Chương 39: Chapter 38 – Danger and diversion

Tsura was beginning to get bored. He had been waiting in the Void for long enough that even the possibility of an incoming attack was starting to lose its excitement, but then two gods suddenly jumped into the zone exactly where he had expected them to appear. One was the deer-taur god wearing that infuriating mask, while the other was a female fairy with delicate fae wings. The fairy was particularly difficult to perceive.

Even with his divine senses, her presence was almost transparent, as though she barely existed within reality itself. If that was how she appeared to a god, then a mortal would never have had the slightest chance of noticing her. The pair did not hesitate for even a moment. They immediately attacked the two lesser gods Tsura had deliberately left exposed.

"Got you." Tsura's grin widened as every hidden spell around the area activated at once. The Void erupted. Massive magical bombardments exploded around the two intruders, filling the area with brilliant flashes, distorted colors, deafening sounds, and waves of confusing divine energy. The attacks were designed to disorient rather than kill, none having enough power to injure another god.

"NOW!" Tsura's command was transmitted directly through the divine connection to every god hiding around the battlefield. The trap snapped shut. Six minor gods emerged from their hiding places, unleashing their strongest attacks simultaneously while Tsura himself added his own divine power to the assault. The combined barrage was enough to shake the surrounding Void, with waves of energy crashing into the two attackers from every direction. For a moment, it looked as though the trap had worked perfectly.

Then the deer god suddenly burst apart into a cloud of shimmering bubbles. The fairy, meanwhile, shrank into what looked like a tiny metal stick before shooting directly toward the group of lesser gods.

"... What?" Tsura barely had time to process what he was seeing. BOOM! A bubble suddenly exploded directly in front of the lesser gods and chaos erupted. Several gods screamed and stumbled backward, while others gagged or retched as they desperately tried to escape whatever had been released around them.

"What the hell is this?!" Wohurrak, the shark-like god, shouted as he frantically waved his hands in front of his face. Images were blinking in and out of his vision. Most were bizarre, disturbing or simply crude enough to make him wish he had never possessed eyes in the first place.

"What are you doing?!" one of the other gods shouted while stumbling into another.

"Watch out!" Tsura roared. He barely finished the warning before five black entities rushed him. The creatures attacked with the enthusiasm of rabid beasts, biting, clawing, and spitting streams of corrosive acid at him without the slightest concern for their own safety. They threw themselves against his body again and again, apparently caring nothing for the divine attacks he sent back at them.

"Get off me!" Tsura caught one of them and crushed it beneath his enormous hand. Its body burst apart. For half a second, Tsura smiled. Then the remains melted into a pool of thick black goop. It gathered itself together, flesh reforming around a skeletal frame until the same black creature stood before him once again. Tsura's eyes widened.

"Shit!" He immediately unleashed another divine attack, this time putting considerably more power behind it. The blast tore through several of the monsters, but the remaining creatures simply continued their assault, forcing Tsura to fight while the rest of the battlefield descended further into chaos. Elsewhere, the deer god suddenly reappeared in front of one of the confused lesser gods. The poor god barely had time to raise his hands before the deer god drove a fist directly into his stomach.

The impact sent him flying backward. The punch was empowered by both divine essence and Qi, giving it enough force to send the unfortunate god tumbling through the Void.

"I've got you now!" Another demon-looking god managed to recover enough to launch an attack at the deer god, only to find himself suddenly trapped inside a thick tube made from condensed divine essence. He stared at the strange construct around him.

"What is this?!" The fairy woman appeared beside the tube with an almost cheerful expression.

"A barrel, and you are the bullet." She produced a modern-looking device and casually placed it inside the tube before sealing the opening. The demon god's eyes widened.

"Wait, what do you…

""Bye!" Winked the fairy... the next moment, the device detonated. The resulting nuclear explosion violently propelled the god, sending the demonic entity hurtling away at a near light speed through the Void.

"That's a home run if I ever saw one!" the fairy woman laughed. She immediately reached into her storage space and pulled out a bag filled with completely random objects. Without bothering to inspect any of them, she simply tossed the entire bag toward the recovering group of lesser gods. The bag spun through the air, and the battlefield descended into even greater chaos. - - - - - - - - - - - - - Joshua focused entirely on creating as much chaos as possible.

His homunculus body, disguised as the female fairy, had been a genius idea on his part, and he had even prepared one for Gu Zhao. His first attempt at creating a decoy had simply been a magical barrier that looked and felt like a god, when in reality it had only been his pendrive carrying the illusion. This time, however, he was personally piloting the real homunculus.

The body itself was nothing more than divine essence shaped into a living form and perfectly tuned to Joshua's own essence, making it almost impossible to distinguish from the real thing. There was, however, one significant drawback. While piloting the homunculus, Joshua could not see or feel anything through his actual body. He was completely blind to what happened to it until he returned to it, so all he could do was hope that his deception worked long enough. Gu Zhao, meanwhile, was doing the exact opposite.

He was being as loud and painful as possible. He threw himself into close-range combat, striking the lesser gods with powerful combinations while hurling insults at them in increasingly ridiculous rhymes. Two of the lesser gods were already out of the fight, one having been sent hurtling into the Void and another knocked unconscious by the combined assault, but the rest were recovering far faster than either of them had hoped.

"Plan two!" Gu Zhao shouted as he saw the others beginning to regroup. He immediately formed a thick protective bubble around himself, reinforcing it with layers of Qi and divine essence. Joshua understood the signal and acted at once. The six remaining nuclear weapons he had prepared shot outward and detonated in rapid succession, blooming across the battlefield like an absurd display of fireworks.

Without being concentrated into a single destructive point, they were nowhere near powerful enough to seriously injure gods, but that wasn't their purpose. The explosions filled the Void with light and pressure, forcing the enemy to shield themselves and giving Joshua and Gu Zhao roughly seven precious seconds to reposition.

"GET THEM!" Tsura roared. He finally managed to tear one of the black monsters away from his face and ripped it apart with enough force to ensure it stayed dead. He had used far too much divine power on the first strike, and against the creatures, but that mistake had made him furious rather than cautious. He gathered his strength and launched himself toward Joshua.

"We still have the strength in numbers!" Joshua barely managed to raise a barrier as Tsura's attack struck. The force was so overwhelming that Joshua's homunculus lost both arms instantly. Divine essence poured from the severed limbs, splattering through the Void like golden blood. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Tsura's eyes narrowed.

"You are not the real one." He raised his enormous cleaver and brought it down. The blade passed straight through the fairy's body, cutting the homunculus in half.

"Shit." The body dissolved into drifting essence as Joshua's consciousness was thrown out of it. Gu Zhao saw the opening and immediately struck another god, sending him hurtling into one of his companions. He was considerably stronger than Joshua, but even he knew the plan was running behind schedule. They still needed another fifteen seconds, and they couldn't afford to fight the entire group head-on for that long. With a grimace, he sacrificed one of his special formations.

Several formation flags appeared in the Void, each taking a precise position around Tsura. They began connecting with lines of light, forming a three-dimensional cage that enclosed the bull-headed god from every direction.

"Plan three!" Gu Zhao shouted. Joshua's consciousness returned to the battlefield to his real body, and he arrived like a shooting star, driving his fist directly into Wohurrak, the shark-like god.

"It's way too soon!" Joshua shouted. He glanced toward Tsura, who was already cracking the walls of the formation with his cleaver.

"Damn, this bull is way too strong. He killed my homunculus with only two attacks." The problem was becoming obvious. None of their tricks were lasting nearly as long as they had anticipated. The lesser gods had managed to recover from the confusion, the nuclear explosions, and the various traps far too quickly.

"Let's focus on the small fries!" Gu Zhao yelled as he dodged three attacks at once.

"Who do you call small fry?" Wohurrak growled. The shark god's fist connected with Joshua's face. Joshua went flying several miles through the Void before finally stabilizing himself. He wiped a thin line of golden blood from the corner of his mouth and stared at Wohurrak in disbelief.

"What is this, a relative of Nanaue? He has almost the exact same divine power as me and still hits like a truck."

"Focus!" Gu Zhao shouted. He drew his sword and swept it through the air. The other gods immediately reconsidered getting too close as the blade radiated enough divine power to make even them cautious.

"Good idea." Joshua summoned his own sword and flipped it into its deadlier configuration.

"Not good enough." A voice came from directly behind him. Joshua's eyes widened. He barely had time to turn before Tsura's attack arrived. The blow nearly killed him outright. Tsura's attack was reduced as it came through the now broken formation, but still had half of its strength. He looked as though he was about to collapse from exhaustion, but there was still terrifying strength behind every movement. His cleaver came down like lightning. Joshua instinctively tried to summon something between them.

Then the world shifted ans the battlefield vanished. Joshua, Gu Zhao, Mu Cheng'en, and Zhang Jingyun suddenly found themselves standing in the middle of a small, peaceful meadow.

"Huh?!" Both of Gu Zhao's friends immediately jumped to their feet, their hands already gathering power as they prepared to defend themselves.

"Calm down," Joshua said, though his voice carried considerably less confidence than he would have liked. He looked around at the peaceful meadow, the flowers, and the strangely familiar magical atmosphere.

"This is King Oberon's garden... I think."

"Indeed, and I am always gracious and wise enough to have saved all of you." A figure stepped casually out from behind one of the trees... Oberon. Joshua stared at him for several seconds and sighed. He still had one final safeguard available, but it was the last thing he ever wanted to use. Thankfully, he had not needed to activate it. Now that the immediate danger was gone, Joshua allowed his body to revert to his true dragon form and simply lay back on the grass.

He closed his eyes and concentrated on repairing his wounds, slowly forcing his divine essence through the damaged areas.

"Did you guys manage to do it?" Gu Zhao asked, turning toward Zhang Jingyun and Mu Cheng'en. Zhang Jingyun didn't answer. Instead, he reached into his storage and pulled out a handful of soul cards while grinning. Mu Cheng'en was considerably less confident.

"I believe we managed to retrieve most, if not all, of them before we were suddenly whisked away. I cannot say for certain, but we certainly did not leave empty-handed." He then turned toward Oberon and bowed deeply.

"Your intervention was most appreciated, Your Majesty. Without your assistance, I fear the outcome might have been considerably less favorable."

"The only one who is in my debt is my pal," Oberon replied with a chuckle. Joshua's eyes opened. He looked at Oberon from where he was still lying in the grass.

"Oh, goodie." The Fae King smiled and Joshua immediately had a very bad feeling about what that debt was going to cost him. - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tsura stared into the empty Void where the two intruders had disappeared, his chest rising and falling heavily. His armor was cracked, his divine essence was leaking from several wounds, and one of his horns was badly chipped, but despite it all, a grin slowly formed across his face.

"They actually ran," he muttered, almost laughing.

"Too bad we couldn't kill them…" The exhausted gods around him began to relax as well. They had survived the ambush, driven the attackers away, and protected Pehuma. At least, that was what Tsura thought for the few seconds before a nervous voice broke the silence.

"Tsura…" the cat god spoke, body shivering.

"What is it?"

"Something is wrong with the planet." Tsura's smile vanished. He immediately expanded his divine senses and looked down at Pehuma and his blood ran cold. All the storage vaults had been emptied, and entire sections of the infrastructure had been reduced to rubble. The soul reserves were all completely gone, with the whole planet being a mess. Tsura stood frozen as the realization settled in.

"They weren't attacking us," one whispered.

"This was the distraction." One of the gods cursed under his breath, while another immediately opened a spatial gate.

"Where are you going?" Tsura demanded.

"No clue, but I have no intention of being here when the boss arrives." Another god followed him without hesitation, abandoning his own world entirely in favor of saving his skin. Tsura watched them disappear and suddenly felt as though an invisible noose had tightened around his neck. He looked back at Pehuma, then toward the empty Void. Run? He could abandon everything and disappear. He could beg… That was probably worse.

Tsura swallowed hard as he imagined standing before his master and explaining that, yes, they had successfully repelled the intruders... but had somehow allowed them to ransack the entire planet while doing so.

"Oh, ancients…" he muttered, his face beginning to sweat.

"I am so incredibly dead." - - - - - - - - - - - - - Arven Coles reached the back wall without being noticed. He crouched beneath a window he had already identified during his earlier surveillance and slipped a tiny metal bar underneath the frame. Attached to it was a small silicone balloon, which he carefully began inflating with air. The window rose by mere millimeters at a time, but that was all he needed. Once there was enough space, he slid his tools through the gap and worked the internal latch.

It took him less than fifteen seconds. With a quiet click, the window opened. Arven slipped inside before carefully lowering it back into place. His footsteps were light as he made his way through the darkened corridors toward the only room that, according to his previous scans, had any chance of containing a vault. The office belonging to the thin man was exactly as it had appeared on his drone footage. Dark, quiet, and empty. Even better, the door wasn't locked. Arven slipped inside and closed it behind him.

He crossed the room, went straight to the painting hanging on the wall, and carefully lifted it from its hooks. Behind it was exactly what he had been hoping to find. A built-in vault. Small, old-fashioned, and almost laughably outdated by modern standards. A faint smile crossed Arven's face as he pulled a stethoscope from his bag. He was actually hoping for the most modern vault… a challenge. This was a bit diappointing.

He pressed the stethoscope against the metal, placed his fingers on the dial, and slowly began turning it, listening intently for the faintest click from inside the mechanism. - - - - - - - - - - - - - -"Move aside. I want to see his face," Kate said, nudging Purra aside.

"Nya," the black cat whispered stubbornly, pushing back against her. The two continued their quiet struggle at the bottom of the stairs while Luna sat comfortably at the top, casually peeling an orange. She could see the intruder perfectly well through the walls with her senses, so there was no reason for her to crowd around the corner with everyone else. Besides, this entire situation was really just something Felix had arranged. The butler had noticed the reconnaissance equipment watching the castle long ago.

Rather than simply stopping the thief, however, he had used the opportunity to put on a little show. Through the illusion, the cameras had continued to show the castle as though it were occupied entirely by ordinary humans. Felix wanted the thief to actually break in so he would have something entertaining to show Joshua when he returned. Luna thought the whole thing was rather lame. But, admittedly, it was also kind of fun. Danny had already wandered off.

Using a little fae magic, the rabbit had pickpocketed the thief while he was working on the safe. Unfortunately, the only things he found were tools and a few other bits of equipment. Danny had shrugged, apparently disappointed by the lack of snacks or money, before casually walking straight through a wall. Felix had even patted him on the shoulder afterward, apparently not wanting his little entertainer to feel too bad about the disappointing haul. Then the real show began…

The thief finally opened the safe and found exactly what Felix had wanted him to find: several dozen gold coins and, sitting prominently among them, a fist-sized polished emerald. The gemstone practically glimmered beneath the light of the tiny flashlight. The thief didn't hesitate. He quickly slipped the emerald into his belt pouch. Only then did the room begin to cool. At first, he didn't notice. He was far too pleased with himself, already imagining what the gemstone might be worth.

Then the floorboards beneath his feet creaked. The thief froze. From the portrait hanging above the safe came a quiet chuckle. He slowly looked up. The painted man was smiling, looking right at him. For roughly four seconds, Arven simply stood there, staring at the portrait as though refusing to believe what his eyes were telling him. Then his breath began to mist in the freezing air. He grabbed his bag and sprinted for the window. The corridor seemed to stretch as he ran.

What had been a short hallway moments ago now appeared impossibly long, its walls distorting and twisting as though the castle itself were laughing at him. In front of him came the sound of something enormous moving, followed by the rush of a massive, deep-red wave of liquid surging down the corridor. Arven screamed and turned around, abandoning all thought of the window. He ran in the opposite direction as fast as his legs could carry him, only to slam to a halt. Felix was standing at the end of the corridor.

The butler no longer looked remotely human. His demonic form towered over the terrified thief, shadows curling around his body as his eyes fixed upon the man.

"Going somewhere?" he asked with a smile that could freeze blood in a man's veins.