"Alright!" Called Gabriel from his position. "Is everyone in position?" We'd finished altering the final aspect of the ritual and we managed to get it done in time. Now the building power was being rerouted and was about to crescendo, and we were all tense and readying ourselves for this fight.

Nasha called out from her spot towards the back of the temple. "Binding team one is ready!"

"Binding team two is ready!" Shouted a voice from the back I didn't recognize. It was echoed by two more, four binding teams for four limbs. Despite her stats being roughly the same as ours, Suvaya had been a god. We had no idea what kind of beneficial effects that would bring, even without her own flesh to craft her body, her soul was bound to be freakishly powerful.

Our only potential saving grace was that her Impact couldn't withstand a soul that was too much more powerful. Two ranks was the hard limit for base level Impact, but she'd been a god. Which meant she was likely going to be at LEAST Master Candidate level with EVERY SKILL. She would be like Abel on steroids.

"We've got incoming!" Bellowed Bethy. I grimaced and triggered my poison fire, readying my staff. Callie drew her daggers and took up a position at my side, both of us turned slightly to protect each others blind spots. As we watched, the light from the lens condensed, shooting right down to the altar in the center of the room.

The white, milky stone absorbed the light, beginning to glow with an unearthly radiance. As we watched, lightning began to play along the runes on the floor, jumping back and forth in short arcs. As it approached the walls and then climbed them, the runes increased in power, as did the electricity, until it hit the rim of the lens and condensed into an eye of lightning above the altar.

A beam of condensed electricity slammed down into the glowing stone, and the power coursed through the rock, bouncing back and forth and increasing in strength. I saw a lot of the power arc off though, and it was obvious that not having her body to work from and having to use the backup was costing her most of the stats she'd saved up from the conduits.

Despite the leakage, I saw the stone begin to flake and crumble, bits of it falling off and chipping away with each arc until it was all gone and all that remained was a female body. The electricity condensed into a set of flowing silver robes and then hair, and with an explosion of power, Suvaya, goddess of the moon, stood and took her first breath in the mortal world for thousands of years.

Eyes still closed, she tilted her head back, exhaling the same silvery mist that condensed over the lightblooms. As she did, her skin shifted, changing to become actual flesh from the stone it had been. Her eyes opened, swirling silver orbs that seemed to focus on all of us and none of us.

"Blood of my destroyers." She purred, her head cocking to one side like a hungry cat. "You've robbed me of my flesh." She glanced down at herself. "This form is...weak. You've killed my chosen. Or at least, most of them. Is that my own daughter I see behind you?"

Satala flinched, but took a deep breath and pulled herself up straight. "Yes, mother. It is. This ritual was wrong. Our own people were going to be harvested. The descendants of those we swore to protect. I understand your anger, but I refuse to allow this."

"You...understand my anger?" Said the goddess coldly. "You understand NOTHING!" Her eyes were wide with rage as she hissed at her daughter. "You accomplished nothing in your life I didn't give you. I CREATED you. And now you side with our enemies over some thin blooded descendants of the sheep who fawned over you?"

The younger silver haired woman looked wounded. "Mother, you taught me guarding our flock was our most important duty. That we needed to protect them above all else."

Suvaya laughed, a harsh, brittle sound. "Our flock? Tell me, do you think the inhabitants of this barren rock are all the descendants of those who worshipped me? Do you think I became a goddess on the belief of a few thousand or even a few million adherents? Where are the rest, Satala? Where are the prayers, the devotions, where are the beliefs? Why are the only worshippers I sense a few hidden cultists caught in this trap of my own devising?"

Seeing her daughter at a loss, the goddess smiled cruelly. "They're gone. All of them. Not dead, not at first. Defected. I was cast down, and they all turned their backs. Only a few of them made their way to this place when I called, before I was able to erect the distortions keeping the dungeon hidden. The rest turned their adoration to others, to the very gods that killed me. Tell me, then, what care I should show them? What duty I have?"

"But the ones who came were your most faithful!" Protested Satala. "They stood by you through the worst. Their descendants deserve our respect and loyalty."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Their descendants deserve NOTHING!" Roared the maddened goddess. "Simpering cowards too weak to make their way without me. Did they speak up when the others left? Did they spread the word of their goddess? Look at the state of them. A fringe cult hidden inside a population of millions, barely any worship to speak of."

I decided pointing out how hypocritical it was being pissed at the ones who betrayed her and the ones that didn't equally wasn't a great idea, so I kept quiet, but my hand tightened around my staff as I readied for combat.

Satala shook her head sadly. "You've lost your way. I refuse to stand by while you do this. I won't attack you, mother, I could never, but I stand with our people. Take that as you will." Her tone was blunt and forceful and her jaw was clenched stubbornly as she spoke. It was clear she meant every word of it. Which was a good distraction for the skeletal hand that erupted from the floor to grab onto Suvaya's left arm.

The goddess's silver eyes narrowed in rage, but before she could react, a massive root ripped out of the ground and encircled her leg up to the knee, then a golden chain encircled her other leg, while the tail of a massive ethereal fox grabbed her remaining wrist. All four binding teams had moved like a well oiled machine to lock her down.

Bethy stepped forward, ripping open her palms and splattering her blood on the floor. As the blood touched the stone ripples of change rolled across the ground. Grass grew, the earth shifted, and as we watched in shock a hill under a blood red sky manifested in the real world.

Our usually jovial and flighty vampire friend was glaring at the goddess, her eyes blood red all the way through, no iris or pupil, even as blood dripped from her tear ducts. Despite the sky, there was no moon, with the red light beaming from behind the clouds and illuminating the hillside.

"Domain." I murmured in shock. That made a bit of sense, considering all the stories about the Vampire, but it opened up so many more questions. Those would have to wait though, because it was clear Bethy couldn't hold this for long.

Above us, a green bear with six arms roared in defiance as Abel and Jessie pulled their new trick, and several other groups triggered invocations, lashing out at the restrained former deity. Fists, blades, animals, poison, every one of us let loose at her. I triggered Double Trouble, slamming the butt of my staff into the base of her skull with Mercy Kill, Marked for Death, Flurry of Blows, and any other useful ability I could manage tacked on.

Her head jerked forward with a hiss and she whirled to glare at me, tearing THROUGH the skeletal binding and the root as she dove for me. There was a rush of darkness and cold as Callie yanked me through my own shadow, pulling me out of the way as the goddess's fist slammed into the air where I'd been so hard that the shockwave cracked the stone. Abel's condensed green punch smashed into the back of her head, pitching her forward, even as Gabriel's lance slammed into her kidney.

Snarling, she stomped down hard, tearing away the last two bindings with an explosion of force as she cratered the stone beneath herself and unleashed a wave of white flame that threw everyone back and off their feet. Abel, Jessie, Randall, and Benny, who were trying to recover, would have been sitting ducks for that burst except Valk erected a shield of blue gel in front of them to soak up the fire, though it started melting on contact.

Callie hissed in distress as she looked around. "Shit!" She cursed. "We lost all four binding teams and like eight of the attack teams."

"Gods, are they dead?" I asked in horror. "And thanks for saving me there Cal, if my head had still been there you'd have had to hose me off the walls."

"Of course." She said with a wan smile. "And no, not dead as far as I can tell, the breaking of the bindings soaked up a lot of the damage. Unconscious though, and not in good shape. I managed to pick up which were the worst when I was in the shadows, Jessie is already on it. We need someone to pin her down while we get situated again! If we can't catch our breath we're screwed!"

Suvaya spun in circles, staring at the blood colored light and washed out grass until she finally found Bethy. Our vampire friend was still up, though she was nursing a broken and burned leg. Yvette appeared in front of her, Satala next to her. The goddess sneered at her daughter. "I thought you couldn't bear to harm me?"

"I can't." Said the silver haired girl sadly. "But I can't let you hurt my friend either. Bethany has been nothing but kind to me. I can't just stand by while you harm her."

While she stalled, I was trying to get my head on straight. This temple was big, but we'd decided early on that trying to mob her would just result in casualties. Most of the weaker members of the raid had been sorted into the teams, tens or more of them helping fuel invocations to minimize the attack vectors. Unfortunately the attack that had crushed so many of those manifestations had knocked out a ton of people.

I caught Gabriel's eye, and he gestured for me to come over. Snagging Callie I triggered Double Trouble, appearing behind him without covering the intervening space. "Ok, what the hell do we do?" I asked the crusader tensely. "This is a fucking train wreck, we've got dozens of wounded, and potentially a few dead. We planned this out to the most minute detail and it still wasn't enough."

Looking to where Yvette had engaged Suvaya with Satala supporting defensively to protect Bethy, I grimaced at the image of them getting knocked around. Bethy's Domain was weakening the fallen goddess, and it still wasn't enough to offset the advantage. Not in raw power, but in sheer skill level.

He grimaced, then looked to me and then Abel. He frowned slightly, then nodded. "Alright. I think I have an idea. We need to get over to where Apollyon is. We might have a way to offset her advantage, but it's going to be tough to pull off, and I'm going to need to teach you both some more about Paths." I winced. I had a feeling this was going to be tough to pull off.