Island Edge Ends
Bloody Knee stood at the edge of the forest in the shade of the trees and watched the boat leave. It surprised him that she had decided to leave, especially with her ties to this land. Once again, his plans were ruined. As Gretel had rightly feared, he had a few ways ready to deal with her and recapture her.
"Do you want to find some stupid heroes and then come back here?" Bloody Knee asked of the empty space. "I'll have to make you regret leaving your land." He turned and walked back to the village, large chunks of red flesh slowly falling off his body. He frowned. "I had to find a host first. Damn, that feeling of a body falling apart is nasty."
*****
End of the World
Time passed easily.
Ellar was expanding his clientele, and he planned to try to head there himself if no one directly from Galeona showed up in a week. The time Hellcage had given him was irrevocably approaching, and he wanted to be successful.
Marik was finishing up his training and had become quite friendly with Scar and Cotton; they even offered that he could join their group when he finished his training. Marik planned to accept and was already thinking of ways to convert the two to their side. Marik had grown quite fond of them and didn't want to hurt them if the situation called for it. He knew that the secrecy wouldn't last forever, and he would eventually turn out to be a follower of the Evil God.
Leo and Dali were becoming more bold and talking more, even if only to people they knew. They even took walks outside by themselves sometimes, even if only in the street where they lived. Because they were no longer living in isolation and being raised like real children, their natures became more open. But there was nothing to be done about the fact that compared to real children, they were still weird. However, they did seem to have attracted the attention of a few kids from the surrounding streets who became interested in their new potential friends.
Caila remained confined to her throne, but she could now do much more than before. Monte spent a lot of time with her, learning to talk from her, and they grew closer as a result. Caila felt that eventually, he would tell her more about his race and the problem called Arzen.
Hellcage managed his plans and prayed to Caila regularly. However, Caila was starting to feel that Hellcage had been getting a little depressed lately.
Could he be homesick and wanting to return home? She'd like to call him back, but Caila was worried things would get messy if Hellcage wasn't there. However, she promised herself that once the things that burned them the most were resolved, she would tell him to come back.
She hadn't forgotten to train her abilities, but there wasn't much she could do without actual experimental material. Even normal animals were impossible to use because they were kind of petrified too. It seemed that whatever Supernova did fossilized all living things. Eventually, she focused on control and the scale of her abilities.
As far as her Divine Space was concerned, she didn't mess with it too much. She probed it, trying again to make sense of the strange bell, but to no avail. And while she was curious, she didn't mess with the minds of her worshippers. Caila, however, felt a growing tension within her. She suspected something was about to happen and prepared her subordinates for it.
With the help of the faithful Lambert and Zenobe, they established an emergency plan in case of an attack so that everyone would know where to go and what to do. Caila was not going to go easy on her enemies. In this case, she said their own survival was most important; the enemies needed to be killed or captured if possible. She still needed material for experiments, after all. But Caila, aware that her worshippers were not entirely normal, had no idea that the residents of the End of the World were much more aggressive than she thought. They prepared for the fight with enthusiasm.
*****
"Ah... oh... hmm..." A tall, handsome man with rich yellow hair and red eyes stood by the house. A magnificent crown with several jewels was perched on his head, and his body was muscular and quite exposed; the only thing covering it was a thick web of gold pieces that the man kept tearing off until he had exposed the bloody muscles. Within moments, they were covered by a new layer of skin, and slowly the gold began to grow on its own.
The man kept tearing chunks of gold off his body, which he then threw to the ground, looking around a little anxiously. Man's gaze fell on the Golden Piggy, who stood beside him, leaning on her golden pig, which lazily picked up fallen gold from the ground and chewed it.
"Are you sure you don't want some gold?" The man asked, sending her an almost pleading look.
Golden Piggy wrinkled her nose and looked at the pieces of thin gold lying all around, with bits of skin still stuck to the upturned side of the gold.
"No, but thank you for the offer, Your Highness," she replied and looked towards the palace. She let out a long sigh. She had wanted to go there and find Lambert, but now she was a little scared after what Liege had almost burn her alive.
"There are so few people here. What am I supposed to do?" the man grumbled, troubled again. "Who am I going to give my gold to now?"
Golden Piggy rolled her eyes. 'No one wants your gold!' she thought but then looked at the man.
"*Sad Prince, hold on a little longer. The enemies should be coming soon. Strangers are always greedy. And don't forget that the Pashik here is always happy to accept your gold." She patted the greedy pig beside her.
Sad Prince nodded and tore off another piece of gold, which he threw to the ground with a sad expression. Golden Piggy looked impatiently at the end of the street. "She should be here by now. Where is she?"
As soon as she said it, they heard a sound like something heavy falling. They both looked up to see a large brass pot come hurtling down from the sky, hitting the ground until the cobblestones cracked.
"Hey! Don't destroy public property!" Golden Piggy shouted and threatened the pot with her fist.
"Hihi!" A girlish laugh rang out, and the surface of the pot glowed golden a girl who looked to be about twelve or thirteen years old popped up from its surface. Her eyes were clear and blue like a spring pool, and her hair was bright orange. She was wearing a decent green hat with flowers on it, a white shirt over which she wore a long and green top, and a ruffled yellow skirt. As she did so, golden liquid spurted out of the pot and rippled in the air around the girl, looking like molten gold.
"Sorry!" The girl lightly tapped her head and stuck out her tongue. A wand then flew into her hand from the pot, the end of which carried a large chunk of liquid gold that pulsed faintly.
"This isn't fun! Just wait until the Watch is awake! You know that destroying the End of the World is forbidden! Where do you think all that money comes from then? From my Lambert's beloved treasury! Don't you dare make him spill an ounce of his wealth on you!" Golden Piggy stamped her foot furiously.
"Ah..." The girl kept smiling, but her eyes grew cold.
"Screw you and your obsession," she said with a cheerful smile, but her words were cruelly cold.
"Danann. Please, that's not fitting for a young lady like you," the Sad Prince admonished the girl.
Danann looked at the nervous man, and her gaze became softer. "Haha! Good! Good! But only for you, my boy!"
Golden Piggy huffed but pulled herself together and controlled her anger. She threw her beautiful hair back with her hand and spoke. "Now that we're all here, we can get down to business. We'll call ourselves Team Rich and set the best trap for our enemies! We'll show the Paper Team who's more deadly!"
"Eeeeee!? Is that why you called me here? For that stupid contest? I already have a plan to give those bastards a nice welcome!" Danann looked disappointed and sat on the edge of her pot.
"There's a contest? Ah! Can I donate my gold as a reward?" The Sad Prince seemed to be enthusiastic for the cause and excitedly raised both hands, palms clenched into fists. The two girls paused for a moment, and when they saw how excited the Sad Prince was, they just agreed.
"Splendid!" The Sad Prince smiled happily, looking forward to gifting his gold to many people.
*****
Two figures were sitting in a distant house. The room around them looked ordinary, except that it was all greyish, faded, and gloomy.
The two figures sat side by side in chairs, covered from head to toe in heavy black robes, not moving or speaking. If occasionally, one or the other did not move his head, one might easily have taken them for inanimate objects.
It took forever before they finally did something. Slowly, they turned their heads towards each other and nodded as if they agreed on something, and then they leaned towards each other. As soon as their shoulders touched, they began to merge together until they looked like just a big piece of black cloth. Then even that black cloth started to stretch and began to cover the entire room.
Team Fear began to set up their trap.
*****
Other two figures, one male and one female, moved about on the rooftops. They jumped from one rooftop to the other without making a sound. In some places, they jumped down to the street to carefully place piles of newspapers, which they then trampled on a bit to make them look more natural.
The two figures themselves were a bit odd. They looked like mummies, except that instead of the usual bandages, their bodies were wrapped with pieces of paper and strips of newspapers. The skin that showed through the paper bandages was grey to black, like the skin of an old corpse.
Once they finished their work, the paper mummies smoothly scrambled up the walls of the houses to the roofs and continued on their way, only to put another pile of newspapers on the ground down the street.
"Radactor scares the soul out of them," said the mummy man.
"He does. He'll make everyone read his newspapers," the mummy woman replied, and they both looked at each other before they started laughing.
"Kekeke."
"Kekekeke."
Their laughter sounded like clattering teeth. Team Papers was definitely not falling behind in their preparations.
*****
Less than two weeks had passed.
Caila sat on her throne, letting her whole body flow freely with the blue flame, doing all sorts of complicated calculations in her mind that she couldn't actually calculate, but she tried. Meanwhile, Monte was sitting beside her, uttering loud words and the letters through his little mouth.
"A."
"E."
"I."
"O."
"U."
"YES."
"NO."
"THERE."
"HERE."
"FOOD."
"HURTS."
Monte cleared his throat as his vocal cords ached a little; his job now was to practice speaking, but he had to say that very loudly to distract Liege, who was concentrating on two other things: counting and controlling her fire. She was trying to exercise her control over her fire, not wanting to risk ever losing control of it after discovering how hungry fire really was.
Luckily, the flames were fairly docile towards her, but if it was anything else, it wasn't so easy. So she had some random objects on her lap and tried not to burn them.
"My Liege!" Zenobe suddenly ran in.
Caila's eyebrows twitched, but she didn't lose control of the palmes or burn anything. Still, she let the palm trees die out before answering and then looked at Zenobe. "Yes?"
Zenobe took a breath before reporting. "They're here. The ship just came out of the fog! They're here! They're here!" She smiled.
Caila rubbed her temples. They'd arrived a little earlier than she'd thought, but if they were a ship sent by the god Baa, they probably had decent protection against the Border Fog and hadn't been lost in it that long.
Caila nodded. "Let's get ready then. Anyone who needs protection should come here; you, Zenobe, Lambert, and Opera stay here, and we'll take care of anyone who dares to come here."
"Yes, my Liege!" Zenobe uttered excitedly, her eyes lighting up. She would be in the presence of her Liege! Little did she hope that some enemy would get here so she could show her prowess before her goddess!
Caila sighed inwardly, but then entered her Divine Space and contacted all of her followers through the golden points. There were around a hundred and twenty in total, and that was even counting the Wendigo who were in another city. There were sixty awakened inhabitants present in the End of the World right now. That was just a drop in the ocean. According to the list Lambert had given her, the End of the World had about three hundred thousand registered residents.
What a crazy number! Of course, unlike the cities in the modern world she remembered, it was a small number, but three hundred thousand souls wasn't even small! Supernova was definitely not some tiny and secret cult.
Caila was really looking forward to seeing her city restored. But she would definitely close the doors and put guards here because people come here as they please.
She preferred to shake off the distracting thoughts and focus on what she wanted to do. She informed everyone through their connections of the new event. And then she also informed Hellcage that the enemy had arrived and that he could launch his plan.
When Caila returned to the present, she frowned slightly. Was she imagining things or was she hearing a faint enthusiastic howl from outside?
"B."
"F."
"L."
Monte suddenly began to resume his loud exercise. Caila was a little startled and looked at him. "Ah. That's enough for today, Monte. Good job," she interrupted him quickly and patted him on the head.
*****
Surrounding seas End of the World
The black twin-masted corvette broke fiercely through the wall of fog and appeared under a clear sky. Many black-clad figures in masks moved around the deck; several figures standing in the middle of the ship leaned down, sat on the ground, or just straight up fell. It was a group of Deans who were tasked with protecting against the Border Fog. Throughout their entire voyage, they had to restore the protection around the ship and maintain it so that the Border Fog wouldn't infiltrate the ship and cause damage.
Naturally, they were exhausted as they only had short breaks where they rotated between each other. Now that their protection was no longer needed, they could finally rest. They were not to go ashore with the attacking groups.
There was shouting over the side as orders were passed, and the sails were furled a little in half to make their sailing slower. Those who weren't busy were piling up on the starboard or port side of the ship to look at the island in the distance and make astonished noises. They had not yet seen a new island that had a whole town built on it.
Four figures in black groves gathered on the bow, and they were the only ones without masks, all looking through binoculars toward the distant island.
He was an older man, but his physique was still strong. His hair, which was already grey to white, was slicked back, and his manicured beard was slightly waving. His face was already a little wrinkled, but his yellow eyes were still sharp and clear. The robes he wore were casually draped over a heavy black leather jacket with a brown waistcoat and a white shirt adorned with a black bow tie. On his hands were gloves that covered only his palms, little finger, and forefinger.
Jason Drahed, who was also the strongest man on the ship in the position of Primas, lowered his binoculars and put his smoke-glasses back on, hiding his intense yellow eyes, and looked at the others.
"What do you think?" he asked.
A smaller woman, clearly overweight, also lowered her binoculars. Her name was Gallia Nemand. She was one of the youngest of the Abbess, with great potential to advance early in the order. Gallia was quite pretty, her figure rounded, and the fabric of her cloak straining in some places. She had dirty blonde hair and pink-tinted eyes; her skin was rather pale, but that was fairly common for her race of Vampires.
Contrary to some rumors, vampires weren't dead, nor did they need blood to live, nor did they turn other people into vampires, as was whispered among people. However, vampires could indeed use blood to make themselves superhumanly strong, and they even had mouths adapted to do so. Their canines were not actual teeth but another hardened hollow organ through which they could suck blood from both a glass and a blood vessel, and the effect in boosting them was immediate.
Vampires appeared in the world not long after society had settled down, but it was said that they had been around much longer and were just hiding from humans. There was also a dark period when they were almost wiped out because of fear.
Several studies have been done on their race where scientists have tried to figure out why their blood consumption causes such a latent improvement but have not come up with a result. In the end, they could only acknowledge that whatever the process is, it cannot be replicated after the death of a Vampire. Various experiments have shown that once an organ has been removed from the body of a living vampire, it dies instantly.
It took some time, but eventually, Vampires became established in society when it became clear that they didn't need to kill others to live.
"It's unexpected. Newborn Evil Gods usually don't have entire cities under them. At most, some small villages, tribes, or primitives. This Evil God seems to have been around longer, and that adds to the difficulty of the task," she replied, looking worried. She wondered if one Primate, one Archbishop, and two **Bishops would be enough for this.
The other woman, draped in a black cloak, unlike Gallia, was the tallest of the four, and her figure was slender, even a little bony. She was in her mid-thirties, and her hair was ebony black. A pair of black horns peeked out from the hood of her head, showing that she was of the Kadion race, and her eyes were steely grey and stern. A thin scar stretched over her left eye that reached her eyelid, and she wore oval dioptric glasses on her nose.
"According to the information of our lord and god, the goddess shouldn't be too strong anyway. After all, she only controls one island. What is disturbing is her powers, which take the form of blue flames, which have corrosive properties," she said while moving her glasses higher on her nose with her middle finger.
"We have protections in place for such cases so that the flames don't threaten us," she added. That was Archbishop Libertia Paalon, the second strongest of their group after Primas Jason. She was known to be strict and very well disciplined. She liked to make tables and calculations on everything and try to find the most efficient ways to do things.
The last figure lifted his leg and rested his foot violently on the railing of the ship. "We'll also have to keep an eye out for her followers. I'm sure she's already got at least one Bishop or maybe an Archbishop if she's been around for at least a century." The man was about the same age as Gallia, a little over twenty years.
He had light purple hair cut short with long side bangs, his eyes a slightly lighter shade than his hair, making them look almost blue at times. Both of his ears were pierced and adorned with earrings in the form of an intersecting circle. He had a light stubble of beard around his lips and on his gate and looked very masculine. His cloak was buttoned only once, revealing the black leather outfit of an adventurer ready for battle.
This was the last of leading group, Bishop Archie Cameron. Bishop Archie was an external Bishop who preferred action and exploration and was certainly not suited for the office work he neglected and had a fiery temper.
None of them were inexperienced; they knew what things to watch out for, and they certainly would never underestimate a god, even if he was a newborn. All gods had immeasurable power capable of performing miracles, but in positions like theirs, they already knew that even gods weren't invulnerable. At the newborn stage, the gods had a lot of limitations, and it was the best time to eliminate them.
The limitations were many, but they had one thing in common. They were limited in place and scope. Where they were born was where their divine domain was created, where they had the most power. If they left their divine domain, their power would diminish greatly, and the same went for the other gods. Only in their divine domain could they receive Prana from their worshippers, while outside the domain, they could only dispense Prana but not receive it unless they took it with their own hands.
Of these four, only Primas Jason knew some of the information; both Bishops already knew about Prana but had no deeper knowledge. Like the fact that even an ordinary person could become a god. However, the ways were secret even to Primas like Jason, and only the chosen Pratriarchs and the Pope knew.
If a newborn god arose from an ordinary mortal creature, they naturally chose carefully where they were born, because that is where their divine domain would arise. When they became stronger and became lesser gods, they could move their domain to a more suitable location, but until then, they had to stay put.
If he was a natural-born god, then they could not choose the location of their domain and had to stay where they were born. It had been theorized that there could be many natural-born gods, and the conditions for natural birth were unclear, but such natural-born gods often perished on their own after a few centuries due to an unsuitable place of birth where they had no one to draw Prana from.
The fact that the newly born Gods were called Evil Gods wasn't just because the other Recognized Gods didn't want to share territory with someone new. There had also been many cases where the new Gods had been unscrupulous and had predatorily parasitized the people in their surroundings, causing many deaths. As such, eliminating them while they were weak became a thing of merit and respect in society.
Any newly born god was considered Evil and deserved to be destroyed.
Primas Jason looked at the island again and rubbed his chin. Hunting the newborn gods wasn't just a meritorious act but carried considerable rewards as well. Upon death, the gods would release a powerful pulse of Prana that was very beneficial to people with powers like them, and they could suck it into themselves and advance instantly by even two ranks.
Naturally, they also had objects with them to capture the escaped Prana they would bring to their god, but they could never capture all of it. Only if there was another god who sucked the Prana into themselves would it ensure that they consumed all of it, but not many elder gods would do that, as it momentarily made them vulnerable to the point that even an ordinary Dean-level human could kill them and take their place. But if they knew that.
Primas Jason hadn't confirmed it, but he had the right assumptions. He was an old man, getting on in years, and his wrinkles only proved it. He hadn't thought about things when he was younger, but once you start to feel the weight of the years, you start to think more about death. Jason had no desire to die, and if given the chance, he wouldn't blink and kill the very god he followed to prolong his life. So when the opportunity arose to go destroy a newborn god, he jumped at it. If he advanced high enough through this task to become a Patriarch, he could learn about ways to become a god.
When it came to his own survival, Jason was ruthless and willing to sacrifice anyone and anything to achieve it.
"We're going to circle around and watch the city for a while," he decided to be cautious.
"Huh? Just like that? We'll give them time to get ready?" Archie complained discontentedly.
"If the goddess has been hiding for so long, she's not stupid. Surely she has traps ready; the difference of a few hours doesn't matter anymore. Better to be careful," Jason replied in a tone that said he wouldn't discuss it further. Jason was the one giving the orders on this ship.
"As you command, Primas Jason," Libertia said obediently and looked through the binoculars again.
Archie frowned but said nothing more and followed Libertia's example.
Gallia looked at Primas Jason's back, and her eyes glittered a little before she looked towards the city as well. For some reason, the moment they stepped out of the Border Fog, her canines began to tingle, and she had a strange feeling she couldn't name.
*****
The ship had circled the island several times; the amazement of others at the city had subsided, and now greed had set in. If they destroyed the Evil God, there was an entire city to seize and dedicate to their God and order.
They were the only representatives of the Recognized Gods here, so naturally, the island would only fall completely under their territory. And in this world, the territory to settle was even more precious than the greatest treasure. And then what about the territory already with a city? How great was that?
Naturally, they wouldn't murder the original residents; after all, that would be a very "evil" act that no one practices just to get territory and resources for themselves. But they could still put a few tens of thousands of people in the new place, and the already overcrowded cities could breathe a little.
What made the crew even more excited was that the city before them seemed empty. Through binoculars and lookouts, they couldn't see a single living person. So there was half concern that the Evil God might have already drained the city of living beings and also half excitement because it meant more places to resettle.
All four expedition leaders went to rest for the night, and it was decided that the landing was scheduled for the morning.
The night watches set up additional intrusion protection around the ship overnight using prayers that were only triggered once. However, upon inspection, they found that it was just a curious orange octopus that had attached itself to the hull of the ship, and they stopped paying attention.
Once the crew was assured that it was nothing, they returned to patrol. At that moment, the octopus, which was holding on to the hull with its suction cups, lifted its tentacle and stuck it into its guts from where it pulled out a piece of black cloth which it put on.
The octopus wriggled a little before slipping into the cloth and then steadied itself. The cloth covered the octopus's body, and the fabric turned out to have built-in mechanical sights like eyes and a zipper, which the octopus unzipped with its tentacle to reveal human-looking teeth that grinned in a wicked grin.
The octopus began to move to settle on the keel of the ship, and while it waited, it began to hum in a rather deep voice. "End of the World, End of the World, in this wonderful place, happiness and death will strip you to the bone~"
*****
In the morning, they all gathered on board the ship and set off towards the harbor. The crew split into five teams.
The first team, with several Deans and one Vicar, was tasked with sailing the ship a short distance away after disembarkation to prevent an attack on the ship. They could also man the cannons if necessary, but Primas Jason wanted to avoid unnecessarily destroying the city by blasting it, so he kept that as a backup plan.
The other four teams were made up of the most capable members of the Order, and each had twelve members, thirteen along with one of the leaders.
Each of the team leaders would take a different route through the city to secure possible civilians or eliminate any possible threats that might fall in behind them along the way. When they dealt with the Evil God, they didn't need to get stabbed in the back. Jason, being the strongest of the group, was to lead the main assault, targeting the castle standing in the center of the city.
He had a feeling that the Evil God might reside in that place, and even if not, clearing things up with the local superpower wasn't a bad move either. There was also a chance that the local ruler was unaware of the Evil God's danger and might cooperate with their Order.
They all cautiously watched the approaching harbor, preparing their talismans and weapons. No one appeared to question or stop them. The harbor and the adjacent houses and streets were quiet and peaceful.
The ship hadn't even properly docked before two gangways were lowered down, and members of the Order of the Moon ran down and began to secure the harbor. Some broke down the doors of nearby houses and barged in, only to return empty-handed after checking that the houses were abandoned.
Once all that were supposed to had disembarked, the ship lifted anchor again and headed back out to sea, and black cannons began to emerge from the sides of the ship.
Jason looked around and nodded. "You all know what to do! If there's a problem that you can't solve on your own, send out a signal. If you discover the presence of an Evil God, wait for the rest of the team to arrive. Now move! Move!" Jason waved his hand violently, and the teams scattered in all directions.
Jason turned and stared at the palace in the distance; he and his team took a direct path towards it. He motioned to the two explorers who said short prayers, and a faint silver glow appeared around their bodies, making their figures slightly transparent as they charged forward.
*****
Caila smiled slightly. She sat in the throne room with Zenobe, Monte, Lambert, Opera, and a few others who had not participated in the defense of the city. Through her Divine Domain, she observed the entire event. None of the attackers seemed to notice that they were being watched.