Far beyond the realm of mortals and monsters, was a long, dark corridor.
Different golden statues stood on either side of the corridor, facing each other.
At the end of the corridor was a golden throne which previously had a statue on it. However, all that was left of the statue that previously sat on the throne, was a few fingers of its right hand which still clung to the arm of the throne in desperation, and its right foot.
At this moment, the golden statues that were facing each other suddenly came to life, and their eyes shone brightly with different colours.
There was silent for a while, until one of the statues, which had calm red eyes spoke.
"He lives." It said simply, which seemed to trigger a reaction from the rest of the statues.
A statues, with dark purple eyes scoffed as its face displayed annoyance. "I'm sorry, when was the last time you glanced at the mortals? He's been running around for only a couple of days and he's already begun to break the seal!"
"Watch your tone, Euroca, Aries is an Old God. You do not speak to us Old Gods in that manner." A statue with silver eyes said in a calm indifferent tone and focused on the statue with purple eyes.
The purple-eyed statue of the goddess Euroca huffed, but still mumbled an apology to some of the statues, before turning to the one with silver eyes. "I am sorry, Lady Artemis."
The silver-eyed statue of Artemis didn't speak or react any longer, and simply remained silent.
"I am deeply confused by my presence in this meeting." A statue with green and gold eyes said in astonishment. "I would much prefer to not be a member of this... Whatever this is."
After speaking, the eyes of that statue went dim.
The red-eyed statue of Aries sighed and looked around. "Anyone else wanna leave?"
A few statues went dim, including the statue of Artemis.
"Because I have no will to live anymore does not mean I am suicidal, Aries." She said as her statue's eyes went dark.
Aries scoffed at her words, but a little bit of hesitation showed in his eyes.
"Regardless of what my half-sister has to say, we have to stop that menace." Aries said after heaving a long sigh.
Through the millennia and long eras, Aries' rage and temper had long since been put under his full control. He was not a hothead who would jump into a fight at the slightest opportunity.
A statue with dark green eyes chuckled lightly at that point. "I'm behind you on that one, brother. It's a shame that you classify me as a 'new' god, so I am unable to share my wisdom when the elders are speaking."
Aries glanced at the statue with an indifferent expression. "And that behaviour, Dionysus, I why we do so. If you have something to suggest, then do it now, I have better things to do."
Dionysus ignored the initial part of Aries' speech, and laughed. "Isn't it obvious? We can't exactly show up in the mortal realm and sever his head, so I suggest that we simply stop him from reaching the Tomb of The Night."
"That would be pointless, drunkard, because, I've been watching him, and I know he's only going there to pay a debt." Euroca said at that point then turned back to Aries to speak, but Dionysus interrupted her before she could even begin.
"If you had let me explain, you insignificant coalescence of matter, I would have stated the many problems that might arise if he pays this 'debt'." Dionysus' playful nature receded unexpectedly.
This reaction surprised all the remaining gods present, however, Aries remained unfazed by it. This wasn't his first time experiencing Dionysus' true self.
He cleared his throat and seemed to pull himself together for a moment before he could return to his previous self. "Anyway, the first of which, would be the fact that he would meet more dangers on the way; all of which he would most likely conquer. This would make him gain more power, and would inevitably lead to the breaking of his seal."
"The second... Might even be more terrifying." Dionysus paused at this point as he thought a little more on the matter, in order to be sure if his speculation was on point, before he finally spoke.
"He might awaken the other guy."
***
One of the Nitah Beetles lunged at Ultio and spat out a large glob of yellowish acid, which seemed to blend in with the overall hue of the desert.
Ultio simply went beneath the glob and sent a punch directed at the face of the beetle.
He watched dispassionately as his fist went through the creature's head, with trails of a pale yellow fluid stuck to his fist.
The other beetle screeched in fear and tried to dig its way underground to avoid the terrifying existence before it. However, Ultio was not in the mood for a chase, so he dashed at it and grabbed one of its legs as it began to dig.
Unfortunately, the burst of divine strength Ultio received after breaking two tiny runes off his seal was used up at that point, and he was dragged by the large insect into the ground.
Ultio's presence through the journey underground made the beetle move erratically, which ended up causing it to burrow into a large underground cave, which had many holes in its walls that were presumably tunnels dug by the inhabitants of the cave.
Because the beetle came in through the top of the cave, which was a few hundred metres above the ground, Ultio found himself, as well as the insect, falling to through doom.
Feeling slightly irritated, Ultio proceeded to tear off the limbs of the insect and ride it against a wall like a surfboard, in order to slow his descent.
It took significantly more effort, but Ultio managed to pull it off, as his recent breakthrough in the unsealing of his seal refilled his energy and left him a tad bit stronger than he was previously.
"How convenient." Ultio remarked with a smirk as he arrived at the bottom of the save and jumped off the insect, which was only a piece of carapace at this point.
The eerie silence of the cave had no effect on Ultio, who began to observe the messy floor of the cave.
It was littered with countless corpses in various stages of decay, which indicated that they didn't appear here all at once.
Various weapons, armours, relics, items and the like were scattered all around the cave. Some gave off magical auras and others filled the air with their mana.
"I know you are all hiding in the shadows and waiting for the right moment to strike. But please, come out now and save me some time and effort." Ultio said in a light-hearted manner to seemingly no one in particular.
However, countless red eyes began to appear in the dark tunnels that were connected to the cave. Chittering and screeching sounds began to echo in the cave, as giant spiders began to emerge from the darkness.
"Splendid." Ultio said and picked and a broken spearhead from the countless items around him, then he grinned at the creatures, who were inspecting him in silence.
A few moments later, the spiders decided that they could take him on, maybe not with their individual might, but with their numbers.
Dark matter began to appear and swirl above his unarmed hand, and his casual smirk turned into a predatory smirk.
"Let's begin, shall we."