Alasayana

---

A hard fought victory was it, then? The humans slowly fell before them, their defenses slowly crumbling against their assault. A satisfied smile spread across her lips as she'd finish off another one of the humans that had stood before them. Laughter would reach her ears. Alasayana would turn her head towards the horned man, watching as he would grab O'Menus. It looked like he had been defeated, and yet, it seemed as though one of them was willing to make quite a display of foolish, misplaced zealotry.

She didn't exactly know what he was doing, but her instincts were telling her it was bad.

The Huntress would move swiftly, ignoring any of the still remaining humans around her. Even if she didn't like O'Menus, they had all been brought here for a reason. Until that reason came to light, having him die or become gravely injured would be a detriment. She would use her tails to push herself off the ground, covering the last few meters in a powerful leap towards the pair. Once close enough, one would latch onto O'Menus' waist. Another two would grab the horned man roughly, digging their fangs into his body.

"You can thank me later." Alasayana would say towards O'menus in the brief second she had. Her feet hit the ground, where she'd pivot and pull the two apart, flinging the sun God in one direction, and the horned man in the other. She couldn't be certain how powerful whatever he was doing was about to be, so she wanted to make sure he was as far away as she could get him. Thus, she would fling him with as much force as she could muster from her two tails in a direction away from the rest of the gods. If nothing else then, her tails would take the brunt of what the resulting action would be.

Agh, she was really going to make sure that priestess knew the value of her tails after this! Really, putting them through the wringer like this after waking, the nerve of that mortal! She should have at least had some good figs or Pears to offer...hmph~

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

The humans had put up more of a fight than she’d expected, but in the end, they fell, even with their strange armor and fancy new weapons. It was hard to beat being divine, after all, even if their abilities had become much reduced.

The commanding soldier had given them one last surprise, though, embarking on some sort of suicidal self-destruction spell. It might have been lights out for the sun god if it weren’t for Alasayana’s timely intervention, literally tossing the little man away from the godly entourage with one of her tails so that he could blow up all sad and alone. With how annoying and uncooperative O’Menus had been lately, though, Aureia thought that she might not have minded if the bright god had actually been blown to bits. She quickly dismissed the thought, though; it would certainly be very bad precedent indeed if one of the gods exploded within the first hour of their return. No matter how silly mortals could get, it would be pretty hard to convince one of your divinity if any of them got wind that one of your kind got blown up by a petty man, after all.

Aureia cleaned her blade up with a flick and a shimmer, before willing it to revert back to the elegant parasol that she so liked to carry. It was only then that she went over to one of the cleaner corpses of the mortals, late to the party to examine one of the soldiers’ tube weapons. Inspecting it briefly, she had to concede it was a very clever bit of mechanical construction. If this was what men had achieved in the thousands of years since her disappearance, she was very curious to see what else they had made. The uncultured men she’d just experienced didn’t leave her with a very good impression of their society, though.

The Sun God, expectedly, was growling about his experience with the mortals. As annoyed as she was with him in the moment, he had a good point. It was pretty inexcusable.

“It’s something worth investigating,” she allowed, with a nod towards O’Menus. “As much as I loathe to admit, it is possible that newer gods may have come into existence during our… interregnum. We absolutely must investigate.”

She then quirked an eyebrow and looked over at the… thing Lopaley had restored and entered. “But what is that?”

Now that O'Menus had... not been blown up, that was an impressively fast save of someone who had a little bit of an overcommitting problem, Ashte went over and retrieved her weapons, allowing them to dissipate into nothingness at a touch. At least that was still doable, it would be dreadfully inconvenient if she couldn't dispose of them once summoned.

"I took one of them alive, if anyone has questions," she added, helpfully pointing back at the unconscious man. "Don't kill him yet, information is the key to victory."

Trineon
Lord of Rivers, Lakes, and Oceans

The water god slammed his makeshift club into the mortal’s head, causing it to collapse to the ground. Trineon then turned to another mortal, only to notice out of the corner of his eye that the mortal was back on its feet, blade in hand. Trineon just had enough time to move out of the way, the mortal slicing through a portion of the shirt Trineon wore. While he missed flesh, Trineon was upset over how close a mortal came to making a god bleed.

With a quick turn, Trineon spun back around, his club weapon slamming into his enemy’s throat. Once again the mortal crumpled to the ground, gurgling noises being stifled by his helmet. Trineon then turned to face another warrior, only to see that most were already defeated. However, their apparent leader still stood.

That would change very quickly as the sun god ran his blade through him. What happened next was kind of a blur to Trineon. The leader began to glow, as Alasayana pulled O’Menus away from him. Just as that happened, the mortal exploded in some kind of destruction spell. It was bright enough that Trineon had to cover his eyes.

When Trineon removed his hands, he found the battle done. Many mortal soldiers lay strewn upon the ground, a variety of wounds visible on their bodies. Trineon turned toward his fellow gods, seeing that Ashte had spared one mortal’s life, at least as long as he could answer questions.

What immediately caught Trineon’s eye was that the so-called priestess had begun to move. Trineon rushed over to her so that he could see how her condition had changed. Trineon knelt next to her prone form, placing his hand on her head.

“Are you alright little one?” he asked softly.

In the wake of the explosion, a smoldering, twisted something fell to the ground and vanished from sight beyond the edge of the cliff. It was likely what was left of the man with the horned helmet, after the explosion completely destroyed most of his body.

The remaining soldier lay unconscious, the rest of the armored figures laying dead. They had joined their fellows presumably killed by the deceased knight who had once wielded the white sword.

The little girl was stirring, letting out a soft sound as her grey eyes slowly flickered open. She was still flushed and feverish, but it seemed that she had recovered enough to awaken.

"Mmm... haah...? Sir... Oren...?"

While she was awake, she also appeared to be somewhat delirious. Her eyes were heavily-lidded, though she seemed to realize that she was looking at a new face a few moments after opening her mouth.

"You're not... who...?"

She was silent for a few moments, as if remembering something.

"... D... did I do it...?"

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

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

Finding her pending answer taking longer than she’d liked from the time goddess, Aureia’s short attention span flitted to the unconscious soldier at the direction of Ashte. That was good. She would have been a little more than annoyed if they’d accidentally killed them all before getting any information whatsoever.

It was nice that the O’Menus did the whole waking the mortal shtick for her, so all she had to do was approach the man as he awoke, pointing her umbrella at his jugular as she demanded some questions. “Hello~ I’m Aureia,” she greeted, taking on a friendly, flippant affectation in contrast to O’Menus’s… skewering of his ankle. If the sun god so liked, they could play good cop, bad cop. “How are you? I’m having a great day, myself. It’s nice to be back after ten thousand years. You, on the other hand, look like you’re having a no good, terrible day. Probably the worst day in your life, so far, I’d assume. I doubt you’d want to make it worse, either. But see, the thing is, we need answers, so let’s talk.”

She drew back the umbrella, but kept the big stick nearby. Regardless of how the man reacted, she pressed forward bluntly with what was more or less an interrogation, her own mood growing impatient again as she realized the priestess was awakening. “So! Tell me your name and where you hail from. Let’s start with who are you, why are you here, who is your liege, who is the ‘Holy Emperor’ of Durma, and who is the Flower Priestess,” she prompted.

“Oh! And who is the knight whose sword is in your ankle right now? Important detail, almost forgot that.”

Right, she gave up, the violent idiots could... do whatever they wanted. There was a time and a place for stabbing your enemies, and it wasn't immediately after you captured them! Now any fanatics would take that frustrating "I'd rather die than be killed approach" and ignore all her charms. Or not be able to answer the questions through all the screaming, people were so easily distracted by a little pain...

Instead, she joined the group around the feverish girl, looking at her sleepy, confused face... oh, this girl was so cute! Cute priestesses (or possible priestesses?) were just the most adorable things.

Getting more answers out of her, or explaining the situation, would probably require disentangling the unfortunate girl from where she'd been pulled into a smothering hug. And, more awkwardly, Ashte's chest.

Trineon
Lord of Rivers, Lakes, and Oceans

As Trineon laid his hand on the girl’s feverish head, she began to stir. As she began to wake up she said a name: Sir Oren. Whoever that was seemed to be important to her. Before Trineon could introduce himself, her eyes focused on him, not sure of who he was. She then asked if she did something. Trineon didn’t know what she meant. Surely she didn’t think that she had killed these soldiers? She was such a petite girl, one who couldn’t create the same savagery that Trineon and his fellow gods had created in the heat of battle.

Speaking of savagery, out of the corner of his eye, Trineon saw O’Menus walk over to the unconscious soldier. The sun god then shocked as he stabbed the mortal in the ankle. This caused Trineon to flinch. To the water god, there was a difference between doing something in the hot blood of battle and doing it when one’s in cold blood. Still, they needed answers, and this method would probably generate some.

As the mortal awoke from the pain, Aureia decided to get some answers. With an umbrella pressed to his neck she asked him many questions including his name, place of origin, who he served, and what was the holy emperor, flower priestess, and the owner of the blade currently impaling him. While Trineon did want answers to these questions, his immediate interest was on the small priestess. For most of his life, Trineon had been of the opinion that it the duty of the gods to aid humanity. While some wrath was sometimes needed, Trineon didn’t want to torture the mortal soldier any further.

Trineon turned back toward the young girl who had placed herself into a deep hug with Ashte. While he wished to check her fever again, he didn’t want to interfere with the comfort the girl was probably getting from the tight embrace. Instead he kept his distance, but then began to speak in his softest possible voice.

“Everything is fine now little one. My name’s Trineon. Can you tell me your name?”

Alasayana

---

The justice bringer would spend the next few minutes in the interim of the zealous man blowing himself up and the other gods starting their interrogation by showing a bit of care towards her own tails. Talk of what was going on could come after she was presentable again. So the goddess would take a moment to wrap themselves around her small frame, grumbling lightly as she'd pat their fur, brushing her hands through them in an effort to straighten and at least make the singed and frayed ends look a little more presentable. Interrogation may be a good idea, discerning lies from truth to judge the guilty with her sword of arbitration used to be a trifle, but she doubted they'd really learn anything important from them. She no longer had the power to force one to be truthful before the divine.

It was only when she had heard the 'priestess' from earlier rouse from her slumber did the Huntress decide she was presentable enough. She would pass Aureia and O'Menus, glancing at the imprisoned soldier with a measure of respectful silence. All had fought well. So long as O'Menus did not bring undue suffering then there was no need for her to intervene.

"You're smothering the priestess." Alasayana would say with a minor amount of irritation as she'd approach the War goddess and Ocean God. "The girl is still weak and needs rest. We should find a cool spring or bed of the finest furs for her to recover in before asking questions or smothering her in affection." One of her tails would seemingly perk up a bit at that suggestion, perhaps wanting to be the bed itself. "I am Alasayana, Goddess of Judgement and of Hunts. State your name, priestess. Worry not...I shall only ask for minor recompense for the sin of waking me from a nap."

At the confirmation that whatever unseen efforts she had gone through succeeded, the sickly girl's eyes widened. She seemed just as shocked to learn whatever it was that she had done had managed to revive the gods as anyone else. At least, if that had been her goal.

The little, frail girl was breathless, both from surprise and from her weak and sickly nature.

"I... my n-name..." she took a deep breath, but before she could speak further she was suddenly wrapped in a tight hug, her face vanishing into Ashte's chest.

Anyone listening closely enough may have been able to catch the name 'Flora' before her voice was completely muffled. While her struggles were weak, the fact she was squirming at all was likely a good sign in regards to her general health.

It was perhaps good that her ability to see was currently obstructed by the Goddess of Love and War's chest, as the unconscious man awoke with a scream of pain when his ankle was pierced by the white blade. His expression was obscured by his helmet, but it was doubtless one of agony as he writhed in pain for a few moments.

Perhaps unexpectedly, however, he seemed to recover after a moment, though his breathing was still ragged.

"You.. you don't know any of that?" he asked, his voice strained from the pain of his pierced ankle, "You're... you're the most ignorant heretics I've ever met! Nn... Don't think you'll get anything out of me, heathens, though I shall gladly tell you of the divine might of the Holy Emperor."

It was clear that what information could be extracted from him would likely be tinged with fanaticism.

"He will rise higher and higher, and burn all heresy from these lands! You... you're claiming to be gods, aren't you? You'll burn the longest!"

As he continued, his tone grew more maniac.

"That bastard Klois Knight didn't survive, and neither will any of you! We'll claim the Flower Priestess eventually, and all of you will burn!"

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

Moridax, Lord of the Underworld

---

Screaming. Agony. Oh, well, that might have been the last thing she heard as she worked on paperwork in the Underworld and then... Nothing. Silence... And then, a long time later... Talking? Where? No, she couldn't touch anything. Rather, she felt rather... Disembodied. She wondered to herself, why? Her vision felt... Hazy. Eyes weren't something she was use to having for a long while. When was the last time she took a form that had eyes? Hundreds of years? Thousands? Still, she must force her vision to come. The voices that was near her spoke many things but she had difficulty discerning what they were actually saying. A small bit of her vision was coming to her now. In fact, it seemed her sense were coming more to her. Then, there was bashing on a door and.... Then fighting. Soon, she could move her body. Or, perhaps... A Spiritual Body? As her vision came to, she noticed that her body wasn't the most corporeal thing.

Moridax examined what she was. Her hands, or what would constitute as hands were skeletal looking... Rather pretty Phalanges at least. "I need a body." She confirmed to herself. If there was fighting going on, than perhaps there was a body she could use. "That way then." The spirit goddess said to herself as she floated towards the exit. The skeletal ghost was mostly transparent with a light cloudy haze around the outlines. Exiting the building, she took a look around. There were a number of people, living people at least. There was a greater number of corpses just laying around. One of these seemed to be in rather good condition. Well, not that the condition of the body mattered, but she'd rather her inherited clothing be in good condition. Or, perhaps, inherited armor.

Regarless, the ghostly form of Moridax floated forward towards the corpse and inhabited it. Everyone nearby would notice as the body started to violently shake a few times and start to stand up on it's own. It made some minor, unworldly movements as it seemed a wave of struggle wracked the the body going out from the center of the body and the head to the limbs until it ended up standing on it's own. A small ooze started to leak from the bottom half of the armor and, somehow, left no mark on the armor as it fled away from the body a small bit. "Haaa. Stuff armor isn't my first choice of outfit." It was a voice that definitely didn't suit the figure that probably once inhabited the armor. "Helmets are stuffy. Can't have this." The figure got a grip on the helmet with both hands and removed it. Beneath was the head of a cute blonde hair girl with elfen ears and golden eyes. "Fwah! Much better."

The armor was a little too big for her figure now... If the body had fit the armor previously than the thought of what that ooze might be was... "So many people died here. The paperwork for this must be obnoxious. Those poor skeletons in the administration..." She muttered to herself before paying attention to the others there now. There were a couple of faces she actually recognized. Gods. One particular goddess that liked to hang around the Underworld with her every now and then, "Oh! Is that Alasayana?" She questioned, looking at her and then look at the other gods and goddesses to see who she recognized. Truthfully, her look at the moment was completely different from what she had looked like in the past so it wouldn't be too surprising if no one recognized her.

Alasayana

---

Flora, was her name then hm?

"Flora...a quite a pretty name." Alasayana would idly comment, ignoring the protests of the man being tortured as well as Ashte being...Ashte. "Very well. Your punishment for waking me from a nap. I command thee to be my new servant, specifically my tail-" Before she could finish giving her judgement however, they were quite readily interrupted...by some sort of ghastly thing. Some demon or something was possessing a corpse! How absurd! Another trick of these impertinent fools? She had though they at least honorable, but this...!

"Are they employing even demons or some sort of undead?" Alasayana would respond with a growl. She would tolerate no demon or creature of evil in her presence. Alasayana would ready her tails for another fight, narrowing her eyes at Mori, not recognizing her.

Trineon
Lord of Rivers, Lakes, and Oceans

The young girl barely managed to say her name, Flora. A cute name for a cute girl, though it was a little on the nose if this girl was the Flower Priestess those soldiers had mentioned. But what her true identity didn’t matter to Trineon as much as her welfare. Unlike O’Menus, Trineon had no interest in torturing the surviving soldier.

However, the torture did seem to be working as the soldier regained consciousness before spouting a bunch of things. He dared to call Gods heretics? And we would burn for it? The vengeful side of Trineon, the side he tried to hide, came to focus. A scowl formed on Trineon’s face as he stood up. Trineon remembered in that instance that one of the duty of the Gods was to punish wicked mortals. So he walked over to soldier, anger simmering just under his young visage.

Before he could do anything, O’Menus pulled the blade out of the mortal’s ankle. He made a pained sound as the blood began to pour out of his wound. Trineon was of the mind that they should let the soldier bleed out, a slow death for one who dared threaten the Gods. As Trineon turned away from the suffering mortal, out of the corner of his eye he saw one of the corpses begin to move.

Trineon took a few steps backward, as goo dripped out of the body. Necromancy had always upset Trineon as he viewed it as going against nature, so the sight of the dead rising put him on edge. For a second Trineon wondered if there had been a necromancer among their attackers, but everyone who they had fought now laid on the ground. As Trineon looked at the floor, he saw a blade there. Picking it up, he raised it toward the moving corpse.

What Trineon didn’t expect was for the corpse to remove its helmet, revealing the face of a beautiful girl. This gave him pause, as did the fact that she recognized Alasayana. However there was no recognition in the Goddess’s eyes as she asked the corpse what it was.

Trineon gripped his blade tighter as he realized that it didn’t matter what kind of creature it was. A walking corpse was a walking corpse. It needed to be defeated.

“I don’t know why you have risen from the dead, foul creature. But you are in the presence of Gods, Gods who will not abide an abomination,” Trineon stated with resolve.

With his blade still pointed at the corpse, Trineon began to walk toward it, his gaze like a razor blade slicing through the undead thing.

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

O’menus wasn’t alone in losing interest in the injured soldier. If he didn’t want to play ball with Aureia’s interrogation, then he was all but useless. She listened to his words and absorbed the information she needed, yes, but she knew the words of a misguided fanatic when she heard one. Yes, letting him to bleed out on the ground would be a fitting death for a mortal that dared to challenge and belittle the gods.

Finally, she could turn and lavish her attention on the waiting priestess, like the rest of her companions already had been. Except, before she could do so, yet another thing happened that precluded her attention. Standing up, like the other gods, a certain activity among the corpses of the dead mortals caught her eye. Messing with the dead was generally a taboo even among the gods, as already exemplified by the reactions from Alayasana and Trineon—O’Menus was just being as abrasive as ever, yet something about the energy she was feeling made Aureia think the god of the sun had the right of the matter.

She frowned as one of the corpses began to rise, and then… talk. Yes, there was something strange about this being’s energy. Familiar? Yes. Divine? Maybe.

She gave the being a critical gaze before something clicked. “Eh, haven’t I had tea with you before?”

Finally freeing the priestess to allow her to breathe--that was a pretty name, and Ashte had always been fond of a nice flower arrangement... fufufu. Of course, like everyone else, she was rather distracted by the dead person getting back up and becoming a... cute girl? Oh, that was nice! Not the getting back up part, as fun as that could be for a time, she much preferred that defeated enemies stayed that way...

There was definitely something nigglingly familiar about her. Skeletons and administration...? Aureia talking about tea parties...? Ashte was, after all, quite a social figure, and someone who made sure a lot of people died had always had a good reason to maintain some sort of relationshpi with whoever took over after that point.

Not that her response would probably help Trineon or Alasayana work it out: "Hey! You've been holding out on me, if you could look like this!"

It seemed O'Menus was the only one paying attention to their fanatical captive.

As soon as her face was freed, Flora began to gulp in air a little more quickly, possibly because she was regaining her strength and breathing more easily, or possibly because she had found it more difficult due to the valley she had found herself briefly trapped in. Having missed what occurred with the dead body, she was quite confused at the sight of this new older in ill-fitting armor for a few moments.

"... Are you one of the others...?" she murmured, just barely audible as she remained some distance slightly behind the deities who had paid her the most attention.

Realizing she apparently had something to do with Alasayana's tails, she glanced towards the goddess(who was surprising not much bigger then she was) and took a slow step towards her, before hesitating slightly and looking around once again.

"... Where's Sir Oren...?"

With all attention now focused else where, the soldier with the pierced ankle had fallen silent. Almost too silent...

... as he began to drag himself towards the nearest tube-like weapon, one of the ones filled with explosives, taking advantage of the distraction.

@Martian@Raineh Daze@Click This@Rune_Alchemist@Renny@Pyromania99

Moridax, Lord of the Underworld

---

"My, too many of you don't recognize the wonderful me!" Moridax said with a shaking of her head. She first looked to Alasayana and Trineon, "Do you think something that could shape corpses to look so magnificent could be anything other than moi?" She asked trying to look like a magnificent specimen of God. "Jeez, guess your huntress ass ain't getting invited to any more dinner parties."

She overlooked O'Menus since he didn't say anything particular to her, though she tossed him a small wave. Then she looked over to Aurelia. At first she squinted as if she recognized someone but couldn't put a finger on it. "Hmmm, you look so familiar... Is that Aureia I spy? You look different... Decide to lose a few inches?" She teased before turning to Ashte, the last God that addressed her.

"Hey, I had an image to keep, Ashte~. This is sorta my natural form. Closer to natural than that other one at least." She said to the Goddess of Beauty and War. Besides, love could be rather suffocating at times and she could handle that and all her work.

As if to answer any remaining questions, or ease any minds and perhaps, answer the question of one pathetic mortal girl, she announced herself. "Yes, dear friends! It is I! Lord of the Dead, Master of the Soulium Mines, Unappreciated Paper Pusher of the Underworld! Lord!... No... Lady Moridax!" She was waiting for the applause that would never come.

"Fine, no applause but keep an eye on your pets." She clapped her gauntleted hands together in a commanding way and a couple of corpses near the man trying to crawl his way to the tube would grab him and keep him from moving. Considering how fresh the bodies were it would be difficult to rip them off. "How are my lovely above ground gods doing?" She asked in as cute a manner as she could considering the armor she wore.