Chapter 124: What Is The Godslayer?
"Don't make yourself hard to find, you're still on the top of my list, got it?"
"... Okay." She answered with a clearly depressed expression and then took off again vanishing with such speed that a storm of sand kicked off behind and grew as it followed her.
"What the hell just happened?" Dina stared at him, approaching carefully, but Sol smiled warmly at her and set Ikaris to stand as he rested his hand on her head again. "How long have you been here?"
"Arla said I've been unconscious for a week back on Zola, but I know that time runs faster here on Hāl.
[Approximately 17 days have passed on Hāl] the system responded in voice to all of them, and Ikaris looked up at him with eyes demanding answers, while he just caressed her cheek and took a deep breath.
"Let's find those others first." Sol snapped his fingers, and a phantom force picked up Dina while Ikaris took his hand and ascended with him toward the canyon.
***
How long have we been running?" Gadriel asked seriously, they had not slowed since they started, and yet the canyon Dina had mentioned was still out of sight, her sister next to her wanted to answer, but upon opening her mouth the skies above them exploded several times with the sound of an object approaching at Mach speeds, and then slowing down with a loud whistle.
"What is that?" One god pointed to the air above them seeing the clouds disperse and ripples travel across the dawn sky. "It's coming our way!" She fell to her knees, and with her most of the others lost hope again and fell to the sand in lamentation.
Gadriel and Gabriell stood as the representatives of the others and held their ground watching as the object descended and crashed before them kicking up another storm of dust before a bright white glow blew everything away, revealing Ikaris walking toward them with her wings in full display and her true form in all her beauty.
"Is that... Ikaris?" Gabriell stared at her shocked, and then looked behind her seeing Dina. "Dina-" She paused, there was a third figure of tall stature, lightly armoured with hair that glowed white and stare that could easily be mistaken for incompetence with how expressionless it was.
"It is good to see you safe!" Ikaris grabbed the two sisters in a hug and sighed as her wings surrounded them. "Let me introduce you-" she turned but Sol who was previously behind Dina was now right behind her.
"He is Sol, like I had told you, he came." She took his hand and pulled him closer, but unlike the arrogance Sol had seen in other gods, these were humble, they all took a knee before him with their heads lowered.
"Godslayer..." Gadriel raised her hands in a gesture of begging, which from what he knew of gods was a sign of submission and reverence, and Sol just stood there staring down at her confused.
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"Go on," Ikaris smiled at him. "There is a lot I have to explain to you as well." She guided his hand to Gadriel's and watched him lock fingers and help the goddess to her feet again, and after her the others also stood.
"He is beautiful." Gabriell mused a second time staring up at Sol.
"Uh... Let's get out of here first." Sol stared across the mass and then at his side at Dina who joined and greeted the goddesses as well, and then with a snap of his fingers, they all vanished, reappearing in the courtyard of the small demon clan where it was still nighttime from a slower rotation.
"You returned!" Arla swept through the closest door and grabbed Sol's arm, and then looked beyond him at Ikaris and Dina and broke into tears. "You all came!" She ran passed Sol and grabbed them in a tight hug.
"What is this?" Ikaris picked Arla up like a cat and raised her staring at the sigil on her neck, "when did this happen?"
"It is purely cosmetic your holiness, nothing more than a measure made to ensure my safety here." Arla kicked excitedly while Ikaris slowly put her down.
"What is that?"
"I have never seen someone glow like her, look at those wings, that is no demon, what is she?"
"What happened to the appearance of Master Vestic, he looks different!"
The surrounding demons quickly began increasing in numbers causing the gods to gather closer to Sol and Ikaris, while Dina stepped to the side and slightly raised her hand toward someone who had perched on a rooftop with an arrow.
"Are we still in enemy territory?" She asked, and Sol shook his head and raised his hand as well causing every man, woman and child to float off the ground and out of their houses.
"These ones took care of me when I was unconscious, because I was under demonification, and Arla was safe here as well..." Sol stared up at them with stoic resignation. "I can at least grant them all painless deaths-"
"Not her!" Arla leapt and grabbed on to Sri's hand, but failed to bring her back to the ground so just hung there weightlessly. "Please, spare this girl." She begged.
"Why?"
"It is my one request, please, she among them is the most innocent." Arla looked down at Sol's uncaring eyes and those of Ikaris and Dina. "She has done no wrong, she is a good child."
"Good?" Sol raised a brow.
"Can any of these creatures be good?" He asked, and Arla bit her lips, indeed she had spent the entire day reading through their histories, but there had not been a single feat of good amongst the records, they always did the immoral, always strove for destruction and desolation, the amount of realms of gods they had destroyed spanned into the hundreds of thousands, Septillions of lives taken in the name of their conquest; she had no retort.
"I will take responsibility for her, I promise, if she does anything then I will kill her myself, I will take full responsibility!"
"Sol... She's begging." Dina held on to his arm, while Ikaris also braced herself onto him and stared up. "Please."
"The three of you?"
"She took care of you in my absence and ensured your safety, the lest you can do is trust her judgement, love." Ikaris smiled at him, and he sighed, watching Sri get caught by Arla and escorted back to the ground safely.
"What is happening?" The young demon asked, and Arla smiled at her.
"Sol is not a demon-god, nor is he some kind of demon noble, he is an ally of the devine, the fate of your people was always going to be death by his hands after they destroyed his world and stole his beloved, his state of sleep and you watching over him carefully is why I decided to help you." Arla whispered to Sri and pointed to her abode.
"Say your goodbyes and quickly go back inside, he is impartial to demons." She warned her, and Sri looked up at her father again and gave him a small smile before running back into her house, while he accepted his fate and smiled back.
"Please take care of her." Law smiled again before he and all his clansmen vanished in a flurry of light and mana particles.
"What is happening?" Gadriel asked.
"Master has decided to take matters in his own hands." Ikaris looked around at her.
"Master?" Sol raised his hand and dropped it on her head. "Everyone else is calling me that already, Ikaris."
"Ah!" She blushed and leaned onto him. "My apologies, Love."
"What does that mean?"
"Every demon, every demon god, I'm going to eradicate their existence." Sol turned to the gods before him and spread his hands again, casting a veil around them the same as he had done to Ikaris earlier, and one by one their shackles broke, and their divine powers were unsealed, what he saw was a mixe of pantheons of creatures, some evolving into their original forms which defied logic and reason, others disappeared from sight completely, others turned into beings of the forth dimension.
And then there was Gadriel and Gabriell, their ears, their wings, they looked just like Ikaris.
*Ding!
[Welcome all gods of this new pantheon, you have been adopted into the care of I, the system which resides within Master Vestic]
A system window appeared before all of them.
"New pantheon? We are entirely different-" Gadriel chuckled in rejection, but a window fell out of the air and slammed into her head.
*Ding
[Pay respect to the almighty ever-evolving system little goddess]
"This infuriating little-"
[Reverence yourself before the direct servant of the Godslayer!] The system made an uncharacteristic roar through its windows appearing everywhere across the courtyard in bright physical red, startling even Sol.
"Arla, get that girl to show them around, I'm going inside, Dina, you should find somewhere isolated and rest up as well you barely have any mana." Sol shook his head and grabbed the system window in front of him, looking at Ikaris who seemed to know what was going on as the gods all went into a respective bow again.
"I need to speak to Ikaris about what the Godslayer actually is."