Just as Astaroth fainted, Kloud stepped behind him, catching him so he wouldn't fall to the ground. Aberon was still looking at the deity in awe.
Aberon had a similar thought to Astaroth. He was finding her traits to be extremely familiar.
Looking at her closely, he figured out why, as she kept smiling warmly. Looking at Astaroth in Kloud's arms, and looking back at Nemus, he made the connection.
The goddess looked exactly like Astaroth if he had been a woman—same facial features, only more delicate.
Silent Light reached the clearing at this moment, walking up to Nemus, thinking it was one of Astaroth's new forms. Given the crown of thorns on her head, he thought it might be a new form of Luna.
He couldn't see the giant stag that had been threatening the shelter anywhere and wondered if Astaroth had already taken care of it. Not far from him, the five other players were currently slack-jawed, watching the situation like watching a movie.
Silent grabbed Nemus' shoulders, still thinking it was his friend, and acting all chummy.
"Man, you already cleared out the enemy? You just keep getting stronger, don't you?"
Nemus had retracted her divine glow, which, in normal circumstances, would have instantly dealt an insane amount of damage to the mortal grabbing her shoulders. But her smile never abated.
Silent Light looked around, seeing the five players from his guild, looking at him like he was an idiot, while the two Natives were standing there, gazing at him, stunned.
But when he saw who Kloud had in his arms, the realization hit him. Looking at Astaroth's unconscious body, and then at the person he was holding in his arms, Silent Light had a 'What the fuck?' moment, before unhanding the woman.
When he glanced at Nemus, he saw two things that Astaroth never had, even when melded with Luna.
'That is a woman. A very attractive, Astaroth-looking woman.'
His mind went into shock, the virgin nerves inside him kicking into overdrive, and he fainted.
As he crumpled to the ground; his mouth frothing, Aberon, who had gone back to his old man appearance, after locking his powers away once more, shook his head in annoyance.
Turning his head toward the five Abnormals, he hollered annoyingly, "You! He's your friend, is he not? Grab him and bring him inside the shelter."
The five players looked at the old man, remembering how he had fought just a few minutes prior and dared not go against his words. The Orc party leader almost sprinted up to Silent Light's crumpled body and grabbed him in his arms.
The human in dragon plate mail tried grabbing Astaroth from Kloud, to get some brownie points from their guild leader, but the stare of death Kloud gave him in exchange made him piss himself. He gave up on the thought, his shame overcoming his greed.
As all of them walked into the shelter, Nemus looked at the skies. Her soft smile turned to a smirk for a moment, and she waved her hand at the natural barrier of rocks, a golden-blue shield forming over it.
'I'm not letting you lock me up again.'
***
Somewhere in space, Gaius was wrecking everything in his domain, throwing stuff around, letting his rage out at the turn of events.
"Ten million years! Ten million years since I locked her away, and she still finds ways to mess with me! RRAAGGHH!!"
Gaius teleported out of his domain. He needed something more purging than throwing his furniture around.
Reappearing in a faraway region of space, in a galaxy not visible from Earth, Gaius looked down on a world he had created a few million years ago, where a life form had just started thriving.
He appeared in his giant form, going down on the planet as he had many times before to them when he asserted himself as their only god. Chants and praise could be heard everywhere around him, as his power radiated outward.
It wasn't until he made his way close to the planet's surface, and his energy started devouring everything it touched, that the chants and praises turned into panic and cries of pain.
On that day, galaxies away from the milky way, Gaius committed his first mass genocide, of his own means.
The race of humanoids, resembling Gaius very closely, was torn to pieces as the raging god tore their world asunder. After a few hours of ripping everything to shreds, he finally cooled down, the anger in his heart subsiding to manageable levels.
A soft voice echoed in his ear. The voice had this reverberating effect, making it sound like two voices were overlapping and Gaius squinted in displeasure.
"Oh, Gaius. My sweet, sweet angry god. What caused you to go to such lengths as to commit an act of destruction so blatant? You are giving me butterflies in my stomach."
Appearing next to him, a woman of skin dark as the vacuum of space itself, with horns piercing her head, and hair of crimson red matching her irises.
Gaius made the sound of his tongue clicking, regardless of his mouthless face, and turned to face her.
"What do you want from me, demoness? You are much too far from your realm of influence to have felt all these deaths. Are you keeping tabs on me?"
A sliver of anger resounded in Gaius' voice as his energy flared up slightly once more.
The demon woman floated closer to Gaius, sliding her hands across his golden, peerless skin.
"Nothing of the sort, my lovely golden divinity."
She floated around the god, eyeing him with lust, and stopped again in front of him, her arms around his neck. If any other god were to see this scene, they would assuredly brand Gaius as a traitor.
"My lovely golden god, I was just wandering around space, to pass time, and your arousing anger reached my soul. The call was just too great for me to resist. Seeing you like this, massacring mortals like cattle, put me in such a good mood. Now I want to do so many… things… to you."
Pushing her away, Gaius' eyes squinted once again.
"Don't lay your dirty demon hands on me, you sacrilegious being. Speak. What did you want?"
The demoness sighed sadly before materializing a replica of the world of New Eden.
"All work and no play. You're no fun, my love. One day, I will get you to bed with me. Until then, I came with some information you might want."
Gaius looked at her hand, recognizing the world floating above it.
"And what is the price?"
The demoness turned her head to the broken pieces of the planet with the floating corpses and smiled.
"I will take the souls of these poor mortals. Consider it a favour."
Gaius snorted. He couldn't care less about the souls of such inconsequential beings. Waving his hand at her, giving her free rein, she obliged.
He watched her as she sucked in the souls of millions of mortals, whose souls had yet to pass over to the next phase of life, and devoured them with glee. Once she was done, Gaius looked at her with impatience.
"Now, you talk. What information do you have for me?"
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m