"You guys didn't kill him yet, did you?" I asked as we approached the tree stump where Wanda and Yue had slung Nameless up.
They had or he had torn a path into this forest so large I could spot it from orbit. Nameless himself was lying prone half on the stump of one felled tree with a branch poking out of his throat.
I could sense the many magical groups in the world already probing this area but one flash of my divine aura sent their probing spells flying back. Just to be sure though, I still set up a ward. Who knows what the other gods might have planned after that slaughter of the greek pantheon. I wanted no more surprises.
Upon my question Wanda just shrugged while Yue poked Nameless gently with the Pope in her hand.
He twitched and coughed up some blood, eyes shooting open, blooshot and in pain.
"So no. Good. I just found a good use for him."
"You said you would take me outside! We were going to play a bigger better game!" He croaked, tears in his eyes, blood bubbling out from his mouth where a sharp branch had torn through his neck.
I patted his cheeks and chuckled.
"Oh but we did, didn't we? This is outside. And now you're part of my grand game against the old gods. I kept my end of the bargain, to the word."
Nameless, now also powerless, looked at me with a venomous glare and went to say something, but the blood filling his lungs reduced him to a bleeding, coughing mess.
He didn't die though. Surprisingly, he still had the same golden parachute most gods did.
You see when a god loses their divine seed without dying immediately, while they become cut off from their reality warping powers, their body still remains fairly immortal, something about how the body remembers immortality and imposes it on itself regardless of power.
My clone had studied this effect extensively while creating that memetic apotheosis agent. Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to get the same results with his memetic agents so technically the god seeds I made artificially with that memetic agent were somewhat weaker than an actual one. But his research still revealed some of the fundamental principles behind it.
For example, that it had a two second relay cycle. The dead god doesn't immediately revive. It takes a whole two seconds. A glaring weakness I hope to eliminate when I get the time to sit down with him and focus on research.
Another interesting fact is that while this particular bag of ex-god immortality does wipe and undo all wounds, it doesn't undo psychological damage.
It just maintains the save state of the body. Kinda how the Idea Blood in Tsukihime helps keep the vampires immortal by regenerating them to the point where they were originally at, like a save state. It's why Dead Apostle Zelretch is weaker than he should be. Because the moment he became a vampire, the point at which his body's save state was recorded was when he was fatally injured. So no matter how much he heals, his vampiric power brings him back to his save state of near death.
Something similar happened here with Nameless.
In his case, however, his body didn't recognise the blood pooling in his throat and lungs as a 'wound'. It recognized it as food and libation. So every two seconds when he returns to the save state, healed completely, the blood in his throat and lungs didn't disappear, and the branch no-clipping through his throat just bled him more till he was practically an endless fountain of blood. It was funny in a morbid sort of way.
I pressed him by the head, further onto the branch just for fun as the wound in his neck widened.
"You're so evil." Wanda giggled as she handed me his divinity. And I must say, damn, was it big. This wasn't a seed of divinity. It was a goddamn jackfruit of divinity. I felt like I could just rip the multiverse in two with my bare hands if I swallowed this right here, right now.
Tempting.
So tempting.
I looked at Yue, holding the Pope and inside it almost throbbing, cracking at the seams, a purple and black substance, writhing in impossible spasms.
"Is that his concept of imperishability?"
"Yes." Yue snuggled up to me as I patted her head.
"You did a good job." I praised.
"What? I don't get any headpats?" Wanda teased.
I smiled and put an arm around her waist, squeezing her.
"Do you want headpats?"
"I wouldn't mind it." She leaned against my chest, "But first you should deal with him and the mission. We are so close now."
I nodded.
"You're right. You know what... " I took the divinity and handed it to Yue, "Why don't you take it to the lab? Hand it in."
"Un." Yue nodded, "I'll be back soon. Don't go hogging all the fun without me."
I kissed her, cupping her face.
"Yeah. I won't. We will just deal with this traitorous little shit in the meantime."
"Oh, did he spill the beans?" She asked.
"I was wondering about that too." Wanda added.
"Yeah. Yue, before you go... " I took the bag of holding off her shoulders as a portal opened up beside her and she walked in.
"Now then... " I pulled out a black pickaxe made out of some sort of obsidian-like stone.
The Ice Axes. Appropriately named, they were a pair of magically enchanted axes that forced out spirits that possessed someone. Iced them so to speak. Coincidentally, they also worked on the twins.
And as it just so happens, I have the perfect body for him.
Placing Quentin down against the tree stump, I took up the axe and brought it down onto Nameless, who could do nothing but gurgle in response before a stream of golden energy rose out from his body. I cast a spell, lighting up a path and guided the stream to Quentin's body. It entered his mouth and travelled down into his soul, overpowering it as it subjugated it, locking Quentin away mind and soul into the back of his own body, forever a spectator to his own life while Nameless puppet's his body. But it wasn't punishment enough yet. No.
That will come soon.
Just then a portal opened up and Yue walked back out with a fresh new cartridge on the Pope.
Yue noticed the changes.
"You put him inside Quentin? Why?" She asked curiously.
"You know how he loves Julia. She's why he betrayed us. So I figured, this would be a fitting punishment for him."
"This? Why-oh." Yue realized.
I grinned.
She had been the one to receive the delivery of the spare body we were going to use to Nameless's Sister. She knew.
"Come." I extended her a hand as Wanda grabbed Nameless and we teleported to the next destination.
We arrived at a clearing in another forest with Nameless dragging behind under Wanda's vice grip, the branch firmly stabbed into his throat.
In the middle of the clearing lay an ancient sacrificial altar, still wet with the god blood spilled on it thousands of years ago, permanently stained red. Four clay bowls rested against the altar, each with a different symbol carved onto it. Symbols that matched the script carved into the stone organs from before.
This was the place where Nameless's Sister was broken down into four parts.
I walked over to the altar and took out the four stone organs from the bag of holding and placed them each into their respective bowls.
Meanwhile, Yue and Wanda created a set of concentric magic circles with blood and herb mixture around and on the pedestal.
Finally, Yue took out a body from the bag of holding and laid it out onto the bed-sized altar.
It was a clone of Julia. A body like that wouldn't last long under the sheer amount of divinity the Sister had but that wasn't my problem. I needed just a couple of seconds to deal with her. Just in case though, I teleported in a couple of reality anchors.
Summoning an ebony ritual dagger to my hand, I filled it with my divine power and slit the clone's chest over it's heart, sending a surge of magic into the circle as her blood drained into the altar.
The stones began to shake, the bowls clattering against the stone of the altar as the symbols began to glow with an unholy light.
motes of golden lights streamed from the stone organs as cracks spread across them like spiderwebs till with a thunderous boom they shattered and exploded out into a cloud of dust and rock.
The four streams of light zipped across the altar luke snakes in the grass, digging into the open beating heart of Julia's clone.
The heart itself began to glow, and the wound over it flickered shut as it's existence was erased with the Sister's divine power.
Her eyes shot open and she drew a deep, long breath for the first time in millennia before floating off the altar.
She scanned the area, and smiled at me.
"You did well, my servant." She praised, floating over to me, "You deserve a reward."
"Oh, don't mention it." I waved her off and cupped her face, leaning in close as I looked into her eyes. "You are the reward after all."
"You're quite forward, aren't you?" She asked with a grin.
"Yes. I am." The reality anchors beeped and she suddenly fell to the floor. It didn't take her long to realize what was happening as her eyes went wide but by then, she was already frozen, caught in my paralysis spell.
Instantly, Yue appeared behind her and jabbed the Pope into her, extracting the concept of imperishability while Wanda teleported before her, and dug in, wrapping her hands around the Sister's divinity.
Rage flashed in her eyes causing them to glow red as she exerted her power.
"Hhhhhooo-W Dare- YOU!" The Sister burst out with a massive wave of divine force, tearing through my spell and the general reality of the entire area.
Wanda flew back like a bullet, smashing through the cracks in space and into another world while Yue was sent tearing through the ground, her lab coat ripping apart in a vain attempt to stop her crash.
The reality anchors tried to stabilize it but the power was too much to handle. A tiny crack spread through one then another.
The ground cracked and bits and pieces of it rose up into the air as they evaporated.
The sky melted, clouds turning into giant tufts of cotton candy as they fell to the floor crushing the trees. The trees themselves fell apart like great sculptures of sand, glass leaves tinkling against each other in the dunes.
The air turned to honey and then to ash while arcs of black lightning crackled across the dark empty sky.
The reality anchors shook violently, smoking and sparking before-
Boom!
They exploded, creating little black holes that pulled in their immediate reality, disappearing into a point mass.
Shit!
"Yue!" I called out and opened a portal behind her in the closest pocket of stable reality.
Yue immediately made a mad dash for the portal but she wasn't fast enough.
"You're not going anywhere." The Sister announced, and Yue stopped in place like a statue.
NO!
Two keys and a dagger appeared in my hands and I charged her, teleporting before her.
Immediately, she launched a bolt of force, tearing through me.
My form dissipated.
An illusion!
She whirled around, just in time for my dagger to catch her eye.
"I'm not as naive as my brother." A voice came from behind me.
Wha-
I felt my divinity rip out of my body as I turned to see the Sister. She toyed with my divinity in her hand, twirling it around her fingers in amusement.
"You knew." I realized as I gasped for breath, the hole in my chest stubbornly refused to heal.
"From the moment I saw my brother lying back there." The Sister gloated, seizing my soul with her power,
"Your wards were easy to peer through."
"Heh." I coughed up blood, collapsing to my knees, "Looks like I lost, huh?"
"Leave him alone!" Offee materialized a reality anchor and tore off her arm, stuffing it into the machine.
The Sister's hold over slipped, and I felt my psychic power flutter free.
There we go!
I checked with my geass to find the right path out of the situation, poring over thousands upon thousands of possible futures in an instant till I found one.
Yes. This was the right path.
I cast a look at Offee and smiled.
"Activate Protocol : Gae Bolg!"
A massive portal appeared in the unstable zone of reality, it's edges shimmering with a pink glow before it shattered into countless shard stripping through the whole area like a debris storm in space, tearing through both me and The Sister.
"It hurts! ITHUUURRS!" She screamed in pain, "What is this?! What did you-"
I didn't wait for her to finish.
Pushing her down, I straddled her body and held it down as I took the dagger and slit her stomach open, shoving the Illusion Key into it.
"Take this bitch!" Pulling on the concept of the key, I actualized inside her body a brand new existence. Something the key's divine power was made to create.
A door to another world.
Her flesh twisted as if she was a whirlpool of meat and bone, her eyes flickered in fear and a wave of divine aura washed over us as we were both sucked away into a glowing white portal.
We landed back in the hall of Castle Blackspire, slamming hard into the floor as I tumbled off of her and fell fkat on my back, gasping for breath.
I watched her flesh twitch, slowly unfurling the impossible spiral gateway she had become and pushed my psychic power into my body regenerating jist enough to survive this. Pulling my bloodstone coated nano-swarm from the door, I sicced them onto her with a single command.
"Consume."
As the swarm fell onto her, I swiped my divine seed from her hands as she tried to beg for help.
Without her imperishability, she wasn't able to jump bodies at a whim anymore. She was now bound by the same possession laws that bpund the other gods. So she was stuck in Julia's body, her form twisted and reshaped into a door, her head adorning the mantlepiece of the macabre archway that her spine and ribcage formed.
I swallowed my divinity back regaining my power, and stood up on shaky feet.
"Hah... hahahhahahahahah!" I cackled in relief, rubbing my face, her screams sweet music to my ears as she was infinitely eaten alive and reformed, a contest between my nanobots and her overwhelming divine power.
"Fucking finally." I patted my chest, now fully healed.
"You know, this could have been simple. If you'd just let me have my way. I'd have set you up with your brother on a nice little world to live out your lives."
"Fuck you!" She screamed, "And fuck your wi-"
I stomped on her face, shattering her jaw.
"What was that about my wives? I didn't quite hear you?" I leaned in closer.
"Nothing? Good." I sat down by her side with a smile and prepared my divinity extracting spell.
My hands blurred, as they dug into her chest, and retrieved the massive divinity from her.
Carefully, I stored it away in a forcefield lined container, and stood back up, pulling my swarm off of her half dead body.
"It's not too late now, I suppose." I examined her.
I can still use her to torture Quentin but..... I suppose sometimes Wanda is indeed right. They're not worth the hassle. My first priority is checking up on my wives. See if they are alright.
I can always put Quentin in a torture simulation.
I summoned the godslaying dagger to my hand again and stabbed her through the eye, killing her.
Just to be sure though, I decapitated and split the leathery-bony door she had formed into little pieces and burnt her corpse till there naught but ash left.
I cleaned myself up and scanned through the worlds to find Wanda. I spotted her lying prone in an uninhabited world, on the lush and forested moon of a Saturn-like world.
There she is.
I stowed away all the important stuff in my hammer space and locked onto the world.
Let's get them all back. We still have one whole day before the bomb drops.
We can afford to rest a little, especially after.... this.
And with that resolve, I disappeared.
_____________________
The extra chapter for 400 powerstones, as promised!
Thanks for reading.
The next extra chapter at 600 powerstones.
Tell me what you thought of this one? Was it good, bad, forgettable?