The sound of fierce clashes and cheering became the background sound for my escape attempt. About 10 minutes after I started sawing through the cuffs, Aeonia appeared with a ragged Reynolds in tow. The two had left some time while I was trying to escape and “Sorted” through their differences. I was sitting in the corner of the room facing the wet bar and had the broken blade hidden between my legs while I sawed away at the face of the cuff. The adamantium blade was well made but badly damaged.

I knew I wasn’t going to be able to saw through the whole thing in time so I just concentrated on destroying the power source and scratching off the runes. I had already scratched the left cuff runes and was working on the right when the fight came to an end.

“Looks like Surgoss isn’t getting up John. He has 10 seconds before the referee calls the match!”

“Thats right Jerry. It looks like we are coming to a close as Surgoss isn’t moving. I think he's out for the count. The referee is almost to 10…”

The last step in breaking out of these cuffs was to snap the energy source connections. The power source in question was a small black crystal in the shape of a square between the cuff rings. Disconnecting it from the rest of the cuffs would cause the energy to surge and explode like a magical hand grenade so I had been waiting for the right moment when the crowd was cheering to do itl.

In the arena, the giant serpent was circling the downed warrior, hissing and spitting black poisonous spittle everywhere. The fighter everyone was counting on was facedown in a pool of acid spit with several nasty looking poison barbs sticking out of his back.

“He’s down and he isn’t getting up John. the Heaven devouring beast wins the tournament!”

“That was an amazing fight Jerry! The crowd is going Insane!”

Fireworks and cheering erupted all around me and as everyone was watching the viewing screen I snapped the power source off the cuffs and tossed it quickly smoking into the pool as it sunk to the bottom. I leave the rest of the now useless pair of cuffs on my hands as not to tip off anyone I had broken free.

‘Kekekeke, Well well, It looks like the little morsel is back.”

“Silence foul beast! I won’t tolerate your continued existence!”

“Kekeke, and what are you going to do about it.”

‘Fraxia...Please tell me you can hear us!’

‘Is that my mommy?’

‘Yeah, loud and clear. Have those two been arguing all this fucking time!’

The voices of Hyuna and the two idiots came through all at once. I was relieved. Without Hyuna or some other voice in my head was really strange and felt wrong. But now I felt more alive than I have in the past 24 hours.

‘Maybe I’ve had a schizophrenic break and I’m in a mental hospital on medication?’

‘Fraxia your perfectly fine! Now stop debating your deteriorating mental state and get escaping. Those rank 80 beasts are nothing to mess with! Even the strength of peak Arch rank gods cannot be compared to it’s power!’

A new notification pops up in front of me

System restored.

Mutation has gathered 300% data required for mutation.

Would you like to proceed?

Note: Status may be radically altered.

Y/N

‘I don’t need this right now. I’ll proceed with the rest of this later, but I cannot risk unconsciousness right now. As soon as I see Kyanu, I’m getting out of here.’

I select no.

You have chosen not to mutate right now.

Next mutation chance has a 22% chance of automatically accepting.

“Well my friend! It that was quite a good match! What magnificence! What Cunning! What Strength! Come now my friend. The last wager we had was interrupted but now surely we can make one! Here, this is 300k Pure souls. Now let's talk conditions!”

The pudgy man came over once more and offered me money and started rambling off conditions on which one might win a bet on. 300k Pure souls...I don’t even know if that is a small amount or a large amount.

‘Why don’t we find out.’

“I wonder how much one of these fancy private boxes would cost? What do you think.”

“Eh this place? 500k, 600k maximum. I rent out places like this all the time. A bit nicer than this one but what did you expect of an exclusive 1M pure souls custom built viewing box?”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

‘Hmm. so using that bottle of fine fruit wine as reference. 300k pure souls is around 15-30 times more than what a lesser god would earn in a century.’

The economy in Heaven uses souls and heaven energies as currency. A single pure soul would be worth something like 10M Holmond Blessed pieces. So 300k in mortal money would be…

‘Escape now. Money later!’

Winged servants cleared the fields of all the blood and gore. It looks like even though that fighter won the serpent didn’t get away scot free.

“It is time to go.”

Unknown to me or mance, Aeonia had snuck up behind us and now grasped my shoulder, dragging me away.

“Wait Milady, What about our wager?”

“I’m afraid you will have to find someone else to play with betting god. Right now me and this mortal here have things to attend to.”

I could barely see her figure as she spoke those words despite being no more than 5 ft in front of me. I was sure I was going blind. All traces of color had seeped out of everything and my ability to focus on something not directly in front of me was random.

The guards pulled me along through a pair of crystal doors that appeared in the viewing wall and onto a terrace overlooking the arena. The doors closed behind us and the platform shook as we disconnected from the main building and started flying out into the middle of the arena. Workers with shiny silver tanks on their backs were forcing the serpent back into it’s cage by spraying a purple gas with swirling skull patterns forming at random around the arena giving the creature nowhere else to go except into its prison.

‘That stuff looks useful…’

The detached terrace stopped when It was hovering in the center of the fighting area. Giant screens all around the arena that usually broadcasted a fight now showed Aeonia and the rest of us behind her.

“Greetings New People's Republic of the Celestial Lands. I hope you are all enjoying the festivities so far. You who toppled the tyranny of the God council and ended their control over yourself have sufficiently earned it. I am pleased to announce that the last members of the council have been imprisoned. But before we do anything with them it wouldn’t be proper for for them to say hello to their subjects, or should I say former subjects.”

The center of the arena opens up and a platform containing every council member plus many others rises out of the floor. The faces are to blurry to make out from here but no doubt she's there.

‘Hey Hyuna , can you do something about my current blindness problem?’

‘What happened to you? Vision Impairment status effects have been applied as well as Internal Bleeding, Brain Hemorrhage(urgent), Vital Organ Failure and a whole slew of other effects! Whatever effects she applied to you when she attacked you are starting to catch up with your vitality.’

‘Glad to know. I haven’t been able to look at my menu at all recently or use any skills to fix any of it, OK! Sort of tied up you know.’

‘Then let me spell it out for you! 30 minutes equals you falling unconscious. 1 hour and you wind up in a coma. Anything past 2 hours without medical attention and you get a free trip to Kyanu’s realm. All expenses paid.’

“Here you see the council and all it’s lackeys and affiliates. But what to do? What say you? Their fate is up to you not me!”

‘Smart. She declares in front of thousands that she is not involved in any decision making but behind the scenes she's a puppet master. No doubt she has agents among the crowd.'

As if to answer my question. Many areas of the crowd start calling for blood and executions on the spot while others are crying loudly about family or friends they have lost to their rule. Most come from the lesser god sections of the crowd but some from the richer immortals that hold private boxes. No doubt paid off to incite the rest of the crowd.

“A vote! All in favor of executing them on the spot please select the appropriate option while those not in favor may select the appropriate option they feel is right from the list.”

Blue notifications popped up for everyone in the arena except me and the people below us. I couldn’t see anything but I knew that somewhere on that list I was probably mentioned.

‘Time to move’

Step one of my brilliant escape plan. Fiind a distraction. Thankfully, the guards that were by my side had stopped holding onto me so they could place their votes and were not paying attention to me as I backed up slowly in between them and quietly fell off the terrace. Unfortunately for them, the giant screens broadcasting Aeonia were too focused on her reassuring face that none of my fall was displayed. 

‘And that is how you sneak out from under the nose of a egotistic asswipe.’

I and on my feet unsteadily but perfectly fine. I apply conceal aura to myself and dash madly for the cluster of people. I hear no sounds or indications of anyone witnessing my escape. Step two, locate VIP.

(A.N note. Come on guys. If you were in the middle of considering the pro’s and cons of voting for either candidate, would you notice a silent figure falling in and then out of your vision for a split second?)

“Hey where's Kyanu?”

I desperately ask the people in front of me while pushing several to the side.

“Begone knave! Even when imprisoned you do not have the privilege to lay your hands on us!”

Some old dude recoiled as if I had bitten him and began shouting nonsense. That is until I decked him hard in the face.

“Shut the fuck up and tell me where Kyanu is!” I hissed.

“Right here fraxia!”

Kyanu’s voice hissed out from in the crowd of people and I quickly hid myself among them. Members of the audience that had heard anything could only draw the conclusion that the councilors were fighting amongst themselves and started yelling accusations and taunts again.

“People people! Calm yourselves. Please vote on what justice you believe to be proper!”

Aeonia was trying to control the crowd but that was the time that the guards looked up and found their charge was missing. The guards got Aeonia’s attention and when she saw that a certain someone was missing well...let's just say the broadcast was cut.

“Please take your time and decide! They are going nowhere after all.”

She turned to her guards and muttered something beyond my hearing range and the guards both teleported off somewhere.

“We have to go!”

The problem was that every god on around me including Kyanu were weighed down in tracking devices, restraints and glowing runes, preventing them from moving even an inch. The adamantium blade wasn’t going to finish cutting through all these things in time.

“Fraxia hurry. She's going to lock down the arena!”

“Alright Alright!”

Deciding quick, as soon as I whipped out the vorpal blade every single councilor around us took notice.

“Fraxia! Thats…”

“Like mentor like protege! More stolen artifacts belonging to the gods!”

The crowd around me got so loud that Aeonia’s eyes landed on us and picked me out of the crowd. Step three(Optional). RUN!

“Get her!”

‘Nice going limp dick!’

I cut the chains and trackers and stab the runes thereby disrupting them and start pulling her out of the crowd.

“Come on!”

She grabs my hand and we go bouncing along speeding for the exit gate. Unfortunately the guards had already started the lockdown and sealed off the arena. Flying servants appeared in the air and moved to surround us.

‘I don’t think so!’

I grab one of the gas tank toting workers and toss him up into the air and throw a fireball at him. The tank exploded and noxious purple fumes billow out, obscuring us. The gas envelops the winged attackers shielding them from view and screams ensue as a trickle of dark gray liquid falls from where they approximately were and lands releasing another wave of skull shaped swirls.

We made it too one of the side exits out of the arena, like one an umpire might use, but glowing metal grates covered the way out. Kyanu practically attacked the bars

“Well well well. You thought you could escape!”

Aenoia floated down from her perch with a crocodile's grin.

“Yep!”

I didn’t wait to hear her response. I immediately charged up the blade with 3000 MP and the blade lost all color and became as deep as a black hole. As soon as I released it, a enormous sucking force emanated from in front of me as the blade tore up the ground mercilessly eating everything in it’s path.

“Stop her!”

Aeonia tossed her guards in front of the oncoming black hole and teleported out of the way just as the black hole wiped out the spot she was standing. The black hole like wave of energy ate up all obstacles and gobbled up everything in sight, plowing its way into the side of the arena and creating an escape.

“Let's go!”

But before we could even take a step in the direction of the escape an enormous boom resonated across the arena as bombs fell from the sky.

“DEATH TO THE WEAK! GLORY TO THE STRONG!”

Soldiers dressed in dark blue armor and riding Heaven beasts covered the sky and rained fire down upon the crowds of unsuspecting gods. Thousands of Ruler tier gods armed to the teeth dive bombed the private boxes of the rich and wealthy. Cries rise up from the audience as Heaven class spells bombart the rows and rows of chairs turning everything to ash, flames or blood spatters.

The Rebels had arrived.