"INFIDELS! No matter, there are many sinners in this universe! Plenty of errors to correct. Although you said this mortal killed Queen Zephiris in one blow? Interesting… although she herself was a mortal being, she had the might kf thousands… to think one human could kill her…" Vol-Drung stated pointedly after Timus told him of his escapade in retrieving the staff.

The apostle merely remained quiet until his lord calmed.

"They seem to have been intentionally tracking our ships, and they are not the only ones my lord. The Conglomerate army has attacked a few of our spheres whenever we venture closer to the centre. Most times we were victorious but one ship, headed by one of our elder apostles was destroyed, reportedly single handedly by the general." Timus informed his lord further.

"Hmmm… these primitive apes have grown stronger in my absence… no matter, I have nearly regained an adequate amount of my former power, and once I have my Dar-gul, no one can stand in the way as I tread my path to my rightful dominion." He said as he floated down to the floor of his throne room where the first bit of the hammer levitated in the air.

A dark, red ether wisped around it.

The old god put the staff near it and as if by some unknown force, it snapped into place below the first piece.

Vol-Drung nodded approvingly.

"We have a heading for the final two pieces my lord, I shall leave right away… but first, if I may. I think I may have found something that will please my lord very much." Timus said.

Vol-Drung jerked his head in curiosity.

"Well?" He said, threat ever present in his tone.

"Please my lord, if I may be so bold as to ask you to follow me." He said with a meek smile before bowing his head and beginning to scutter towards the exit.

The god huffed and followed.

They made their way through the now bustling temple.

Lined with slaves working away to build it up even larger as well as priests and zealots going about their fanatical duties.

There were giant ghastly creatures, deformed by the god's power to be mindless, obedient behemoths.

When they broke out onto the outside of the temple Vol-Drung could see how his warship sphere fleet was nearing completion.

The once pristine forest shrouding the temple was a barren, magma veined hellscape. Torn down for the means of production and eventually domination.

They eventually made their way down into the dungeons where infidels, sinners and rebels were kept and tortured.

The old god absorbed the little life force left in the ones that he had deemed had suffered enough as they made their way through the catacombs.

They finally made their way to a room guarded by bioenhanced priests and a behemoth boar like monster.

"What's this?" Vol-Drung asked impatiently.

"A gift my lord. Open the door." Timus ordered the priests.

They quickly obliged to reveal inside a girl who was suspended in the middle of the room, bound by the strongest chains in the galaxy.

Her head was downcast but there was a feral defiance in her ice blue eyes.

"What is this Timus? Do you dare toy with me mortal!" He roared.

"Another fucking high and mighty whack job, geez do you guys cone out of a factory here or something?" The girl shot out.

"How dare…" Vol-Drung was so struck by the tone of the girl that he could not be angry, but more so curious.

"Can we just get this over with please? I have some whilping sto attend to." Again she shot out with a silver tongue.

"This one is special, my lord… she is… immortal, she cut her own leg to escape her bonds only to grow it back and run away! We recaptured her of course and made sure she could not harm herself again. But lord… your spawn!" Timus continued babbling away as Vol-Drung stared unblinking at the girl, duly listening to his subordinate.

"I shall leave you with her, my lord." Timus said and began to turn before;

"Timus! Release her, bind her by only her hands. Bathe her, robe her with the finest silks in my empire and bring her to me on my throne… she is special…" the God said before abruptly turning and heading to the exit.

"Hey, hey! Listen here you big old freaky purple lunk! Let me out of here before I tear your throat out! I'm not afraid of you, you hear me?" The girl yelled out with zest as she shook about in her chains.

Vol-Drung stopped at the exit before letting out a deep chuckle before stepping out into the darkness of the hallway.

Meanwhile on a mining moon of the Conglomerate.

"You shall pay dearly for this blasphemy!" A high priest of the hammer screamed as he dragged his crippled body along the ground.

"That we shall see, for now…" General Gladius marched up to him, casting a vast shadow on the broken legged priest.

"Tell me where your base is." He said in his strong-as-steel voice as he began to apply pressure to the priest's broken leg with his foot.

"Aaaagghhhh!" The priest cried out in agony as the general merely sharpened his gaze.

All around him was the ruins of a sphere ship that the conglomerate had tracked to the barren moon.

Lyanus had infiltrated the sphere ship with his team of specialists and destroyed it from within.

"Stop! Enough! Enough!" The priest yelped out, waving his hands in the air in a show of surrender.

Weak for an extremist…

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The General thought as he took his foot off of the priest's leg before picking him up by the collar of his robe.

"Now speak." A flat and authoritative tone.

The priest began to cackle and howl hysterically before Gladius slapped him across the face, relieving him of a few teeth.

"Something funny?" He commanded a response rather than ask.

"You wish to meet my lord Vol-Drung?" He began laughing again.

Gladius raised his hand, keeping his facial expression completely unchanged.

"No wait! Hehe… if you really wish to see the great destroyer, cleanser of sin! Purifyer of the galaxy!"

"Get to the point before I slowly turn you into a childs toy."

"Take me with you! I will lead you to my master, to your doom, seeing as you are so very eager for it." The priest babbled out quickly.

Gladius did not move nor change his expression.

"Lieutenant!" Gladius yelled.

"Sir." A man of calm stature garbed in combat gear a few paces behind Gladius responded.

"Take him to the bigg, I'm going to finish off down here." He said resolutely as he tossed the screaming priest over to his lieutenant before marching off into a dark cloud of smoke.

"Sir yes sir." The lieutenant replied casually in a sort of drawl as he caught the priest on his shoulder with ease and began walking back to their deploy ships.

"Transfer the fucking credits lady! Before we get bored and want more than your money!" A thin, scruffy rakish man with a dark dirty old overcoat yelled at a woman.

He and another, rotund ruffian had cornered a woman and her pre-teen daughter in an alley on Vogul delta.

A conglomerate planet settled by refugees after the war of unification.

"If ye don't hurry up… We might be takin the little girl too hahaha!" The jagged face, scar sporting man cackled out wickedly.

The woman was nearly too terrified to do anything other than shake in fear but for her daughter's sake she reached into her purse and took out a credit chip.

"Ten thousand! An extra five for makin us wait bitch!" A meagre amount considering the economic state of the colony systems of the conglomerate.

She typed out the amount with shaky hands, prompting the brute to hit her with the but of his knife.

"We don't have all fucking day!"

"Mom! Noo!" The daughter tried to intervene only to be pinned to the wall by the big fat side kick with a daft but predatory smile.

"Noooo Annie! Here, just take it! Leave us alone please!" The mother quickly minted the chip and threw it to the man.

He grinned victoriously and the both of the ruffians began to chuckle in triumph.

"Sorry lady, but we're gonna be taking more than your money…" he began unzipping his pants whilst holding his knife to the woman who cringed in dread..

Suddenly, the dilapidated street at the other end of the alley was swallowed by darkness, as if night fell within seconds.

"What the fuck? This systems got three suns?" The taller criminal said before zipping his pants and disembarking form the end of the alley.

"Stay put you fucking bozo, and keep them there! I'll be right back…" he puffed his skinny chest out and strutted to the end of the alley.

The ground bellow tremored as something made planetfall far away.

"Holy shit!" The man yelled out as he peaked around the corner of the building.

Just as he was about to turn and run back, a bizzare, monstrous six legged, many eyed, beast pounced on the man and tore him to shreds.

It then began to disembowel and eat the corpse when two more beasts turned the corner and growled their way to the three petrified people at the alley's end.

They screamed in terror as the beasts pounced gracefully from ground to wall to ground, closing in on their prey.

"Halt!" A deep voice came from the alleys entrance.

The beasts immediately stopped their advanced and sat on their hind legs.

A large, purple skinned man with a metal helmet turned the corner and marched to the group.

"Oh… oh! Thank you! Thank you for saving us!" The mother yelled out as she threw herself at the beast master in hope.

Without hesitating he grabbed a hold of her and snapped her neck before she could get another word out.

Her daughter screamed and the fatman tried to run away.

"Feed." The beastmaster said and the beasts obliged by devouring the man who tripped over his own feet in terror as he neared the street.

"You may be useful to the cause of Vol-Drung, come with me." He said as he picked up the girl by her shirt and dragged her screaming along behind him.

He walked back out onto the street where havok prevailed as the invaders of the cult of Vol-Drung pillaged the planet.

Daughters and sons screamed as their parents either fled or put up futile resistance, either way they met their fates.

Citizens were rounded up by the hundreds into mini sphere drop ships and shipped up to the giant, asteroid sized ship that remained in orbit.

Within mere minutes the entire planet was taken for all it had and added to the rapidly expanding list of places under the dominion of Vol-Drung.

"And yet the Conglomerate sits in their chairs of marble and moonstone, marvelling at their laughably rudimentary achievements whilst we take their empire from under them." Timus watched his dropships slowly return.

All over encumbered by newly acquired slaves and involuntary converts.

He was speaking to his bridgeman through the ship's interface.

In order to pilot a sphere ship, a bridgemans brain has to be removed from his body and is then installed into a bio amenable motherboard in the centre of the ship.

The bridgeman becomes the ship and every function of the ship is controlled by the bridgeman.

"As it should be my lord Timus." The artificial voice of the bridgeman blurred through the intercom.

"Mmyes, it is nice to finally take my rightful place in this galaxy. As the actioning hand of the supreme ruler, I am the right hand of god. Just like the famous story of old. Just as my lord has returned and so to have I. To cast my judgement upon the meek, sinful mortals that infect this once pristine Universe!" Timus was lost in his own words.

"As you say my lord…" the bridgeman replied.

"We now near one hundred thousand colonies reclaimed. My lord, shall we return to the temple?" The bridgeman asked before engaging it's warp drive.

"We have one last destination before returning… The last piece of Dar-gul awaits in the lion's mane nebula. Our lord nears his maximum potential and when he is reunited with his warhammer, he shall cometh again… this time for eternity…" Timus replied long windedly with a smile.

"As you command Lord Timus." Said the bridgeman and before blasting off into the void.