Transcendence?

***Jateria***

***Ascathon***

“It might be just enough time to destroy this country.”

I release my aura and raise my hand against the fools before me, when a guy who looks like a wizard throws himself on the ground in front of me.

“Forgive us! We were desperate! The forces of humanity are making their last stand against the elves of Westwood. This is our last stronghold, so we decided to try our luck with a summoning ceremony!” The wizard calls out while crouching on the ground.

“I see your problem. And I think I know the main reason for your troubles.” Sera smirks and directs her gaze at the king and the queen.

I snort and release a shockwave at the leaders of this useless country. Cracks appear in the walls and the floor tilts to my left. People are thrown over each other like dolls until they come to rest at the far side of the room. Then I step over the wizard who is crouching on the ground and approach the groaning pile of people.

The king's foot is sticking out from under the pile of knights and servants. Bending down, I grab his foot and pull. The release of my aura enhances my strength, so this task isn't much more straining than lifting a fly to me.

The poor excuse of a king lost his consciousness. “That's no fun at all! Hey! Wake up!” I electrify the king with a thunder spell while applying healing magic to keep him alive.

A pitiful scream echoes through the hall while the remaining people press themselves to the walls. Most of them seem to be magicians, so they can judge by my aura that any resistance is futile.

I drop the king when I realize that his pants are getting wet. This became quite ugly. A fire spell should fix the problem! A torrent of flames shoots out from my hand and envelops the king.

Ah. Damn! Now he is charred all over. There is no choice but to apply another healing spell. Tch! His clothes burned. Now he is naked. That's unsightly.

I cast an earth spell and the stone floor starts to move. It flows around the king's arms and legs to restrict his movements and covers him like a second skin. A wave of my hands forces him into a standing position. The layer of rock is holding him firmly while he is screaming for his guards.

But nobody attempts to help. All of them are trying to gain as much distance to me as possible.

The king is squealing like a pig while I crack my knuckles to loosen up my fingers. It's too bad that I am under time pressure. One carefully placed punch after the other distorts his face while I carefully limit my power in order to not kill him outright.

“Hahahahaha! That will teach you to abduct other peoples children! What even makes you think that the filth you call your offspring is worthy of marrying my daughter?” Each one of my blows cracks his face while I apply just enough healing magic to keep him alive and conscious.

Sera is a little farther away, patting the wizards back while talking to him. In the meantime I enjoy my little workout. It's good to do something for your body from time to time. Back in Norfolk I don't get much chances to practice since the war ended.

Well, it didn't really end. Technically we are still at war with Mislow and the Nation of Mist. But since we don't know how Charon and Wynne would react we left both nations alone. It's not like they pose any threat to us.

A few minutes pass until I am interrupted by a new arrival. I actually felt this person's power before he appeared. Probably a god who calls this world his home. The space distorts and a figure in shining plate armour stands in the middle of the room. He has light brown hair and a muscular body. His face is harsh and hard, a real warrior. A freaking huge sword is on his back and he wears an annoyed expression.

“What the fuck is going on here?” He looks around and then he turns towards me.

I wave a hand at him and smile. “Hi! If you would wait for a little while? I am not satisfied yet.”

“Who are you! This is my world! I don't want any upstart gods wreaking havoc in my realm!” He stomps towards me while stabbing his finger at me.

“That's actually no problem. It just so happened that this guy abducted my daughter. I followed her to bring her back. We will be gone after I have dealt some punishment. My name is Ascathon by the way.”  I smile and offer him a hand.

The god looks down at my hand and pulls a grimace. It's just now that I realize that my hands are bloody all over. “Aw, crap.” I look at the king. “Look what you have done. You spilled your fluids everywhere!” By controlling the adhesive forces of the blood I clean myself and offer my hand once again.

The new arrival looks at me with a wary expression. Then he looks at the king and squints his eyes. “It's hard to tell, but is that Zerniel, the human king? And what's that story about a daughter? Since when do gods have children? Are you a masochist?”

The wizard crawls towards Gemesh in a creepy manner. “Oh great creator god Gemesh! Please save us from our own foolishness! We summoned our own doom to this world. The elves were bad enough, but now we opened the door for something that doesn't belong here!”

Sera follows him with a sad expression. “I think he is broken daddy. You shouldn't have released your aura with such force.” She looks around at the people who are hiding under tables or pressing against walls.

“Yes! That's why I came here. You can't do that with mortals close by. Don't you know anything of being a god? The whole population of the fortress and the city around it is frozen stiff. They are even too afraid to move! The elves who besieged the city broke off their camps and retreated! Their seers foretold that the humans summoned a great evil and that nothing good would come of coming into contact with it!” Gemesh is furious.

“Damn! So I saved them? Ah. I have to level the city myself now.” I wanted to break the city walls after I am done with the king. But those weakling elves ran away.

“No! I wanted the humans of this world to learn their lesson properly! You ruined it!” Gemesh screams.

Sera walks over to him and tugs at his arm. “Mr. Gemesh? Haven't you ruined it yourself by not keeping an eye on them? They summoned me, which led to my father following me. If you had stopped their attempt to solve the problem by summoning a demigod, then there would be no issue.”

Gemesh looks down at Sera for several seconds and then at me. “Is she always that smart mouthed?” He looks at her. “You are talking to a god! I could blow you away with my little finger!”

“Mom is much scarier than you. And then dad would probably have a problem with you doing that.” Sera answers with a smiling face.

He looks back to me and realizes that my smiling face vanished and was replaced by an expressionless mask.

“Meh. Whatever. Just get off of my world. You had your fun. Take that king with you if you want to beat him up further. I need to clean up this mess.”

“I can have him?” Well that solves a few problems! I turn back to the beaten king and ram my hand into his chest through the layer of stone. A drop of blood forms in the corner of his mouth and then he is still.

“What the fuck? Why did you kill him? I thought you want to punish him!?” Gemesh gestures to the dead king.

I pull my hand out of the king's chest while I concentrate on the shining green orb of light between my fingers. “It's much easier to transport him that way. Souls are handier than the actual bodies.”

By closing my hand around the soul I store it away. “Gemesh? Before I forget! I didn't meet many other gods until now. You don't happen to know someone named Lidith, Aneth, Wynne or Charon?”Gemesh looks at me with his mouth hanging open.

Then he closes his mouth. “Yeah. Those freaks are playing with a world not far from here. They have some screws loose if you ask me. Aneth even asked me once if I would help him to chase away his competitors.”

“I see.” I continue to look at him with an obvious question written on my face.

He snorts. “Do I look like a mercenary?”

“No?” You look like some strange combination of a knight and a barbarian. But I don't voice my thoughts loud.

“Then you have your answer.” Gemesh growls.

I turn to Sera and grab her hand. “We'll be off then. It was nice to make your acquaintance!” While I gather my power to step back home, the space distorts close to us and Celestial appears.

She has one of my locators in her hand. Her eyes wander immediately to Sera who hid behind me. “You! I said you should stay at the training ground!”

“Shi... ~Sugar cat!~ It's not her fault. They summoned her like some kind of handyman and expected her to solve their problems.” I try to explain.

“Who!” Celestial calls out.

“Him!” Sera points to the corpse of the king.

“He is already dead!” Celestial growls.

“She wanted to use me as a concubine!” Sera is eager to divert Celestial's attention from her.

“Con... Concubine! My daughter?” She looks towards the queen who is hiding under a chair. Celestial disappears in a blur of motion and grabs the queen, shaking her like a puppet. The space around Celestial distorts and both of them disappear.

A second later she reappears right in front of me. “Take her home! I've something to do.” Then she is gone again.

The silence in the room is deadly, so I bow to Gemesh once again and take Sera and myself back home through a pathway.

***Jateria***

***Gemesh***

“What the fuck happened just now!? I was completely ignored!” I scream out in frustration. The freaking family of gods is gone.

“Please, save us.” The wizard on the ground whimpers.

“Shut up! Well, those are troublesome new neighbours. I hope they never visit my world again.” While I speak those words, the cracks in the ground suddenly widen and the whole fortress crumbles around me.

So I teleport outside and watch the fall of the last human fortress and sigh.

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