Rigel smiled wide and took off in the direction of the human. After about 6 minutes, the figure was fairly visible and Rigel got a clear idea of who it was. It appeared to be a normal human, clad in clothes similar to those of the time before Rigel was locked away in terms of color. They had long, shoulder length brown hair with an uninterpretable gender. They also had a short spear on their back.
Rigel didn't look into the matter at all and continued to run after the figure. After getting about 200 meters away, the figure finally turned around to face Rigel. Rigel didn't stop or pay much attention to the person. Finally, after getting just a few meters away, Rigel stopped and evaluated the person whom he was about to kill.
The person was a middle-aged woman, around the age of 45, and her spear was of poor quality. She was dressed in fur clothing as opposed to the fibrous sort that he was used to.
She didn't say anything to him, only looking him dead in the eyes with a death stare.
Rigel, in turn, produced a baseball-sized fireball and chucked it at her. It flew at a fast speed and the woman barely had time to dodge. She spun out of the way and shot a bolt of water out of nowhere.
It flew even faster than the fireball and connected with Rigel, knocking him back a few feet. He smiled and chuckled to himself. His opponent, in contrast, grimaced as a look of seriousness took over her face. She shot a myriad of water bolts at the same time at Rigel. He confidently received them all and pushed forward.
He wasn't confident in using any space or explosion magic in combat and couldn't see any point of using his lackluster earth magic, so with fire as his only weapon, he pushed into striking distance and unleashed a powerful flamethrower. The middle-aged woman hit the dirt in an attempt to dodge but was still burned by the heat produced.
She hit the ground hard and in the process hurt herself. She groaned and tried to crawl away futilely. Rigel started laughing maniacally, greatly looking forward to killing someone for the first time in a long time. He grabbed her by the back of the head and was about to start burning her scalp when she cried out.
"What?! What do you want?"
At that moment, Rigel's head started spinning. He had a feeling, like a great blockage finally dispersed, and recalled the English language in an instant. The sudden intake of information left him reeling, and he toppled over.
The woman, confused, began to run away despite her injuries. She forced herself up on her feet and ran as fast as she could. She stumbled and fell over, however, and got nowhere.
In the meantime, Rigel recovered and started laughing. "I must thank you. You've really helped me out. Really, you have. That doesn't mean that I'm going to let you off, though. I have some questions for you, and then I will decide if I will let you run free."
The woman, who had begun crying after tripping and falling down, sniffed her nose and nodded.
"Good, good. Then I won't hold back. How long has it been since magic first came about, even approximately?"
The woman looked at Rigel curiously, then hesitatingly spoke. "I.. don't know exactly when. Hasn't it always existed?"
"I guess that I will just hold a conference, then. Goodbye."
"No, wait-" she cried miserably. Rigel cut her off by scorching her head with a flamethrower until nothing remained but ash.
"Ah, it's been so long," Rigel said. He proceeded to strip off the upper half of the woman's clothes, revealing her chest in full. He laid down and put the side of his head against her stomach and started crying while concurrently relishing the feeling of human touch.
He sobbed while trying to comfort himself from the feeling of human contact. "It's been so long since I've touched someone else. Oh so long."
After a while, he wiped off his face and took the woman's clothes. They were a bit too small on him, but no serious issues prevailed.
"Well, time to get to business." Rigel grabbed the spear and used it like a knife to sever her leg at the thigh. He then tore at the remaining parts and stepped on the leg to gain some leverage to snap it off. The bone splintered and fell apart and the leg was free. He used the blood to draw a pentagram and said the ritual's chant.
Rigel blinked and was in the white void.
"It's good to see you again. Really, it is." He greeted the pink figure in front of him with a cool smile.
"What did I miss?"
"Quite a bit I dare say. It's been 20 centuries since you were buried and the country of Imvros has most certainly fallen. The new powerhouse was the country that you were originally worried about, the one that united the world under one currency, Moonshore.
"Moonshore has annexed a fourth of the world directly, and has many, many puppets spread out. The best part? Moonshore is lead by 41 of you 'demigods', and the rest are either incapacitated like you were or in open rebellion and are part of the Union.
"I suppose another thing is that mana concentration has increased quite a bit over the span of 20 centures. You may have noticed this, but the part that you didn't see was the enthralling effects it had on the environment and the world itself.
"Many magical creatures and vegetation have sprouted up in the world due to the prolonged exposure of mana radiation. Magical, as in containing traits of magic and mana.
"The best part is that after all this time, after hundreds of generations, the level of technology is still just as poor as it was- at the peak that is. The existing tech did manage to spread around quite a bit, so the level of gadgets, tools, and architecture are all at a similar level across the world."
"Simple enough." Rigel contemplated a few things for a moment, then spoke again. "I want to initiate a conference. I need to see what's going on from everyone else's side of the story in order to make the most efficient decision. I'm a busy man, after all. Plenty of preparations to be made."
A few moments of silence passed, then the god spoke in reply. "Can do. Everyone'll be here in a few. That'll cost you 5 sacrifices, so next time you want to come here it'll be a total of 7, including the initial one for coming here and not talking about the powers."
"Done. In the end, how insignificant are even 10 thousand people in the grand scheme of things? Better yet, in the end, how easy is it to butcher 10 thousand when you control the power of space itself?"
The deity snorted to that remark. "Don't get ahead of yourself. You may have complete control of a single dimension in a small area, but you are nowhere from mastering space itself. If you could master space itself then you wouldn't even need to sacrifice anyone; you could just barge in here at will.
"Although you have a good, general idea, you may be overstepping your limits. Space, time, energy. Those 3 things, and some others, are the broadest, most powerful types of magic, and that's why there aren't good to learn early on. Don't take longer trying to take a shortcut."
Just as it finished up, multiple pillars of light beamed down from the heavens and onto the 72 sided polygon conference area. Rigel took another look back towards the god, then proceeded to take his place.
"Hello, everyone," he started, while observing that only 67 of the 72 spots were filled. "I am the one that called for this little meeting of ours, as I have recently broken out of my 2 thousand-year-old prison, and would like to be informed as to the up and coming hot topics of the modern world, if you would be so kind."
The recipients of the message all looked toward Rigel with a general sense of disdain and condescension. Their old, wise eyes- each of which seemed to contain their own universes inside- mundanely scrutinized the shabby figure of Rigel.
"Contempt," one woman finally spoke. "Is that really the only feeling you feel for all of us?"
Rigel stared back at her with now palpable scorn in his eyes. "Of course, why wouldn't I? Are we not all tools for each other to manipulate and use for our own personal gain? I plan on taking advantage of everyone here if given the opportunity, and you should all do the same to me."
The same woman's face seemed to melt back to reveal a murderous glare rivaling Medusa's. "You may be just as old as us, but you have nowhere near the same level of human contact. Do you really see yourself on the same level as any person in this room? If so, I apologize, but I believe that you should go back to playing in your little hole and wait for the storm to pass. You are clearly too arrogant."
Rigel, while consciously unshaken by the death glare, could feel his heartbeat steadily incline and perspiration start to build up around his body. Worst of all, he couldn't shake the feeling that he would soon find himself one foot in the grave if he kept daring to look at this terrifying woman.
Rigel felt completely befuddled and had little clue as to how to revive the situation. "I… apologize sincerely for my previous arrogance and-"
"You've wasted all of our increasingly valuable time with your childish arrogance," a younger looking boy suddenly interjected. "Please, you've said enough. Grow up a bit and then try and talk to the big boys. Oh, and by the way, we go by the title of gods on the planet and have quite a few enemies, so it might be best to not go throwing your abilities around until you can defend yourself. I'm off, then."
Rigel stifled his boiling wrath and watched as one by one the various people transformed into pillars of light and disappeared back into the heavens. After everyone was finally gone, Rigel let it all out. "AH! Pretentious bastards! What do they know? I doubt even one of them have even stepped one foot into an overarching magic like I have! I'll kill them all one day, that's for sure."