BXBX NOVEL Chapter 37: Death Sentence
[The encampment was attacked by an unknown faction]
[The heroes are in peryl]
[Even if you know, you cannot do a thing about it, that wretched goddess of yours is long-]
*Crack!
Diablos shuddered and went stiff when Sol broke both of his horns and stood there staring at him.
[One, short, sentence] Sol grabbed him by his nostril and turned to the direction of the camp.
[Activated enhanced senses]
[It\'s too far away, I can\'t see or hear anything from here, Arkadia is a lot larger than I imagined] Sol closed his eyes and deactivated his magic.
[What\'s happening over there?] Sol asked one final time, and instead of answering Diablos began laughing.
[This fight is over, then] Sol released him and turned his back to leave.
[Wh- are you not going to kill me?] Diablos asked, and Sol looked over his shoulder.
[You\'re not worth it, you\'re a weaker god than I imagined, and after I went and told Ikaris to not lay a hand on you, you still violated the rules of our challenger agreement and went after her, she\'s going to keep her word, which means if she\'s attacked by gods or humans she won\'t fight back, the only living creatures she has the permission to hurt are demons, so that leaves me with the responsibility of keeping her safe] Sol slowly began floating.
[I made no such promise, I\'m going to kill everything and everyone that is not an ally,] He vanished on a flash of electricity.
System
[The victor of the challenge has been decided, Diablos lost by unanimous vote through the pantheon, calculating consequences]
[God of dragons Diablos violated a divine contract, consequences are being issued]
[You have been abandoned, your divinity will be taken away]
[You have been cursed by the gods to walk the world without limbs]
"Wait!" Diablos shrieked after his legs vanished from beneath his feet. "Let me fix this!" He cried when his hands disappeared and he fell on his chin.
[You have been cursed with primitive intellect, your memories of your godhood will be stripped away]
[Wanderer has been applied to your curse, you may never stop moving]
[Disgrace has been applied to your curse, you will only have an appetite for rotting meat and putrid waters]
[Coward has been applied to your curse, you will never retaliate to any attack or abuse no matter the severity]
"No, please, no... wait... wai... wah... Uusssh..." His speech devolved until all that remained was a low hiss as the last of his intelligence faded away and he began slithering toward the deep of the desert as nothing but a large and peculiar-looking snake.
On the other side of Arkadia, Sol arrived with his divinity deactivated and caught a fire-bolt with his bare hand, throwing it behind him where it exploded against the man who cast it, killing him instantly.
The formation was in tatters, people were running around, and the heroes were nowhere to be seen.
"You returned!" Renia approached Sol dragging a man by his hood in one hand and holding a bloody sword in her other hand.
"Why are you not using your powers to put an end to this?" Sol asked her surprised.
"We of the pantheon are forbidden from directly interfering in the affairs of Arkadians, I know this was set into motion by other gods, but the ones carrying it out are not gods, therefore I am unable to-"
"I get it," Sol turned away from her and held out his hand. "Then I will do it myself, after all... [Clockwork]"
The atmosphere went cold and everyone started moving in slow motion, their actions were now almost completely frozen.
"The powers of time?" Renia stared at Sol\'s work, shocked.
"How many affinities do you possess?" She asked, but he completely ignored her and summoned a sword instead, rapidly moving through the crowds of demigod invaders and cleanly removing their heads off their shoulders, it happened in an instant, one moment they were all fighting overwhelming opponents, and the next the soldiers were sprayed with blood as the invaders all lost their head.
"What happened?" Arla dropped her shield when she realised that every enemy was dead, she sensed Sol\'s magic, but he was nowhere near the camp either.
Miles away from the camp a carriage was hightailing it across the plains, dragged by large horses with glowing white eyes that created thunder as they ran, inside of that carriage Ikaris was watching her body worried and unable to enter it because of the divine magic holding her consciousness at bay.
"Cant these things go any faster?" One man asked the driver.
"They are going as fast as they can, we\'re already long gone too, nobody\'s gonna find out where she went anytime soon, just think positively, by this time tomorrow we\'ll be rich beyond our wildest dreams.
"I can\'t believe we pulled it off though," One of the female mages in the back chuckled, pulling the hood off her head and swallowing the contents of a small glass vial. "Once she is in the mansion the array will be able to suppress all her magic, she will be a normal woman.
[True Goddess Ikaris stares lazily and hatefully at you]
The woman choked on the mana potion and looked around at everyone else, it seemed she was the only one who saw that message.
"Focus, if we screw this up and get caught we are gonna get fed to demons as bait." The apparent leader with the circle pressed against Ikaris\'s forehead looked at the woman annoyed.
"Sorry, I just saw something weird for a few seconds," She chuckled. "Maybe that mana potion is a bit too potent after all."
"What did you see?" One of the others asked lazily put of passive curiosity.
"The system called her True Goddess," The woman answered, and everyone froze and stared at her. "Y-yeah, right, like she could actually be some kind of goddess-"
"I got a similar message when we were taking her out of the camp," Another of the eight people in the carriage confessed, and the woman\'s eyes went wide in shock. "Is it just a coincidence, I mean there\'s no way she could be a goddess... right?"
"That nobleman was specific about keeping her under divine magic, which is why we were all given ancient artifacts and taught forbidden magic from an age long ago even though we are just mercenaries, he went through all of that just to get her... I know she\'s damn beautiful, the most beautiful woman I\'ve ever laid eyes on, all I want to do is take her for myself... I mean... look at this body...
I\'d do some incredible things to her if I could have her, I\'d give my soul to get a woman like this..." Their leader slowly reached his free hand downward and cupped Ikaris\'s half-exposed breast with a gaze full of drunken lust, and the moment he did the skies outside began to whistle.
[Judgement has befallen you who have touched the goddess without permission]
Another notification appeared and the man felt a chill roll down his spine as more notifications continued to appear.
[The goddess of war has judged you]
[The goddess of chaos narrows her eyes in spite at the human who dared to touch divine royalty]
[The god of destruction pities your fate]
[The tarnished has discovered your actions]
[The tarnished is on the approach]
[Your fate is sealed]
"Wh-what the fuck are these weird yellow windows?" The woman who had drunken the mana vial asked terrified. "What\'s a Tarnished, and why are the gods staring at us all of a sudden aren\'t they all dead!?"
In that same moment the horses and driver on the outside went quiet, and before their very eyes, Ikaris vanished, leaving a piece of her blouse in the man\'s grasp after he had fiercely taken hold of her boob after being frightened.
"What the hell is happening?"
[Not only did you try stealing her away from me, but you also dared to lay your hand on my goddess, you dared defile her purity with your filthy human hands!] Sol descended from the skies holding Ikaris like a bride while she finally woke up.
"Master!" She held on to him tightly. "What took you so long?" Ikaris asked as tears welled up in the sides of her eyes.
"Ikaris, this is all my fault, I was careless, I believed that the gods were all as honourable as Renia and Dr\'ul, but there are some who employed underhanded methods just to get to you, to hurt you, to..." Sol grit his teeth so hard his gum began bleeding.
"Master..."
"I am angry beyond words," Sol admitted calmly while his body began rapidly undergoing physical changes; horns began growing, a tail manifested out of his spine, and his skin changed along with his hair.
[The tarnished is undergoing a rapid metamorphosis]
[Your Divinity is going out of control]
Sol\'s wings opened right before he touched the ground, and he released Ikaris to stand while Renia used her chaos to teleport to their direction, holding on to Sara whom she had knocked unconscious so she could not witness Sol\'s terrifying demonic god transformation in the flesh.
[For daring to touch her, for daring to anger me, for daring to exist, I sentence you all to endless death!]