Giantspeak

Abbedon struggled to give his reply with the invisible grip that choked the life from him…

Noticing this, the woman dialed back her energy output and allowed Abbedon to speak.

"Shiva, queen of chaos, thou servant merely wished to see the power of the next ascender first hand. I know the old laws forbid any of us to descend upon the lower realms unless given special permission. I was granted the right to return by another divine, master."

"Even so, you not only threatened to upset the balance of Ki within the lower realm, you also helped that mortal by telling him that the blood moon would arrive tomorrow night! Helping any mortals ascend is strictly forbidden within our circle."

To that, Abbedon couldn't reply. He didn't think that what he said could be seen as helping. If anything, he figured that if Grim couldn't defeat the enthralled undead that he had set upon him, it would be proof that the mortal realm had grown weak.

"You showed great promise, Abbedon. It is a shame you became a worthless fool. May the depths of Nera have mercy on you."

With a swift gesture of her hand, a box made of black energy appeared around Abbedon and completely engulfed him. As her hand closed, the box condensed in size and exploded, sending a shockwave of purple energy flying through the room.

Nothing of Abbedon remained once the dust cleared.

Standing up from her throne, Shiva brushed a piece of ash from her clothes. Before she could teleport from the room, a white runed pentagram appeared in the spot Abbedon was and out from behind one of the pillars stepped Roth.

A gold flaming crown now sat upon his head, glowing bright.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Simply livening the place up a little."

As he said this, Abbedon rose from the center of the pentagram fully resurrected.

Aware that he had been brought back from death, he quickly bowed his head and kneeled.

"How dare you! Abbedon is my servant to do with whatever i so wish. You need to stay in your place!"

"Oh? And I don't think you know yours. Please allow me to remind you that I can do whatever I choose to do. I was the one who gave Abbedon permission to travel back to the mortal realm. It doesn't matter what your thoughts are in the matter, the word from a Soul King is absolute, you know this."

Becoming a soul king was a very difficult thing to do.

One had to absorb enough Soul Gems to ascend. After that, you had to complete a series of trials. The trials were all designed to test one's spirit, power, resolve and Ki control.

Once successfully through the trials, the next step was absorbing a portion of Soul Emperor Ki. This tended to be the end of many candidates as the Ki was very difficult to control and often times resulted in death.

The final step was to duel an already established Soul King.

There could only be a set number of soul kings in existence at a time, for there were only 13 crowns in existence. Upon defeating a soul king, the prior King's crown would become yours until someone else came to challenge you.

"Hmph! Know my place?! My place is definitely leagues above yours! Don't think that your escape from Nera makes me afraid of you."

Roth shrugged and crossed his arms while looking sidelong at Shiva.

"The words 'be afraid of me' never left my mouth, Shiva. You don't need to be, but what you WILL do is respect me and my decisions. If you don't, then I can MAKE you give me the respect I deserve. I don't think you want that now do you?"

While talking, Roth's eyes began to glow as he directed his spiritual pressure at her. Shiva was caught off guard and stumbled a bit. Catching herself, she glared at Roth.

"You are lucky I have better things to do with my time. The next time we see each other, you will not be so lucky Roth."

At that, Shiva teleported from the room in a flash of purple light.

Walking over to Abbedon, Roth told him to stand, to which he quickly obliged.

"So, what were your observations?"

"My lord, there was not enough time to make a good enough observation. I did notice, however, that the potential for growth was substantial. If one were to ascend and if it be thy will, he could become a great servant to you."

Sighing, Roth turned away and began to walk toward his throne. Upon reaching it, rather than sitting down, he just ran his hand along the arm rests and nodded.

"Keep an eye on him. I want to know if he makes it. If he does not, then so be it…Have you found out where Soul Stealer is?"

"No…Within the short time I was there, I only sensed it's power for a brief moment sire. It vanished quicker than I could trace."

"I see…getting Soul Stealer is of the utmost importance. I want you to find it as soon as possible, understood?"

"Thou shall not be disappointed."

"Good."

With nothing else to ask Abbedon, Roth teleported out of the room.

Now that he was alone within the chamber, his true feelings displayed themselves as he tore the hooded cloak from his body along with the chains that wrapped him.

Small black ram horns curled out from his forehead which was commonplace for a greater Lich to have.

The only things that set him apart from other Liches when it came to his appearance were the runes that were carved into his fingers, his eyes which glowed green instead of the usual red, and his teeth that were all razor sharp.

"One day…I shall make all of them regret ever calling me a servant. They will fear the name Abbedon."

Muttering under his breath, Abbedon walked to the obsidian doors of the chamber and threw them open. On his middle finger, reflecting in the light, was a ruby ring that had a black skull etched into it.

…

Reyes and Leezy looked around at the giant bones that littered the base of the mountain they stood in front of.

It looked as if all manner of beast had come here to die. There were animal bones, human bones, and even the bones of what looked to be demons. Above, flocks of vultures combed the area, looking for food.

With a scowl on his face, Leezy looked at the ground they stood on noticing that it looked very strange. Putting it off for the moment, he turned to Reyes.

"Which direction should we go?"

"With there being no sort of map charted here, we will have to go based off of our compass."

With compass in hand, he pointed toward the mountain's peak. Black smoke could be seen coming from somewhere beyond.

"I suggest we go north and follow that smoke. Maybe we will come across something that can guide us."

Nodding, Leezy began working his way up beside his brother. It didn't take long for them to jump up to the top.

Upon getting there, it was then that they noticed the mountain wasn't actually a mountain. What they were standing on was actually a broken piece of armor.

The sheer size of it made it hard to fathom the massive being that was capable of wearing such armor, let alone how much power was required to break it in the first place.

All they could do was stare out at the other so called mountain ranges. A piece of broken sword there, a horn there. Everything was so overgrown with vegetation that without the view they currently had, it was easy to mistake all of it for a mountain.

On the other side of the piece of armor, they could see a canyon far in the distance to their right along with another range of broken equipment and bones. Between them and the second ridge laid a massive ribcage encased in a dense fog. The black smoke they saw was coming from the end of it.

"Well, ain't that some shit…"

"Yeah, never would have thought this whole mountain range would literally be the remains of giants. The quicker we get out of here, the better."

Together, they began to run down toward the ribcage. As they ran, a small rumble could be heard. A massive skeletal hand suddenly erupted from the dirt and slammed down into the dirt a few feet away.

Seeing this, the brother's picked up their pace. A second hand erupted from the dirt and together, the hands worked feverishly to unearth a fully intact skeleton. Now standing a few meters tall with pieces of broken armor hanging loose from its bones, it's hollow eye sockets locked directly onto them as they ran past. Slowly, it reached over into the dirt and grasped something beside it.

Reyes and Leezy were about to reach the beginning of the ribcage when a shrill scream pierced the air. In front of them, the dirt made way for a handful of skeletons to break through. All of them were clad in armor and had various weapons in their bony hands.

Behind them, the giant skeleton drug an ancient rusty sword as long as it's arm through the dirt as it made its way over. It's footsteps made water splash with loud echos around the area.

"I call dibs on the big guy."

Nodding, Reyes got back to back with his brother. Leezy faced toward the giant skeleton while Reyes stood facing the row of smaller skeletons.

"Bring it on big guy! I've been waiting to blow some steam!"

Leezy grinned under his helmet as the skeletons issued a shrill scream at them and began closing in, full sprint.