Apolitus Nova

As they wander through the forest of bizarre-looking fauna Scorge began to mumble under his breath. Raas saw a glimpse of Scorge's face and saw, worry. A bad sign...

As Raas glanced at him a second time he only coughed awkwardly. Turning towards Wendy, she only shrugged and strode beside him silently, enjoying the noncorrupted land.

Deciding to stay silent he followed behind Scorge while his large form flattened the small bushes and grass in front of him. His wings were awkwardly tugged together.

The groups stood still as Raas suddenly stopped and looked at the ground. A deep shadow loomed over them, he could swear that it wasn't here a second ago.

"Hey do you see that?" asked Raas as both Scorge and Wendy turned towards him.

"What do you mean?" asked Wendy sprouting dozens of eyes on her body trying to notice anything suspicious.

Raas was confused and looked around and impatiently froze stiffly as he saw what caused the looming shadow.

Scorge stayed silent waiting for Raas to speak.

"Emmm, there is a giant something staring at us from above."

"Is that one of your hallucinations?" asked Wendy not sure what to do with his statement.

"No, I don't think so... oh he is now pointing at Scorge..."

"Shit..." mumbled Scorge.

""?"" Both Raas and Wendy turned towards Scorge who spoke up. In a fracture of a second, the demon turned into his true form and disappeared. Leaving only an afterimage behind.

""...""

Looking back at the creature that is towering over the trees he saw it make a pulling gesture before Scorge appeared right next to Raas again but this time with all of his wings crushed and looking worse than a crushed ragdoll.

In a time of less than one second, the creature tore off Scorges wings, plucked an eye out, injected some poison into his system, crumbled a leg, shredded another, was hit by a force of a meteorite right in the stomach, deatomized a toe, slapped him twice, and pulled him back.

Wendy and Raas were shocked at the sight.

"What is going on here?!" asked Wendy who just saw the strongest creature that she know of beaten to a pulp after Raas "blinked".

"Ugh, that wasn't necessary..." groaned Scorge as he tried to stand up with his mangled body. "I think a part of my soul is missing... and a few organs..."

The creature leaned forward and slowly reached for Scorge with two lanky fingers covered by black gloves. Raas instinctively backed off and hid behind Wendy who was still shocked and slightly happy to see Scorge in such a state.

Reaching into his body without damaging him physically the creature ripped a blood-red flame out of him and ate it. Scorge gasped for air and arched his back in pain. "Now a part of my soul is definitely missing..."

The creature's eyes suddenly glowed an aethereal green, before hundreds of thousands of candles covered his body, with every candle glowing in a different color, intensity, and brightness. A dense black aura surrounded that being and even the downed wrath demon got a slight chill at the mere presence of this being.

"Who, no, what is that?" whispered Raas as he backed off even further, like a scared cat. Wendy's adaptation ability kicked in and she basically turned into a ball with a carapace-like armor and four small legs.

A deep booming vibration sounded through the whole area. "You demons really think you are cunning! Hah! Now, look how it got you! But as you have paid your price in souls and life force, you may state your reason on why you visit me here."

The being's mouth split open revealing an endless abyss and teeth as white as the most polished marble.

Scorge who cracked his body in place slowly stood up and reverted to his default appearance like nothing has happened, all that while dusting off his clothes. "That Raas is Apolitus Nova, the last demigod of this realm. He survived the war and corruption by feeding off of the souls of whoever died here and whoever wished to leave this place. To sum it up, he is like big ol` Demon Lord of Hell but doesn't have to share the souls amongst the other demons. Or like Soul Judge Paratherius, but that is another story."

Wendy who still couldn't see the demigod just looked at Scorge as if was hit too hard in the head.

He just ignored her and spoke again, "I wish to bargain with you Apolitus."

The whole island shook at his grumble. "Hmm..."

"We wish to return back to the Woodland Dungeon in our dimension, and restore the acutra's core."

Apolitus Nova pondered for a moment before he respond, "1.000.000.000 souls of sentient creatures, a soul of a high-ranking angel,a mana core of tier 6 or higher, and ether spores from the void."

"""..."""

"Isn't that a little bit excessive?"

"no"

"Well, sorry Raas I guess we are stuck here, better find another way out," said the demon as he shrugged his shoulders and turned around.

Raas who got out of his shook slithered around him and squeezed really hard. "Hey, just pay up and we can leave. And it was you who suggested that we come here! It is a "little" bit expensive but who cares, it will be a small price to pay to get us out of here, right!?"

"Pah, do you know how long I have collected the souls?! Can you even imagine what deals I have to go through to obtain such a large soul collection? And now this Soul god wannabe wants to just what? Take 20% of my hard-earned souls away? No thank you!"

"Wait! 20% How many souls do you even have? Ok how about that, I will destroy another city of your choice if you just pay up so we can leave."

Scorge turned silent and looked into Raas' giant deep green eyes."You promise on your name?"

"Yes, yes, now just accept the deal!"

A familiar smile appeared on Scorge's face as a small puff of smoke came from between them. Without missing a beat or for Raas to continue onward Scorge jumped out of Raas's grasp and shouted, "We have a deal Apolitus! Now get us out of here!"

Apolitus looked at Raas which could only be pity and a little bit of disappointment. "He played you like a fiddle... But first, follow me to the forge so I can finish the contract." Saying so his giant frame slowly compressed and shrunk down till he was only 5 meters tall. With a gesture, he beckoned the group to follow him.

Scorge gave Raas a winning look while Raas angrily slithered after the demigod, mumbling something about stupid demons and their underhanded tactics and his dumb overeagerness under his breath.

And all have forgotten about the stunned wendigo behind.

"WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO AND WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!? I THINK I AM GOING CRAZY!!!"

All three of them turned towards her as she cried in confusion.

"Ah, so the plant can't see me, how... sad. Let's change that."

As her eyes laid upon the demigod her body flinched...

"Oh, so that is what you are talking about. Just get this over with." Her body turned into a complete ball.

Raas was astonished by her reaction but yet again, she was already a little bit nuts, to begin with.

Thinking back on his first encounter with her, he could only laugh at her behavior, so without further ado, he picked her up and carried the ball of a wendigo on his back.

The jungle slowly receded and a large ebony structure could be seen, the closer they got the more noise they could hear. Metal clanking on metals, large objects being moved, and occasionally a few distant explosions and implosions.

Didn't expect that the forge was surrounded by a city, but what blew his mind was the hundreds of death knight looking workers or citizens operating the forge.

As if knowing what Raas thought the demigod spoke, "Do you really think I will do all the work on my own, hahahahaha. I am only a demigod and not a god... yet at least."