The voice of that being was a paradox: dominant yet serene, as if it were not threatening, but simply proclaiming universal truths. Although it possessed no physical eyes, we all felt the weight of its gaze judging us from the heights of the reddish firmament.
The aura of oppression was immense, the presence of a true, consummated god... but a false one. Both Elise and I could perceive the crack in its majesty. All that display of power, while impressive to a mortal, was nothing more than a facade held together by threads. Not only because of my intervention in destroying the urn, but because the deity was still hungry; it still needed to recover its energy… and that was what the previous sacrifices were for.
The rivers of bloody sludge and the mass of seething corpses stirred with renewed hunger. That was its nourishment. The way this god of death would regain its power. I didn't know exactly what its divinity was… but considering it fed on sacrifices and the death of countless beings, nothing good could come of it.
And I didn't intend to allow this incomplete "god" to recover any more of its power.
Leaving the girls behind to cover my rear, I lunged toward the temple. The bloody mass began to defy gravity, crawling up the stone walls of the zigurat in a desperate attempt to reach its master at the summit.
As I reached the first steps, I extended my hands and unleashed my own will upon the fluid, trying to control that mass to prevent it from rising further. It was difficult. I had to exert enormous force, and I barely managed to contain part of those rivers of blood… but it was enough.
Using my Blood Magic, I began to tear through the crimson rivers, pushing the remains of the corpses to the sides, breaking the upward flow, and slamming the biological mass against the temple walls. Every drop of blood I diverted was a gram of power I temporarily snatched from the deity.
"Mortals? You possess no faith in me... and I feel your hatred vibrating in the air," the God of Massacre declared with its imperturbable voice. "Your intervention is futile. I have returned, and death is the only constant. Surrender and allow the end to lead you to me."
Before, it had only observed everything after its arrival as if we were insignificant ants. Only then, seeing how I sabotaged its sustenance, did the deity spare me a true glance… and even then, its contempt sounded natural. Right. As if I were something that simply ought to disappear.
I only laughed.
I was pushing myself to the limit to contain the bloody mass. It was not easy to fight the power of a god. I couldn't stop all of it… but I could stop a considerable portion.
"You shall all die. And I am the one who dictates your hour."
It pronounced this with solemnity, as if our end had already been written in stone. As if it were our inevitable destiny.
The sphere considered us nothing more than a stone in the road. It seemed to move without truly moving—or something similar—and the aura of the environment shifted abruptly.
From the rivers of corpses, deformed bodies began to rise. Only bone and muscle, forming humanoid structures with enormous claws and mouths full of razor-sharp teeth. They were monstrosities. Servants of that god of death. Horrible, decadent… and terrifying.
Though not all were in the same state.
Among the horde, some better-developed creatures stood out: they were the former leaders and cultists, reanimated and twisted into these abject forms. They had been revived… turned into those things. I didn't know what they would think if they knew this was the "life after death" their religion had promised them.
Those humanoid creatures leaped toward me, while the more distant ones headed for Hannah and the others. They wanted to kill us… and it was logical. That being was a god of death, or something very close to it. For this deity, the fact that we had survived its appearance and its oppressive aura was an insult, but at the same time, it proved our strength. Our death would feed its power… and it would also be a perfect symbolic victory for its return.
"Die… and be part of the dark end of all things…"
It decreed, but before it could complete its proclamation, a pillar of incandescent light tore through the reddish sky and struck the sphere directly.
It was an unexpected attack… from the strongest piece of our team.
Elise was already soaring through the skies, her horn flashing as she charged a second discharge of divine energy. The God fell silent. For the first time since its awakening, the calm of its voice was replaced by an icy silence, and I could feel the currents of blood being sucked toward the summit with desperate urgency.
I suppose it didn't expect the presence of someone like Elise: another divine being… even if she only possessed the power of a demigod.
I had destroyed one of the urns and was now delaying its recovery. It wasn't at its maximum power… and, in fact, it wouldn't have been even if we hadn't intervened. To restore itself even to the level of a lesser god, it still needed time. Even so, ultimately, I was a mere nuisance to it... but the presence of another divine being turned its situation into a true nightmare.
After its return, it didn't expect to find individuals with our power to face it. No gods were supposed to be left… and now it was in a truly complicated situation.
We didn't hear it say anything else. It no longer acted like an omnipotent being proclaiming from the heavens. Its omnipresent attention focused on Elise.
Before, it hadn't noticed her power. It had just resurfaced, and Elise—as an avatar with demigod power—wouldn't have been striking enough to be worthy of its immediate attention. But now… she was a dangerous thorn.
Especially while I was holding back its power "recharge."
"DIE!"
The cry echoed… and everything seemed to accelerate in a single instant.
The sphere in the sky locked onto Elise with cold fury, unleashing attacks of pure energy with the clear intention of annihilating her. Meanwhile, the horde of ghouls—those aberrations of flesh and bone—lunged frantically toward me. They knew I was the anchor preventing their lord's recovery and were willing to tear me apart to release the flow of blood.
They leaped great distances with inhuman speed, their claws rending the air in my direction. But, though my hands were occupied containing the red tide, I was by no means defenseless.
From the cold slabs of the temple, just before the first ghoul reached me, Helena emerged as an insurmountable obstacle.
"Embrace the cold!" she pronounced with an ethereal and somber voice—one of the phrases I had suggested to her—as she raised her snow-white hands.
A shockwave of frigid energy exploded from her center, sending the ghouls flying.
Helena was no longer a simple wandering ghost; she had become a high-level specter. An incarnation of death… though different from that of the god fighting Elise. She represented undeath.
But she didn't stop there. she didn't limit herself to being my shield… she would also be a sword. Blue flames, cold as the vacuum, erupted from her palms and were hurled against the horde like spectral meteors.
She was no longer a living witch. She was something more. She no longer depended on a wand, so her movements were as free as they were graceful… and deadly. She had learned much. She was a far cry from the Helena of the past. The "adventures" in the Black Citadel had given her profound knowledge of the undead and necromancy… and now she was deploying all that power.
Floating at breakneck speed, Helena dove into the fray. Her eyes glowed with supernatural intensity, causing explosions of frigid death around her that not only damaged the reanimated corpses but froze their joints, slowing their advance.
With her facing the horde, the pressure on me diminished… though some still managed to get past and reach my position.
While I contained the bloody mass, I was also charging the rest of my abilities, waiting for them to reach an optimal point to help Elise. And with the buff I already had… my own legs were weapons enough.
The few monsters that managed to reach my position were met by my legs. With my strength pushed to the limit, every kick became a destructive impact that disintegrated bone and sent scraps of flesh meters away. My movements became acrobatic, almost choreographed... Honestly, I was enjoying it; perhaps I should seriously consider the study of martial arts in the future.
The only one in a precarious situation was Hannah. Although her botanical mastery was lethal against living mages, these aberrations were a different challenge: her poisons found no blood to corrupt, and being beings devoid of pain, her attrition strategies lost their effectiveness.
Luckily, Helena didn't leave her alone, and several spectral swords shot toward the ghouls attacking her.
Like a macabre conductor, Helena fought on four simultaneous fronts: she held back the bulk of the horde, launched spectral swords to cover Hannah, tore apart nearby ghouls, and, when she found an opening, harassed the celestial sphere to give Elise breathing room.
"Good work, Lena!" I shouted while climbing the zigurat, shattering a ghoul that was crawling toward me on all fours with a kick. "When we're done with this, I think we could try fucking!"
Helena performed a spectral blink, shifting instantaneously to dodge a monster's claw. Being creations of a god and entities tied to death, they had a certain capacity to harm her.
"Your member would freeze," she replied with icy seriousness, though not without a spark of intimacy, as she raised her hands toward the reddish sky.
An elongated, illusory skull materialized above her head and began to vibrate with a shrill frequency. The jaw opened slowly, accompanied by a piercing noise like an impossible shriek.
The bodies of the ghouls vibrated violently. They didn't react—they felt no pain—and kept advancing with blind tenacity. Then, the giant skull exploded, and as if by pure sympathetic resonance, the bodies of the creatures around it imitated the explosion, disintegrating into a rain of bone shards.
Even so, the numbers never diminished. Every time one fell, another—or several—surged from the bloody mass. Though that also reduced it… which was a good sign.
Elise, for her part, was having a hard time. But if she resisted long enough, that god would lose energy. She just had to hold on… though it was easier said than done.
"I can handle this myself now!" I roared toward my beautiful ghost. "Help Hannah!"
Helena, with swords floating and spinning around her at high speed like a living saw, nodded as she glided through the air toward Hannah, who was already surrounded, her face marked by panic.
I reached the top of the temple. My body, swollen by the [Wrath] skill, overflowed with supernatural musculature. With a roar of effort, I pushed the bloody mass down the hill, turning it into an avalanche that crushed the ghouls trying to climb. Then I pulled out my wands.
Although I had done my best, from the start I hadn't managed to contain all that mass. That god had been recovering power… slower, yes, but constantly. Now, with my body empowered, it was time to intervene directly.
I pointed the wands downward and unleashed a rain of explosive projectiles. They hit the ghouls, the rivers of corpses… and even the temple itself, as I began to rise into the air.
Up high, I saw Elise get hit by a burst of dark energy. She had a broken wing, but she kept flapping the other with unshakeable will.
I used that image to ignite my emotions, amplified by [Wrath]. With the cooperation of the Jarjacha wands, I took aim.
"¡AAAAHHHH!" Solté un grito liberador mientras liberaba todo mi poder.
Una columna de energía espectral salió disparada de mi posición, transformándose en una estampida de llamas en el camino, listas para estrellarse contra ese dios malvado.