Arthur flexed the gauntlets of his Atlas Armor, it was fully upgraded to be compatible and amplify all his physical abilities. Around him fifty other champions each in their own unique set of Atlas Armor configured to themselves all stood in nervous silence.
A god emerged in front of them.
“So you’re the mortals that thought I needed their help,” the god said crossing their arms. “I should strike you down for your impudence.”
Hundar, God of Storms & Lightning, Gifted- deity/ Fysitheon, Rank: ????
Arthur looked at his name and felt a vein throb in his forehead.
“Why are you the one going after Mordred?” he snapped amazed by the fearlessness and rage in his voice.
Hundar took a step back, a look of shock and surprise crossing his face before his arrogance reasserted itself.
“How dare you…” he began.
“Mordred is immune to lightning damage,” Arthur said cutting him off. “You are literally the worst god that could be sent against him.”
The other champions didn’t’ join in but there was a shift in the air.
“Should we call off the raid and wait for the next god?” Lancelot asked.
“You dare imply that I will fail?” Hundar asked quickly, becoming incensed.
“Enough,” a cold female voice said as Viviane stepped into the mortal realm. “There are reasons we have let Hundar be second to try and fight Mordred. You will go with him, he may not be able to damage Mordred with his lightning but he also cannot be damaged by it either and he can extend that protection to the rest of you.”
“Yes, my goddess,” Arthur said bowing his head to her.
“I didn’t need your help,” Hundar said crossing his arms.
“What were you going to do?” Viviane asked scathingly. “Strike down someone else’s champion and get sanctioned by the System? They are Champions they can talk to you however they like and you can’t do anything about it, stop being a child.”
Hundar’s jaw clenched but he said nothing further. His hand stretched out his face contorting with strain as he began to rip a hole between one reality and another. A black portal opened before him stretching wider and wider as it opened to accommodate the Champions in their hulking Atlas Armor. Hundar strode forwards stepping through the portal first. Arthur stepped in after him followed by the other forty-nine champions.
Arthur’s eyes adjusted to the darkness of the Void as he looked around him. It was not the same as when his soul had dangled into the abyss at risk of being lost and devoured by the creatures that dwelt within. This place was different, not an empty abyss but no less alien or terrifying. A ziggurat city glowing with silver light stood on the horizon a black sun hanging above it. Eldritch trees, recognizable as such but bearing no clear resemblance to any tree in the mortal realm grew all across the city their roots twisting across every surface. A floating rock hung above the city a temple built atop it.
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“You should not have come,” a booming malevolent voice called out.
A whistling filled the air, it was hard to see in the light at first but over two-hundred-and-fifty points of Perception let him see the cloud of projectiles raining down. He rolled to the side a boulder larger around than he was in his armor crashed down fracturing the ground around them dropping them into a black abyss.
Golden wings of pure light emerged from Arthur’s back as he took to the air. There wasn’t a champion in attendance that didn’t have a flight ability of some kind; fortunate for them since not having one would have doomed them to falling for eternity through the Void until they starved to death or the protections on their armor gave out and the Void overcame them.
Excalibur flashed out deflecting arrows, bolts of fire and ice; it cleaved another boulder in two but them didn’t seem to be end to the deluge of attacks. Hundar didn’t wait for them, his body transforming into a bolt of lightning and hurtling towards the city.
“Advance!” Arthur called out and the Champions followed the reckless god of storms.
The Champions moved forwards though some were not as nimble or able to defend from the attacks as easily as possible their armor taking repeated hits. Arthur ducked, rolled and deflected the attacks in his path before his boots hit the ground of the city. He had struck with the force an enchanted siege engine, but the stone didn’t so much as crack under his foot. Excalibur slashed at one of the alien trees he could sense the nature of them, somehow giving Mordred strength.
The sword sliced right through the trunk like a hot knife through butter, but the tree remained standing, not a scratch on its trunk. Arthur slashed again but not so much as a leaf fluttered to the ground. Finally, a System message reached him.
Trees of Sacrifice are part of a singular larger ecosystem, while they may appear as individual trees they are in truth one singular entity. In order to damage or destroy any of them all of them must be destroyed at the same time.
Arthur cursed but moved on, these trees couldn’t be easily destroyed and his goal was to kill Mordred not weaken him and wouldn’t be distracted. The city seemed empty, they had arrived moments before but there was no one. Mordred was known to keep civilians as human shields but no one was on the streets. Their weren’t even warriors the attacks having ceased once they reached the walls.
It was almost as if Mordred had been…forewarned.
“Whose been making back deals with that devil?” Arthur asked himself as he moved up the street.
No warrior rushed into the street to block his path, no traps dropped the ground out from under his feet. Kicking off the ground Arthur took to the air again looking around, lightning flashed atop the mountain. He shot forwards and slammed into an invisible wall. Arthur dropped to the ground and slashed at the barrier but it didn’t give way.
His breath heaving with frustration Arthur stopped his desperate slashing at the barrier. He analyzed it, no System notification appeared but he still recognized it. It was the same type of barrier that Merlin had erected for the duel between him and Mordred in Camelot. Just as those inside couldn’t break out those outside couldn’t break in. You had to destroy the dome’s entire durability in one single hit, no chipping away at. Arthur was powerful and he might build up that power of the course of a duel but only the god Hundar was powerful enough among those that had come here to break it.
That was unlikely to happen, the god was locked in combat with Mordred and his vassals; he was to proud to ever admit he needed help. Arthur watched as Guinevere appeared in the battle, her hair moved with a life of its own extending like the tentacles of a kraken the god slashed at her hair but the strands seemed strong as adamantine. He turned to lightning escaping the strangling strands but Arthur already knew how this fight would end.
Artrix had died, whether he had been killed by Mordred or not was irrelevant. One god was not enough to face Mordred, that had already been proven. They had to make Mordred drop the dome on his own. Arthur turned and strode out into the city, there had to be something out here that Mordred would care about enough to have to drop the barrier and come out to fight, then they would kill him.