A panicked Goddess flew as a streak of light before slowing down once she felt she was safe. Her ability made fleeing easy but it almost seemed that Ira let her get away with almost no difficulty. In her distressed state, she wasn’t of the mind to contemplate the reasons behind her survival. Eventually, the rest of the surviving Gods caught up to her and silently followed behind her. No one spoke and none of them blamed her for escaping first after seeing Ira’s capabilities.

“We’ve all heard by now, of the Avarus that broke through the Origin Storm...Was he that dominating?” A God broke the silence with a question.

“No...Not from what I’ve learned. It took him time to kill Gods, hunting the ones he could one by one before moving on. It wasn’t until he was able to dispatch multiple Gods at once did everyone act together and drive him into the Origin Storm.”

“And even that didn’t appear to have killed it.” Another God spoke after realizing the scale of the threat they faced.

Although Indras and Ira shared the same ruthlessness, the latter became dangerous in an incredibly short period of time. In fact, it was like a blink of an eye for the Gods who didn’t age.

The conversation between the surviving Gods came to a close as they arrived at the growing boundary of the Tainted Lands. A few split off to travel to the Origin Realm in order to inform Xandes while the remaining ones stayed behind to observe the progress and recollect themselves.

There were hundreds of Gods gathered, using their divine power to delay the spread of the black flame. Huge icy mountain ranges were raised up, deep canyons were dug, and giant sand dunes were spread out in an attempt to stop the impending catastrophe. The black fire was slowly getting more active in its consumption but no one associated its growth with their power being its another fuel source for it. It even appeared that their efforts had some effect on the outside as the dark flames were delayed by the obstacles created. So there was no way they'd figure out they were doing more harm than good at the moment.

The glowing haired Goddess suddenly grabbed her shoulder as a searing pain burned across her entire being.

“Aaaaah!” She screamed painfully as she dug her fingers into her shoulder.

It drew the intentions of the Gods who were immersed in stopping the spread of the Tainted Lands.

“She must have injuries from the fight, will one of you come and heal her.”

A few Gods with the capability of healing others flew over to evaluate the wailing Goddess. She moved her hand away from her shoulder and they could see black ink spots spreading over her body.

“What caused this?” A God asked as he wisely began taking distance, not knowing that he wasn’t far enough to escape what was coming.

The ink spot grew rapidly and then her body jolted and a burst of black mist emerged from her, covering the Gods and Goddesses that originally wanted to assist her. The black mist suddenly changed into fire and burned them all until nothing was left. Their divine power added to the power of the black fire and a dangerous cloud began spreading toward the other Gods who fell into panic.

“Move!”

“Be careful!”

“The boundary of the Tainted Lands will advance much further if we move now!”

“Forget it, there’s nothing to be done.”

The Gods were pushed back by the ever-growing black fire cloud that only came to a stop once it was within the Tainted Land. The temporary lack of obstructing landscapes allowed the Tainted Lands to advanced by a huge distance and they could only look on regretfully before raising their divine power and starting the process again.

Another several or so Gods left to report to Xandes about the dangerous attack that was clearly caused by Ira.

…

Upon hearing the news, Xandes didn’t react much.

“This is good, we now know more about the abilities of the Avarus than we did previously. We will act accordingly, more Gods must be sent to deal with him and a better plan must be made in light of the strange black fire he controls. It also seems he can produce some sort of a curse or lasting attack on people in his vicinity. Take extra precaution until we figure out how he’s doing it.” Xandes gave his next batch of orders to a row of attentive messenger Gods who went off to spread the word.

He then returned to his refining process, dozens of crafting Gods assisting him in his endeavor.

They were gathered around a towering stone furnace which was the size of a castle. At its base was small sword cast where the refined essence of the Origin Storm pooled. A molten rainbow-colored glass substance began pooling, slowly filling the cast.

Xandes smiled with satisfaction before looking at other stone furnaces in the distance, refining a shield and armor pieces to go with the sword.

‘It won’t be long until I take your power for myself, Avarus.’ Xandes thought to himself with a faint grin.

…

Ira was aware of Xandes’ attempt to refine the Origin Storm into a weapon but he didn’t believe it would work. Still, he acknowledged the possibility and relied on the memories of Gods he ate to inform him if anything changed. He didn’t want to charge into the Origin Realm as it was the area where the most Gods were currently concentrated and obviously the most dangerous. What he didn’t know was that Xandes had no plans of telling anyone his current state of progress until his task was complete which spelled bad news for Ira.

At the moment, he was behind the solid golden walls of the glowing heavenly city that floated in the clouds.

Gods chose different paths during their long lives and some decided to live like Kings. Ruling over celestials and Angels with the former being a divine race native to the realm. For most, it was a mindless diversion that entertained them for a while and others became fully focused on it. Ira and Kara were in a city ruled by the latter. Humanoid men and women flew all around the utopian city. Their skin was a pale shade of gold. Their eyes were bright and clear, usually a fluorescent white color. And their facial features were the epitome of the word perfect. If even one of the celestials arrived in the Mortal Realm, they’d cause a massive disruption in society with their beauty alone.

“Why are we here, Ira? I despise these type of Gods the most.” Kara spoke from underneath a dark grey cloak as she floated next to Ira. As a Goddess, she didn’t need to summon her wings just to levitate but to move faster it would be necessary to bring them out.

“There’s a God that rules this city, that’s the only reason we came here. Plus, I need to rest up.” Ira pulled at the hood of his dark cloak while gliding forward.

All of the celestials seemed to have an idea of where they were going. Usually to large libraries or temple areas to improve themselves in some way. They had a better chance of becoming Gods than mortals did and often became soldiers of Gods.

A few Angels could be seen every so often, scanning the city for any disruptions which would be a rare occurrence if it ever happened. They didn’t notice Ira’s presence as he intentionally hid it and as long as Kara stayed near him, her divine power wouldn’t be noticed either.

“You do know that Gods who stay in their domains are extremely powerful because of it. It isn’t false to say they control every aspect of their land and can do as they please.”

“What does that mean for us?” Ira inquired.

“It means that once we are found, we’ll be in a tough spot. Even if the God of this place can’t kill us, they can delay our escape long enough to bring other Gods.”

“That Tartarus couldn’t even hold me and how many Gods worked to create that?” Ira seemed unimpressed by the attributes of a domain.

“That was different since no Gods were actually controlling it.”

“You’re really cautious I’ve noticed.” Ira glanced toward Kara without a hint of worry on his face.

“I’ve learned to give a certain amount of respect to the strengths of Gods even if I don’t like them. There is nothing wrong with that.”

“No, I guess there isn’t but, well, you’re a lot different from what I’ve heard about in the Mortal Realm.”

“And what did you hear?”

“Well, Ustia-”

“Ustia is alive?!”

“Yeah, she had others with her but I ended up having to kill them after they betrayed me, you see.”

“...I understand, continue.”

“Well, Ustia had a lot of respect for you, so much so, that she didn’t want to hurt anyone related to you. She also said you were one of the strongest and fiercest Valkyries she’s ever known.”

“Ah, it was a different time before the Collapse. I’ve done away with the brashness of my youth and even now I’ve had to adjust my ways to live as a Goddess.”

“I can see that but it looks like you revert back to your old self when you’re in a battle.”

“Well, of course, I will always enjoy fighting. My biggest disappointment when becoming a God was the unwillingness of other Gods to fight seriously. Even though they can be reborn or recover from death after years pass, they never showed intentions of fighting to the death.”

“Until now,” Ira added.

“Yes, until now,” Kara agreed.

They came to a stop in front of a gigantic palace guarded by a legion of Angels.

“I think it’s time we introduced ourselves to the wonderful leader of this brilliant city,” Ira said sarcastically before throwing his cloak off.

“After you.” Kara toward the gate and took a few steps back.

As Angels approached him, finding his presence to be alarming, Ira’s face showed an excited smile.