❝Enough!❞ the last remaining Rathe suddenly sprung forward, only taking one large step, but it was enough to make the crowd of Fiends flinch and take a step backward, all raising their guard. However, they were all forced to drop it a second later, along with their weapons, as without exception they collapsed to their knees, and when that last bit of strength gave out, they fell flat to the ground, unable to move at all.
It wasn’t like before, where their power had been sapped away. No, now it was like Rathe was actively attacking them, causing them pain and misery, their bodies wanting nothing more than to shut down and cease to exist if only to escape her presence.
The demigod’s body had begun to glow, through every crack in her igneous body, light began to shine through, practically blinding all those who could still see in her direction. “Do you feel that?!” Rathe started to cackle. “What it means to stand before pure divinity!”
“You only have yourselves to blame, you know. I gave you every opportunity to leave, to surrender, to return to your lives. But you have defied me to the end! And I won’t stand for it! You all must be punished, and you will face it. Yet there is one among you whom I must deal with first, who has been a true pain to the end.”
Rathe pointed a finger into the crowd. The digit then extended as they had during the fighting and it found its target, scooping them up from the rest. As the finger retracted, Feyj flew through the air with it towards the demigod, his neck pierced through. The man gasped desperately as he was brought face to face with his maker.
“You enabled the rest and led them in this latest bout of foolishness. And as that force, you have earned retribution!” Rathe jerked her wrist and sent the man spiraling through the air. As they flew, Tize was forcibly unsynced, careening to the ground to join the rest, but Feyj wasn’t so lucky. His body splattered against a wall and ungraciously slumped to the ground.
And then he vanished, or at least that’s how it’d appear to the untrained eye. Rather, a lump in the pile of his otherwise empty clothes—a new Feyjrusa, born again after their merciless slaughter. And the new baby began to cry.
“Well that won’t do!” Rathe strolled over to the screaming newborn. “And that’s fine, because I’m not satisfied yet!” The demigod raised her foot and stamped it down, crushing the defenseless child and then raised it again, away from her newest kill. But even though the next incarnation hadn’t yet begun to cry, once more, the demigod mercilessly squashed it and snuffed out its life.
“I know you can’t understand me now, Feyjrusa,” the stone-hearted woman raised her foot. “But you are my worst creation, my biggest mistake. To think that I would haphazardly create an immortal being whose life even I can’t snuff out. But for now that’s fine, because it means I can endlessly vent my frustrations!”
Then again and again, the newborn was crushed, and with each fresh death, though the corpse vanished, the puddle of blood that was soaking into the pile of clothes grew bigger and bigger. And those who were forced to watch the unyielding cruelty, unable to turn their heads away, finding it hard to even shut their eyes, would forever have the morbid murders scarred into their minds forever. Even those who couldn’t see it, would forever hear the echo of the baby’s cries and the unsettling, spine-chilling squish and crunch.
“Did you keep track of how many me’s you and your group killed?” Rathe shouted between stompings. “Because I did! And I should make you suffer death for each one! Yet I grow tired of this already. Don’t fret, though. One such as you will still have your use, even if it’s just a sack of flesh for Drim to practice his training.”
“Hmm, what’s this?” Rathe’s endless slaughter was suddenly interrupted as vines wrapped around her feet. They then covered her quickly, soon wrapped up to her waist.
It was Drimini. The plant girl who had been acting mostly as an impartial observer, though had defeated a few Rathes herself to play along with her friends, had finally understood the gravity of the situation. And of all things, she’d managed to figure out that the woman’s light was the source of the Fiend’s pain.
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“Yes, Drimini!” Tize encouraged her as the closest one on the floor. His energy had started to return as Rathe’s divinity was suppressed. And he tried to pick himself off the floor with others following suit. But he and the others all collapsed again immediately, right back to their oppressed and agonizing state.
“Naughty girl!” Rathe raised a hand and extended her fingers, quickly snagging around the plant creature, creating a cage that snapped away into its own entity. Along with her imprisonment, all the vines she created quickly faded, releasing Rathe from her bindings.
“I can’t fault you for trying to help them, and you are too young to know better, even if you tried to harm your own grandmother. When your creator comes, we can figure out a proper education together to get you on the right path.” The demigod then sent the cage flying off to a corner of the room, stuck against the ceiling.
“Oh, and just in case any of you get an idea from her example,” Rathe touched a hand to the wall and the light divine transferred out of her body and into the structure, surging all around the room, streaking like a web along the walls, now causing the Fiends anguish from every angle.
“Ah, that does feel better, though,” the woman finally walked away from the defenseless child after scraping liquid off the bottom of her feet, once she’d finally created a new Feyjrusa that slept peacefully. “My temper has cooled, so I can be more rational when dealing with the rest of you.”
“I’d say you should all almost be commended. Through your combined efforts, you forced me to use up a percentage of my power. It was a very small one, but it’d at least be a solid number. Even in the last world when there was the occasional dissenter, none come close to achieving what you have today. Rejoice, because though you will still be punished, I will reward your efforts, and your lives will be spared.”
“Well… hmm. I would be foolish to not snuff out the most rebellious among you while I have the easy opportunity. And yet, I am still feeling gracious. So I’ll just cripple the worst offenders, and break their spirits, so that they can never raise their hands against me again.”
“Actually, no, I still need one more of you to die. And you already know who it is, don’t you, Phon?!” The woman took her pace more steady and slow, calmly walking over to The Vixen, crouching down next to her. “I have decided that your life is only a nuisance. As long as you continue to live, Drim will have a reason to never surrender, motivation to defy me. And you are the true reason this whole thing broke out, so you are responsible.”
“Not to mention the way your existence has waylaid my ambitions of bringing Drim to my side. And while I know you’re not your mother, since you look just like her, I can get the satisfaction of killing Eleen with my own hands. But how to kill you, though? You do not deserve such a simple and easy death like your friend. It’s been so long since I’ve properly smited someone, well there was that one girl, but that hardly counts.”
“I need to think of something befitting my wrath. Perhaps I should obliterate you in front of the entire world, make an example of those who would get in my way. But no, that would take too long to arrange, and I need instant gratification.”
“Ah, I think I’ve got it. You like to dabble in the culinary arts, do you not? So I think I’ll have you taste a dish. How does rock soup sound to you? Granted, I only have canned stuff from a few hundred years ago, but I have plenty of fresh rocks. So I’ll make a large batch and let you eat until you burst. Yes, that sounds nice, hmm, but is it dramatic enough?”
“Hmm? Perhaps I should just go with good old fashion flaying, or feed you to the Ocean Devourer. Now what about…?”
*Dabing Barong* out of thin air, from no source that any in the room could deduce, there was a sudden sound of a chime, breaking Rathe out of her train of thought. “Hmm?”
*Dabing Barong* the chime repeated itself. And then a somewhat familiar voice that only a select few had heard before called out, “Delivery!”
Even Rathe had a look of confusion, and she hollered back, “I’m a bit busy right now, could you come back later?”
“This is an express delivery that cannot be returned, I must insist that you take possession of it at once,” the man at the invisible door had to refuse.
“Well who’s it from?” The demigod was clearly starting to get annoyed.
“Your father.”
That made Rathe’s eyebrows jolt open and lips scrunch and twist. “Alright,” she warily accepted. “I grant you access to my domain. Please drop off your delivery and leave.”
And so the door opened, more like a sudden veil of cosmic energy that spread to form a passageway. Out flew the ‘package’, and with it, Hand Guy’s final delivery was complete.