97 Chapter 94: Trial by Fire

Lars went back to the wheat manor and he met up with everyone. "What happened? Did the gods try to lock you guys up?" Lars asked them in worry.

"No, we secured the perimeter. The Freya familia and Loki familia also retreated." Airmid reported.

Lars sighed in relief. "Start evacuating the xenos that are non-combatants. Send them to this coordinates." Lars gave her a map.

"Understood." Airmid nodded. Fights might start and they can't let the civilians get roped in. Even though every single one of them can fight.

"Everyone, lead the migration. MON and the ANBU will protect the wheat manor. I need to talk to Alfia." Lars gave his orders.

"Take care, Lars." Demeter looked at him worryingly and he nodded.

"Ley will be your shield, she can take care of anything." Lars pointed at Ley and she just sat down in front of the wheat manor as its guardian.

He left the place and Demeter could feel the overwhelming power her body contained. "Uh, hello?" She didn't know what to say to her.

"Umu, Demeter. You are alright." Ley sniffed her and her divinity wasn't fighting with Lars. Meaning she was one of the good gods.

Lars went towards the ruins of Orario and he saw that Alfia was already waiting for him there.

"We've been compromised." Alfia sighed and he nodded.

"That damned Ikelos, I'll deal with him." Lars' eyes turned into slits.

"What now?" Alfia looked behind her and Bell who can't go to the dungeon right now due to the chaos was having a day off.

"You protect Bell, some unsavory characters might go for him. Especially now that you revealed yourself to the public. The Freya and Loki familia executives surely know who you are." Lars frowned.

"Un, don't worry about Bell. He's safe with me, what about you though?" Alfia couldn't help but think that the gods might use their arcanum against them.

"Ouranos will most likely keep things under control with everything he could. For the meantime, I cannot wait any longer." Lars looked at the direction of the dungeon.

He flew to the skies and he looked for the hole that Ley created.

Lars jumped into it and he went towards the Ikelos familia's hideout; Knossos.

Not even caring about the traps or hidden mechanisms of Knossos, he busted through the entrance that Gran and his goons entered that the ANBU found.

"Here's Lars!" He kicked it down with all the force he could muster, adding a concentrated explosion as well. Basically using a bunker buster against the thick, orichalum wall.

His chest then started to glow red, his body mutating into its monstrous form.

"Ikelos, where are you?" Lars sniffed the air and his pupils dilated as he got a whiff of divinity inside the man-made dungeon.

"Kyahaha! I'll fucking kill you!" Lars started running as he felt the overwhelming feeling of wanting to snuff out the divine.

The orichalum and adamantite walls of Knossos didn't stop him as he tackled them like they were made of cardboard.

And after busting through dozens of walls, he arrived in a room with a couple of people in it.

A pompous looking asshole wearing some goggles, the baldy mook, Gran. And a god that looks like he's wearing a tracksuit, Ikelos.

"Hah, your time is up, bub." Lars exhaled and superheated steam escaped from his mouth. Showing his dagger-like teeth to them.

"D-Dix! Protect me!" Ikelos started running away and the guy wearing goggles brandished an ominous looking spear.

Dix stabbed Lars with it and he smirked. "This creates unhealable wounds, you will bleed to-" Dix started yapping, but Lars took it out and stabbed it through his chest.

Lars' wound then knit itself together like it wasn't even there. All in an instant.

Dix coughed up blood as he kneeled on the ground. Gran started to piss his pants in fear and Lars licked his lips.

"Stay there, and I'll give you a quick death, vermin." Lars patted him on the shoulder while walking up to him.

Lars then ran towards Ikelos who was panting like a pig.

Ikelos hid inside the panic room and it was locked from the inside with a magic enchanted orichalum door that is two meters thick.

"W-what the hell was that?" Ikelos was sweating bullets and he tried to catch his breath.

He then started to hear whistling. "Come out, come out wherever you are." Ikelos put his hand on his mouth, trying to be silent as much as possible.

"Are you... Here?" Ikelos could feel the rooms besides his get torn down and his heart began to beat faster and faster.

"Or, here!?" It was getting closer and closer. Ikelos even stopped breathing unconsciously.

"Hmm, this door is too thick." Lars gave some weak blows on the blast door where Ikelos is hiding in.

Ikelos then heard the footsteps go away and he sighed in relief.

But then, a hand erupted from beside him and grasped on his neck.

"You could run, but you can't hide from me." Lars tore down the metal wall with ease and Ikelos' eyes widened in fear.

Lars threw him at the end of the room and Ikelos felt the wind escape from his lungs.

He then scrambled to put his back on the wall, looking at him with wide eyes.

"Ooh, I just love the smell of fear." Lars sniffed the air and he showed his sharp teeth to Ikelos.

"I'm warning you! I'll use my arcanum on you!" Ikelos huddled up in a corner.

"I've learned my lesson, you won't be able to." Lars suddenly appeared in front of him and he kicked in Ikelos' head.

Popping it like a juicy watermelon. A pillar of light then shone, showing the whole world that a god is returning to tenkai.

"Not on my watch." Lars' pupils constricted and he grasped Ikelos' leg. He them smashed the divine spirit on the ground.

"Die!" Lars was about to crush his head like an apple with his bare hands, attempting to put his thumbs in his eyes.

But Ikelos' arcanum was different from Rudra's. Ikelos is the god of nightmares.

And Lars suddenly found himself in another place.

Breathing heavily, Lars could see tons of corpses and strewn around weapons in some kind of plains.

"Lars! We have to go and hide! MON is already wiped out! We need to regroup!" Airmid pulled on him.

"Go! I'll buy you some time!" His eyes widened as he saw Alfia was wounded and bloodied all over.

"No need, divine enemy. You've costed us a lot of lives. Killed many gods, but the divine will win." Artemis shot a barrage of divine arrows at Alfia.

"Go, I love you." Alfia smiled at him before her silentium eden got shattered. She was then turned into swiss cheese by the arrows of heaven.

His breath hitched and he could feel his heart beat like a galloping horse.

"We've killed the witch! Begin with the others." Astraea cut off Alfia's head and she raised it.

"This isn't true... No..." Lars was having a panic attack.

"Go! Leave! You're our only hope! As your paladin, I am your shield!" Airmid stood her ground as her sanctuary appeared.

"Urgh!" Airmid choked on her blood as somebody suddenly appeared behind her.

Loki stabbed her neck and her arcanum as a trickster god made illusions that they couldn't see.

"Airmid... No. This isn't real." Lars started to backpedal away at the unbelievable sight.

"The last of the Echtroi, with the divine enemy dealt with as well. Echidna is with us as well, Typhon. Your reign of chaos ends here." A silver haired maiden pulled on some chains.

Lars saw Ley with a swollen belly. "Typhon... Escape. This is the end of the line for me and our progeny." Ley looked at him with hollow eyes.

"N-no." The goddess raised her sword and Lars couldn't move.

"No! I SAID NO!" The goddess stabbed Ley on the abdomen and she flicked it upwards, slicing Ley in half.

"NOOO!" Lars cried out and his body started to mutate uncontrollably.

"Take him down with the chains of heaven, the world shall know peace again." The silver haired goddess ordered.

With a mighty roar that shook the heavens, Lars' back began to glow. And it was the symbol of a gold peacock, Superbia.

The world began to shatter and Lars suddenly found himself gripping Ikelos' head once again.

"Impossible! How can you get out of my nightmares!" Ikelos roared as he tried to break out of his grip.

"You fucker... I'll enjoy ripping you apart." Lars pinned him down on his neck and he began to dismember him, starting with Ikelos' legs.

"Argh! You won't get away with this! Tenkai will know of you, monster!" Ikelos screamed.

"Not if you disappear." Lars started eating his divine spirit and Ikelos could feel his divinity disappear as Typhon began to absorb it.

"I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die! Let me go!" Ikelos tried to put him in his nightmares, but it didn't work.

And the symbol of Superbia on his back was glowing brightly.

"I'll fucking savor you to the last bite, you little bitch." Lars didn't take off his limbs and started eating him like a corn on the cob.

"Ahhhh! Please! Don't kill me! I beg of you!" Ikelos squealed like a pig as his ichor flowed to the ground.

"Scream louder, no one will hear you here." Lars dislocated his shoulders and Ikelos started crying in despair.

Lars then maneuvered him to make Ikelos face him.

He opened his mouth and Ikelos began to shake his head desperately.

"No! No! I am a god! I won't die like this! No!" Lars chomped on his head like it was a tater tot and Ikelos' body twitched for a couple of seconds before he stopped moving.

Lars swallowed him whole like a snake and he could feel his strength surge. Especially now that his body can now digest more of a god's divine spirit.

He cleaned up the ichor on the ground and Lars went back to Gran who was still standing there, unmoving.

"Good boy, I will kill you without much fanfare then." Lars crushed his head with a clap of his hands and Gran's body dropped to the ground.

"You... You monster, what are you?" Dix was still alive and he glared at Lars hatefully.

"Me? I'm the boogeyman's monster under the bed. And you? You won't even reincarnate in the next life." Lars grabbed him and he chomped on his head, extinguishing his soul with Typhon.

"Now, to finish off these maggots." Lars reverted back before the other gods can feel Typhon activating.

But unbeknownst to him, the dungeon is actively suppressing the divinities inside.

Ikelos' return to tenkai wasn't even felt or seen by Orario. As it used a lot of energy to hold down his divinity.

Wiping his hands with a napkin, Lars finished up with the Ikelos familia.

"Hmm?" Lars looked back at Knossos and he could still feel traces of divinity inside.

"Must be Ikelos' spilled ichor." Lars shrugged and he went back to the surface.

"Interesting... So the godslayer got to Ikelos huh? We have to be more careful in the future. Valletta, get as much information from him as possible." A hooded god ordered.

"Tch, making me gather information on a guy that can kill gods. What a shitty job this is." A pink haired woman grumbled.

"Now, how will Dionysus act after this?" The hooded god was in pleasantly surprised at the death of a god. And he wanted to see more of it.

__Orario__

"Lars, where did you go? The guild is here and the Ganesha familia too." Tiona was nervous.

They were surrounded. Technically, they can just bulldoze through them easily.

But it would be bad for their PR if they still want access to the dungeon which is their main source of exp.

"We're here to ask some questions..." Shakti didn't really want to do this, especially because Ley brought the smackdown on Ottar.

"Is it okay if we do?" Shakti was careful and she sighed at the situation.

"Of course, that's how you're supposed to investigate. Ask politely." Lars nodded at Shakti and she smiled wryly.

They would definitely bring them in if they could, but that wasn't an option.

"Yeah... Let's go with that." Shakti really wanted a drink right now.

__

Thanks for reading everyone, ciao.