Fall of a god

Krum’s face contorted in rage, and his entire body shook as he fought against the strange force binding him into place, but despite all of his efforts, he was not able to move a single inch, forced to watch as Seth and Leora engaged the two gods following him there.

Leora kept a safe distance from Dukbium, who had already taken energy form, sending attack after attack toward him without stopping.

Dukbium allowed those attacks to hit his energy body, using his energy to negate them while sending his attacks back at her. Leora didn’t defend the same way, opting to skew away from the attacks, avoiding them with her superior speed.

It was clear that they were both barely using a fragment of their total power, opting to take a wait-and-see attitude. Leora was happy keeping Dukbium busy while Dukbium waited for Vayu to win his fight.

With the two other parties locked in a stalemate, Seth was madly chasing after a gust of wind energy, destruction lances forming into the fabric of space, charging and cleaving a bit of Vayu’s energy with each attack.

Despite Seth having no divinity, Vayu quickly understood Krum’s passing warning on the way there. In Seth’s case, there was not much difference between having a divinity and not having one, and destruction still responded to his will just as any energy would respond to a divine crown.

If Vayu was to point out a few noticeable differences, they were the lack of supreme abilities each divinity bestowed upon its users and his inability to imbue his soul thoroughly into his energy.

Vayu remained passive, happy to waste Seth’s energy. Despite each of Seth’s attacks cleaving a small part of his energy, as a god who had lived for eons, he was not worried that his energy would run low.

Seth kept attacking him, his eyes occasionally darting to the side, where Leora and Elise kept the others busy. He knew that Leora’s energy was nowhere close to Dukbium’s while Elise relied on her Blood Sun to keep Krum contained, but the Blood Sun was just as limited in its power.

Since Vayu was not manifesting his divinity to fight seriously, Seth’s hands were tied, and his attacks were like throwing pebbles into the ocean.

Knowing he couldn’t go on like this, Seth suddenly stopped, his sources getting covered by a wave of space energy and disappearing from Vayu’s side.

Vayu also paused, wondering what happened momentarily, until he spotted Seth’s energy emerging far into the distance, right behind Dukbium.

“Dukbium, behind you.”

Dukbium, while chasing after Leora, heard Vayu’s warning, and his divine crown was quickly shrouded in a wave of red-purple flames.

Holding a destruction lance behind him, Seth pulled back as he threw the lance into the smoldering flames, using his energy to protect himself simultaneously from the fire coming in his direction.

Broken space spread throughout Dukbium’s flames, piercing a hole through its center. An ember of flames drifted away and reformed an energy body for Dukbium a distance away as he watched Leora’s attacks joining Seth’s to snuff out the fire he had created.

“Vayu, you bastard. What the hell are you doing?” bellowed Dukbium, vexed that his companion allowed Seth to attack him.

Vayu’s energy had just reached him and manifested by his side, taking energy form as a divine crown started spinning at his chest.

“I was just probing the brat. You only lost a bit of energy. Why are you yelling like a fool?”

Dukbium snorted and looked at Seth and Leora, now standing side by side, “How is he?”

“Weak. I was worried because of the administrator’s words, but he’s just a seventh shell with a bit more energy and control. I’ll stop playing around now,” replied Vayu, drifting straight at Seth and Leora.

Seth chuckled and used his link to communicate with Leora, ‘I won. Continue engaging Dukbium for a while.’

Leora’s energy body shone brightly, and she moved to the side, Dukbium chasing right after her.

Seth remained in the same spot, watching the cluster of air energy charging at him.

A feeble green energy spread out Vayu’s divinity, filling the space and forming a massive air bubble around him and Seth.

“I’ll show you the power of a true god,” bellowed Vayu, air blades forming all around and heading for Seth’s body.

Despite Vayu’s attacks drawing closer, Seth remained unmoving, moving his sources around his energy body to dodge as much as he could. Still, the attacks landing on his energy body grazed his sources occasionally, causing their structure to get damaged each time.

<Seth, you won’t be able to hold on for long.>

<Your energy is also slowly dissipating.>

Seth ignored the system’s warnings, remaining completely still, his energy body getting skewered by the attacks as the divine crown slowly grew closer.

Seth’s sources kept bleeding energy. The system’s warnings increased in frequency, and Vayu finally reached Seth’s energy body.

As victory was in sight, Vayu heard a loud shattering sound through the air forming the bubble. He didn’t even get to react as the bubble popped, the energy creating it dissipating into the emptiness of space.

Vayu’s energy form, now skewered by an immense destruction lance extending into the depths of space, slowly took physical form, and he lowered his head, watching the tip of destruction sticking out of his heart and divine source.

Seth was also in bad condition, his sources all having a damage of at least 50%, with his destruction one close to shattering. However, as his body materialized, he still smiled at Vayu.

Dukbium and Leora also paused in their fight, turning simultaneously toward the strange situation. Dukbium paled, noticing instantly that the spear of destruction was piercing straight through Vayu’s divine crown, cleaving his partner’s source in half.

“How…” asked Vayu, his body slowly fading into nothingness as the ninth shell of his source started cracking.

Seth walked through space, approaching Vayu and sighing, “You never had a chance the moment you materialized your divinity here, but I guess all gods are suffering from the same hubris, me being no exception.”

Vayu lifted his barely solid hand, grabbing onto Seth, a begging look as he asked again, “How? A human cannot kill a god.”

Seth watched the pained look in Vayu’s eyes and sighed as he said, “You are no true god, and I am no longer a simple human. Your energy will is immortal, and you are just leaching onto its immortality. Once that link is broken, you are just as killable as every other demigod.”

Seth knew what vexed Vayu. Since they all believed themselves as true gods, they always considered themselves immortal and above everything else, but they were not the real immortal ones. Their energy wills were.

“All I needed to end you was a way to land a destructive attack on your soul and energy right through the divine crown. My seventh shell energy will never be able to catch you off guard, but killing you was still possible as long as the attack came from far into the depths of space. Didn’t you find it suspicious that there was so little destruction energy in the space around?”

Vayu’s hold on Seth’s hand lessened, and he sighed as his energy and soul slowly faded away, leaving behind just a crown vibrating around the destruction spear embedded into it.

“Return to the world and get ready to be summoned by me. Don’t be stupid to answer another’s call, or I’ll wipe you off myself,” said Seth in a cold tone as the divine crown slowly faded after its former master.

“Don’t even think about it,” Leora’s angry voice attracted Seth’s attention, and he turned around to see Dukbium drifting away in energy form.

“Don’t bother. Dukbium had already left,” said Seth, causing Leora to shelve her intention of chasing after him.

With one of the gods suffering from a miserable death, Seth turned to Krum, who was struggling against Elise’s bindings. Seth started slowly approaching him despite his injuries, with Leora swiftly joining his side.

“It’s interesting how the tables turn sometimes, isn’t it, Krum?” asked Seth with a jeer.

Krum’s veins all over his body bulged, his mouth slowly parting as he asked, “What have you done to me?”

“Me?” asked Seth, creating a tiny blade of destruction and cutting one of his forehead veins, allowing his silvery blood to leak. “Your sovereign would be the best one to ask that question.”

The leaking blood turned into a sharp needed which flew right at Seth, but Seth easily dodged it by tilting his head to the side before allowing his destruction to engulf the needle.

While Krum was watching the silvery needle in disbelief, Seth chuckled again and turned around to walk toward Elise. “Your people have long lost the war, and you have long been a puppet of the enemy.”

Arriving next to Elise’s side, Seth sighed and said to her, “Release him.”

Elise raised an eyebrow and canceled her control over Krum’s blood. Despite her control disappearing, Krum remained unmoving, his eyes displaying the struggle inside his soul.

As Seth was about to teleport away, Krum said, “That can’t be right. You’re lying.”

Seth chuckled as he stopped his teleportation and gave Krum a pitiful look, “When the void armies attacked from The Outside, the Asura race was created as a manifestation of the All-mother’s rage to fight the intruders. The Asura race took human form, being a handy race able to carry weapons and use tools, but they took it to an extreme giving themselves six arms instead of two to increase their fighting capabilities.”

“To be able to stand against even gods, their blood was filled with the All-mother’s energy, giving it the ability to take solid form and even carry the will of those warriors after their death. The Asura were a race created to war the void armies, but despite using much of her power in their creation, they were just a failed product.”

“During the war, Neoss, the child the All-mother created to lead the Asura race to victory, was the last to fall to the enemy after the rest of his race, but the sovereign had a different plan for the last standing warrior.”

“The World Sovereign corrupted the last Asura warrior, slowly eating away at his energy and mind while using the voidlings to possess him. He couldn’t remove his hatred for the void race, out of which he was created, but with careful manipulation, the World Sovereign could corrupt Neoss and make him believe fighting on the Sovereign’s side was fighting the void races.”

“This earned him a loyal general who would listen to every command and do his bidding without knowing he was always fighting on the enemy’s side..”

“Elise’s power took away the control the voidling inside you had over your blood, which rendered you unable to move, caught between two controlling wills.”

“I wanted her to try to cleanse you, but now I’m sure that’s impossible. The voidling had become a part of who you are. You are now a creature of the void yourself.”

Krum’s face kept changing, but the silver blood staining his face was irrefutable proof of Seth’s words. With the truth exposed, glimpses of his doubts came back to him, and he said, “Kill me.”

Seth shook his head and threw a destruction spear, cleaving a hole right at Krum’s chest, where his heart would be, revealing his silver insides, “I can’t since you’re just a body formed out of void and blood. Your true body is probably kept somewhere safe by the World Sovereign.”

“That’s also why you were sent inside the simulation. The blood created by the All-mother and your void body allowed you to enter the barrier with no rejection. I don’t know much, but I’m sure you’re one of the Sovereign’s earlier attempts at breaking out. One of his, I imagine many, failures.”

Seth allowed the distraught Krum alone with his thoughts, teleporting with the girls back to the surface of his world, and arrived straight above Endora’s energy shields.

“Why didn’t you destroy his body anyway? He might create more trouble for you,” asked Elise.

Seth shook his head, “His real body is somewhere out of this world and contains his main consciousness, which splits into these fake bodies to do the Sovereign’s bidding. If I removed this body, the part of consciousness aware of the truth would also fade away.”

“You want him to return to his real body carrying these truths?” asked Elise in realization.

“That’s about it. Whatever might create some trouble for the Sovereign is well worth doing,” after confirming her thoughts, Seth looked down and said with a pained smile, “We’ve won. Let’s go home and celebrate.”

Leora quickly hugged Seth, nodding to show her approval, but Elise shook her head, her hand moving to her heart, where her Blood Sun was. “I can’t. I need to feed more now that I wasted so much of the sun’s power.”

Seth nodded and said, “Wherever you might head, be careful and don’t overdo it. Thank you for helping me.”

Elise bowed and exploded into a mass of blood, floating away into the distance. When she disappeared, Leora asked, “Won’t she kill more people?”

“She will, but I’m sure her victims more or less deserve it,” replied Seth, wrapping his hand around Leora’s waist and teleporting away.