—Several Days Later—
Reconvening with the Apostles, once they were back in the Imperial Capital, I informed them of Cedric's death and the end of his insane degree. Relieved to hear that they would not need to fight him again, the Twelve Apostles stepped up to receive the authority and power their former Lords held. Once the transfer was complete, I informed them that I had taken it upon myself to find them suitable teachers to train under for a few months.
"Say what now…are you insinuating that we cannot figure things out on our own?!", Giselle protested.
"That is exactly what I am saying, this world has already suffered enough. If I leave it to you to figure out your new powers, one of you could inadvertently end this world. While I would like to say I believe all of you understand restraint, Mabel and Rory are the only two I trust here.", I stated, looking at Giselle, "Admittedly, out of all the Apostles I trust you the least. Not only do you constantly use your status to get out of trouble, but you have shown little to no forethought when acting unsupervised. Remember that Fire Dragon that went on a rampage because of your actions? We captured it yesterday while it was in the process of burning an Elven Village to the ground."
Glancing over at Yao, who was a few feet away from me, Giselle noticed that the Dark Elf still had Hardy's hammer in her possession. Gently swinging the hammer into her free palm, the color from Giselle's face vanished. Having flashbacks of the beating she received, Giselle immediately hid behind Mabel and Rory. Poking her head out from behind them, the new Earth Goddesses insisted she had learned her lesson and would do better.
"I swear on my mother's grave that I will do my utmost to improve myself and earn this position!", Giselle assured us, placing her hand on her heart, "Nothing will stop me from doing my duties!"
"This would be your seventh mother now?", Graham laughed, "You have sworn on her grave to me at least that many times."
"Only seven, she swore on her mother's grave ten times for me.", Mortar remarked, "Every single time she did so, she broke that promise within a month…sometimes in less than an hour."
"Come on, I am serious this time!", Giselle insisted, as her past came back to bite her in the ass.
Cutting Giselle's colleagues off before they could argue with her further, the Hindu Goddess Bhumi stepped forward to examine Giselle. Taken aback by the overwhelming power she felt coming from Bhumi, Giselle attempted to step back but the Goddess stopped her. Pulling her closer, Bhumi warned her not to do her duties half-heartedly.
"The people of this world will not survive if their Goddess of Earth slacks off or does not perform her duties well.", Bhumi lectured her, "Their yearly harvest can be bountiful or pitiful based on your actions. Failure to give your all will result in millions of deaths, are you prepared to accept that responsibility?"
"Y…yeah I am sure!", Giselle replied, unconvincingly, "This will be easy, I watched Hardy work several times so I know the majority of what to do already."
Having sat silently listening to our conversation, the new Empress spoke up on behalf of her people. Unsatisfied with the way Hardy had been running things, she saw this as an opportunity to improve things for everyone and prevent further conflicts.
"Ahem…", Piña coughed, gathering our attention, "If I may be so bold, Hardy did an atrocious job managing things for us. Part of the reason we began our ruthless expansion was to gain additional fertile land to sustain ourselves. All of us would greatly appreciate it if you could do something to remedy that so we do not repeat our actions in a few centuries."
"Well Giselle, are you up to the task?", I pressed her.
"I uh…I will take the help now please!", Giselle said, fearing what a negative answer might do for her position.
Allowing her a chance to prove herself, her colleagues gave their blessings so long as Bhumi acknowledged Giselle. Introducing the rest of the Apostles to their teachers, all of them headed off to their domains to begin their training. Happy that things went smoother than expected, I turned back to Piña and company to confirm if they were doing alright.
"I know you are not back to full health yet, but how are things going?", I inquired, "Any questions or concerns about anything?"
"Thank you for your concern, Cole, so far we are managing to keep our heads above water but things will get busy in the next couple of weeks.", Hamilton explained, "We are currently assessing the amount of damage the Empire has sustained, and will need to adapt accordingly. Early signs suggest that roughly a third of our population is dead, the vassal states want their independence, and our army is holding on by a thread."
"I understand, while it will be a long road I am certain you ladies can handle it.", I acknowledged, "Well my part here is done, other than a few loose ends, I do not believe we will likely see each other again."
"Please, wait a moment!!", Piña pleaded, "I have heard from Countess Formal that you have given other worlds access to trade with your lands. Would it be possible to request the same for us? It will take time for the Apostles to fully take on their duties so we may be lacking for some time."
"I do not see an issue with it, but let your merchants know…I will not tolerate any racial mistreatment in my lands. All races are treated equally under my laws, money and political status do not play into what punishment they receive.", I warned her.
"We will make sure signs are posted near the portal warning everyone of this.", Hamilton assured me, "If they violate your laws we will not defend them."
"Alright then, show me where you would like it to go.", I chuckled, motioning for them to lead the way.
Eagerly running past me, the women began discussing where they would want the portal to go. Following them, as they went back and forth on things, we silently followed them and went with the flow.
—3rd Person POV—
Sitting in their decrepit throne room, the Gods of Chaos and Reincarnation looked out the window in despair. Having sensed the death of their last remaining ally, they knew Cole would appear soon and end their lives. As little progress had been made on countermeasures against him, all they could do was wait for the inevitable to happen.
"We gave up everything to help you, and now everyone but me is dead…", Chaos said, clutching his face, "Why…why did I listen to you?! If I knew Cole would become this powerful, I would have stayed out of it and let him kill you!!"
"If you had, I would have exposed your dirty secrets to the Chief Deities and let you die with me!!", the God of Reincarnation retorted, with an irritated expression, "Blaming me for this does not change the fact that buried me in work with your antics. All five of you caused irreparable damage to the Omniverse so I ended up trying to fix everything!!"
"Cry me a fucking river, I was just doing my job!!", Chaos complained, rising from his seat, "I refuse to just sit here and wait for death to take me. There has to be something we can do to better our odds, right?"
Racking his brain for any ideas, the World Barrier began to vibrate out of nowhere. Uncertain of what was happening, the two deities rushed outside to locate the source of the disturbance. Noticing cracks beginning to form in the sky, their enslaved toys fled seeking shelter wherever they could find it.
"...we had a good run…", Chaos gulped, clenching his fist in fear.
"I do not think this is Cole…", the God of Reincarnation remarked, "Cole's method for World Travel is much less intrusive than this."
After waiting a few more moments to see what would happen, a skull-shaped ship broke through the barrier and descended into the world. Watching several tendrils appear on the side of the ship, they slowly extended themselves and began scanning the planet.
"What the hell is this!?", Chaos said, having never seen this before.
"Hmm…I am not sure either.", the older deity stated, "That said, we may have found our way out of here. If the owner of that craft can be persuaded, both of us can flee without leaving any traces of ourselves for Cole to follow."
"Yeah…I am not so sure they will be willing to talk…", Chaos remarked, watching one of the tendrils deconstruct a group of their servants.
Seeing no alternative option, the God of Reincarnation reached out to the crew of the ship via telepathy to get their attention. Struggling to make the connection, as the ship was shielded against such communications, he managed to brute force his way through after straining himself heavily.
"I do not know who you are, but we would greatly appreciate it if you would take us far from this world. We are running from a Demon called Cole who is after our lives.", the deity explained, seeing no reason to lie to them, "Will you help us?"
Suddenly halting its operations, the ship turned toward them and approached their location. Flying right over them, a beam of light suddenly transported them into the ship. Momentarily stunned by the experience, the two of them quickly recovered and began surveying their surroundings.
"Hmm, I do not possess knowledge of your species in my database.", a mechanical voice said, "Fascinating."
Turning toward the direction of the voice, a cybernetic elf slowly rose out of the floor studying them carefully. Having never seen such a sight before, both men remained silent as they cautiously watched their host's movements.
"No matter, something you said caught my attention…", the man replied, "Tell me all you know of this Cole…I want every detail you know about him."