The Journey Starts Here

"Um, why? Axel's not with us, sooo he can go without us." Jayden stated.

"This is a journey that will require all of your strength to fix this. Without you all, this plan will not succeed." Admin responded.

"Wait..!" Axel grunted. "I never said I wanted...their...help! They all suck so bad. Well..ugh.. maybe except Iris." Axel admitted.

"I actually have to agree with Jayden here for once." Jun intervened. "This city is an absolute wreck and we have to find what survivors we can. If something else comes, I'm sure we can manage on our own like we have been."

The admin looked at the faces of the contracted slayers as they all seemed against the idea of joining forces to help Axel. The Admin lacked any actual emotion, so she liked to stay on the facts backed up by data.

"I see. Just to confirm - you're not letting your recent success against Conquest and his soldiers inflate your sense of self worth, right?" Admin asked.

"Oh, um. Not at all," Jun said surprised.

"Good. Because I think you should all be aware of something. This current God of Conquest was unique among the other Gods. To understand your situation you must also understand who he was."

Admin waved her hand as yellow energy washed over them and they scenery completely changed. They were now in what appeared like space - but instead of a giant sun, there was what resembled the shape of a 20-sided die. There were strands upon strands of energy intertwined within it and fed these lines across stretches of nothingness. However there were lines with different colors, shapes, thickness, etc.

"Where did you take us?.." Jun asked in utter bewilderment.

"This is all just an illusion. I created this all from data since I still maintain my connection to the God Core System." said Admin. "Now, what you're seeing is the One Core. It's where all divine power is sourced from. Even the King of the Heavens and the Queen of the Underworld.The Gods have connections to the One Core that are different from Seraphs, Archangels, and any other divine being. You'll see that the big strands jut off into several other strands and so on.

"Talk about word vomit." Axel said rolling his eyes.

Admin ignored him. "That's what makes the power difference between the rankings. Every angel serves a specific God. That God dies, the connection is severed and that entire branch loses their connection. The same goes for Slayers. You all are connected to the Queen's connection to the One Core. But Conquest had a higher understanding that anyone did of how these connections work and even how to alter them."

"Meaning?" Jayden asked.

"Meaning..." Admin zoomed in on Conquest's connections. When looking at the other God connections, the ones that branch off are smaller. However, Conquest's branch off connections were almost the same size as his was. "He found a way to share even more of his power with his subordinates. You see, Conquest was one of the weakest tributes to be nominated for the God of Conquest title. But his knowledge made him indispensable.

"I'll just continue writhing in pain I guess...." Axel moaned.

Admin ignored him. "Conquest promoted those based on more than their own individual power. He had his own set of standards. So he didn't always have the strongest higher ranking angels under his command. He did the unthinkable of a God and would share even more of his own power to them than what was allowable because combat was not what he cared most about.This brought his people up to the bare minimum of their position. Do you understand what this means?"

Jun rubbed his chin in thought as it all started to sink in. "So, his archangels...were boosted just to be able to qualify as being such? Then they're probably weaker than those that actually earned it by power. I mean, it would make sense since their base powers would be totally different. And if Conquest was doing that for all of his higher ranking soldiers then...!" Jun's eyes grew in fear at his revelation.

"What? What?? Come on, tell me what it is!" Axel whined.

Iris also had a look of fear etched in her face as it dawned on her. "It means that Conquest wasn't truly at full power. We beat a God who had only a fraction of his actual power."

".....excuse me?" Axel said as his bravado finally dropped.

"Correct." Admin said. "But it's even worse than you may fear. You defeated a weakened God, the person who beat him lost his power, and now you have shown the other Gods that this wasn't an empty threat."

"They'll be coming for us." said Jun.

"That is a very high probability. If another of the Gods were to appear, you would be fighting a battle leagues beyond what you did today. The others do not think as Conquest did. Power is the only thing that exists for them."

He played me, thought Axel as the truth set in. He fought me knowing...ugh! I don't need a handicap you knowledge obsessed nerd!

Jun let out a sigh. "Guess you're not gonna let us say no then."

"We only have about 4 more hours to act. God cores can't exist outside of their respective realm for long." The Admin then reached her hand out over the ground, "Open Realm". A single drop of gold liquid dripped from the palm of her hand and onto the ground below.

In the very spot it landed, it expanded outwards to create a human sized whirlpool of energy on the ground. The consistency resembled that of water. "I've used the last of the lingering God energy from Conquest to make a breach to a dimension where we'll get the rest of what we need to help Axel." She said.

Jayden angrily stomped over to Axel and looked down at him a clearly irritated look.

"Um, what?" Axel said as he raised his brow.

Jayden then yanked him up as if he was a small child. "You first." He tossed Axel into the portal as he screamed and kicked.

"I'm in pain you dick!" Axel yelled as he vanished into the light. Jayden then followed in after him. Iris groaned and followed suit.

Jun stood for a moment alone with Admin. He looked at the swirling portal of energy as his thoughts bounced endlessly in his mind. "Admin, do we truly-"

He looked over and caught Admin taking her cloak off before stepping into the portal. "Whoa whoa whoa!" Jun quickly turned his face away as her surprisingly well-endowed womanly features were almost on full display. "What are you doing??"

The admin looked at him with a blank face. "Clearly my clothes didn't come with me last time, so I figured I wouldn't ruin your jacket if it happened again. Is there a problem?"

"Yes!! Just...just cover up before you get in." Jun said with a red face.

Admin shrugged and covered herself back up with his cloak. "The portal will close shortly after I enter. Do not loiter or you will be left behind." She then sunk into the portal herself and out of sight.

Jun turned back and looked at the burning city around him. The city he swore to protect with his second chance now was more of a graveyard than a bustling piece of civilization. There could still be people out there who needed him, and yet here he was leaving them behind for someone who could care less about any of them.

Was there even anything left to protect?

Jun looked away as he went over to the portal and dove in.