The now empty building with the deserted throne room was swaying precariously. Only Seth, Puffles, and Tatzel remained on the rooftop. The blacksmith let out a tired sigh, as he looked on as the whole city was rocked by an earthquake.
“We should not stay up here. Let's go look for the other.” Seth suddenly said worried. The Scene was gone, for the most part, but he had no idea about the state of his friends. Especially Mina and Fin who had stayed close by as reinforcements, he needed to make sure they were okay.
He really didn't want to deal with whatever new thing was going wrong in Y-City now, he just wanted to collect them all and leave as fast as possible.
~Rejoice, for the great me has already found the Ice Thief and Mike.~ Puffles announced. ~They just ran up to the foot of the building below.~ he added smugly.
~Let's go and collect them before this place comes down on us.~
Tatzel shrunk and boarded the back of the nightmare centipede together with Seth. Up in the air, the earthquake could not faze them. The scene below was as grand as it was horrifying. The high risers and skyscrapers which filled the cityscape were swaying back and forth, like concrete woods in the wind.
“Seth?! You are back!” Mina cried out in relief at the sight of her boyfriend, as the nightmare centipede landed beside her and her brother.
“Quick, get on! The quake seems to be getting stronger,” Seth called out to them.
“What about the others?” Mike suddenly asked, looking back to where they came from.
Close by an illusion was dispelled and revealed a group of people hiding on the bottom floor of a nearby building. Mike and Mina had fought their way through the grotesque monsters to come here while protecting a group of people.
“Mark Baker? You really were alive?” Seth exclaimed surprised when he finally recognized the weirdly familiar man at the front of the group. He was gaunt, and disfigured, but it was unmistakably the man Seth had met a long time ago, right after returning to Urth.
“It's been a while, Tower Master,” he said, referencing their last conversation, when they talked about the trade route and made a deal for a shipment of armors. They had thought him dead, but he actually survived.
“I originally worked on the rebellion, but I was caught halfway through,” he said a little embarrassed when Seth asked how he survived.
“Anyway, let's get going.”
Before anyone could comment, that not all of them fit on Puffles' back, a swarm of golems appeared from legion. The striker units unceremoniously snatched the people up and rose to the air, alongside the nightmare centipede.
“We will aim for the System Church! I'm pretty sure Sivri brought Cade there. The others should have also headed there, I hope."
Below them, the quake kept getting stronger. The first buildings started falling like dominoes. Y-City already looked not-so-fresh after the invasion of demons, but now things really started to fall apart.
“Seth! Look!” Mina exclaimed in shock.
The surface of the district rose., starting from the magic circle scarred into the surface of the district as a breaking point. The Ode to the King had cut through floors and floors of subterranean facilities, deep into the district's bedrock. Not the gorged grew and the surface of Y-City broke apart.
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Pale white tips rose up between the crumbling foundations of the city. Seth felt like in a giant monster movie, as soon later a massive pair of moose antlers rose into the sky, carrying a great part of the city in between them.
With the braking of the seal, massive waves of magic flooded the remainder of the city. Old lanterns and traffic lights, the last remnants of normal technology in Y-City, were blinking wildly for a short moment, before exploding. The same happened to all electronic devices that had not been adapted to using magic power to run.
“Was that thing under Y-City the whole time?” someone exclaimed. Seeing what had happened with the sudden surfacing of the creature and realizing that it had not suddenly appeared here, made everyone realize were laid the apocalyptic problem with Y-City. The district that had lost its technology had to thank this slumbering giant for that fate.
As the antler rose high, the head below became roughly visible. It was a giant beard head carrying the antlers of a moose. Just its eyeball was big enough to swallow a colossus from the Colossal Dungeon. The only thing of comparable size was the Hangingtree Seth saw above Alpha back then.
“At least it doesn't seem hostile?” Mike stated a little unsure of his assumption.
However, he seemed to be right. Lezzekai was turning its head left to right, with its eyes only half-opened. Suddenly it pulled back its chaps in a massive growl, shocking everyone around. The shock was only short, as they soon realized that Lezzekai was simply yawning.
After observing the city left and right, the massive head slowly sunk back down. It did not return underground, but laid down on the city, crushing the building and ruins like they were nothing. The barely opened eyes closed again. By the time Seth and the others reached the system church, the mountain-sized Field boss Lezzekai and fallen back into slumber, and his snoring gently shook the city.
The blacksmith arrived at the church with the sunset in his back, and the scenery of a ruined metropolis propped up by a massive pair of ivory-colored antlers.
“Seth!” Fin flew in his arms, her eyes red from crying. He caught her and hugged her tightly.
“Are you okay Fin?”
“Hik, hik, yes, b-but Samuel...” she looked over to the church staff who were grouped together around something, blocking his gaze.
“You can't be serious. Is Samuel actually...dead?” it was not Seth who exclaimed as such, despite feeling a twitch in his heart, when he thought that they had really lost the old man. It was Mike and Mina who looked up in shock.
They knew a lot more about the power level of a head priest, making them a lot more shocked to hear, that one of the lost their life. But they had also all come to like Samuel, over the past weeks as they worked together to evacuate people.
“H-How is everyone else?” Seth asked, swallowing the frog in his throat.
“Bulko and Lyxiss got injured during the fight, but they are mostly fine now.
Seth felt his conscience twitch when he thought about how Samuel's death had not really struck him that hard, while he was incredibly relieved to hear that his friends were “unharmed.”
“Let's go to them. We probably have a lot to discuss.”
…
“Give it to me.”
In a darkness filled with dim, crimson-red fire, stood a figure in a blue robe, blocking the path of a man riding a dromedary and three of his surface. The rider came to a halt and looked at the robe solemnly.
“WHAT COULD YOU MEAN?” the rider asked calmly, not minding that his path was blocked, or not daring to act out in front of his opponent.
“You know exactly what I want. Give me the soul that has my mark back, and this can be dealt with peacefully,” the robe exclaimed as a matter of fact.
“SO YOU ARE SUGGESTING A DEAL? WHAT DO YOU OFFER?” the demon king asked a little intrigued.
“I will allow you access to the system. Act like a god, choose a champion, and give blessings. All the rights a god has, but first, I want the soul.”
“...Fine, it sounds interesting.” Paimon suddenly said in a normal tone and threw one of the souls he had collected in Y-City to the System God. The soul he caught was mostly patched together and man many fractures remaining. It was the result of being absorbed by the “gods” of Urth. They had divided the souls they collect into parts and distributed the parts among themselves, depending on the talents and skills, and traits they contained.
“Good. You have a deal.”