"This is a major waste of ti and resources."
"We're following orders."
"Yeah but… orders can be wrong!"
Viscount Emberion Dross fixed his burning eyes on his sister, Prya. Both siblings sat on individual palanquins, held from below by nurous silent champions.
"He's never wrong."
Prya let out a sharp scoff.
"All this blind devotion isn't going to get you anywhere, Emberion. Father doesn't even look at you."
A cold glint flashed through Emberion's gaze, but he held his tongue. Prya had always been an explosive spirit, even amongst the blazing Redflas.
The air around her was already shimring from the heat she was giving off.
"Use your brain for once!" Prya snapped, shaking her head.
"He sent two middlerank viscounts and their entire army to chase one brat who just ascended! Does that sound sane to you?"
"It is not our place to question him."
"This again…" she growled, hot steam bursting from her nostrils.
"We could just send the lower viscounts and go handle real threats, like, oh, I don't know, the other factions still hiding out here! But no, we're babysitting Father's paranoia."
"No." Emberion shook his head and turned toward the distance.
Father gave us this task. We obey. If you disagree, you can leave. I'll be sure to report to him accordingly."
Prya gritted her teeth, mumbling just loud enough.
"Idiot lapdog."
Emberion heard her clearly, but didn't bother responding. Instead, his eyes narrowed as his will began to flicker.
He suddenly sat upright.
"They found him."
Prya instantly leaned forward. "Finally! Where?"
"In the forest."
"Great! Let's go!"
"Wait. He's… unconscious."
"What?"
Emberion's eyes flashed as he viewed the ongoing scene through the Redfla gods' wills. He waved his arm and the air shimred in front of him, materializing into a screen. Through it, they watched the unfolding scene.
"Look at that!" Prya scoffed. "He fainted! Father dragged us out here for this coward?"
"…"
Emberion didn't pay any attention to his impatient sister. His eyes narrowed on the scene.
A petite blonde held their target firmly as she was kicked about by the leading viscount. Despite her pain, she refused to let go of their target.
'Why is he unconscious?'
There weren't many things that could make a god lose consciousness. Especially if said god was a viscount. And for a newly ascended god who hadn't been in any battle yet, that number was severely narrowed down to one.
'He's consolidating his power.'
Emberion shot up so fast Prya actually flinched.
"What now?" "We need to get to him. Now."
His will spiraled violently around him as he prepared to move.
Prya stared, shocked. It wasn't every day her brother appeared so flustered. Her brother never looked shaken.
She stood up too, ready to follow, when the screen flickered and went dark.
Their eyes sharpened at the distant forest as the temperature spiked to unbearable levels.
"Wha—"
A rousing explosion tore through the scorched forest. Emberion and Prya's eyes constricted as a mushroom cloud climbed into the sky from the middle of the forest.
"Shield yourself!" Emberion barked.
"O-okay!"
They wrapped themselves in will as the shockwave smashed into them.
'What… is this heat?'
Emberion's eyes sharpened. Despite their distance from the epicenter of the explosion, it felt like he'd been subrged in a pit of lava.
"Clear it!"
Their wills burst outward in unison, clearing away the remnant of the shockwaves.
Prya's expression was hard. "What… what the hell was that?!"
Emberion didn't pay his sister any attention. His eyes were fixed on the distant mushroom cloud still rising into the air.
His gaze flickered as he tried to reach out to any of the viscounts, but his eyes slowly widened. "They're all… dead."
Prya stared. "What do you an all—"
"All of them. The five who found him. The ten others in the periter."
His voice was ice. "Every single one."
Prya's face went pale.
"W-what?"
Emberion finally turned to her, eyes hard as steel.
"He killed them all."
…
Atticus stood alone in the middle of a sea of fire.
Around him, there was nothing left but flas and drifting ash. Trees, boulders… even the bodies of the viscounts had burned and dispersed into the air.
'This…this power.'
He glanced at the aura surrounding him. His flas had turned so hot that they flowed like liquid. It was like he was engulfed in lava.
Ascending to the viscount layer, Atticus had expected a power up given the number of barons he'd killed and absorbed. But this… this was sothing else.
"Atticus!"
He turned toward the sound of Magnus. The man stood a distance away, staring at him with narrowed eyes as he held the princess' frail body in his arms.
"Grandpa."
Magnus hesitated to approach. But he couldn't be blad. Though champions were protected from gods' attacks, he could feel the sheer power radiating from Atticus.
Atticus gave a reassuring nod.
"It won't harm you."
The princess was in his arms, yet she remained unhard. Seemingly peaceful, in fact.
He could still vividly rember the core creed of his will, the burning:
The world was tinder. He would hoose what burns and what survives.
Right now, the world would burn while his loved ones survived.
Magnus visibly relaxed and moved over to him. As though on cue, Kiara burst through the wave of fire.
"Princess!"
She rushed over, checking her pulse and scrutinizing her for any signs of danger. Only after confirming her stable pulse did she let out a sigh of relief. But it was short lived.
"Her will… no…"
She knelt by the princess, cupping her cheeks in her arms. The princess' will barely flickered around her, and cracks had appeared across it.
"Her will is injured."
Atticus could feel it even without probing. She'd clashed with soone far stronger than her.
"No… please no…" He clenched his fists as Kiara began sobbing.
"We'll figure this out… later, I promise. But we need to move now."
Kiara wiped her tears and gradually nodded. As she rose to her feet, Atticus enveloped her and Magnus in his will.
He turned toward a direction and blasted forward. They beca streaks of scarlet light tearing through the chaos.
Once they put a safe distance between themselves and the scene, Atticus glanced back. A pillar of burning smoke rose into the heavens, coiling and thickening until it beca a black mass that swallowed the golden sun whole. The forest they had stood in monts ago no longer existed, only a vast, writhing ocean of scarlet flas stretching across the land. The sky glowed red from the reflection of his destruction. Yet Atticus felt nothing for the destruction he'd caused.
There was only calculation in his gaze.
'This will be more trouble.'
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