"I am the Sand God, Gan Karah. Worshipped being of the Karash Religion. What brings you here, Gou?"
"Tazmanias didn't tell you?" Gou asked.
"All he told me was that you need my assistance with something. You should be lucky I'm helping you, you're not one of my Blessed, nor are you a follower of my religion. I can't turn Tazzy down, though, so this is all just a favor for him."
"Tazzy? How close are you two?"
"Very. He is a Blessed individual after all. I went out of my way to give him some extra luck and power. Arissa, grape."
"Yes, my lord." The woman on Gan Karah's left said as she fed him a green grape out of her golden bowl.
"Well, Gan Karah-"
"You may address me as Sand God."
Gou let out a sigh. In his mind, he should've expected something like this. Gan Karah is a deity, it would be a little weird if he wasn't a bit egotistical. Still, he was pretty annoying, especially that stupid childish form he took on.
"Sand God. I came here to ask you if you have any valuable information on the Fiend God's curse."
"Ah. Well...you can't break it."
"What do you mean I can't break it?!"
Gan Karah looked away from the human to eat from the bowl of grapes by himself.
"I mean you can't break it. You can definitely try to make a cure for it, but I don't know how you would go about doing that. The only concrete way to break the curse for good is by killing the Fiend God. This is a curse granted by a god, so you can't break it the normal way.
"You see, the curse operates as a Magic spell since curses imbued with Magic are far stronger. The spell coats the moon in the Fiend God's blood. Then, the blood attacks the souls of newborns, cursing them with horns that appear every red moon and hair as white as the moon at the cost of becoming a Fiend sometime around middle age. The Fiend God's been plotting something like this for a long time now. Don't know why, but I'm just surprised they finally did it.
"Either way, you're a mortal. Curing a curse created by a god is already an insane idea since curses affect the soul. What's even crazier is fighting and killing a god, which no mortal has done and will never do. Sorry, Gou, but a curse like this is something you can't fix. Hey, why do you even wanna know?"
When Gan Karah looked at Gou, he saw him on his knees with his head low. His spirit was shaken and his face was dull and pale.
"My son. He's been cursed." Gou spoke in a low tone. His heart sank deep into his gut and he wanted to vomit. This absurd news didn't seem real to him, the fact that the gods were practically looking down on him and his child gave him a feeling of both dread and debilitation.
"I see. This is probably a lot to take in for a mortal. Look, guy, don't waste your life trying to help your kid."
"What?" Gou said as he lifted his head up to the God of Sand.
"Mortal lives are already short enough. You and your family will die one day anyway. In the end, your boy will be nothing, so just let him live the cursed life he's destined to have, won't you-"
Before the Gan Karah could finish his statement, a large beam of light pierced through his eye, taking out a chunk of the left side of his head.
The Inner Seal, a storage of energy near the soul of mortals was present in the domain of a deity. Seal Energy, the energy emitted from mortals out of their Inner Seal was also present in the area. Seal Skills, techniques created from Seal Energy were also inhabiting the world of sand. And the man crazy enough to shoot a god in the head, Gou Twendlen, made his presence known in the world of gods.
Gan Karah's missing face didn't ooze blood, but sand. The sand soon merged together and reconstructed back into the original shape of his face. Arissa and the other woman by Gan Karah, Maralil, both watched in shock seeing their god not only get attacked by a mortal, but the magnificent capabilities of the Sand God.
"You say something else about my son, or my family, and I will stuff your entire body with the sand I walk on."
Gan Karah let out a chuckle with a scowl on his face. "I should kill you where you stand, you arrogant filth."
"Kill me, and I'll claw my way out of the deepest layer of purgatory just to come back and slaughter you then."
Gou held out his hands as his white Seal Energy turned into a giant cannon of light took form in front of him. Anger was the only emotion flooding Gou's body and thoughts of murdering the deity ran rampant through his mind.
"You've got balls." Gan Karah said as he swiped his hand.
□ □ □
Gou awoke in the shrine of the Sand God. "Hurts. My head is pounding!" He thought to himself. He sat up and stayed still for a moment while holding his head. Gou became dizzy after teleporting again and wasn't used to it at all. He could barely see, not because of his lack of a left eye, but because the shrine was pitch black on the inside aside from the luminescent orange circle.
"Ah, how did it go?" Tazmanias Sulfur asked Gou while holding Tsuki Twendlen in his arms.
"Not the best. I shot at him."
"What!? What do you mean you shot at him?!"
"I shot at him, Taz. He was talking crazy."
"You impudent fool!" Tazmanias yelled as he walked over to Gou and punched him in the head. Seething with anger, Tazmanias had many questions he wanted to ask Gou, but decided that the punch was enough for today. "Did you get the answer you were looking for?"
"Not really. Thanks anyway, though."
"I'm sorry to hear that, my friend. Is there anything I can do for you?"
"Nah, everything's fine. I just have to break the news to my wives."
"Ah. Yeah. Good luck with that."