Chapter 16: The Lord of Darkness

More gods than usual had gathered around the table suspended above the stars. The Festival of the Gods had already been underway for several days, and its most striking challenge, the battle royale, was at its peak.

"Oh... that young god has promise."

"Has it already been confirmed that he's the new god of war?"

"It has. You can see for yourself."

"He has composure, cunning, character, and, above all, a thirst for conquest. Helux was very shrewd to make him swear loyalty before ascending himself."

"The member swears loyalty, the leader swears protection; that's how the pact that forms a faction is truly sealed."

The image manifested in the endless cosmos showed Aren sheathing his sword after single-handedly wiping out a group of demigods.

"The demigoddess accompanying him ascended as well, it seems..."

"What did she become again? A lesser goddess tasked with gathering the souls of the finest warriors fallen in battle?"

"Yes, though of course it will only apply to mortals who worship the god of war."

"Correct. The true master of souls has yet to be decided," declared Zorovan, straightening in his seat.

Beside him, Mevis gave a silent nod.

"In that sense, I don't know whether it was such a good idea for Helux, the new god of the sun, to snatch those two youngsters away," Zorovan continued.

It seemed as if Aren and Vilkie had been trying to find someone, but time ran out. They began to glow, and a moment later vanished from the battlefield.

"Mmm, yes, that's true," another god remarked. "And let's hope it gets settled soon. The two candidates for god of death have been wreaking havoc in the battle royale..."

"Don't even mention it," a goddess cut in. "The Crimson Calamity eliminated the other two candidates for god of war at the same time."

"Although, in my opinion, young Aren would have earned that position either way," another of those present pointed out.

"And not to mention the other candidate..." Zorovan sighed, stroking his beard. "Lirien, Eryndea is full of fierce rivals..."

The image shifted and now showed an alliance of demigod factions battling a tide of steel and bone.

***

"Watch out!"

"Noooo!"

Clank

Thunk

"There are too many! We have to fall back!"

Clank

Clink

Clink Clank

"Aaaaaagh!"

"There's a battalion behind us... They cut off our path!"

"No... no, it can't be... I can't die here! I'm the future god of wind!"

Swish!

Shhk!

"Aaaaaaaaaaaa!"

"Percus, we have to escape!"

One of the men among the few pockets of demigods still left amid that sea of death grabbed his companion by the shoulder and urged him to come with him.

"Ionas... you were alive," his weary companion replied. "Escape where? This is the end..."

Clank

"Ugh..."

One of the demigods beside him had just been struck down, but Ionas paid him no mind.

"Don't say that, Percus! We can get out of this... We always have!" the demigod shouted, still trying to drag his companion away.

"And escape for what? What's the point of going on living after this humiliation?!" Percus shot back while fending off two skeletal soldiers.

"We'll come back!" Ionas shouted. "We'll come back with more allies and defeat the Lord of Darkness! We'll become gods!"

Clank Clink

Another demigod nearby had just fallen.

"We already came back!" Percus snapped in return. "The first time the Lord of Darkness let us escape, it was a warning!"

"But this time... we'll bring more... more allies..." Ionas's eyes widened. "Where is she?! Why did we bring her if she's just going to disappea-"

Shing

Ionas never finished the sentence. A sword came down and severed his head.

"Ionas...! Damn you, Crimson Calamity!"

Thud

"Aaaaaagh..."

Percus's scream died in his throat when a rusted spear pierced his back.

***

From the summit of a mountain, Nerez watched in frustration the hell that had broken loose below him.

But it was almost over. The horde of demigods that had come to kill "the Lord of Darkness," as they called him, had been reduced to only a couple of stragglers.

"Ah... those were the last two..."

He brought his hands together in a gesture of respect, though he was not truly praying, since he had no idea to whom.

"How did it come to this?"

Nerez let out a weary sigh as he dismissed the ominous army, which vanished as the earth swallowed it whole.

"All I want is to spend my days sleeping in a secluded cave. Is that really too much to ask? Though I guess that's the dream for most people too, minus the cave part..."

One after another, his skeletons on watch kept alerting him to attacks by desperate demigods who still hadn't managed to ascend.

All of them had somehow heard rumors of a so-called "Lord of Darkness," and had come to test themselves against his army of skeletal soldiers.

"Is the problem that I use the skeletons to guard the perimeter? Is that why they find me so easily?"

Nerez pushed himself off the log he had been leaning on and started walking toward the cave he had found the day before.

"And if I let them escape, they come back with reinforcements... Why is everyone so desperate to throw themselves at a wall of skeletons?!"

The way down the mountain was not particularly difficult. He was no demigod, but apparently his body was no longer that of an ordinary human either, and he could move with far greater speed and agility than normal.

If not for that, Helux's kick would probably have killed him back then.

"And what am I getting out of all this? Skills that have already reached their maximum proficiency rank, like skeletal soldiers, don't give me experience, or whatever it is that unlocks new skills..."

At the foot of the mountain, as he passed through a clearing in the forest, a chill ran down his spine. The memory of that encounter came back to him.

"Ugh... clearings bring me bad luck... Mm?"

He had barely finished that sentence when a figure emerged from the shadows and blocked his path.

It was the same girl with blood-red twintails who had lunged at him at the very beginning, in the plaza of Empyrean Peaks.

Her orange eyes glimmered with tiny sparks, as if they were ready to set fire to anything that dared cross her gaze.

"Tch. I knew you were the reason I still couldn't ascend."

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