Hi! It's me again! I thought it wouldn't serve as something that would really hook you guys in unless I gave you a taste of the character himself and a little bit of action! Please enjoy and give me your real impressions, love from Sam

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Bang. Bang. Bang.

Dull thuds echo through the surrounding space as a skeleton repeatedly crashes various body parts against the inconceivably hard shell-like walls of The Cube. Unlike its external appearance, there does seem to be a form of lighting, at least in the area that Zed seemed to have spawned in. Yes, he quite literally grew through the ground on his first day after being unreasonably shoved into that portal to hell, so naturally he held a hefty amount of resentment to the Council of Gods, whom he had thought of as friends some time before. But none more so than Zeus, the recent upstart who had become the 8th Higher Being in the Universe.

Upon Zeus’ Ascension, he had petitioned to be allowed onto the Council of Gods. Husk, however, had refused due to his belief of the significance of the number 7. Actually, his belief was so strong that he had influenced many different societies about its value and they had adopted it as some supernatural number. Zed, on the other hand, knew he was just a stubborn old man who deigned himself above the others in the Council, except for his right-hand man Gabriel, the second seat, and so didn’t involve himself within the politics of the Council itself. Zeus saw this as an opportunity and conspired with the 3rd, 5th and 6th seats to get Zed replaced with him due to their similar opinions on interactions with mortals in the Universe, the main point of dispute within the Council of Gods. Zed had always believed that Gods had the responsibility to assist the mortals to become as powerful and intelligent as they could whilst the rest, save for the 4th seat, Ariel, believed in jealously guarding their secrets so as not to allow the mortals to rise up and challenge them. Zed shook his head in disgust, before ceasing his punching of the wall and finally straightening himself out and properly looking around.

In the dim pale blue light, perpetuated by small chunks of moonstone, he could see a labyrinth set-up around him. The spacial rift which entered through had long since closed behind him so he decided his only real choice was to start exploring and testing himself out. He really didn’t know what to expect as no information from inside The Cube had ever made its way to the outside Universe but he expected he would start seeing his many enemies before long. Naturally, having been part of the Council for billions of years, he had been one who had condemned many others who had gone against the Laws to life sentence in The Cube and with Gods being the eternal creatures that they are, he doubted they would take kindly to his entrance even if he had been forsaken by the Council of Gods. Yet, it wasn’t something important to him. How could he, a Higher Being, hold some lowly Gods within his eyes? No, his focus would be revenge on those who had dared to cross him. Neither was he impatient for it. A God was an immortal being, after all. Even one thousand years could pass in the time one spent meditating, so time was a far different concept to the immortals than to the mortals that they oversaw.

With this in mind, he decided to start getting accustomed to the conditions within The Cube. It wasn’t something that could be felt from outside of The Cube due to the suction force of its creating a vacuum, but once inside he realised there was an incredibly dense natural energy surging within the halls of this labyrinth. It really was the perfect condition for him due to his style of magic.

Even outside, in the Universe, he had been an anomaly unlike any other God or Higher Being. He was the only Dead Immortal; or to steal his former planet’s inhabitants’ term for him, an ‘Undead’, more specifically, his race was a Flame Lich. Inside everyone, regardless of whether they were mortal, God or Higher Being, he was able to see their Soul Flame. He hypothesised that it was some form of their soul, and so he had held an extremely intricate knowledge of the workings of Life and Death, far more so than that of his former colleagues and subjects. He absorbed natural energy, as part of his race’s characteristics, although he was unclear as to what stimulated him to be able to do this and was never able to go into much due to being a unique race. He assumed it acted as a form of sustenance for keeping his soul attached to this very much dead host body. His magic and techniques, which he had dubbed “True Flame Magic”, allowed him to utilise the surrounding natural energy to both create and control flame, whether it was physical or even their Soul Flames.

Zed decided now would be a good time to test his abilities – if they failed him, after all, even as a Higher Being, it is possible that a God on the precipice of becoming a Higher Being who specialised in physical combat could dispatch him – albeit with some difficulty. Only with true control over his abilities would he once again be able to stand over those who had opposed him and maintain his ego. A God, after all, was nothing without his ego. A lofty personality that holds power over others was, by his own definition, a true God. Those who were willing to submit to others should not dare call themselves something which stands at the epitome of Life, even if they were immortals. Zed’s arrogance, even he himself admitted to it, came from his billions of years standing at the pinnacle of the Universe. Within the Council, he had seen them as, at the very most, equals to his own power, however he still was not able to fight them off when they acted as a group. He decided that in this place, with its rich natural energy, he would use it as his springboard onto a higher plane of existence where he would be looking down on that venomous pit of Higher Beings.

Kneeling down, he expanded his Divine Consciousness through the tunnels. He had absolute confidence in this tracking ability because of a fundamental difference between his own version and that used by the general God population; while they searched for the natural energy that seeped out from everything in Life, he was able to see their Soul Flames. A deep purple flame started tracing over the edges of his eye sockets as he rapidly expanded his view of these twisting hallways. He became aware of a group of five Gods, which he was able to determine through the difference in strength of the Soul Flame, being chased by something which he was unfamiliar with. Retracting his Divine Consciousness, somewhat startled, he headed to where the conflict was taking place, following the route which he had taken in his mind just before.

Within a breath, he arrived. He saw a group of battered Gods, with an elephant-headed humanoid God equipped with a scimitar in each of his four hands (A.N. Basically Ganesha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesha) leading them, being oppressed by a giant worm, wide enough to fill the whole tunnel, and apparently extending for at least forty meters. It seemed to be following them based on its sense of touch and the vibrations they produced while fleeing from it. Zed sniggered to himself, ‘Truly, some people are even less than a worm!’ before extending his magic and snuffing out its Soul Flame by exerting his willpower onto it – even if it was able to dominate a group of five Gods, it still was at most at the level of a higher God. The gap between it and Zed was no less than a dragon and an ant. As it gave out a faint groan before grinding to a halt, the group of Gods slowed down looking confused before they sensed Zed’s unfathomably strong Divine aura stifling the air around them.

“That skeleton face… it’s you!” the elephant God managed to choke out fearfully before attempting to run towards Zed until his aura pressed him onto his knees.

“That’s no way to treat your saviour, is it?” sneered Zed. He had no fear of this little motley crew biting the hand that feeds it, to appropriate one of the human’s metaphors. What could they possibly do to him if they had struggled so much against something as insignificant as a giant worm.

“We thank you for your assistance,” interjected a child-like pretty blue-haired fairy, hurriedly, “Might we know our benefactor’s name?”

Zed’s eyes flared up once again, only this time emitting the pressure of a monarch, as if his subjects were something to be stepped on, causing them to stagger back in fear. His voice resounded through the tunnel, causing dust to fall from the ceilings and shaking the originally firm foundations,

“I am Zed, once the holder of the Seat of Pride. Now, seeing as there is such a group of you insects formed together, I assume you must have a base for many of you somewhere, correct? Take me there” he instructed her, whilst releasing his pressure on them. He had long since established that whilst bonds with friendship were always more effective in the long term, they took far too long to establish and so didn’t match with his current needs. In his immediate circumstances, he could control through fear temporarily.

“O-of course, my Lord Zed. Within this sector of The Cube, there is a town known as Daedalus Town. If you would please follow me…” the fairy said, giving a meaningful stare to the aggressive elephant God, before gathering the rest of their party who had instantly divided up the worm’s body and leading down the tunnel.

‘It’s not too bad here, after all’, Zed smiled to himself, ‘It should serve quite comfortably as the impetus to my Ascendance’ whilst slowly following behind the group who dared not even make a sound. ‘Yes, indeed. To be powerful is to be free’ he thought, once again affirming his motivation for his conquest…