thanks, can we continue now?

with any thoughts of rebellion silenced, I ushered the rest of the pillars through the portal before following after myself, the tear in space and time closing behind me as we all found ourselves standing in front of a massive thriving town of mortals, a tall, imposing temple meeting our gaze from off in the distance on a hill just above the town.

looks like we had found target number one, the goddess of fertility.

I figured we should start with a weak one for the other pillars, build their confidence ya know?

the reason I knew this?

old pillar was feeding me information as I travelled to the realm of light, which was harder than normal and took more portals than I liked because of her being my exact opposite, same reason she was never able to enter my realm freely, even without my intense security.

regardless of how I got the information, I had it, and it was useful, as this goddess was on the lamer of the power scale, which meant I wouldn't need to intervene in this fight in the slightest, no, this was a test for my little ragtag group, to see how well they fought together, to see what weaknesses I needed to cover, what strengths I could work with, and what I needed to do to make this group function more seamlessly.

a fact soon noticed by cosmic, kind of.

"really? here? this goddess?"(cosmic) groaned as he gave me a look of, "seriously?"

"yep, here, I need to see how you all work together, I need to see what I'm working with, so I won't be helping, you're on your own on this one."(Granularr) I told the group as I motioned towards the temple, where we all noticed the goddess emerging, looks like me flaring my aura like morse code at imperceptible levels to mortals was more than enough to draw her out.

"step number one, work with you all on your senses."(Granularr) I groaned as I watched the goddess bend low, and then launch herself our way, an expression of rage on her face as her eyes were locked on me.

an expression I took as a warning, my body moving to the side effortlessly out of the way as she sailed harmlessly beside me, a dust cloud exploding into the air as the other pillars looked at it, unmoving.

"do you need an invitation or something? GO!"(Granularr) I urged, my words kicking the pillars into action, disjointed action yes, but action.

light would burst forth at blinding speed, her attack failing to do any damage as it lacked any real power behind it, cosmic would charge next, his attack faltering and missing altogether as the two made eye contact, time would attempt to use her powers to stop the goddess in place, but given how few times she had used this power, failed miserably, her own body launched backwards as the goddess struck out at her, her fist connecting to the jaw of the pillar without much in the way of resistance.

"wow. just.....wow. I'm actually impressed at how horrible that was."(Granularr) I sighed as I began walking towards the on-guard goddess, my hands never leaving my pockets as the shadow beneath me grew and shifted, becoming long bladed tentacle like limbs that swished side to side, thirsty for violence.

"you!"(goddess of fertility) reacted as I began using another of my powers, my mental one, I was digging through her mind via all of her dark thoughts, using them like a backdoor and a secret highway.

"yep, me, the guy your boss banished because he couldn't defeat me, guess what? I'm back, your reign is over, I hope you enjoyed it while it lasted."(Granularr) I told the divine being as I sent all of my shadow limbs forth, each blade working in perfect unison as they severed her limbs from her body in one clean strike, their attack so fast that it seemed as if I only sent forth a single limb.

the pillars around me gasping in shock as the goddess crumbled to the ground in pieces, dead.

"we have A LOT of work to do."(Granularr) I said as I shook my head and opened a portal to my realm, one by one yanking the pillars to their feet before tossing them through it.

"now I'm really regretting recruiting them, fuck they're so pathetic, did losing the war reset their combat abilities or something?"(Granularr) I asked myself as I hopped through the portal myself, my realm expanding into view before me.

"you never bring us here, why change that now?"(cosmic) asked skeptically as he stepped forth from the group, he had a decent point.

"why now? because my realm is outside of time, I can manipulate how you each perceive it while in here, which means we can get thousands of years of training in while only mere minutes pass in the mortal world, you all need that now more than ever."(Granularr) I told them as I motioned for them to all follow me as I began leading the group towards my training grounds behind the castle, my coliseum, I had a newfound flair for the dramatic in this new life, what can I say?

---

cosmic pov...

it was the first time I was seeing the realm of darkness, I wasn't sure what to expect but one thing was certain, it lived up to the name, it was dark, constant nighttime, stars so dim that they aided practically nothing in the way of visibility, surprisingly enough though, the landscape seemed normal, mortal almost, there were forests, paths, meadows, cliffsides and oceans, I even managed to spot a waterfall off in the distance through pure chance.

and that wasn't even mentioning the massive and elaborate marble arena, its intricate design striking my view even from all this distance away, my eyes locked on the cliffside structure, its pure white standing out against the pure black it sat against on the horizon.

the base of it surrounded by jagged rock, almost as if it were acting as both a support, and a defense.

"this is the training grounds, the proving grounds, and the place I go to innovate my powers, this is where I break you down so that I can remake you into something better, something a whole lot less pathetic, in here, you're mine."(darkness) said to us as he turned, the structure looming behind him intimidatingly.

I could tell in that instant, this wasn't going to be easy.