Althos had taken on a new appearance as one of the consequences of being abruptly removed from his physical body and now existing as a divinely powered avatar. In the hellish world of Infernius, the godling from the mortal plane of existence no longer looked human.
Instead, his current form was that of a 2.8-meter tall creature who was humanoid in shape and not much else. Half of his skin was white, and the other half was black. There was no symmetry between the two halves even without taking into account the differing skin colors, as the rest of his body was a swirling mess of shifting body parts.
His body parts, seemingly at random, shifted in their length and their density. And his new body radiated power, particularly physical power.
His new form was built for martial combat. He possessed thick arms that freely shifted between battle-hardened hands, and would suddenly transform into blades and other weapons of various sizes. His legs were thick and his feet themselves also shifted between ending in human-like feet and ending in blades as if the godling himself were about to use his legs to stab someone.
----------------------------------------
Adrenaline flooded the senses of the godling, as he felt time itself seem to slow to a crawl. One of the two creatures in front of him approached, and in the adrenaline flooded mind of the godling, the creature was moving incredibly slowly. Its hands were outstretched, and they ended in sinister-looking claws.
The creature who was moving towards Althos was the dreaded devilish overlord Master Paimon himself.
Master Paimon had a grim grin etched on his elderly face. His cat-like eyes were alive with joy and filled with cruelty as he seemed to be imagining the tortures he'd inflict on the god he most likely believed was weaker than he was. To a mortal that assessment might have sounded haughty, but Althos's quick assessment of the magical energy the mighty devil in front of him was radiating suggested that the devil's power was the real deal. This assessment sped the reaction of the godling.
The godling took a second, a single beat, to gather divine power and magical energy and store it in his throat. He compressed the two into thin, metaphysical slices before beginning to mix them. When they were nice and mixed he felt ready to unleash them.
At that moment the godling opened his mouth and spoke. He uttered a single word.
"Enough."
As he spoke a wave of power flowed out from his mouth and spread out in every direction. All four of the other inhabitants were slammed by the divine energy and gritted their teeth in an attempt to withstand it. They didn't succeed.
The power radiating from the godling's voice was enough to cause the lesser inhabitants of the room, the normal devils and the angel to freeze in place. It even stunned Master Paimon for a second, just long enough for Althos to get his bearings.
----------------------------------------
In the moment that Master Paimon was actually frozen, Althos mentally accepted the first of what promised to be several quests and instantly received another notification.
[YOU HAVE JUST RECEIVED SEVERAL NOTIFICATIONS. FOR THE TIME BEING, THEY HAVE BEEN HIDDEN. IF YOU ESCAPE THE TOWER, MASTER PAIMON'S HOME, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO READ THROUGH THEM AT WILL. THEY ARE SKILLS, FEATS, AND MORE THAT WILL BE INDISPENSABLE TO OVERTHROWING MASTER PAIMON. ALL BUT THE MOST URGENT NOTIFICATIONS YOU GET DURING THIS QUEST WILL BE SIMILARLY HIDDEN AND SUBSEQUENTLY REVEALED AFTER COMPLETION OF THE QUEST.]
The time it took for the godling to read the notification wasn't long at all but it was long enough for Master Paimon. The devilish overlord regained the ability to move after enduring the godling's divine voice and continued reaching forward to touch Althos.
Upon noticing that the devilish overlord had regained his ability to move, Althos leaped backward, in the direction of the imp and the devilish police officer.
Master Paimon roared, and though the sound was painful for those in his penthouse to hear, it was actually an indicator that the devilish overlord was filled with excitement. Specifically, the overlord was excited about the fact that the godling didn't roll over and accept his fate. Then the devilish overlord spoke.
"What will you do, little godling? You are alone here. And I am not."
Hearing that made the godling realize something: since he arrived in this mysterious place he hadn't heard any remarks by M.A., or by Samyaza. The godling physically reacted to that, his eyes going wide and his divine heart beating a bit faster than it had been before. He sent out a distressed mental message, hoping to get a response.
[Hey! Can anyone hear me?!]
He was met with mental silence, and he realized that for the second time since after the creature was joined by Samyaza his mind was occupied by him and him alone. The silence was mildly frightening, but the creature had gained mountains of knowledge in the span of a few seconds, and his greatly enhanced brain was considering what options he had at the speed of the sound.
Althos swiftly assessed the situation he was in. His assessment made him aware of possible escape routes, like taking someone hostage and trying to get them to let him out of the tower that way. Or he could try to escape via an elevator and probably be stopped on every floor until he had killed hundreds of devils or died or was captured by them.
By the time he finished analyzing over a dozen possible routes out of the tower, his assessment had only really brought with it one legitimate option: to fly out.
He made an on the fly assessment of his situation and noticed something handy: the other creatures hadn't really moved. He wondered if they realized that probably they could move again, and he noticed that the imp and the police officer weren't friendly towards each other.
He concluded this by examining their body language and took a shot in the dark with relatively little information.
It was a good thing he was right.
That single significant observation and his ability to make a decision on the fly spurred him to do what he did next.
----------------------------------------
Helena, the devilish police officer who had detained and brought Salifinos to Master Paimon hours earlier, never expected the reward she'd get for her efforts. It happened just seconds after the godling who had suddenly appeared in front of her and the imp she was beside and glowering at leaped backward.
Althos gave the devil and her unhappy ward a quick glance and realized that they weren't really processing what was unfolding before them quickly. And this presented an opportunity for the quick-witted deity.
He took a quick breath and called upon the one subdomain he had a bit of influence over. Hand-to-hand fighting. This caused an explosive change in the penthouse suite.
The deity was suddenly imbued with an aura of power, one that visibly covered his entire body but was especially concentrated in his fists and his legs. They gave him a more divine appearance befitting a god by turning his skin a wider variety of splendid colors than the meek shades of white and black they had been before.
The deity's newest demonstration of his power caused those around him to unconsciously step back, as if they were scared to approach him.
The deity subtly grinned at the creatures who had just unconsciously retreated from him and then sprung into action faster than anyone present could react to.
He threw a powerful punch at the devilish police officer at such a speed that it stunned everyone present and no one could react in time to the swift thinking of the deity.
The devilish police officer took the blow in her stomach, and much like other victims of that same dreadful punch was powerfully affected by it. She was lifted off of the ground by the force of the blow, and felt an immense pain overwhelm her senses. It took an incredible amount of will for her to not lose consciousness.
When she landed a few meters away from where she was previously, she spat out a fair amount of devilish ichor that was a devil's approximation of blood and fell to her knees. She looked up, her eyes filled with rage and memorized the godling's face. An unnecessary act, given that no one else in Infernius would have a face like that.
The deity quickly sprung into motion after the punch and grabbed the just released imp. After manhandling the imp onto his back and mentally urging the imp to hold onto him, the god began to run towards the penthouse balcony, intending to throw himself out of it.
Before he reached the window he whispered to the imp.
"If I stay here I'm doomed, and if you stay I doubt your conditions would be any better than mine. So I'm escaping. I recommend you escape with me."
The imp heard his words and though he was far from fond of the circumstances he found himself in, Salifinos was painfully aware that the least unpleasant way out of their shared circumstances was if he collaborated, even temporarily, with the godling who was presently charging at a window. That was until he realized that the godling intended to jump out of the window.
The imp intended to shout something along the lines of the following:
"Don't jump! You'll get us killed!"
But he was too slow to do that, because the godling crossed a distance of several meters in a millisecond, and forced the imp to prioritize holding on and hopefully figuring something out along the way.
----------------------------------------
The devilish overlord of Bastille reacted when he saw the godling attempting to hurl himself out of the window. The reason the overlord reacted was that he knew of a particular rule he himself had put in place within the city. No creature within the city could fly, and though some creatures were otherwise immune to damage that came about as a result of falling, all creatures within the city were subject to both gravity and falling damage.
The overlord was under the impression that the godling would be killing himself if he leaped out of that window. And so Paimon screeched in anger and lashed out at the godling with his significant magical might. He extended a hand in the deity's direction as if merely extending a limb in the general direction of the deity would be enough to stop the speedy creature.
Moments later massive tendrils of darkness exploded out of the outstretched hand of the devil and chased after the godling. They roared and hissed in eerie manifestations of the devil's own feelings at that moment as they devoured the floor rugs and other small valuables that littered the unkempt penthouse suite, and inched closer and closer to Althos.
The godling barely paid them any mind, and instead outstretched his own hands in the direction of the nearest window. He himself also shouted, his voice a powerful weapon in its own right, and then a second later thick gouts of wicked flames the color of jade exploded from his hands in the direction of the window that stood between him and freedom.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The fires increased the temperature in the penthouse suite by several degrees, heating the room so thoroughly that even the injured police officer who was on her knees and glaring at the godling felt it while many meters away from the flames.
The deity was closing in on the window with every passing instant and began to laugh maniacally as the window started to melt underneath the blistering heat of the fire he was hurling at it. Within moments the window had melted completely, and Althos was millimeters from leaping out of it.
The deity wasn't afraid, nor did he hesitate. As he jumped out into the open air he felt a thick wind blowing against him, and he spontaneously generated thick wings.
This was an impressive display that showcased a more enhanced, unconscious understanding of his shape-shifting powers than he had just hours ago, due in part to the update his system went through just minutes ago.
He began to flap the newly formed wings in an effort to gain control over what would otherwise become a swift and painful fall if he did nothing. And he tried and tried to gain control over his rapid descent towards the ground.
And he wasn't succeeding.
----------------------------------------
Althos had leaped out of the window and felt wind greet him and push back against him for his reckless bravery. This would contribute to his lackadaisical response to sailing through the air even after his response to the might of gravity failed to stop his descent in a few moments.
He immediately began to descend due to the power of gravity and hoped that his newly formed wings would start to help him out quickly.
Within an instant large and powerful batlike wings had grown from his back and he was flapping them in an attempt to gain control over his free fall. He wasn't succeeding.
But at this point, the young deity wasn't panicked. Instead, the deity wrongly felt that he had time to examine his surroundings since the ground was all the way below him. He quickly looked at his surroundings and was amazed at what he saw.
Outstretched before him was the sleek and modern city of Bastille. He could, at a glance, count hundreds, if not thousands of different buildings and he got the sense, due to the density of the buildings, that the population of the city numbered in the thousands.
The vast skyline in front of him was made up of a multitude of vast buildings, each of which served different purposes for the city. The sky itself was a dark shade of brown without any stars, and the only source of light that shone on the city was a single gigantic moon in the distance. Its light shone down on the city and illuminated the innumerable buildings an eerie shade of purple.
The godling could smell an unholy mixed scent of exotic, devilish food and infernal runoff produced by a city that trafficked in souls even in mid-air. It was a powerful scent that nauseated the deity, even though it had no discernible effect on the panicking imp who was hanging on to Althos.
All he could hear that high up was the sound of wing rushing at him from below, and the hisses of the animated darkness chasing him from on high.
His innate curiosity lit up his mind over the city, for a second before he realized that he was still falling and still flapping his wings in a failed effort to gain control over a situation that was rapidly becoming dire.
[URGENT NOTIFICATION: MASTER PAIMON HAS DISABLED THE POWER OF FLIGHT WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES OF HIS CITY. HOWEVER: YOUR STATUS AS A DEITY RENDERS YOU IMMUNE TO CONDITIONS WHICH IMPEDE MOVEMENT. REGRANTING YOU THE POWER OF FLIGHT EFFECTIVE IN
3...
2...
1...]
As this notification was scrawling across Althos's field of vision the godling was forced to listen to the screeching imp, who was terrified out of his mind at the prospect of dying a painful death by hitting the ground over two kilometers below them.
Even when the notification vanished from his sight, his flapping wings weren't aiding him. So he drew them around himself and waited for a second before he tried again.
Behind him, Master Paimon's tendrils were still chasing after the escaping duo. But that wasn't Althos's main concern at that moment.
The deity was panicking as he saw the ground quickly approaching him. He knew that each passing nanosecond brought him closer and closer to a painful fate if he didn't get this situation under control.
He thought quietly and urgently to himself for a moment before daring to try to fly again.
[Come on... come on!]
And then he unfurled his wings and willed them to flap as mightily as they possibly could. And this time he successfully saved himself.
The deity was less than 250 meters from the ground when he successfully gained control over his wings and stopped a rapid freefall towards the ground. At the zenith of his free fall, he had been over 2 kilometers high.
He righted himself and stopped falling downwards. He hovered for a second and looked at the dark tower he had just escaped.
The gigantic edifice was imposing, that's for sure. It was built ontop of a hill, like a sort of natural dais for the city's unholy throne. It was composed of dark metal that seemed to hungrily devour even meager amounts of light shone on it by the mock moon that flooded the city with eerie light. It was two kilometers tall, and the deity could make out countless outward-facing dark windows, windows that faced the city below.
It was hard, even for the deity and his amazing sight, to be certain but the deity swore he could see dark shapes inside the window peering out at him and the imp.
After he looked at the tower for but a moment the tendrils of darkness began to get near him. In response to their proximity he turned and used explosive muscular power to send himself hurtling towards the city the tower overlooked.
He breathed a sigh of relief as he realized that the tendrils were unable to match his explosive speed. And he was annoyed to realize that the imp hadn't stopped his fearful screeching even though he had stopped their free fall. Then the deity received a new notification.
[GIVEN THE WAY YOU ESCAPED THE TOWER, THE QUEST IS BEING MODIFIED SLIGHTLY.
NEW OBJECTIVE: REACH A PLACE OF TEMPORARY SAFETY.
PROGRESS: YOU AREN'T THERE YET. SEEK OUT THE CATHEDRAL OF THE DARK SAINT.]
The imp began to calm down as he realized that Althos wasn't falling anymore. The tiny creature was still hyperventilating, but that was preferable to the creature's incessant screeching.
Althos twisted in the air for an instant, just to determine whether or not he needed to speed up. He was outpacing the tendrils, which were as thick as trees, and knew that as long as Master Paimon couldn't or wouldn't fly they wouldn't catch up with him.
That didn't mean that Master Paimon did nothing though. The master of the city ran to the edge of the penthouse suite, where Althos had just broken a window and loudly spoke. He used his lordship over the city as a way to magically magnify his voice, expanding it so that the entire city could hear him.
"Run little Godling. Run far and run fast. Because I know you exist. And I'm gonna find you. One way... or another. So run. And keep on running. You are no match for me. And one day I'm gonna find you. My name is Paimon. Remember it."
His voice was filled with sadism, and it sent a chill down Althos's spine. The deity felt fear, legitimate fear, for the first time since he sprung to life.
Althos quickly took stock of his situation. He was flying blind and he needed information. Fortunately, he wasn't alone.
"Alright, imp. I have helped and am helping you, and now it is time to return the favor. Tell me about the Cathedral of the Dark Saint."
After nearly a minute of continued hyperventilation, the imp finally began to truly calm down. When he was calm enough to speak intelligently the imp thought about what Althos said. After thinking about it, the imp had a few questions of his own.
"The Dark Saint? That legend? I take it that's your destination?"
The god's responses to the imp's own questions were curt. He just wanted knowledge, not to be questioned.
"Yes. I don't know what a legend is. And yep. And before you ask, it's a quest."
Upon learning that it was a quest the imp's eyes went wide for a second and then he uttered a sound that indicated that he wasn't surprised, at least not truly. Then the imp spoke again and gave the godling the sense of direction he needed.
"The Cathedral of the Dark Saint is a small chapel, it's an ironic name, located outside of Bastille. If your quest is telling you it's a safe place it's probably because Paimon would hesitate to send minions outside of the city, where the less humanoid looking devils, devils that he hates, live. I know you have questions, but for now, we should just fly straight ahead. The Cathedral is a few kilometers ahead of us, directly facing and indirectly issuing a challenge to Paimon's massive tower."
The godling sped up and rocketed through the air over the city.
----------------------------------------
The voice of the dark overlord who ruled over the city suddenly flooding it indiscriminately, from the richest galas to the darkest alleyways, caused a number of devils to come out of the buildings they were in an attempt to examine whoever the overlord was addressing.
Devils big and small, strong and weak, intelligent and stupid alike all left the relatively routine of their buildings for a second to see who had caused their overlord to amplify his voice like that. They were surprised when they saw a figure sailing through the air over their city.
The black-winged figure was a blur as he sped through the sky, never once speaking to the crowd examining him or turning to change directions. He was apparently sailing straight from one end of the city, where the tower was, to somewhere beyond the city. His mysterious destination was wherever the ominously named Cathedral of the Dark Saint was located.
----------------------------------------
A few of the seedier devils grinned at the sight of the deity rocketing through the sky above their city. In him and his dramatic exodus from the tower of Paimon, they could see the earliest signs of potential. The smartest and seediest devils began to sneakily mentally reach out to what few spies had successfully infiltered the devilish government.
They were looking to see what, if anything, they could uncover about the first creature to fly over Bastille in millennia and figured that anything that riled up Paimon was worth knowing about.
----------------------------------------
The city below Althos was a blur. As he zipped across it he could identify tall, modern buildings but he couldn't make out any specific details about their construction or their odd features.
The godling's kinetic vision was incredible but the buildings were purposefully designed to throw off any attempts at identification of their inhabitants or features from someone who was moving incredibly fast. Optical illusions were painted onto them, and they themselves were spread out in a way that made them emerge one after the one in a way that distracted any quick attempts to examine them.
Eventually, the godling gave up and focused on crossing the vast distance between his current location and the dark cathedral.
And before he knew it he broke through the limits of the city, sailing over the outskirts and seediest slums the city had to offer. Then he was rather suddenly sailing over a vast and possibly infinite sea of sand.
The scene beneath him had changed so dramatically and speedily that it felt like he just flew out of a portal that concealed the exact entrance in and out of the city.
----------------------------------------
Within minutes the godling was out from over the city and now flew over seemingly uninhabited land. He took a moment to study the terrain beneath him, curious about it, before looking off in the distance. And off in the distance, he saw a little abnormality.
"Is that it?"
Althos asked a question to the imp who was now calmly sitting on his back. Althos didn't quite know this for sure but he suspected that since they were outside of the city's limits that odds are the imp could fly on his own. Althos didn't particularly care one way or another and calmly accepted his passenger.
"That small building? Way out there? Yep."
The two of them were referring to a tiny dot that was barely visible in the distance. It was a dark spot on an otherwise sandy landscape. The territory outside of the city appeared to be a vast desert, one filled with massive hills and dips that appeared to be as deep as a few hundred meters.
And occasionally the monotony of sandy hills and mountains were broken by the devastation caused by the emergence of a large whirlpool of swirling sands like the territory was originally a gigantic ocean or something.
The "small building" the two unlikely bed-fellows were referring to was a small dot, a tiny blemish, on the otherwise completely sandy terrain. Or at least in the distance, over a few kilometers away it appeared to be a "small building". It greatly stood out to the eye, since it was a dark dot on an otherwise complete sea of yellow.
Althos sped towards the mysterious destination, pushing his wings to the limit. Soon enough the duo began to get closer the dark dot. In a few seconds, they were close enough to faintly make out a lone figure dressed in white, seemingly waiting for something, perhaps for them, right in front of the chapel.
----------------------------------------
The devilish acolyte named Tristan hadn't been waiting outside of the dark cathedral for long when she saw something in the eternal night's sky begin to swiftly approach her. The creature slicing through the sky was moving at a speed that even her vision had difficulty keeping track of.
She would have to wait for less than a minute before the creature reached her. And she wondered what the creature would do upon arriving at the nearly abandoned church she oversaw. Hopefully something like reward her faith and her dedication to the ancient prophecy that had dictated that the cathedral would need to be built and maintained in the first place.
----------------------------------------
As Althos neared the small chapel he got the first bit of good news he had gotten since he first arrived in this new location.
At last, Althos received a notification he had been waiting for since he first soared through the city nearly 25 minutes ago.
[QUEST COMPLETE. YOU SUCCESSFULLY REACHED THE CATHEDRAL OF THE DARK SAINT. PREPARING WITHHELD NOTIFICATIONS. THE FIRST NOTIFICATION WILL BE THAT OF THE QUEST REWARD, AND THEN WE SHALL GO BACKWARDS FROM THERE. ALSO: INITIATING NEW HUD. NEW HUD WILL GO LIVE AS SOON AS YOU SORTED THROUGH ALL OF THE NOTIFICATIONS.]
Shortly after that Althos acquired a slew of notifications, the first of which was incredibly exciting.
[NEW TRAIT ACQUIRED: TRUE-DEVIL.
TRUE-DEVIL GRANTS DEVILDOM TO THOSE WHO ACQUIRE IT. YOU ARE NOW A DEVIL AS WELL AS A DEITY AND CAN COMMAND ANY DEVILS OF A LOWER RANK THAN YOU. FOR NOW, THAT IS LIMITED TO ONE KIND OF DEVIL: THE SOUL-ORB.
CURRENT RANK: 1.
NEW SPELLS AND POWERS GRANTED BY THIS NEW TRAIT: NONE. FOR NOW.]
As soon as Althos tapped this notification out of the way he noticed his closeness to the chapel and came to a sudden stop, just meters away from both the chapel and the mysterious figure waiting for him.
She was a devil clad in white. And she was maniacally, fanatically grinning.