Emyrs' wounded, brutalized and broken body lay before Valerian. It was beyond recovering but with the little energy it had left, it laughed.
"What is so funny?" Valerian asked, not looking too good himself.
"The fact that you think, you have won." Emyrs laughed. "You have no idea. We are coming for you. There is many of us. All learning, all with hosts, all sharing information. I was the sacrificial pawn. You won against me but with the slightest provocation you showed more than we imagined. You are still poisoned."
Emyrs coughed up blood but did not stop smiling.
"Everything you love, everything of worth to you, all of it will crumble and fall. We underestimated you but you grossly underestimated us."
Another coughing fit. The balance that the seed and the god Loki had literally been knocked unstable.
Neither had the power to heal nor the power to survive. Both would die here and now. "I am glad you are awake, Val. You were truly missed." Those were his last words.
A new issue had presented itself in front of Valerian. The words that had been said. The fact that his enemy now knew that Valerian could not fight at full strength. Something genuinely seemed rotten.
Valerian restored the land to what it had looked like before. The tear in space that had been opened by Emrys had closed and all appeared normal yet the area felt tainted.
[Distress has been detected in the Prime Body's psyche.]
[UPDATING THE SYSTEM.]
[SYSTEM ERROR!!!!!!]
[UPDATE WILL BEGIN AFTER REBOOT..]
[REBOOT COMMENCING NOW...]
[SYSTEM WILL BE AVAILABLE IN FORTY-EIGHT HOURS.]
[PLEASE STAND-BY...]
[WARNING!!!! PRIME BODY COMPROMISED...]
[SECONDARY OBJECTIVE SET: Nullify hazardous toxins.]
The notifications made Valerian smile.
"Hurry up, Enoch. It seems I need you sooner than I thought."
*****
[The Divine Realm]
The Primordial gods were standing in a large area. Eons ago, five of their comrades had been executed here right in front of their eyes.
They were silent. They were too shaken to speak. They had been at the pinnacle of the universe for ages.
Many beings rose and fell but their supremacy had not been challenged since the fall of the first Demon Lord.
They had become too comfortable and forgotten how these peaceful times came about but now they were about to pay the ultimate price for their complacency.
"He cannot kill us." a Primordial broke the silence. It was as if her words had not been heard.
The others were lost in their own thoughts. "I mean, he saved us." she continued, "Why would He save us just to kill us? He does not know everything! He will not kill us."
She sounded like she was also trying to convince herself but she was still ignored.
A portal appeared and the gathered Primordials stood attentively.
"We are alive because He wants an explanation." No one knew which one of them said it but none argued it.
Most visibly swallowed but their mouths were dry, some were trembling and a few were even holding back a few tears in their eyes such that it looked like their eyes were made of glass.
Two skeletal weapons shot out of the portal. One whipped three gods across the chest, knocking them onto their backs.
The second stabbed a god in the arm and lifted him into the air and flung him down.
Two more skeletal weapons came out and attacked more gods but the divinities did not fight back.
They were not fatal wounds. They were not being executed. They were being punished.
Valerian stepped through the portal. Four skeletal weapons were dancing from His back. His face was emotionless but the air around Him felt enraged.
"I gave you one job." He lashed out. Valerian impaled a leg and dragged a Primordial through the dirt. "One job and you messed that up! How can you all be so weak?!"
None of them replied.
"There were measures in place! A contingency plan was set in place!"
Golden blood dripped from wounds that covered the Primordials but not a word came from their mouths.
"What happened to you all?" Valerian sounded saddened this time
Still no reply.
Two of the four skeletal weapons disappeared into His back. "How did you all mess up this much?"
When they still kept quiet, Valerian lost His patience. He willingly opened one of the seals. It was the equivalent of letting Samael have a foot in the door.
Black veins grew around His eyes while His irises turned red. Two retractable black wings dropped from the skeletal weapons that He had left out. The inner parts of the wings that faced the Primordials were a deep evil velvet.
Valerian flapped His wings and ascended over all the Primordials. His body and wings grew to a larger form of fifteen meters.
Strong winds currents came down around the divine beings. A burning purple aura surrounded Valerian and it filled the area with a strong presence. The gods were forced down to their knees.
"TELL ME OR FORFEIT YOUR LIVES HERE!!!" Valerian roared unable to control His anger. He felt betrayed. He wanted answers.
"The world was safe. There was no need to grow!" The god of Chaos shouted.
"We crushed the strongest civilisations and supressed the greatest heroes." The god of Order said.
"We did not know this would be the result." Another goddess interjected.
"You stagnated the world...I knew something was wrong. This era has smelt putrid since I awoke. What did you do?" Valerian asked, His voice booming in His semi-titan form.
"We did not want another you! We did not want you to return either! We killed the world's consciouness and replaced it with OUR will!" A Primordial finally admitted.
Valerian seemed confused then His mouth opened in shock. A deep terrifying gasp escaped Him.
Their stupidity had always been beyond abhorrent yet insignificant but their actions this time had real consequences.
Valerian's eyes returned to normal. His body shrunk. His purple aura disappered.
His wings retreated and so did the flexible, skeletal bone spears that held them. Valerian slowly fell from the sky. His eyes were unfocused. His mind was unstable.
"You committed a taboo. You messed with the laws of the universe. You idiots thought you affected one world but...y-you have no idea!" Valerian seemed to regain His focus.
"[Leash]" black collars appeared on the gods' necks. "You thought you only hurt me, huh? The world's consciousness was the backup plan. It would have done a lot for you all and against the Traveller! I hope that, like everything else, you all failed to do harm where it counted or the consequences will be worse than death."
Valerian snapped His fingers. A white circle formation appeared under Him and the gods then it as well as them, were gone.