Mia and I just nod at each other and take our leave towards a giant, white shining, marble bridge.
The bridge leads its way up to the big platform and to the city.
As we go on the bridge and look around us, we see that the platform we are heading to, really is just floating on the magma ocean and the bridge is connected to only a few mainstays, embed into the mountain walls.
But although it looks very sturdy and stable.
We walk straight into the city. And there we recognize, that the whole place here is even a lot bigger than it looked already from above. Its a big and tightly constructed city, with a lot of streets and crossroads. Its also very lively, all here and than we meet commoners and at nearly every corner we find a blacksmith or forging shop. But they seem to ignore us as strangers.
To my surprise The people we see on the street are indeed called “dwarfs”, but they are not as small and hairy as I thought they would be. To be honest most of them just look like normal humans, only a bit shorter and with much sturdier bodies.
“This might get hard to find our way to the third platform...” Mia whispers out of her thoughts
There are no gates guarding the bridge from town-sides, but inside the city on the streets are many guards and soldiers patrolling and it seems to have a high level security here.
The guards are very well equipped, they wear plate-armors and well forged swords as well as halberds.
“Oohh... look at those nicely and shining armors...” Mia says while we walk through an avenue, which seems to lead towards a giant market square.
“Yeah, they look like we better not offend them, hehe.” I say to Mia while inspecting a sign that I found
<--- 2 PlatformPlatform 3 --->
“Well, well. Looks like we wont have any further trouble, finding our way.” I assume and pull Mia in direction of the 3rd platform, as she tries to touch one of the guards armors
“Oh come on, its not common to see such well forged armors... at least let us buy one, if we take our leave from here.” the normally so uppish Mia looks at me with very convincingly dog eyes.
For a short moment I was stunned from her cuteness and feel like I could not resist any of her requests.
“Hmm...you really do like shiny things huh? Haha but what do we even do with an armor like that? Do you want to wear one yourself... little miss indestructible?” I got a little sarcastic, as I thought about her ability to be indestructible.
“Ahh... you´re right... we dont need that. Oouh what a pity.” Mia seems a little off. Its nothing like her usual self to be that of a moron.
I decide not to ask her about anything so far, because I really feel like I dont even know her anymore. Well that aside I really dont know her that long... And then the incident with Hephaestus
I really want a good explanation.
So we go on and finally reach the 3rd platform.
The 3rd platform is a bit higher above the magma and its hanging from the ceiling only connected by a giant marble pillar. Also the platform is not as big as the others and everything looks a bit more rustic here. It seems a bit like the township of Uvrandir.
We looked around for a bit and then found an iron forged sign of a tavern, which says:
The Boiling Hammer
the tavern itself looks not too shabby, it has an aura of that kind, that you only get to find on the countryside. It seems to literally invite you, to enter. Its a bit nostalgic and feels very comfortable.
So I did not hesitate and open the door.
The door swings open and we enter the tavern. On the inside everything looks much larger than from the outside and I wasn´t wrong at all, the Innkeeper, a chubby and elderly woman with red hair, greets us with a friendly and welcoming smile. Although she seems very welcoming, I feel a very strange aura spreading fro her.
She gestured us in and we follow her invitation.
“Hello there youngsters, what can I do for ya?” She greets us in a very deep voice, with a strange sounding accent. But she seems to be the kind sort of character
“Ara...? You are not from here are ya? Hahaha, we don´t get many customers from elsewhere.” The woman said rapidly after, so that we hadn’t time to answer yet
“Ah äh, yes we come from outside the city and were invited here by a friend. Ah speaking of which.. a man named Hephaestus send us here and said someone would take care of us?” I answered her a bit sceptically
“Hooh, the young master´s send his friends over. Hohoho very well, follow me please.” The woman leads us to a staircase and we go up. We were send to a room on the third floor and the woman left us there saying that she would prepare some drinks and snacks for us.
The room is very comfortable designed and has its own fireplace, everything inside this place is made of stone and iron. But though this, it really looks fine and nicely decorated. Aside that fireplace there are a table, a desk, a couch ( normally constructed out of wool and so on) and a bunch of chairs. At the right wall there is another door and behind us is the staircase.
We take our seat and it becomes awkwardly silent between the two of us, only the fire, burning at the fireplace, makes some cracking sounds.
“So wanna tell me a bit more about you and Hephaestus? Who is he?” I decide to break the silence and ask her straight on
“Well lets wait until everyone is here, that would make it much easier. But let me tell you one thing... It was not my decision to start all of this so early. I really wanted to spend a bit more time with you learning about each other, before this would happen.” Mia gets serious and tries to convince me about something but ends up confusing me more
“Ah well ok, ok. I think I can wait a bit longer. -sigh-” That moment the Innkeeper opens the door and brings a big tablet with all kinds of dishes.
“oi old lady I am coming in!” someone screams up the stairs and we can hear how someone steps his way up here.
“oh it seems another guest has appeared, hohoho. Come on hurry up here Sieg, I serve the tea.” the innkeeper yelled back with an amusing smile
“It seems its getting lively here again, hohoho, if just my old jack could enjoy this with me ts ts ts” The old lady placed 6 stunning crafted teacups and plates on the table and happily gestured us towards the table as she also puts a big bowl of delicious smelling cookies onto it.
We follow her gesture and take a seat at the table, we sit opposite from each other.
The moment we took our seat, a tall, blonde and long haired man entered the room as well.
He is about 195 cm tall and has long beautiful blonde hair. His eyes look very abstract, they kinda look like that of a reptile and have a weird shimmering blue green color.
As he sees us, he starts to smile and rushes over to Mia, he hugs her deeply and whispers something like: “I am glad to see you alive.”
If it weren´t for my godly powers I wouldn´t have heard that.
After he finished greeting Mia he steps over to me and took his time to examine me, with his strange eyes. But after a few seconds he smiled brightly and we shake hands.
“ I am Siegfried, but you can call me Sieg. Nice to meet you Hohenheim.
As I see you might be really worth everything, good to hear at least one good message.”Sieg says with a reassured voice to me and took a seat next to Mia.
Now they both seem to be watching me and it felt really, really awkward. For my sake the old lady catches the mood and throws in a question for us all.
“And how have you all been, was it a hard journey until here? And Shiro my dear, have you managed to reach the old geezer before you were assigned?”
“Ohh man gran you know that I have a new name now right? Its Mia, M I A!
But no, pitiful I must say that I haven´t even found a trace of that old fart. And then there was no time left for search.” Mia answers a bit flustered but changed into a slightly depressed tone
“mhh, that is not good...not good” The old lady repeats herself in thoughts
“Well we might have time to find him later on.” Sieg emboldens the old lady
“But man, my journey was the hell on earthen! It started with a real disaster for me. At first the old clan leader was all against it and I was stuck at home for about a whole month, but finally the elders have decided to take part in this. So I managed to go with a month delay. And for all misfortune I ran into the serpent queen Medusa. You can believe me, she really gives you the creepy thing.
(Sieg shivers for a moment)
Luckily she had no real interest in me and I slipped away as I saw my gap. And then after a total of 3 months I finally reached this place. So in the end, yes you can call my journey “hard”.”Sieg ends his short explanation and turns towards us
“Well, we had some internal character-finding problems on our way here and Hohenheim still needs more improvement to his new existence. But all in all we had no problems to manage our way here. Mhh wait there was one exception. We meet a really unpleasant fellow, it seems Zaito has took an interest in Hohenheims matters. And it seems that he knows something he better should not know.
I think if we meet him again there are a lot of problems, which can occur.” Mia sums up our story until here and I sit there without saying anything. I just can not find any gap for me to bring myself into that conversation.
“Mhh Zaito you say? Isn´t he the new god of wrath or something. What interest can a newly awoken god have in another newcomer? I hope he doesn´t sniffs around too deep. Would be a real nuisance to deal with wrath.” Sieg thoughtfully concludes
The old lady sighs shortly and then leaves the room and as she seemingly reached downstairs, we hear some other voices and the sentence: yes yes, they are already waiting. From the Innkeeper
shortly after, two more people appeared at the door frame.
One man, he is very short and he has a long beard as well as long brown hair. Well he looks like a real dwarf, if you would assume something. He is about 158 cm tall and looks like a real dwarf warrior. He has a big double edged Battleaxe on his back, which is as tall as himself and a small forging hammer at his belt. His beard and hair are as long as he is tall, but they look very trim. His body looks like he has been through a very hard and lifelong training.
The other person is exactly the opposite. Its a young and beautiful black haired woman, she has something Asian about her. She is wearing also a kimono,but colored in dark blue and black, a long Nodachi – Katana on her back and two fans at her Kimono-ribbon. She is about 165 cm tall and her long black hair is tied to a plait at her back. She has wonderful, but cold and piercing eyes, which are also shining slightly light-blue.
They both gaze at the table were sitting at and after a few seconds the dwarf steps forwards, this time I was the first one to be greeted. The dwarf walks over to me and eyes me up, than he greets me properly.
“So you are the newcomer, god of balance. Hahaha
very nice to meet ya. I am Kazador, the last survivor of the hellfire dwarfen clan.
I am about 479 years old and a master blacksmith.” Kazador gives me a proper introduction in a really sympathy mood.
he is the first person I really took a liking in this situation, he clearly expresses himself and says what he means
“Yes, also nice to meet you Kazador. I am, as you seem to already know, Van Hohenheim the god of Balance. Hohenheim is enough to call me.” We both shake hands and Kazador really has some power behind his grip.
We finished shaking hands and he takes a seat next to me.
As he sat down, the young woman kind of floats towards me. She seem to be the shy and silent kind of character. Her way to move seems so surreal and elegant that I didn´t even notice her footsteps.
She stops in front of me and does a very formal curtsey, then she looks into my eyes with a piercing look and introduces herself.
“It is an honor to meet you Van Hohenheim deity of Equilibrium. I am Kali the Queen of Death.
I am known for quiet some time, but in the last 4 months I have made my appearance as rank X adventurer. I am known as the strongest necromancer in all worlds.” She takes her stance again and walks towards the seat next to Sieg and sat down.
She really has a stunning aura and something mystifying, but also terrifying about her.
And I could not response properly, I just give her a slight nod.
The both of them seem to have ignored Sieg and Mia for the complete time of introductions, but now that everyone has taken a seat they all begin to chatter and even the so cold Queen has set up a slightly smile while talking to Mia and Sieg.
They all chatter with each other and I just couldn´t find an opening to bring myself into a conversation. So I decide to watch them and think about this occasion.
Who might they all be and what do they have to do with me. All types of questions occurred in my head and I couldn´t bring myself to ask yet.
A good amount of time passes by, the cookies run out and the tea empties every minute.
After a good hour of observing and listening to their chatter, I have made my view of some of them.
The so cold and elegant Kali is a real mistress, she watches her words and only expresses herself to the minimum of manner, but even though she tries to hide her true self, I caught her twice smiling and laughing together with Sieg.
The dwarf Kazador sometimes tried to start a conversation with me, but we both never got a hold of one term, so we only spoke a few sentences. Although he seems to be a very kindhearted man and he always says what he thinks of.
Sieg mostly talked to Kali and Mia, they all seem to know each other for a long time and I got the feeling that they maybe are childhood friends.
Sieg talked a lot about his clan, he seems to be the heir of a very powerful clan, but I could not figure out what kind of clan he belongs to.
So the time passes by and it feels like it has become evening. The chatter gets less and an unbreakable silence, seems to have estimated in this small round of people.
We all just look at each other until we hear some footsteps from the stairs.
“Oh finally, this must be Hephaestus!” Mia yelled and breaks through the silence.
Quickly after that, Hephaestus enters the room and gazes at the five of us.
“Oh you are all here already? I thought you would take longer to arrive here.
But well, that shortens the introduction.” He says to us and takes a seat at the head of the table.
Right after he sit down he looks at us and starts with a serious face:
“ So I guess the most of you already know why we gathered here today, but for those who dont, let me explain it from the start. Hephaestus makes a serious view towards Mia and then towards me.
Hohenheim, this must be very confusing to you and I will do my best to explain everything to you now.
But before that, let me please ask you a question.” Hephaestus becomes even more serious
“Well, ask your question Hephaestus and I´ll do my best to answer you properly” I answered very curious about what kind of a story I will get to hear now
“Ok, tell me Hohenheim, do you know why you were chosen as the new god of Equilibrium?” Hephaestus looks at me as if hes expecting a very short answer.
And to be honest I dont know the reason.
“Ah well, I dont really know. But you seem to know the answer already so why asking me nonsense?” I reply a bit sarcastic
“Thats because the answer is, that there was no deity of Equilibrium in the worlds for a long time and the last deity of balance was killed. Killed by other gods, many centuries ago.” He speaks to me in a very serious and urging way
“So you basically want to say that I was picked randomly as candidate? But then, why has it taken so long for naming a new deity of balance?” I could not get any clue of what Hephaestus is up to.
“No, not at all. You were the most fitting candidate. To be worth as the deity of balance, one must have special ability´s. And no one in all that time was gifted with the needed ability´s acquired for that. But You, you were given the power to summon Mia as your spirit guardian. That was the condition of being chosen as the new deity.” He says smiling at me, but still in a serious way
“And why is that?” I ask
“To be honest with you, the worlds are at a big unbalance and they are near the dark change.” He started, but gets interrupted by me, but also ignores the question mentioning Mia
“Dark change? What´s that?” I interrupt him
“The dark change is, when the worlds become unstable and being ruled by merciless and false gods. You can call them demons or devils to compare with. If this happens, you can compare that to the apocalypse of all worlds, the downfall of the heavens.” Mia shouts out loud not believing me I didnt know about that
“Yes, as Mia already said, the dark change is when the balance being disrupted. At the moment there are countless gods amongst all, who try to bring that dark change over the worlds and...” I interrupt him again
“Wait a moment, gods want to start that??” I surprised ask him
“Let me continue. Yes many gods started doubting their own duties and they started to act out of their own whims and only test out their powers, which leads to chaos and disasters in many worlds. While they´ve continuously ignored their duties they started to become rotten beings. As such, they still remained as gods and still posses all their might and powers, but they have lost all interests in remaining the worlds balance and they slowly started to revolt against the Over-god. They have set their own goal, they want to become all singularity’s of their own and rule for themselves.
Normally it would be the job of the god of Equilibrium to face those rotten deity´s and either bring them to good sense or dispose of them.
And as the last deity of balance tried exactly to do that, all the dark gods gathered and set him in an ambush, they killed him.
And for fucks sake, it is not THAT easy to kill a god and its even harder to dispose of the deity of balance, which is because he normally has the power to encounter other deities if he gets serious.
Hephaestus hits on the table very hard and raised his voice.
So, many of us remaining “good gods” recognized that there was such a bad change ongoing, but it was already to late for us and we went hiding from the dark gods, because they started to hunt us down.
We gathered together and could only guess what and how they were able to kill the deity of balance.
In our despair we then found the reason, why the deity of balance was killed.
Hephaestus looks worried at Mia and then back to me
We discovered that the dark gods urged the dwarfen clans to forge one ultimate weapon for them.
Normally there were no ways to forge a new god weapon, without the help of a creator, but the creator were extinct and so the dark gods thought of a very long forgotten and forbidden technique, which only the dwarfs could use.
In order to create the ultimate weapon, which can even slaughter the god of balance, a requirement of countless souls is needed.
The dark gods had a lot of representatives in the high council of gods and so they were able to convince the other ones, that the dwarfs already have broken that tabu of forging and they demanded on the highest punishment for them: Eradication
not knowing that we would play the cards for the dark gods, we agreed with them and started to eradicate the dwarfs. Luckily the dark gods killed the deity of balance too early and we could, more or less, safe the dwarfs being fully eradicated, as we found out about their plan. But with all those dead dwarfs it was already to late and the weapon was created and the deity was already killed.” Hephaestus looks up and keeps silent for a moment
As he comes back to sense I ask him:
“Why hasn´t the over-god done anything? Isn’t that his job?”
“No, the over god is not interested in such fights and changes. He is just the creator of the reality and he is the one to name new deities if needed, but the disputes of the deities, they have to deal with themselves.
The over god just did one thing to aid us a little, or maybe it was on a whim of his. He send the mighty god weapon to sleep of eternity, that was after a dark god turned the other dark gods of, he stole the weapon and betrayed his comrades as he arrived here and gave us the weapon. Pitiful he wont join us at that time and he ran of on his own. Later we heard that he was killed too. He was the god of wrath.
As you know the current deity of wrath is Zaito, you have met him already.” Hephaestus finished his explanation and looks at me
I´ve been waiting to ask several questions and he must have recognized that, so he stopped.
“So in fact the over god is just a passive existence? That sounds not very good for anything.” I begin
“Well, yes he is something that stands above everything. Even if the dark gods revolt against him, they would be merciless killed by him, but that is only if they would reach him. And reaching him is nearly impossible. But as for the ongoing the over god ignores most of them and just leaves it all to the gods.” Hephaestus sorrowful answers
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“so Hephaestus, you said that the dark gods slaughtered the previous god of balance with that mighty god weapon and you also said that it was a requirement to have the ability to summon Mia as new deity of balance... So comes I am concluding that Mia is exactly that weapon?” I curious ask him
“haha, you have sharp senses, thats correct. Mia is the weapon who killed the previous deity. She is one of no kind, she is unique. And we learned about Mia´s personality that time. She is not evil and decided to help us fighting the dark gods and restoring the balance.” He spoke slowly and laughs a bit reassured
“Yes, I could not stand those rotten gods and their intentions of ruling all by themselves. It was disgusting to kill that poor deity of balance. But its thanks to him that I gained my own personality and my own will. He set a spell on me with his last breath and blood, which prevented the dark gods using me any further. Due his last spell All lost souls, which were used to create me fused to one and that is the current me. Thats also the reason why I can only be summoned by the deity of Equilibrium. I owe him a lot and I intend of paying him back through helping you guys restoring the balance. And maybe I took a liking to you guys and Hohenheim....” Mia shouted out, but the last sentence was nearly inaudible
“Yes thats right, we are glad to have you with us Mia.
So Hohenheim, let me tell you why we are here today, after we had something to eat.” Hephaestus seems to be a little reassured now and less serious
“Ah yes, that sounds great!” All of us yelled at the same time, especially Mia
Hephaestus stands up and goes downstairs, shortly after he returns with the old lady and a few tablets.
A great smell of grilled meat and other delicious dishes fill the room. The old lady covers the table and Hephaestus placed the meals.
There were baked potatoes, grilled chicken (nothing is better than chicken), grilled Lava-fish??
and a lot of sauces and vegetables.
It is not that I really feel an urge to eat anything, but I think it would be best to take a little break from all the old stories. So I will be able to think about everything a bit, before Hephaestus starts continuing.
While everyone gets in better a mood and fill their stomachs with all those tasty looking meals, I also enjoy some grilled chicken. As said nothing better than that,even if I dont feel hunger.
I think about the occasion and I must admit that I start to feel a little uneasy about what has happened. I think about, how easy going I were and that I at first thought that I can just ignore my responsibilities and just let them flow towards me. But now everything seems to become complicated, even more I am just a newcomer and I barely know anything about the different worlds nor the gods. At last I come to the conclusion, that it will be best to await the next part of Hephaestus request, from there on I will be able to figure something out.
So time passes by and the small community here, finished their meals and the old lady cleans the table.
As everything is done, Hephaestus raises his voice and says:
“Ok, now that we all have reassured our moods a bit. It should be time to discuss about what now.
We all gathered here today, because its our goal to join forces together.”
“To join forces...?” I wondered out of my thoughts
“Yes, to further accomplish the defeat of the dark gods, it is very important to gather allies. Strong allies.” Hephaestus added fast
“Well, I will always search the fight with those filthy, rotten demon gods. After what they have done to my whole clan I cant forgive them. And also it would be bad if the apocalypse is to happen.
Count me in!” Kazador stands up and puts his forging hammer on the table.
“What about the others? Before you decide to act as group, I am aware that you all will reconsider all options, but I am also aware of that you all have your own reason to fight the dark gods. And it is very possible that some of us will die.”
While Hephaestus says that he looks at me and it feels as if he is checking my opinion to this whole thing.
“Well, I know most of you for a very long time period and I made friends with you. You will always get help from me and I will aid you as far as death, but it depends on my masters wishes on how I will continue and if he wishes to make his opinion for himself at first, I would understand that too.” Mia keeps sitting and considers on my opinion.
While Mia says that, I assume that she really must be loyal to me and I decide to await the opinions of the others, before I will make my decision.
“The dragon clan has already given its ok for this alliance and I, myself the next successor of the dragon clan, came here to join forces to begin with. So You will have my powers and I will fight with you until death.” Sieg announces proudly and his strange reptile eyes start to glow light green.
“I Kali the Queen of Death, will...” She couldn´t finish her sentence as the ground begins to shiver over and over again and a deafening horn sound is to hear.
“What the hell is that?? OI old lady whats going on?!” Hephaestus shouts down as surprised as we all are.
The shivers wont stop, even more crashing and blast sounds added to the shiver, it feels and sounds like, as if something tries to destroy the complete mountain with all the underground city.
Rashly we all stand up and run down. Reaching the ground floor we see the old lady is standing outside the door and we all followed her outside.
The shiver and the sound become louder and stronger and looking outside at the city and the other platforms, something very oppressive is to see.
Soldiers, dwarf-soldiers a complete army of them, is send out towards the large bridge at the entrance. And no minutes later a thousands of fully equipped dwarf-soldiers have positioned themselves in front of the large, shining marble bridge.
From all over the town screams and crying is to hear, it starts to feel like a real war.
And then, no second after most of the dwarfen army took their stance, one big explosion and a great shiver spreads from the direction of the mountain wall.
For a short moment everything kept quiet and the giant dust-cloud starts to disappear. Then a bright shining light breaks through the remaining dust.
“Daylight!” we hear someone screaming
And for real the light was nothing else, but the suns-light, but there is something else too.
Big shadows and silhouettes come to see and they throw menacing shadows downwards.
Suddenly the silence gets broken, as a deep, slightly mechanic, sounding voice raises through the great hall, were the the dwarf-city lies:
“Great ancestors and elder dwarfs! You´ve gone hiding for a long time, but now the time has come for you to cease from existence, creating a gap for a new and even greater species! And I Archimedes the great alchemist, will personally observe your downfall.” Archimedes finishes his talk and a very threatening army of dark shadows and silhouettes comes with an earsplitting noise downwards and in direction of the dwarfen army.
“We have to do something, Hephaestus!” Kazador demands on Hephaestus
But Hephaestus is stunned from the surprise and could not move or think even one clear thought.
Also I am not so sure what to do now, I never really experienced a war. But somehow something in my head keeps me calm and I can hold of a clear thought.
Meanwhile the shadows become clear and it seems to be a sheer endless army of golems and other, seemingly lifeless creatures, formed with magic.
From my knowledge about magical ranks I know that those golems were no normal ones, it seems someone with high experience and skill has formed those.
“They are all at least at the B-rank level! And some of them seem to be even A-rank. The dwarfs do not even stand a slightly chance!” I shout out loud while recognizing that
That moment Hephaestus comes to his senses and vanishes in an instant.
No moment later a big explosion of pure red shining fire, with fearsome destructively ability, occurred in the middle of the enemy golem horde.
Now also Kazador starts moving he equips his great battleaxe and runs in an amazing speed to the dwarfen aid.
Mia looks and Sieg and Kali and then towards me, she wants to say something but gets interrupted by the old lady.
“Youngsters I will try to get some help , I am counting on you to hold them off.” The old lady says and vanishes instantly
So she also seems to have some serious strength, guess all people around me are somehow dangerously powerhouses.
But there is something nagging me, from my knowledge I also know that golems are lifeless creatures and that they will regenerate every single injury at a very high rate and their brute force is not to be underestimated.
Sieg clench fists and his whole body begins to shine as he says:
“ I´ll do my part here as well, what about you Hohenheim, Kali? Will you just watch all day?”
With that Siegs body transforms into that of a half dragon like creature.
There spread large dark red and green colored, dragon wings from his back and his skin seems to be protected by scales. At his hands he estimates long and sharp looking claws.
He jumps into the air and flies into the battle.
“Very tricky creatures those golems. You seem to know that as well, Van Hohenheim.
It will be hard for my power to do anything about them. Unless something is alive or at least was alive, I cannot really affect them.” Kali says in a slightly amused tone
“Tz! Yes they are, but this is actually a great opportunity to test my powers.” I bit my bottom lip
“So we will make a move too Hohenheim?” Mia impatiently asks
“Yes, but I´ll go alone. I want to know what I am capable of on my own. Please wait here and i´ll call you if I am in trouble.” I say that, but with the actual thought in mind, that I am not so sure about Mia anymore.
“What!? Well if you say so, but I´ll keep my eyes on you! We have to less Intel about Archimedes and we heard him speaking, which of I suppose he is present here too. Dont forget X ranks are nothing inferior to gods, at least most of them.” Mia incomprehensible says, but agrees
That means Kali is as strong as a god too, if so its strange that she says she cant do anything against those golems.
I think while I accelerate a jump and shortly after I vanished from the 3rd platform.
I calculated the jumps strength perfectly and find myself now, not a second later, above the battleground. I see many dwarfs being catapulted away by the oversized golems.
Exactly beneath me, a big golem grabs a helpless dwarf and I got sprinkled by a bloody fountain, as the golem mashes the dwarf in his fist. Nothing more than a bloody pulp ends up thrown to the ground.
“You are the first one!” I call as I land with a shattering fist punch, directly on the golem.
Maybe I hit too strong, because all around me a big crater occurred and a impact wind-wave throws many dwarfs behind me away, but the, around 40, golems in front me remained unaffected.
I literally pulverized the golem I landed on and now I turn towards the other golems, in front of me.
While I spread my black sp around me the ground gets a lot of cracks and the few dwarfs behind me, start to shiver and were so intimidated, that they run off. But I haven’t at least released a 10 percent of my sp. Releasing more would be dangerous for all participants, because the black sp is nothing else than pure destructive power. As my white sp resembles healing and defense, my black sp resembles destruction and death. Exactly what I need now.
I form a black sp orb in my hand and clench a fist. Rashly after, I instantly encounter the 40 golems in front of me.
One precise blast and they all get blown away. The upper half’s of them instantly pulverize and the remains fall to the ground. It feels kind of too easy, but thats what I am a god for.
I look around me and notice two fire rays not far from me, must be Sieg and Hephaestus.
I dont think that they´ll need my aid, at least Hephaestus is a god as well.
I punched many golems, until their only remains were nothing more than dust, but it comes as it was supposed to happen from the beginning. After a short time period all the destroyed golems regenerate themselves and they came back to “life” artificial life of course.
“A real pain in the ass, those shitty golems keep regenerating!” I hear, not far from me, the voice of Sieg
And Also Hephaestus, seems to have his problems with the reincarnation of those golems. As I hear him cursing over them.
Suddenly I hear a very furious scream:
“Yami Houno!”
And no second after that I see black flaming fires all over a place at the battleground.
It is Hephaestus, who screamed and he has summoned a fire that will not cease away until it has devoured everything it touches.
I know that because I understood the screams language and it says “flames of darkness” And about them, I do posses a bit knowledge from my oracle.
They seem to have everything under control by now, I think by myself.
I look around the battle ground and unfortunately getting aware that a hundreds of dwarfen soldiers already have died and that the positions we, Sieg, Hephaestus and I were covering weren’t enough to protect everyone. And there are still golems coming down from the entrance they detonated open.
Its a shame that non of us gods can use our full strength, if we were to do so, we would harm the dwarfs too and I really dont feel like it would be a good idea to do any harm to them. Not only because they would maybe die, but also in cause of Hephaestus and the others. It seems like they wont like it if I first kill them and revive them after wards.
As I look around, smashing some golems over and over again, I recognize, that at the top of the entrance a bunch of guys with a very strange aura are standing. It feels as if they were really really strong. No comparison to the low level golems. They must be of a much higher level. I would say at least about the level of a dark magister. So they are irregular magicians.
I decide to kill them first and eventually they are the ones who fuel the golems with mana. Because for a golem to permanently regenerate it needs a lot of mana. And they stand up a bit to often for their own, small, amount of mana.
I run through the hordes of golems in such a tempo, that I passively created a wind wall and shattered over hundreds of them, with just my run. As I reach the top, I am awaited already, or so it seems.
There are three, in black robes, covered people and all of them have a strange powerful aura around them.
“Now, that I can feel the full extend of your auras, I must admit you seem very strong.” I start to talk to them.
“Hahaha~ look who is paying us his respects” Man 1
“Hehehe~Yess, he seems to underestimated us and now he´ll pay the price.” Man 2
“kekeke~He seems to be a strong one for himself,... but he will fail and vanish in waste” Man 3
“You have dug your own grave, by coming here” Man 1 They all laugh in a very weird way and honestly I really seem to have underestimated them by far.
They are no dark magister. All three of them seem to have reached the level of a dark master.
As I remember correctly, Mia warned me that even one dark master would be difficult to handle, but I found a complete 3 of em...
For a retreat it is far to late and actually I dont feel like I have to restrain my powers anymore up here. I seem to be far enough away from the dwarfs.
“We will see, you filthy scum! I will shatter even your corpses and leave no remains.” I shout at them.
For a moment I have let my guard down and one of them moved so quickly that I haven’t noticed.
A stinging pain appears in my back and I recognize, that the bastard has stabbed me right into the back. I could not guess with what kind of weapon, but as I look closer I see that he has done that with just his bare hand.
I gather a lot of black sp and replied with a full strength punch. I land a direct hit and he flies away into the lava ocean, the impact he creates was so deep and hard that a 5 meter lava-wave splashed upwards.
Meanwhile the other two have summoned a giant sparkling lightning bolt. At its look its at least a tier 6 lvl spell, but due that both of them have cast the same spell the strength gets doubled.
No blink of an eye and I got struck by that lightning. Even I feel a lot of pain due to that and the even worse I got stunned from that for a moment.
Enough time for them incarnate a tier 7 spell. Even though I never have seen any magic yet I recognize the power of that spell.
°This is bad, really bad. I wont die from that, but it will destroy the whole environment.° This runs over and over through my head
And then I decide to get serious myself. Until now I barely used up to 10 percent strength, but for those guys I want to use all I´ve got.
Before I entered the war I set the goal for me, that I must win with only max 20 percent of my strength. But I see that those guys area lot stronger than I thought.
“You ran out of your luck! I am getting really pissed off!” I shout at them
In an instant everything turned black, not even a single ray of sunshine was to see. The complete area around me and the guys turned into a fearsome darkness.
The both of them instantly stopped summoning their spell and begin to panic, but it is futile.
That moment I cast a spell myself.
“Yami no sakuru! Yin devour their souls”
A few seconds later, the area turned back to normal and I was standing in the middle of two dried mummified corpses wearing black robes.
I step forwards and blow a small breath of air towards the dead bodies. And hit by my breath they fall to dust.
“See I said that not even your corpses will remain. Haha”
I say as I return into the cave, but not to my surprise all of the golems were destroyed.
Many dwarfs have died due to this incident and the survivors do their best to gather the fallen dwarfs.
I met with Hephaestus and Sieg, who told me that Hephaestus lost his patient and burned even the dust of the golems up to their molecules.
“Even if we have won this battle I am not sure if I can revive all those dwarfs so fast, it will take at least two weeks for me, the golems seem to have used some kind of poison. Once entered the bodies it eats up their souls and without souls even I cant revive them.” I discover, as I try my reviving phoenix spell on them.
“Do not worry, Van Hohenheim.” A calm and elegant voice spreads through the halls of the city, it is Kali
“I´ll show you what I am made of!
Tamashi no yoki!” Kali calmly chants a spell and a large white and blue shimmering orb floats above the battleground and suddenly explodes.
A peaceful and reassuring aura fills the whole place and one after another the dead dwarfs come back to life.
“You see, there is no problem hehe, Kali may be a powerful necromancer, but she also has the ability to gather souls of the fallen ones and to return them after wards. They now are all alive again” Sieg happily explains to me as he has returned to his human form and sits on the ground.
“Whoa, I see she is really not for nothing an X rank.” I still am a bit mystified by the peaceful aura.
“Well, an X rank is even more than that, they can be compared to the god level. Some are even stronger than gods.” An old and familiar voice says from behind me.
“Kazador!? Where have you been the whole time?” Sieg reproachful but also jokingly ask him
“I send him of to an important duty Sieg. And have you fulfilled your task?” Mia jumps down from above and lands with a very light contact on my shoulders.
“Yes I am ready to do what you asked for.” Kazador, a little out of breath, answers
“ Well then, lets move everybody, Hehehe” Mia seems to be back to normal, as she teasingly laughs and gestured her arm up in the air, as if she wants to set something at sail.
“Yes, here we go.”
“Hellfire ability: running mountain!” Kazador rams his battleaxe into the ground
A bright red shining line starts to estimate from the ax and runs nearly all around the city then, with a loud and heavy tug, the city and all its townsmen, including us, were at a completely different place.
“What the hell?? What was that?” Sieg asks very confused
“That my dear friend, was dwarf magic. To be precise it was the hellfire´s clan magic.
Only the best of the hellfire dwarf clan were able to cast portal magic. They are able to teleport even whole cities like these, with the help and preparation of runes. Fascinating isn`t it? Haha.” Hephaestus explains very happily.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry to have taken so long for the next chapter, maybe it will take long again but I wont stop updating
As always suggestions are appreciated let me know if you liked the chap.
I was not so sure how to start with the main story and I am still not satisfied :) and do not worry
I wont rush the story
actually my sister tried drawing Hohenheim, I like it very much :D
https%3a%2f%2fscontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net%2fhph...e%3d56DD6DCE [https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpl1/v/wl/t34.0-12/12784758_1200852703273163_1897043092_n.jpg?oh=2829e7d3e7129ef8a2a7863a1caded73&oe=56DD6DCE]