Transcendence - Chapter 101

***Sphere of Sous***

***Celestial***

“I am Aneth!”

Four expressionless faces turn to the child in front of us. I can’t help it, so I break the silence. “You are smaller than… you know… ?”

The child stomps onto the ground. “Of course I am smaller! You killed me! I was reborn as the son of a fucking swineherd! Can you imagine what I went through until I managed to collect enough mana to speed up my growth!?”

Ascathon sighs. “At least there seems to be something like karma!”

Jazira nods and assists him. “The poor parents… I wonder what they did to deserve such a son!”

Aneth clenches his fists and shakes them. “Anyway! We’ll settle our conflict with this tournament once and for all! Our world isn’t big enough for all of us! Seven gods is too much! The one who gets the most points during the tournament can stay, the others have to leave!” He points at Lidith. “And take that one with you!”

I step in front of Aneth and look down at him. “I don’t like your attitude!”

He glares back at me, but Charon and Wynne step forward to aide him. “It’s better to use the tournament as a fighting stage than to devastate our homeworld.”

Ascathon shrugs his shoulders. “Who cares? You just want to play with those who are weaker than you. Wouldn’t it be the best to let them die while watching our glorious battle?”

“Hoooh? I like that id…” Charon starts to speak, but Aneth and Wynne glare at him, so he shuts up.

Jazira lifts one finger to her lips and arches her eyebrows. “The idea in itself sounds nice. But why does it feel like we are being tricked?”

“Because they have seven people on their group and we have just four!” Lidith shakes the sheet with the tournament rankings in her hand.

I snort and grab the paper to have a look for myself. “It’s true. What’s up with this shit! Four against seven isn’t fair!”

A broad smile forms on Aneth’s face. “The tournament allows groups between four and seven people. It’s your own fault if you don’t manage to gather a full party!”

Asathon frowns. “So they matched us against groups with the same amount of people until now. It makes the fights more interesting. Fine! Bring it on! The four Pillars of Death will crush you!”

Wynne shows her teeth and smiles. “This won’t take long. It’s good that you chose the reasonable path.”

Lidith tilts her head and turns towards Ascathon. “Are you sure about this bet?”

Ascathon smiles. “You are the one who said that you want to win. Then let’s win and show them that a fight against -The four Pillars of Death- can have only one outcome.”

“You like that nickname too much.” Jazira whispers.

“I am a god of peace…” Lidith’s tail curls up behind her.

“The only one who deserves that name is you.” I mumble.

All eyes in the room turn towards me. “What? Don’t look at me like that! Who else, but a god of death would carry the souls of his enemies around?” I point at my husband.

“The question is who would marry a god of death?” Wynne mumbles.

Aneth turns to leave the room. “We’ll call it a deal then! The ones who achieves the best score during the tournament gets the planet!”

Our visitors leave the room. When they are gone I turn towards Ascathon. “And now you tell me how we are supposed to defeat a group of seven gods.”

Ascathon crosses his arms in front of his chest and closes his eyes. “Since our house is at stake, I may have to become serious.” He points at us. “And that means that we have to equip you guys with some real weapons!”

***

“I don’t feel comfortable with this hammer.” I muse and swing the unwieldy thing through the air. At least I got a set of daggers too.

All of us got a set of the latest crystal armour and weapons, combined with instructions on how to use the stored mana within them. These new weapons seem to work like magical amplifiers.

Lidith inherited his sword, together with a second one. It looks a little strange when someone wields a two handed sword in each hand.

I look at Jazira “And why is she the only one who got a fucking gun!”

“~Tehe! Your husband seems to be fond of me.~”

Ascathon shrugs. “It’s a failure. I tried to build a particle cannon, but the mana consumption was too high. So I used it as a decoration for my laboratory until now. It occurred to me that Jazira might be fine with it.”

“You built a cannon which consumes too much mana!? You are a god!” Lidith gasps.

Ascathon nods. “Yeah. The problem is with all the different curses and seeking spells which were added to the rifle! I never thought that the interference of so many different spells would increase the mana consumption to such a level. But I wanted something which can kill instantly!”

Jazira pouts. “But my spell does that anyway.”

He shakes his head. “Your spell might be powerful. But if your opponents figure out how it works, they can counter it with ease. It’s just a Flame Spell after all.”

Jazira turns pale. “My top secret trademark magic was figured out?”

Ascathon snorts. “I saw that spell often enough by now. Obviously I’d see through it after so many times!”

Jazira drops to her knees and hugs the rifle. “Then I won’t give this thing back!”

He isn’t offended at all. “Keep it! It’s a failure after all.”

Lidith’s ears droop. “I wonder why he keeps calling it a failure…”

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