"No purpose in hesitating..." I muttered as I stepped into the strange and dangerous place known as "The Temporal Temple". I stepped beyond the entrance and on my second step into the wicked gravesite, I felt a notification fill my mind's eye, at the same instant that I heard the wall behind me slam shut, presumably as a means to keep me in here.

Notification: Entering the Temporal Temple

You have entered the gravesite of the vestige of Akamal, a greater deity. As a result of that, coupled with you being a deity yourself, you are barred from leaving the gravesite unless you either slay Akamal's vestige or gain his permission to leave.

The Temporal Temple will also now repopulate its rooms, as a protective measure meant to safeguard Akamal. This repopulation will be done immediately. Prepare yourself for the dangers within, some of which may opt to engage you directly and immediately.

When I closed the notification I hissed in annoyance. This hadn't happened when anyone else who had challenged this blasted place had entered it, at least not according to the memories I had absorbed from those who died within this place.

I activated necroscience, just so I could glance at the list of creatures who had died here, and when I did I was unsurprised to see that those that I hadn't resurrected were currently greyed out and when I mentally tried to resurrect them I was again unsurprised to see that I couldn't.

"God of time huh? Or is this his voodoo powers at work?" I asked myself, as I studied the hallway. I was questioning how he could do this. My powers over resurrection were no joke, if I had wanted to under normal circumstances I could have resurrected any of my fallen enemies with the sole exception of Technos. And now, somehow, I couldn't resurrect specific creatures that I had been able to resurrect before. It was annoying.

My senses flared up as I detected creatures coming into existence in the distance. I sighed and willed my shadow out of me, in the form of a shadowy shield, while I activating another of my powers with but a thought. The power I activated was the immensely powerful "Manifest concept" ability that allowed me to give domains and subdomains physical forms.

"I suppose this is as good a time as any to allow you to stretch your... 'legs', as it were." I muttered as I allowed a single, immensely powerful domain to gain a physical body. I chuckled as an enormous and gaunt-looking "humanoid" phased into existence next to me.

He was immaculately dressed, wearing something akin to a business suit as worn by Htraen humans. He had long, jet black hair, and his face was rather dour-looking. He had pitch-black eyes, and he glared at the hallway that stretched on in front of me.

"Thank you, lord Althos." He said while keeping his eyes trained forward. His voice was both more feminine and softer than I had expected, due in part to him not being used to physically speaking. He had spent a truly vast amount of time as an incorporeal entity, and now that he had a physical body he was allowing his mind to grow accustomed to the sensations and power that came with corporeality.

"Death... Walk with me, for a while." I replied to the domain, utilizing my powers to allow death itself to accompany me through the temple. The being grinned and revealed a mouth that was filled with inhuman, shark-like teeth.

"I shall protect you. For a while." The domain replied, still grinning as he spoke. There was something haunting about his words. I grinned back at him, and willed my staff into my hand, in its alternate form as the Sword of Spring and Summer. Light began to exude from the blade, banishing the darkness that had pooled at my feet.

I rose my hand that held my shadowy shield and activated one of my soul domain powers that gave creatures their soul weapons. For a brief instant, the death domain froze, and light began to emanate from the center of his form. When he was done being frozen in place, he shakily brought one of his long hands to his chest and reached into it. He let out a strange and quiet scream as his hand fished around inside of his chest before I saw him grab something.

I watched, mildly amused, as he began to painfully pull his own arm out of his chest, and when he pulled enough of it out to expose his hand I saw that it was gripping a shaft made of some sort of divine metal. The domain continued to screech even more as he pulled more and more of the weapon out of himself. It took him around a minute, but when he pulled out the other end of his unique weapon, I was surprised to see that it wasn't a spear or a staff but something else.

The other end of the weapon he possessed was like a pitchfork or trident, except that it had two prongs. It was a bident! The death domain began to laugh, happily, manically, as he studied the weapon in his hand. He gazed at it, and I saw a dark fire begin to glow in his gaze.

I felt his power surge, and more than that... I felt his loyalty to me become a cemented part of his personality, instead of a flickering, fickle thing. I felt his genuine gratitude towards me, and I felt his utter elation at being given a weapon.

"Althos... You have given me a toy that I shall have such fun with." He told me, his voice more steady now, more solid now.

"I shall work to prove myself deserving of such an honor. The last god to give me a weapon was one of my dearest friends. I miss him, to this day. Pluto..." He said, drifting off in thought after a few moments. I assumed that "Pluto" was the deity he was talking about, one of his "dearest friends".

Our moment together was interrupted by the rough barking of an enormous hound, and the appearance of a glowing portal ahead of us. Death regained his composure and smiled while putting out an arm in front of me so as to signal that he would take care of the enemy.

When a massive, fur-less canine's snout appeared through the portal, itself a glowing blue wall of temporal energy, Death laughed. He pointed a single finger at the beast, even as it barked again to signal that it was going to come through the portal fully. Before it could bark again I watched, or rather felt, a wave of killing energy shoot out of the finger of Death, and the energy flew straight into the portal. The beast attempted to leap through it and made it through the portal and into the wave of killing energy, which collided with the creature and instantly slew it.

I heard the beast emit a high-pitched whine the instant before the wave of energy collided with it, and the sound stopped the second the beast died. Death gazed at the creature, coldly.

"I don't know how helpful I'll be when you are face to face with Akamal, but at least until you get to him I can ensure no harm befalls you." Death told me, even as he gazed at the creature. I looked at it and I knew that despite my powers as a lord of nature this beast and other beasts in this gravesite were still hostile towards me. My powers were great, but not great enough to override their allegiance to the ghostly god who lurked in the depths of this temple.

"Come, Althos. This beast was just the first of many we shall have to face within this place. We should not keep our foe waiting." Death told me, and I heard the eagerness in his voice. He enjoyed the chance to flex his power in front of me, and I sensed him wanting to kill more. I grinned and nodded at him.

Together we took our first steps into the temple. As we did, I heard more and more portals opening in the distance. Death's ears twitched when he heard them too. There must have been hundreds or even thousands of the portals opening up throughout the temple. I chuckled and readied myself for the combat to come. I knew that my companion and I were in for quite a journey.

Death and I were quiet as we traveled down the long hallway that was the first room in this elaborate death trap. No other creatures appeared before us, nor did any of the other strange portals that I knew at a glance were somehow portals into the past.

At the end of the hallway, we faced a large door made of stone. Death gazed at it and then turned to face me, expectantly. I gazed back at him and chuckled before taking a step forward and using telekinesis to send the door careening into the room it had kept us from.

The stone door flew perfectly straight until it collided with a pillar of thick stone that stretched upward. I peered into the newly exposed room and saw mortals staring at the wrecked remains of the door, which were strewn about around the pillar. Death stepped forward, walking into the room first and beginning to laugh as he raised his bident's prongs and pointed it at one of the mortals.

I stepped into the room behind him and wasted no time. I had no need of any of the mortals here, and so I immediately went on the attack as I entered the room. Death began to roar, excited to create chaos. The mortals with the strongest wills reacted to our presence within a split second of Death roaring and hurled spears made of metal at us. I chuckled and sped myself up while watching the spears slow down in mid-air until they froze completely.

I studied the room and found that it was an enormous square. There were doors on every side of it, and I had come in from what could have been considered the south entrance. I hoped that no puzzles littered this place, but I knew better than to think that that would be the case. This was a greater deity's gravesite, not one of Technos' level.

I kicked the ground at my feet and used geokinesis to control the floor beneath me. I sent it surging forward like it was some sort of watery wave until it was in front of the spears our enemies had hurled at us, and even before I slowed down again I targeted the mortals who had hurled spears at us and slew them with but a thought. I wasn't as powerful with regards to death as Death himself was, obviously, but at the second tier of influence over the domain, I could kill mortals or extraplanar beings with but a thought.

I allowed my body to slow down, though a small part of me considered exploring the depths of the temple like this just to take my time and explore it undisturbed. That said, I wanted Death to enjoy himself as well, and so far it seemed that when I moved at my maximum speed I was too fast for him to keep up with me.

As I slowed down, Death sped up, and upon realizing that I had slain some of the mortals who were attacking us he began to laugh and targeted other ones, hurling his bident at them and pointing more fingers at those he hadn't hit with his bident. I watched as he emitted more of that deadly energy from earlier, radiating the very power of death itself at his foes.

Death was a terrifying enemy and even when enemies managed to attack him he batted away their blows with the wind and his own impressive, raw, physical power. There was something entertaining about his fighting style. He was a large creature, and his deadly array of abilities meant that enemies needed to keep their eyes on him, lest he turn on them himself. I watched as he fought enemy after enemy, all while occasionally batting away enemy blows aimed at me or slaying foes of my own with my own death-based powers.

Together we took down many mortals, but more kept pouring in from beyond the room we were currently in. Warriors poured into the room, seemingly endlessly. After a while, I sighed and as another group of mortals began to rush at us I turned to face them, and then I brought my fingers together and snapped. They didn't instantly disintegrate or anything, but the amount of space between them and Death and myself suddenly and abruptly increased by a considerable amount.

The humans watched as they were suddenly, effectively, forced back farther than they could run. Some of them angrily chucked spears at my companion and me, and I merely grabbed those spears with telekinesis and then threw them back with far more force. The spears never failed to pierce the heads of the Atlani tribesmen and cause their heads to explode into fountains of blood and viscera, before slamming into the ground behind the warriors.

I looked at Death and sighed. "This temple has to have some sort of trick to it. These mortals just keep coming and I'm unsure of the precise mechanic behind it, but I doubt us staying here any longer would do us any good." I told the domain. Death considered my words for a second, before nodding at me and then beginning to idly wait for me to lead the way. I looked at him and chuckled, before picking one direction, specifically my right, and beginning to walk in it.

The Atlani warriors who were guarding the door to our right glared at my companion and I. I chuckled and rose my hand in their direction, before activating "Shatter", one of my destruction-domain powers. By the time we made it to where they were, all that remained of them were glass-like shards of human flesh that littered the temple floor.