Thanatos decided that it was time to stop playing. However, when he got up from his throne, an ice meteor suddenly fell from the sky and hit him. He was so focused on Ryan that he didn't notice Femradiel's attack. Still, the attack barely caused any damage. It only made Thanatos being enveloped in a small prison for a single second. However, when he freed himself, Femradiel dropped another ice meteor on him.

"It seems that he decided that he had enough," Femradiel said. "I am holding him back, but I won't be able to do so for long."

"All right, I will end things here quickly," Ryan said and then activated all his buffs.

Without thinking twice, Ryan used Teleport and appeared behind Dracula. Before the vampire could do anything, he grabbed him with both arms and covered his whole body. Ryan immediately noticed that his health and mana stopped from being stolen. While Dracula could use the short distance version of that skill, he had to attack to work, and for the health and mana to be stolen at a distance, he had to look at the target. It was a pity that Ryan didn't notice that in their first fight.

Alfur dashed toward Ryan, but he was stopped by four arms. This time, even Alfur was almost crushed on the ground with a single combination of Ryan's four arms. Before the nordic warrior could react, Ryan bombarded him with punches enchanted with holy magic on the ground. The zombie didn't have any chance to react, and much sooner than Ryan predicted, the creature was half dead.

Berserker's Crossbow

Effect: it grants you the chance to steal five points of strength of the target per bolt for a short period of time. The effect can last ten seconds, and the countdown resets whenever you hit the same target.

Dexterity + 350, Speed + 350

Durability: 200/200

The new weapon was much better than Ryan predicted, so he quickly stored it away in his spatial storage. The last thing that he needed was to give Thanatos the chance to steal it. Soon after, Ryan opened his hands, and Dracula finally had some chance to breathe. Still, in the end, he was bombarded by twenty magic copies of the vampire killer. The weapons easily defeated the creature, and Ryan also sealed that new soul in the weapon. Fake it or not, his crossbow suddenly grew two times stronger.

When Ryan turned around, he saw Thanatos standing and watching him in silence. Even before he could put the asshole in his place, the smile disappeared from his face, and now the god of death was serious. Ryan imagined that he would kill the fragments of his parent's souls a few more times before he could get serious, but it looked like that wouldn't happen.

"How did you change the system?" Thanatos asked.

"The hell are you talking about?" Ryan asked.

"You just increase your level of divinity without doing anything or even absorbing the relic you used to kill Poseidon," Thanatos said. "The only explanation is that you found a way to cheat the system. Not even the elder gods can change their divinity level."

Ryan frowned after hearing that Thanatos was assuming a lot of things. First of all, he didn't use any relics to kill Poseidon. Most likely, since he saw that Ryan had Chronos' Ring, he assumed someone gave him a relic to weaken some elder gods. In any case, maybe Ryan should use that opportunity to plant some doubts in Thanatos' head. Ryan wanted to sweep the floor with his face, but he couldn't let the blood rush to his head. Unfortunately, he had no idea how he could Thanatos either…

"You are saying that despite the system, humans have a limit," Ryan said. "You said that, but you sound like the elder gods didn't have any participation in the creation of the system."

"You are correct, we didn't create it, but we had access since the very beginning," Thanatos replied. "We tried to customize the system, but no one succeeded. Few humans in the past had access to it as well, but now with our return, it looks like all of them can use it. Despite some obvious limitations. Tell me what you did or who did it, and I will release your parents' souls."

That was really weird… Why was Thanatos so interested in that subject? His power over death was nearly absolute, and he wanted even more?

"One of the few things that the elder gods share is the objective to know how to custom the system. Once we obtain that power, we will be able to truly know about the creation of the universe and the one who created the system," Thanatos added. "Give us that information, and I will assure you that all of your crimes against the elder gods will be forgiven."

In the end, not even the elder gods had all the answers. That was only obvious. If they had, Ryan wouldn't be alive at such a moment. Poseidon would have defeated him. In any case, the current Earth sure was a weird place… while humans were struggling to survive and some of them were joining the elder god's side, those individuals had their own agendas. Earth domination seemed more like a game to pass the time from Thanatos's perspective. At least, that was what Ryan was thinking. Still, even that seemed a bit odd. If that were the case, Poseidon wouldn't have played so hard… perhaps, they are thinking that they are going to find something on Earth on their return after so long.

"I am not interested in helping an asshole like you," Ryan said. "I will free my parents with my own hands, and you will regret using their souls and many others just to piss me off."

In the end, Thanatos just sighed. He looked pretty disappointed for some reason… in any case, a dark-purple scythe suddenly appeared on his right hand, and then before he could notice anything, Ryan saw one of his arms falling.