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***Norfolk, Northern Ocean***

***Ascathon***

After the fight with the bandaged guy I finally have time to concentrate on other things. The battle around us has ended and there are just a few silver ships on the run. I can count about thirty of them descending towards the sea fleet of the Nation of Mist.

There is no way for our ships to follow them in a close range engagement. The ship we are on is just drifting without control. Jazira's first attack spell fried the bridge, leaving the vessel with no one to control it. There may still be combatants below deck, but it doesn't look like they are interested in challenging us.

My damaged flagship is on it's way towards us while my fleet is gathering again. Den and Fingulf did a good job in keeping order after Celestial and Jazira followed me.

“It's cool that we managed to capture this vessel. Although I don't understand why the enemy just sent their dolls again. You got a lot stronger Celestial. Last time we had a lot of trouble with those elders. They almost defeated us.”

“I trained a lot. And I knew what to expect this time. It's easier if they don't manage surprise attacks because of their freaky healing abilities. But I have to admit that they seemed slower and weaker than the previous ones. Maybe their controllers tried to save mana.” Celestial shares her impressions of the enemy with us.

“This silver armour wasn't very strong either, although it kept rambling about various things during the fight.” Jazira nods while sitting on the silver breastplate.

“And what was it talking about?” Celestial asks with a questioning gaze.

“How the hell should I know? I don't listen to the whining of my opponents. A fight is a fight. Talking can be done later.” Jazira crosses her arms in front of her chest.

“It may have told you what's going on? There are some idiots who do that, you know?” I argue. But I am not a fan of talking to someone I want to kill either, so I understand her reasoning.

“You could have interrogated the bandaged guy. Instead you threw him overboard.” Celestial looks at me angrily.

“Hahahaha. Don't fret about the small stuff. Besides, he didn't look that important.” I scratch my head while I try to shrug the matter off. “So we don't have any high ranking captives who might know what's going on.”

“How about reassembling one of the elders?” Jazira looks at the pile of body parts at Celestial's feet.

Celestial kneels down and tries to reattach one of the heads to the body. The flesh immediately grows back together, but the eyes remain closed and the body stays silent. “Looks like it doesn't work.” Celestial shrugs her shoulders.

“Maybe they have to be reassembled completely. Let me help you.” Jazira gets down beside Celestial to reassemble one of the elders.

I observe their dubious efforts while they discuss the placement of various body parts. A body piece which looks like it belongs to someone else gets attached in the wrong way. A finger is facing the wrong direction.

When their work is done I have a hard time holding back.

“It's an abomination! Once I knew a mad scientist. He was obsessed with creating life. For that purpose he gathered body pieces from graveyards. This looks like one of his works! You even mixed up the gender of some obvious parts. This looks like a mixture of some kind of ghoul and a hermaphrodite!” I burst out.

“Shut up! I tried. But she didn't listen.” Celestial pouts her cheeks.

“I am not good at puzzles! She made too many pieces.” Jazira stabs an accusing finger towards Celestial.

Then the eyes of the thing flick open. It inhales and starts coughing and flailing with its wrongly connected limbs.

“~It's alive!~” Jazira starts to hop like a child and claps with her hands. “See? I told you that it would work!”

“Put the poor thing out of its misery.” Celestial looks at the thing like a sad mother who has to end the life of a baby which was born with a life threatening malformation.

The thing is somehow able to sit up and take a look at its body. “What did you do!”

“An experiment to make contact with you. How about surrendering now, before we start bombarding your sea fleet?” I emphasize that we hold the upper hand at the moment.

The abomination snorts. “I could say the same to you. Surrender now or face the full wrath of our gods! Our summoning ceremony is almost done. There is no chance that you are able to withstand the power of a god.”

I look down at the sea fleet and then to Celestial. “Could this be a part of their stupid game? As I understood it the gods aren't allowed to take action themselves?”

“Maybe they are, if certain conditions are met?” Jazira asks.

Celestial winces. “Like being summoned by your followers.”

“Ahahahaha! It's too late! You may have won the battle, but you lost the war! Our gods are here!” The elder screams and the whole world is dyed in a strange light. I get a dreadful feeling and run to the railing to observe the fleet under us. A huge magic circle appeared. Around the enemy fleet.

“Great! What now? Do you think Lidith may come to help us?” Celestial comments from beside me.

Then the huge magic circle vanishes as fast as it appeared. It was just a light show for the believers after all.

Another person appears on the deck of the ship. And another one. Then a third and a fourth. They have familiar faces. I know those bastards from my vision.

The abomination continues to babble religious nonsense until Jazira decides to shut it up by pointing her middle finger at the thing.

One of the three figures turns towards me. “So we finally meet. Seems like Lidith told you about our little game. I am Charon. This is Aneth and she is Wynne.” The younger one of the two men introduces himself. Lidith is standing a little behind them while looking very unhappy. Seems like she lost a dice roll or something like that.

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“Indeed, she did.” I smile while I grab into my pocket. “That's why I have to ask of you to leave this world and never come back.”

Charon starts to laugh and Aneth puts on a fake smile. “Unfortunately you are in no position to make any demands. We will continue this game until a winner is decided.”

Wynne steps forward. “But we aren't inhumane. If you change your loyalties and abide by our rules, we might overlook you. The game became too imbalanced since your arrival. There are too many overpowered characters on the playing field.”

“I don't know what you are talking about. My loyalty was always to myself.” I pull the fist sized mana crystal out of my pocket.

“It's a matter of the influence you take on this world. Your current actions label you as Lidith's followers. She continues to get points until you change your alignment.” Charon explains.

I hold the crystal in front of me and smile at them. “I don't care about your stupid rules. So I'll make my own from here. First rule, if I die this thing activates. Second rule, if I get pissed this thing activates. And third, if you don't fuck off this thing activates!”

Aneth snorts. “Stupid Immortal. What do you think you could do with a measly creation like that.”

I purse my lips and inspect the big mana crystal. “Oh. To be honest I am not really sure. A whole range of things could happen. Like blowing up the world, or making me a true god. Not a measly imitation like you guys.”

Then everything happens faster than I can comprehend. In one moment Aneth is still standing beside his fellows. In the next he is in front of me and has the mana crystal in his hand with me at his feet.

“You are too full of yourself. Even if you are an Immortal. Taking something away from you is easier than stealing candies from children.” Aneth laughs.

“Just with the difference that children's candies can't kill you!” I give a mental command to the mana crystal in Aneth's hand and he freezes for a second as runes light up on the surface of the crystal and the flesh of his hand starts to sizzle. His face becomes strained as the crystal draws the mana out of the god's body to grow.

I bare my teeth and drive my crystal blade upwards through his chest. The blade starts to glow and mana start to pour out of Aneth while I bath in the pure power of a god. While he still stares at me I grab for the crystal in his hand. “Sorry, I told only half the truth. I never said how this would make me a god.”

Pure mana washes over me and I am almost consumed. It feels like I am floating in a sea of power.

-Master? You should stop. You aren't able to handle that much yet.-

A soft voice reaches my mind and I wonder who it might be. And why is the voice calling me master?

-I am the mana crystal you created from a part of yourself. Until now I was too weak to talk to you. But since you found a sufficient supply of mana I thought tapping into it wouldn't be a problem.-

You are the mana crystal from that accident? Why can you talk?

-Because master created me by using not only his mana, but a part of his soul. If you allow me to control the flow of mana, I can get you out of this situation. Otherwise you might burn up like a light bulb on too much power.-

You are convenient. Though I don't feel bad at all?

-That's just subjective. If you go a little further you'll break. It's like being on a drug. I can store the mana away for later. But you won't be able to catch his soul like you planned at first.-

Fine. Although it'll be troublesome if he revives. How should I call you by the way.

-It'll be more troublesome if we die here. You can choose a name. I am just something like a second personality of yours anyway.-

It sounds like I just went schizophrenic. Fine, I'll call you Warden since you protected me.

Then the flow of pure power stops. Aneth looks pale and powerless. There isn't an ounce of mana left inside of him. I pull the blade from his chest and he falls to his knees while spurting blood. “I'll get you for this! This won't end with my death!”

“Yes, but it'll take at least some time for you to reincarnate.” My blade flashes once and Aneth's head rolls over the deck.

Then I turn to the other gods. Wynne is staring in shock at her dead comrade and Charon grins crazily at the unforeseen disappearance of a competitor.

“So? How about a little bout? I feel like taking on a god! Although it's sad that I wasn't able to catch the idiot's soul because controlling this power is a little complicated.”

Charon smiles. “Maybe another day. There is too much of an imbalance of power here. And I guess that Lidith won't fight on our side.” He disappears with Wynne.

Lidith walks over and kicks Aneth's head like a football over the railing. “Hahaha! I always wanted to do that!” Then she looks at me. “But he'll be mad as hell when he reincarnates.”

“Shouldn't we follow your friends and deal with them now?” I signal at the empty spot where Charon and Wynne disappeared.

Lidith shakes her head. “Better not. They didn't fight here because they wouldn't have had the upper hand and it would've been two on two. But I still think that we aren't able to overpower them. They won't grab that crystal after seeing what it did to Aneth. I guess the game is on a hold for a few years until he is reborn and returns.”

I nod and turn my attention towards the mana crystal in my chest plate. But there is no answer. No matter how much I concentrate, the crystal stays silent. Was it my imagination? Or did it go dormant again without the steady supply of mana?

Something bulldozes into me from the side and I find myself being hugged by Celestial. “Don't do that again! I thought I had lost you in that pillar of light.”

Only now I realize the smouldering circle around me.

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