Han observed the clouds as Omegan flew through the sky. He chuckled to himself as he thought about the way Dominaster looked feeble in his struggles against Han.
"Master, you seem to be in a cheerful mood," Dorei voiced.
Watching a bluebird flying calmly next to Omegan, Han answered, "I was just thinking of how comical your former leader looked."
"Dominaster was always someone who appeared strong, due to his position," Noye stated, contempt leaking through her musical voice.
"Melidoristria was far stronger than him and was why she often butted heads with his commands and leadership," Dorei added in.
"I find that very surprising, considering how your kind seems to value strength and ability," Han remarked, thinking about the new information. "Then why did Melidoristria not become the leader and overthrow Dominaster?" He asked them.
"His position was given to him by the gods," Dorei said.
Turning his body, Han looked at the two women, "I am getting the idea that these gods need to be dealt with," he commented, thinking of an idea.
"The location of the gods is a secret even from the demons," Dorei said.
"Yes. Not even Dominaster knew of their location," Noye added.
"Sometimes, you do not have to know where someone is located to find them," Han answered as he began to see a tower rising over the horizon.
-----
As they approached the massive tower, Han thought it was impressive for such a massive tower to exist in this world. Based on how far away they were, Han knew that it would tower over the skyscrapers on Earth.
"Master, I am sensing a strange energy from that structure," Elis called out to him. "It feels as if I am being pricked by bramble all over my body." Her face showed the distress she was experiencing.
[Master, as we approach the tower, the energy emanating from it is similar to what I use to control my Reapers,] Ha-Yoon spoke to him.
[Is it going to affect your control?] Han asked.
Han could sense her shaking her head. [No, Master. This energy is far simpler compared to my ability.] She sounded contemptuous of the idea that the foreign power could outshine her.
"It seems that Dominaster was not lying to me when he mentioned the importance of this tower." Han mused to himself. "Did either of you know of this?" He asked the two.
"From what we are sensing, this tower is a stronger version of what we use to control the Overflow," Dorei said.
"Though to say we can control the Overflow would be a slight misnomer," Noye clarified. "We act more like a dug out trench for water to flow through, guiding it in the direction we hope for the Overflow to travel. The water is still able to escape from the trench if the force of the water is strong enough, so to can parts of the Overflow escape from our influence."
Dorei continued, "This is what allowed us to keep the Overflow, a portion of it anyway, focused on specific areas, like Master's city and
the Elven Kingdom." She tilted her head and seemed to think out loud. "The power being generated seems to be several magnitudes stronger than what we used, but there also seems to be another energy mixed in. It is too slight for me to grasp its purpose."
"The gods have been very busy, especially if the demons were not included in the plans," Han pondered.
When they flew closer to the tower, they saw tens of thousands of workers digging around the tower. There appeared to be some kind of structure slowly being revealed.
There were a large number of mages, judging by their glowing hands. Han noticed that the structure and tower were rising from the ground, the workers seeming to be removing dirt from on top of the structure to allow the mages to raise it up.
"Considering how we are inside of the empire, I believe this is the work of the emperor," Dorei remarked.
"Judging by the height of the tower and likely how deep in the ground it was, it is likely they have been working on this for decades," Noye remarked.
[Is this why my people have been enslaved?!] Elis asked, holding back her anguish.
Based on what Elis had told him, the empire had been enslaving the nonhumans for a long time, and the reason for it was laid out in front of them.
"For whatever reason, this is being unearthed, I have deemed it to be unnecessary," Han calmly stated.
As if on cue, Omegan roared and opened its middle mouth wide. There was a small roaring noise that increased in intensity. When the sound couldn't get any louder a concussive force could be felt, and a fiery ball exploded out of Omegan's mouth, rocketing towards the tower.
Han could feel the heat radiating off of the attack. Seeing such a thing was awe-inspiring and made him think of various fantasy shows, though this was actually happening.
The fireball hurtled its way towards the tower. As it crashed into the structure, the flames were like the crashing waves against a rocky cliff. Splashes of fire rippled across the surface of the ancient structure. After the majority of the attack fizzled out and left behind of few pockets of flames, Han was surprised to see that it was still standing.
"Now this is embarrassing," Han said in a self-deprecating tone.
"To be able to withstand such a strong attack speaks volumes," Dorei quietly mentioned. "There would be no demon who could handle such power."
"Well... they say that anything worth doing takes some effort," Han stated. "Let us see how it likes all three attacks."
Understanding what Han wanted, Omegan opened all three mouths. There was a rumbling noise, and Han could feel a vibration in his chest. It had a similar feeling to when he would go out clubbing with his friends when they were supposed to be studying for their classes.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Launching out of Omegan's mouths were three powerful attacks, corresponding to each of the heads the attack originated from. There was a ball of ice, fire, and lightning hurtling towards the tower. Before the attack could hit the tower, all three elemental orbs smashed against an invisible barrier. The force of the attack was significant enough to create ripples along the surface.
"It appears that our presence has finally been noticed," Han grinned. "I am impressed by the strength of their barrier."
"The gods are impressive with their abilities," Noye commented.
"There is no need to give them false flattery," Dorei said to Noye's comment.
"But their expressions will be better, after they face our Master," Noye countered.
"You could be right," Dorei nodded her head.
"We have yet to meet face to face, Master of Felicitas," a voice called out, sounding a little annoyed though this was likely due to it hearing the dialogue between the two.
Han looked over and noticed a man floating in the air. Judging by his appearance, dressed in clothing far superior to what the nobility wore and emanated power. The way the man appeared, Han could tell that his confident presence was not something without merit.
The man looked like a normal human, aside from his superior looks. "I imagine women would trip over themselves to be with him," Han thought to himself. He chuckled at a thought that went through his mind.
"You know who I am, but I have not had the pleasure to know who you are," Han addressed the man.
The being grinned at Han's attitude. "Arrogant little mortal," the man sneered. "There is no need for a being like me to introduce myself to a simple lifeform. Do not think that just because you are able to defeat a couple of demons, it means that you are a match for me. I doubt you are a match for my pinky finger." He laughed at his humor.
Han felt a wave of killing intent from all his creations. He didn't fail to notice the man's eyebrows twitch from such an intense wave of killing intent directed at him.
Clapping his hands, Han said, "I am impressed that you are able to stand there looking so relaxed, after what you said to me."
"I admit that your minions are strong, but compared to the abilities I wield it is nothing to be impressed about," the man shrugged, trying to look calm.
"You now have my curiosity piqued. Ha-Yoon, how about you entertain our new friend?" He grinned, raising his hand and casually twirling his index finger.
As if fired from a gun, Ha-Yoon launched herself at the mysterious man. "I will offer your head to my Master," She squealed at the thought. Her claws lengthened, and she pulled back her right hand. Upon reaching the man, she shot out her hand and sparks appeared upon having contact with a barrier.
"You pathetic whore, you actually thought your strength would be strong enough to be my match?" He laughed at Ha-Yoon.
Ha-Yoon grinned and opened her mouth. A stream of purple liquid squirted out and splattered on the barrier.
"Did you forget the existence of the barrier, you imbecile?" The man taunted and laughed. His laughter slowly died down as he noticed the liquid substance interacting with the barrier.
Before the man could react to the situation, Ha-Yoon sprayed more of the substance, which passed through the barrier instead of being stopped. As it penetrated the field, the liquid landed on the man's clothing.
Realizing that he had been splashed with the substance, he quickly tore off the contaminated clothing. With his outfit in shreds, he glared at Ha-Yoon. "You, insect! How dare you defile my clothing with your disgusting fluid!" He screamed at her. "I will end..." He was interrupted by Ha-Yoon crashing through the barrier and slashing at his torso. Looking down, the man noticed that he had three claw marks gouged into his chest, which was bleeding fairly heavily.
Ha-Yoon hovered in the air, with a slight grin on her face. A slight breeze was gently swirling her hair, giving her an alluring and mysterious charm to her being. Lifting her hand, Ha-Yoon looked at her claws that had blood covering the surface, dripping down the shimmering surface. Bringing one of her claws closer to her face, she opened her mouth partially and slowly stuck out her tongue. Licking the blood off of the tip, she seemed to enjoy the taste. Looking towards the man, she smiled and said, "you will be a delicious meal for my children." Giggling, she said, "show momma how much you love her."
A screeching noise could be heard off in the background. From behind the clouds appeared hundreds of flying monsters. There seemed to be several types of creatures, each one for a different purpose. They flew quickly towards the man, who appeared startled by the appearance of the monsters. "What is this?! They should not be here!" He yelled out, seemingly to himself. Turning his head sharply towards Ha-Yoon, he shouted, "You witch! How are you able to control something even our fathers were unable to?!"
"Instead of answering your questions, I think I would prefer to hear your screams," Ha-Yoon replied. Her eyes smiled in anticipation at the scene of his struggling.
Before the monsters reached the man, Han asked, "are you sure you do not want to ask your friends for help?" He raised a hand and pointed close to where the man was floating.
"What are you talking about?" The man questioned, though his bulging eyes were giving away his thoughts.
"Samuel, you incompetent fool," a voice said. Out of the air shimmered the appearance of a man, along with another man and woman.
"I told you that we should have dealt with this threat sooner rather than later," the woman stated with frustration.
"Alistria, if I want to listen to your nagging, I would request it. Your kind should be seen and not heard." The man that first appeared and seemed to be higher up in authority voiced.
The other man said, "Osirius is right, your kind should learn to keep your mouth shut and just do what we tell you to do. Do not blame us if we give you over to the demons. I am sure that you would enjoy it." He laughed condescendingly.
"You are disgusting, Therion." Alistria voiced.
"Brothers and Sister, please help me!" the man called Samuel pleaded as he watched the monsters heading towards him.
"I do not understand how she is able to control them, especially so close to our instrument, but it looks like we need to deal with them," Osirius stated.
The man named Therion positioned himself away from the others and made a metal rod materialize in his hand. Grasping it, he twirled it around, causing flames to be generated from the speed and friction. "Compared to that overgrown excuse for a dragon, I will show you the true power of fire," Therion shouted, as he pointed the staff at the Reapers and shot out a column of white fire.
As it streaked across the sky, the column seemed to split open the air with the pressure it radiated. It struck the army of flying Reapers and caused many of them to shriek in pain and plummet towards the earth. "Die like the insects you are," Therion laughed.
When Osirius glanced over at Ha-Yoon, he asked, "how does it feel to face true power, compared to what the man you call a master possesses?"
"Judging by your arrogance, I now understand that we are facing off against the so-called, gods of this world. I was wondering who was silly enough to fight against us. Too bad that your kind is not as intelligent as you claim your abilities to be." She smiled, appearing calm as if the sight of the Reapers dropping by the tens wasn't bothering her.
"She is up to something," Alistria voiced trying to warn her fellow brothers.
As Therion was continuing to smite all the monsters, he sighed, "I guess all your nutrition went to your body instead of your brain. Having others think we are related is insulting."
"Though he is as rough as ever, I also agree with Therion's assessment. Judging from what we have seen, they do not pose a problem for us. You are overestimating their abilities. If you can not remove your emotions from analytical thought, I think you will need to be retrained." Osirius judged.
From the expression on Alistria's face, she seemed to be used to the treatment and frustrated at how stupid they are being.
"You people remind me of a particular individual with the way you treat one of your comrades," Han observed and voiced his thoughts. "Though you treat her like trash, I think you may be underestimating her abilities and hope that she will be wise in her future actions." When she looked at him, Han looked into her eyes to convey meaning to his words. [Your abilities are wasted with the gods. Join me and see what heights you can travel.] He injected his thoughts into her mind.
Her eyes widened in surprise, likely due to the gods having some kind of defense against mental attacks. With just a simple move, Han had alerted her to his own abilities, without even lifting a finger. This was the first time he had done such a thing, but after seeing the way she was being treated, he was reminded of Ha-Yoon. Instead of being passive and allowing this woman to view him as being powerless, Han imagined that showing a little of his cards would pay back in dividends.
"I advise that we retreat, Brothers. There is something odd about all of this, and I worry that we are about to enter into a situation that is beyond our abilities." Alistria said.
"Enough of this, Alistria, I no longer want to hear your nonsense," Osirius stated contempt in his voice.
"I do not care if you consider it nonsense! I am telling you that we need to leave!" She begged him, glancing over at where Han was calmly standing.
Without a word, Osirius backhanded her with enough force to send her careening towards the ground. "Just because you have been with us since the beginning, do not think you are equal to us," Osirius sneered at her body laying on the ground.
"Brother!" Therion called out to Osirius.
Osirius glanced over at him, confusion on his face when he saw his brother panicking. "What is the matter? And why are you taking so long to deal with them?" He asked Therion.
Han smiled as he listened to them beginning to learn what was unique about Ha-Yoon's ability.
"Even though they were dropping like flies earlier, the number has begun to increase and they seem to be resisting my ability!" Therion explained, his eyes wide in fright.
"What nonsense are you spouting from that mouth of yours?!" He Osirius snarled at him. "Are you even suggesting what I think you are suggesting, that they are adapting to your attack?!"
"Brother, you need to help me, or I fear that we will be overwhelmed by them soon." Thereon pleaded. His eyes glanced over at the column of white fire that was striking all the monsters and noticing that there were no more monsters falling.
"Brothers, I feel strange." Samuel voiced sounding weak.
Both of them looked at Samuel and noticed that there were purple looking veins covering his body. "What is happening to you?" Osirius asked.
"The same thing that will happen to you, fools," Ha-Yoon said as she appeared behind them. She used both hands to claw the gods on the back and flew back before Osirius was able to retaliate. A scepter quickly appeared in his hands. As he fired off a beam of light from it, she giggled at how slow they were to counter, though one of them was focused on killing the Reapers.
"Damn you, witch!" Osirius screamed.
Shortly after, the column of fire was beginning to die down. One of Ha-Yoon's Reapers was able to fly through an opening. Its appearance was similar to a squid, though it had two wings coming out of either side of where the head should be. Crashing into Osirius, the creature used its tentacles to wrap themselves around its prey, immobilizing Osirius.
"Thereon! What are you doing?! Help me with this thing!" Osirius screamed in panic.
"Brother, my power is feeling weird. It feels like its fading away." Thereon sluggishly answered, purple veins beginning to appear on his body. "I do not know how much longer I can keep them back." He sounded exhausted as if the act of speaking was wearing him out.
"You useless fool!" Osirius growled at him, as he kept trying to fight against the creature. Using his powers to cut off the various tentacles wrapped around him, he failed to notice another Reaper that looked like a mix between an insect and lizard appear behind him.
--------
Han walked on the ground near the megalithic structure. From this angle, the appearance of it was even more impressive. With his eyes on it, he thought, "it is a pity that I will be destroying such an impressive looking thing. Maybe I will build something similar to this inside of my desert."
Turning his head to the ground, his eyes laid upon the beautiful goddess who was betrayed by her own. Getting down on his knees, he reached down and caressed her hair. Though the strike upon her didn't appear very powerful, there seemed to be a hidden energy raging throughout her body. This was what was preventing her from recovering from such an attack. Being one of the gods of this world, it was a silly idea to think that they were so easily defeated but the man formerly known as Osirius had likely intended to kill her.
With his hand on her head, Han poured some of his energy into her body. Instead of getting rid of the power, he realized he could modify it and made some alterations.
------
Alistria remembered the feeling of Osirius striking her down and seeing the look of dismissal on his face. Before she blacked out, Alistria thought about how she had always been treated as an outsider from the other gods. To her, she didn't enjoy watching how they toyed with those they were responsible for. Her fathers were kind people, who created them and the lesser beings out of love. The last time she had seen her fathers, they had voiced their thoughts into her mind of being caretakers of the world.
The feeling of the ground striking into her was more painful that it should have been. Falling from such a height was something that Alistria had experience many times in the past, but connecting it to the look on Osirius's face she understood that he had laced his powers into her.
As the world became darker, she remembered how the man they fought against them had talked to her just like her fathers had in the past. She closed her eyes and wondered what type of person he was like.
A warm sensation seemed to spread over her body, like how she imagined it would feel when watching the sentient creatures holding their children with love. When the feeling faded away, she slowly opened her eyes and stared into the deep ocean eyes of the man from earlier.
[I am glad that you are alright.] She could hear his voice in her mind. It was both imposing and reassuring feeling him inside of her. Feeling such things made her remember fond memories of her past.
"I am alright, father." She smiled, reaching out towards him with her arms and embracing him, tears streaming down.
[Everything will be alright.] the man said to her, holding her. She was unable to see the smile on his face.