Physical Status:
Immortal
Mental Status:
Enraged
Positive Statuses:
None
Negative Statuses:
None
Strength:
4,200
Upgrade?(40,200)
Dexterity:
3,900
Upgrade?(30,900)
Agility:
5,100
Upgrade?(50,100)
Stamina:
9,000
Upgrade?(90,000)
Wisdom:
8,420
Upgrade?(80,420)
Intelligence:
7,800
Upgrade?(70,800)
Luck:
3,010
Upgrade?(30,010)
Primary Power:
N/A
Upgrade?(N/A)
Secondary Power:
N/A
Upgrade?(N/A)
“Holy shit it’s a god,” Felix said. “They’re all gods.”
Abera, the Ice Queen, drew her arm back and threw another bolt of whatever it was. Another emplacement went up just like the first.
How do you even fight a pantheon? And why is there a pantheon? What the actual f—wait. Wait wait. Don’t I have my own card? Maybe?
If they’re listening?
“Hey, I’m not sure if you’re listening,” Felix said aloud. “But if you want to collect on those two favors later, it probably won’t be possible if that Ice Queen over there tears my head off. And no. I don’t plan on withdrawing. I’ll be honoring my commitment to Hern.”
“You’d force my hand then?” came a voice from nowhere and everywhere. It was masculine, and human sounding. There was an immense pressure in Felix’s head suddenly.
Where Kit had been strong, she’d also been gentle.
This presence was anything but. His mind was laid bare, stripped, and beaten.
“You would. Annoying. And amusing. Right, then. You’ll not call on me in this fashion again. Ever. Or I’ll turn your head inside out,” said the voice.
A shape appeared in front of the distant pantheon.
A lone silhouette to battle a dozen.
There was no sound.
No movement on either side.
Not even a discernible confrontation.
The gods and goddesses lined up on the other side simply fell to their knees.
Uh?
Felix tried to do the same thing to this new arrival that he’d done to Abera. To see their status.
To get anything at all.
Don’t test me, Felix. Good try though.
Do not interfere with the local beliefs. If anything, you’ll encourage them and their beliefs in their gods.
Spare those who surrender.
This situation is handled and done. Do not do anything like this again.
If you do, I’ll destroy you myself, and turn your soul into toilet paper.
As if they’d never even been there, the pantheon simply wasn’t there anymore. They were gone.
The shadow silhouette disappeared as well.
Chapter 23 - The Return -
“Adriana,” Felix said, not wanting to lose the chance his nameless benefactor had given them. Ducking down into the carrier he met the lead Adriana’s gaze.
“Get out in the far field and get over to the other camp. Let’s curtail any pillaging and looting before they get a chance. I need it done at a run, so take whatever mechanized units you need. Questions?” Felix asked.
Adriana shook her head, getting up from her seat.
“Oh, and Adriana… what do you think about changing your hair color permanently? Something to distinguish you from Andrea. I promise to treat the two of you the same, and you can always recombine later on, but it might be good to have at least one unique feature,” Felix said. His words had started to ramble a bit at the end. He wasn’t sure if he was making a situation out of something that wasn’t there.
Adriana stared at him for a moment, then gave him a smile.
“Nn. I think that… I think that’d be a good thing. Though I think we’ll choose brunette. We are, and are not, Andrea. I’ll discuss it with my Prime when I rejoin her,” said the Beastkin.
“Good. As much as I love staring at you in that harness, you need to go get going,” Felix said, gesturing at the door.
“Oh? I’ll let my Prime know that, too. Maybe she’ll wear it for you tonight.”
Adriana slipped by him without another word, leaving him alone in the carrier.
Huh. Those are two very separate personalities… long-term troubles maybe. As long as I treat them the same, I suppose, it isn’t my problem.
Standing up, Felix found Victoria waiting. She opened her mouth and before she could get started, Felix held up a hand.
“We’re staying here in the carrier. Adriana is going to go hit the other camp and curtail the pillaging, raping, and killing. I can’t imagine yonder warrior tribe taking their loss easily. They’ll take it out on the other one,” Felix said. Then he shook his head. “No. We’ll end this one here and now. We take the other tribe into the alliance, force them to work together with Hern, and banish the third. That doesn’t break any of the decrees that were set down.”
“Decrees?” Victoria asked.
Felix felt his stomach lurch. He didn’t really want to think about it if he didn’t have to.
“Did you see a silhouette on the field? Right before that enemy conga line of gods vanished?” Felix asked, his voice soft.
“Yeah. I did. It just… appeared. They all… knelt before it, it looked like.”
“Yeah. They did. That silhouette is someone… or something… I owe some favors to for a change in my own powers I wanted. I kinda forced it to intercede here. It left me with a few commands I am quite loath to break,” Felix explained.
Victoria nodded her head, looking out to the field again. “It sounds like the world is a scarier place than I thought it was,” Victoria said.
Felix heard a chime in his ear signaling an incoming call.
I had no idea we got reception on another planet. They must have put up some temporary signal relays or something.
Reaching up to his ear, Felix tapped the button.
“This is Felix,” he said.
“What the heck just happened?” Kit asked him, sounding completely out of breath.
“Huh?” Felix muttered. “What do you mean? Weren’t you watching the feed? That was the whole reason we outfitted so many people with cameras. You wanted them specifically for HR.”
“I was watching! We even tried to record it. Every single camera has a blank spot. I could see when those people appeared, one started attacking, then the recording goes white,” Kit said, her tone curt. “Every. Single. Camera.”
“And… did it come back on?” Felix asked. He had a sneaking suspicion but he didn’t want to believe it.
“The cameras? They did, yes. They all turned back on as if there wasn’t even a problem. The people were gone and the field was empty,” Kit said. He could hear the loud thump of her sitting down heavily in a chair.
“Well. Something did happen. It might be good if we waited for me to make it back to HQ to talk about it though. It might even be best to let you read it from my head and a few others. It’s… it’s honestly hard to explain.”
Kit sighed from her end of the line. “I imagine so. Because that’s not all that happened.”
“Oh?”
“I’m sending you a few clips of video. These happened minutes ago but are all over already. Watch them but don’t hang up. Your wrist terminal should be able to display them fine.”
“Alright, alright. Send it my way then,” Felix said. Turning over his wrist, he opened up the display, flipped it to his email, and waited.