Stars and silence. An endless, yawning void. A thousand eyes in the dark.

The dreams of a dead god are impossible to fathom, even for the dreamer. But according to some, it can be said that they reflect some form of truth about the world.

Or, perhaps, they are a glimpse of the world beyond.

---

Come back to us. Please...

For a few moments, it was dark. And yet they would feel something for the first time in ten thousand years.

It was a strange, cool sensation. As their bodies began to develop more sensation, it would become possible for them to feel something like a liquid enveloping them.

Finally, it would become possible to see again, as the strange fluid sensation drained away and they were exposed to the open air.

It was dark, but not impossible to see. The room they had awakened in way of considerable size, though the ceiling was quite low, shaped like a hexagon. The floor had a large pattern inscribed on it, a set of rings smaller at the center and steadily widening outwards with a series of inscriptions carved between each ring and framed by evenly spaced lines. On closer examination, each line would indeed lead to a steel platform upon which each of them now stood. On the far side of the room there appeared to be a stairway that lead out of the room and upwards.

For a moment, it would be difficult for each of them to remember anything. Even their names would be lost.

But then everything would come flooding back.

They were gods. They had once experienced the worship and adoration of the mortal world. They had once commanded the world itself and those within it.

And then...

Not a single one of them would be able to remember just how they got here. No matter how hard they tried. It was a void in their memory, an event that had completely faded away.

The chamber was rather cool, and while their clothing would be dry their skin and hair would feel slightly damp.

They weren't alone, either.

At the center of the room, where each line intersected, was a girl. She was small, and appeared to be considerably pale as if she was suffering from some sort of illness or other duress. She was also prone, lying unconscious on her side, white hair pooling around her as if she had recently collapsed.

Beyond this, there were no clues to what had just occurred, to what had returned the gods from death.

But there was no denying it.

Ten thousand years had come to an end.

@Rune_Alchemist@Click This@1Charak2@Raineh Daze@Renny@Martian

The Clock of Eternity has already moved, but its overseer has returned to her post - Hexagonal Chamber

The drowsiness of waking up from the sleep of eons would not be lost on this goddess whom had been around since the dawn of creation itself. The gaps in her memory concerned her immediately but what concerned her more was the location, The Time. The Place. She needed to get out to see the heavens to properly analyze how much time had passed. She couldn't focus unless she knew just how many seconds. She had counted within her dream, and that gave her some comfort. But if she was even off by 15 seconds. She would be upset. Paranoid and rather jumpy to everything around her. Thus she wished to correct herself.

Her entire attention however was brought to bear when she noticed that this chamber was not for her. This was not one of her rare temples. This was not one of her scarce worshippers. More gods were present. She was not alone. That concerned her. She had felt a great deal of her power had been taken from her. Lost into the ethers of time. She could claw it back. But it would take far more effort then she would like.

She did however had enough power left to deal with a potential travesty. The energy within her body would pool upwards to the whirring gears of her eye. The Gears inside starting to shift and whir, as everything around her started to appear slower. She had not changed the time of her environment. Only her own Time. As she would step forward as the kick would be moving forwards towards the collapsed girls ribs. She would move forwards. She didn't have much strength, Nor did she know the girls circumstance. But she was alive again. She wasn't about to let one of her more anger prone brethen kill their benefactor now. Was she?

She would fall in front of the kick. it was the most she could do. She couldn't push the girl out of the way in time afterall. And any injury she herself would sustain wouldn't last... She would effectively use her own body as a punching bag for the anger of another of her kin. She had her thoughts. She had her questions. But she was motivated by the fact that breaking the girl would not save them any time.

The hunt begins again - Unknown room

---

Really, maybe she would have preferred to stay dreaming...yet all the same, consciousnesses would soon flow into her mind once more. A voice, calling for help. At one point, the cries of someone asking for help would be all she needed to assist someone, so long as it was a heartfelt, truthful plea, she would never turn down someone. Even now...who would she be if she didn't accept. She didn't know these things of course, as in the moment she remembered nothing as she floated there in that cool wet, embrace.

So she would find herself standing in this hexagonal room, the ceiling seeming quite high to one of her stature, but that was less important than everything, and everyone else in the room. Inscriptions. Ancient, from the look of them. Rings upon rings steadily becoming larger as they extended outwards. Whatever did they mean? Hm, she was no scholar but she couldn't help but to be curious. But...who exactly even was-

"Mhm..."

Memories. A desert. Warm and inviting. Harsh and unforgiving. A jungle. Wet, muggy, and filled with so many beautiful plants. A number of faceless people. Beasts hunted, large and formidable in stature. Corrupt humans, muderous or wishing harm upon the innocent. Criminals, hunting and giving judgement from divine. Try as she might search her memories, however brief she did so, she had no idea how she got here, within this room. Annoying, really. Did some other deity pull her here somehow? She didn't feel anything evil or worthy of -

In fact, she felt...rather weak, come to think of it. Well this was disturbing. Did some trickster god steal her strength? Sap her of her divine power? Hm. She was busy thinking, she didn't entirely see the fool attacking what was likely the only person that could give them answers. If it was her old self, she could have just jumped in and handled it herself, but it seemed as though another had that covered already, so she would take a more defensive posture.

"Hmph..." Alasayana would approach the sleeping girl as that weird looking one would block the blow from the irritable looking man. Sleeping on the cold hard ground like this could not be comfortable, nor good for ones health...so instead she'd give her what was obviously going to be the best bed of her existence. The four furry tails that extended from her waist would wrap around the girl, gently enveloping her in a warm embrace. "I don't know you, but know this - I will not abide you or anyone else attacking an unarmed civilian. If you wish a hunt to sate bloodlust or anger, there are plenty of beasts out there I am sure."

Ah, she felt so naked without her sword. Tsk tsk, and she couldn't feel anything about this place either...just what had happened?

Ah, oblivion... strange dreams, dreams that seemed much less fleshy and visceral than anything that belonged in her head, but dreams nonetheless. And then they were taken away, replaced by damp and wet... like so many, the Goddess of Love would rather return to her befuddling dreams than deal with all the hassle of waking up, and sought to burrow into the cold floor some more. Eugh, so cold, so hard, so lacking in other bodies and life...

Some form of instinct flared to life at the sound of violence, though, and as the girl was rising to a sitting and then standing position, an elaborate bronze weapon stabbed down into the floor before her. Nearly the height of a man, curved outwards, and with a sharpened axe-like blade, the oversized khopesh looked like great craftsmanship, even inlaid with mother of pearl and with a finely detailed handle of sandalwood... but it was just a creation of her memories.

And distinctly less than the veritable battalion that Ashte now remembered responding to unpleasant interruptions with. Huh.

Still, it was one weapon, so there was no harm in keeping it close at hand... her approach up to the platform was cautious, this unknown room was far from a palace or other civilised setting, so who knew what danger it presented? But... she couldn't help but relax on seeing what it was. One unconscious girl, and a bunch of gods that she knew, or at least knew of--one advantage, one supposed, to empire building was the many people you got to meet and that your subjects kept telling you about.

"So... fancy meeting you here, huh?" Ashte asked the others, reaching down to pick up the time goddess and plant her back on her feet. Nobody seemed too much of a threat, but the sword was still there... and besides, there were better things to start thinking about.

Four cute girls, a cute guy, and one grumpy one who could maybe do the brooding archetype if he calmed down. She could work with this.

and the far less important, trivial aspects of travel and luck

It was a strange feeling, to exist, to think again after an eternity of ten thousand years. Already, the dreams of millennia past began to fade, if they could even be described as such. Perhaps, after all this time, others might have wished to return to the illusion of comfort in oblivion, but the Goddess of Wealth, the embodiment of the mortal coil of materialism, would accept nothing less than the bite of reality.

Reality, it seemed, was harsh as usual. To blink back into existence was one thing, but to blink open into the unknown was disconcerting, even for a god. The room before her was an unknown; to stand before the unknown without the empires of fortune that followed her was... not fun. And was it her, or was she smaller than before? Nonetheless, she found herself standing, anchored, she realized, to some degree of comfort and familiarity. Familiar gods—and familiar things, as she examined the golden umbrella in her hands, and the matching robes that she wore.

But of the six others in the chamber, one was mortal. A follower? A devout? Answers would be nice, but there were certain ways to go about getting them. Kicks and punches were just bad business.

“Oh, it's the God of the Sun. It’s probably been a while, huh? Eheh, I see how well you value our past relationship by how you treat my namesake,” she gestured to his trashed bracelets, the goddess of wealth half-tempted to fetch them for herself. “Eh, I’m getting ahead of myself. Please don’t kick the poor girl while she’s down, she may be the reason for our return, or, even our only remaining anchor to this world.”

She shared in the frustration of not knowing anything at the moment, but with how weak she felt compared to how she once was, she couldn’t help but to feel the smallest disruption, the tiniest blip, would scatter them all to the winds once more. Aureia would have moved to intervene, had her fellow goddesses not done so before her. She nodded at the goddess of the Hunt and then the one of Love, but raised an eyebrow at the goddess of Eternity.

What? She had spent an eternity condemned to dreams, after all. Don't blame her for being a little suspicious.

“Yeah, long time no see, huh. Ah, don’t suppose any of you girls come here often?”

In spite of the commotion around her, the frail-looking white haired girl would remain still. It was easy enough to confirm she was still breathing, and her body twitched faintly as the soft, fluffy tails surrounded her. But whatever illness or other condition had taken her was clearly enough that it was quite difficult to wake from.

Were anyone to do a close inspection of the girl, they would discover she appeared to have a fever, and the very tips of her otherwise white hair were darker.

The chamber itself did not change in any way after the gods stepped off the steel platforms. However, the lines that lead to each were faintly warm, and closer inspection of the inscriptions on the floor would indicate they were glowing ever so faintly. With this knowledge in mind, it would become clear the chamber itself was likely part of whatever returned them to life.

And that the girl was, somehow, involved with that process.

Aside from this, as the deities spoke to one another, there was little change in the room they occupied.

However, for deities attuned to such things, it might have been possible to sense the presence of mortals above, beyond the stairway...

@Rune_Alchemist@Click This@1Charak2@Raineh Daze@Renny@Martian

Alasayana
The hunt begins again - Unknown room

---

"...Ah. Ashte. Auriea. I cannot say I've ever been here before but I am glad to see friendly faces." Ah, so there were others here she did know of, at least. Ashte, being the most notable and memorable of the group, always testing her skills against one who could reasonably best her in combat and in...other pursuits. Aureia, the one of gold and travelers. A good one to be friendly with, as long as one remembered her fickle nature. The one who took the time to protect the girl too...hm, what was her name? Something doing with Time, was it? Regardless of her thoughts on her though, she was not of concern at the moment.

No, her attention was on the Sun God.

It was thankful, she supposed, she had never met him before now. She heard stories, but she had never met the other god in person, for good reason it seemed. If this was how he behaved then she doubted she'd have never be able to stay her blade for very long. As much as she'd like to, though...the goddess would tear her gaze from the volatile God and turn her attention to her charge. Even so though, one of her tails would remain pointed towards the Sun God, the 'face' of it glaring and obviously ready to pounce should he make an attempt to do anything.

In a way, her tails seemed to always have a more direct way of exposing her thoughts at times.

"Rousing a Goddess from a peaceful slumber is a great offense, so I shall make sure to reprimand her properly once she wakes." She would use her tails to lay the girl on the ground in front of her, letting her head still rest on her tail so she could quickly retrieve her if she had too and taking a moment to inspect her for injury or the like. Dismayed, she found no physical wound or curse on the girl that was rendering her immobile. "I am no healer, so as far as I can say she is alive, but nothing beyond that she has a fever and she seems to be in a deep slumber herself. I doubt physical force will do little more than injure her."

It was likely a safe guess that she was the reason they were here...how much power did that even take? Bringing this many divine entities here? Had this odd chamber assisted in it somehow? Too many questions only she could answer, so she would make sure to get them once she was woken.

Trineon
Lord of Rivers, Lakes, and Oceans

For a long time Trineon floated in the waters of dreaming, unaware of the passing of time. The once divine being was seemingly lost in this limbo, a world without form. Occasionally a creature would swim by, interacting with his dream. Sometimes even people he knew would pass by him, triggering a memory from many millennium back. It seemed like that would constitute the rest of Trineon’s existence. And yet, he found himself waking up somewhere else.

The familiar feeling of being coated in water washed over Trineon as his eyes adjusted to the limited light of the room he now found himself in. For almost a minute, Trineon was confused, having no clue as to who even was. It was the same for the other people he saw waking up in the chamber, they were just strangers to him. However, like a dam bursting, memories suddenly began flowing into Trineon’s mind. Within a few seconds, he remembered his name and his role as a god. A few seconds later he began recognizing the others as fellow gods. However he did not recognize the girl lying in the centre of the room.

As Trineon wondered if he did know the girl, the Sun God walked up to her and attempted to kick her in the ribs. Trineon was flabbergasted by this action, but before he could do anything, some of the other gods interceded. The Sun God backed up leaving the sickly girl alone. Now, the Goddess of the Hunt approached the girl, declaring that he had a fever.

Trineon coughed to make himself known as he took a step toward the girl, “Perhaps I can help.”

Trineon knelt down next to the girl, placing his right hand on her head, “She definitely has a fever. Unfortunately, I don’t seem to have any of my healing herbs with me. However we arrived here, it seems we did not come with our items.”

Trineon stood up, looking around for an exit. While the question of how they came to be here was pressing, Trineon had deemed the well being of this girl to be more important. If only Trineon could exit this structure, he should be able to sense a nearby body of water, and the healing herbs that grow in such places. But as it stood right now, Trineon’s connection to the seas was faint. Since waking up in this room, Trineon had felt faded, as if a large part of himself was missing. As he looked around at the other assembled gods, Trineon wondered if they too felt that loss of power.

and the far less important, trivial aspects of travel and luck

“Hmm.” Aureia seemed unimpressed with the sun god’s answer, but that he stopped moving to war against the mortal and her fellow gods protecting her was good enough for her. Nonetheless, she fixed him with a glare at his persisting threat. “Tsk tsk. If you haven’t already noticed, you’re hardly in a position to dictate terms. Let’s settle this productively, okay?” It was obvious if they let him have his way, he was more liable to destroy the sources of any answers than to get them through violence. If it came down to it, she would physically intervene as well; while she might not have had the sheer force of will in a fight as Alasayana, or the warlike prowess and passion of the god of Love and War –Both aspects of Ashte that she was intimately familiar with—she had her own tricks up her sleeve.

Her attention drifted to the unconscious maiden, and then Alasayana, her interest in the god of the sun already at an end. “Oh, Alasayana! Good to see you again. Mm, a pity, though. I was hoping that somebody would have an idea of this place. Suppose we’ll have to find out for ourselves, huh?” It seemed her attention was still on the young girl, together with Trineon, the god of rivers, lakes, and oceans. Apparently, he had quietly stepped in while everybody’s attention had been on the Sun God. As a god closely aligned with mortals and their development, she did not have a very high opinion of the god of water –too many times had the god interfered with her interests by sinking, destroying, or otherwise disrupting the great instruments of commerce of the mortals that prayed to her for protection with his aquatic whims.

She let them tend to the girl, preferring to more closely inspect the room they were in. As she examined the strange inscriptions, noting their glow, it was because of that close affinity to humans that she was the first to notice the unmistakable signature of more mortals nearby. Above and beyond the waiting stairway, perhaps, and no doubt connected to the girl. Aureia was quick to announce her findings.

“Ah! I can sense more mortals… just above us. Hmm... Perhaps they will have suitable answers that pestering our poor sleeping maiden cannot provide. Please refrain from lavishing punishments upon her, mind, I for one appreciate being awoken rather than resting in slumber in perpetuity, you know.”

It didn't hurt that she had a suspicion it would be far more profitable to work with tentatively friendly mortal summoners than to intimidate or threaten them. Especially given the clearly weakened state she and her fellow gods were in, from lack of followers after eons of slumber, no doubt.

"O'Menus, violence isn't the solution to everything," the goddess chided, sword taking on an oddly melted look and reforming into a shield. Honestly, having to be told to take peaceful solutions from someone as mistrustful of potential enemies as her... although, she was never one to skip the diplomatic effort entirely, it could be just as fun. "You catch more flies with honey than vinegar."

Like the goddess of commerce, Ashte had begun to feel the mortals above. Mortals with desires and goals, who no doubt needed guidance and instruction, if not a bit of hands-on experience... it might even be exciting, to rebuild from nothing. Maybe a group effort, this time? Everything had been so... determinedly individualistic, before, despite their rarely overlapping spheres of interest.

And if she could do some naval exercises without Trineon potentially ruining it all, that would be fun.

"Say, Aureia, I have a question before we go see what these mortals want," Ashte wondered, smirking and tilting her head, "Is this new look intentional? You're seeming awfully more cute than I remember."

Lopaley

She had dove in front, and had managed to prevent the kick from hurting the injured girl, and that was enough for her. She didn't require attention from her fellow gods. In fact she preferred the exact opposite. The chorus of the gods arguing with each-other. Bickering over Follies. It never interested her to yell at them. She knew better then anyone that a silent voice with a firm hand could move more cogs and gears then the one who wasted all their energy yelling. She had assumed by the fact that she had managed to block the kick without any substanial bone breaking. Likely a result of her poofy dress and the fact that she knew it was coming. As a sign that perhaps it was not only she whom had been substantially weakened by the erosion that permeated through them.

Therefore she would merely get up knowing that people were potentially eying her for her actions She would have to take a middle ground in the matter, and that would be to avoid answering why it was that she did what she did. They may believe that she was trying to amass more followers then they. Or that she was doing it out of some sort of Martyrdom or guilt complex. Though it may have been an eternity they rested. She would be adamant in her self belief that even she had no part in their slumber. They were likely either placing themselves under a false bravado. Or merely continuing the antics that they portrayed so easily years before but Lopaley could already estimate just how much power was lost just by how hard it was to grip her own personal flow of time.

Two things then remained. If this was her starting point then she would rather get out of the under-ground. Sooner rather then later. Though she might be able to rewind time. She wouldn't be able to do much if her body was stuck in stonework. Crushed by the weight of countless Eons. She doubted she could rewind a collapsed structure of this magnitude. At the very moment at least.

However if she was to just slink away then the gods might lay some blame upon her feet for their slumber. It was annoying to think about that she had to walk a tight-rope for now. Dusting off her dres she would take a silent stance near the exit. If they moved to leave she could easily have scurried up the stairs before them.

But for now she had to listen.

The girl's fever was, at least on first inspection, rather serious. Her body was burning up, and she felt clammy. She must have been sweating a lot. Further inspection would reveal that her heart was beating quite fast, and though she was unsconcious her body was trembling slightly, and her breathing sounding somewhat labored.

It seemed as if an illness had taken her. Whether this was a natural affliction or somehow related to their revival was difficult to discern. Given the room she was discovered in, however, made the latter rather more likely.

Still, it seemed as if it would require more effort then attempting to shake her awake in order to revive her, and more to address her current condition.

This, however, was not the only matter of immediate concern.

Above, beyond the stairway, even gods who were not attuned to detecting mortal lives would be able to hear heated voices, and then a loud bang. As if something had slammed into a door with considerable force.
And any listening with care would overhear a man's voice.

"Get that door open immediately, we will secure the priestess!"

@Rune_Alchemist@Click This@1Charak2@Raineh Daze@Renny@Martian

and the far less important, trivial aspects of travel and luck

“Eh? Ah, well,” Aureia looked down at herself. She should have expected it, but she was caught off guard by the question from the goddess of love. An awfully leading question, at that. It was hard to deny that somehow her appearance had changed; she was smaller and shorter than she once was. Her clothes didn't help much with it, but at least when she groped her own chest, she did still have it, even if that too had gotten… smaller. It didn’t seem like there was anything she could do to change her appearance; at her prime, it was not a problem at all to redo her own likeliness on her own whims. Now, even spontaneously changing clothes seemed to be harder than it formerly was. Annoying, but it was still something she could work with.

She’d eventually regain her power and do whatever she wanted; maybe she’d even choose to keep this form, who knows. Rallying, she smirked back, lightly bapping Ashte on the head with her parasol. It was still a rude question, after all. “Eh, not really. It’s annoying, but there’s nothing wrong with being cuter, especially when I’m still beautiful. Who knows, perhaps I might receive even more worshippers this time around?”

It didn’t seem like O’Menus was simmering down at all, though. That said, it was hard to get the sun god to simmer to begin with, with that inflated ego of his! She sort of understood why he was taking this poorly, but the fit he was throwing was really putting a damper on her reawakening. Really, if she had the supplies, Aureia would already be holding a rebirth celebration party right here, with the other gods and the mortals all invited. Maybe sans sun god.

She was sorely tempted to use her parasol again and give him a good, much harder whack with it, before the mortals started banging on the stairwell doors. An interesting development.

The mortals of ten thousand years past had a very strange dialect and manner of speaking, but she understood the voices well enough. There it was, the girl was clearly someone to be protected. Aureia did wonder what god she was a priestess of, though. Maybe the entire pantheon, considering the diversity of the sadly small segment of deities that had been reawakened.

Aureia was content to remain as she stood and let the mortals come to them. It only seemed natural, a fitting away for the returned gods to receive mortals once more, except the sun god once again thought differently.

“This dummy…! He’s going to ruin it all, the mortals come to us, not the other way around!”

She huffed, and moved after him. Having O’Menus as the mortals’ first interaction with the gods was going to bring nothing but trouble.

Lopaley would take this immediate development seriously. The tone of their voices was not one that would present a sense of comradeship with the priestess. An invading force perhaps? Maybe the priestess had conducted a unceremonial ritual. Was their revival a fluke then? Unwanted by majority but wanted by the few. Questions that would erode at her mind. She would think on them later. For now she had a more immediate concern.

"Alasayana, Trineon" The Time goddess would say as she turned to face the pair of gods.

"May I carry this priestess." She would say kneeling before them both to gently lift the priestess into a sitting position even with their unconsious state.. In a manner more fit for a mortal then a god, she was handling the priestess with careful care. She didn't truely know how 'durable' a human was. So treating them like hourglass seemed appropriate. She was trying to present herself as an individual that did not want conflict. She also assumed that trying to struggle with a feverish person in the way gods did was just not appropriate at the moment.

"We are likely going to need to have as much mobility as possible if there is a battle afoot. Your agility is best when your not protecting someone. So please. I beseech your trust. To allow me to care for this priestess for the time being. At least till we are among friends. Then you may resume your care of her." The time goddess implored the Hunter. She knew better then to get on the bad-side of a god of the hunt. Even with all the time in eternity. She didn't want to spend it having to run away.

"And you Trineon, You would be better helping in the fighting would you not?" She would continue. Saying to the other god. AS she slowly got the priestess up onto her back. Carrying her carefully. Wrapping the sleeping girls arms around herself. She was effectively carrying a girl that was a little bigger then her but she could manage. She had helped in many a laborious task. She was no god of strength, nor was her strength particularly abhuman. But her endurance was second to none.

Once the girl was on her back. She would make sure to hold the sleeper close. "There there sleeping priestess. Don't worry. You have plenty of time left yet." She would say as she would look at the two gods and then sigh as she looked back at the girl. "I'll use my power to slow down her time. So we'll have longer to get her proper attention." She'd say to the pair. As the gears in her golden-clockwork eye would start to whir. As she used her power upon the girl to slow the fever. To hopefully sty its progression for the time being.

@Martian@VitaVitaAR@Rune_Alchemist

Alasayana
The hunt begins again - Unknown room

---

Poor girl - but such was human fragility. Alasayana would allow Trineon to inspect the girl, the god of the oceans likely far better with healing than she was. She would have continued idly watching Menus, least his temper boil over like that of the desert wastelands scorching the sands, but Auriea said something much more helpful - humans. More of them. Above, likely outside whatever chamber this was. The Huntress would smile lightly at that.

"Mhm. Worry not. I have no intention of causing undue injury. I was having a nice dream though...I think." Not that she would get very far before a commotion was heard. The loud noise offended her ears quite a bit - and the shouting...some sort of commotion? The words that were heard made it clear the humans were obviously concerned for this girl. A priestess, hm? Of whom, was the priestess of then? To summon all of them like this...this girl was proving to be more and more special by the second. It seemed O'menus was of a similar mindset, though he was reacting far more like she'd expect a tyrant too.

Before she ran off, though...Lopaley's voice met her ears. A sound argument, but that didn't mean she liked it.

"I see no reason why a conflict is a forgone conclusion." The goddess would reply with a frown. "It sounds like they are merely concerned for the girls safety. Returning her to them as she is will be the best thing we can do." She'd assert, though her eyes would follow Menus as he left. "...but given that ones disposition, I may need to restrain him before he hurts the mortals." The Huntress would sigh in a mildly tired fashion. "Very well, I'll allow you to look after her, but assuming they are not hostile, we attempt to return her to the humans first." She'd turn to leave, tails gently lifting the girl into Lopaley's arms as she'd turn to leave.

So she would follow the others out, a purposeful, determined stride, tails tucking close to her body.

"Why would I ever be the one to disapprove of something cute?" the horned goddess asked, likewise making her way towards the clamour. So, the feverish girl was a priestess of some sort? Oh, that was interesting; it had been obvious she must have had something to do with their revival just from the entire scene... hm, that probably explained the fever, too. It had to be quite draining, awakening dead gods from their eternal slumber, mustn't it? Ah, she'd have to make sure to pamper the poor thing once they acquired more resources.

Well, if she hadn't intentionally picked them out from all the possibilities. Not that she'd say it to his face--really, like any halfway reasonable person, she wouldn't say anything to his face--but O'Menus was simply impossible to deal with. Like he was the only god with ambitions of rulership--if you could even call what he'd done ruling--or that the world required him for sunlight. No, but there was no point revisiting old irritations yet... just a note to punish the girl appropriately if she'd picked that hothead.

Well, hopefully these mortals didn't want anything too problematic, their current state wasn't up to snuff...

The girl did not wake, nor did her fever worsen. While it was difficult to tell, to avoid any potential worsening of her condition it was likely that slowing time for her was the best choice. It certainly would not hurt.

The stairs were carved from stone, leading upwards a short distance. It was rather unremarkable in all respects, but adorning the walls on either side were strange geometric shapes, faintly glowing and overlapping one another, leading back down to the hexagonal chamber.

At the top of the staircase was a solid steel door. While it appeared to be somewhat dented from the outside, it was otherwise holding fast.

A voice spoke from beyond the door.

"Prepare for another volley, we'll get through sooner or la-"

Once the gods reached it, it slid open almost immediately.

Beyond was a stony expanse, light gray rock making it apparent they were either on some kind of plateau or the top of a cliff. Beyond that, some distance below, there was a considerable distance completely taken up by the greens of some form of forest. It appeared considerably more temperate then the jungles some deities may have been used to, but it would still feel somewhat familiar to those who engrossed themselves in nature.

Perhaps more pressing were the mortals in their immediate vicinity.

There were at least two dozen of them. All of them were clad entire in some form of unusual black and red armor, shiny and looking rather different from even the heaviest armor any of the deities would be familiar with, some portions composed of some form of fabric as well. At the head of the group was a figure with even more bright armor, two curling horns adorning his face-concealing helmet.

They were armed with swords, and strange devices that looked like some sort of tube. The devices would be entirely unfamiliar, and yet Ashte would immediately recognize them as weapons. They all seemed quite shocked by the sudden appearance of the gods, thought judging their reactions beyond the helmets was difficult.

That wasn't all.

A single especially large figure, humanoid but enormous, some form of metal construct, lay on the ground cut completely in half. One arm was composed entirely of a blade, the other an enormous version of the tube-weapons held by the armored men.

There was blood on the stones. Dozens more of the armored figures lay dead, stabbed, cut apart, and otherwise killed by some manner of extremely sharp blade.

Beside the doorway lay another fully armored figure. They were clad in white and gold armor with a tattered blue cape, damaged heavily with numerous holes pierced through, two swords piercing their chest and blood covering the front of the armor. Their helmet, reminiscent of that of a knight's, was cracked to reveal an empty, staring blue eye. In their left hand they gripped an impressive sword, white with a gold hilt, even in death.

The moment the red armored mortals recovered from their surprise, they were raising their weaponry.

"Hold your fire!" commanded the man with the horned helmet. "They have the priestess."

The armored figures hesitated for a moment, then lowered their weapons slightly.

"Sir, wasn't there only supposed to be a single knight?"

The soldier asking the question was entirely ignored as the man in the horned helmet stepped forward.

"You're surrounded," he began, "By the authority of the Holy Emperor of Durma, surrender the Flower Priestess at once."

He paused for a moment, as his eyes fell on Alasayana.

"Consorting with a beastkin... Disgusting," he continued, the contempt audible in his voice, "Surrender or die. You have no other options. We will carry out the Holy Emperor's will."

The soldiers raised their weapons once more.

Certainly, gods were diminished, weakened.

But by no means were they helpless.

@Rune_Alchemist@Click This@1Charak2@Raineh Daze@Renny@Martian