Ira rolled onto the ground with a heavy impact, sending dirt and rock flying while creating a small crater.

“Damn,” He growled.

A tangled mess of black hair covered his face, but his eyes were able to seen and so was the anger within them. With his plans gone awry, the Gods gained an advantage over him.

“This damn wound!” Ira clawed at his chest. The effects of the Origin Arrow could still be felt inside of his body. Even so, he didn’t plan on immediately hiding from them to let his wounds recover.

The silent puppet that resembled Kara descended from the sky and landed near Ira.

“Get out of my- Just...go back to your mountain and wait for me.” Ira quickly remembered he had to maintain the act to make sure that Kara’s absence wasn’t discovered. He waved his hand and sent her away before feeling an encroaching hostility.

He turned his eyes to the horizon and spat. Dozens of Gods were making their way toward him with the intention of killing or capturing him.

Ira inhaled deeply, contemplating whether or not he should push on further before attacking the Gods.

“Let’s settle this right here.” He muttered to himself, he curled his knuckles into a fist and a rumbling sound emerged from his body.

“Come on then! If you want to kill me I’m here!” Ira shouted with a chuckle. His voice spread through the air and only caused the Gods to speed up.

“Come on!” Ira screamed as he lowered his body.

“Avarus!” A sword-wielding Goddess bellowed as she arrived.

Without hesitation, Ira stomped his foot onto the ground and his body vanished with a thunderous shock. A few beats later, the devastating trail with burning soil was left behind him.

Ira grabbed the Goddess’ shoulders and pulled. He combined his control over space with his raw strength and ripped her into two halves while several breaches in space cut through the air. Due to her form being destroyed, the Goddess’ divinity erupted but Ira was already gone before it could do damage.

He didn’t take time to assess his targets, he just let his instincts guide him and pressed forward. A God who was far too slow to respond to Ira’s movement was hit with a punch that carried the weight of several mountains behind. The God struck by fell to the ground like a meteor while Ira briefly examined his smoldering fist.

“Come on!” Ira howled, ignoring the damage and pouncing onto another God.

“You damned beast-” A God’s ramblings was cut short as Ira appeared in front of him and gripped his jaw.

“Die,” Ira spoke in a low voice. As soon as he finished speaking, the Gods head was separated from his neck.

He vanished after taking another victim, in search of another.

The Gods quickly realized something after their numbers began to plummet drastically. Ira’s injuries didn’t hinder him, or at least, it didn’t remove his ferocity and as a result, his attacks only became crueler.

Lower Gods couldn’t be recreated since they didn’t have as great as a control over their divinity. It immediately caused them to pull back while the stronger Gods were too busy fighting.

“Where are you going?” Ira’s cold whisper brought them back to reality.

Ira slammed his fist into a fleeing God’s back but grabbed his ankle before he went flying away.

“God or not...You all die like sheep.”

Ira’s countenance somehow became more intimidating than his beast form. In his current form, he resembled a human that was covered in wounds and mud. His only clothing consisted of tattered black pants which were stained with dirt. Even his black hair was a mess that barely revealed his face, but his eyes, his sharp yellow eyes were visible to all.

Ira tossed the God through a tunnel in space leaving his fate completely unknown.

A cloudy projectile came flying toward Ira, but he quickly vanished. He previous experience caused him to monitor everything. Surprise attacks only increased his wariness and forced him to become more active in his assault.

“A sly one!” Ira laughed as he grabbed a God who attempted to strike him while he was unaware. He drove his fist straight through the God’s chest before teleporting him toward his comrades.

His form suddenly being removed created a huge explosion of unrefined divine energy, killing a few Gods while injuring far more.

“We need to stop him!”

“How?! Pull back and wait for reinforcements!”

“No, if we let him heal his injuries here, it’ll all be for nothing!”

“It already is for nothing.” Ira appeared between two Gods who tried to speak amongst the chaos. He rained down several strikes on the closest of the two, a God covered in armor that began to shatter.

The God was wholly caught unaware and unable to even make a sound as Ira tossed him into a spatial breach.

“You!” The remaining God thrust his spear into Ira’s shoulder but the latter shrugged it off and reached toward him.

“Down we go!” Ira’s voice trailed off as the God found the world being switched around.

His body was slammed into the earth. The force was so powerful that the ground underneath him rippled and caved in. Burning geysers shot up through the cracks in the ground and began to slowly shroud the land in mist.

“He’s hiding from us...We need to…” The God trailed off as he watched the mist disappear.

Ira quickly absorbed the mist just as quickly as it appeared, clearing the view for all the Gods to see. He didn’t want any of the Gods to miss his actions so, as much as it put him at a disadvantage, he cleared the mist.

Ira’s lunged forward and disappeared again, grabbing another God and twisting their arms before tossing him into a spatial opening. His speed increased and only a blur could be seen as a God would either disappear or be completely ripped apart.

“Go back! Forget his wounds, we can’t handle him!”

Ira was about to attack the God calling for a retreat when he noticed an army of Gods approaching. It was far more than he had face so far so he took a brief pause. With so many Gods crowded together, the air was pushed away before they even arrived. And who other than Xandes led the charge.

He wore a suit of iridescent crystal armor with a sword and shield of similar material.

“Avarus, come and meet your end!” Xandes voice bellowed as he pointed his sword toward Ira.

Sensing danger, Ira vanished and the same time a beam of rainbow-colored light tore through the spot he just stood.

“Ah!” Ira reappeared and gripped the spot where his left arm would’ve been. He let out a sharp and pained exclamation. Though, the thing that filled his mind, even more, was pure surprise. He felt the power of an Origin Arrow was nothing compared to the sword Xandes held. Even his regeneration was stalled by the Origin Force that spread through his body.

Xandes’ display wasn’t ended with just a wound to Ira. The land was split by Xandes’ attack and a massive quake shook the foundation of the divine realm. Lava erupted from the split left behind and towered hundreds of feet into the sky before raining down.

“Do you all see it now? This Avarus, this beast, is nothing before the true might of the Gods! We will strip away every single secret hidden within his body and then execute him like the dog he is,” Xandes pointed his blade toward Ira once again and the latter fled before it was fully extended toward him.

“Ha! Run like those who mutts who can before you! I’ll find Kara and make her watch as I skin you, mongrel!”

It was clear Xandes was taunting Ira as he didn’t even fire another destructive beam. Even while knowing that, Ira couldn’t take a chance and teleported as far as he could.

“Xandes, he is getting away!” A Goddess seemed to urge Xandes to take action but he only shook his head.

“There isn’t anywhere in the Divine Realm he can go that will truly be safe.”

“What are you saying?” A God spoke in exasperation.

“I am saying that he was so confident before that I want to enjoy the moment before his demise. I will not let his capture be quick, instead, I’ll torment him until the very end.”

“Have you gone mad, Xandes?! He sits right in front of us yet you wish to treat this as a game? We sent one hundred Gods to stop him originally and how many are left?! Look closely, you can almost count them on two hands! Don’t be a fool and-”

Xandes raised his sword toward the God who argued against him and fired an origin beam, erasing him from sight.

“Does anyone else wish to speak?” Xandes inquired in a calm yet intimidating voice.

A few Gods began to immediately regret letting Xandes wield such a power since his true nature became clear once he received it. As soon as the origin weapons were finished, Xandes even killed the Gods who helped him make it out of fear of another set being created. Just that fact alone showed that he was set on becoming just as ruthless as Ira seemed to be.

“No one? Good. We will pursue the Avarus at my pace….Let’s go!” Xandes summoned a divine chariot and rode toward a certain direction with leisure while thousands of Gods fell in behind him.

…

Since Ira couldn’t fully connect to the Void, he couldn’t enter the Tainted Lands. His presence was also far easier to find due to his current state and the Gods wouldn’t have much trouble locating him. Even if he sealed the space around him, they would still find traces and he didn’t want to risk the possibility of the origin sword being able to cut through a space he isolated for himself.

“Ah...look at what they’ve done to me.” Ira examined his body which threatened to fall apart from the origin energy burning inside of him.

His current location was a shallow cavern that led to a dead end. He lay his broken body against the cave wall and sat helplessly.

“...How did you do it, Indras?” Ira asked aloud, knowing that the one he spoke of wasn’t around to answer.

“Losing everyone? Is that what made you push on?” Ira’s eyes fluttered in realization.

Indras’ rise to power was a tragic one and one that the former probably wished never happened at all.

“...I won’t let it happen.” Ira looked at his remaining arm and briefly conjured black flames at his fingertips.

His face filled with frustration as he focused on his hand, summoning even more black fire than previously. He only sustained for a few seconds before it died out causing him to let out a stubborn grunt.

He slammed his fist into the cavern floor and tried once more, bringing forth a dark layer of fire that enclosed his entire hand.

“Good!” Ira said with a laugh.

At the same time, an injured God was dropped in front of him and before the God could react, he plunged his fiery hand into the God’s chest.

“Ugh!” The God recoiled from the invading force filling his chest.

Ira ripped out the God’s divinity and kicked the empty shell of a body away as it began to consume itself. He hurriedly consumed the divinity and felt the stolen power start to restore his body but not enough to undo the damage Xandes caused.

Another God dropped in front of Ira and suffered the same fate. The scene was repeated for a few more minutes with all the Gods Ira captured during the battle having their divinities consumed.

As Ira ate the last God he had captured, his body was all but restored. As his left hand finished regenerating, Ira twisted it around to make sure everything was in place. His connection with the Void began to return as the arrow wound in his chest expelled a puff of black mist before closing.

“There we go- They’re here already?” Ira finally could stand properly and he hurriedly disappeared from the area.

A half second later, a beam of rainbow-colored light ripped the cavern open and destroyed the entire area.

When the attack finally finished, a God came to study the scene only to shake his head.

“He’s gone, Xandes.”

“Hm, continue the pursuit.” Xandes seemed uncaring even as he thought of the possibility of Ira healing.

There was a reason for a casual approach and it wasn’t one of arrogance like he showed, but a more calculating approach. He wanted to lower the numbers of the Gods around him so he didn’t have to share Ira’s secrets with them. Even though he wielded a sword capable of killing a God in an instant, there were thousands and if they all banded together to attack him, he’d die just as quickly. Even if he origin armor, the force of thousands of Gods combined was enough to completely destroy the Mortal Realm and more than half of the Divine Realm.

…

When Ira appeared again, it was in a still lake, far from his last location. He dove into and cleaned himself of the dirt before resurfacing.

“Xandes.” Ira spat the God’s name with contempt.

There were thousands of Gods he would have to face but Xandes was the only one who forced him to think twice.

“If I peel away those weapons…” He didn’t finish his thought.

Getting close to Xandes would be a guaranteed death sentence. Only the Void would be able to stand against it, but Ira had one glaring weakness. If his physical body was harmed by origin energy, he’d be cut off from the Void for a period of time which was as good as fatal.

Ira thought to the Wolf who had remained in an ethereal form of black mist. If he replicated that state and permanently discarded his physical form, he’d have a chance. But that meant leaving behind more than just his body, and he wasn’t resigned to death just yet.

“Not yet.” Ira’s face filled with determination.

He decided that he would fight whatever came without giving up anything. After all, it was the only way he would be able to return to his family intact.