What is a god?
Rage stabbed his trident out and pointed it toward the dark-skinned captain. "Row Liquid Spear." The liquid in the air swirled and compressed into jagged tips, which launched forward.
Myth swung his book through the air and slapped one of the spears away. He easily dodged the second one and zipped over with a mana step, ramming his knee directly into Rage's gut. The horse monster spat out in pain and tried to recover, but the captain was faster, swinging the book again and ramming it into the fish man's snout, shattering it and throwing him back.
Rage tumbled across the ground and jammed his trident into the floor, breaking his fall. He went to glare up at Myth, but his vision was bathed in gold as several orbs appeared and smashed along his body, flickering against his mana shield.
It seemed Myth wasn't the only combatant.
Susie stood next to the downed Sieg and created more orbs, launching them at the sea monster. While she did that, Max slammed his fist into a nearby statue, shattering it, and then he picked up the biggest piece of rock and hurled it toward Rage.
Rage twisted his trident and began to swat the orbs and rocks out of the air. "Row Shadow Vault." Several black hands exploded out, and he sent them toward the squires. Max grabbed Sieg and Sera and dodged out of the way while Susie was picked up by Myth, who kicked out with his foot, shattering the hands.
"Cover me for a moment." Myth yelled.
"Right!" Susie created more orbs, launching them Rage's way, while Myth started to run, keeping her on his shoulder. Rage gave chase, dodging her orbs, and she was forced to go on the defensive, turning her orbs into thin disks as Rage fired his liquid spears and black hands out. As this was happening, Myth was awkwardly going through his book, turning through the different pages.
Asking what a god is is such a complex question. Many people would likely have many different answers. For some, they would claim that a god was someone with a lot of power, strength that was unmatched, and that they could never be beaten. To be a god, you'd need to be a supreme being. Another person might claim that a god is actually a being able to create anything. An entity that can shape the universe with a single thought. And some still would have their own ideas on what a god is.
Susie dodged around the side of a building and created a larger golden barrier right as Rage reached her. His trident slammed into her shield once, twice, and then the third hit shattered it completely, spilling golden mana everywhere.
Rage swung out again, ready to take her head off, but at the last second before the blow could land, Myth twisted and kicked out with his leg, smacking the monster away and giving him just enough time to find what he had been looking for.
"Bingo." Myth grinned and grabbed the page in question. "I've written over one hundred entries. By studying those who have come before us and learning their stories, I can implant shades of their former lives within my tome. These shades are nothing more than shadows of their former selves. They lack proper souls and memories, and their power can not be greater than my own. That said, they still have the abilities and skills that they once had in life. Ril Necromancy Rebirth." Myth tossed the torn page into the air.
The page kept tearing and regrowing, multiplying into other pages, which all began to weave together into a shape. A figure dropped down before Rage, and the horseman came to a sudden stop, his eyes narrowing.
The construct Myth created appeared as an extremely young man. So young, he might have actually been compared to a child. His eyes were blank and expressionless, lacking all life, and he had shaggy black hair that was tied back into a ponytail and several scars that ran along his pale face. He wore loose black robes and carried a katana at his side, whose blade was covered in various flower petals.
Myth finally stopped running and gave a large grin in Rage's direction. "You likely don't know who this guy is-"
"I've met him plenty of times." Rage's lips curled into a twisted smile. "It has been a while, hasn't it, Lord Oda?"
Lord Hana Oda, the first Shogun of the Mordheim nation, the inventor of the Core Masks and the creator of the Spell Swords, flashed forward and appeared behind Rage, splitting the monster's shoulder open.
Rage growled and spun around, swinging his trident out, but Oda parried it away with his sword and from his robes produced a smaller blade, which slashed into Rage's stomach, spilling more of his blood. The swordsman then switched hands, shifting the smaller blade and the larger one to opposite sides, and began to unleash a flurry of blows.
Rage did his best to block them, but the first Shogun was fast and nimble, going in and out of his guard, and his rapid switching of the blades made it hard to follow which swing would leave a deep wound and which one would be shallow.
Myth watched the fight and grinned. "Blast him with golden orbs. Don't worry about hitting the construct, I can make another one if I need to."
"Why don't you just make a bunch and send them all out at once?" Susie asked.
Myth shook his head. "I can make multiple copies of weak beings that fall into the Row or Vil category, but anything above that, and I'm limited to just one. Oda is a Ril level, so I can't have him and another construct out. This spell is also a bit difficult to maintain and requires a ton of mana. I'm not really able to fight and keep it on at the same time."
"Isn't that worse than? Oda is weaker than you, right?"
"The real Oda would be a lot stronger, but this one is weaker, yes. That said, power isn't everything. Oda was a master swordsman. In a lot of his legends, he fought beings like the Dragon Emperor Sigurd and managed to impress him despite their vast power differences. Oda is someone used to fighting foes far above him in terms of strength, and so he's pretty useful as a trump card. Hopefully, we can stall this guy out until Laerton gets here. My Vow spell isn't that good, but hers packs quite the punch and could take this guy out in one hit."
"Really?" Susie began to get a lot more respect for her captain. She created more golden orbs and sent them flying at Rage while he and Oda continued their dance.
Since the term "God" could mean multiple things, it was often debated whether beings like Haru or the Almighty were Gods. After all, the Almighty created the world and the angels, who then went on to make the other races, and Haru was said to be so powerful that she could basically do anything she wanted. Some believed she could even kill the Almighty. When it came to these two, calling them Gods made sense, but what of other beings? Throughout history, there have been men and women who claimed the title of God.
These were beings such as the God of the Underworld, the God of the Moon, and the God of the Sea…
Rage growled as the golden orbs smashed into his back. His mana skin was able to block them well enough, but they did stagger him, and Oda's blades would slice through it, splitting into his flesh. The construct was only slightly weaker than Myth, and Myth was around his level of strength, meaning the fake Oda could hurt him easily enough.
"Enough." Rage smashed his trident forward, ignoring the orbs slamming into his back. His blow shattered the large sword Oda had. It almost fully took Oda's head off, but before the blow could land, Max came rocketing in and slammed a punch directly to Rage's face. The attack barely did any damage, but it caused the trident to curve just slightly, and it stabbed past Oda, who jumped back. "You're annoying." Rage shot a fist out toward Max's face, but a bolt of lightning dropped from the sky and slammed into his wrist.
"Funny." Sieg flashed over and jammed his spear into Rage's gut. "I can say the same about you."
Thanks to Sera's healing, he was feeling a lot better and no longer bleeding out. His golden armor reformed, and he struck Rage again, zipping out of the monster's trident swing.
Rage glared at Sieg, Max, and Oda, who all three began to weave around him at rapid speeds. While that happened, Susie created more golden orbs, and Sera got ready to heal anyone by shrinking their wounds if they got hurt.
Myth studied the monster with narrowed eyes. "He's strong. We've only managed to do this well thanks to the others who beat on him also. He's been spamming so many spells and mana shields, yet I don't even sense if we've made a sizable dent in his mana reserves. We need to keep up the pressure. Oda!" Myth's mana reached its peak, and he forced more power into his construct, repairing the broken sword.
"I'll kill you all." Rage spat out. "All of you aren't real. You're all just fakes. Fakes living in a fake world that was brought about after mine came to an end! I will save my world! I'll mend the wrongs! I'll fix it all here and now! Ril Shadow Vault." Rage's mana surged out like a wild sea spreading across the ground. It was dense, and everyone suddenly felt as if they were being trapped in a sticky liquid. "The depths of the ocean. A cold void of nothingness. Face my despair. Face my rage."
Everyone became trapped in a pitch-black space as enough mana to block out the false sun above lifted off Rage. It was like being in Davi's vault and was equally as cold. Ice began to rapidly grow across the flesh, but that wasn't all. The gravity was intense. As if their bodies were being compressed down. The ground vanished beneath them all, and they found themselves floating in that sea of cold darkness.
It was like being in the ocean.
And Rage was made for this.
The manifestation of one's inner world was a powerful thing. Here, in the bottomless sea that was Rage's inner world, he was at home.
Rage laughed and began to cast a series of spells.
"Row Liquid Spear!"
"Row Liquid Sword!"
"Row Liquid Dragon!"
"Row Shadow Vault!"
"Vil Shadow Vault!"
"Ril Liquid Annihilation!"
Spell after spell, Rage launched his attacks. Spears of black water that blended in the darkness struck out at them all, followed by jagged blades and dragonic heads. Shadowy hands wrapped around their limbs and bodies, keeping them all trapped in place, and the very darkness itself shook and began to erupt with a powerful, explosive wave of mana.
Myth let out a yell of pain as several dragon heads ripped into his flesh. Susie screamed as a spear rammed through her stomach and legs. Sera made terrible choking noises as the hands began to snap her bones and strangle her neck. Max flailed around as he caught on fire and began to burn and freeze at the same time.
Finally, that left Sieg. Hands gripped his body, dragon heads bit into his flesh, and spears and swords carved into him, but he kept his cool and stared at the laughing Rage.
His body began to change once more. Thick, branch-like horns grew from his head, and a jagged, scaled tail tore its way out of his rear. His fingers extended into claws, and Sieg smiled.
"Oh, you seriously fucked up." Sieg's body began to glow with a mix of golden lightning and black fire. "I have the same power as my brother when my Core Mask is on. Bringing me to a void of darkness when half my power is based on shadows wasn't the brightest move. Vil Electric-Shadow Bolt!"
Normally, his attack would drop from the sky, but by using the shadow version, he could summon it through shadows, and it just so happened that everywhere was covered in shadows.
The golden bolt appeared directly on Rage's eye, spawning on his body, and the beast screamed as his eyeball exploded.
"Vil Electric-Shadow Bolt!" The second bolt appeared in Rage's open mouth, traveling down his throat and exploding in his gut. "Vil Electric-Shadow Bolt! Vil Electric-Shadow Bolt! Vil Electric-Shadow Bolt!"
The bolts all spawned somewhere on or in Rage's body, bypassing his mana skin entirely. The world was truly lucky that Davi lacked a proper offensive bolt spell; otherwise, he could have also done something like this.
Sieg used spell after spell until his mana began to run low, and he only had a single Vil level spell left in him. He gritted his teeth and gripped his spear as hard as he could. Sieg surged forward, being carried by the lightning and the darkness, ripping his way out of the shadowy hands, and he reached Rage, smashing his spear into the monster's gut once again.
His lightning flowed, igniting the darkness, and it twisted into the shadow of a bow. He didn't fire it like a traditional weapon. He never actually had to create momentum or pull his arrows back. Rather, his attacks were more akin to a railgun.
"Vil!" The attack began to charge up. "Electric-Shadow!" The arrow began to spin, digging into Rage's cut and shoving its way into his hide. "Railgun!"
The entire sea of darkness shook, and then it shattered, the black liquid falling around them, allowing the rays of the sun to shine down. The spear rammed through Rage and carried the monster back, breaking his concentration on his spell, and sent him smashing into the wall of the castle so hard it began to shake and crumble.
Off to the side, Sunny and Princess Ever watched on in awe. "D-Did they do it?" The princess asked.
The rubble shook, and Rage came tearing his way out of it. Most of his flesh was gone, and he was now sporting a gaping hole through his stomach, but even despite that, he looked ready to kill.
"You just had to ask," Sunny said flatly.
"My bad."
Rage came stomping toward the downed Sieg, who collapsed to his knees due to exhaustion, but before the monster could run him through, Myth came rocketing forward and slammed his hand into Rage's stomach and tore out a handful of his guts. Oda then flickered over, his body rapidly breaking down due to the damage Myth sustained, but before he shattered for good, he sliced out with his sword once more and tore Rage's hand clean off his body.
Red blood gushed out of Rage's stump, and he howled. Myth felt a wave of pain as he was backhanded away. "I'm done with you all! To think, I've been brought to this point. I've almost been forced to use my Resurrection. How disgusting. I am a god! I am a being older than your world! You are all nothing! Nothing! Not even side characters in the script of the universe! How dare you fight back-"
Sera weakly reached out and placed her hand on Rage while he was distracted. "Row Size Alteration."
The gap in Rage's stomach began to expand, growing larger, causing his flesh and muscles to twist and tear. The monster's eyes widened, and he attempted to cancel the spell. His own mana was far stronger than Sera's, and he was able to shut it down, but the damage was done, and his already bad stomach wound had nearly doubled in size, more of his guts spilling out of his body.
Max copied what his captain did earlier and slammed into Rage, grabbing the guts and organs, and he pulled back, tearing as many of them out as he could. While he did that, Susie charged up another golden core and blasted out, smashing it into Rage's remaining eye.
That bought Myth just enough time to compress his mana around his fist, and with a roar, he mana-stepped over and unleashed a mana strike right into Rage's throat, shattering his neck and windpipes! The monster was blasted back and rolled across the ground before finally stopping.
Myth breathed heavily, smoke rising off his fist. "Susie! Keep blasting him! I'm not trusting it! Turn that fucker into a stain on the ground!"
"With pleasure!" Susie fired out a wave of her golden orbs. Rage's body didn't move, and he was no longer able to defend himself with a mana skin. Her strike tore off both his feet, then she ripped his legs apart. After that, she targeted his good arm, tearing that limb off as well with her orbs before finally blasting him full of extra holes, mangling his body.
"No!" A voice suddenly cried out, and Susie turned baffled when she saw Ken and Olivia, both of whom were fully healed now. Ken stared at the mangled body of Rage in horror. "I wanted to do that!"
"You're with Phoenix Flight, right?" Myth raised an eyebrow. "How are the others?"
"Some of your guildmates are dead," Ken said casually.
"What!" Myth's eyes widened in horror, and he stomped over. It was at that point that the others in the castle began to all spill out as well. Myth turned to his group and got a status report while most of the Phoenix Flight gang checked on Susie and Sieg.
While all that happened, Olivia and Ash both broke away from the group and made their way over to the body of Rage.
'Bump, bump.'
'Bump, bump.'
'Bump, bump.'
A heartbeat.
Olivia stared down at the mangled remains and sensed the heart within it beating. He was still alive. Just barely. Ash stared at the body in disgust. There was barely anything left, but he could also sense it. The weakest traces of life cling to their form.
"We're going to kill him, right?"
"Yeah." Olivia drew the cursed dagger Davi had given her and knelt down. Ash did the same. He placed his hands over hers, and together the two of them lined the blade up with Rage's heart.
'Bump, bump.'
'Bump, bump.'
'Bump, bump.'
The knife plunged down.
The sea god was a being people used to worship. Long, long ago, when humans were fleeing the elves, Han Yuan would pass around tales of a god that slept deep beneath the ocean's waves. A being of power who rivaled the Knights of Haru. He called himself Neptune, and many people believe that Sylas created the P.O.S.E.I.D.O.N. super weapon off of him, for that was how great his power was.
In the end, the sea god was said to have died and faded away from this world.
'Hey. Did you know, in order for some to resurrect, they have to die?'
Rage's heart stopped. He died.
Neptune's eyes opened. His resurrection activated.
Olivia felt her arms being shoved up, and the knife was forced out of Rage's body. Everyone froze as an immense amount of mana erupted out of Rage, even stronger than it had been moments ago. The force of it blasted Ash and Olivia back. Ash was sent flying, but Olivia thankfully crashed into the arms of Ken, who just barely caught her.
Suddenly, the entire dungeon began to shake, and far, far above, the sky twisted and opened. Myth's eyes widened in shock when he saw… A blue sky? No. More than that. It was his sky. The sky of his planet. A hole outside of the dungeon to the real world opened up, and he realized why.
The sun, the real sun, the realm of the Lord of Order, twisted and turned, and the eye of the ball of fire stared directly at them, at Rage. The Lord of Order was looking at Rage. Just like when Father used his Vow level spell, Rage was using so much mana that a Vow was being forged. One in which the administrator of Vows was taking a personal interest.
Suddenly, a beam of light fired from the sun and crashed through the hole in their dungeon. It rammed into Rage's corpse, and then just like that, the sun turned away, and the hole in the dungeon closed.
The Lord of Order gazed upon the Vow being made and came to a decision on it. One that would be very bad for all of them.
The light compressed around Rage's form, and he began to rapidly change. His scales faded, but he remained with his greenish skin. His face shifted and caved in, all the damage fading away. Gone was the horse head, and instead, he sported a very human face, long blue hair growing and flowing down his back. His arms became muscular and strong, and his trident flew back into his hand. At his waist, his body expanded, and instead of growing normal legs, the body of a horse morphed out, four hooved feet slamming down. The fur remained scaly and fish-like, and Rage let out a deep sigh.
"Looks like I was forced to use my Resurrection." His voice came out smooth and cool, and he smiled. "Congrats. You get to see one of our true forms. By killing the vessel, I've been able to truly emerge and step into this false narrative. Behold your God. Behold Neptune. Lord of the Sea. The greatest Argonaut. Witness a death far too good for any of you."