A deathly plan

The turn of events left Endora’s ascended speechless and made Life’s still-standing armies fall in despair.

What was once the second-largest Kingdom in the whole northern half of the continent became nothing more than a blood sacrifice to increase the Blood Sun’s power.

The once proud cities, previously filled with life, were now dead silent and covered in the blood of their residents.

The manifestations of the Blood Sun and the Death Incarnation snapped Pearl out of her thoughts, making her also raise her head towards the sky.

“W-what is that?”

“Death,” Seth replied shortly, watching as the Blood Sun began retreating inside the earth and the ominous green light in the far north fading. “Pure death.”

Lisa and Elise returned shortly using a portal, sitting by Seth’s side without saying a single word.

“Good job, both of you. Our way should be clear now.”

Lisa and Elise replied with a nod, and Elise said: “That thing… is it Thanatos?”

“I believe it to be the spirit manifested from the death link, which Thanatos stole long ago, but I also don’t know much about it. What I know is that thing is what gives Thanatos his power, the source, so to say, to his death energy.”

“Does its appearance in the sky mean it will be joining the war as well?” asked Elise.

“Most probably, yes. With the Kingdom of Death bringing soldiers to support Life, I already figured out something like this might happen. I initially planned on wiping out the Kingdom of Life before we faced Thanatos, but it seems Thanatos wants to go all in from the beginning.”

“Isn’t that good?” asked Pearl with a frown.

“Maybe. Let’s hope so. Anyway, our plan has remained the same. We’ll kill everything in our way until that thing arrives here. “

Everyone nodded in agreement, and Elise started supporting the air ascended with her energy, increasing the way they traveled forward.

——————

Endora’s armies flew above the marsh of bodies and blood, heading straight toward the Kingdom of Life.

In the meantime, in the capital of Life, a tall man with pitch-black eyes was supporting his elbows on the royal palace’s balcony railing, watching the carnage happening outside the capital with an indifferent look on his face.

A knight dressed in a shiny suit of armor came behind High King Soren, a panicked look on his face as he fell to one knee.

“Your majesty, High King. I- I think we need to escape. The enemy… the enemy has wiped out all the armies we send to delay them. We can’t resist another one of those attacks.”

“Go back and inform everyone that every deserter will die before they can even take a single step outside the city. Mention that again, and you’ll also join them.” Said Soren flatly, not even turning to look at his man.

“But your - “The knight wished to plead with Soren to reconsider, but the blade of destruction appearing before his eyes made him swallow his words.

“I won’t be listening to any more of your complaints. Inform me the moment Thanatos reaches here. Also, ensure everyone remains on their posts, ready to fight the enemy invaders. You’re dismissed.”

The knight could only bow before sitting up and leaving the balcony.

Not long after the knight left the balcony, one of Soren’s hands began wriggling abnormally, the skin covering it peeling right off, replaced by a dark red tendril made of destruction energy. One of Soren’s eyes also disappeared, replaced by a pure black void.

Soren’s indifference finally changed, a look of irritation appearing on his face.

“Nice of you to finally show up, Noth. What is the meaning of all of this? You said the Emperor of Endora, the bearer of the destruction divinity, was dead. How is a dead man marching on my kingdom, killing my people like flies?”

“Death… Cheated.”

“Non-existence… Kronos.”

Soren frowned when he heard Noth’s ancient voice entering his ears. “The God of Time? What does he have to do with all of this?”

“Time… Change.”

“Destruction… defiled.”

Soren grabbed the wriggling tendril with his hand, bringing it in front of his remaining eye, and said: “Listen to me, foul creature. You promised me the world, but all you’ve given me is empty words.”

“Now, your dead god of destruction is coming here, and we have no power to stop him, so if you ever want to be freed from your cursed seal, you better stop being useless and help me. Don’t forget, with Thanatos being able to rid himself of you; I’m your only hope of ever leaving that prison.”

“Fear… not.”

“Death… coming.”

“Everyone.”

Soren barely kept his anger in control, throwing the tendril to the side and saying: “You want to rely on Thanatos again? That’s fine, but if you don’t give me what you promised, you can kiss your goals goodbye. I’m done serving you before you help me breakthrough.”

Noth’s tentacle stopped wriggling, slowly turning back into Soren’s arm. His eye also returned to normal.

Just as Soren wondered if his attempt worked, he began feeling his destruction source start spinning out of control, the shell keeping him from progressing further starting to crack on its own.

A subtle smile appeared on Soren’s lips as his body began crumbling from the feet up, devoured by the destruction energy leaving his source.

Only his source was left when his entire body disappeared, floating gently in the air, along with a dried-up tentacle that fell lifelessly to the ground.

A few hours later, Soren’s body rebuilt itself out of destruction energy, and he looked at his own hands in excitement.

“Finally, haaah, the power that had eluded me for so long.”

Soren was so caught up in the joy of finally breaking through to the seventh shell that he didn’t even notice someone else standing behind him.

“Haha, Soren, you should see your face right now.”

Hearing the voice coming from behind him, Soren’s smile disappeared, and he turned around, looking at the person who just spoke to him.

“Thanatos, what are you doing here?”

“I asked your slaves to inform you, but they said you were breaking through, so I came to take a look myself. Got to say: I didn’t expect that old bastard to part with his knowledge. This whole deal must have scared him. Haha.”

Soren got over the joy of his breakthrough quite quickly, being reminded of the threat marching on his kingdom. Looking at the dried-up tentacle on the ground, he wondered if he should even remain there anymore.

He got what he wanted. He now understood what it took for an ascended to progress past the sixth shell. He also understood why Noth always avoided handing them that knowledge.

He shouldn’t be able to control his pawns once they reach the rank of early demigods.

“If you’re thinking about running away, you should know that even if you don’t feel it, he can still kill you. I can feel it; this breakthrough is not natural but was carried on by Noth’s will.” Said Thanatos from the side, coming to rest his elbows on the balcony.

“I know, but I could push it out. Noth’s will, that is.”

“You could, but the bastard has been making us cultivate his energy, polluted by his conscious will. The energy inside your source will dissipate the moment you remove that will, and now that your physical body is gone, you’ll die.”

Soren looked at his own hands in realization. “It was a trap?”

“Why do you think I’ve kept my destruction source at the sixth shell for so long, never breaking through? I’ve long realized I’ll turn into his prisoner for eternity if I do it. Death had long given me the way to breakthrough.”

“But enough of that for now, Soren. Death has a way of removing his influence and could share it with you, but first, we need to take care of that fly from the south.”

Soren’s eyes focused again, and he nodded: “Do you have a plan? He has the power of a treasure, more ascended than we do, and his ways are a complete mystery to us.”

“Don’t worry. I have a few, and help is also coming from my kingdom. His little show with the blood ants’ treasure pissed off Death. A newborn treasure out of a nearly extinct race holds nothing against a treasure fed by the Spirit Well for thousands of years.”

“I saw the manifestation… did it truly move from the well?”

“Not completely. Its main body remains, but an avatar containing most of its energy is heading here. We need to hold Endora off until it arrives.”

Soren nodded and was about to leave to direct his armies when a thought came to him, and he turned around.

“Thanatos. We had our differences, but thank you for coming to my aid when I needed you. I know you would have had an easier time fighting in your kingdom than here.”

Thanatos didn’t turn his head, waving his hand indifferently. “Don’t mention it. We’ve always been allies. Since that day, our fates have been thoroughly linked to one another. Go and do your stuff. I’ll stay here and think for a while.”

With Soren gone, an eerie green skull appeared next to Thanatos.

“What a fool.” A sharp voice left the energy skull not long after.

Thanatos smirked and nodded. “A fool, but still has his uses. Now that Noth had helped him break through, all the better. We can use him to clear as much of those destruction god’s forces as possible. Soren should at least make him use a part of his hidden tricks.”

“It would be best if they both exhausted their energies to fight. Then we can capture that destruction god and take what we need from him.”

“About that, how is the girl? Did you manage to find anything out?” asked Thanatos.

“Not yet, but she is indeed the clue we needed. If I discover how to extract those entities inside her, I can finally be whole again. Once I can use all four of the fundamental energies, not even the spirit well will be able to keep us in check any longer.”

“Haha, not only this world, but all the other worlds will fall under our feet.”

“We’ll be beyond even Gods. Haha” Said both Thanatos and the skull simultaneously, their laughter resounding throughout the empty balcony.