.

    The armosphere wobbled and vibrated as though there was a quake in the air, and the blue of the evening skies became distorted with waves and spectrums of different colours streaking to and fro as the space they upied along with the entire Sphere vanished in a thundering burst, leaving more ripples across the dead sector pushing against dead stars andary objects floating aimlessly in the darkness.

    Before the first Emporium ship had arrived, Sol had taken the entire G.Gamma system into his collective, rejuvenating their star with his mana and cing them in the Earth universe.

    "Master," Alpha appeared at his side. "Something interesting happened with the Earth Project while you were away," She informed him.

    "I''ve only been gone for at most two weeks, I know I asked to not be bothered in that period, but what could have happened that''s making you smile like this?" Sol raised his brow at the System weirdly, seeing her smile an almost genuine smile, making it creepy given her emotional range being that of a reptile.

    "Evolution, of course," Alpha responded, making a gesture with her palm and bringing up a chart of people he had been monitoring because of their unique powers granted by the system. "Here..." She singled out a child, no older than a day old. "This little one is the first that has been born with a unique ability since you allowed me to install the system, his parents have named him, Kang Yu Law; he is from the eastern great continent, near the wall provinces."

    "Born with the ability to fly and manipte the winds from his mother who learnt to float from excessive jumping, even while pregnant and his father who has been a parachuting instructor for all of his adult career," Sol mused, smiling at the window with intrigue. "The first of many..." Sol paused and looked at Alpha. "He blew out the wall and several hospital staff as soon as he was born?"

    "Yes, Master, luckily, medicine as Earth knew it has been changed forever, there are people in hospitals with healing abilities now, mostly former practitioners, so the staff that were injured as well as a few patients were quickly healed."

    "Keep monitoring the kid, Alpha, if his family has any needs make sure that Eve and Usami are aware of it-" Stay updated through empire

    "Lady Takae has already taken the initiative," Alpha added and Sol smiled and huffed.

    "Well, usually when there''s a trickle, a flood follows soon after," He dissmissed her and turned to Ikaris and the others. "The collective has seen a massive increase this time, the stronger the inhabitant, therger it grows," He informed her. "I''ll actively seek out the rest of the Vatui and Godyers hiding in the Kha-Nova, you only have the Emporium as a threat to deal with now." He smiled at her.

    "I know you are doing this to benefir yourself more than you are to benefit the others, but thank you nontheless, Lord Vestic!" Shar-Khan saluted before Sol again and then turned to Ikaris, giving her a bow of thanks as well. "Princess, this is the most progress our people have seen since your disappearance many aeons ago, I thank you from the bottom of my heart."

    "We are only just beginning," Ikaris released Sol''s hand turning to everyone who were still gathered and giving them a sad smile. "For the next two weeks, we will not venture out into the Kha-Nova collective, for two reasons," She folded her fist and raised a finger.

    "The first, is to mourn those who have died, even as they have betrayed their own, they are still a part of us, we will not disgrace their lives like they did their victims."

    "And the second main reason is that in two weeks my supporting pirs will return from their suspension, there will be more on that in the future for anyone who wants to join the fight for the wrong reasons," Ikaris concluded and then turned to Dina who walked up to her side and took a calming breath as she prepared to address the thousands present.

    With a nod from Alpha, Dina cleared her throat and began, knowing that there were tens of billions watching her from across the four worlds.

    [I am Dina Levina, Ikaris''s adopted Kin; the second and newly appointed; Goddess of Cmity in the Sol Collective, with Ikaris being the First as the Queen of the Gods and the Goddesss of Bnce] She kept a rather straight and expressionless facade while she spoke, allowing her voice to do the majority of her perfoemance while she focused more on her nerves not giving way in this situation.

    [The name of this power I am sure you are eager t ohear of is called Mana, it is the first and most powerful source of energy preceeding even matter and life itself.]

    "Goddess of Cmity," One man spoke quietly to his friend smirking. "She is cute for a goddess with such an awful sounding title-"

    "It is a cocktail of my chaos mana and the power of destruction she honed on her own," Renia seemed to emerge like smoke behind the man, resting her hand on his shoulder. "Dina and Ikaris are not the only gods here and although you are free you should know that the heavens are watching you all keenly at the moment, seeking out the rest of the traitors who made off-book deals with the Emporium."

    "You are new so let me warn you firmly before you end up handicapped and unable to recover," She loomed, growing to her full height and ring down at him and his friends.

    "Dina Levina, A Amastacia, and Ikaris Vestic, these three are the wives of Sol Vestic, to even attempt to court them is an offense to His Majesty, I will ask Alpha to ry that across the four worlds when you gain ess to the System, too often you fools get injured and humiliated and even beaten within an inch of death because you reach farther than your little hands can stretch and try to touch the three lights which surround our sun," Renia red at the man.

    "Wha-"

    "Unless he permits it, no being dares approach his wives," She stared at the man.

    "But I was onl-"

    "Unless Master Vestic permits it, none should even think indecently of the three!"

    Renia''s eyes dted into squirming lines and her expression became horrid as she made an effort to scare the man, deawing closer and almost bumping her forehead against his upside down and for the most part, it seemed to work perfectly when she felt his shoulder shudder beneath her grasp.

    "Understood?"

    "Y-yes!" The man shut his eyes and slenched his fists losing his nerve after her voice doubled and her fangs were aimed in his direction.

    "Wonderful!" Renia cheered, reverting to her usual attractive self and tapping the man on his shoulder while he and his friends stared at her shocked at how beautiful.

    "Little men should know their ce."

    "Who was that woman?" One of them asked, tracking the red haired woman as she walked through the crowd before suddenly grabbing another man and growing tall again.

    [The system will provide a codex with all the public information availible about Master, Ikaris, myself and all the others who closely follow them, Vatui, Godyer, Human, Elf, Divine, no matter the race you are, under Master''s umbre we are a singrity, remember this going forward, you are not alone].

 Chapter 356 Taking a Moment.

    "Master," A turned in her bed, groaning and stretching at the call of dawn and then opening her eyes with a light yawn.

    "Yes, A?" Sol responded, he had only just entered the room, but staying under her radar required more than being quiet so when she reaponded to his presence he could only smile at how perceptive she had be.

    "Good morning, Master," The elf yawned again and stretched once more, raising Dina''s arm off her torso and scooting to the edge of the bed before him while he took a seat on the chair next to it.

    "Good morning, A," Sol smiled at her hair puffing around her head and the morning blush across her cheeks. "Did you sleep well?"

    "Like an infant."

    "Woderful," Sol whispered, reaching his hand towards her and pulling her to her feet. "How has your vacation been?" He asked, and she smiled and quickly took a seat in hisp, throwing her legs on either sides and resting her chin on his shoulder while he rested his arms on her hips and she hugged his waist.

    "We have been busy ever since our return home from G.Gamma, sost night was the first in two weeks that I was able to rxpletely; managing such a sudden increase in people has left me rather fatigued, I admit," A answered Sol with a pout.

    "Master~" Dina groaned and sat up almost the same as A had, her hair messy and her face telling the tale of a well-rested woman. "You came before sunrise?"

    "Today is a big day, but I can''t ignore the promise I made, we were supposed to be taking a moment an rxing but with the introduction of four words into my collective all at once, you lot have been busy sorting out many internal conflicts within those four worlds, and I have been busy monitoring the outside world," Sol replied.

    "What promise?" Dina''s brows furrowed and her forehead creased when she tried thinking of what promise Sol had not fulfilled.

    "A reward for seeding in our mission to Sector G.Gamma; I asked this of him before we left," A answered, slowly griding herself on top of Sol while Dina stared at them sleepily. "I am going to spend all day at Master''s side, regardless of what he is doing."

    "Huh," Dina rolled across the bed and stood over the two of them, smiling as she pressed the Elf onto Sol and sat on the edge of his legs, hugging her from behind with an amused expression. "I should have thought about that too, we''ve been so busy since our return that I have missed master, not to mention today..." She sighed against A''s neck and kissed her shoulder, causing the sigils on her to slightly hum in response. "Today is a special day, right?"

    "Yeah, their break and midday for us will be the same, so Ikaris and I decided that their emergence on

    Dusk

    was a good idea.

    Dina''s eyes softened at the mentoin of the supe, three times asrge as saturn which sat inside of G,Gamma with its three sisters all inhabiting an extended goldilocks zone thanks to theDyson Sphere super structure. "...

    Dusk.

    "

    There was

    Dusk

    ; thergest and closest to the great star where Curt had set up base, the next in orbit was

    Liberty

    , the oldest of the four worlds; it was an industrial world where the fewest people lived as the main use for it was mmining and technological experiments, ording to Sol, it was the most important of the four because of the achievements that the best minds of the Vatui race were able to aplish there.

    After Liberty, there was

    The Eventide Domain

    , a world made mostly of water, thanks to the unique atmosphere of ack of an atmosphere, Eventide had mostly flying city structures upied mainly by Godyers.

    Cities conjoined together to make massive countries and even continents, floating above the clouds and waters below which housed leviathan creatures that could only be described as majestic and imaginative beings almost as old as the world itself was.

    The final and farthest from the sun was

    Rafa

    , of the four worlds inside of the Dyson Sphere, Rafa was the one which housed the most obvious civilian to warrior ratio, it was not used for anything special, serving as the only normal world of the four and housing an impressive Ten Billionrge civilian poption.

    Considering the state of their races and how scattered they were across the Grand Collective, this was without a doubt thergest concentration of nonbatant Vatui and Godyers to date.

    "Well," Dina stood after kissing Sol''s cheek. "Ikaris is already awake and about, so I will leave you two and join her, she must be busy preparing the day for them."

    Dina stretched onse more and passed another yful nce at Sol and turned to the showers, opting for a normal day rather than just using her mana and readying herself on the spot.

    "Mhmm," A sighed, sighing heavily as she tuned in to Sol''s heartbeat against her listening to and feeling every thump of his organ as it sent waves of peace through her body. "We will meet you all there."

    "Kay!" Dina answered from beyond the bathroom door.

    "Well then, you have me for the rest of the day, A," Sol smiled down at her. "What do you have nned?"

    "Nothing."

    "...Hm?"

    "I nned nothing, Master, you are free to do as you please, simply basking in your presence is enough to satisfy me..." A sighed and continued nuzzling against him with deep breaths of bliss and pleasure.

    "I wish everyone else was like this, people are hard to please," Sol hugged her tightly onto himself, squishing her to his body and soaking up her warmth and softness.

    "I am your bedmaiden and consort Master, even if I make requests all the time, my purpose is to be your flower-"

    "A," Sol hugged her even tighter, and the woman in his arms responded by rxing like putty in his grasp. "Don''t overthink it."

    "This is nice," She breathed a sigh of relief. "This is the longest embrace we have shared till date, Master," She smiled,bing her nails through his hair and using her mana like a nket to warm the two of them. "It reminds me of that day on Arkadia," She smiled and locked her hands around the back of his head.

    "Does it?" Sol raised is head, staring into her eyes and witnessing the sigils in the shape of hearts take form on top of her pupils.

    "Indeed, Master," She slightly pulled away to get a better view, simultaneously revealing more of her bust while Sol stared into her eyes. "Master," A spoke again. "I love you." She stated, and the man felt his heart skip a beat. "From now till ever more, Master, I love you."

    "A-" Sol wanted to respond in kind, but the elf seized his lips as soon as he lowered his guard, humming against his advanced when his hands began slowly exploring her body.

    Rather than hearing him, she preferred when he showed her through his actions, and this was one such time that she felt particrly needy of his firmness.

    It took only a moment for Sol to take control, and as he did, she lost all resistance and began submitting to his touch, openly obeying his every gesture and silentmands.

    "Hnnnn, she sounds so happy~" Dina stood with her back pressed against the bathroom door, blushing up a storm while water dripped from her chin onto her bosom, running down her body while she listened to the two of them on the other side. "I should ask Master for a reward next time."n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    With a sigh and a pout of nigh jealousy, Dina waved her hands and dried herself and then summoned a suit of clothing onto her body and sighed again, disappearing with a snap of her fingers and appearing in the lounge where she found Ikaris and Talia, while Sara and Alpha were busy in the kitchen.

    "Good morning, Dina," Ikaris greeted her with a smile, but instead of a direct answer Dina quickly dived in the sofa next to the Goddess and rested her head on her shoulder. "Are you well?" Ikaris asked. "You seem a bit flustered."

    "I''m fine," Dina smiled, snuggling against Ikaris and reaching for the little girl before them. "Good morning Mdy, good morning littledy," Dina smiled brightly when she saw Talia''s eyes glimmer with mana after their eyes met. "How are you today?" She asked, slowly taking her from Ikaris''s grasp and hugging her. "Goodness she gets prettier every time I see her!" Dina began reaching down for a kiss.

    "Ban!" Taliaughed out, aiming her hand and firing a mana bolt directly into Dina''s foregead, hitting her with so much force that her head snapped back while Ikaris choked on her snack in shock and Sara dropped her task and came running at them.

    "Mdy!" Sara quickly took Talia out of her stiffened grasp, checking the child while Ikaris continued coughing. "Are you hurt?"

    "I-I''m the Goddess of Cmity, this ispletely ineffective against me," Dina chuckled nervously while her stiffened hands slowly limped at her sides and a serious tone overtook the room. "That said, though," She continued staring at the hole the bolt had made after she redirected it with her mana into the ceiling. Stay tuned for updates on empire

    Dina watched the mana bolt soar high into the sky and then harmlessly burst, making an oval explosion the size of a house.

    "Ikaris, maybe you should consider sealing some more of her mana for the time being, otherwise... I don''t think Talia can grow on Earth amongst other kids."

 Chapter 357 The Two Pillars.

    "We always knew that raising her on Earth would be an issue," Ikaris smiled, taking Talia from Sara and smiling at the child while sheughed. "Talia is the miraculous conception between a Godyer and a Vatui God, her lifespan should be the same as ours; though I suspect she may be truly immortal, which means it will take many thousands of years for her to mature into a young woman," She exined

    "Living amongst friends on Earth would sadden her; close her heart from friendship, and probably make ner numb to the death of mortals."

    "A better option would be one of the three worlds in G.Gamma, preferably thergest, Dusk," Alpha suggested from the kitchen. "There are countless Vatui and Godyer children there; millions of them, she could have a rtively normal life."

    "Indeed," Ikaris concisely responded, smiling still while the small bits of debris fell out of the ceiling before them.

    "Call someone over and have them fix that," Ikaris stared upwards at the tear through the roof again, proud of her daughter''s handiwork. "Maybe she will be another destruction god in the distant future," She chuckled.

    "A goddess of beauty most likely," Dina beganughing again, but saw Ikaris''s head lean in her peripherals.

    "Following the trend of those around her, some dangerous form of deity makes more sense," Alpha came walking from the kitchen pushing their breakfasts on a tray. "You are the Goddess of Bnce, Mdy, Lady Levina is the Goddess of Cmity, Master is the Godyer, Lady Amastacia will undoubtedly evolve into a dangerous title the same, it is likely she will follow in your footsteps."

    "My thoughts exactly," Ikaris smirked, watching Dina pout while epting the food gracefully.

    ***Later that day on Dusk***

    "How quickly did you say they built it?"

    One male spectator in a gathered multitude on a beach asked another, staring at arge floating ind high above the bay of the capital city of Dusk, it was more than five miles across, but at the same time it was so high in the extended atmosphere that it seemed like a pebble to the eyes of the ungifted, only noticeable thanks to the clear skies that day.

    "I never said anyone built it,"

    The woman responded.

    "The princess was on the surface a few hours ago; I saw her with my bare eyes, she stood right there, she arrived from the sky with a maid holding what looked like a child, I couldn''t tell, my vision distorted when I tried getting a better nce, there was another small maid on her other hand as well... and then Goddess of Cmity, you know, the one that defeated Raiden and made the speech two weeks ago?

    The woman recalled.

    "She is in the codex that we can ess from the system..."

    .

    "The small maid waved her hands and it appeared-"

    "Just like that?"

    "Yes, just like that!"

    "Are you trying to take me for a fool?"

    The man asked with his brows furrowed, shaking his fistsically and staring at the structure in the sky again.

    "Nothing just appears out of the blue like that!"

    "But that''s exactly what happened, though; we have state of the art technology here, several thousand years ahead of most of the Kha-Nova Collective- that''s why we were able to evade them for so long... we''re supposed to get some kind of alert, but they showed up, and then that ind did as well when the little woman raised her hands and there was not even a small rm, nothing!" Experience tales at empire

    "But I am saying that your exnation is bullshit~!"

    The man pped his forehead and looked to someone else on his other side.

    "Help me out here man, she''s talking crazy-"

    "Ikaris definitely showed up with those peole, and the little maid definitely waved her hands, and that ind in the sky definitely appeared after she did, someone tried going up there and ended up crashing onto the beach a few minutester,"

    The man pointed to the side at a crater that was now filled with water.

    "It definitely happened,"

    He responded in such a serious tone that his very facial features were morphed into those of a different entity, his nose and lips chiseled and his eyes darkened in disbelief.

    "Definitely."

    "Definitely,"

    The crowd behind the man held the same expression as he did, scarily simr as they all repeated his confirmation with serious nods.

    "Look!" A boy eximed in a birthing adolescent voice, pointing to the skies and drawing everyone''s eye to a golden phenomena that was manifesting in the air above the distant ind. "It''s Lord Vestic!" He cheered holding in his other hand a small figure of Sol that someone had replicated and been selling after they viewed Sol''s appearance in the codex,

    [A special event is about to ur, would you like to view the emergence of the two Pirs of the Goddess of Bnce?]

    The system window appeared before all of them and the crowds erupted in murmurs and slight cheers, this was clearly another chance they would recieve to see more of the Godyer that had alle to fear and respect, after his subordinates had singlehandedly saved them from a pending threat they had not even been aware of.

    "That was today?"

    "Two weeks fly by pretty fast huh?"

    "I saw them in the codex too, one is Vatui, and the other is a Goddess thates from here; the Sol Collective!"

    "Did you see what caused them to get banished as punishment, referring to them as their base titles is far too simple," The boy with the figureughed. "Dr''ul; Goddess of War, and Cecelia the former Right Hand of the Battle Maiden, Ikaris of the Vatui, they are the most powerful of each side... falling under the strength of the Princess and Lord Vestic alone!" Heughed haughtily. "They are even stronger than Lady Dina, that''s just crazy!"

    "You read everything, wasn''t that codex a marathon, like a whole library of information?"

    "Everyone surrounding Lord Vestic is powerful, even his personal maid is stronger than arge percentage of us, though, she never engages in battle and only serves as his servant -they are all super!" The boy continued singing their praises while the adults surrounding him slowly grew into his hype and began getting excited as well.

    "When I am of age, I will definitely be one of them, whatever it takes, I want to meet Lord Vestic in person and serve as one of his hands, like Lady Dina or mister Cosmo!"

    "Big wordsing from a little boy."

    Unanimously, everyone selected [ept].

    ***

    "How long has it been?"

    "I do not know, time here flows differently, but many months have already passed, you ask every new day, and I answer the same every new day." Drul responded to Cecelia, ying with a small tendril of mana in her grasp.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    The two of them were pressed together, back to back watching the endlessness and the ck skies as they turned to day with the quick rise of the first sun. "I know," Cecelia responded. "It is thanks to you that we have been able to make it this long," She praised the goddess of war. "You have taught me so much over this time period, things I would have probably taken years to learm, decades even."

    "I have nothing else to do, fighing you is pointless in here," Dr''ul responded with a scoff. "I need you as strong as possible so we can fight at our best and survive..." She lowered her head, staring at the sand beneath her. "The trials get harder with every sunset, had you not been with me I would have lost my sense of self in this torture."

    "I have been enlightened in this ce, Cecelia, something like this endless warring is what Master Vestic endured for Ten years, I understand Umbra a little better now."

    "As do I, if he is indeed Master''s own self who has experienced this for ten years, and then was rejected and tossed aside, I understand how he feels, I kind of already did-"

    "Ha! You were never tossed to the side, Kiddo," Dr''ul raised her head and bumped Cecelia in the back of hers. "Ikaris had high hopes for you, she had great expectations, but you failed her, that is why you ended up in here."

    "Yeah," Cecelia sighed. "I know-"

    [Dr''ul, Cecelia,] Ikaris''s voice exploded throughout the domain, shaking the very dimension and causing them to take to the sky when the sand became loose and started swallowing them from the air growing unstable as a casualty of the vibrations.

    "Princess!" Cecelia snapped in several directions, almost panicking. "Is this another trial?" She turned to Dr''ul. "We''ve only been on break for a few minutes out of the hour!"

    "No, look," Dr''ul pointed further upwards. "A doorway has appeared; the month has finally ended." The Goddess of War held relief in her eyes as she stared upwards at the skies beyond the gate.

    "Wait it may be an illusion!" Cecelia grabbed Dr''ul''s hand when the goddess began ascending.

    "Have a little faith, Cecelia, have you not felt it yet?" Dr''ul chuckled and grabbed the woman by her hand while the mes beneath her feet began condensing. "Master awaits us, the Queen of the Heavens awaits us, countless Vatui and Godyer signatures I have never felt, await us!!" She took on an almost feral expression as her mana coated over herself and Cecelia and repaired their clothing to their former perfection.

    "Come, Cecelia, freedom and valour await us beyond that portal to the world we have long missed!"

    "Ah...!"

    Cecelia saw Dr''ul''s entire body take on an ethereal glow and her hair catch ame with bright crimson mana.

    "Yes!"

 Chapter 358 She Never Changes.

    "What is that?" One spectator asked. "It is far less spetctacr than the appearance of lord Vestic was," One of the bystanders watching through her system window scoffed, staring at the gateway that lead out of the [Nightmare Prism].

    "What, are you expecting a spectacle every time they do something?" The man standing at her side asked her with an incredulous stare and his brow raised. "Isn''t it too early for you to be getting entitled?"

    "The System called it an special event, but so far it''s just them standing and staring at a boring glowing door, there''s nothing special about that- I put my job aside to be here!" The woman stubbornly scoffed back at the man.

    "You..."

    The Vatui man at her side shook his head and sighed, this type of person was just the type he detested the most, speaking to her any further was a waste of his intelligence, he gave up on her and trotted to a different, less crowded part of the beach; easier said than done though considering the amount of people that had been curious about the ind before the announcement about the emergence of Dr''ul and Cecelia.

    The sand was choked for miles in either direction with people wanting to get a glimpse of this event, system window or not.

    On the Ind in the air was a direct replica of the Vestic Estates, everything down to the trees were the same, with the only obvious differencesing from theck of human staff since it was a bit of a stretch to take someone from earth and have them work for you on a foreign world unless their entire family was going to be there with them.

    Sol stood passively next to the gate and his three women stood directly before the it, Sara stood to the side with Talia in her grasp staring intently at the gate, with Keele and Jenifer standing on either of her sides, while Renia, S''mael and Adonai were on the other side awaiting their sister with Hudor, Zara, Cosmo and the other apostles behind them. they formed an arc before the gate impatiently awaiting their missed siblings and friends.

    "I am getting jitters of anxiety, what if they suffered some form of permanent injury?" A spoke up when the gate began leaking mana across the ground in with breathing pulse to the release.

    "I don''t worry, A," Ikaris smiled, resting her hand on the elf''s shoulder when the pace of the pulseing from the mana became erratic and the air around them began shaking. "The two of them are healthy, this might also serve as the motivator you have beencking." She added, and A lowered her gaze, indeed, with all her talk of progression and grandeur she had yet to achieve anything else.

    Once again, Dina had taken a step away from her, she was now many times weaker than her post demanded.

    ""A month ago," Sol began speaking casually. "The Goddess of War, Dr''ul, and the Vatuimander, ��lo��n Cecelia, got into a dispute of rank and race, this was their first meeting," He looked at the small eyeball that hovered before him and above everyone else, addressing all of their spectators and hearing the screams when he looked their way. "They demonstrated an unwillingness to cooperate, and a fight broke out resulting in a rift between the Arkadian Panthron of gods, and the Vatui forces that had been mobilised over the months prior..."

    "Master has a lot of fans now, a whole fandom," Sara chuckled, ncing over her shouulder at Keele.

    "It happens when you save an entire system full of refugees, I suppose," Jenifer responded with her gaze locked onto the gate when even more misty mana began seeping through it, hugging the ground while the winds around them seemed to lessen as a sinhouette appeared.

    "Today, their final trial after a month inside of the equivalent of hell will be end, and Ikaris will hand down her judgement," Sol cobtinued speaking. "There is nobody more qualified for the role of Judge, not even myself."

    "Not even himself?"

    "-Ikaris, as the Goddess of Bnce has a unique ability born of her title which allows her to read the desires, the heart and the soul of any living being within her reach, upon a nce she already knows the heart of a person, if they fail to pass her evaluation, they will both be permanently banished in the realm of nightmares, never to see the light of the Collective again," Sol concluded and then gestured to the gate.

    "Dr''ul, Cecelia,e forth."

    "Why do I feel nervous for them?" One man gulped with sweat rolling down his chin. "That ce sounds awful, and there is no information on what it is actually like in there," He shook his head.

    Simrly on Keele''s homeworld in another sector, the entire ��lo��n n was watching with their breaths held and their hearts clenched. Thay hade to respect Cecelia again after she had worked tirelessly for their sakes, to lose their leader a second time was thest thing they wanted.

    They prayed for her sake that she had changed, and on the side of the Arkadian Pantheon, they were all silent, nobody had been made privy to the fact that Dr''ul had voluntarily entered the [Nightmare Prism] to ensure no more conflict between the opposing sides.

    Her efforts, though obscured behind her title as their leader being dirtied intentionally, had been greatly effective in killing all hostilities between the Vatui and Arkadians, had she remained, the Vatui would have been bitter, even if they knew that Cecelia was in the wrong, and the Adians would have never changed their outlook.

    A foot came forth, ck sand falling off and a misty white ethereal mana almost the same as the mist that had been escaping the gate, except it was rising rather than crawling, at first there was only a slight difort, but as Cecelia entire leg emerged, a sudden foreboding atmosphere grabbed the entire ind.

    [Wee, ��lo��n Cecelia, demigod]

    The skies began trembling when her mana was introduced to the world with the atmosphere bing heavier and clouds forming across the ins, it was worse than Dina''s ascension, while the Goddess of Cmity only left a feeling of defeat, Cecelia''s presence manifested with the terror that came after death, and when her torso and head poked through the gate all which breathed came to a sudden standstill.

    "Master Vestic," Cecelia acknowledged Sol''s presence as soon as her eyes rested on him, lowering her head and falling to her knee, the Godyer smiled and gestured to Ikaris right after and Cecelia arose once more and turned to her leader with her eyes watering and her hands shaking. "Your Highness!" The woman eximed, lowering her head once more and resting her forehead on her hands on the ground.

    "Cecelia," Ikaris greeted her calmly. "Stand, suppress your mana, there is much we still have to discuss," The Goddess gestured that she stand to the side.

    Ikaris nor Sol would not admit it now in front of everyone, but their true expectationsid within the progress that Dr''ul had made; Cecelia had transcended to the demigod realm past cosmic, but she had failed to reach the stage of a true divine, she simply had less control over her massive quantities of mana.

    "Next," Sol gestured to the gate again, watching as Dina and A stood before Ikaris, while Keele and Jenifer stood before Sara and Talia when Dr''ul''s golden mana seeped through the gate, cracking the edges of the dimension as her foot emerged the same as Cecelia''s had, though, that was where the simrities ended.

    [Now enters Dr''ul, the Goddess of War, a fully realised Celestial God].

    Dr''ul''s gold-ted armour pierced the shining gate chest-first, and her hands rested on the frames of the mana holding it together as she emerged, smiling menacingly with her head aze, her eyes travelled across the faces she did not recognise, and then across the faces she did, finding her siblings silently rejoicing whilst simrly terrified when they sensed the mana she was exuding.

    Unlike Cecelia who came through with rtive serenity, the goddess of war emerged with utter chaos; her eyes and hair zed, and her fangs glistened, but most terrifying was her mana:

    If Cecelia''s mana was a trickle of rainfall then Dr''ul''s mana could now be considered a hurricane inparison, it spread all across G.Gamma in an instant, causing not one nor the four, but several worlds and Gxies beyond the sector to tremble as she chuckled and raised her head, triumphant of her trials, staring into the skies and then lowering her gaze at Sol.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Cecelia''s mana had caused a fear of doom across the sector, but when Dr''ul''s mana washed across this same sector the people trembled from the fear of existing, their entire bodies broke into shivers.

    "Dr''ul," Sol greeted her, the same as he had done with Cecelia, but askance of her surrroundings and the sheer horror her mana was creating the goddess lowered her head and took a knee before him with her hands raised in a cupping motion.

    "Master Vestic," Dr''ul stared at the ground and Sol in response cancelled the gate and rested his hand on her head with a proud fatherly smile. "I have returned."

    "Well done, Dr''ul-"

    "Fight me."

    "Huh...?"

 Chapter 359 Changed

    "What are you talking -"

    "Fight me, Master Vestic!" Dr''ul raised her head beneath his palm with a blush. "I am grateful for being thrown in that environment, it has helped me grow where I thought growth was impossible before, it forced me to constantly face my fears, day after day, week after week, I have ovee so much since entering that terrible ce!"

    "It ended up being the perfect environment for reflection and self-improvement."

    "Only you could say something so absurd about the realm of nightmares, I hope to the highest power that be that I never make any decision that will cause me to end up there again, death is far more pleasant," Cecelia shook her head, but then went quiet after Ikaris gave her a side nce.

    "Cecelia and Dr''ul are such vastly different beings, are they not?" Ikaris asked, and Sol who had been put on the spot chuckled and raised is hand off the goddesses head, allowing her to stand after a gesture to the others.

    "

    Vast

    might not even be big enough a term to describe their differences anymore," Sol responded, thinking how one was banished there and the other chose to go, and then one that was banished came out wishing to never return while the other that had voluntarily entered had seen the entire ordeal as an opportunity to better herself.

    Dr''ul was simply too pure of heart, as a goddess that benefited from the worst oue of conflict; she was an awfully optimistic deity.

    "Did you hear that, she thinks she can win against Lord Vestic," A spectator was finally able to speak after he had been subjected to the mana of both Cecelia and Dr''ul. "Even is she is strong, and I have no doubt that she is, isn''t is presumptuous to ask that of her Master as soon as she exits confinement, isn''t that what got her there in the first ce?" The man chuckled with his brows furrowed and his shoulders rxed.

    "Presumptuous?" Dr''ul turned to the eye floating nearby. "Who said that, who dares call the goddess of war presumptuous?" She red causing the man who was in a factory on the industrial world to shake his head and hold his mouth.

    "What is happening here, anyway?" Dr''ul began extending her senses again. "So many people connected to Alpha''s system, where did all these peoplee from, this is over seven times the amount of Arkadians when it was at it''s prime and fully popted before the demons attacked us."

    "They are..." Cecelia''s eyes widened after she too began extending her senses, something else that Dr''ul had taught her inside of the [Nightmare Prism]. "Vatui and Godyers...?"

    "Indeed," A turned to her smiling. "While the two of you were confined, we managed to rather easily usurp the Resistance, they were entangled with the Emporium and involved in many wrongdoings, that was two weeks ago." She exined briefly. "If you wish to know more, Alpha has created a codex with all the information we have gathered since-"

    "Hold your horses there, A," Dina looked across Ikaris''s shoulder at the elf and then at Cecelia who stood staring at her. "She lost use of the system before she was sent away, and by the looks of it..." Dina''s eyes narrowed. "She hasn''t gotten it back just yet, which means Ikaris has not made a decision."

    "Ah," A looked at Cecelia again, and indeed, there was no indication of the system''s power inside of her body augmented or otherwise. "I see," She lowered her head to Ikaris. "I apologise for speaking out of turn."

    "Wait," Cosmo stepped forward standing closer to Cecelia. "If Lady Cecelia has yet to be pardoned, then why is the Arkadian Queen already using the system?" He asked, in his eyes, just as Sol and Ikaris had discussed a month ago, it looked like favouritism.

    "That is because, the Realm of Nightmares was not my original punishment, I have seen what it does to a person when they dwell there by themself, so I cast my title as queen aside, I abandoned my duties and turned my back on the pride of Arkadia and requested that I recieve the same punishment as Cecelia, we were both the cause of the rift between our people, I did not want her to bare such a heavy burden alone." Dr''ul confessed and their spectators all went silent.

    "What?" Cecelia''s eyes widened in horror.

    "That''s right, she requested to be treated equally-"

    "But..." Cecelia slowly began tearing up. "The things you saw... and what you experienced, what we..."

    "I overcame those fears and horrors thanks to you, Cecelia," The goddess stood proudly. "We entered as enemies, and now I consider you a good friend and my partner in battle, as you call me sister so too do I; you."

    "I am honoured to have spent the time fighting at your side," Dr''ul turned to Ikaris and took a knee. "This is why, Ikaris, I willy my life as leverage and dere that the ��lo��n Cecelia that entered, and the woman that emerged are two different people, she has changed, please have mercy on her!"

    "Wow, Dr''ul has never put her life on the line for anyone other than Sol and Ikaris... to think it would be someone that isn''t even Arkadian; our sister seems to have changed a lot as well," Adonai was the most taken aback as the eldest and most observant of the entire Arkadian race.

    "Interesting..." Ikaris turned to Adonai and the other two when they slowly went on their knees as well.

    "If my sister is willing toy down her life for another, then I no longer have a shred of doubt in that person, please, Goddess of Bnce, show mercy for her sake." Adonai dered his stance.

    Along with them the Vatui all took to their knees as well, leaving the only people standing the original gang of Sol, Ikaris, Dina, A and Sara who held Talia, with Keele and Jenifer at her sides lowering their heads out of respect as Cecelia''s former Juniors.

    The woman under trial dared not move or speak a word, she just stood there quietly praying with her eyes locked onto her boots.

    [The system recognises ��lo��n Cecelia once more as a user].

    Seeing the message, Cecelia sucked in a breath of relief and balled her fists, lowering herself to her knees and sping her hands tightly together before herself.

    "Thank you," She whispered. "Thank you for believing in me again..."

    "I am not the one to thank, Cecelia," Ikaris gestured to everyone else. "You made a change and they have seen it."

    "Thank you, everyone."

    ***

    "Haha, I never imagined this could be so much fun, if you asked me five years ago what I expected to be doing today I would never say that I would be skipping across stars, this is like a childhood dream I never imagined!" Dinaughed, standing on the calm surface of a dwarf star in the final stages of it''s life before explosion. "This is amazing~"

    "Keep going," She heard Sol''s voice in her head. "You have to get used to this as soon as possible, I already told you, I''m gonna be gone for a while," He stood atop another star across the gxy staring in her direction.

    "Right," Dina started concentrating again, utilising [Divine Sight] to lock on to stars in the distance and then closing her eyes to make a map of them in her mind.

    "Have you found me?" Sol asked.

    "Not yet, you''vepletely suppressed your mana and I can''t even sense you through the link right now," Sheined.

    "There are beings out there with no signature at all,pletely invisible to even myself, but that same invisibility is how I am able to find them; you are trying to find a presence, Dina, but instead you ought to be searching for theck of a presence, search for nothingness."

    "Master, that makes no sense," She leaned forward, locking on to the nearest star and tethering her mana to it, appearing an instantter with a sloppy crashnd across the surface kicking up a sr storm in the shape of a ring from theck of traction as the speed she was travelling at prior made her orbit it twice before she could gain her footing again, stopping with with a loud huff. "We are in the void, there is nothing but emptiness everywhere!"

    "Naturally, but these beings disturb the flow, use [Divine Sense] again, seek the disturbance in the flow of mana that keeps the void from falling apart," He instructed, doing the same as he watched her.

    "Master," Dina spoke after a minute of silence. "What did you find out there that has you so eager to leave?"

    "I found an entire collective full of beings of the Celestial Divine and Primordial Tier."

    "What?"

    "Ikaris already knows, but I haven''t told anyone else yet, the thing is; they lie just outside of the Grand Collective which we happen to be on the edge of, the same as my collective was not a part of the grand and instead resided just on the skirts of it."

    "When I was searching for other beings like the Primordial deity at Umbra''s side, I discovered an area so dense in energy that it was impossible to view it with my sense alone, I have to see it in person."

    "And you are sure that this is a ce with Primordial beings?" Dina asked, appearing at his side sloppily again resulting in Sol holding on to her arm and righting her.

    "There is no doubt about it; inside of that collective are beings of pure primordial essence, there may even be a few Divine Primordial beings there as well." Sol ruffled her hair praising her for figuring out how to search the void for something without a presence.

    "How long will it take?"

    "Does time flow differently there?"

    "What will you do if you find others like yourself?"N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "Dina," Sol rested his hand on her head again ruffling it once more causing a pout when she hurried to fix it a second time. "If I get even the slightest incline that something about that ce is off, I will immediately return home,"

    "What about Alpha?"

    "I am leaving her with Ikaris and taking her present copy, Jenifer''s adopted daughter."

    "Can Ie?" Dina held on to his hand. "I don''t want to be separated again-"

    "Ikaris needs you by her side, Dina," Sol shook his head and ced his palm on her cheek.

    "Come on, let''s try again."

 Chapter 360 Grand-Scale Threats.

    "You are leaving?" Dr''ul Stood from her seat in the lounge of the Vestic estates. "Is that a good idea considering the threat looms over our heads?" She stared at him so intently it seemed nigh hostile.

    "What about Umbra and the Dark One?"

    "Umbra is currently locked in trying to enshrowd and absorb the core of Kha-Boris, he doesn''t have the ability to attack right now, unless he chooses to abandon that he won''t be moving for another month at least," Sol retored.

    "And as for the Dark One; she has shown up several times already, but has shown no interest in anything other than to observe, I don''t know why, but I get the feeling that she does not have the means to outright attack us, otherwise there is no telling whether the Grand wouldn''t already have been thrown into darkness long ago."

    "I would like to ask that you all try to understand," Ikaris continued sipping her tea daintily, sitting next to him while Talia was seated at her side in a baby chair to keep her still. "Sol has always done what is best for us, at every given point he selfishly takes risks with us at the forefront of his mind..."

    *Sip*

    "And it''s no different this time," Sol admitted, resting his nose on his sped fists. "The real goal here this time it so see if I could potentially find an ally; someone that could possibly help me in dealing with the Dark One, I don''t usually even think about seeking help, but that''s because usually there is nobody there to really help, I hate to say it to your faces like this; but you''re

    all

    weak."

    "Ouch," Dina ced her hand over her heart jokingly but the goddess of war was still far from receptive of the idea, she had just returned, ready to do his bidding, but now his bidding in her eyes was to abandon them, regardless of how he said it, that was how she was viewing it.

    "What if they attack as soon as you are gone?" Dr''ul shook her head in denial, causing her siblings and the others in the massively extended lounge to nod in agreement with her scepticism.

    "What if they do not, your Excellency?" A spoke up after sipping politely and then cing her tea on the table where Sara quickly removed it while Alpha went around cleaning up andying down snacks.

    "Master has already made up his mind, why are you trying so hard to stop him?" She added and the goddess huffed and sat in her seat causing it to rattle with Cecelia and Renia on her left and right. "You should be looking at the positives right now-"

    "I totally understand what he means and his intentions, A," Dr''ul admitted with a sigh. "But the timing is ill-advised, we are in a turning point in a war that had previously been on hiatus, his presence is what rallied the entire Grand Collective, what happens when the leader of a movement disappears?" She asked.

    "Another rises to take their ce, whether that be temporary or permanent, every shoe can be filled." Dina retorted with a little more heat in her tone than before. "Master is doing this for the good of us all, he has already told you that at the first sign of something bad happening he will immediately return, what more of a promise than that do you need?" She narrowed her eyes and the goddess red at her in return. "Just suck it up already-"

    "When did you get so bold, even in Sol and Ikaris''s presence, I am still your superior, watch your tone, fledgling!" Dr''ul warned Dina, and the new Goddess sneered and sat forward ready to retort again, but it was Sol''s hand that stopped her from standing when he nudged her back into her seat.

    "Dina," Ikaris looked around at her. "Do not start unnecessary fights with anyone over situations that can be resolved with words."

    "But she isn''t-"

    "Dr''ul is an ally,

    your

    superior and our close friend, believe me, I am not against punishing you as well if you make an issue out of this," Ikaris stared at her, her eyes held no hostility but her words were chilling to the bone.

    "In everynd there has to be order, not even you are exempt from these rules, understood?"N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "..."

    "Dina."

    "Yes," She calmly replied, lowering her gaze and biting her lower lip while her mana calmed. "I understand, I''m sorry," She looked up at Dr''ul and the goddess nodded and then looked at Ikaris again.

    "Before you start, I will admit," Ikaris stared at Dr''ul,cking the same kindness she had shown in her warning to Dina. "What Dina said is not wrong, Dr''ul, pushing for a change on this decision is pointless."

    "Suck it up and move on,"

    Ikaris red, leaving the Goddess of War frozen when the blues of Ikaris''s eyes seemed to pierce her soul and leave an imprint of fear within her. "This is happening regardless of your blessing, understood?"

    "I..." Dr''ul raised her head and then very slowly lowered her chin in a nod of eptance. "Yes, Understood-"

    "Ban!!" Readtest chapters at empire

    Talia eximed, and without hesitance or even looking her way, Ikaris caught the child''s hand and directed her palm upwards where arge bolt of raw mana ripped through the roof again, leaving everyone speechless when it easily travelled into the outer atmosphere and detonated while the babyughed at the lights and debris falling.

    "What the hell was that?" Cecelia''s eyes were as wide asmps. "Who taught the baby offensive magic!?" She eximed.

    "Nobody, she learnt it on her own from always ying with her mana," Alpha responded, waving her hand and fixing the ceiling. "Master and Lady Ikaris seem amused rather than bothered by her power.

    "Indeed we are," Ikaris chuckled. "Those little explosion spells of hers are cleverly adorable!" She pinched Talia''s cheek after releasing her hand, cing a mana orb in herp. "She is growing fast, at this rate by the time she is a year old she will probably already be walking and talking fluently, and possibly creating new magic."

    "We made a total badass of a babuu~" Sol on the other side ruffled her hair with praise cooing and blushing.

    "I swear..." Dina stared. "Only you two would not think this is terrifying, the other day she nearly blew my head off, I barely managed to react fast enough!"

    "Haha, then be quicker next time, she is only a baby," Ikarisughed, remembering how Dina had been freaked out by Talia''s power as a toddler.

    "She has as much mana as a cosmic deity..." A mused. "That is shocking, and wildly interesting, Master!" She pleadingly looked across Ikaris at Sol. "Can I begin teaching her defensive spells?" She asked excitedly. "I will keep them purely defensive so she refrains from hurting anyone around her."

    "She does seem to like whatever you teach her," Sol admitted, and Ikaris nodded and smiled at the elf. "It seems like a good idea."

    "... I thought my family was weird, but you lot make the Pantheon seem like normal people." Dr''ulmented, and Ikaris burst outughing since she had been of the same thought while seeing A offer her skills as a teacher to a baby less than a year old.

    "Weird is not enough of a stigma at this point." Dina chuckled. "We have a baby that could probably blow up the earth if she threw a tantrum, that is beyond what weird can cover."

    "Alright," Sol stood. "Now to the finer details," He looked across the room at everyone. "I will be visiting all of the ces I''ve recently taken into the Collective, that includes even the minor colonies that have gone unmentioned from the start, everyone who wants to join the fight will have the chance to leave."

    "Are you saying...?" Renia looked up at him.

    "Yes that includes Arkadia as well, you will no longer have the protection of the Sol Collective, you will be ouside from now on as a part of the Kha Nova Collective."

    "The Collective growing within me is still immature; to take something as fragile as a sentient being in and out is still outside of my capabilities, but once I achieve that power I will be able to do the same as my husband does, I already have the ability to fold space, but to force such a unique trait onto myself would harm my soul and possibly hinder or kill my future growth towards bing a Primordial like he is." Ikaris added.

    "I didn''t even know that there was a Collective inside of you," Cecelia''s eyes were once again as wide as light bulbs when she was exposed to this revtion. "How does it work, is there a way that we can do the same, is that why you are so powerful?"

    "That''s right, it is the main source of our powers being as absurd as they are," Sol answered. "Dina has one inside of her soul as well, the real reason you feel so threatened by her mere presence is not because she quickly evolves from tier to tier; it is because her mana and power far exceed even Dr''ul''s, but her body would rend if she even tried essing all of that power in her current state, she has no choice but to break her limiters repeatedly so she can ess that massive pool.

    "Ironically, Ikaris can only use about 20% of her overall power as well," Sol added. "And she has yet to even try using that much, we; the three of us..."

    "We are already powerful enough to pose a threat to the entire Grand, it''s just that I am the only one that can prove it."

 Chapter 361 Goodbye, For Now.

    *Kha-Nova*

    "This is the first time we are choosing to be apart without the need to be separated," Ikaris sat between Sol''s legs, gazing at the stars while he held her in his embrace. "I am a little scared, Dear," She admitted.

    "It will be fine, Ikaris," Sol responded, resting his cheek gainst her neck and nuzzlingfortably. "Just as I can be there for you now, even collectives apart that won''t change, I''lle running if anything you can''t handle arises."N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "That leaves the question of what those threats are that would make me need your assistance," Ikaris made a fair point; the same point that Dr''ul was trying to make earlier that day.

    "They are all neutral, as far as I can tell," Sol kissed her shoulder. "The only enemy here in the Kha-Nova Collective left is the Emporium, however many of them are here, and the faster you deal with them the less likely there will be reinforcements from the rest of the Grand Collective in the near future, they need to be dealt with tjoroughly to prevent a resurgence."

    "They are already so wary of us, though," Ikaris smiled. "I doibt that many woulde after what we have achieved here."

    "Don''t underestimate them though, the worst enemy is the one you know nothing about, and right now, we have no idea who the three first generals are, neither is there any record or information on their Immortal Emporer, I know that you can handle the ones before getting to them, but those four leave me very wary, the `Fear the Unknown` is a saying for a reason."

    "Of course, Love," Ikaris smiled at his warning and turned in hisp, looking up at him with genuine cincern, "And it applies very heavily to you as well, right?" She countered his words yet again and the man smiled down at her, rubbing her cheek with his thumb and choosing to kiss her on her forehead rather than agree again.

    "Should we begin then?" Sol after several more minutes of shared silence with his wife stared off into the void again.

    "The leaders of Dusk and Liberty who told me that it is Possible to integrate another five or sixs into the orbit of G.Gamma''s sun now that it has been restored to its former life, but the development of apleted Sphere will take something like seventy years," Ikaris nodded at his first question while standing after taking his hand.

    "That''s a lot shorter than I anticipated, honestly, are you sure you want to use Arkadia?" Sol stared down at everyone waiting for him and saw Dr''ul nod at his question.

    "It was a decision made by voting amongst the pantheon, they have spent arger time than most dedicating their hearts to growing stronger ever since they discovered the existence of beings dead set on killing us," Renia announced from her sister''s side.

    "It was agreed upon unanimously." Adonai added, so with that information removing thest shred of doubt Sol had harboured, he closed his eyes carefully severing just the Arkadian Universe and then adding G.Gamma to it along with all the smaller worlds and outposts heh had taken over thest five months of being a pain in the Emporium''s side.

    "From his side, he sped up time and did this over the span of several weeks, going back and forth and carefully selecting exact replicas of the spaces, suns and living conditions within systems to relocate that many worlds.

    However, from the view of those who were watching him, the process seemed almost instant.

    His eyes glowed a bright menacing gold, and golden veins popped up and raced across his skin forming strange, almost arcane magical patters beneath his flesh, then as soon as his appearance had fullt changed to Godyer, his mana subsided and he closed his eyes, opening them anew.

    The only people present who seemed to have an inkling of what had been done were Ikaris, Adonai and Dr''ul, who were more adept at dealing with Divination in the form of creation, and S''mael who was the God of Destruction and had sensed the rupture and recreation of several links around him.

    "Is that all?" Dina furrowed her brows when she saw Ikaris and Sol descending off the rooftop after the two of them had privately conversed for almost an hour.

    "Are we already outside?"

    "Not yet, I have been rearranging everywhere in order so that travel is as cost-efficient as possible," Sol shook his head and then turned to Ikaris holding her shoulders and kissing her forehead.

    "Master," She smiled sadly at him. "It is hard saying farewell."

    "Then don''t." Sol smiled at her.

    "Jenifer."

    "Yes, Sir," The woman appeared from within Sara''s shadow like a ghost taking a knee befre him while the others all fell in line and stood at attention. "As we discussed?" She asked.

    "That''s right," Sol rested his hand on her head. "I will take Alpha''s variant; Jena and the original will remain here with all of you."

    "I understand," The woman smiled sadly when the System message appeared before her.

    [You have lost administrative rule over the miniature system; Jena].

    "Do not cry, Mother," The small girl appeared next to Jenifer and rested her hand on her cheek. "Uncle will take gare of me, and I will make sure that he returns in good health!" She smiled.

    "I will miss you, little one," Jenifer sucked in a breath of fresh air and then kissed the little girl''s forehead. "Be safe, Master Vestic," She turned to Sol, standing and giving him the new salute that was being passed around their ranks since thest expansion of G.Gamma.

    "I will-" Sol nodded at the woman and then turned around just fast enough to catch A by her sides and prevent her from knocking him over with her overenthusiastic hug.

    Your next read is at empire

    "Master," The elf nuzzled against his chest when he ced her to stand again. "I wish I could tag along, but I understand that it is ironically safer here against the Emporium than out there where there are beings capable of hurting even you~!"

    "A, Dina," Sol rested his hand on her head and then hugged Dina after she approached, wearing an expression silent sadness. "I will miss you both with increasingly with every second that passes," He smiled down at them, hugging Dina''s head to his neck and taking a deep breath.

    Ikaris''s eyes shone brightly, and her sigils all lit up in a brilliant white when Sol turned to her, causing the sigils on A and Dina, as well as the small one on Sara''s hand to shine brightly in resonance with hers while Talia began crying for the first time since she was born.

    "Ikaris..." Sol spke her name solemnly and then went silent with a gasp when she hugged him and locked her hands around his waist.

    "Remember, I cannot live without you," Ikaris smiled against his chest and then looked to the side at Sara who was silently watching with the crying babe, gesturing that she bring her over.

    "There, there," Sol took the child from the maid and smiled when she immediately went silent in his grasp. "He kissed her cheek and opened his palm above her head, leaving a small golden ring hovering above her chest which quickly disappeared. "A little blessing from papa," Sol smiled warmly. "If you ever think

    OH NO!

    just think of daddy and I will be there faster than you can make the roof go BAN!" He chuckled when the babe began waving her hands at him, taking his face with her little palms and leaving a wet kiss on his nose.

    Lastly, there was Sara, as he had promised, Sol did not want to leave her behind again, especially after what happened back on D''ol of Arkadia, but his reassurance that she would be okay this time came from the maid herself when she broke character in front of everyone for the first time and grabbed Sol in a tight hug.

    "Master..." The maid cried, rubbing her face in his shirt. "You will return this time, yes?" She asked still rubbing her forehead back and forth, he could feel her hands slightly shivering while she put on a brave face, so heid his hand atop her head and hugged her to himself with a bit more firmness to calm her shivers.

    "Sara-"

    "I love you, Master, I truly, uncinditionally, love you. I do not want to part again, but I am reserved to ept that your role as our protector requires travelling alone, so... so I will suck it up!"

    "No need," Sol held her tightly. "And don''t think that you are alone," He smiled at everyone who watched them. "You have many friends and loved ones here this time, Sara you are not, and will never be alone again, besides..."

    "Talia needs her big sis, right?" Sara released him with a sniffle and chuckled. "Even though I love you so," She rubbed her eyes walking backwards until she was at Ikaris''s side once more. "I trust that the little Lady needs me far more than you do, I will never leave her side so long as I live, Master," Sara rubbed her eyes again, seeing Talia reach for her from Ikaris''s arms.

    Sol stood opposing and staring at everyone present, saying goodbye to this many people was a hassle, but it reminded him of why he was doing it in the first ce. "Thank you all."

    Seeing the Godyer lowering his head before them was a shock that none but His three wives and his closest friends in Renia and Dr''ul knew about, some things simply were not made public, and it seemed it would remain that way as Sol slowly began ascending while assuming his Deity appearance of white hair and inverted eyes.

    "Why did he thank us?" Adonai looked to his sister when he saw the expression of sadness she made upon hearing Sol''s words.

    "Why else, brother?" The goddess of war turned to her sibling almost crying. "He has been through a lot, and has lost a lot, he is doing this because he wants to lose no more," She smiled. "To trante; Sol was saying..."

    "Thank you for being alive."

 Chapter 362 I Can Handle It.

    "Uncle," Jena sat atop his shoulders while he leisurely sailed across the void of his own collective, taking onest consensus of the Arkadian Universe he was about to leave behind and all the new entities he was leaving in there.

    "Yes, Jena," Sol answered her almost endearingly. "How long do you suppose this trip willst in actuality?"

    "I don''t really know," Sol admitted. "My hope is this journey remains below two months, since Umbra will have taken the core of the Kha-Boris by then, but I am fully expecting to return within the next three weeks to a month maximum; I don''t want to be away from them for too long."

    "Too many variables?" Jena asked.

    "That''s right," He nodded, feeling her small hands grip his hair when he began speeding up. "Say, Alpha has little to no emotion and it takes an extreme and usually catastrophic event to get her flustered, but you seem to be fine expressing genuine emotions, why is that?"

    "My surrogate mother, Jenifer Law, is a special woman to me, even though she is strong, she is also lonely sometimes, she dedicates her everything to whatever cause she follows and leaves no room for pleasure and family, the same as her mother Chey Law does," Jena replied.

    Discover stories at empire

    "So?"

    "I calcted that her perfoemance drastically improves when she has an emotional tether to something-"N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "Have you been simting a personality to get her to perform at her best?" Sol''s eyes slightly narrowed, that to him seemed almost cruel.

    "No, my real mom, Alpha, warned me beforehand about the risks that came with manipting anyone for either mine or your gain, Uncle, I did not simte... well, I did but it is genuine." She tried exining, demonstrating emotional intelligence in her response opposite of Alpha who would just say the thing regardless of how it sounded or made someone else feel.

    "So then answer it sensibly," Sol leaned his head and looked at her in from his peripheral.

    "Mother was sad, so I altered my coding and added synthetic and evolving emotion to my programming, the aim was to be her real daughter overtime, and we now share that bond, I achieved my goal," She exined.

    "Mother adores me, and I love her too, we get in arguments all the time and she even wanted me to experience having friends like a real... you know," Her feet slightly swung while she spoke from his shoulders. "Unlike Mom who has no personality, I have developed a true persona thanks to mother''s efforts, I am my own being."

    "And that is a part of why you call me uncle instead of master?" Sol raised an amused brow at her.

    "Actually, I just don''t want to call you master, it feels forced, even Mother calls you sir most of the time," She replied with a scoff, making Sol aware that he had an interesting travelpanion this time.

    "Alright then," Sol closed is eyes, making onerge leap and exiting his collective. "It''s time. "He ced one hand on his abdomen and another outwards to a vast empty expansion within the Kha-Nova Collective.

    A small hole opened up in his palm and from that hole a miniature universe emerged,pletely separate from the collective inside of him.

    "I will see you soon," Sol extended his hand and released the tiny globe-like phenomena watching it rapidly expand outwards filling the space in a matter of seconds.

    "We are outside again," Ikaris stared across the emptiness, finding Sol as soon as she looked for him, he smiled onest time, making a gesture with his hands and casting a golden globe across the entire Universe that separated it again from Kha-Nova by hiding it away in a pocket of space only essible by her. "I will see you soon, Husband."

    "And I you, Wife," Sol closed his eyes and took off ina sh of white and gold, disappearing from her and the others''s perceptions from one leap.

    "I made a big deal about Umbra''s ally crossing the collective in a matter of minutes, but I realised pretty soon after that I had done something simr when I was eacaping pursuit before," Sol admitted feeling Jena take a seat on his back while he flew diagonally upwards in the directionless space, taking the shortest path to the edge of Kha-Nova.

    "I was not aware of what happened at that moment, there was a small disconnect." Jena looked down at him.

    "Unlike the collective itself which is full of mana, the passage between collectives is rather sparse of it, there is no friction from one space to another, so I made Alpha shoot me across the space using all the remaining mana I could conjure at the time, right now I have so much mana that in theory a distance from the edge of the grand collective to the one outside could be covered in an instant."

    "I sense a buting along," Jena huffed. "Uncle, if you did that you would expose yourself to the beings you are going to investigatem thest thing you want is to be percieved as hostile from approaching too fast, right?" She theorised and he nodded.

    "Right, which is why I will do that here in Kha-Nova, exit the Grand, and then spend the next few days approaching with my mana suppressed entirely.

    "Drifting?"

    "And that is where youe in," Sol gestured behind himself. "You exist in a unique space where most entities if not all of them have no Idea how to even begin perceiving you, I will use your power to perpetually increase my speed until I get there, so her."

    Sol closed his eyes, connecting to her directly while she closed her eyes and epted the knowledge Alpha had left inside of his mana like a blueprint.

    "Uncle," Jena leaned her head after a few minutes and stared at the edge of Kha-Nova in the distance across several more systems. "Your estimated time of arrival is anywhere between five to six days."

    "Make it three to four."

    "I will make adjustments," She closed her eyes again and then slowly floated off his back while he was travelling, easily keeping up with his speed. "Shall we begin?"

    "Let''s do it," Sol extended his hand forward and stopped himself, taking hold of the void like a sheet anding to a dramatic halt while his mana oozed from the corners of his mouth like fire and his hair matured into a golden glow, fanning around him when he released the void and went into a crouch like an athlete on the verge of sprinting.

    [Your mana is umting at a critically dangerous speed].

    "This is nothing I haven''t expeerienced before, keep going."

    [Charge].

    Sol continued breathing mana into the void, lowering his defenses and putting everything into speed while a slingshot-like contraption materialized beneath his feet from Jena''s effortsstretching forward as far as the void was extensive, creating a phenomena so massive that it wasn''t even visible from any angle in or outside of the systems it upied.

    [Uncle, you are ready for release,] Jena disappeared and spoke from inside of his head. [This is quite the dangerous undertaking, even as a Primordial being of the highest order, it will harm you].

    "As long as I''m not dead, I can heal from it, the difort or pain, whatever it is will only motivate me further!" Sol used the remaimder of mana spared for his speed and created a field behind himself, he had intentionallye this far away from everyone with a bunch of empty sectors in front of him because of the consequences of what he was about to undertake, but he still used the barrier directing everything sideways instead of behind himself as a failsafe.

    "It makes me wish I had covered this direction of the Collective as well, I only bothered covering the sectors that had outposts and those with sentient life, this is one of the few ces I can''t leisurely travel across." Sol made one quip before his form was nearly torn apart when the mechanism released him.

    [Are you alright?]

    "I can take it!" Sol''s lips peeled backwards and he created a drill-like construct before himself, maximising his speed with mana constantly bursting in verses from the soles of his feet. "It hurts like hell though, tearing them apart at this speed, it''s like that one analogy of the unstoppable force meeting the unmovable object, except I can already move them, so instead of breaking me apart, it just really hurts tearing through the nucleus of a star!!" Sol managed to exim while his perception of time, space and the in-between was rendered useless.

    Gxies were rend into two in an instant, he was moving so fast that the darkness disappeared and all the lights mended into one spectrum of moving colours

    "To think she can casually move at this speed!!" Sol thought back to the visits he got from Giza. "I don''t know if I should be scared of her or impressed that she is capable of doing it!"

    [Hang in there, uncle, only three more terran days of this and you will be at the edge of Kha-Nova].

    "Three days of perpetual hell, can handle it!"

 Chapter 363 Sol and Giza.

    "Khalle-Nova is about to see the absence of the Godyer for the first time sinve he first appeared, my King, it is now or never, the journey he is about to undertake is one he cannot just leisurely abandon, he is moving at amazing speeds in the opposite direction of us," Giza announced, furrowing her brows with her hand crossed un?" She caressed her chin in wonder.

    "Why?" She asked herself. "There is nothing in that direction, is he attempting to find another Grand collective somehow?"

    "There are more?" Umbra asked.

    "Of course there are, what, did you think that this was the only spot inside of infinity where there existed life?" Giza raised her brows in amusement, but quickly suppressed her humour and turned her attention to Sol again.

    "Why is he going to the edge of the Grand?" Umbra broke her train of thoughts with a simple yet pressing question. He always imagined that the day Sol made a move it would be in his direction, this puzzled him just as much as if did the entity allied with him, it showed on both their faces just how much it did.

    "I do not know what he is thinking; maybe he decided to give up-"N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "Never." Umbra snapped, his singr word held within it all the personality that resided with Sol Vestic, as his clone, nobody knew Sol like he did. "It''s impossible, believe me, Sol Vestic will never give up, he will never concede, he is a perpetual force of nature incapable of stopping himself from seeking strength!"

    "My King..." Giza stared at Umbra''s back. "This is the most I have seen you and him resonate."

    "Whatever the reason is, he isn''t giving up, Giza, trust me on that, Sol won''t ever give away all that he has, you say that this is an opportunity, but I can only see it as a trap," He spoke warily, avoiding and overlooking her remark on his and Sol''s simrities to get his point across.

    "Then I am even more confused." Giza turned to the dark in her mind seeking answers, causing her eyes to roll over into her head and her body to stiffen while she continued seeking answers. "He is moving at speeds that dictate he will not stop anytime soon, physically exhausing and hurting himself to travel beyond the realm he is currently in."

    "He''s not running though," Umbra argued his point once more. "When an enemy moves in the opposite direction it can only be for two reasons, a retreat, or a trap, and as I said, Sol Vestic does not retreat, or rather, he won''t." He added. "Don''t get an funny ideas, he''s still very much in the game... Giza?"

    Amidst speaking to her, Umbra was shocked when he realised that the Dark Emissary was no more, she had simpluy left him there.

    Rather than be disturbed or even slightly perplexed by Giza''s actions, he turned to the quasar and took a breath to calm himself. One more month and the great phenoena would be entirely enshrowded in darkness, and then it would take an additional month for him topletely absorb it by breaking it down into ck mana.

    ***

    "[Uncle, there is something approaching you faster than you are moving] Jena almost screamed in Sol''s head, causing him to wince because of the tone and pitch she had used.

    "What?"

    "Someone is approaching you!"

    "That''s impossible-"

    "Sol Vestic, you have exposed yourself!!"

    Giza''s voice exploded around him through the Kha-Novan Void and Sol for a second nearly broke his momentum, butmitted to his task he ground and grit his teeth, focusing even more mana into his feet and casting another lehgthy healing spell on his body when the vessels in his left eye now disying the scar he had long forgotten about began rupturing.

    [Infernal Technique; Stream]

    Sol cast a secondary thrusting magic from the soles of his feet, causing the mechanism before him to rattle as even his mana was struggling to form while he continued pushing his speed to the absolute limit.

    "Say something!" Giza screamed at him again, but even then, Sol remained fixated on his task and ignored her voice. "Where are you going?" She asked far moe calmly than she had been speaking a moment prior. "Answer me damn you!"

    "I have a question," Sol answered using his mana like a reverse link into her head causing Giza to freeze at the edge of the Kha-Boris Collective and stare at him. "Will you answer my question honestly, Dark One?" He asked, she watched his ethereal form like a string stretched across gxies, moving away from her, her curiosity getting the better of her the woman huffed and crossed her arms with a smile.

    He had followed her power back into the inverse reality where only she had power, he had spoken to her directly, bypassing her defences and speaking into her head, she was intrigued.

    "I will answer honestly, Godyer, Sol Vestic," Continue your adventure with empire

    She replied, her initial goal was to attack him as soon as he exited the Khall-Nova borders and entered the passsage, but now, she was reserved to do so.

    This was her first real interaction with her first candidate.

    "What is it that you wish to know?"

    "I already know your goal and purpose," Sol admitted. "That day when you first appeared before me, I understood them as soon as I saw you; you wantplete and total destruction for the entire Grand Collective and whatever may lie beyond that, your goal is to turn all existence into a timeless singrity, I already know this."

    "Then what else could you possibly want to know, that is all there is to my existing purpose, I am inevitable, the answer to life and death, the true end."

    She raised a brow, even more intriged than she was a moment ago.

    "What is your name?" Sol asked. "I have met darkness before, but she was only darkness, her title was one given to her by the enemies who feared her, just as the emissaries of fate and light refer to you as The Dark One, and I see you as Umbra''s Ally, but I know myself to know that if you have been around him this long he undoubtedly gave you a name."

    "Indeed, my King did bestow me with a name, a beautiful name that only the apostle of darkness could have thought of,"

    She smiled leisurely following above him where he could not immediately sense her.

    "Apostle of darkness, King?" Sol scoffed. "He is a facade of the original, nothing more."

    "My name is Giza,"

    She answered, preventing Sol from ndering Umbra''s name any further.

    "My Lord named me Giza."

    "Tame..." Sol pouted. "It''s a nice name."

    "What do you hope to aplish byplimenting me, your kind words are meaningless-"

    "I am being kind because someday I will end your existence, I will kill you sometime soon, Giza, so I am extending this one moment of kindness to you because I know that Umbra is incapable of seeing anything else, I know that he will never love you, never like you, he will use you as a tool and then when you expect it the least he will betray you," Sol smirked through the pain. "I will show you."

    "No, my King is kind to me-"

    "If he was kind to you then why are you still sad, Giza?" Sol slightly leaned his head and stared right at her. "If he was such a good Lord to you, then why are you here trying to establish a connection to my soul?" He continued smiling. "I see you, Giza, I see you as a sad existence wishing only to be seen by those you have watched since before the dawn of time."

    "How dare you-"

    "You will fail," Sol continued to eerily stare through the dark veil separating the two of them. "You and Umbra will ultimately fail, I will kill you both for threatening the Grand and my family, but I am not without sympathy, so I am giving you the opportunity now to feel what kindness actually is, because the next time we meet I am going to end your life."

    "You do not have the power to make such a im!"

    Giza''s anger boiled, the pools of ck within her eyes spiralled in tandem with her rage, ovee with this sudden uneasy feeling she had never experienced before she broke the veil, descending into the physical in towards him, but before she couldy a hand on Sol he spun and rested his hand on her cheek, leaving with her a lingering warmness she had never felt from even the hottest burning stars.

    "Wh..."

    Giza stuttered, staring at Sol as he vanished in a stream of golden mana, leaving her sights in an instant.

    "What is this?"

    She shuddered when the warmth spread across the right side of her face, her skin that had always been pale in that area flushed with a healthy blush and his mana rippled through her causing her right eye to be a calm hazel.

    "What did you do to me?"

    Giza continued to shake, staring at her long hair in shock when several strands changed from ck to a shade of blue.

    "Sol, what is this!?"

    She stared, holding her face and resting her hand above a heart she never knew existed when her right eye began streaming tears.

    "That is the love I want my daughter to grow up with, unbothered by the struggles of dark and light, I want Talia to be happy, to feel loved,"

    Sol answered using the link she had yet to sever.

    "That is my love for my child in its purest form, the feeling I get every time I see her, every time I hold her, every time sheughs, she is precious to me beyond words."

    "My gift to you this once, Giza, is unconditional love, keep it, hold on to it for as long as you can, it is all the love you will ever experience, I won''t fight hate with hate,"

    He stared ahead again, sure she was no longer following him.

    "I will stop the cycle with you and my brother."

 Chapter 364 Outside of the Grand Collective.

    "Where have you been?" Umbra greeted Giza with a tone of misery and his eyezs casting the judgement that he couldn''t while he was locked in the process of absorption. "You keep going off on your own... hey, let go of me."

    Amidst what was supposed to be himining, Giza approached him from the side and slowly wrapped her arms around his torso, then with a sigh she braced herself onto him and closed her eyes. "Giza," Umbra called to her again, staring at the strand of blueing from her scalp and stratching the full length of her hair. "What happened to you?"

    "It is indeed, different," Giza mumbled while she held on to him. "The sensation, the atmosphere, My King, your body is cold to the touch, I never noticed before."

    "Answer me, what happened to you?" Umbra demanded a response from her, eyes wide in shock when he saw the blush of her right cheek and the hazel in her eye above it. "Who did this to you, are you hurt?"

    "I am fine, my King, just a little confused," She released him, floating in the void next to him with her hand covering her eye when it began streaming tears again. "It is everything I imagined it would be, and so much more, I am overwhelmed by this feeling of... warmth." She furrowed her brows.

    "Who did this to you?" Umbra calmed himself and turned his attention to the anti-quasar now being rapidly absorbed into his body. "Why have you deliberately been avoiding the question, Giza?"

    "I am sorry, my King, but I would rather not exin this struggle to you. It will take some time for me to get used to this new sensation, I beg your patience while I try to suppress it." She smiled at him, a genuine smile almost radiating with warmth.

    Realising she hade into contact with some form of being of light, and ruling everyone out based on the conversation they had before she left thest time, Umbra was already aware that this was Sol''s doing without even sensing the mana running through her body, but if she was unwilling to exin what happened to him then he had no chance of getting it out of her.

    He had discovered that what she thought was her loyalty to him was nothing more than co-operation, what she thought was her unwavering readiness to serve him in every way was nothing more than a mimicry of what she had observed through other beings who disyed total loyalty, like Ikaris whom she obsessed over.

    Umbra figured out that the being he named Giza was naive, she was easy to manipte because she had no prior interaction with anyone else, she was a tool he could always sway in whatever way he wanted as long as he said the right things.

    Even as a being of pure evil and darkness, Giza was innocent.

    "If you have trouble suppressing it, I can help you." He offered to get rid of the obvious Godyer mana surging through her body, but she reclined from his touch when he reached his hand towards her. "Giza."

    "Apologies, my King," She lowered her head and shook it, "I wish to rid myself of this invasive power on my own, I understand that to you who are experienced with it, destroying it would be no trouble, but I need to also learn to counter the enemy."

    Without raising her head, Giza disappeared again, swallowed by the void as she entered the inverted emptiness that stood parallel to reality.

    "Fuck,

    Sol Vestic

    , what did you do to her?"

    ����

    Aside from Giza''s interruption, Sol was able to continue travelling towards the edge of the Kha-Nova Collective without hassle or any other interruption, he did sense several Primordial beings out in the distance while he travelled, but they showed no interest in him, some of them even actively avoided his path, others hid their preseces and the weaker ones fled when they sensed him.

    Three days after setting out, Sol was before the great barrier that had healed after Ikaris had shattered it in her fight with the Eighth General which was what allowed him to get his first hint of the Collective outside.

    "This is it, the edge of a collective," Jena appeared when Sol slowed and rested his feet on the barrier which was at least a dozen times stronger in this area because of the ovep between Kha-Nova and the Grand Collective.

    "I never imagined I would need to venture beyond these stars, I have only explored one out of the millions of collectives, the grand collective is so vast," Sol ced his hand on the barriers. "And yet, I am being forced to seek outside help because of a time limit."

    "It would take years to do the same across the Grand, Uncle," Jena huffed and crossed her hands, kicking the barrier and watching the waves of light rapidly ripple across the horizons. Readtest stories on empire

    "Yeah," Sol took a deep breath, removing the chackles that held his Divinity locked away and cing his hand on the barrier, "I don''t know what lies beyond this threshold and what hostility I will be faced with," He admitted, seeing the sigil on his arm which connected to his wives light up when all three of them sensed his uncertainty.

    "It has to be done." Sol stood properly on the barrier, leaning his torso and angling himself for a punch. "This is the only-"

    With a single punch the masks that had protected the Grand and Kha nova caved, and Sol was sucked out by an unexpected vum that spat him into the passage then sealed the barriers shut before he could even stop spinning.

    "What the hell was that?" Jena caught Sol by his arms and righted him, creating thrusters beneath her legs to steady the two of them.

    "Aren''t you supposed to be eight years old?" Sol raised his brows at her.

    "I am, but that frightened me!" She chuckled and released him. "Did it harm you?"

    "No," He turned his back while the sigil on his hand slightly dimmed and then went dormant again. "Let''s keep going, Jena," Sol created arge barrier of his own beneath his feet, staring in the direction of the collective so far away that he could barely see it and then preparing himself for a jump.

    "Extend your powers as far forwad as you can, create an eleration tunnel, your estimate of a week from here to there is too long, I want to get there in half the time."

    "Understood," Jena closed her eyes and started creating one ring after the other, each spread almost as far as a gxy and each slightly smaller than thest. "I think I covered as much as the full distance of three Origins," She looked at him. "I am not mom, the power I have is the same but as a clone of the original I am limited to some degree, I am not as strong as she is.." She lowered her head.

    "That''s fine."

    "What?"N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "The tasks I need done are tasks that I was assured by Alpha that you were easily capable of aplishing, don''t sweat the small stuff, Jena." Sol smiled at her and ruffled her hair.

    "Right!" The mini System chuckled and vanished, resting within his soul while he stared ahead at the rings.

    Unlike the inside of a collective, the mana out in the passage was harder to manipte and took far longer to absorb because of how sparse the particles were, almost as if the membrane of space was deliberately keeping them apart.

    Knowing this, Sol had already abandoned the idea of external absorption and was instead focused on internal mana reproduction, putting pressure on his soul''s inner worlds and the vast collectives within him to specifically recreate Divine mana rather than expose any prospective enemy to his Godyer mana and reveal his trump card.

    There was no friction here in the passage, so Sol made a show of exerting power to the point that his collective dimmed within him with his initial leap through the first ring which copsed the space between him and the second ring, granting him speed even faster than what had almost killed him on his way here.

    "This is nuts...!" Sol stared ahead, keeping his trajectory steady while he moved to prevent any idents from uring. "There has to be a way to replicate this inside of a Collective''s dense mana field!" He eximed excitedly.

    [Maybe there is, but is now the right time to be thinking about such things, Uncle?] Jena asked from within his soul and he chuckled.

    "I suppose not!"

    Each ring was the equivalent of a gxy apart from the next, but in the span of a second he was easily crossing thousands of them, the tunnel of rings looked like an endless tunnel of light instead. And for each he passed, the system would adjust the others and create another.

    Far away, where no being existed, where no entity resided, what was an infinitely long tunnel to his eyes was a small dot barely moving from onerge source of light to another smaller but much brighter one.

    "Three to four days max, One month toplete this quest, and if I can''t, I have no choice but to return emptyhanded."

    Sol''s eyes narrowed and his attitude became dry of any fun or humour.

    "Wait for me, Ikaris, I will return."

 Chapter 365 Avoiding the Darkness.

    "Master..." A stood on the roof of their New base on Arkadia. "I can barely sense his mana anymore, and it gets more faint with each passing day," She rested her hand on the hears sigil over her chest and sighed. "I already miss him terribly." The elf sighed and looked to her right where Dina was doing the same as her.

    "Cone along now, Dina, A. I thought that I was going to be the distrscted one but the two of you have barely done anything over thest six days, trust that he will be fine and return quickly, focus for the sake of everyone else, please," Ikaris approached from behind with Sara and Talia in tow.

    "It doesn''t feel the same without his constant watch," Dina agreed with A while obeying Ikaris''s order to get back to work. "I think this is the first time since he became Godyer that he has turned his back."

    "Master did not turn his back-"n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    "You know what I mean, A," Dina poked the Elf''s head while the two of them walked side by side to their leader. "Master has been watching us without break since our incident with HIM above ALL on earth, this is the first time since then that his attention is deliberately somece else and not directed at us." She exined with a worried expression.

    "I feel bare without his constant watch, this is the first his gaze has not been on me since the incident with Sitri here in the Arkadian sector." Ikaris added while A agreed with the two of them, nodding.

    "What we be without him is a mystery, but know, Sol was not interested in the fight between us and the Emporium, what he is doing will ensure the survival of the Grand Collective."

    "Of course, we should celebrate his departure." A smiled and took Dina''s hand. "He would be sad seeing us sulk like this."

    "Indeed," Ikaris answered, looking forward at a vast army mixed with Arkadian Gods, Vatui, and Godyer Warriors, and everyone in-between: a temporary encampment that upied nearly all of Arkadia itself, exempting ces like Dusk, Rafa, Liberty and The Eventide Domain which had all been used as alternate bases hidden along with G,Gamma in case there needed to be a mass retreat.

    "We have our fight and he has his own, we are too busy to sulk."

    "Rest assured, your Highness, the Arkadian pantheon has dedicated their everything to this fight against the oppresssors, and will continue to do so henceforth," Sorath, the Goddess of the Sun approached along with Dr''ul, saluting with her fist across her chest.

    "While I wish I had been present at his departure, I am thankful that Lord Vestic is taking such measures for our sakes, I am grateful and willing to help you in whatever way possible to contribute to this unpayable debt even at the cost of my life."

    Sorath smiled humbly when Ikaris extended her hand towards her, gracefully taking it and taking a knee before her. "You honour me."

    "Sol respects you, Sorath," Ikaris replied. "He holds those who treasure the lives of others and strength in high regard, to that end you and the Goddess of War are not that dissimr, it is good to see and fight alingside you who my husband treasures as an asset." Ikaris pulled the goddess to her feet and tapped her shoulder.

    "Our ranks have been significantly buffed with the merging of worlds," Ikaris looked at Dr''ul next. "Compared to before, we have nearly quintupled our overall power."

    "This is good, but I will always urge you, Ikaris..."

    "Of course," Ikaris smiled. "I will never underestimate the enemy, that is why despite us having thisrge force we will not attack the emporium yet, we have Kha-Nova in our grasp, and Sol has already forbade us from venturing into the Kha-Boris Collective because if Umbra''s presence, so we will choose another target instead.

    "If I may," Cecelia intercepted Ikaris''sst statement, standing to the side with her hand slightly raised.

    "Go ahead," Ikaris raised her hand, transporting everyone of necesssity inside of arge conference room where the Vatui woman appeared with a pen in her hand and a digital board behind her.

    "Uh..." Cecelia made a quick scan of the lecture like surrounding and then turned to the board, clearing her throat as she began scribbles that were turned into full diagrams by Alpha who was processing the information in tandem with what she already had.

    "Kha-Nova rests on the many edges of one the Grand Collective, which is not as spherical as the higher powers have made it out to be." She began.

    "We are in Kha, an 8-cell cluster of collectives, a cubic prism without beginning or end; a tesseract which independently moves along the walls of the Grand and supplies itself."

    "It has one of the highest numbers among clusters, consisting of Sixteen Collective junctures and eight sides, that is why the Emporium traffic here is always abnormally high," She drew a diagram of a tesseract while Alpha brought it to life using augmented reality with mana.

    "Master vestic spected that the cluster was pulling the Sol Collective along the outer walls as well, which was why they remained interlocked in a gravitational struggle for as long as they did without his Collective drifting away into the Passage like many others have in the past.

    "I suppose being a part of the ememy''s highest ranks can be benefitial, this was never revealed to the lower ranks or to the public; I had no idea." Zara stared at the diagram hovering in the air before them.

    "You learn something new every day," Hudor nodded next to her, and then folded his lips nervously when he found several Arkadian gods staring at them.

    This was not the ce for casual chatter, they needed to pay attention.

    "If our goal is to eradicate the Emporium frim the Kha cluster whilst avoiding interacting with the Dark One and Master''s sworn enemy then we have three options to choose from as our closest targets," Cecelia began writing the sixteen names and assigning them a collective within the cluster.

    "We can choose between Kha-Chroma, Kha-Lima, and Kha-Geta which is an equivalent distance us and the Kha-Boris collective, but twice as far away from them."

    "Alpha," Ikaris hummed, thanking Cecelia for the exnation and offering multiple options. Readtest stories on empire

    "Mdy?" Alpha appeared before Ikaris with a bow and offering her a beverage.

    "Of the three mentioned, which do you have the most information on?" Ikaris asked, epting the drink and thanking the system for her ever-punctual refreshments.

    "That would be the Kha-Lima Collective," Alpha gestured to the point on the map highlighting it for everyone to see. "Amongst the three collectives offered as first choices it is the closest to Kha-Boris, equivalent in distance to them and us from whichever side you choose.

    "That''s unfortunate," Ikaris hummed with her brows furrowed. "Umbra is an existence that none but Sol can challenge, if it is just hi, against the entire army of us, we would still lose," She admitted. "It is wise to not test our luck by lingering too close to him." She raised her head seeing many shocked expressions along with those who already knew this fact and were more afraid than they were shocked.

    "We will aim for the Kha-Geta Collective and continue moving in that general direction to distance ourselves as much as we can in Sol''s absence, without our shield the darkness will eventually chase us, and while we are a match for the Emporium, we are mere ants beneath the heels of a rampaging behemoth to the Dark One." Ikaris stood and stared down at Alpha. "Inform the masses and begin the shift immediately."

    "Yes." Alpha disappeared from before Ikaris, and a momentter there was a System window before the faces of everyone present and everyone else that had been granted the system.

    "I never Imagined that there would be an existence like this in the Grand Collective." Union sighed with his small hands crossed, seated atop a desk rather than in the chair that had not been tailored to his small stature.

    "I always spected that there would be powers greater than the Gods, and Sol Vestic proved me right, I expected his evolution to be the final one too..." He admitted, looking at Sorath who walked past him while everyone else started clearing the halls.

    "But since bing a god, he has moved on to someting far greater, much like a lot of my brothers and sisters have." He stood and began walking.

    "I have uses for you, god of weapons," Alpha appeared at his side. "While I am nigh omnipotent and can craft many things perfectly, I stillck an element of imagination when ites to said task, with your help, the warriors may be able to upgrade their weaponry to aid where their mana and fighting skills fall short."

    "No, Sol Vestic would frown at the thought-"

    "Master Vestic was hard on you because you relied solely on your inventions rather than put in the work to gain strength, you hid behind your divinity and made excuses, that is what he detested, but here your tools and weapons are only going to be used as conduits and channels, there is a difference," Alpha shook her head.

    "Please," She slightly lowered her head. "I already have the cooperation of the Vatui engineers and Lord Adonai, every hand that can help my goals along is eagerly weed.

    "Ah..." The god of weapons blushed and averted his eyes from the small maid who was closer to his height than anyone else he knew aside from the god of Dwarves. "I... suppose I have no choice if you are being so formal, L-Lady System!"

    "Thank you," Alpha smiled slightly and raised her head. "Please take my hand, I will guide you to the -"

    Union grabbed her hand with aically serious and manly expression while Dr''ul snickered, watching them from across the room.

    "Let''s make some weapons!"

 Chapter 366 I Am Very Calm...

    "We made it within my adjusted calctions, Uncle," Jena smiled at Sol while he was in the process of slowing down having reached their destination.

    "I haven''t seen or interacted with that many of them, but I can tell at a nce; this is not a normal collective, everything we expected is right behind this veil," Sol came to a halt, resting his feet on the outer walls of the collective and releasing a sigh of relief amidst another of tension. "We have no idea what we''re about to encounter."

    "Be a little optimistic, uncle," Jena appeared at his side and bumped his arm with a dramatic punch. "You are the Golden Godyer of the Grand Collective, there are few if any Primordial beings as powerful as you are, there is power in the name Sol Vestic," She smiled at him.

    "This is not a part of the Grand Collective, Jena, and there are a lot of primordial deities here, Sol Vestic is a nobody to this Super Collcetive, so whatever you do, don''t go bragging about anything I can do no matter what happens, understood?" He narrowed his eyes at her and turned his back to the wall, staring at the small orb of light in the distance.

    "The Grand collective is barely visible from here, and we couldn''t see them at all when we just started our journey." Sol turned to the wall again and rested his hand upon it.

    "Are you ready, Master?"

    "I don''t have a choice but to be ready, Jena, this has everything to do with the survival of our home, worst-case, I return and take them all here, abandoning the rest of the grand collective, but that is the same as running from my responsibilities, which I never will."

    Sol balled his fist, digging deep into the divine mana that had been stored over thest six days of travelling through the Grand Collective and the passage and unleashed a punch directly against the wall, expecting that it would have caved in immediately, but to his surprise the wall of energy dented instead.

    "Unexpected," Jena stared at the rapid spiralling fluctuations of energy within the dent, watching them merge like thread and repair the damage from inside. "It consumes energy from an interior source to heal any external damage, it is the same as the techniques that Lady Ikaris uses whenever she applies healing to anyone or anything."

    "So..." Sol balled his fists again, kicking off the barrier and swinging his legs several times as if he was swimming as he gained more distance from it. "What you''re saying is that I will have to hit it harder?"

    "Yes, much harder!" Jena cheered excitedly seeing Sol descend once more, manifesting the divine crescent on his chest while his hair glowed a brilliant star-like ming white.

    "Hauu!!" Another devastating attack collided with the barrier, but this time, even though he had multiplied his strength to several dozen times the power of the first attack the barrier barely seemed to budge, dispersing the shock of his attack evenly across hexagonal scale-like patterns that spread as far as he could see in every direction.

    "Fuck, I never expected this," Sol scratched his head with a nervous chuckle. "This barrier might be invite only."

    "Will you give up?" The little girl asked him watchign the barrier carefully mend itself, also at a loss of ideas.

    "I''ll try a different approach, my fists are blunt so I will apply piercing pressure instead." Sol took a few steps into the passage and raised his hand towards it, pointing his index.

    [Unknown Tier: Pulsar]

    Without any preparation, any buildup or any warning at all Sol manifested the greatest [Pulsar] attack ever concieved, but had to immediately raise his hands and cast a shield around himself when the explosive beam of raw divine mana bounced right back at him.

    "Fuck all!" Sol snapped in frustration, deflecting the attack off into the passage behind himself and approaching the stubborn wall once more with a scowl. He summoned the sword he had taken from the Emporium General and in a swift motion thrust it forward.

    Again, the result was the same, rather than get an actual injury or show signs of failure, the barrier rejected his attack and sent the sword flying out of his hand whilst also leaving a crippling surge of lightning raging across his body.

    "What the-" Sol grabbed the barrier and took a deep breath when the lightning ceased from dispersion. "You stubborn..." He began funimg at this point. "Why won''t you break?"

    "It may have been the direct tampering of a Primordial Deity that forced the barrier to have such a dense makeup." Jena suggested, expressing worry for Sol who was getting more impatient with each passing moment.

    He cast every element he could think of imaginary and otherwise, nothing worked.

    over the course of the next day, he tried using reality distorting magic to bypass it but every time it seemed like the barrier would break or give way it grew denser and redirected his power at him.

    "When I find out who did this, I am going to smash their face in!" Sol eximed with another punch against the barrier, seeing his strength get dispersed across the vast body. "I am gonna beat them to a pulp!" He eximed in a flush of irrational anger.

    "This barrier..."

    Sol''s eyes went dark with rage.

    "This Collective..."

    He began grinding his teeth.

    "This is really pissing me off!!"

    "Uncle-"

    [Unknown Tier: Warp].

    [Unknown Tier: forced Sun].

    [Unknown Tier: Pulsar].

    [Unknown Tier: Cataclysm].n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    [Unknown Tier: Dark Spear].

    [Unknown Tier: Divine Retribution].

    [Unknown Tier: Amplification].

    "U-uncle, wait-"

    [Magicbination.]

    "Heaven Piercer..." Jena named the cast, seeing the many contrasting magics distort the very passage they upied while they formed onerge golden mana-spear, cackling with ck lightning and humming with white light fragments.

    It was massive too, beneath it, Sol would have been invisible if not for the bright white lighting from the crescent on his back.

    He stared at the barrier in disdain, there had never been something he couldn''t break, this frustrated him into using all of the umted divine mana he had been saving; mana that could wipe out several dozen Universe Sectors in one fell swoop had been condensed into a singr point that had the barrier reacting and actively condensing before it was even attacked.

    With his hand above his head controling the [Heaven Piercer], Sol grimaced for a few minutes more, allowing all of his divine mana to seep into the spear before he released it wordlessly.

    "The light from that sector of the Super Collective dimmed as a mass amount of energy was directed into the point of impact, and when Sol''s attack exploded it erupted in the shape of a great cone, shooting off into the passage and dispersing over the course of a few minutes.

    "Uncle... calm down," Jena attempted to hold on to Sol''s hand, but a force she had never beheld repelled her from next to him.

    The barrier was still intact, there was only a small white crack the size of a hand at the very epicentre of the explosion, silently, Sol approached and rested his hand on the crack and then retreated to where he was before, turning towards the barrier again with his eyes narrowed and his jaws clenched.

    "I am calm, I am very calm."

    Sol smoothly spoke before his mana exploded from white to golden and the crescent on his back morphed and grew into arge circr ring brimming with sun-like storms along the surface. "I am incredibly calm,

    Jena!

    " Sol hissed out a pocket of golden mana and opened his hands in a grand gesture, grinding his teeth as he channeled power from the beginning as well as his Collective.

    "I just don''t have the time to be patient with my calm, I have already wasted an entire day out here!"

    "A calm Sol Vestic would never go to this length..." The girl muttered, watching his ears grow and his eyes invert when he assumed theplete Godyer form, crests, sigils and all.

    [Unknown Tier: Heaven Piercer]

    Instead of the one attack she thought he would create now that he was in his Godyer Transformation, which came with thousands of times more potent and dangerous mana, Jena watched in horror as Sol made more; seven great spears in total.

    "This is overkill," She chuckled to herself, shaking her head.

    "This is the bare minimum!" Sol eximed, sping his fists and crossing his arms in a gesture of furtherbination while the spears began merging into a singr unit. "I need their help, that is all there it to it, if I have to break in before I ask politely then I will be as fucking mboyant as I can be!"

    "This might break in a bit more than you are expecting, uncle," Jena sighed and rubbed her forehead, finally understanding what Alpha meant when she told her that the stronger the person was, the more irrational they became when faced with a situation where their power was tested beyond their expectations.

    "I''m breaking in."

 Chapter 367 Saving the Everstorm Maiden.

    "Brother, I do not think we will conquer this beast," A young woman was kneeling and resting behind arge rock with a sword in her grasp, she had a strange spectrum of red, green and gold in her eyes, with skin like porcin, lips of rose, and long brown hair caught up in a ponytail that curled on the ground behind her.

    At her side panting with a heavily wrapped wound in his side was a man who seemed a few years older than she was, his eyes the same as hers and his hair ck and short inparison to hers.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    "We bit off more than we could chew this time, sister," The man nodded in agreement, staring at her and then at his wound and wincing.

    "Brother, how much longer can you stay like this, you need meicine if you hope to survive but-"

    "Hush now, Fuhua," The man closed his eyes with a smile. "Our brothers and sisters sacrificed their lives so that we could escape, the least we can be is optimistic enough to do carry out their final wishes."

    "But you are badly injured, Hao," Fuhua shook her head,ing to the brink of tears when she thought of him pushing her to the side and getting injured in her stead. "If I had just listened to mother then none of this would have happened, it is my fault!" She closed her eyes and hugged her knees to her chest.

    "I should have listened..."

    Beyond the rock there was arge four-handed beast standing biped with the bottom half of a person in its mouth full of ragged blunt teeth, chewing slowly with blood dripping beneath it mixed with thich saliva.

    The creature seemed uninterested in them at first, but as it continued eating from a pile of corpses its eyes were scanning the terrain rapidly.

    "What will we do?" Fuhua asked quietly. "If we show ourselves like this then we will be attacked and killed, but if we wait until our brothers and sisters are all eaten it wille searching for us," She whispered.

    "I have a n," Hao held his mouth to prevent himself from coughing and raised his other hand towards her, revealing a ne with a pendant that resembled a jade fox.

    "I will die in your stead, and you will run into the storm, survive, Fuhua, live and return this to our Sect master some day, do not get caught by the Direfreak, live no matter what it takes; avenge the death of our n... Fuhua, you are more talented than the rest of us, use those skills to escape."

    The Direfreak; a monstrosity made from the taboo practice on a corpse of any kind using alchemy and mana, an abomination capable of reproducing offspring regardless of its gender once it ate enough. It had eyes of ck, was bald from head to toe, a sturdy metal-like lower jaw, and with grey skin resembling a tree bark.

    The monster sported ws for fingers and a long tail with a de that grew along with thair maturity into adulthood, and it was strong.

    Ever since the Direfreaks appeared on the Drifting Heaven''s smallest sect branch, The Everstorm Isle a few decades prior, they had done irreparable damage to the poption, and with the sect leadersfily on their muchrger and separated continent (world) they had done nothing to help their small nsmen.

    "Hao, I cannot ask this of you!" Fuhua eximed and then immediately grabbed her mouth when she heard the hooved thumps of the Direfreak walking, dreading her outburst as the each thud grew louder than thest.

    "You are not getting the chance to ept or decline, Fuhua!" The man eximed even louder than she did, forcing himself to his feet and running in the opposite direction of the storm he had mentioned, an area of darklouds and purple lightning that seemed to cover the horizon it was set upon.

    "Run, sister, run like the wind, as fast as you can!" Hao winced, raising his bloody hand and summoning his sword that had been left behind, using it like a shield when the Direfreak caught up and swung its tail at him.

    "What are you doing?!" Hao growled, parrying several of the swings from the beast and leaping over its head when it tried grabbing him.

    He whispered an arcane word and thrust his hand downwards at the monster''s bald head summoning a ming ball made of fire and shooting it creating an explosion that swallowed him and the Direfreak in mes.

    "H-Hao...?" Fuhua trembled on the ground, too afraid to move a muscle while she waited for the ck smoke of the explosion to clear, but sitting there was a mistake, when she mes and smoke were washed away by the storm the woman began shaking and crying seeing her cherished brother charred, missing an arm and impaled on the Direfreak''s tail while it began roaring to the skies in triumph.

    Fuhua wimpered, resting her forehead on the ground and balling her fists in the bloodstained grass her sworn brother had left behind. "This..." She shook her head. "What do I do now?" She asked. "This is the end of the Everstorm n..." She let out a bellowing cry calling the Direfreak to her location.

    "I will not face life alone when the rest of my people have been killed by you!!" She screamed, raising her sword and whispering in arcane as her brother had done, shooting a ball of fire at the Direfreak.

    [Spirit of the everstorm]

    She began speaking in the tongue of their ancestors. [I beg your descent into my body, I offer myself a secrifice-]

    [Denied]

    "What?"

    A voice as sickly and slimy as the devil''s swept through her head and caused her body to shudder.

    [A vessel as weak as yours is of no use to me; go ahead and die with the rest of your n, useless girl, the beasts will make for greater sustenance after you are all gone].

    "We have served and sacrificed in your name for thousands of years, please! I beg-"

    [Denied, I would rather exist alone than possess such an inferior and undeveloped form!]

    The voice thundered, her ascention failed before it even began and a bolt from the storm hundreds of miles away shot across the skies crashing into her and leaving a cursed sigil in her exposed back after flinging her onto her stomach.

    [Die, filth!]

    "Wh..." The womanid there, barely conscious and watching the Direfreak race in her direction...

    "Wuuuu~"

    Fuhua weakly thumped her fists on the ground, crawling towards her sword and forcing her eyes to remain open.

    "It was all for nothing, the great spirit we worshipped and gave our lives to... is an evil one, we were fooled by a malevolent demon!"

    She cried, feeling the searing pain in her back crippling her body with each passing moment.

    "The storm was an enemy all this time, it would ally with these monsters, these abominations...!"

    She continued crying, holding her de and forcing herself to her knees once more, facing the teeth of the Direfreak and closing her eyes when it was mere paces away from her.

    "The Everstorm n. What a joke we must have been to the others, we were nothing more than pawns, lured here to be the willing sacrifices of this dreadful evil, we are all fools!" Fuhua screamed clenching her teeth and preparing herself for the pain that came before death.

    Rather than the cold de-like ws or tail of the Direfreak, the woman was thrown off her feet by a pir of light tearing through and splitting the Everstorm in two, simultaneously killing the Direfreak by vapourizing it mere inches away from where she knelt before.

    "What...?" Fuhua''s tired eyes shot open in shock when she hit the ground, someone was already right before her, a man with Golden hair and eyes, and a great halo on his back humming a pleasant note.

    "Are you okay?" He asked, and instinctively, she raised her hand and ced the pendant her fallen brother had given her in his grasp.

    "Did youe after all, Everstorm?" She asked, it was the same voice from the storm which had spoken to her, though this time it was calm, warm and weing. "Am I already dead, are you an angel from on high?" Fuhua watched with blurred vision as his hand reached for her cheek... "My angel-"

    "Hoaaaa!!?" The woman screamed in agony when Sol grabbed her cheek roughly and tugged at her, waking her from her hallucination with a jolt of pain. "What the heavens?!" She sat up and grabbed her cheek while he snapped his fingers before her.

    Discover stories at empire

    "Wake up, who are you calling Everstorm? I have questions," Sol was still in a crouch but his Godyer appearance had been reced with his normal one. "Are you listening?" He asked snapping his fingers before her again. "Oi, look at me, I''m talking to you."

    "Uncle, I think this one is a little slow..." Jena chuckled poking Fuhua in the side of her head and taking the pendant from her grasp. "She seems to still be in shock from earlier."

    "What... where did youe from, where is the angel of gold?" Fuhua asked, holding her irritated cheek and looking around, she was in a cave, and there was no howling from the Everstorm outside. "Where am I?"

    "The fuck?" Sol scoffed and took a seat next to her.

    "That''s exactly what I want to know."

 Chapter 368 I am Sol Vestic.

    "So you are a stranger!?" Fuhua leapt to her feet and reached for her sword which usuallyy on her side, but when her hand hit her hip a feeling of dread eclipsed her heart and she hugged herself. "What is this?" The woman asked.

    "For some reason, a majority of my powers are suppressed here, I wasted a lot of time healing your injuries, woman," Sol sighed and crossed his legs gesturing to her blouse on the ground next to him and then at her hugging herself again.

    "Luckily for you, I had some medicine on me, I applied them to your wounds." He lied to her face.

    "As if; as soon as I emerged on the other side I was attacked by a sentient storm, then as soon as I got out of that freakshow I ran into the hostile presence of a Primordial Deity so I suppressed my mana, you don''t need to know this though." He hummed to himself in thought while a trickle of sweat rolled down his jawline.

    "So?" Sol opened his eyes and nced her way again. "Where am I?" He asked once more.

    "How dare you undress a maiden while she is unconscious-"

    "Would you prefer I do it while you are awake?" Sol snapped at her annoyed. "Just answer my question, girl, what is this ce, and what was that storm earlier?" Sol huffed, gesturing to the entrance of the cave highlighted by the tiniest rays of sunlight being allowed passage by the fading thunderclouds of the Everstorm.

    "I was undressed by a stranger-"

    "I saved your life!" Sol pped his forehead. "Obviously, you''re not in charge of anything, can you take me to someone with some authority?"

    "What?" Fuhua raised her head, holding on to the T-shirt he had put on her and hugging herself over it. "Someone with authority...?"

    "Yes, a leader, I couldn''t find a soul no matter what direction I looked in, just corpses, where is everyone else, how did you ed up on a deserted ind?" Sol asked again, then slowed and narrowed his eyes when he witnessed the woman''s earlier liveliness vaporise. "Are you the only one left?"

    "My n was wiped out, I am the only remaining ember of the Everstorm n," Fuhua replied solemnly, taking a deep breath before checking her neck for the pendant her senior had given her to remember them by.

    "This?" Sol raised his hand, dangling the pendant by a cord he''d made. "You dropped it on the ground when I was taking carrying you here-"

    "Give that to me."

    "Answer my questions first," Sol raised a brow. "You are being incredibly unthankful amd uncooperative for someone who was just saved, aren''t you?" He stared at Fuhua while Jena observed her hidden on the other side of the cave.

    "That is because I do not trust you, a tranger who does not even know what the Everstorm Pass is!" She snapped at him and then carefully crouched, realising that there was not a shred of pain anywhere on her body. "You... healed me, how?" Fuhua asked.

    "Anything yet?"

    Sol asked, looking beyond Fuhua at Jena, but the girl shook her head with a disappointed stare.

    [I have no ess to her biology, I cannot even pull up something as simple as her name, whatever this mana is that she has coursing through her body, it is acting as a shield to the System, the only thing I am sure of is that she is Celestial in strength with apletely different mana makeup than yours, this Collective is not going to be easy to conquer].

    Jena responded in his head, and Sol sighed once more tossing the pendant at the woman while Jena disappeared from sight returning back to his soul.

    "I have no intention of conquering anywhere here, Jema."

    "I didn''t touch you other than to heal your wounds and the burn that was on your back, I needed to remove your clothing to do that," Sol watched her catch the ornament with a longing expression and hug it to herself. "I wasn''t going to dress you in the same torn up clothes and I am short on mana for the time being, so I used my own clothes to dress you after I treated and wrapped your wounds." He exined.

    "But you saw me bare..."

    "I don;t actually care, it''s not like you''re some kind of princess of a pavilion or something, you''re just a random girl I met who has lost her people." He harshly critiqued her. "Don''t ttter yourself, I am not interested in that t body of yours."

    "F-f-t!?" Fuhua gasped, hugging herself tighter. "So you did ogle me, you bastard-"

    "Stop fucking around." Sol abruptly stood and began walking towards her. "I have questions that I need answered, if you''re some kind of bumpkin just say so, I don''t have the time nor the patience to be here in this pointless back and forth with you!" He raised his hand and her sword in the corner raced over to him, unsheathed and aimed at her chest.

    "Evil man, will you have your way with-"

    "I don''t have the least bit of attraction to you, woman," Sol ground his teeth. "If you don''t start giving me a reason to keep you alive, I will make sure you meet your people sooner than you expected." He threatened her, pressing the tip of her sword to her neck and drawing blood.

    "I would rather-"

    "If you press his pathence he will kill you for real," Jena sighed, holding Sol''s hand and tugging him while Fuhua who hadn''t seen or sensed the little girl stared shocked that she had so easily been snuck upon.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "He does not have the eyes of a killer," Fuhua smirked. "Besides, I have nothing left to live for, so go ahead, test me, uncle!" She took a step toward the de expecting Sol to withdraw his hand, but instead he ran the de right through her neck and bedded it in the cave rick behind her.

    "Well then, I think there was some kind of misunderstanding because I saved your life," Sol rested his finger against her abdomen while she was standing. "If you try to move, this weapon will sever your artery and you will bleed out, so let''s start over, shall we?"

    Sol took her hand and held it carefully. "Use your index finger to answer me, one tap for yes, and two taps for no, anything else and I will drag you off the de myself." He warned her and immediately she tapped his hand once with her finger while tears of fear began rolling down her cheeks.

    "Are you truly thest member of your n?" He asked, recieving one tap.

    "Do you know where we are?"

    *Tap.

    "Do you want to live?"

    *Tap. Explore more adventures at empire

    "I want to release you, will you behave andply?" Sol narrowed his eyes at her and the woman opened her mouth to beg, but saw the light of murder sh in his eyes and reconsidered immediately, tapping once and sobbing. "Good," He sighed, grabbing the handle of the sword, pulling it out carefully and leaving it in her grasp while she held her throat with her other hand, shaking before him.

    "Stand upright," He ordered her and sheplied without a word of protest.

    [Condensing Heal into a physical liquid].

    "Drink this," Sol used his nail to slit his finger and then raised his hand above her head, allowing a single drop of his blood to reveal itself. "My blood will heal you."

    "What?" Fuhua asked, staring at his blood incredulously. "Why is it golden?"

    "Just do as I say," He grabbed her by the back of her head and dragged her backwards allowing the droplet to fall directly into her mouth. "I don''t want to, but if you keep being a annoying I will leave you here for dead."

    Her eyes slowly widened, his blood tasted like a nectar; a foundation building nectar, and the burning she was feeling in her neck disappeared as soon as it touched the back of her throat, after she had calmed, Sol hummed and released her again, looking at Jena who shared a smile with him and then looked at the woman again.

    "What do you need to know?"

    "Tell me your name first."

    "Were you not in some kind of hurry?" She retorted, but with him right before her she sink beneath his gaze, releasing her de to the ground and holding down the sides of the shirt she was wearing with her eyes locked on his feet. "I am Fuhua, uncle." She obeyed him shily.

    "Don''t call me uncle just because the child does, do I look that old to you?" Sol raised a brow and she winced beneath him.

    "My apologies."

    "If you must address him, Master is a fitting title," Jena suggested, and Fuhua nodded in thanks for the tip and then raised her eyes.

    "I will answer everything honestly, Master..."

    "Vestic," He revealed his name, turning his back and walking over to the other side of the small cave while Jena picked up her clothes and went to another side away from the two of them.

    "My name is Sol Vestic."

 Chapter 369 Graveyard World.

    "Sol Vestic, such a weird name, I have never heard anything like it before,"

    Fuhua mused, looking at the sword at her feet and then at Sol again.

    "Master Vestic," She lowered her head slightly. "What does that mean?"

    "You called this ce the Everstorm des, right?" Sol leaned on the wall and slid to the ground, ignoring her question. "Summarise whatever answer you think of, I might not act it but I am in an urgent situation, my patience is limited.

    "Yes," She acknowledged his request and then slowly sat on the ground daintily covering herself and resting her hands in herp.

    "The Everstorm de, is not an actual de, we are... we were, a small world with only a few million people."

    "Your n had over a million people?" Sol raised a brow teying to ge some perspective of what that meant. "Isn''t that a lot?"

    "Not at all Master, sir," Fuhua shook her head. "We were one of the smallest and weakest ns of the Drifting Heavens Sect; our mother sect." She expleined, looking at Jena in the corner and then Sol again.

    "Drifting Heavens..." Sol looked outside of the cave at the light rainfall. "What is this Collective called, and do you know how many branch sectors are in it, also what star is this and how far away from the nexus are we?"

    "What is a collective?" Fuhua leaned her head in confusion, and Sol gasped almost choking on the air he was breathing, aside from him Jena also paused with an expression of shock. "What are sectors, and a nexux, are these ces you have visited in the past, Master?" Fuhua asked once more and the man pped his forehead and began chuckling with himself.

    "Uncle, this might be another case like Arkadia, they might have been unaware of the collective, living ignorantly..." Jena suggested and then looked at the woman who was watching the man supposedly in a hurryugh as if he had all the time in the world.

    "Miss Fuhua," She drew her attention politely. "A collective is a body of universes held together by a central universe, we refer to the universes as sectors, and inside of those sectors you will find billions to trillions of lives orbiting suns scattered all across, the nexus is the centre of each sector as and the Central Sector with the supermassive cosmic anomaly is the nexus for the Collective." She gave her the base information as bluntly as she couldpose it.

    "So... you mean the worlds and the Seven thousand Gates...?" Fuhua smacked her

    "Sevenn thousand?"

    "Yes, there are seven thousand main Gates that lead to the seven thousand different worlds that have been discovered thus far; this may be what you call a sector. What you call a nexus might be what we refer to as the grand or central gates of which there are about five thousandst confirmed, and the collective being everything and everywhere epassing all of the gates is called the birthce of light, we all exist within Source..."

    "They named their collective [Source]," Sol mused with an incredulous huff. "This is bizarre, I haven''t heard mention of the birthce of either light or dark before in the Grand, but it seems like amon teaching here," He looked at Jena and she shrugged, unable to make tails of anything.

    "I am looking for the most powerful being amongst the inhabitants of your gate, I may have already sensed them but I need to approach them gradually and without suspicion," Sol stood when Jena approached and dropped the dress she had been messing with from the corner in Fuhua''sp. "I need an audience with the Primordial Deity of the Drifting Heavens."

    "I mended the tears, get dressed ande out quickly," Jena smiled at her and ran over to Sol, taking his hand while he walked out into the rain and left her in privacy to change.

    "Primordial Deity... does he mean the Grand Ancestor of the Drifting Heaven Sect?" Fuhua quickly undressed, blushing when she realised that she had indeed been wrapped before, he had seen her entirely naked. "This man..." She quietly observed herself from shoulder to toe. "I am the most beautiful maiden of the Everstorm de, how dare he call me t and unattractive?" She pouted.

    [Stop wasting time ande out quickly]. She heard Sol''s voice in her head and swung her fists, almost tripping when her hand passed through the emptiness she thought would have been Sol sbeaking a peek. [Hurry it up.]

    "Y-yes!" Fuhua quickly dressed herself and caught her hair in a ponytail using the pendant her senior brother had given to her and then ran outm thinking there would be rain but finding clear blue skies and no sign of the everstorm.

    "What happened to the Everstorm-"

    "That bastard?" So gestured to the dead insn the storm had upied for thousands of years with a jerk of his thumb. "Killed it, the freaky bastard wanted to possess me." He huffed and then looked at her from head to toe. "Hey, Jena, how is assimtion going?"

    "I am at 2%, uncle, theposition of mana is very different from what we know, thews of this collective are strange and seemingly unique to it alone." The system groaned in annoyance. "It will take some time, I wish mom was here to do this."

    "Alpha is needed back home, don''t worry, it was the same for her when she was exposed to the Grand for the first time, back then it took her two months, so I think you''re doing a good job." Solplimented her, gesturing to his shoulders.

    "Also..." Jena leaped high in the air shocking Fuhua when she descended at the speed of a feather, sitting on Sol''s shoulder while he stared at the skies, across the veil of blue and toward the closest neighbouring star where there was another small world like this one.

    "Also?"

    "I have not been able to connect with any form of technology, there are no waves being transmitted through the air, it is clean here, even more than Arkadia is." Jena swung around and sat on both his shoulders while he held her feet.

    "Is it primitive?" Sol asked, but then taking another nce at Fuhua he rejected that idea.

    Her clothes were finely made, with patterns that couldn''t have been made using primitive technology, despite being dirty from nearly dying before she still held a dignified air to her person; definitely not primitive.

    "From interacting with this one woman, I would be led to believe that they are in an era technologically simr to the Zhou dynasty of earth''s eastern continents."

    "That''s a Nine-Hundred year difference, almost a millenium." Sol stared at Fuhua. "I suppose if earth had mana from back then, technology would have developed far slower, what need is there for conventional weaponry when the avreage man can level a mountain with his bare fists and the swing of a sword?"

    "Precisely," Jena smiled when Sol began walking.

    "Master Vestic?" Fuhua instinctively followed him. "We are stranded here-"

    "We are going to pay respect to the dead," Sol answered her sharply. "I don''t know what happened, when I arrived you were nearly dead and there were a bunch of corpses, I originally thought you were the one who did it but I think I identally killed some kind of beast upon arrival, that damned storm..." He growled.

    "You killed the Direfreak?" Fuhua seemed even more shocked. She had already been reeling from the inertia of merely thinking that he was powerful enough to destroy the ancient malevolent storm, but now he was casually saying he killed the Direfreak by ident, she was sure that this man before her was nothing normal.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Golden blood with healing properties, no knowledge of Source, a stranger of unknown origins..." She mused aloud, gaining Sol''s mute attention as he watched her from his peripheral rubbing her chin like an old man with an expression of total concentration.

    "Master Vestic," She looked up at him, eyes wide in wonder.

    "Mm?"

    "You are not from this... collective, are you?" She asked and Jena pped.

    "She is at least not a total idiot," The girl chuckled while Sol remained quiet.

    "Master is from a ce far away from here, on an epic mission for-"

    "Jena." Sol warned her, and she cleared her throat awkwardly, looking at Fuhua who had gone ck-jawed at the small revtion that there were ces beyond Source.

    "As I said, I seek an audience with the strongest," Sol calmly exined. "If you want to know more than that then you are going to have to make a heart oath against your collective, swearing loyalty to me and devoting your soul to my cause alone." He gave her the most grim choice he could think of on the spot. "Do that, and I will tell you everything you wish to know."

    "No, thank you, I will make do with the little information I can figure out on my own, Master." Fuhua shook her head with her eyes wide in horror.

    "Fine," Sol gestured to a mountain ahead. "Beyond that ridge were bones as far as I could see on a in, I buried all of them and made a shrine to pay respects." He gestured, but before the second half of his exnation was through the woman had already sprinted off, leaving small craters as she jumped across the hills towards the ridge.

    "Master..."

    "It''s okay," Sol tapped Jena''s knee. "I''ll take her to the next star and leave her there to start a new life, this ce is barren now, this small world is nothing but a site of mass ughter." Sol could rte somewhat to how the woman was feeling.

    "It''s nothing but a graveyard."

 Chapter 370 Goodbye to the Everstorm Glades.

    "All of this was done in just a few hours?" Fuhua stared at what she imagined was going to be a sloppily done grave site.

    She expected arge hole full of bones and then filled with dirt or rocks, but what she found instead were individual unmarked graves for as far as the ins stretched, lined in one giant circr formation with a tower in the middle at the top ow which stood a small pedestal with the sword of her recently killed brother stuck in it.

    "This..." Fuhua continued running, slowing down when she reached the tower and then ascending it slowly step by step, she wanted to question how Sol had done so much, but her focus shifted from how he had done it to what he had aplished for her people.

    It would have taken her months to bury them all, yet this stranger who had no connectin to anyone here did such a marvellous job of paying respects to her fallen bretheren.

    Fuhua stood at the top of the tower across the horizon, she wanted to cry but for some reason the sight of their bodies being respected as she had wished made her smile instead.

    "I will take you to the closest star, you can visit here if that''s possible in the future, but for the time being, let the dead rest in peace, I still have a lot I wish to discuss with you." Sol seemed to appear at her side and begin speaking. "Fuhua." He called.

    "Master Vestic," The woman turned to him with a clearly sad, yet optimistic smile. "The deed you have done here today, how can i ever repay this debt?"

    "There is no need for such a thing," Sol answered. "I did it for myself as much as I did it for you, the dead deserve respect,ying on a barren battlefield is unbing of a deceased warrior." He looked across the horizon once more and then turned his back. "We will leave in a few minutes, if there is anything you wish to get off your chest, now is the time."

    "Thank you," The woman smiled once more and raised her hand with the pendant.

    "Brothers and sisters, you all died without knowing the truth of the storm we revered as an ancient deity, I pray earnestly for every soul it devoured, and for all those who fell at the hands of the Direfreak that you all find happiness in the thereafter."

    The pendant in her grasp slowly floated above their heads and began glowing in resonance to Fuhua''s mana surging through it, casting a bright light across the ins like a lighthouse, turning in circles without the aid of either her or Sol.

    "I was lucky, I was found by Master Vestic," She looked around at the mentioned with the little girl sitting on his shoulder. "This is where the Everstorm n dies forever, I will follow this man from now on, I thank you all for giving me the best life I could have asked for." She smiled and then turned fully to Sol.

    "Is that all?" He asked, and she smiled once more and nodded, lowering her head.

    "YOu saved my life, and you even dirtied your hands with the corpses of my people, Master, I am eternally in your servitude, whatever you ask of me is within reason, I swear my undying loyalty to you."

    "You don''t even know who I am," Sol raised his brow with a smirk. "What if I''m a devil in disguise?"

    "Then I will give you my soul, watever you are and wherever you are from matters not, you have given me the chance to live after my life was to be forefeit, I will spend this life serving you, Master." She kept her head low and then properly prostrated herself before him. "Please, ept my loyalty."n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    "Uncle, she is speaking the truth." Jena looked dowm at him, tapping his head when he did not respond right away to the woman.

    "Thest thing I need right now is a distraction," Sol turned his back and sighed. "Don''t you have someone you want to avenge or something?" He asked.

    "Seeing my people rested, Master, I have already let go of those grudges, you have destroyed both the storm that fooled us and the Direfreak that killed my people, I have only grattitude and my loyalty to you, please," She raised her head, worried that she would be rejected.

    "I suppose every hand is a helping one, huh?" Sol looked up at Jena who chuckled and nodded. "She isn''t weak either, I''d say she''s about as strong as Renia''s fully released potential, that can handle most of the Emporium aside from the top fifty or so."

    "I will make the heart oath you mentioned before, if binding my soul is what it takes to convince youpletely-"

    "I was never serious about that." Sol turned to her chuckling. "I have only used it once before and that was purely to mess with someone as well, there is no need to use a heart oath." He exined extending his hand towards her.

    "But, what if I betray youter on?" Fuhua asked him unable to grasp what seemed like a childlike innocence to his character as she took his hand and stood upright.

    "Will you betray me, Fuhua?" Sol asked.

    "No, never, I swear it!"

    "Then that answers that, I don''t have time to dawdle any more so we will leave right away." He gestured to the sky. "There is not a single living being left on this small world other than the critters and a few leviathan beasts hidden in the seas.

    "Where is your vessel?" She asked, thinking of how he had gotten there in the first ce.

    "Vessel?" Sol asked realising he never used such a thing before. "Never needed one, I travel the cosmos as is." He looked at her extending his hand again. "You have the capabilities of interster travel, how else do you get around?" He asked and she seemed genuinely concerned by his question, staring at his hand hesitantly.

    "We usually use a ship, or we travel with a teleporter... but all the ships were destroyed, and the teleporter was broken..." Fuhua went quieter with each word after dawning on the fact that she was stranded on the Everstorm des. "You can bare the full brunt of the void with your body alone?"

    "Of course, it''s how I got here."

    "Crashed." Jena corrected him, to which he pouted and shook his hand again gesturing to Fuhua. "You crashed on the closest celestial body as soon as you arrived."

    "Nobody cares about the specifics," Sol raised his hand to her forehead and flicked his finger causinf her toically flip off his shoulder only to start floating before she hit the groung.

    "Uncle!" Jena pouted, rubbing her forehead.

    "What? You want another one?" Sol looked around at her and she went silent, pouting again and continuing to rub her forehead. "That''s what I thought."

    "She can fly... Whaa!"

    [Ling Fuhua, Congrattions. You have been granted ess to the secondary System, all of your data is being analysed and stored].

    "What is this sorcery?" Fuhua swung her hand at the System window several times trying to swat it away, but found the glowing box intangible. "Where did ite from?!"

    "It''s not sorcery, it''s technology from beyond your collective." Sol corrected her, letting go of her hand now that she had been granted ess to the system. "Jena will exin anything you need answered while we travel." Sol closed his eyes and very carefully released just divine mana, causing his hair and eyes to change while everything else remained the same.

    "Jena," He looked to the little girl and she pouted once more and raised her hands causing a massive ring of light to appear in the sky.

    "What is that?" Fuhua stared in awe, from her perspective it looked like a portal directly into heaven.

    "An eleration gate, using these will get you to the neighbouring star in as little as three minutes, time around you will slow to a crawl as you are shot far beyond the speed of light." Jena responded right away while Sol cast a barrier over his new follower just to be safe.

    "This is farewell to your home, Fuhua," Sol nced at the woman once more as they started floating towards the gate. "You can ess the system whenever you wish and pour your memories into it to gain vivid images of your past... hey," He stopped speaking when he noticed her passed out on the floor of the spherical barrier housing her.

    "She fainted from shock, my diagnosis is that she waspletely overwhelmed by the new information being directed onto her by both the system and yourself, Uncle." Jena suggested and Sol shrugged.

    "Well, considering what we n to do, and who we will meet, she has a lot more fainting in store for her future." He sighed. "She has no idea what her own collective is capable of."

 Chapter 371 Three Elders.

    "Uncle," Jena called Sol''s attention to Fuhua as soon as she began waking up. "The sleeping maiden awakens." She chuckled, but Sol had a far less lenient attitude towards the woman as he stopped and floated towards her.

    He had stopped just on the outer atmosphere above another small sentient world, there was a thin barrier protecting it from the outside forces but he had abstained from carrelessly entering so had wasted another hour waiting for her to wake.

    "Is this something that''s going to happen regrly?" Sol asked, stopping before her and snapping his finhers when she seemed on the verge of panicking after she realised they were out in the void withiut a vessel. "Fuhua, pay attention, my original goal was to leave you here and move along, I''m starting to consider that option again, I don''t want any hinderances."

    "I-I apologise, master," She lowered her head. "I was tired, and this creation you put me in was sofortable... before I could stop myself I fell asleep, it has been weeks since I slept." She admitted and saw Sol''s hand flinch with a bead of sweat rolling off his neck as he swallowed.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "Weeks?"

    "Yes, the Direfreak is attracted to dreams more than anything else, it was designed as a predator of ambush, so the less we slept the better out odds were, not that it helped in the end, that monster..."

    "Don''t worry about it, I killed that thing already, and I''ll kill any other Ie across while we travel." Sol narrowed his eyes and stood facing the small world again. "Anyways, if you''re tired, say something, I can provide somece better than a simple warm bubble." He nced over his shoulder at her.

    "Uncle you are being overly understanding of her excuses ae you not?" Jena raised her brow. "If she keeps doing things a she pleases we might overstay our wee-"

    "You said you wanted an audience with the strongest in this gate, right Master?" Fuhua perked up, folding her legs and sitting in a meditative posture.

    "Do you have a way that doesn''t require me possibly getting into a fight?" Sol asked, after much thought he had realised that the only way he was getting a direct audience with the Primordial Deity he had sensed before was to cause another ruckus like he did with the barrier.

    That being had definitely intended to kill him at that time, it was too risky to use his full powers in such a manner again without first speaking to them, he was risking getting attacked by them and whatever other Primordial was hiding from his search.

    "Yes, actually," Fuhua smiled. "There is apetition currently being held for the Drifting Heaven''s Pavilion, the Everstorm n does not usually take part in this challenge as we do not have the resources, but with your strength you could be a toppetitor or possibly even win."

    "Get to the point, what does enteering this event get me, how close are we going to be?"

    "The ancestor himself will make an appearance on thest day of thepetition to observe the finalists, if you use my Everstorm n''s name to enter you could progress far enough to seek an audience when his holiness appears!" She pped.

    "How long does thispetitionst?" Sol narrowed his eyes. "It sounds a little too convenient."

    "Not at all, you simply have good timing, Master. The finals are two weeks from today, you would have to hurry though, registration is ending in a few days." Fuhua opened her palms and a map made of stars appeared before her drawing Sol''s attention further.

    She pointed to one small star with a bloe dot next to it. "Here," She made gestures with her fingers and the map grewrger, surroundinf them and revealing a sgaotic cosmic storm that surrounded the small world they had beening from.

    "We were just there," Sol rested next to her, intrigues by how she could conjure a map of the stars but was unable to explore them.

    "This is the oasis within the field we call the Everstorm des," Fuhua swiped her hand across, stopping on their current location. "We are here on the hem of the Middle Heavens Pavilion, by ship it would take at least a week to get to High Heaven-" She zoomed out and swiped all the way to the other side of the sector. "-High Heaven is this star."

    "Jena, calcte that distance." Sol rested his cheek on his fist, imitating Fuhuas''s posture and resting his elbow on his knee, swiping his hand through the map and getting no reaction from it.

    "This sector is small, Uncle; it would take about an hour to make that journey." Jena answered a few secondster. "I will begin preparations," She easily exited the bubble and entered the void, turning several times and then holding her hand outwards.

    "She behaves like a child, but..." Fuhua stared at Jena, awed beyond words when she saw the little girl create another eleration gate with a simple gesture and then turn to them giving Sol a thumbs up. "Is she even a living being, how is she able to traverse the outer without being torn apart by the elements?"

    "I said this before, but you are also strong enough to do this..." Sol stood, bemused by her statement. "Fuhua, how much of your former n''s secrets do you know?" He asked before she could refute his statement about traversing the Void with her body alone.

    "I was the top female disciple, and also the head of our sacred library," She raised her hand and summoned a small scroll out of nowhere. "The reason my brothers and sisters died protecting me is because I carry all the secrets of my n within my soul''s library, I could revive the n should I wish." She smiled sadly at the scroll, but before she could send it back Sol snatched it from her palm and opened it.

    "Ah?" Sol huffed with his mouth open. "I don''t understand a single word here..."

    "I can teach you," Fuhua smiled at him. "I follow Master now so I no longer hold Loyalty to the Everstorm n, I also have no intention of reviving our teachings, this library is of little use to me other than to polish my skills and learn the forbidden texts and techniques, but if it interests you then I would dly tutor you and hand them over."

    "Hold that thought." Sol closed his eyes and then turned towards the small world beneath them, watching a cessel with three people aboard it quickly approaching. "We havepany."

    "They are the Pavilion guards for this branch of Middle Heaven, we are in trouble." Fuhua stood watching the ship made of wood and ss capsuled by a spherical mana shield orbit them several times and then stop next to them. "Master... these are all elders of the Upper Heavenly Fate Realm, any one of them could easily destroy the entire Everstorm n and fight several Direfreaks at once, be careful what you say."

    "Uncle will handle it." Jena brushed her worries away, she hadn''t even seen when the girl had returned to the bubble, but she was already at their sides.

    "You there, halt," One of the men aboard the vessel stood at the edge. He was an old man with long grey hair brushing his lower back and a beard that parted in two braids and nearly touched the ground, him and the other two were dressed in ck robes, decorated with golden patterns and arge golden crest on their chests that had the form of a dragon. "What business do you have this close to the Middle Heaven''s second branch?"

    "Greetings, elders." Sol spoke first, making a small nodding gesture with his left palm sped over his right fist before his abdomen; it was a gesture he had seen Fuhua use once when she acknowledged him as Master. "I have no business with the Middle Heaven''s second branch, I am simply a passer-by." He smiled at them, greeting each the same while they showed respect and did the same.

    "I recognise that girl, is she not from the Everstorm n''s royal branch, their princess?" The second elder whisoered to the third, they were twins, both younger than the first man, bald and wearing simr robes, except the patterns on theirs were silver rather than Gold.

    "Ling?" Sol smiled and gestured to her. "She is to be wed to me, as you might already know, Everstorm is facing a catastrophe, within a few more years they may be an extinct n."

    "Haha, this sly bastard used their crisis and managed to acquire their princess as a bride," One of the baldies chuckled but then quickly righted his posture when his superios looked around at hi, "My apologies, princess, I am sorry to hear about the state of your people."

    "Thank you," Fuhua lowered her head. "My new master was kind enough to venture into the heart of a war and make a proposal, I am grateful that the n will live through me," She yed her improvised part perfectly.

    "Impressive..." Jenamended her with a thumbs-up.

 Chapter 372 The Godslayers Apprentice.

    "I daresay, I have never seen an artifact thispact, it allows you to travel fast and through the void without a craft?" The First Elder gestured to the bubble they were inside of. "Are you perhaps a noble of-"

    "Drifting Heaven?" Sol interrupted him. "No, I am from a rather small and unknown subsidiary family lucky enough to be a part of the Pavilion, my family is referred to as the Hidden Sun Sect, I am the master of that house." He lied once more.

    "I have never heard of them before..."

    "Well, we wouldn''t be very hidden if everyone knew who we were." Sol chuckled. It was only at this moment that Fuhua realised that he was dressed differently than the moment before the elders arrived; he was wearing strange clothes a minute ago, but now, he was dressed like royalty, simrly Jena looked like a little princess.

    "Nevermind all that then," The First Elder shook his head and stroked his beard. "What is that thing?" He asked, pointing upwards at the giant pulsating ring Jena had created.

    "Oh that," Sol sighed. "Unfortunately, we were attacked on our way out of the Everstorm de, I lost my token for travel so I am using alternate means to return home, this is a sacred artifact from my n, the travel is not instantaneous, but it will get us back in as little as a few days once we enter it." Sol gestured to the eleration Gate.

    "There are all forms of dangers out there, are you capable of fighting off the bandits and pirates who would want to steal your bride by your lonesome?" The old man furrowed his brows. "There is even a little girl at your side, it is a dangerous ce out there."

    "I am confident in my skills, yes," Sol was growing annoyed by the relentless questions, showing impatience as he folded his arms and stood opposing them. "No harm wille to either of them."

    "What about supplies?"

    "I was gifted treasures from my n capable of storing supplies, Elder," Fuhua raised her hand and summoned her sword which was the only thing she had.

    "As do I," Sol spoke up as well, waving his hand and summoning a table full of warm food that Jena had rushed to make inside of his collective. "How many more questions must I answer before I am in the clear to leave?" He leaned his head. "I apologise, but I have a lot to take care of back home..."

    "I must get going-"

    "I could have sworn that the warp gate for the Everstorm des was destroyed well over a decade ago." The First Elder leaned his head revealing a sinister re out of the blue. "How did you get there through a gate that has been dmissioned?" He quizzed.

    "Also, the Princess of Everstorm was already promised to the ruler of our branch upon birth, how could she suddenly be bethrothed to a stranger from unknown origins?" The other baldy spoke up as well. "Her people would never betray the Middle Heavens."

    "I see," Sol lowered his hands looking at Fuhua who had an expression of terror on her face when the men began showing hostility. "You yed a part in the destruction of her people... didn''t you?"

    "The Everstorm des are a gold mine of resources, and the Princess carries a rare bloodline passed down through hereditary blood, what is done has been done.

    A useless n carrying such a bloodline and sitting on that much resource is a waste of potential, so now you have only one option, master of the Hidden Sun Sect," The elder waved his hand summoning a spear in his grasp while the twins summoned swords.

    "Only one?" Sol asked, folding his arms again.

    "That is correct, surrender the ve and the child, and leave with your head atop your shoulders."

    "Uncle?" Jena looked at Sol, surprised when she felt his mana start thumping and drumming to be set free.

    "Thest thing I wanted to do visiting this Collective was kill, I made an effort to stay out of the eyes of their Primordial Deity until I was close enough to peacefully seek an audience with him..." Sol''s eyes began shining brightly, and his hair turned to white again with the crescent emerging behind him in a loud humming noise.

    "My entire purpose is seeking his advice and cooperation." Sol began seething. "I buried so many children, I thought it was the doing of a beast so I did it with a sorrowful heart.

    I have been there, I know what it feels like to lose everything to monsters!" He walked out of the bubble steping through the void towards them.

    "Finding out that it was the doing of others, through an act of greed, really, REALLY pisses me off!!" He stepped aboard their ship causing the wood beneath his feet to crack and shatter from the release of his mana. "You killed millions of people just so you could have theirnd?!"

    "What the hell is happening here?" One of the baldies squealed, raising his sword in defence, but a momentter, Sol''s stare alone shattered the de and sent shards and splinters of metal sticking in his face.

    "Brother!" His twim attempted to help him but froze in ce when his and Sol''s eyes met.

    "Don''t you dare move a muscle!" Sol snapped at the other. "You''re the worst kind of scum, your Collective is so peaceful, yet you find ways to make hell for everyone else, just because they have what you do not, do you have any idea the hell you''re escaping by simply being here?!" He grabbed the spear from the first elder, snapping it with one hand and tossing it behind himself.

    "I will offer you all one option now..." Sol''s mana continued to rise until he could feel the eyes of several Celestial Divine Tier beings seeking him.

    "What is it?" The first elder slumped to his knees. "Tell me anything!"

    "Die!" Fuhua made a leap from one bubble to the other, taking the man''s head before he could even raise his eyes to meet her enraged gaze, simrly, the twin elders who were on their foregeads lost their necks to her de before the first elder''s head even hit the ground.

    "Lord Shalba!!" Fuhua screamed as soon as the other two slumped. "You bastard!!" She turned to the small worldready to leap towards it, but paused when she met Sol''s gaze. "M... master," She lowered her head.

    "Come on, we have a corrupt leader to send to hell." Sol turned his back to the ship and walked off.

    "You do not need to-"

    "Trust me," Sol stopped her from finishing, raising his hand. "If you don''t take revenge I will leave you in this man''s hands, do not ever take humility andmon sense for the same thing, an eye for an eye, a life for a life, he destroyed your home and caused the death of your people, deliver the karma back to him or live for the rest of your life as his ve," Sol turned and stared at her. ''

    "What is your choice, Fuhua?"

    "Death to the deceiver!" She straightened her posture. "I will avenge my people."

    "Good," Sol turned again and snapped his fingers, Fuhua felt her breath momentarily leave her body, and then a secondter the air she had been depraved of mmed into her again along with the cold winds of a snowy mountain range.

    "You have one hour," He looked at her while she was in the middle of coughing.

    "An hour?" She faltered. "Lord Shalba is the Peak of Heavenly Fate, he is the strongest man in the entire branch, I need time-"

    "You get one hour."

    [You previously killled three enemies of the Heavenly Fate Realm, calcting rewards].

    "What is this this thing?" She asked, waving her hand through it as she had done before.

    "The system is your means of gaining more power, power beyond anythinf that you have ever dreamt of." Sol answered her.

    [Calctionsplete, will you ept your rewards?]

    "I am rewarded for killing, how do I ept the rewards?"

    "Just think that you want to ept it and the system will respond to your thoughts, your time is running out.

    [ept]

    [Congrattions on reaching the intermediate level of a Celestial being, you are two hundred levels away from reaching the peak of Celestial, your mana will undergo cosmic divination, brace yourself].

    "What...?!" Before the woman could even finish being confused she was struck with a painful jolt of mana through her chest as she recieved her first ever taste of a higher power, it surged through her body like mes, melting the snow under her feet as she leaned forward and clutched her garments, hissing.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Bare it," Sol stood there momitoring her carefully to see if the mana within her would continue to reject the system, but after a few minutes of pain, Fuhua released a long sigh, breathing green mana from her nostrils and then raising her head.

    "What happened to my body, I feel... changed." She stared at him. "Master Vestic?"

    "You are changed, Fuhua." Sol waved held his hand before her and her system window appeared.

    [Name: Ling Fuhua

    Race: Human (Cosmic)

    Level: 380

    Title: None

    Skills: Unspecified

    ss: SwordMaiden

    Buffs: New Cosmic Being (all of your current stats are raised by 50% for the next hour)

    Blessing: Godyer''s Apprentice

    Curse: None

    Special: None].

    "What is all this?"

    "From this day onwards, Fuhua," Sol closed his hand and her ststus window disappeared. "You will walk the path of evolution under my hand, I will make you a being of insurmountable strength." He dered, gesturing beyond the mountains at the closest city.

    "Exact your Punishment on the man that took your home away from you and return to me within the hour, if you fail, I will leave you behind, if you do manage to kill him after the hour is passed, I will still be gone, this is your first of many trials." He took a seat while Jena poured him a warm cup of tea.

    "The weak of mind and heart have no ce in my world."

 Chapter 373 Through the Capital City.

    "One hour..." Fuhua was running as fast as she could towards the Capital City, five minutes had already passed if the small timer in the corner of her vision was urate and she was less than halfway out. "Can I do this in only an hour?"

    [It is best to n

    ot doubt yourself in times like these, Ling Fuhua].

    She heard Jena''s voice in her head and nearly missed her footing.

    [By the scaling of your Heavenly graded power system, you have advanced at least three tiers, yet you are still treating your body as if you were the same, you are a cosmic being capable of destroying entire stars if you apply your mana appropriately].

    Jena informed her.

    "I do not know what that even means!"

    Fuhua continued running.

    [Indeed, knowledge applied without rity and action is useless].

    Jena replied.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    [Then I will grant you a little perspective of the power which nowys dormant within you].

    She added and then left an option before the woman.

    [Master has instructed me to give you this one advantage, he may seem unreasonable, but you are the first person he has ever even considered directly teaching, he is expecting good results].

    [You have learnt a new technique:

    Godspeed

    ]

    [Would you like to activate Godspeed? Note; (Godspeed) consumes arge amount of mana overtime it is advised to use it in bursts until your reserves are filled and stable].

    [Activate Godspeed].

    Fuhua didn''t even think twice about the warning; this was a chance to get her ahead she thought, but when the mana within her erupted ans strengthened her legs her eyes bulged in horror when her next stride decimated an entire mountaintop and sent her crashing across several peaks.

    The crash itself took several seconds, but the woman was shaken when she arose and found herself on thest peak of the range with the Central City on the horizon before her.

    [Godspeed Deactivated].

    She stared at the message, and then looked behind herself in disbelief. What kind of cultivation is instantaneously learnt and mastered like this?" She stared, but then the timer before her reminded her of her mission.

    "Nevermind that Ling Fuhua, you are going to follow Master Vestic, everything you need to know can be asked at ater date." She berated herself for getting sidetracked and went into a running pose, digging her foot into the mountaintop and angling herself towards the City on the horizon.

    [Activating Godspeed]

    She grit her teeth and took a breath, feeling the mana within her explosively surge before she made a leap with all her strength. The goal was tond outside of the City barrier and work her way in, that was her goal.

    However, Ling Fuhua immediately understood the broken nature of this new skill thatshe had been granted after she crashed through the barrier as well as therge decorated gates of the city, breaking down a section of the outer walls and leaving a crater in her wake on the frontwn belonging to the mansion of what seemed like a noble house.

    "Enemy attack!!" One of the guards who had beenpletely blitzed by her speed and crash came running inwards while a small army of inner soldiers and guards also came charging in her direction.

    rms began wailing all across the city, the barrier that had been broken was already in the process of being repaired. "Surround them!" The Guard waved his hands raising his spear and lowering it with a grunt. "Reveal yourself intruder or face the fury of the..." He slowly stopped speaking when he realised that the crater was empty.

    "Where did they go?" Another guard asked, lowering his weapon and scratching his head. "Was it a false rm?" He asked again, but only a momentter there was another crash on the far side of the city and then a giant pir of Green mes shot into the air, colliding into the barrier and spreading like fireworks.

    "That is near Lord Shalba''s residence!" The first guard hefted his spear and looked to his second. "Alert the Elders, something is fishy about this-" Once again he was obstructed from speaking when another distant part of the city exploded in mes. "What the devils is happening?!"

    He needed no answer to that question, mere seconds after he asked, Fuhuanded before him grabbing his spear and disarming him in a matter of seconds, resting the de on his neck and raising her free hand towards everyone else in a warning that she would end him if they acted against her.

    "Where is Shalba?" Fuhua asked. "Be warned, I am in a rush, if you fail to answer my question I will kill you and move on to someone else."

    "You- kuek!" The man shuddered when his weapon pierced his skin and he began bleeding beneath it.

    "Where is that backstabbing bastard?!" Fuhua snapped, she had not noticed because she was equally in a rush as she was enraged, but her mana had caused a pressure to invade the grounds of the noble mansion that had sent most of the soldiers to the ground as well as several guards and bystanders.

    "I don''t know!" The man shrieked, dropping himself on his back and spreading his arms in a gesture of surrender.

    "Is he in the City at least?" She asked.

    "I do not know!" The guard shook his head. "Believe me, I do not know!"

    "Do you have anything from him that can track his mana?" She asked one more question and the guard shook his head once more, causing her to hiss and release the spear, closing her eyes in an attempt to calm down.

    "If he is not here then I do not know where he would be, I cannot detect his mana no matter how hard I try." She looked to the side at the system window.

    [You said he was the strongest person on this Star, correct?" Jena asked.

    "He should be, there are guests that are somewhat near the peak of his tier but he remains the strongest amongst them, then again, it has been a long time since we had contact with the outside world, we were too busy fighting off the Direfreak..." She growled.

    "Direfreak?" An old woman asked. "Young miss are you perhaps a member of the Everstorm n?" She slowly walked over, using a walking stick for support with her other hand pressed against her back bypassing the aura that had established a safe zone around fuhua. "You managed to escape that dredful beast?"

    [Be careful, this woman is hiding her power]. Jena warned.

    "I am Ling Fuhua of the Everstorm des, yes. I havee seeking revenge on the behalf of my people who have suffered because of that man''s greed-"

    Fuhua ducked beneath the stick the old woman was casually wielding and summoned her de, swinging it with a roar and then dodging again when the olddy blocked the attack and reached for her arm.

    "Who is this old hag?" Fuhua leapt several more times leaping high and falling into a perch atop the gate of the residence when the ground beneath her tried grabbing hold of her legs, rising with four fingered rocky arms.

    "Princess Ling Fuhua of the Everstorm n," The old woman straightened her back and raised her staff. "How foolish you are toe willingly into the arms of the enemy after finding out what they did to your people."

    "I don''t have time to deal with you either, where is Shalba?" Fuhua scoffed, standing and staring at the dent in her de, caused by their sh.

    "You are far stronger than I imagined a backwater princess to be, did you recieve outside help?" The old woman began creeping towards Fuhua again in the same unassuming innocent walk as before. "Did you seduce some old passer-by into helping you escape the storm?" She pressed.

    "I want to kill her," Fuhua leaned in an offensive gesture, ready to attack the old woman again. "But..."

    [I found him, ording to the texts in the treasury, he is on his way to mineral city]. Jena interrupted the enraged woman and then appeared at her side, pointing in the direction of the city she had mentioned while she continued to use her split consciousness to learn more about the world they were on as well as thenguages they spoke through a copy of herself in their library.

    "I see," Fuhua looked at the old woman who was shocked at the sight of the little girl who not only appeared out of thin air without any warning or artifact, but also flew without the aid of one. "You were stalling for time." Fuhua drew her attention again.

    "You will not-"

    [Godspeed]

    Fuhua disappeared as suddenly as she had arrived, and a few secondster there was a great emerald explosion against the barrier sending waves of green mana crashing across the City and leaving mayhem an its wake like a tidal wave while she broke through on her way towards the Mineral City.

    [Time remaining: 45 minutes]

    "Curses!" Fuhua clicked her tongue in frustration,nding on the outskirts of the city territory with a single nce behind herself before she broke into another full sprint; that entire ordeal only served to waste her time.

    "I will find you, Shalba."

 Chapter 374 Kill Shalba.

    "Master Shalba," A young woman sat in a carriage, her head was covered, hiding her hair and face revealing only her blue eyes through the ck robes. "There seems to be some kind of distress back in the Capital City," She looked out the window.

    "If it is all the way in Capital then we can deal with it when we return, we are more than halfway actross the continent already, do not concern yourself with that now." Shalba; a man seemingly middle aged with streaks of white through his beard and a few wrinkles under his eyes responded, picking up a golden apple and offering it to her.

    "I agree withdy Yin, Sir," Another woman sitting parrallel to him spoke up. Like Yin, she too was covered from head to tow with her brown eyes being the only parts of her body revealed. "After you saved us from the Direfreaks years ago our sense have be sharpened to dangerous situations..."

    "Which is why you invested a world''s worth of resource in our growth, making us your honoured guests even though we should have only been your wives and consorts." Yin spoke up again.

    "I have a dark history with the Direfreaks, they were also responsible for the death of my n when I was just a boy, my only regret is that it took me that long to find you, I could have saved more of your people." Shalba looked out the window.

    "I heard of another incident in the backwater EverStorm des, I should hurry over, apparently they have been battling a Direfreak for thest decade or so.

    "There may be nobody left to save when you get there, even our n took a maximum of three years to get dertroyed by one Direfreak.

    "Hm... I suppose," The man took a bite out of his apple while his wives ate theirs under their masks.

    ����

    [They are just beyond that mountain]. Jena notified Fuhua, expecting that she would charge in as she had done in the Capital City, but to her surprise the woman stopped, perching on the top of a tree and staring. [Ling, you only have thirty minutes left].

    "I know, I was just letting it sink in," Fuhua responded staring at the system window that had been flying at her side for thest ten minutes.

    [Letting what sink in?]

    "My rage," She answered leaning off to the side and leaping downwards.

    [Godspeed]

    The area she had justnded on erupted, destroying the road as she was propelled forward making the mountain seem like a hill after she cleared the jump with one bound.

    Fuhuanded short of the carriage with it in her sights, her face contorting into an expression if revolt as she went into another perch on the ground.

    [Godspeed]

    [Godspeed; Stacked]

    She took off again, this time decimating the hills behind her when she closed the distance with herself and the carriage in less than a second, turning her arm just before contact and spreading her palm wide.

    [Hidden arts; Heavenly me]

    She roared out, mmimg her hand against the back if the carriage and watching the entire construct get devoured by her green fire.

    The mes arose like a cloud walking across thend eating awat at thr woad, the forestry, and then rising into the skies diagonally, leaving a great crater in its wake. [The carriage seems to have been empty]. Jena announced.

    "Shalba!!" Fuhua clenched her fists and swung her hands summoning her de and coating it with more emerald fire. "Show yourself you coward, face me!" She swung her de randomly, leaving an arc of fire slicing through the burning terrain. "Where are you?!"

    "Who is that woman?" Yin asked, thanks to her concealment technique they had managed to blindside Fuhua and take refuge nearby. "Master?"

    "She looks familiar, and as the lord of this territory it is impossible to not have enemies, but otherwise, I have no idea who this woman is," He furrowed his brows.

    "How did the Everstorm princess escape?"

    He thought.

    "She is close to my heavenly tier as well, where did she get this power from?!"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Master," Yin looked at him. "This woman is dangerous, we should escape-"

    "Shalba!" Fuhua roared once more, grinding her teeth while mana arose from her body like smoke fanned in the wind and slowly spreading. "My father trusted you, he always believed that you woulde to his aid, but it was your doing all along!" She ground her teeth, seething.

    "My people suffered at the hand of that monster for years!" She spread her hands.

    [Hidden Arts; Everstorm Bombardment]

    ck lightning highlighted by her green mana began surging from her body, tearing thend asunder in every direction as dark clouds began forming above them and rain began falling, acidic rain which ate at thend.

    "Show yourself," The woman continued to fume, panting after using two hidden arts back to back.

    [Godspeed] She raised her foot utilising the technique in a way that not even Sol had ever thought of; rather than run off, Fuhua used the pure destructive energy created by [Godspeed] and stomped, causing the ground around her for several dozen metres to copse violently.

    "Oh no-" Yin snapped panicked when the ground beneath them also caved and then burst open causing her technique to be undone as she was sent airborne while her sister and Shalba were both sent in another direction.

    "Master-" Yin attempted to rush over to Shalba, but froze in ce with her mouth still open and a trickle of sweat rolling off her cheek, dropping on the dented sword pressed against her neck. "Who are you, and what do you want with master Shalba?"

    "Rather than try saving your own life, you opt to ask such a useless question...?" Fuhua ground her teeth wondering if she should kill the woman under her de.

    "You attacked master unbothered, I at least want to know why..." Yin slowly turned her head, finding a pair of enraged eyes ring at her.

    "Or is it that you are trying to stall for time while he escapes?" Fuhua looked up. "That man you call Master is a demon, he set the Direfreak upon the Everstorm n and left us to suffer, all so I would be grateful when he eventually came and rescued me, but only me.

    "Master would never, that is a lie," The woman couldn''t help but notice the simrity between her and Fuhua''s story, they had just been talking about this woman, and now here she was using Shalba of being the one who did it.

    "I have no interest in you, I can already tell we have the same background," Fuhua red, scanning the area. "Shalba; tell me where he is-"

    Fuhua sucked in a breath and raised her sword, growing more enraged when the other sister seemingly from out of the blue came and attacked her with a staff, leaving another dent in her de when she parried it and had to leap away when the one held at swordpoint spun and nearly stabbed her with a pair of small daggers.

    "Yun, she ims to be the Everstorm Princess." Yin looked at her sister. "She swears that Master is the one that set the Direfreak on her people with the intention of saving herter on that she would follow him devoutly."

    "Master would never." Yun shook her head. "Master is a kind man-"

    "-Who saved us from the Direfreaks after our people had been killed off..."

    "Yin!"

    "You have to admit, our stories sound strikingly familiar," Yin shook her head, raising her weapons towards Fuhua. "It is just a thought."

    "A bad one that you should never utter aloud!" Yun shook her head and sighed. "Just help me here, we can discuss thister on."

    "There is noter on," Fuhua spoke up, standing from her perch and tossing her de to the side. "You either get out of my way, or face me as an enemy, but know this; if you face me as my enemy, the next breath you draw will be yourst!" She dered, slowly lowering her head and spreading her arms to her sides.

    "Then-" Shalba emerged from the opposite side he had been sent earlier, swinging a greatsword at her. "Go ahead and take the road to the afterlife first!"

    "You...!" Fuhua dodged the first strike and then began making small gestures with her hands, condensing the mana in front of her and causing the sword that was being swung for a follow-up attack to slow to a halt inside of the dense mana.

    She grabbed the sword, pulling it past herself and striking at him with her palm, but from her sides the sisters attempted to cut her down forcing her to dodge and then retreat from the three of them.

    "You have made your choice then." Fuhua grimaced, shing her hands free of the ming mana while the storm above them intensified severalfold.

    [You may want to consider another approach, fuhua, the odds are unfairly stacked against you].

    "No," The Everstorm princess objected the thought.

    "This is perfect."

 Chapter 375 Cruel Punishments.

    [How could this possibly be a favourible situation?] Jena retorted. [Facing the three of them in a direct confrontation puts you at a severe disadvantage-]

    [New trait discovered].

    [Oh?]

    [A new passive trait is being assigned to Ling Fuhua].

    [Special: Disciple of Sol Vestic, due to Ling Fuhua''s like mindedness with Sol Vestic, when she is in a situation with no escape her true potential shines the brightest, she is granted as much power as her enemiesbined].

    [Drawbacks: Due to ack of experience using the system and the power granted being too cumbersome for the host to wield at will, this state of Sol-Like enlightenment will onlyst for ten minutes, the host will experience severe pain when the power weakens and deactivates].

    "Goodness me, he''s had several traits and blessings named after him now, but this one is basically praising him for being stronger than he ought to be, this might be more broken than Mdy''s [Goddess of Battle] perk which allows her to scale indefinitely until she is exhausted of all her mana... which by my calction, is impossible." Jena sighed, granting the notification to Fuhua and watching as she epted it without batting an eye.

    "I have assessed her strength, she may be slightly stronger than I am, but with the three of us here there is nothing to fear, I will clear my name and be rid of this lying vagabond!" Shalba shed his sword and held it towards Fuhua. "Ling Fuhua, I will not allow you to drag my name through the dirt as you please!"

    "It was your own people that admitted to this fact before I took their heads, Shalba. Your words of deceit; I see right through them!" Fuhua balled her fists and went into the stance she was interrupted from using before.

    "Lord shalba would never do something that horrendous!" Yun swept her staff across the ground.

    "I already told you," Fuhua''s gaze shifted from the man she desired dead the most to the two unfortunate sisters at his sides. "Breathing as my enemy ismiting yourself to my de," She took a step towards the woman.

    "Hers shees prepare yourself-"

    [Godspeed]

    Before Yun could raise her weapon to defend herself or even breathe a word of prayer for her life, Fuhua had disappeared and reappeared where she stood, holding the woman''s hair while her head dangled at her feet. "I do not have the time to try saving you brainwashed fools, especially knowing how close I could have been to walking in your shoes.

    "Ling Fuhua!!" Yin screamed in horror and Desparation, swinging her daggers to and fro while they slowly parted from her grasp, bing tethered by strings of mana, maximizing her reach while she attacked.

    Once again, Shalba witnessed an unexined phenomena when the woman before him disappeared and then reappeared with the woman''s head in her grasp, dropping it to the side with an expression of disgust while her body slowly slumped and fell to the side.

    "What the hell are you?"

    "Angry, at you, and at myself for believing that there was no ulterior motif all this time, I yed right into your hand, and until those old vermin admitted to it when they tried to steal me away, I had no idea of the scum you truly were, so Shalba, my rage is still very fresh." Fuhua clenched her fists, washing the blood away with her mana.

    "Go ahead, there is none but us now, you can admit it, one of us dies here, so the truth will never be revealed either way, right?" She seethed. "Admit what you did."

    "I will never-"

    "Then die in denial!" Fuhua leaned forward once more getting ready to use godspeed when she was surprised by an attack from behind with a de tethered to the man''s mana.

    On anyone else it would have worked undoubtedly, but against her who was still high on Sol''s battle senses, it was mere child''s y to dodge the de and catch it, creating a sharp thread of mana and severing the connection he had with it.

    "You bastard girl!" Shalba raised his sword to attack but was shocked stiff when the mana she began emitting doubled and forced his to freeze, blocking his flow and rendering him motionless before her.

    "I always prayed that some hero woulde and save my people," She slowly walked across the street. "I aways hoped that someone would help in whatever way they could, but while I was praying, you, the devil have been conspiring with your shady allies and blocking my prayers!"

    [Sword Arts; Sword Array]

    Shalba; frozen could only scream when his arms and legs were mauled by hundreds of shes in a matter of seconds while the mana suppressing him prevented him from falling.

    "I wanted so badly to be saved that I would have as you nned... dly thrown myself to the first hero that arrived, but instead of you, I was saved by a golden angel, an entity that traverses the great beyond without the use of artifacts and needs no weapon to destroy something as terrible as the everstorm."

    "My master in just one day has done what this star has refused to do for over a hundred years, we suffered," Fuhua walked to his side and slowly drove his de into his liver. "My eldest brother was eaten right before my eyes, after getting stabbed there." She educated him condensing her mana until it formed a green de in her grasp.

    "My sisters were weak, those who tried protecting them met grim ends before they too died horrible deaths eaten alive," She began leaving de after de through his body while she recounted all those who had died for her sake, ending her torture with a greatsword resembling her Eldest Brother''s.

    "Even a thousand years of death will not be enough of a punishment for what you did to my people, Shalba, but s, I have little time remaining before I must return to my Master," She raised therge sword and drove it through him, skewering him to the ground like a wild animal in the middle of the destroyed road. "I hope hell has a st with that filthy soul of yours!" She released the de and turned her back.

    [You have seeded in destroying the object of your hatred within the time limit, Ling Fuhua, you will be rewarded a 30% increase in your overall mana and ess to the skill library availible only to master and his closest as his official disciple]. Jena alerted her and thenappeared at her side.

    "You have about one minute before the bacsh of your active skill activates," The little girl warned her and the woman sighed and took a seat right there on the ground with the skewered man behind her.

    "I have a lot of questions about this system skill."

    "The system is not a skill, it is an entity that exists as a separate consciousness from reality, capable of altering anything it wishes to a degree of omnipotence," Jena summarised. "My mom is much better at it than I am, I am only a child, after all," She chuckled.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "You you are indeed the system," Fuhua smiled when she felt phantom pains begin waking deep in her bones. "I had a feeling, ever since I saw you float into the beyond."

    "I am a weaker less effective variant of the System, yes, my primary function is that of a child, all I wish to do is make mother proud." Jena raised her hand and Fuhua began levitating. "Master has requested that I return you to his side, due to the bacsh, moving for you will be quite the challenge," She added and then vanished, taking the new de=isciple with her.

    "Mast-" Fuhua attempted to greet Sol as soon as she returned, but copsed, writhing in agony from the sudden jolts of pain through her body, surging and attacking every cell inside of her.

    "I thought about removing the pain this once on ount of you putting on one hell of a show for me to enjoy," Sol stared at her, creating a bubble around them and taking off into the air again. "But I will let you experience it now so you do not rush to make the same choice a second time," He stared at her as they approached the eleration rings once more.

    "The system is remarkable, but it is not as friendly as you may expect, especially to others than myself who hasplete administrative rule over them," Sol educated the woman while she continued to write on the floor of the bubble. "You may die if you try to exploit the system, you have ess, notmand; remember that well the next time you see a skill or perk too good to be true."

    "Indeed, we often reward cruel punishments to those who recieve great rewards, except for Mdy, I fear doing any such thing would lead to our demise." Jena chuckled nervously.

    "Most certainly, I would uninstall." Sol pat her head with a sinister chuckle. "I wonder what a system banished to the Beginning to wander for all eternity would be?" He asked, and she ignored the question, clearing her throat awkwardly and looking upwards.

    [We are now entering the first eleration Gate].

 Chapter 376 Saint Garden Palace.

    It was an average day in the ever warring Diamond Crest realm; but warring as the people of this realm were they still managed to live rather peacefully with each other, simply choosing to fight to the death if they had a quarrel that could not be solved with the simplest of words.

    Children, men and women had been killed for far less than one would expect in this strange andwless, yet uniquely orderlynd, and it was here that Sol found himself after waiting for Fuhua to recover from the punishment of using power beyond her limits.

    He descended a mountainous peak after entering their realm undetected, finding arge city not too different from the Capital city they had just left behind and staying just on the outskirts, observing the passing merchants and warriors, the way they dressed, the crests that they wore.

    And most importantly the currency that they used.

    "Uncle-"

    "Call me master while we are among these people, Jena," Sol sat by the wayside in a furbished and extravagant carriage surrounded by dozens of holograms in the form of guards causing those who would be tempted to approach to keep their distance.

    Like before, he was again dressed like royalty using the same golden sun crest and wearing a fully ck robe with golden trims.

    "Does this mean I will be interacting with outsiders?" Jena asked, seated next to fuhua with a warm rag, wiping sweat from her forehead while she rested in herp. "What part will I y, master?"

    "You are both my disciples for the time being, I can''t make any more rash movements, and you shouldn''t be disappearing all the time like you usually do; the lord of this city is a Primordial tiered entity like myself, and they are surrounded by other Primordials," He answered her, slowly eating and looking out the window.

    "They have been trying to spy on me since we first arrived through the eleration gate a few hours ago, I need to take this slowly or prepare to face them violently, that is counterproductive to my goal," He bit the golden apple from his Great Divine tree, feeding himself rich mana to grow passively.

    "Master, do you like these kinds of things?"

    "What makes you ask that?" Sol raised his brow at Jena.

    "Well..." She turned to Fuhua once more when the woman groaned and shuddered. "You aremitting to this role of nobility quite intriguingly, your mannerisms, the way you dress, you seem to effortlessly fit into any society you infiltrate as a lord and never as amoner.

    "Jena,"

    "Yes, sir?"

    "It seems you are more child than you are system now, I don''t mind that I have to remind you, but I am surprised that I need to," He smiled at her and crossed his legs, casting an almost holy appearance through the carriage as the sunlight reflected across the gold he wore and his skin made made him glow, while his usually brown eyes were a constant glowing grey.

    "I am Sol Vestic, King of Divines and Lord of the Sol Collective, I am not just some nobility; I am he who is beseeched by gods and devils for guidiance in their time of need."

    He dered to her, seeing her eyes sparkle in admiration.

    "Of course, how rude of me, Master," Jena lowered her head. "Forgive my rudeness, spending time with you has made me numb to this great truth because of how rxed and casual you are, please, forgive this humble servant." She apologised.

    "There''s no need to sing any kind of praises, I prefer to treat and be treated in a normal manner, after all, I aming from one of the humblest backgrounds, I don''t want to constantly be reminded of these titles." He admitted, watching her smile return.

    ����

    "Master...?" Fuhua raised her head, there was a cool wind passing through the spacious carriage while it slowly rocked, she could feel the faint warmth of the torches they passed, and hear the idle chatter of people on the outside, mostly wondering who was inside of it.

    "I have already asked Jena to adjust the length of that bacsh, Twelve hours is too long, we ended up waiting all day for you to recover," Sol smiled at her from the opposite side with the girl in question soundly asleep in hisp.

    "I am sorry, had I chosen to ignore Shalba, we would have long been here..." She paused and looked outside. "Where are we?"

    "We are in a realm called Diamond Crest, I must ask that you refrain from doing anything rash while we are here, there are multiple masters of my level," Sol responded, guiding his fingers through Jena''s hair and looking outside again.

    "Also," He spoke up before she did. "If you had found out what that man did to you and chosen to not take revenge I would have considered you useless and taken your discipleship away on the spot." He stared at her coldly.

    The same grey eyes that had disyed beauty and warmth in the sun now reflected a cold nature almost alien to his warm personality, but the beauty remained. "Remember Ling Fuhua; an eye for an eye will only leave you blind if you let them poke yours," Sol looked to the side, taking a golden token from his person and raising it for at the window.

    "Is that a royal token?" She asked.

    "Of course, I can acquire any material thing I want, any currency, any known substance in the universe; they are all useless to me other than to gain me an audience with the one I seek, my aspirations are... much simpler than power." Sol tapped Jena''s shoulder. "We are entering now, get ready." He waved his hands, and both her and Fuhua''s clothes shimmered, bing less extravagant variants of his.

    "Anyways," Sol hummed, looking to the sides at the many food establishments that greeted visitors when they first entered. "Are you hungry?

    "I can manage-" She wanted to be less of a burden after spending an entire day in pain and then passing out, but a loud growl from her stomach was a quick reminder of her mortality.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Unlike Sol and those back in the Grand Collective who could go the rest of their existences absorbing energy in alternate ways, the means by which the Super Collective manipted mana made eating a must.

    "Come," He rested his hand on the carriage, allowing it to turn and stop at the front of one of thergest dining establishments he found. "Let''s see what delicasies they can offer our little princess."

    "Esteemed Guest!" A young man fitted in uniform greeted them, opening the door and gesturing to the Estate-likeplex. "Wee to Saint Garden Pce," He lowered his head and stepped away while Jena leapt out and stood to the left, and then Fuhua following the girl''s example walked out and stood to the right both lowering their heads, causing the gathered crowd to do the same when Sol emerged with his hands tucked into his robe.

    "Goodness," Fuhua mused, raising her head and looking around at the crowds. "I have forgotten this feeling after years of fighting."

    "Senior Sister," Jena rested her hand on the carriage and the entire construct vanished against her palm. "Come along."

    "Yes."

    "Wee, esteemed guest." Sol was greeted with an army of beautiful hostesses lining the walkway on both sides leading up the small staircase after entering the grounds of the pce.

    "It seems our arrival was not unnoticed," Sol hummed. "Jena?"

    "I am already there, Master," She replied as soon as he mentioned her.

    "There?"

    "Our goal here this time like the first is gathering information,"

    Fuhua heard Sol''s voice in her head while they continued to walk.

    "Jena''s ability to be multiple ces at oncees in handy, while we take the rest of the night here, she will learn everything about this star and save it to her databanks, simrly there are several other divided consciousnesses on other stars gathering information."

    "Usually it would be instantaneous, but Ick the necessary power and experience thates from billions of attempts, Mom would have already gathered an entire gate''s worth of information."

    Jena added.

    "Your Mother sounds impressive beyond words, but if I may, how did she birth you if she is also the same System?"

    Fuhua kept her gaze agead, using the same method to speak to them.

    "Not truly the same, I am a variant of her coding, she is the original; the first, I am a part of her consciousness that was split apart with no intent to return."

    "Coding?"

    Fuhua hummed.

    "I have never heard this word before, Jena, what does it mean?"

    "Pay attention, you two," Sol spokee up when they finally made it into a gigantic mansion-like building, decorated in gold and diamonds, with halls od jade floors and pirs made of dragons sculpted with diamond and gold, it had thousands ofrge rooms for almost a mile in an optical and physical mirage, and each room was hosting an event from what Sol could tell.

    "I apologise for not greeting you at the gates your excellency!" An old man quickly approached them with two more hostesses at his sides, bowing.

    "No need to apologise, it seems that all of these rooms are upied by events-"

    "Unhand me!"

    "Oh?" Sol stopped speaking at the first sign ofmotion and turned.

    It was a man being dragged out by several mean-looking security guards while a young woman followed behind him trying to calm him down.

    "Master..." Jena''s eyes widened in disbelief. "That woman..."

    "Yes," Sol hummed. "I considered the possibility, but I never expected to see one of them this soon. Hair of ck, ocean eyes, and wless skin with an ever-changing flux of core energy."

    "She is Vatui." Sol frowned.

    "More specifically, she is like Ikaris."

 Chapter 377 Give Me Your Wife.

    "Who are those people?" Sol asked, taking note of the way the woman and man were dressed while being forcefully escorted out of the Pce. "I am surprised to see this on my first visit to your establishment, mister..." He looked at the old man in anticipation.

    "I am Shu, your Excellency," The man and the two maidens at his side seemed to be in a panic when they saw the displeased expression on Sol''s face after noticing themotion. "Please, I will deal with those two vagabonds myself."

    "They should have never been allowed inside if the Saint Garden Pce to begin with," The hostess closest to him shook her head.

    "Hold on, do you think it is the sight if them which displeases me?" Sol raised his brow at the man, leaving tension in the hall when he ced his golden token in Fuhua''s hand and she immediately rushed over to themotion, catching the guard''s hand before he could strike the woman and escte the situation further.

    "I do not understand," Shu shook his head lowering it again. "It is widely known that our kinds do not interbreed, it is even forbidden in some ces, after all that woman is incapable of using mana, and her children will be born without mana, a useless bloodline; their only use is-"

    "I would advise you choose your next few words very carefully," Sol began ring at the man. "Go and apologise to them, make sure you do it publicly and sincerely, clothe them in the finest garments this city has to offer, and send them to me afterwards.

    "I will cover whatever expense is needed." Sol took note of the hall once more where arge crowd was gethering.

    "In the meantime, I want a private sitting."

    "Right away, go on." Shu turned to his hostess and the woman nervously opened a small chest she had been clinging on to, revealing velvety interiors glowing with the presence of a golden token with the insignia of the Saint Garden Pce engraved with a crimson ink that seemed to be alive.

    "Thank you," Jena epted the token with a smile while Fuhua returned from the situation she had been tasked with dousing.

    The guards, patrons, and passers by that had seen the token all lowered their heads in his direction, while the man and woman that had been saved were on their knees and foreheads in thanks.

    "Take care of them Shu, from now on those people are my special guests."

    "Certainly, Your Excellency, Bao''er will guide you to your dining, if you allow her."

    "Bao''er..." Sol scrunched his nose.

    "Ah!" The woman lowered her head in fear. "I apologise for staring my Lord, please, be light in your punishment!"

    "Don''t be ridiculous," Sol scoffed. "Lead the way, I do not want to stand here all night."

    "Right away," The woman settled into a sweet smile and gestured, walking several paces ahead to not give the impression that she was leading them.

    A few moments of walking revealed an elevator which she guided them into.

    "Master," Fuhua looked at him as soon as they were out of the public eye.

    "Hm?"

    "Why did you help them, I was half inclined to agree with the host, they are a different race incapable of utilizing mana, some of them grow fairly strong, but usually they are worthless."

    "Nonsense," Sol chuckled, "The strongest people I know are of that race, do you even know what they are called?" He raised a brow at her, ans she lowered her gaze humbly in preparation for theing lecture.

    "Please, enlighten me, Master."

    "They are a race called Vatui, and they are the most unique species to ever exist, the heights which humans and all other races desperately seek to achieve throughout their lifetime is something the Vatui will have a far less troublesome time reaching.

    "Byt they have no mana-"

    "Because that is what they were told all their lives." He raised his finger shaking it in a gesture of disagreement. "Vatui are special, Fuhua," Sol continued, his tone going softer and his a smile crawling on his face as he spoke.

    "The cellr makeup of the Vatui make them incredibly durable, thay have a nigh infinite lifespan, but most interestingly, the power they hold is enough to topple and rule over entire empires easily, where Ie from, the Vatui wers so feared for their power that the entire Collective of gates had to band together just to stand a chance against them." He looked at her.

    "How?" Bao''er asked, then pped her hand over her mouth when she realised she had intruded in a conversation between royalty. "M-m-"

    "I will keep your intrusion a secret if you keep what you hear a secret, girl," Sol chuckled. "And to answer your question; it is their dormant gene, they can adapt to any form of power, any race, any biology.

    Vatui are the apex species wherever they go and I have never seen any other being as amazing as they are, if they are weak here, it is because someone deliberately manipted them to make them unaware of the incredible power they wield."

    "I have seen it done before," Sol cleared his throat when the doors opened again. "But that is a story for another time."n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Please," Bao''er stood by the side gesturing to arge emerald double-door before them. where two guards stood.

    "Honoured Guests," The men stood aside and pushed the door open, lowering their heads. "Please, enjoy your stay!"

    "I intend to," Sol passively answered wasking through the doors. "Thank you for your service."

    "I have been tasked with taking care of your every need, your excellency, so please, whatever you demand I will dly aodate your request, no matter the nature." Bao''er stood after closing the doors and lowered her head while Sol slowly walked to therge window view and stared down on the world beneath.

    "This tower you call a pce, it has strange arrays that allow it to stand this high in the void without incurring any damage overtime?" He seemed intrigued as he stared at the cosmos through a room window.

    "The array is a spacial array which confines the Pce''s appearance to that of arge construct while protecting it from the Beyond, yes, it is an illusion applied practically." She replied.

    "So you''re telling me that the rooftop I saw when I was on the ground is the same rooftop I am under?"

    "Correct,"

    "Jena, we should take note, I will make one of these on Arkadia when i return." Sol chukkled. "It would be amusing pitching this idea to Adonai, he usually get''s antsy when he has nothing interesting to build."

    "Master..." The little girl stood at his side. "Why do you say it with such a sad expression?"

    "Clearly, I miss them." Sol replied hunestly. "I miss them, and I am worried, being here in this wonderful ce makes me ufortable," He clenched his fists. "Maybe I should have annihted the Emporium before I set out, after all."

    "That is a counterproductive strategy, master," She held on to his fist with her small hands and rested her head against him. "You allowed them to fight because for the sake of surviving the encounter with your enemy, they must be stronger; all of them."

    "That sounds like war..." Fuhua narrowed her eyes. "Master, could it be-"

    "My people are locked in conflict, yes, a war that has seen no end in aeons," Sol stared off into space. "I am so far away that can barely tell where they are, all i know is that their hearts still beat, and i have to settle foe that while moving forward." He raised his right hand, showing off the sigil that had a faint golden glow.

    "Your first meal has arrived, your excellency," Bao''er announced, standing to the side while a parade of chefs slowly pushed the door open, allowing two visitors to enter before them while Bao''er gestured that they wait until she called.

    "Your Excellency," The man came and fell to Sol''s feet. "I do not have enough words to express my gratitude!"

    "Come on now, you should never be so quick to fall at the feet of another befoe your wife, what if my intent was to steal her from you, would you offer your wife to a man because he showed you great kindness?" Sol, in a disy that shocked everyone, stooped and held the man''s hands, pulling him to his feet and straightening his clothes.

    "I am also curious, though," Fuhua leaned her head. "Why did Master request that they join us, I mean, helping them was enough, right?"

    "Elder Sister, you should broaden your horizons and stop viewing the world as you once knew it," Jena stared at the woman with a disappointed shake of her head.

    "Master is not the kind to see an opportunity and let it pass."

    "Well said, as for why, I saw a man of low status struggling to keep himself from getting arrested by identally killing a group of rude guards, while the woman on his arm was trying even harder to notsh out and do the same. "You may be able to fool everyone else..." Sol''s eyes shimmered began glowing golden as he stared at them. "But not me, I can see you both clear as day."

    "Is that a threat?" The man who was previously polite and subservient backed away from Sol while his wifeturned her back to his and clenched her teeth, shocking everyone when her ears grew taller, her ck hair began floating slightly, and her eyes started glowing a menacing crimson.

    "I would not invite you so casually if you stood a chance of harming me or anyone else here under my watch," Sol stepped forward and rested his hand on the man''s shoulder once more.

    "I aided and invited you specifically so that I could meet your wife,"

    "I-I beg your pardon?"

    "Your wife," Sol repeared, looking over the shocked man''s shoulder at the woman.

    "I wish to inspect her."

 Chapter 378 I Need A New Heart.

    "Oh dear..." Jena held her forehead, the tension in the room was so high she could practically feel the mana particles charged with it.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "We can speak while we eat, my disciples need sustenance." Sol turned and began walking towards the kitchen-like restaurant area of theplexpleted with an exbition cooking area where the guests had the choice to watch the chefs at work.

    "Please, h-hold on a second, I beg you to rify what you mean by that." The man stood stiffly with his back to the door and his hand guarding his wife. "If your goal is to court mydy, I will die before I see that happen, I will kill you on the spot rather than allow it!"

    "Hm," Sol stared passively at the man. "What''s your name?" He stared pass the man at the woman shamelessly. "Go on, answer."

    "I am Grecia, my Lord," The wife bowed politely, remembering her manners in ce of her husband, she had known since setting foot inside of the room and facing sol that he was a being she stood no chance of opposing, neither did her husband, but what also struck her interest was what he had said about her kind.

    Her senses were as sharp as any, Vatui were attuned to the emotion of others, it was a passive trait those in the Grand Collective had to suppress in order to fight, so she could tell that Sol sincerely meant them no harm either.

    Few if any, knew the value of the Vatui gene, not even her Husband knew of hertent abilities, and she was warned as soon as she had the sense to speak that she should forever remain hidden so long as she lived, or face death at the hands of a cruel ruler.

    "Grecia," Sol repeated her name, making note of it with a smile. "Would you join us?"

    "I am opposed to refuse, my Lord," Grecia replied again and held her husband''s hand. "Come, love, join Lord Vestic, he will not harm me, I promise." She smiled at her husband pulling him along.

    "But-"

    "Come now, do not be stubborn," She adamantly pulled him, easing the mood again when he was forced toply.

    "Master is acting strangely..." Fuhua mumbled, unable to pinpoint the personality she had gotten used to.

    "You have only known him for a little over a day, most of which you spent unconscious, what did you expect to know about Master in that small time?" Jena chuckled while them and everyone else settled into a cozy atmosphere. "There is a mountain of information you have yet to gain ess to."

    "What are you doing?" Grecia''s husband red at Sol, but the man only smiled politely as he pulled out a seat for Grecia and gently fixed her to sit, and then in another show of respect, did the same for him.

    "May I ask your name as well?" Sol smiled at him when heplied and sat.

    "I am Cidd," He answered impolitely, seeing Sol''s eyes gozy at his attitude.

    "Cidd," Grecia bumped him in his side. "Behave yourself, this man has not shown you any hostility," She warned him, smiling nervously and raising her hands sped in a gesture of asking. "Please forgive his behaviour my Lord, my husband is being overprotective." She lowered her head once more.

    "I''m aware," Sol pulled out another seat around the table for Fuhua, and then one for Jena while Bao''er pulled his seat with a smile and gestured that he be seated as well. "Thank you,"

    "Certainly your Excellence." The hostess smiled and retreated several paces to the side, turning to the kitchen and initiating their processes as the overseer, pping her hands and summoning the waiters with refreshments.

    Sol took his sweet time finding a strange pleasure in slightly torturing the man''s skepticism with silence before he finally caved with a chuckle and rxed his elbow informally on the table.

    "Sorry, I was going to keep messing with you but my conscience is bothered by my own behaviour." He exined, taking a sip of the refreshment and looking around at Bao''er. "This is delicious,"

    "Thank you, your excellence, it is brewed and fermented here in the Pce, a luxury that is only offered to our special guests."

    "It is exquisite," Fuhua stared at her cup in shock, having never tasted anything like this in her life, it was wine, fragrant as a flower and smooth to the tongue and throat, with a subtle sweetness that lingered in their mouths and left a small yearning for more.

    "Jena?" Sol stared at her. "You are not old enough to drink, put it down."

    "But Master, I-"

    "No," He chuckled, watching the system sigh and rest her cheek on the table, pushing the small ss to the side with her finger, gazing at it longingly. "Good girl, I will reward you for your obedience, here."

    Sol reached into his sleeve, creating a pocket into his soul, picking a fruit from his Divine Tree and revealing it, glowing and gold it brimmed and hummed with power, leaving everyone in the room speechless, but none more than Grecia who had felt the fluxuations of space and felt the pull of his mana, a strange familiarity she had never felt beforeing from her brief exposure to the presence of a Godyer.

    "What is that?" Fuhua asked, almost salivating as she chapped her lips and watched Sol pass the treasure to the little girl who epted it with gleeful and sparkling eyes. "Master?"

    "A fruit of my own creation," Sol smiled at her. "Tasting it would ruin your appetite, it will make you want nothing else; but you may have one after you eat to experience mana like you have never before. "I have yet to give it a name, but I suppose a fitting name would be [Mana Fruit]." He exined and then looked at their two guests once more.

    "On the matter of home... Grecia."

    "Yes, my Lord," The woman sat attentively. "You said you needed to Inspect me, yes, what will you be inspecting, my Lord?"

    "Grecia!" Cidd nearly mmed his hand on the table, but refrained from doing so when Sol''s head slowly turned and his vision settled with impatience.

    "Cidd, I understand that you are confused, upset, and afraid, but I assure you, I mean your wife no harm," Sol finally began rifying himself.

    "One does not need to mean harm to do harm, what kind of inspection of a man''s wife will do no harm, are you a doctor?" Cidd asked, and Jena sighed, she had not even taken a bite of the fruit yet, opting to simply hug it like arge apple to herself.

    "Master would have no interest indy Grecia," She countered Cidd''s words. "She may be his type based on preference, but she is years toote to even attempt stealing his heart."

    "Indeed, I hold no infatuation to thedy, I am simply interested in testing her-"

    "Testing her?" Fuhua almost choked on her wine. "Testing her?" she repeated once more.

    "Everyone, be quiet." Sol sat upright and spoke in an authorative tone, the kitchen went silent, Bao''er stood at attention, Grecia and Cidd sat straight with their eyes wide in shock and Fuhua sobered from her few sips, stiffenning like a log in her seat while Jena turned to him with her head on the table and her cheek squished.

    "I am interested in testing the value of her soul, the purity of her power; the power which lies within her is much like that of my wife, you see, I am also married to a Vatui Maiden, and Grecia here is the closest I have seen anyone resemble her internally, I want to examine the differences as we are far from home."

    "Testing her soul?" Bao''er seemed more confused than even the couple was. "The purity of her power?" She asked again. "Your Excellency, we have devices and artifacts that do such things, I have never heard of a person testing another''s soul-"

    "Are you out of your mind?" Cidd furrowed his brows in fright. "I will not allow it, such technology is used as means of torture!"

    "That''s enough for now," Sol rxed again and closed his eyes. "My stay here is primarily for thefort of my disciples, I am only spending the night and not a moment more, we leave at dawn so I will do it immediately after we have dined, and as I have tediously repeated several times, Grecia will not be harmed in any way." He made a point to slightly tap his ss on the table after speaking, closing the conversation.

    "Master is married..." Fuhua slowly slumped and rested her forehead on the edge of the table, clutching her stomach and sighing. "He never mentioned this even once, and he has been so kind to me, I never imagined, I thought that I could... I thought I had a chance..."

    "Senior Sister, are you unwell?" Jena stared at her from the opposite hand of Sol. "Do you need a moment?" She quizzed, watching Sol turn and rest his hand on her back, checking for abnormalities at the first sign of trouble.

    "Uh... no," The woman sucked in a breath and stared up at the innocent smile he gave her while his mana probed hers.

    "I think I need a new heart."

 Chapter 379 Do not Provoke the Godslayer.

    "Nevermind then,, that is not something I can help with." Sol raised his hand and looked at the two before them.

    "Master, I had not reported their matter to you yet," Fuhua raised her head.

    "I don''t have the patience to take anyone else''s matter on my head, sorry." Sol rested his elbow on the desk and then his cheek on his fist, gently raising his ss and starng at his distorted image inside of the liquids.

    "As I sit here, drinking this rare and delicious ferment, my people are in peryl, their lives are in danger of being snuffed out, thousands, millions, billions, quintillions of lives, an immeasurable uncountable, infinitely growing pool of life is under the threat of destruction, I don;t want to waste time going through the pleasantries of your every-day struggles." He slowly squeezed the ss until it shattered in his grasp, spilling the wine over on his hand and floating above the table.

    "Are you saying your problems are bigger than everyone elses?" Cidd asked, not minding the fact that the wine was floating.

    "I am not stating a personal truth, Cidd, I am stating an absolute fact, my family, my universe, reality itself possibly reaching here in Source, everything may one day cease to be unless I seed."

    "What kind of enemy do you face, Master?" Fuhua asked, losing her drowsiness when she started seeing hints of madness in Sol''s golden grey eyes.

    "Use the codex, Ling, study; stop asking every single question." Sol flicked his finger against her forehead leaving a steaming red mark while she hissed and pouted. "It exists to aid and teach you when I am not in the mood." He huffed.

    "On the matter of your home, there is something I have noticed that I must ask, since there is no mention of it in your codex," She looked up again after staring at the codex in search of the answers to the question she had asked just a moment before.

    "Master, there is no sign of cultivation within your body, yet the flow of your mana is perfect, how do you gain limitless power without cultivating?" She asked. "Are you some kind of Martial God?"

    "Absurd," Cidd scoffed. "The only god existing in our realm is the great Heavenly Ancestor, how can one sit here and im to be a god?"

    "I said nothing of the sort," Sol chuckled. "But I have also had enough of your rude outbursts, Cidd, so I will say this..." Sol opened his palm, undoing the damage that was done as the wine and ss were set in reverse, slowly reying the ident until it was again in his grasp. "I am no god, I am above godhood, far above it, I am the one that gods fear," Sol ced the wine to sit, allowing his white mana to begin leaking through his pours.

    "I am the one they pray to, I am the one who punishes, I am the one who kills, I am the bridge between the mortal and immortal, Cidd, that is my role, to call me a mere god is putting shame to my name, I am Godyer.

    "Godyer''s Apprentice..." Fuhua mused in disbelief, reading the codex and listening to Sol, there was a lot of information in the summary; travelling across dimensions, waging a bloody war against an entire world of demon gods, fighting a whole pantheon and winning, the more she read the less she was able to fathom, until she came upon the mention of the Grand Collective, everything started making sense.

    "Umbra." She whispered the name, but simply saying it had earned her Sol''s undivided attention, his mood changed a third time.

    He had been jovial, then Cidd''s constant interruptions and snark had left him slightly bitter, and now the name of his adversary being uttered out of the blue had left him in a state of unease, his eyes were slightly widened, and there was an underlying antsiness to his bodynguage that had the entire room shivering.

    "Master, who is this person?"

    "Fuhua," Jena shook her head. "Some things are better spoken in the privacy of allies, this is one of those things."

    "Well, usually it would be, but on the off chance that we all perish, he will catch wind of this ce, even I am envious of this peace so I am positive that he would fume and tremble with hatred at the mere sight of them," Sol cleared his throat.

    "Umbra is my alter ego and the most dangerous person to ever be left near any form of life." Sol responded. "You could call him my pr opposite, he is an entity designed solely to destroy, with a grudge against light itself, his goal is to destroy everything born of light, and then destroy the light itself." He exined.

    "Destroy the light?" Grecia seemed more disturbed about this than the others listening were.

    "The light," Sol raised his hand, summoning a small portion of golden Godyer mana and using it to form a pure fragment of light above his palm. "The light is what we all live by, it is the mana passing through us, the air we breathe, the light is the life we cling to in an otherwise dark and cold existence."

    "The problem with that truth is Umbra''s ally," Jena added. "Master sided with beings of light, entities which observe and protect the natural order of life, they too fall under his care and protection, but Umbra has only one ally, a darkness that predates time itself, the primordial abyss, the first emissary; she is the embodiment of everything you fear the most, so iprehensibly powerful that not even our Protector can stand against her on his own, uncontested, she could swallow all of sorce in endless darkness in a matter of seconds, killing all life in one fell swoop."

    "What...?" Fuhua''s arm clenched tightly on the table, and a bead of cold sweat slowly began walking down her spine. "Can such a being exist?"

    "This all sounds impossi-"

    "Cidd, be quiet." Grecia snapped at her husband, staring at the fragment of light in Sol''s grasp. "My Lord, may I?" She extended her hands, and without fanfare, Sol reached across, released the phenomena in her grasp, and then watched her start crying when she held it in her clutches. "It truly is... light, how, why, from the way you speak, you are a stranger here, how could you possess the essence of light itself?"

    "If youu want to protect something, you must first understand and ovee it," Sol answered and then turned to Fuhua once more. "In a nutshell-"

    "Nutshell?" The woman asked, unfamiliar with the term.

    "To answer your first question..." Sol cleared his throat. "I do not need to cultivate because I walk a different path, I walk the path towards creation, I am a being of evolution, you will find that the ones you call Martial Gods, Heavenly Masters and Divine Ancestors have long found the truths I have and have stopped cultivating as well, it''s useless when you reach a certain level of power, enlightenment bes your every breath."

    "Oh dear..." Bao''er whispered, having never heard someone say something as absurd and yet believable.

    "Is this why I can sense the presence of your Disciple and not yours?" Grecia asked.

    "No, I am suppressing myself to prevent this Star from turning into a dead one."

    "Pardon?"

    "There are several beings here with heights in power simr to mine they would easily be able to tell that I am a stranger here, and they have shown hostility before.

    This star, this field of stars, if they attack me and I retaliate, everything will be gone in an instant, I am suppressing myself to remain out of their sights."N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "So you cower under the guise of a normal cultivator, because you are afraid of a fight?"

    Sol paused and stared at Cidd, ever since their first meeting, the man had insisted on being a needle in his side and he seemed adamant to keep it that way. "You will not do that again." Sol warned him. "I saved you from the guards and possibly a beating at the gate solely because your wife and mine are of the same kind." He narrowed his eyes.

    "As I have stated, I don''t care what the issue was, and I have already resolved it, if you continue to poke at my patience I will forego my hospitality and teach you a lesson you will take to an early grave!" Sol leaned forward standing from his seat and resting both hands on the table while his hair shed several times and his eyes inverted in contrast, growing brighter by the second.

    "Please!" Grecia stood on the opposite side and stood befoe her husband, going igaint the teachings she had held on to all her life when her hair turned white as well, and her blue eyes slowly transitioned into pools of crimson. "Please, Lord Vestic, spare him, I beg of you."

    Grecia backed away, standing next to Cidd who had fallen from his chair in horror and then slowly falling to her hands and knees, lowering her head. "It would be unwise to provoke this being, Cidd, he is not human, and he speaks of the masters on equal footing..." She looked at her husband next to her, revealing terrified red eyes and her forehead dripping with sweat.

    "The truth though, is that he is the real threat, they would all die if they tried to fight him, Lord Vestic is immeasurable, do not provoke the Godyer."

 Chapter 380 Blood Relative.

    "Please, I beg of you, spare my foolish husband, he is a simple man who only looks out for my best interest!" Grecia continued to press her forehead on the ground, while Cidd sat there staring at her in shock. "I will do whatever you ask to ease your temper. my lord."

    "Grecia, that is enough, there is a limit to how much I can hear you say to this man, even if he kills me, I would rather be dead than see you like this..."

    "Somehow I don''t even feel like the viin right now, this is kind of amusing, actually." Sol scoffed. "Listen, Cidd, Grecia, my desire is only research, although you are fair to look at, you are nothing special, I wouldn''t even want you as a consort, understand that I have no interest in courting you in any form and stop suggesting such vulgar terms to me."

    "I-I apologise, my Lord, I am afraid, your power is... overwhelming." The woman slowly raised her head in embarrassment while her husband growled and grimaced.

    "Nothing special he says, but the child just admitted that she is his type, what kind of mind games is this man ying?" Cidd tossed and turned in his mind, while politely lowering his head after standing. "I apologise for my outbursts my lord, I am unustomed to the way you speak, some of the things you say are overly flirtatious in my head and they caused me to act out, forgive my unpleasantries..." He stared at Sol. "I must get my wife away from this hadsome incubus as soon as possible!"

    "It''s fine, I simply hate misunderstandings." Sol sighed and then turned to Fuhua who was staring at him in disbelief. "What?"

    "Not even a consort?" She asked.

    "Ling, don''t drag that topic any further than there." Sol narrowed his eyes and the woman nodded.

    "Of course, I apologise."

    [Master already has two Consorts, Lady Levina, a named and famous hero of our people, and the noble Lady Amastacia; also revered as Master''s treasure, there is information on them in the codex as well, honestly, are you allergic to reading?] Jena looked at Fuhua from the corner of her eye while Sol started having a somewhat normal conversation with his guests again.

    "There are a lot of names in the codex, I have been avoiding it..." Fuhua poited, calling up the system window and searching for Dina and A, and then going mum with shock when her eyes fell on their images.

    "These women are consorts?" She asked, jaw slowly ckening. From where she stood they were too beautiful, they glowed, they looked like goddesses, the untouchable beauty you only found once per civilization. "Only consorts?" She stared at Dina again, and then A. "Them?"

    "Indeed." Jena smiled.

    [Sol Vestic].

    Fuhua finally searched his name in the codex, finding his full information and public backstory.

    "There you go," Jena hummed looking up at Bao''er when she cleared her throat and hestured to the table.

    "I apologise for the intrusion," The woman announced here presence once more.

    "Grub time," Sol perked up sitting with his hands in hisp while the waitresses began changing the setting of the table to aodate therge course meal.

    ���� A few hourster ����

    "How exactly will you examine her soul, Master?" Fuhua stared at Sol while he and Grecia were facing each other in two seats almost touching at the knees. "This does seem a little informal after all, I as a man would not want my wife to sit this close to such a dashing figure either." She thought, looking at Cidd who was seated next to them watching Sol like a hawk.

    "All it takes is a little intimacy through physical contact," Sol admitted.

    "Intimacy?" Cidd was on his way to fuming once more but froze when Sol looked at him.

    "Let me make it clear for thest time, I have no interest in her other than whatprises her, if I wanted her, there is nothing you could do to stop me, however, there is no power in this world or any other great enough to cause me to take a man''s wife, none; I would sooner take my own life." He huffed and held out his hand.

    "All I need is her consent and her hand, nothing more." Sol smiled at the woman, and she gave her huband an assuring smile and took Sol''s hand. "In the future, if you want to guard her that nobodyys their eyes on her, then grow stronger, immeasurably stronger, be a god to those around you and protect your woman.

    "As you are now, even the weakest of the chefs would best you in battle, luckily Grecia is a powerful Warrior of a suppressed race, if she desires, the only person in this room capable of defeating her is me; she is the one doing all of the protecting, constantly regarding this woman as weak would have already driven her away if she was notpletely loyal to you."

    "What?"

    "Loyalty, it is what I treasure most about the Vatui," Sol smiled.

    "Her people do not turn their backs on whomever they give their loyalty to, you have her heart and her loyalty, rejoice, Cidd, so long as you breathe, this woman will never abandon you, remember that and remember it well."

    "Um..." Grecia shifted ufortably in her seat, staring at Sol. "What is this sensation?"

    "My mana is seeking permission to search your soul, don''t worry, I will help you to visualise it, just close your eyes and try to remain as calm as posssible while the voice in your mind guides you." Sol hummed, looking over to his disciple and then closing his eyes as well.

    "Voice in my mind?" Grecia jolted when the ck of her closed eyes gave way to a small rectangr light, she had been essed by the system.

    [Skill; Seek is active]

    [Skill; Sharing is active]

    [You are peering into the soul].

    "What is this strangely shaped creature?"

    "Focus."

    "Apologies."

    [essing mana data]

    [essing biological data]

    "Data?"

    "Stored information, every bit of our gene can be stored and replicated as data, physically, spiritually." Sol answered in her head, every time she spoke, he dived deeper, and every time he replied more light appeared.

    "Okay, turn around." She heard his voice, echoing through the finite ck, and then a spark of light appeared beneath her spreading and rapidly formingnd that she found herself standing upon.

    "What is this ce?" Grecia watched water emerge from nothing forming a beach, and saw a smal sun appear in the sky, crawling to evening and then freezing there.

    "The shape of your soul," Sol answered, standing behind her. "It will continue from this ind, growing with your strength and experiences, soon there might even be alternate life here."

    "That sounds fantastical," She chckled, she would have been in disbelief, but she could tell that every word he spoke was the truth.

    "Did you find what you were looking for, my Lord?" She asked, standing next to him and staring at the frozen sunset while clouds and small vegetation grew behind her.

    [There is a 30% match to Mrs Vestic''s gene, that is a higher match than anyone we have met inside of the Grand Collective, even Curt of the same n had only a 5% match inparison]. Jena responded in Sol''s mind.

    "Thirty!?" Sol mused. "I was curious because you had the same presence as my wife... but this is absurd, how can I find a living rtive all the way here?" His eyes grew wider. "This is... thirty is the same as saying she is a sister from a different parent!"

    "Grecia."

    "Yes my lord."

    "Does the House of Ikaris ring a bell?" He asked, and watched her mull over the name and then look at him in confusion.

    "No, I have never heard the name before," She answered, confused because of the way he looked while asking.

    [Her soul, Master; she is older than Lady Ikaris, but not by much, there is about a singr generation of difference between them, about seventeen thousand years].

    "Vatui mate for life, this woman is pure Vatui, there''s no way the King had a daughter out of wedlock..."

    "This is confusing, your data says thay you and Ikaris may be sisters..." Sol stared at Grecia in disbelief. "Do you have the time toe with me, I need to investigate this further but I don''t have the time to remain here on Diamond Dust."

    "Is everything okay?" Grecia responded with a question rather than a direct answer, he had shown several expressions silently for thest few minutes, and then asked her to apany him on the blue.

    "It would appear that yourself and my wife share more than just familiar souls, you are most definitely rted by blood as well, but this is impossible, how?" He lowered his hands staring at the sand in confusion.

    "I see..." The woman took this moment of confusion and grabbed Sol''s cheeks pulling him into a kiss out of the blue and holding the back of his head when he tried escaping her.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "I have longed to do that since firstying eyes on you..."

    "What the fuck?"

 Chapter 381 Cidd.

    "What the fuck, why did you do that... why would you?" Sol pushed the woman away and turned his back to her, wiping his mouth and then brushing her hand off his shoulder when she tried holding on to him.

    "I can be loyal to you; the strongest, my Lord, but not to Cidd, he is my second husband, I have only love for him, not loyalty-"

    "That''s wed," Sol had the killing urge to wash his mouth with soap and sand as he tried making sense of what Grecia was thinking.

    "I have been taken by others numerous times under his care, he is incapable of fighting for me, he would rather be paid for his troubles than actually raise his fists and defend me, but, my Lord, I can be loyal to someone who is strong, to protect me, I can serve you wholeheartedly if you-"

    "Stop talking," Sol siped his mouth again and turned to speak to her, but as soon as heid his eyes on her he shook his head and vanished from her sights. "Focus on the outside." He instructed.

    "My Lord-"

    "Jena, scan that man." Sol pointed at Cidd.

    "Right away," The Girl leapt from her seat and tackled their guest to the ground, standing on his arms and pping her palm against his forehead, rendering him immonile.

    "Master, Cidd is corrupted by misdeeds, there is a very dark stain on his soul, if i try to probe him beyond this his life will be in danger."

    "What is happening?" Fuhua asked, seeing Sol slowly release a breath and then take another deep breath in an exercise to calm himself.

    "Grecia," Sol called her name in a tone several times deeper than they had heard im use before, and the room went quiet.

    "Yes my Lord." she answered nervously, all she had done was try to ensure her security, but it seemed like she had put herself in deep troule instead, the worry was evident on her face.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "How many times has it happened?"

    "What is he talking about?" Cidd arose when Jena let him up and looked towards his wife. "Grecia, what is he talking about?"

    "I would rather not keep count, my Lord, it has happened too many times in recent history."

    "Is something wrong with her?" Fuhua asked, watcing Sol''s shoulders stiffen and tremble. "Master, is something-"

    "What happened to your first husband?" Sol asked her another question, staring at Cidd on the ground while he spoke.

    "He was killed in a travel incident sometime ago, Cidd saw my struggles and took me in, marrying me against the wishes of his family, but his very brother tried making me his woman behinf my new husband''s back so we left, and have been seeking a home since then," Grecia replied and Sol sucked in a rigid breath and looked at Cidd again.

    "I think I understand the situation now," Bao''er spoke up. "Lord Vestic, this is quite themon urence amongst her people, as you say their loyalty is paramount to them, so they are often taken advantage of by others who seek to exploit it," She exined, walking over to Grecia and bending down next to her.

    "Do not fret, you are in no trouble, if my intuition is correct I believe the esteemed Lord wishes to take you away from this evil man." Bao''er whispered in Grecia''s ear.

    "Cidd is not an evil man, he truly has saved me from a life of-"

    "It is thanks to him that you are being targeted." Sol vanished from everyone''s sights and appeared at the man''s side, grabbing him by his shirt and raising him to his feet. "Isn''t that right, Cidd?"

    "I do not know what you mean-" I warn you to take me seriously from this point on, you''ve left me in a terrible mood with what youu''ve done to my sister..." Sol began grinding his teeth.

    "Sister?" Fuhua stared at Sol''s back dumbfounded. "She is your sister?"

    "That''s what the tests I made are saying, she has a 30% match with Grecia and Ikaris''s direct biology, then there''s the strange fact that their souls are nearly identical, there''s no doubt that she is rted by blood to my wife, I dont know how but I n on finding out as soon as everything else is resolved.

    "This is hard to believe, Lord Vestic, Cidd has only ever looked out for me, he used to do so even when my first husband was alive, he is a family friend-"

    "Then let me pass several scenarios by you real quick." Sol interrupted her, while the room went silent to listen to his fabricated plots.

    "You are both short on money, Cidd can''t make ends meet event hough he is on one of the best worlds for minimum wage jobs, he decides to travel and look for work, you obviously as his wife must go with him, the promise is that you will both settle near a workce and start a new life, but a little after he starts working some rich dude suddenly shows up, he has his way with you and then like a hero; alwayste, Cidd sweeps in with threats, the man pays him off and runs away, nothinges of it, you both leave instead."

    "This ce is horrible, we should find somece safer so we can live in peace."

    "I..." Grecia was stunned, it was such a specific event, yet something simr had indeed happened more than once. "But he is my husband-"

    "Scenario number two!" Sol clenched his teeth. "You see a nobleman walk into an establishment you cause a scene to gain his attention, if it fails you will only be kicked out, but it seeds, he is interested in you now."

    "He invites you to join him and makes crude remarks all night, in the middle of the night he visits you when Cidd is mysteriously absent,ter Cidd returns with more threats, he is paid by nobility to keep his mouth shut, if he dares speak he will be killed."

    "You are travelling, a group of bandits show up and kill someone at random, they spare you and leave, but they end up not taking anything..." How many times has this happened, Grecia?" Sol looked over Cidd''s head at her shocked expression.

    "Do I need to keep making these up, I''m not very good at being an asshole and a fucking waste of space, so cooking something like this up isn''t easy, but I can think of a few more."

    "I am sorry," Bao''er rested her hand on Grecia''s shoulder after she sunk to the ground weeping silently. "The man you have been calling your husband has been using you to settle his debts and fatten his pockets." She tried her best at consoling the woman.

    "Hoc can you live with yourself after doing that to someone, you filthy bastard...!" Sol raised Cidd off teh ground by his cor and stood there with his feet dangling. "How can you look at her every day knowing that you''ve been exploiting an innocent woman''s loyalty and devotion to you whom she saw as herst hope?"

    "How she told you, right?" Cidd''s voice went calm and his expression cold as he stared at Sol. "What''s the point of hiding it if she has already told you," The man slowly pulled himself free of Sol''s loose grasp and stood on his own, brushing off and straightening his clothes. "All she had to do was keep quiet and let me work as usual, this useless woman!!"

    "Cidd...?" Grecia raised her eyes to meet him almost puking as soon as they stared at each other. "Are you admitting to these horrible things?"

    "Of course I am, you idiot," He closed his eyes and sighed. "Lord Vestic, I will be direct, she is good in bed, her first husband was hired by me and the man was a damn good trainer; I spent a lot of money to gain her loyalty, I made sure he taught her how to thoroughly please men even when she thinks she is being vited."

    "Hahah... she is so good that I have to stop myself most times from touching her or I really will fall in love, but shees at a high price." Cidd stared at Sol seriously.

    "We can talk business, but otherwise you can''t touch her, there is an array on her that can only deactivate with my permission, she is technically a poisonous beauty, I dress her in rags because otherwise she would have caught on as well, stupid as she is, she is still a thinking being."

    "Cidd..."

    "An array that prevents her from being touched without your permission..." Sol mused. "So then every time..."

    "That''s right, every man that has ever touched her is of noble birth, pockets lined with wealth and it was all supervised and orchestrated by myself, they y along because I make it fun, and they get the main prize; a goddess among women, beautiful pure of heart; an uncorrupted maiden." Cidd concluded and then looked at Grecia who had been defeated purely by his words.

    "Will you ept an offer?" He asked. "You seem to think that she is rted to your wife, maybe you can make her one of your concubines, it does not matter what you do with her as long as you buy her at a fair price."

    "Master..." Fuhua stared worriedly at Sol who had stood there and listened to everything the man wanted to say with a nk expression.

    "You..." Sol took Cidd''s hand in a gesture as if he was shaking it, causing a bright smile to grace the man''s face after he was misguided to believe that this was an agreement forming between them, but then all of a sudden he began feeling an uneasy sensation travelling across his body in waves while a golden light began appearing beneath him.

    "Hell is too nice a ce for you..."

 Chapter 382 King Across All Realms.

    "Hell is too nice of a ce for scum like you!" Sol smiled warmly at the man, and a secondter he disappeared from sight, but before he did there was a sh of golden light and a foreboding feeling, as if all the mana in the atmosphere had been sucked into a vortex.

    "What was that?"

    "An artifact." Sol turned to Grecia, holding out his palm and revealing a small golden tesseract humming with mana. "It is called the Nightmare Prism; it brings bad people to a ce where they are cursed with immortality and subjected to unspeakable horrors, unending and unforgiving." Sol exined.

    "He will spend the rest of eternity unable to escape, unable to lose his sanity, tortured by whatever he fears the most with no means of fighting back all while his pain and perception grow stronger, it is not enough for what he did to you, but at least this will serve as a discipline." Sol stared at her seriously, resting his hand on her head and shaking his.

    "Grecia, I would have rather not handled it, but if I hadn''t done that I would have caused a scene destroying a half of this pce to teach him a lesson, but all that aside..." Sol paused and hugged the woman''s head to his chest. "I am sorry, about all of it, the world is cruel to those who deserve it the least."

    "Master, what will you do with her?" Fuhua asked, standing attentively as she stared at the crying woman, she did see Grecia as beautiful, but when she thought of the Goddess of Bnce that was her Master''s wife, every other woman seemed lesser, herself included, Ikaris was above it all, truly superior.

    "Good question," Sol stood to the side and gestured to his seat. "Grecia."

    "Yes, my Lord."

    "You can fight, yes?"

    "I..."

    "There is no need to lie, you are already under my care." Sol assured her with a smile, while Bao''er nodded, smiling as well.

    "I am a Warrior of the Vatui n, Thanasis." She looked at him.

    "Is that the whole truth?" Sol narrowed his eyes at her. "I need yourplete honesty Grecia, tell me who you are." He demanded.

    "I am ashamed to say it, my Lord, my life to this point has been a lie, I do not deserve the titles I have hidden, nor do I deserve to return to my people, I bring shame to their noble name."

    "Noble?" Bao''er asked surprised.

    "Master''s wife you see..." Fuhua mumbled to the friendly hostess. "She is royal of the highest degree, merely speaking her name casually in his presence could incite his wrath, he protects her with ferocious abandon, as she does him and his name."

    "Are you saying Lord vestic is actually... a King?" Bao''er asked, almost choking when thinking of how casually she had been speaking to him.

    "King of all the heavens, that is his title back home, you''re lucky he has a ratherid back personality." Fuhua snickered. "By the way, I, his first disciple; am also the princess of a differentnd, and the little girl is a one in a billion genius and also his beloved neice, not even I can afford to offend her, you cannot afford the price of offending either of us~"

    "O-oh god..."

    "Tell me," Sol demanded of the woman, ignoring Fuhua''s conversation with Bao''er.

    "I am Grecia, first daughter of the Thanasis n''s House of Eternity, my family was suppressed by the Empire and there is currently aw that prevents my people from marrying each other, so I was forced into this life as an alternative, but after my first husband died and I suffered such a shameful experience I decided to never return to them, I trusted Cidd would make me happy..." She rubbed her eyes.

    "House of Eternity... have I seen that somewhere before?" Fuhua cupped her chin in thought.

    "If you have been reading like I told you to then yes, the House of Ikaris was first known as the House of Eternity, it is the Alias of the King''s Lineage, he renamed it Ikaris after his daughter of the same name was born." Jena answered. "This proves without a doubt that this woman is indeed rted to Mdy, she is a blood rtive to the Goddess of Bnce."

    "Ikaris... I have heard that word on my mother''s tongue in the past, she spoke it bitterly..." Grecia spoke up after hearing the name several times and remembering.

    "Who is Ikaris?"

    "If my guess is right, you are her rtive; her half-sister." Sol answered, staring at outside of the windows in wonder. "I''m shocked, this diverts fairly far from my original goals, I came searching for the aid of A Primordial Deity and I end up discovering a family tree, an elder sister..." He stared at her and then very carefully took a knee at her side and softly grasped her right hand.

    "Let me start anew, your Grace." Sol smiled, cing a kiss on Grecia''s hand and paying respects to her.

    "I am Sol Vestic, Godyer and Overseer of all Vatui, King of the Heavens, and Ruler over The Grey, I am married to your younger half Sister, Ikaris of the house of Eternity, now named Ikaris after her, The Goddess of Bnce and Queen of the Heavens," He delivered their full titles.

    "Do you wish to return to your people and deliver the news that the house of Eternity thrives?" Sol asked, expecting her to jump at the opportunity, but to his surprise the woman shook her head in the negative.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    "To those left behind, the House of Eternity died the day I as their first daughter left, you would not be weed, nor would I, Your Excellence," Grecia smiled sadly. "If possible though, I would love to meet my sister and her people; to see a world where Vatui are not suppressed and abused, but thrive as we were meant to."

    "Good luck there... the House of Ikaris barely has any living members after an ironic eternity of wars against the Emporium and its hosts." Jena spoke sarcastically, staring at the ceiling. "It seems time has brought ruin to both sides, clearly hitting one harder than the other."

    "If you don''t desire to return, then I''ll take you with me, naturally, I will not leave you to suffer as you have in the past." Sol stood, watching her take a knee before him with his hand in hers, reversing their roles from earlier.

    "Then I will pledge allegiance to you, Your Highness, from this day forth, I Grecia, swear on my soul to follow your every directive, I will grant you my total and undying loyalty, whatever you ask of me will be executed without hesitance, until I draw myst breath, I will be an extension of your body and of your noble house," She dered, sucking in a breath when she felt that stinging connection tugging at her suppressed power again.

    The air in the room became chilled, and a white light began humming to Grecia''s pulse as it arose from her hands connected to Sol''s while he stared at her with a smile and rested his other hand on her head.

    "I ept your loyalty and service, Grecia, from today onwards, you will be a member of the Vestic family line, treat my name well and your rewards will be bountiful."

    "I swear it!" Grecia shut her eyes tightly as more tears flowed, sucking in a sobbing breath and shivering at the warmth of his mana when it engulfed her. "Thank you..." She lowered her head again. "I thank you...!"

    "Master has a way of attracting powerful women into his service. "Jena sighed, smiling. "She is Mdy''s elder sister, you are unaware of noticing because you are still too weak to see her power, but this woman is nearly as powerful as the Goddess of Bnce was thest time I saw her, considering what Ikaris had to go through in order to gain that much power I can only assume she has seen her fair share of trauma and been through twice if not thrice as much."

    "How strong are they, exactly?" Fuhua looked at Jena at her side while Bao''er opposite of them stared in awe at the little girl who seemed to hold the secrets and answers to everything.

    "In terms of raw power alone..." Jena closed her eyes for a few seconds. "Ikaris holds enough mana stored in her soul to detonate and destroy an entire collective, that is to say, source is a ratherrge onepared to the ones mother investigated, her total power would wipe out more than half of source before it was exhausted." Jena exined.

    "To put it another way, if the Goddess of Bnce was rampaging she could easily obliterate several stars like the Diamond Dust Star before she was stopped, I am saying Grecia is easily capable of doing the same with the power she currently holds." Jena hummed, blinking several times.

    "Master''s power byparison is thousands of times that, Vatui Royalty are terrifyingly powerful," The three of them stood, watching Sol pull grecia to her feet and rest his hand on her shoulder with another assuring smile.

    "But even with all the power they hold, Master is still the one they decided to follow, unanimously so; the Godyer Known as Sol Vestic is King across all realms for a reason."

 Chapter 383 Leaving Saint Garden Palace.

    "King across all realms..." Fuhua mumbled, staring at her reflection in the bath, the night had mostly passed and she was getting ready for sleep, knowing that there wouldn''t be any opportunity like this for a while. "Is Master truly all Jena says he is?" She asked.

    She was alone in the bath having asked the maids and helpers that would have apanied her to leave as soon as she got in. "I have not seen him disy any great power yet, I know he is strong though if he hasplete control over beings like Jena, and her mother System Alpha."

    Previously, she had promised herself to find a way to be his woman at any cost, especially after he lied about her being his fiance and gave her hope.

    She was ready to dedicate herself to him entirely, but then he made her his apprentice, and she gained knowledge of A, Dina, and of course Ikaris, all three superior to her.

    One a cosmic being from the elf species, the other a goddess of Cmity, and the most impressive, being the Queen of the heavens and the Goddess of Bnce, there was no way topete.

    She understood now why no matter the beauty before him, Sol was never tempted, she knew she was not ugly, as she knew that Grecia was a fairly beautiful woman, butpared to Sol''s wife and his two maidens, they were not even worth looking at, it was an unfairparison.

    After finding peace with her inability to seduce the Godyer, Fuhua''s gears had turned to discovering the reaches of his power and by doing so, hers as well, Jena was the perfect bard, singing his praises at every turn, and she had been left with very high expectations as a result.

    "I wonder what this darkness is; if Master is as powerful as they say then why is there someone who could so easily defeat him?" She thought aloud, raising her leg above the water and watching the driplets race down her skin. "There is a lot to learn, I will have to study their ways and traditions to fit in when Master returns to his home domain."

    ����

    Morning came silently, with the only sounds capturing life being those created from the Pce itself, as they were out in the void there were no birds or critters, instead a soft melody woke the Everstorm Princess from her slumber.

    "Fuhua stretched, raising her face out of her pillow and flipping onto her back with a groan.

    "Did you sleep well?" Sol asked her, sitting on the opposite side of the bed with his back turned, staring at the sun rising across Diamond Dust.

    "Master..." Fuhua groaned and sat up. "Why are you in my room this early in the morning, is this appropriate?"

    "I only just arrived to wake you, you seemed to want to sleep forever," Sol chuckled and stood. "Hurry up and get ready, we leave in ten minutes." He turned to her seriously. "I stopped here deliberately so I could gather information on the surrounding stars, how they operate, and to know more about the contest."

    "Did you find what you sought, Master?" She answered, standing on the bed and walking over to him.

    "I did, so you only have ten minutes before we set out, everyone else is already in the lobby waiting." Sol walked away as soon as she stood before him. "Guard yourself better when presenting your figure before a man, even me," He stopped at her door and turned around.

    "Pardon?"

    "I may have no romantic interest, but I am still a man, if you unt your femininity before me so openly I will not promise to constantly hold myself ountable for my actions." Sol warned her, gesturing to the way she had stood before him. "I may take advantage and no me."

    "Huh...?" Fuhua mused in confusion, cheeks slowly going red when she turned her head and saw what she was wearing in the mirror facing her bed.

    She had already be sofortable in his presence and the safety that it promised that she had carelessly approached him in her nightgown, it was a gift from Bao''er the previous night, and having no luxury for a long while Fuhua had epted the nightwear thinking it was cute, but she could see the cunning hostess snickering in her mind in that moment.

    It was mostlyprised ofces with thin fabric that barely hid her skin, the only areas that were properly hidden were her bosom and lower abdomen, but that hardly mattered when the gown itself was above her knee, it would have taken one careless gesture to expose herself to him.

    "Bao''er is a demon, I was drunk from that wine how dare she dress me like this?" Fuhua spun and dived into her bed, spinning into a roll in her sheet and hiding her head. "Master, do not look, I am ashamed!"

    "Quickly get ready and meet us in the lobby''s waiting area."

    "...Okay."

    "Bao''er greets His Excellence," The hostess approached Sol and bowed politely and then did the same to Grecia who stood at his side and Jena who was sitting on his shoulder, slowly eating the fruit he had given her the night before.

    "Good morning, Lady Grecia, Lady Jena." She greeted them.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    The three were seated around a small table in a private lounge in the reception area, unseen by most.

    "Mornin," Sol casually waved at her, watching the manager he had met the night before approaching after their host had greeted them. "Shu," Sol greeted the manager and the other hostess at his side.

    "Lord Vestic, I was rmed that you would be making an early leave so I havee to personally see you off," Shu greeted Sol with a bow. "I pray your night was a pleasant one, noints?"

    "Pleasant is a bit of a stretch, it was eventful to say the least, but pleasant? Not quite, though it''s not the fault of the pce and more so the events that ured within it." Sol answered honestly.

    "Something happened, Bao''er, why did you say nothing to me?" Shu turned to his best hostess and the woman inclined her head in apology.

    "I am sorry, sir, but the events which unfoldedst night have been sworn to secrecy, I am not permitted to speak it." She smiled at Shu.

    "What happened to that noisy fellow?" Shu leaned his head looking around for Cidd. "His wife is here, but not him, Lord Vestic did you chase the poor man off to acquire his maiden? And here I thought you were an easy Lord, it seems you have an interesting palette, after all."

    "How dare this baldy." Jena leapt of Sol''s shoulder and stood before the man with her hands akimbo. "Do you want to die, how dare you use Uncle of this crime?" She fumed. "He is a just man, he would never stoop to the level of criminals and bullies, I should have you beheaded for this usation!"

    "Jena," Sol called to her. "Behave yourself, two entered, and only one left, people will think what is the norm amongst nobility in these parts, it is not his fault, simply a culture." He schooled her.

    "Bao''er," Sol nodded and the hostess dly turned to her boss with the whispers of gossip.

    "Sir, the man named Cidd tried to coax His Highness into bedding his wife for favour and gain, it backfired." She began.

    "Highness?" Shu swallowed nervously.

    "Indeed, Lord vestic is not just of noble blood Sir, you are in the presence of the representative of all Vatui, he is the one they recognise as King of all Heavens, I sought informationst night and discovered that the woman connected to him as his disciple is Princess Ling Fuhua of a small royal line from middle Heaven called Everstorm, and the little girl is his niece, she is a highly respected noble within their circle, an unparralleled young genius."

    "His Highness is not the kind of man to steal another''s woman, but it turns out thedy Grecia is closely rted to his wife whois also Vatui royalty of the highest degree, he acted out of spite and ended the life of the man called Cidd who has been taking advantage of Lady Grecia''s unending loyalty and abundant innocence."

    "I... I see," Shu slowly took a few steps from Sol and the others, lowering his head to a perfect 90�� incline and sping his hands.

    "I was disrespectful, your Highness, please forgive my ignorance, your highness, Mdies, I pray you ept my repentance, I was a fool to not realise I was in the presence of highborne Royalty!" The man had sweat rolling off his forehead, but did his best to remain professional.

    "I don''t care for the fancy stuff, all I ask is that you keep my matters to yourself, not that I would care if you didn''t either way." Sol answered, cing Jena to sit in hisp when she came over again.

    "Master!" Fuhua came gliding across the hallways, pulling every man''s eyes towards her as she had dressed fancily once more, a gift fitting for a peincess; another gift from Bao''er. "Master!" She called again. "How do I look?" She greeted Sol with a bright smile and then turned to Shu and the hostesses. "Good morning, Sir Shu and staff."

    "Princess," The man bowed once more, as did Bao''er and her fellow hostess. "I apologise for my behaviour yesterday-"

    "I do not fault you for anything that happened," Fuhua stared at him confused. "Rather, I should thank you for yesterday, Master was able to save and unite with a long lost rtive, we are in your debt," She rook the man''s hand and shook it daintily. "Thank you for having us, Sir Shu."

    "Well said," Sol stood and ced Jena over his shoulder again. "I am short on time, we must get going."

    "Certainly," Shu stood upright and then bowed once more. "I pray that you use our establishment of you are ever in the area once more Your Highness-" He stopped and looked up when a small chest the breath of a book was presented to him by Fuhua.

    "What is this?"

 Chapter 384 Journey to the Heart.

    "What is this?" Shu asked as soon as his eyes rested on the chest.

    "A small thank you for the opportunity to meet my elder sister." Sol answered, smiling at the man. "It''s the captured power of a star, I understand that you prefer cultivation over ebvolution, this is equivalent to a cheat for whomever possesses it," He added.

    "I do not understand..." Shu answered. "Cultivation and evolution, this is a topic I have never heard debated before," He leaned his head, gracefully epted the chest.

    "Inside of the chest you hold is the essence of an entire star trapped in a gem, you may use it to cultivate the mysteries of the outer, or you can sell it, whatever you do though will grant you bountiful harvests," Sol exined. "It is a relic which can store energy forter cultivation, something Jena here divined and created; her first masterpiece."

    "I... could never ept something this precious," Shu''s mouth slowly hung when he took a peak inside of the chest and was hit with a wave of mana so rich it caused his nose to start bleeding.

    "Your Highness, how could you call this a small gift, this gem alone could buy all of Diamond Dust!" The man hugged the chest to himself and started ncing around after exposing the gem publicly for a few seconds. "I do not think I am worthy or qualified to possess this!"

    "Compared to being able to meet Aunty Grecia, this is a small price," Jena answered in Sol''s stead from his shoulders, opening her palm and revealing another gem, suppressed to prevent the mana from escaping. "Uncle puts priority on family and loved ones more than anything, as do I." She smiled.

    "That was my first true invention, baldy, take good care of it."

    "Certainly!" Shu bowed once more, as did Bao''er and the other unnamed woman. "Thank you Lady Jena, I will never forget this kindness."

    "I will escort his highness andpany to the front if you allow me," Bao''er bowed once more, approaching them.

    "Honestly, being called highness all the time is a bit overwhelming, Lord or Master is enough," Sol looked down at the woman and gestured for her to proceed.

    "I understand, I will make note for any future greetings, Master Vestic," Bao''er nodded and began walking at his side.

    "Elder Sister, are you sure you have nothing you want to take with you, or anyone you wish to say goodbye to, a friend maybe?"

    "I was not allowed friends, there is nothing for me in this star, there is nothing for me here, I will only follow and obey you in the future, Lord Vestic." She admitted, smiling as she walked at his side while Fuhua walked behind them, smiling at their interaction.

    It seemed the Woman''s presence had made the slightly mean persona Sol had carried fade away, he was rxed, easy to talk to.

    "You look nice by the way, Fuhua," Sol leaned his head and looked around at her. "It''s not everyday one sees a princess genuinely smile, considering where we were and what we did two days ago, you have recovered quickly."

    "Life goes on, Master, my grudges were settled, and my people will be able to rest in peace, just as Lady Grecia said, there is nothing to nce back at, only the future to look forward to," She answered him with a bounce to her steps. "I will carry their expectations on one shoulder and yours on the other."

    "Hm," Jena hummed, swaying her head with each step sol took towards the main gate and reaching into her pockets. "Uncle, we have Twenty-Seven days remaining before our deadline."

    "I remember," Sol replied, foregoing his rxed appearance while seh conjuredthe wagon they had arrived in. "Grecia, I won''t forget what happened here, this star, those who harmed you, I will return some day and deliver their just punishments, regardless of who they are or what background they possess."

    "It is in the past, my Lord-"

    "Master does not believe in letting crimes go unpunished." Fuhua interrupted the woman.

    "If an enemy offends you, chop off their hand, if they wrong you, they forefeit their right to live, that is thew which Uncle abides by," Jena acknowledged Fuhua''s words with a nod, slowly floating off Sol''s shoulder and standing at the door of the carriage.

    "If theymit crimes against you, then they forefeit the lives of their bloodlines and all theirnds." Fuhua added, recalling the recorded event that was called the Arkadian Saga where Ikaris in a sealed state lost her first child and was kidnapped by a demonic race, resulting in their total annihtion at Sol''s hand.

    It was a story she had been granted ess to only because she was his disciple, so she knew better than to make mention of it openly.

    "That''s right," Sol answered her call to violence, turning and staring at the entire staff of the Pce that hade to send them off.

    "I bid you farewell and safety on your journey, Lord Vestic." Shu lowered his head once more, clutching tightly to the chest in his grasp.

    "It turned out to be a pleasant stay, after all," Solmented, watching thedies enter before himself and then turning to Bao''er.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Your talent is wasted here, but I know you are loyal to your Master, so I will leave you with a gift instead." He smiled and opened his palm before her.

    "Keep this on your person at all times, it will protect you in case of a great cmity," He revealed a small ne with a tiny crystal which slightly glowed. "May I?"

    "It would be an honour," The hostess turned excitedly and raised her hair, allowing Sol to lock it around her neck.

    "Thank you Lord Vestic," She turned humbly, bowing when Sol entered the carriage. "I will never forget your offer, or your hospitality."

    "Maybe someday I will bring my whole family for a visit," Sol waved at them and then settled in his seat, hearing the crowd of hostesses gather around the woman to look at her gift, and then scoffing when he heard another woman yelp after she tried touching it and was repelled to the ground.

    "Bao''er, what did you do to gain the favour of a nobleman in one night?" The other hostess at Shu''s side asked, tapping the ne and reclining her hand when a jolt of electricity shocked her. "The value of this should be immeasurable, you could retire and live the rest of your life in luxury if you sold it!"

    "I would never dream of it." Bao''er shook her head, chuckling at the woman''s expression.

    "He is a kind man," Bao''er smiled. "He cares and respects those who are humble, he himself despite being royal, is the most humble man I have ever met, power does not sway his personality." She smiled, raising the ne and blushing when she found small golden orbs of mana rotating rapidly inside of the diamond.

    "Oh my, I have never seen her blush before~" One waitress whispered.

    "Blush?" Another hostess sighed. "I was not even aware that Lady Bao''er knew how to smile, that handsome nobleman was so gentle with her, she looked ready to leap into his arms and run away from the Pce!"

    "All of you, get back to work, we have a lot of new patrons to take care of today." Bao''er cleared her throat. "Leave gossiping for your break."

    "Yes ma''am!" The crowd unanimously answered her order and dispersed like ants.

    "But, I am also curious of what you did..." Shu was still holding the chest like a baby in his grasp while Bao''er now had the ne between her fingers both smiling as they watched the carriage vanish around the corner towards the main gates of the city.

    "Nothing, Sir, he is just Kind to those he likes, and ruthless to any whom he considers an enemy." Bao''er''s cheeks turned red again. "A ne is a promise of returning courtship in our culture, I wonder if he is aware of that?"

    "Master," Do you intend to break every maiden''s heart along your journey?" Fuhua pouted from the other side of the carriage after watching him speak casually to Jena about matters she did not yet understand from the Grand Collective.

    "I don''t make the rules, nor do I y the game," Sol answered without even looking at her. "I am a married man, and I believe for the most part that I act as such."

    "Indeed you do," Grecia added her opinion. "The little girl could be mistaken for your daughter, and the princess at your side your wife-"

    "Ah, never!" Fuhua snapped, looking outside with her cheeks red. "Anyways, that falsehood aside, where will we go next?"

    "I want to sign up for the contest, there is a section for masters, of course this means that we have to rush, submissions end today." Sol answered.

    "We''re going straight for the High Heaven Pavilion in the heart of Drifting Heaven, the contest ends a few days before my time here expires, if I can gain an audience with the Divine Elder and convince him to help me, then it will have all been worth it."

    "We journey to the heart of the universe."

 Chapter 385 Become My Slave.

    "I suppose there are only so many lies someone can tell before the truth catches up to them," Sol was seated inside of the carriage, staring at a world the size of Dusk; therges in G.Gamma from the Grand Collective.

    "What do you mean, master?" Fuhua asked, mostly passively as she had never witnessed anything like the High Heavens before, she knew of the tiny heavens and the small worlds, somece considered a cespool because of the weak and criminal who lived there.

    She was from Middle Heaven, there was a bnce of understanding there between the people, preventing them from mixing with the Tiny Heavens while also having minimal contact with the High Heavens.

    So she had never witnessed anything like this. "How can a world portray prestige without ever showing what it has to offer?" She wondered.

    "I think what my lord is saying is that the lies that could allow him to get by in the Tiny and Middle Heavens will not work here, the sects and ns are all aware of each other, someone of his status being unknown will be impossible." Grecia answered the first question, staring at Sol for a solution. "What will you do?"

    "Hmm," Sol hummed, watching a small security detail approach them just like Middle Heaven after they had appeared with the use of an eleration Gate, startling almost everyone who had witnessed it.

    "Well, you are still my elder sister from the Vatui''s royal bloodline, Ling is still princess of the Everstorm and my disciple, and Jena is only a child, the only one here with an unexplored story is myself, so I will present myself as a new power." Sol gestured to each of them around him and then looked at the oing volley of warriors.

    They approached slowly, carefully, mostly beacuse after the wagon had appeared it had been sitting there silently in the void, protected by the "Artifact which allowed it to remain there with no sign ofmunication from the people they could sense inside of it.

    "So, you will not present yourself as the Master of the Hidden Sun Sect again?" Fuhua asked.

    "I only need to validate that I am indeed as powerful as a master, while you are the proof I need that I am one." Sol looked at her and gestured to therge world outside and then rested his hand on the door''s handle.

    "We may be suspicious, I don''t think we''re suspicious enough to be denied entry, and even if we are, entering anyway is an easy matter, I simply want to avoid the conflict if necessary." He added.

    "A wise decision," Grecia acknowledged his simple approach with a nod, watching Sol exit the carriage without the use of an artefact and slowly float towards the iing investigators.

    "Greetings," Sol gave them a respectful salute. "I havee to participate in the Grand Selection Games as a Master."

    "Our arrays warned us of a spacial anomaly caused by that thing you arrived in, who are you and what do you want with High Heaven?" A woman asked as soon as they were close enough and heard Sol speak, gesturing to the luxurious wagon behind him. "The crest on your garments, I do not recognise them, where are you from?" She asked.

    "I am of the hopes of making these crests known, I am an upstarting sect leader." Sol answered.

    "Then you cannotpete as a master," The woman spoke again, she had red eyes with horizontal ck slits for pupils, and she was wearing traditional eastern robe with a golden dragon running from her shoulder to her hip, skin as pale as a ghosts, and ck hair rolled into a singr bun with a long hairpin stuck through it keeping it together.

    Most noticable about her though was therge hammer with the race of a dragon that she wielded, and th ehundreds of other masters that had apanied her to greet what they originally percieved as a threat.

    "The only a registered master canpete as such, if you have no such registry then you do not qualify, and unfortunately with the games in their final stages, it is impossible to register you before the end of the day, the Sect Registry Pavilion is closed." She responded.

    "I will have to ask you to make an exemption." Sol smiled, not giving her any leeway. "I havee from beyond your kown stars for this opportunity, I cannot return empty-handed," He slightly lowered his head.

    "Are you asking the High Heaven Pavilion to ben their necks for your sake, as an unknown cultivator with no merit?" One of the older men apanying the woman shed his spear boastfully and pointed it at Sol.

    "Do we seem like a joke to you, get lost beggar-"

    "Hold your tongue." The woman raised her hand in a gesture that the man be silent. "Even if he hase unannounced and with no background, even the way he is dressed is that of nobility, one does not simply approach the High Heavens without qualification, show some cordiality."

    "Of course, Senior sister," The man huffed, runnung his hand across his long ck beard and huffing a second time. "You may leave, stranger, the games are closed."

    "Thank you for defending me," Sol smiled with his hands still locked within his sleve before him. "But as I said, I cannot simply leave I must take part in the games today, even if I am unable to register as a sect leader."

    "I do not have time to go back and forth with a stubborn man," The woman narrowed her eyes. "I am being kind out of respect for your obvious noble background, but if you continue to stubbornly oppose my generosity with your ego then I will have no option other than to humiliate you, do you understand?"

    "Make an exemption." Soltinued to smile politely while facing the small army of hundreds. "I must participate." He demanded.

    "Who do you think you are talking to?"

    "Ackey to the true master, I havee with the mind to not raise my hand unless necessary, but if you continue to reject my plea then I will do it without hesitation." Sol still smiled while the people before him began showing hostility.

    "Master is crazy..." Fuhua whispered, watching the interaction between Sol and the High Authority of High Heaven through the system window. "He will get himself killed-"

    "Rx, have you already forgotten what I said about his power?" Jena sat calmly, eating a snack as she watched with a window shared with Grecia. "He knows how to get under the skin of arrogant beings, it is what he does best, but with his personality ot should be obvious..."n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Master never picks a fight he cannot win unless he is in a corner and desperate." Jena gestured to Sol.

    "The High Heaven Pavilion has remained standing amongst other like you for thousands of eternities, do you honestly think that flexing your muscles before an army of masters is a good decision..." The woman leading the march gestured to him withher brow raised curiously.

    "My name is Sol Vestic, I am representative of all Vatui, my goal here today is topete for the opportunity to meet the Heavenly Ancestor, I have an important case I must present him with."

    "Sol Vestic, you would not-"

    "Ick the patience for back and forth conversations such as this, may I make a proposal?" Sol interrupted her, gesturing to her for her name as well.

    "I am Yu, chief of security for the High Heaven Pavilion." She answered without hesitation.

    "Master Yu," Sol greeted her once more. "I must demand that you let me through so I can participate..." He held out his hand, and themultitude gasped in unison when Jena flew through the window of the wagon, glifing through the void much like Sol had been doing and stopping at his side with a chest in ger grasp.

    "There is no treasure that could possibly bribe you a spot amongst the particioating masters, Sol Vestic." Yu furrowed her brows, seemingly offended when she realised that he was offering something with this strangely powerful child at his side.

    "It is not meant as a bribe but a challenge, Master Yu," Sol responded. "I don''t know much about your customs, as I said, I am from beyond your observable stars, however, one thing I am aware is the same everywhere is the rule of power, the only one here who could be my opponent is you, leverage does not matter, numbers do not matter, you alone are capable of opposing me," Sol stared at her.

    "I am challenging you to a duel, if you defeat me, I will leave this treasure and go with shame," He gestured to Jena and she skowly opened the chest, revealing a gem three times the size of the one he had given to Shu in Diamond dust.

    "What in the zes is that?" One cultivator began salivating at the sight and presence of the gem.

    "It is my wager, an artifact created by my student, capable of storing magnanimous amounts of mana, infinitely we encountered several dead stars and hundreds of astral clouds on our way here, so we captured their energies inside of this artifact, whomever cultivates with it will gain the powers to traverse the cosmos unfettered by the shackles of the Void, it is a priceless object.

    "Is your student inside of the vessel?" Yu asked curiously. She had to admit, she had never seen fine handiwork like this before, she needed to know who made it.

    "I am the one who made it, old baldy." Jena huffed and closed the box.

    "Old Baldy?" Yu''s eye twitched. "How dare this little... what?" She did a double take. "The artifact was made by a child?" Experience exclusive tales on empire

    "She is blessed with the abundant knowlwdge of the stars and cosmos, and gifted with mana beyond the horizons of reality, you will never find another like her." Sol boasted proudly.

    "How badly do you want to meet the Heavenly Master?" Yu asked, and Sol smirked, seeing her walk directly into his hands.

    "I am willing to put my niece on the line, if I lose, you will gain the creator and all the future artifacts she makes, you will be an absolute power within all of Source."

    "And what about if you win?" Yu asked curiously, thinking that there was no way one man could be this arrogant without a reasonable amount of power to back his ims.

    "If I win then you have to renounce your loyalty to the High Heavens and be-"

    "Your woman?" She interrupted him. "I would kill myself."

    "No need, I have no interest in having you as m woman," Sol chuckled, causing the woman to blush and grind her teeth in embarrassment.

    "No, you will be my ve."

 Chapter 386 Ill Fight You With My Bare Hands.

    "If i win, I will give a hundred of these artifacts to your ancestor as payment, and you will be my ve."

    "My treasure is worth more than High heaven itself, and I have even offered the eternal servitude of my precious student; my own niece, the only wager of equity is a life for a life."

    "You have a deal, Sol Vestic, a life for a life is fair, but I have a simr condition." Yu pointed her spear a him.

    "If you lose, rather than walk away with your freedom, you will serve the rest of your days as my footstool, you and the two who remain hidden within the vessel will be my ves, what say you?" She smirked.

    "I ept." Sol nodded. "But mere words are easily broken."

    "Indeed they are," The woman nodded as well, raising her free hand and conjuring a small crimson me, at just a nce Sol could tell this woman had just severed a miniscule portion of her soul. "Let us make an oath to the soul," She confirmed his thoughts verbally, extending her hand towards him

    "The contract will be unbreakable, whatever happens will be between you and I and the secondary parties involved in this deal, and nobody; not even the great Heavenly Ancestor will be able to break it.

    "Hm," Sol Mimicked her actions forging a small golden me from a portion of his soul as well and then slowly drifting towards her.

    Yu took Sol''s hand in a shake, and everyone watched her mana of crimson and his golden mana wrap arpund their hands like bands leaving a glowing golden sun shaped crest on her arm and a bright dragon shaped crest on his arm as well. "Should either of us attempt to break this deal, our souls will be torn asunder." She smiled calmly.

    "Such a brutal technique should be kept out of the hands of the irresponsible." Sol countered.

    "Are you calling me irresponsible?"

    "If the dress fits." He retorted with a snort.

    "Elder sister, is it a good idea to do this?" One of her fellow guards asked and the woman raised her brow with a nce of disbelief as she looked around at the man.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "You ask me that after standing idly by and watching me make the deal and sign the conditions with my soul on the line, are you retarded?" She snapped at the man.

    "But, you are our representative-"

    "If I lose then it is my own arrogance that led to my downfall, I am sure I do not need to say this; but it is not all bad, I have never lost a fight in all my life, this is an opportunity I have never been given before, do you understand?" Yu huffed, turning to Sol again and smiling wickedly.

    "I look forward to the man who thinks thet the only opponent worthy of defeating him is the Heavenly Ancestor."

    "It is not a belief," Sol responded. "It is a fact, nobody here but him and you have the qualifications to oppose me, I could tell as soon as I sensed him, and as soon as I saw you; none else can challenge me."

    "Master is amazing is he not?" Fuhua mumbled. "Aside from him wagering my life to ensure he has passage into High Heaven''s Pavilion, he has been casually making the strongest cultivators in High Heaven flustered with nothing but casual conversation.

    "They understand," Grecia added.

    "Understand?"

    "Yes, they are aware that Master is strong," The Vatui woman answered, looking out the window rather than at the Systen window. "They took his threat of a forced entry seriously, but they still took no action against him, because he is a powerful adversary easily capable of killing most of them effortlessly, having their strongest most renowned cultivator fight him seems like the best choice.

    "You consider their noble act of allowing the strong to fight and not interfere as a wise decision on their part, and yes it in fact is, however I see them all as extremely lucky." Jena chuckled, after the deal had been made she had returned to the carriage, finding the two women inside overly intrigued rather than upset that they had been used in a bet.

    "Lucky?"

    "Master is the kindest after Mdy and Maybe Lady Amastacia, who has the biggest empathetic heart amongst anyone I have had the pleasure of spending time with," Jena smiled. "However, he is by far the most cruel person I have evere across."

    "What?" Grecia seemed more shocked than Fuhua who knew a little more about his character from her use of the Codex.

    "Master shines the brightest in two scenarios, the first is when his opponent is overwhelmingly stronger than he is, his power shows an endless cepth for growth and evolution, he is a perpetual engine that never stops moving forward, his mastery andlete control over the imaginary in makes him a terrible enemy for those who are superior is power."

    "And what of the second scenario?" Grecia asked nervously, looking at Sol again, at how rekaxed he seemed even as he continued idly chatting with the woman he was about to fight.

    "Master spent ten years fighting billions of demonkin in a war that saw no rest, no end and that had him alone surviving fot thest three years, no ally, nothing but his wits and his drive to destroy everyst one of them, a crusade that ended up iming the lives of Seven Hundred Billion demons in the end of its lifespan," Jena became serious,

    "Good lord..."

    "Master is most ustomed to fighting against all odds, and those odds are best stacked when he is facing multiple opponents, if they had all chosen to attack him and awaken his suppressed instincts nothing would have saved them, he bes a different entity when he fights an army; something dark, something truly evil."

    "Where will we fight?" Sol looked around them. "I hate to say it but this is too small a setting, if I let loose here there is a chance your ancestor might attack me out of a misunderstanding."

    "This arrogant..." Yu began grinding her teeth. "Follow me,"

    "There is not a lot of time before registry closes altogether, we can''t go too far away." Sol spoke up again, causing her to be even more flustered and upset when she realised he was only thinking about what happens after he wins rather than the fight itself.

    "Damnit, forget about the session games for a moment and focus!" Yu snapped, causing Sol to recline with a chuckle. "If you manage to defeat me, I will personally escort you into the court of participants and register you myself!"

    With herst deration Sol''s expresson grew hard, and his smile turned into a serious frown as he focused entirely on her. "Deal."

    "You are an insufferable man, do you know this?"

    "As lomg as you don''t get any ideas about what I would want you for," Sol huffed. "You will make an excellent fighter, that is all, having someone as powerful as you fighting under me, returning with you alone seems like it would be yet another small victory, that is why I made the wager, Yu, I will have you."

    "You bastard, i hope you have said your goodbyes to your loved ones before meeting me."

    "No need," Sol countered taking off through the void using his mana while her spear served as her means of transport, she led him into a different gxy, one full of dying stars and destroyed fields full of astral clouds and shattered space. "After i win, you will understand, you will also be grateful to serve under my hand.

    "He does not care one bit that he is making that woman more wroth with every word he speaks." Fuhua emerged from the carriage with Jena and Grecia along with arge system disy that everyone could see.

    "Gather around baldies, you already knoe that you are incapable of withstanding a single blow from either of those powerhouses, so rather than float around from a safe distance and hope to catch a glimpse of something amazing, I have brought technology that allows detailed observation from a safe distance."

    "This kid," One old man had a tick mark in his fhrehead aling with bulging veins in his arms from being called baldy, especially touchy about it because he had a bald spot in the top of his head. "Why do you insist on insulting us?"

    "You are all cultivators, therefore, you''re a bunch of old baldies, men and women alike, I am permitted to call you so, I am only eight years old, you baldy."

    "It seems disciplining the little girl before throwing her into a life of servitude to the Ancestor will be necessary-"

    "I dare you to even attempt it." Jena''sid-back expression grew sharp, and the innocence in her eyes grew into hostility as the entire region they upied began violently shaking from the mana in the surrounding losing stability due to her influence.

    "I may only be a child, but I have the knowledge and experience of billions of years of evolution and thousands of civilizations, Master alone has the right to even speak to me in this manner, I will end your life before you can draw your next breath, so watch your tone, Baldy!"

    The threatened man froze, not just him but all of the High Heaven Guard, this child was calling Sol Vestic Master, but she was already far more powerful than most if not all of them present. How could an eight year old possess such oppressive mana?

    "If a child possesses this much power..."

    "Then what of the one she calls Master?"

    "You seem to be in a hurry so I will waste no more time," Yu shed her spear several times. "Where is your weapon?" Find more to read at empire

    "I don''t need one,e at me, I''ll fight you with my bare hands."

 Chapter 387 A Violent Greeting.

    "Is this another attempt at mocking me, Sol Vestic?" Yu sneered, ckenching her weapon and pointing it at him. "Are you so dense that you would attempt to fight someone of equal footing witouut a weapon?" She asked, but found Sol smiling rather than being even slightly intimidated after she started exerting her mana in waves.

    "Dense?" Sol chuckled, rotating his shoulders and leaning his neck until he heard a crack. "I''m not dense, I am taking you very seriously, the fact is that I am better off fighting without a weapon, that''s all." He admitted.

    With a clench of his fist his entire garment caught aze and was incinerated off his body, revealing his baggy martial arts pants and the tight fitting turtleneck shirt that came with it. "No weapon I wield is enough to withstand my power, the same as tour spear will break before it can harm me!" Sol dered.

    "Then, have it your way!" Yu began skipping across the void towards him spinning her spear until it was nearly indistinguishable from her surroundings. "Do not me me if you die!"

    "You are without me!" Sol grinned, countering her first strike with his wrist, deflecting and allow the spear to slide along his skin harmlessly and spinning under her guard.

    Yu had never so easily been so blindsided, but she understood now what Sol meant earlier; while his fist solidly connected with her lower abdomen and the space around them fractured along with a section of her robcage, the woman could only regret not taking him as seriously as he was taking her.

    Sol backed off, shing his hand and chuckling when he witnessed her heal the injuries as soon as she got them, taking a few seconds and then righting herself again.

    "What have you done?" Yu asked, staring at the fragments of space floating around them spanning asrge as the unit of the gxy they inhabited.

    She was flustered, She could not sense his power at all before, she only assumed he was speaking the truth about their strength being simr because otherwise he would have been the most arrogant man in existence.

    "Take this seriously..." Sol couldn''t help smiling while he frowned, casting a viinous aura as his ovepping joy and seriousness created a new kind of expression he had never held before.

    "What is with this mans''s face, is he actually some sort of demon in disguise, did the demon race return after all tihis time?" Yu wondered.

    In actuality it was far more innocent, he was ecstatic because that blow she had easily recovered from was something that would have killed even the likes if the Emporium''s Eighth General in one shot.

    Source was unique, because of theposition of mana being vastly different from that of the Grand Collective, the spaces worked differently, power that could destroy universes in the Grand could barely shatter a star here, thend was several times more dense and the air had ten times as much mana, for someone who had suffered from mass destruction in all his fights, this was like a ypen where he could let loose for the first time.

    "Go all out, Yu, give me everything you''ve got!" Sol continued grinning, cleching his fists and falling into a ssical fighting stance while she shipped her spear around until it began bending like noodle, and then separated into two parts. "Are you taking your freedom that lightly, have you already forgotten that we have made a binding soul agreement?!"

    "A thought just urred to me," Grecia spoke calmly, drawing the attention of several other members of the Guard. "If Master wins this fight, is he not already the winner of the games overall; the Masters'' section I mean?" She asked, and Fuhua beganughing lightly at her analysis.

    "His victory is assured if he defeats the one person that is second only to the Heavenly Ancestor, right?" She asked again. Find your next adventure on empire

    "The Vatui wench has a point-"

    "You would be wise to never utter such a disgraceful word in Mdy''s presence again, don''t you fear Master even a little bit now?" Fuhua who was in an increasingly good mood decided to tease the people opposing them.

    "I thought she was just a ve, you do know that Vatui are-"

    "She is Master''s elder sister inw, she has more status than all of youbined, baldy." Jena huffed. Staring at therge screen that could be seen from the surface in some ces on the world beneath them, the fight between Sol and Yu was being broadcast on a High Fidelity System window that wasw-defyingly huge.

    "These people areplicated, and with his personality I think it is a good idea to listen to the littledy, unless you want to incur the wrath of someone who is clearly more ruthless than out Sister Yu is," An old man of the group looked to the young man who had continuously been trying to badmouth Sol and his small party.

    "This is much better!" Solughed, blocking every single attack thrown at him with expert uracy, causing a bit of space to be shattered with every sessful parry leaving their surrounding a field of broken reality as Yu continued to relentlessly attack him, gaining momentum with every new strike and swing.

    The woman was getting frustrated though; after he had struck her so easily the first time, Sol had gone on the defensive entirely, she had managed to bruise his hands after a long bout of attacks, but she had not drawn any blood from him, and his smile only seemed to grow wider with every attack that she threw until the man was outrightughing.

    "Damn you!" Yu snapped in outrage, stabbing at him and then releasing the short spear when he parried her attack, mming her palm at what she assumed would have been his abdomen, but flinched when Sol''s fingers locked with hers.

    "A dance mdy?" Sol chuckled, spinning her and blocking her following punch when she released th eother weapon in an attempt to finallynd a blow. "What a lovely idea!" He cackled, catching her hand and raising his knee to block her kick aimed at his ribcage.

    "What are you doing?" Yu asked, feeling the pressure of a superior fight for the first time in a long while. "Do you think this is enough to overpower me?" She began heaving clouds of mana. "I will show you-"

    Sol shut her up with a headbutt to her nose, releasing her hands and sending her spiralling out of the void, crashing into arge dead, raging with a windstorm generated by the oneyer of atmosphere that it could hold on to.

    The clouds opened up once when Y ucrashed through them, and then parted and were dispersedpletely when Sol entered the armosphere, leaving circr rings from one hemisphere to the other. "Come on then," Sol stood in the air with a triumphant grin. "Show me, Yu." His smile slowly faded and his hair began flickering between gold and white. "Show me the power that gained you the favour of the Heavenly Ancestor, show me what your thousands of years of cultivation have amounted to!"

    "This man..." Yu''s rage had been reced by shock. "This is the power Master divined to us woulde our way soon, the intruder from beyond Source..." She mused. "The golden..." She saw Sol''s hair settle in a golden glow and a ring of light appear behind him, with a smaller one manifesting on his chest.

    "Sol, let''s stop-"

    "I don''t think so!" Sol frowned, descending like aet, destroying the terrain in a eruption of debris and golden mana and leaving a massive crater in his wake, his footsteps causedva to form from his burning mana, and the air his breathed burned the atmosphere, creating soot that fell behind him.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    "We have a deal, nobody is allowed to simply stop, the terms are that we fight until a victor is decided by true surrender, neither mypanions nor yours have the ability to step between us, Fu, stopping is not an option raise your fists, my life and yours are on the line should we lose to the other."

    "Right," She lowered her gaze, and then raised her eyes with bright ly glowing eyes, her pupils had be golden and the skin beneath her eyes began slowly hardening, turning into red scales. "I apologise for tackling this matter half-heartedly, Sol Vestic, you are a master that hase from beyond my realm to challenge the Heavenly Master, I will greet you as the strongest disciple of his honourable excellency."

    "What is she saying?" Fuhua narrowed her eyes. "Have they been fighting as a pleasantry this whole time?" She asked shocked. "Any one of those attacks could have killed me a dozen times over...!"

    "Try a hundred." Jena corrected her. "Master has been holding his punches because she has been unsure of him, but now that she has decided to fight with her all, he will also give his all, regardless of the consequences thaty beyond their fight this is their agreement."

    "What consequences could there be?" Grecia seemed confused about this.

    "We did not seek invitation into source, aunty," Jena seemed worried. "Master broke the barrier protecting this collecting through sheer force and determination, revealing himself in that form is his invitation for the Heavenly Ancestor to recognise that he is not here on a leisurely trip, he has exposed himself as a power that can ursurp or destroy Drifting Heaven without his presence."

    "Haaaaah!" Sol charged across the terrain, while Yu did the same, her dress had been torn up to the leg revealing more scales, and there were a pair of small wings on her back neatly folded and a thin tail shing behind her.

    "I wee you to Drifting heaven, Sol Vestic!" Yu roared, shing palms with him and clenching her jaws when their fingers locked and the world which they stood on began trembling and tearing itself asunder. "Wee to Source!"

    "Thanks for the warm wee!"

 Chapter 388 Heavy is the Crown.

    Winds more terrible than the ones that had been ravaging the kicked off massive tornadoes made of mana, carving trenches through thend with every rapid turn they took, cleaving their wat through mountains as easily as hot iron through butter, leaving molten rock and diagonal mes raging from the fierce winds.

    Although they had both adapted to the same mindset now; a fight for their freedom, both Sol and Yu could not help but smile while they fought each other, Sol had not met an evenly matched opponent since he fought Sorath back on Arkadia, while Yu had never met someone who she could go all out against aside from her teacher; the Heavenly Ancestor.

    "I thought he was jesting but..." Yu''s fellow guard, an old man with a bald spot in his head and a short beard of white hairs rubbed his head with a handkerchief in disbelief, he had never seen an opponent that Yu could not overpower in a few minutes, but these two had been at it for nearly an hour now; aplete slugfest where they barely dodged or blocked a single attack.

    The two of them were tanking every blow to make sure that the one theynded next came with as much force as they could conjure, of course, this was no good for Sol, he needed to win otherwise he would be stuck here in Sorce for the rest of his life which was close to forever.

    That was without even thinking about what Umbra and Giza would eventually do to the Grand Collective.

    If the Grand fell into total darkness then they would find Source, and the most likely oue of that discovery is that they would attack them next.

    Fu on the other hand was a master, she was a sect leader in charge of tens of thousands of students, some of which were in the guard, from the way Sol spoke of his issues it was clear to see that he did not intend to remain there in source.

    The way he fought told her that he was not going to back down no matter what, she had her reputation and her master''s honour to uphold. "I have to find a way to-"

    "Forced Sun!" Sol eximed, interrupting her distracting thoughts when a sudden golden sphere appeared between the two of them, rapidly expanding and crashing into her while she raised her guard to shield herself from it.

    "What kind of power is this? It feels like a supernova!" Yu hissed in shock and pain when the attack began eating away at her flesh while simultaneously expanding at such speeds that she could not escape the radius fast enough.

    "I made a mistake," She thought. "I assumed that because of the way he fought he was onoy capable of melee attacks!" More scales began growing along her skin when she began exerting herself. "I could have lost in an instant if he had used this in the beginning!"

    Catching up un the opposite side using the mana he had tethered to her to teleport, Sol mmed his hand in Yu''s lower back and ground his teeth, conjuring a second crimson [Forced Sun] which countered the first and created an explosion that tore the world they had been fighting on into a perfect halves, sending one side exploding ontwards as debris while the other began rapidly drifting in the opposite direction.

    "I survived that," Yu was on her knee with a hand rested on the other while her tail slowly swung with episodic spasms behind her, there were burns on her forearms and arge burn on her back from getting blitzed.

    "I barely managed to escape the explosion in time..." She winced, standing and watching her hands heal, and then staring ahead when she sensed Sol approaching from the field of debris, it did not take her long to fing him with the way he was glowing, but to the woman''s shock the moment she could see Sol Vestic he was already right before her.

    "This speed-" Yu raised her hands, frightened and just in time to prevent her throat from getting crushed by a Lariat that sent tremors of pain through her bones, she yelped when the world became a blur after Sol''s attack left her spiralling in one space, and then once more when he returned with his hand coated in golden lightning catching her with a punch to her jaw.

    Before Sol could move himself again, Yu''s foot passed through the lightning and mmed into his shoulder causing him to crash in the ground next to her, and before he could raise himself she grabbed his arm, contorting herself wildly and raising him off the ground with what he could only describe as newfound strength.

    "Do not treat me as yiu have your enemies of the past!" Yu mmed Sol into the ground and then flipped over his counter kick and dropped her heels in his chest before he could attack again. "I am not to be trifled with!!"

    "I am well aware!" Sol crossed his arms and blocked her heels when she tried to repeat the same attack, shing his hands open and giving the two of them space.

    "Yu above had almost entirely been consumed by her scales of crimson, the only remaining skin on her body was on her face aside from under her eyes, which had small protruding scales.

    [Your opponent is about to-]

    "Stay out of it!" Sol grabbed the system window with his bare hand and crushed it, flipping to his feet and staring up at the woman above when her wings suddenly grew massive and spread, and her tail swelled and became thicker with a blunt club at the very tip.

    "I am the one you are fighting, not that yellow box!" Yu eximed, raising herself higher with a single p and opening her mouth abnormally wide while two pairs of horns grew from the sides of her head.

    Two pointing upwards and two pointed ahead.

    "She saw the system window?" Sol began sneering. "She is starting to surprise me now," He chuckled, causing that viinous expression to return to his face when he saw the buildup of mana she had before her, ready to st him to kingdome without a doubt.

    Rather than interrupt a powerful attack he could possibly analyse and copy, Sol decided to challenge it head-on; he nted his feet into the ground for bnce, then with a long sigh, he raised his hand and held on to his wrist for good measure.

    [Unknown Tier]

    "I am sorry Yu, but no matter what you do here today, I have decided that I will not lose."

    "And I the same, Sol Vestic, I have the honour of my master and the pride of Source to defend, I will keep my freedom!"

    "Tianl��ng Mie(Heavenly Draconic Annihtion)!!" Yu from above released her attack, a great crimson beam with a core of gold that illuminated the entire half as it descended like judgement was upon him causing all the hairs on his neck to stand on end and the halo on his chest to vibrate in agitation and warning, releasing a low humming sound only he could hear.

    [Heaven Piercer] Seemingly from nothing, with no buildup, Sol created a gargantuan spear out of thin air crackling with ck and red lightning and burning with the intensity of a thousand suns.

    "Pride is of Ill concerm, I have the fate of a quintillon lives resting on my ability to return, nothing no god nor devil can stop my crusade!" Sol retorted just before their attacks shed into each other and everything went white.

    "What the-" Fuhua sgielded her eyes when the light that was supposed to be several gxies away washed across the Drifting Heaven Pavilion''s Mother World alerting every soul of the fight as it epassed boty sides of every celestial body it passed, leaving most people temporarily blind and sending the others into panic at the thougth that the world was about to end.

    "What is a quintillion supposed to mean, I have never heard that number before..." One spectatormented.

    "it is a rarely used number," Jena answered, gone was her snark, and gone was her attitude. "A Quintillion is One Billion multiplied a Billion times, it is a billion billions, do you understand?" She asked looking across the crowd at the man that had really been asking himself.

    "What?" The Grand is that Vast?" Grecia gasped.

    "It has eighteen zeros, obviously there are more than a single quintillion about thirty estimated, but that is just to make the infinite seem finite, the Grand Collective has never stopped growing, there is a new universe every three seconds, a new collective explodes into being approximately every three to five thousand years,pared to the simple state of a universe, a collective is the incarnation of chaos..." She exined.

    "Master is doing this for the survival of our home, an infinitely expanding collection of ces like source, A multiverse that holds smaller multiverses within it, this is not a vacation for us, if he fails to return everyone, his family, our loved ones, entire civilizations, species, and realities will be destroyed by an enemy that not even he can face alone."

    "Master Vestic..." Grecia mused. "That is too much of a burden to bare alone."

    "He did not ask for this, he was chosen by the light to guide our people," Jena sighed, watching the light from Sol and Yu''s sh begin to receed.

    "Heavy is the King''s crown, the enemy is a direct descendant of his flesh, blood and mana, guided by the hand of the first sentient being in existence; total darkness who wishes to turn all of reality into waste devouring it all, I think master knew..."

    "Huu," Sol emerged from thest receeding light, the halo on his chest cracked and his nose and mouth stained with golden blood.

    "Let''s keep going," Sol began grinning again.

    "You crazy Bastard!"N?v(el)B\\jnn

 Chapter 389 Save it for The Afterlife.

    "He knew what?" Fuhua asked Jena.

    "He made a promise a few years ago that he would never leave Mdy''s side ever again; wherever he goes, so too does the Goddess of Bnce, and if they move, then his family, the Arkadian Universe as well as the Sol Collective and all its inhabitants will follow, if Master had taken them with him, then he would have never returned to save the Grand Collective."

    "He left them knowing he would never abandon them..." Jena mused.

    "He deliberately left everyone behind to always tempt himself into returning, Source inparison to the state of war in the Grand to us, has felt like a getaway resort, that is why he will not lose, the stakes, his wife and child, his entire life is in danger of annihtion."

    ����

    Sol emerged from the light, battered and bleeding.

    Opposite of him was Yu, her tail had been severed and three of her four horns had been broken, while most of her scales were bloody or missing. "Let''s keep going," He urged her.

    "You crazy bastard, you can barely move anymore, same as I, this fight is a draw-"

    "I refuse to ept that!" Sol shook his head, raising his hand high and snapping his fingers, conjuring another [Heaven Piercer] spear, significantlyrger than the one he had just used to counter and nearly kill her. "I can still fight, this is nothing to me, wounds are superficial, I am untethered by the shackles of fatigue!" He roared.

    After his exmation, Sol''s wounds began steaming and closing. "Raise your hand and continue this fight Yu, or concede defeat and be a ve!"

    "No... I would never..." Yu tiredly righted herself, opening her mouth again while the missing parts of her tail and horns were reced by crimson mana and her left eye was entirely consumed, reced with a pure draconic eye. "I would rather fight you to myst breath than be your ve!"

    "Then we have made a consensus!" Sol raised his other hand and the spear doubled in size as he poured everything into it, sensing the building mana in Yu''s attack surpass the first one she had attacked him with as well. "If you don''t yield Yu, you will cease to exist, because no matter what, I have to return to the Grand Collective!"

    "his rationality has suffered a hit because of the stress he is under, I have seen this through Mom''s eyes once; it was before my creation, when he was a mere demigod fighting against the goddess of the sun, Sorath." Jena stared intently. "If this fight does not conclude with the next attack, master''s suppressed darkness may take hold of his mana."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Suppressed darkness, what are you talking about?" Fuhua who had not seen that part of the history of Sol and Arkadia asked shocked.

    "Master defeated a demon-god and absorbed all of his skills and quirks, gaining an abominable power that we have still not been able to find any information on, by essence he is part demon, if he manages to deplete his mana to a certain degree then his demonic mana will surface and he will go wild with manic rage.

    "The Primordial Chaos Demon-God Transformation."

    "What kind of title is that?" Grecia asked, it sounded like a viin''s great final card, not something associated with a hero like Sol Vestic.

    "Master is aplex individual with many different faces," Fuhuamented, seeing the spear in Sol''s possession growrger still, expanding and shrinking over and over again, condensing until it became a blob of light, bending the space around itself from the incredible amount of mass it was generating.

    "It should not be possible though," Jena countered herself. "Master has infinite mana, and I mean that literally, he can produce as many of those spears as he pleases."

    "Then he was destined to win from the start," Grecia hummed. "If he is this kind of being then why would he seek the help of the outside to defeat the darkness that threatens your home?" She asked, and Fuhua looked to the little girl curiously as well.

    "Umbra is gaining power on a ridiculously fast path, soon he will be able to match master''s output, this is fine, master has assured us that he will still hold an advantage, it is the darkness which calls itself Giza, she is the true issue, her power is also infinite."

    "If they are both infinite in power then they should be equal in power, no?" Fuhua asked, this was math that she had never thought of before, schrs and cultivators took different paths in Source, but the path of evolution seemed to be a fusion of both along with other mysterious elements and theories of power.

    "Master is not her opponent, he knows it, we all do," Jena answered. "Their infinity, while being infinite is also finite-"

    "That makes no-"

    "Let me exin," The little girl pouted. "Sol Vestic is a superpower that can challenge the entire grand Collective on his own, he is a Primordial of the highest degree, a god among gods, but he has an ultimate limit, imagine that his infinity is one to a hundred, constantly repeating in a loop, endlessly, that is his infinity.

    "He can grow it, he can increase that number, but there is a limit to the current infinity he possesses which makes him unable to challenge Giza."

    "So what you are saying is that her infinity is muchrger than his..." Grecia spoke up. "Was this always a concept or did you create it to gauge their power?"

    "Her infinity is many timesrger than his, and no, the science of infinite loops has always been a topic of debate among various scientificmunities."

    "Giza is a Primordial Deity, the only of her very specific kind, there are few beings in the Grand Collective that have such a title, throughout the cosmos, she may be one of, if not the most powerful being in totality, but even the strongest fall if the masses gather against them, as was the case with the Vatui who were nearly wiped out."

    "Then, do you believe that the Heavenly Ancestor of Drifting heaven will be enough to oppose Giza?" Fuhua asked.

    "Honestly, I do not, Master requires help, not a saviour." Jena chuckled, watching Sol continue to pour more mana into hsi attack. "Master will evolve again as he always has, he will rise to the asion as he always does."

    "You have such high faith and praise for him, it is admirable, but also rather annoying." Fuhua rested her hand on Jena''s head. "I understand though, I have only known him for a few days and I already have the impression that he will be able to do many great things, that he can do anything."

    "Compared to my few days, I can only specte the high regard and praise that those who have known him for years carry, they must worship the ground he walks on." She chuckled.

    "Of course, this is the reason Master is seldomly arrogant." Jena nodded in agreement. "He needs to meet the expectations of those who have ced all their faith in him, he hates being regarded as a hero, he loathes the thought of being a hero, but the light chose him because there is none more qualified to carry the mantle.

    ����

    [Heavenly Spear]

    "Tianl��ng Mei!"

    "Both attacks began warping and tearing the fabric of reality around them apart, but just an inch from colliding a finger came between them stopping thempletely, Sol stumbled forward,nding on his hands and staring up in disbelief, Yu stumbled backwards and fell unconscious while her body regressed into a human once more.

    "Goodness me, anyter and the very star cluster and the worlds we call home here in the Drifting Heavens would have been destroyed," A tall man had appeared, he seemed just as young as Sol was, but the power that was being manipted to prevent the tips of their attacks from colliding was undoubtedly that of the Heavenly Ancestor.

    "Young people these days are so impulsive, imagine, I try to rx and see the fruits of everyone''sbour and I am immediately beseeched by an intruder on the brink of killing my finest disciple, all to prove a point..." His head slowly turned until he was staring at Sol who could feel a lump forming in his throat.

    "This is bad, he seems hostile." Jena disappeared in an instant and appeared at Sol''s side, holding his arm and helping him to stand again before he shook himself when his mana began rapidly replenishing itself thanks to the collective within him turning its gears and sacrificing the newest expansions.

    In just a few seconds, Sol was almost at full strength again.

    "Hm..." The ancestor narrowed his eyes and then looked on the opposite side where Yu was also standing, albeit much slower without the aid of another, and her mana recovery, while fast was nowhere near the impossible speed of the man she had been fighting. "Curious," He raised his hand and snapped his fingers, causing the two powers shing to vanish.

    "Ugh..." Sol made a crooked smile, seeing firsthand the difference in their power. "That''s pretty annoying."

    Yu lowered her head and sped her hands as soon as she was spacially aware again. "Master Zhang-"

    "Annoying, is you disturbing the peace and thinking that there would be no consequence!" The man turned his back to Yu and summoned a war-hammer from thin air, while Sol conjured a Shield and braced himself.

    "I didn''te here to cause trouble, I need your-"

    Zhang snarled in rage, swinging the hammer.

    "Save your words for the afterlife!"

 Chapter 390 The Heavenly Ancestors Hier.

    "Save your words for the afterlife!" Zhang snapped, waving his hammer once and then swinging it mercilessly intent on ending Sol''s life on contact.

    "Fuck," Sol activated [Clockwork], staring at the weapon swinging towards him in slow motion, he wanted to move but he already knew that it was pointless, if he dodged this first attack then the following one would outpace his trump card and end up killing him without fail.

    "This wasn''t meant to happen, I got carried away!" He thought, clenching his teeth and bracing himself while the entire collective within him dimmed and almost went ck as he siphoned all of his availible mana a second time.

    "Zhang knew that Sol was strong, but when his hammer which had never left a man or woman alive collided into therge shield this man had conjured and was totally repelled he stood there in total shock and silence for up to a minute.

    Sol on the other hand had fallen to his knees, choking up blood since despite avoiding the initial blow his body had reached its limits.

    "Master, should we use the beginning and flee?" Jena who had remained by his side the whole time asked, staring at Zhang rather than Sol since she too could find ways to deter the second attack, unsure of the third.

    "No, he''s the whole reason I came here, or rather, someone like him, if I run now he will spread word, I will be outcast regardless of who I seek out, this whole trip will have been for naught." Sol retorted, standing again with her help and staring at the Ancestor, absent of hostility.

    "Heavenly Ancestor Zhang Yu," I havee from afar seeking your-" Sol ducked when a spear from nowhere came flying at his head, it still managed to leave a scar across his forehead, but at the very least he was making good use of [Godspeed] being indefinitely active.

    "I do not care, why would i the Heavenly Master of this great in listen to the words of an usurper!?" Zhang withdrew his spear and summonedrge red staff, swinging it several times and watching in confusion each time when Sol was able to barely avoid each attack, leaving a scar that was easily healed.

    "I am no usurper, I am not a challenger, I need your-"

    "Silence!" The man roared in outrage, catching up to Sol in a sh and grabbing at him; this was it, another unavoidable attack.

    "F-"

    [CLOCKWORK; DOMINION]

    Zhang saw everything around him slow to a crawl, while Sol alone began skipping away rapidly, but with a smirk the man exerted a small fraction of his mana and caught up a seconf time, seeing the shock on the fleeing intruder''s face when he caught his arm and held on to him.

    "What now, usurper?" Zhang asked with a grin, he had to admit, it had been a while sinsce someone made him this interested, but at the same time Sol was a man after his power and throne, he couldn''t just let him go no matter how amusing he was. "What other trick do you have to show me before your death?"

    "I am no usurper!" Sol snarled, watching Jena fall from the air between them swinging her his sword as if she was attacking the Ancestor, but when the man just barely moved his head and grabbed her by her neck the girl finished the swing, severing Sol''s arm and then vanished from his hold.

    "He sacrificed his arm without a second thought!" Grecia who was still by the great sustem window with Ling Fuhua stared in disbelief seeing Sol roll away from the Heavenly Ancestor and fkip to his feet.

    "Would you please just listen to me?" Sol asked once more, closing one eye and using [Greater Heal] to close the wound rather than instantly regenerate a new arm. "I am not here to challenge-"

    "This cockroach..." The Master threw the severer hand to the ground, watching Jena appear bext to Sol once more. "He just refuses to die..."

    "Cockroach," Sol made a disturbed face, wearing a crooked smile as the nickname he hated the most found its way back to him after such a long time. "No... listen I made a deal with-"

    "Nothing you say can persuade me!" The arrogant man roared, catching Jena out of the air as soon as she attempted to disappear again and trapping her in a ball of mana.

    [System Offline...]

    "What?" Sol snapped, looking to his side just fast enough to see the fist before it descended into his jaw, leaving the piece of debris they were floating on cratered when he was sent ripping through therge hard body, breaking thr surface on the other side andnding on his feet with his jaw dislocated and his eyes and ear bleeding.

    "The system!" Grecia held her mouth in horror when the feed they had been watching disaster unfold from disappeared with a loud pop, and then her and Fuhua saw the same notification that Sol had seen before their connection was severed.

    "Master-" Fuhua decided there and then to take whatever action she could, but found herself and the other woman opposed by hundreds of cultivators, staring them down and blocking their path. "What are you doing?" She asked.

    "The Heavenly Ancestor has marked you all as enemies, this means we need not listen to Master Yu''s directive, we are free to act as we please now. "The old man that had been closest to them answered. "All without fear of repercussion from that bastard you call master!"

    "What should we do with them?"

    "We should just kill them!"

    "Their master wanted to make a ve out of our beloved dragon heiress, we should make them ves and sell them in return!"

    "Sell? are you blind? We should keep them as personal ves instead!"

    Hearing all these awful conflicting ideas, fuhua looked at Grecia, held her hand tightly, and then in one fast motion, vanished from their sights."

    "Where did she go?!"

    "Over here, she is fleeing towards her master!" On of the guards on the farthest end of the collection of people called out, pointing towards the Void in the direction of Sol.

    "How are you-"

    "Master taught me one of his exclusive skills, although the system is offling, I am still able to use the power granted to me by her!" Fuhua answered Grecia. "The ony reason this is possible is because I evolved into a cosmic being, master says that I can be a demigod whenever I choose, nut with the system offline I cannot do it at the moment, so this is as fast as I can carry you."

    "This is plenty fast, even with my current power, I am not this quick while traversing the Beyond!" Grecia looked behind them at her feet straightened and dangling while Fuhua continued using the Void as a foothold and running, burning through her mana with [Godspeed]

    With thews of a vum in effect, every motion that pushed her forward left her hurling faster than she was before, no friction, nothing hindering her, within the space of a few seconds Fuhua had achieved near light speed, but this was her limit.

    Shs didn''t know how to manipte space to break that barrier, and Sol was an entire gxy away, even at her top speed it would still take her hundreds of years to get there.

    ����

    "I may enjoy killing you, after all!" Zhang came through the hole next to Sol who had remained stationary the whole time afternding on his feet, unconscious and slowly bleeding. "You have caused enough issues for one lifetime!" The man summoned a greatsword and dropped the de with a wide grin.

    "Yu...?" Zhang asked, halting his strike when his attack nearly cleaved through Yu''s forehead on its way to Sol, who was still unresponsive. "What are you doing?" he asked again, watching her stand defiantly betweenhim and Sol with her arms spread wide and her eyes shut tight. "Little girl, move-"

    "Lord Zhang Yu, father, I wanted to sit idly by and allow it to happen, but if I stay on the sidelines and watch as you Kill this man, I would end up taking my lifeter on out of shame..." Yu shook her head. "Please, do not kill Sol Vestic, he and I made a deal-"

    "What kind of deal would lead to you ending your own life?" The man asked, slowly lowering his greatsword and leaving it to rest next to him. "What did he do to you?"

    "He did nothing, father, he came here seeking to enter the games as a master in order to seek an audience with you upon winning, I denied him entry, so he offered r=treasures worth lifetimes of cultivation in exchange for that chance, I still denied him, so he offered his flesh and blood, the little girl, and wagered a challenge, if he loses he would be my ve, I would attain all of his treasures as well as his eternal service."

    "Why in High Heavens would you make such a ridiculous deal, child?"N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "If he won, then in exchange I would be his ve." She finished the rest of the deal.

    "Move aside, this man has to die, how dare he?!"

    "Father!" Yu snapped. "We made a binding vow, a Soul Contract!"

    Zhang began shaking, slowly removing the de from Sol''s neck and looking at her again, eyes wide and draconic with ck scales slowly forming across his forehead and arms.

    "...You did what?!"

    "We are bound by contract, if anyone aside from one of us kills the other before a victor is decided then we will both die!"

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