127 An unfair hun

High above them, the ones that were the main topic amongst the humans were not freed of the same worries. Not at all impassive and objective godly beings, they were almost all surrounding one that had his energy rapidly leaking. Previously the second before the largest god in size, Oslo was now in the middle of the group. But unlike when they were mocking Aria for being so weak and without having any chances of capturing souls, they were worried. Greatly worried.

"Are you sure that monster said that? Did you not imagine it and overreacted? After all, you talked to them, they even said they would stop." One of the smaller god and the same that first proposed the idea of leaving this planet was voicing his concerns. They were shared by many here, by at least half of the twelve beings that were still swallowing souls as they spoke.

"Do you take me for a fool? I would rather still have a nation believing in me and losing some of my energy than ending up like Aria." Hearing her name in the empty space, the concerned party couldn't help but express her disdain. "You bunch of cowards! I was the one that said they were a threat and you did not listen to me. Like you didn't one thousand of years ago. But this time, I won't be the one that will lose. Look at me, I am soulless."

Looking at the extremely dim light that was produced by the goddess, they couldn't help but agree. They had pressured her those past years, to the point of only letting her have what she needed to survive. Meaning that if they wanted to fight back, they could only use their own energy. "Enough, no need to argue once more. Oslo, can you tell us why I feel your energy is still declining?"

The massive behemoth that secured his position as the first god was a bit afraid by that sight. Last time, they all contributed and that was barely enough to fight back those Dark Gods. In fact, their memories were all extremely fresh about that dark period, and what were the results. But now, maybe he would have to bless two beings to balance the fact that Aria was too weak. However, if he did that, he would potentially loose his standing, something he was extremely afraid off. One blessing was a massive expenditure of energy, but in the case of Oslo, it seemed it was not over yet.

"Because he is being hunted! The one that is capable of shapeshifting. He is after my Hero, I just need to ... NO! I lost that monster. If he dies right now, you can all blame yourselves. We already failed to cooperate last time, and see what happened. Hundreds of years wasted just to wait for them to breed enough new souls." Even if the situation was not as dire as in the Kingdom of Pankow, the losses in the other human nations and even beyond them were still important. And if they all wanted for everyone to die to collect their meal, it did not mean they were dumb enough to kill everyone.

"Where is he right now, if there is a potential candidate nearby, I will bless him." A quite large god proposed his help. The others inwardly rejoiced for a brief instant, before remembering that they will have to act as well some days. Thinking about this, some began to scout the planet, searching for future Heroes. The act of giving divine energy was not as mindless as it could be. First of all, the bearer of the blessing should already be an expert in a domain. They did not have to choose the number one swordsman or such, but they would never choose a newbie. Only someone with great potential could be worthy.

At the same time, it was a relatively risky move for them. It was absolutely not as simple as just pouring their energy in their target. They had to refine it in the process, to model it to bring the Hero to its maximum capacity. Normally, it should be done in a slow process, taking a minute at least. But the quicker it was done, the more chances that something could go wrong, injuring them in the process. Right now, Oslo was at the brink of an injury, but at the same time, couldn't stop to give more energy to the human he chose. Only when he could close the connection cleanly would he be able to avoid any further problem.

If a human was injured, he would lose some blood and heal. If any living races suffered the same thing, they would also close their wounds, thanks to something created by them or naturally. But that was because they had a huge amount of blood to lose and could survive a bit while losing some. For an undead with a core, the slightest injury on the said core would lead to its death. It could take years and years, but the mana would leak permanently, weakening it in the process. Something similar could describe the injury of a god.

Even if it was hard to see, because they were being made of pure energy, but there was a very slim membrane all around their bodies. This was the last safeguard they had, to prevent them from collapsing. If that was even slightly pierced, they would need an extremely important amount of energy to fix it. They could also live with a hole in their body. But that would mean they had to permanently take care of not leaking energy. The moment they stopped focusing on that, for example, to search some souls to eat, the inevitable will happen.

In that regard, an injury was quite deadly, since only two or three gods had enough to heal themselves at the moment. And that would only leave them to the state of Aria, not something they truly wanted. "He is in that chain of mountains, the one with many monsters. There is nothing around here." The dejected voice of Oslo resonated before it was interrupted by someone.

"And the trolls, there are trolls, no? The one that I blessed was killed in the vicinity." The one that talked was the smallest one of the group if one did not count Aria. With that new hope, Oslo searched everywhere, making his body smaller and smaller. But, after finding the empty and destroyed encampment of the trolls, he was facing once more the harsh reality. Not wanting to talk anymore, he only focused on helping his Hero.

"Go South right now! Your only hope is to reach that tunnel that was under the mountains. There should be some humans nearby, right?" Hearing the worried voice in his head, Avirus was still running at full speed. Shortly after he escaped his encounter with the giant demon, he found out he could communicate with a god. By chance, it was Oslo, but before he could even talk, the latter informed him of a terrible threat.

Without even seeing it, he was told to run, like he never did. To his shock, his speed was so important that even himself was baffled. But shortly after, he felt extremely hungry. "That's normal. The same thing happened previously. But that was that or dying in the hand of those liars." Not focusing on the last word, the human agreed with the god. He was extremely grateful since he knew his end wouldn't have been pretty. However, none of them noticed the white spark in the sky, that was moving so fast and so high it was hard to distinguish. After all, not even the gods were truly omniscient.

Kardel was still thinking while watching the Hero under him. He was a bit surprised by the speed of the human, meaning that a lot of forms were rendered useless. If he could not catch up to him, what would be the point of being able to kill the Hero? At the same time, he had to be something that could harm Ymir. After all, from what he was told, that human could punch with his bare hands the armors that the skeletons were wearing. And that was not just some low-quality iron made by an idiot blacksmith, but something forged under the supervision of Master Agnil.

Because of this, he waited several seconds, still pondering about his options. Counting the time to transform in his operation, he could only settle for the best of the worst possibilities. Looking at the straight forward way the human was running, he bypassed him and began to transform. His little winds and beautiful white feathers took a far more hideous look. The flesh on his body was getting harder and harder, like an armor. Instead of scales, chitin was slowly appearing. His legs were getting longer and longer while being multiplied.

A green color spread on his body, before turning red, yellow, brown, blue and green again. He was only slightly taller than Meridiana by now, but his arsenal was far deadlier than the succubus. His body was composed of two different parts, the lower one with 6 legs while the upper one that was raised had four arms finished by deadly claws. Retracting a bit his torso and neck, the insect-like Kardel was beginning to fade in the environment.

After walking as fast as he could without breaking the illusion of being invisible, he noticed the fact that the Hero dodged him. The large footsteps created by the human were so obvious that a child could have seen them, not even talking about an expert like him Even with the superb camouflage innate to that type of insect, he could not avoid the detection of a God. "Let's see who is faster now, me or you!" That did not disappoint the duvodiad, quite the contrary. Thrilled by the hunt, his entire body was at the horizontal.

With this posture, his multiples legs worked at full speed, far more than when he was previously trying to hide his presence. His eyes with multiple faces could clearly see the traces left on the ground. The only drawback of this form was the complete lack of being able to smell. But this was not an issue that often arose. Like that, an insect taller than a human and a Hero were stuck in a pursuit. But unfortunately for one of them, it was a bit too late. Slowing down while taking the color of the tree nearby, Kardel could only see, the massive troop next to his prey.

By sheer luck, part of the army that was supposed to reach the Troll Gate was right on the path of the Hero. The thousands of men could probably not injure the duvodiad, but the issue was with the Hero. Without knowing exactly his strength, he could not risk his life for anything. Feeling a bit vexed to let him go like that, he did not forget to give him a surprise. Extending his body to its maximum, nearly his real size, he raised his head way up toward the sky. Activating the glands that were located right under his head, a powerful acid rushed through his maw.

"JUMP!" The panicked voice of Oslo warned Avirus at the last second. Without even thinking, the general rushed forward, throwing the soldiers on his way to the ground. Turning around after hearing the shrieks of pain and agony, he saw some men covered by a green liquid. Their faces were melting in front of his very eyes, and not even their armors could do a single thing to protect them. Not even a second passed before everything in contact with that acid was gone, and much of what was nearby melted. Looking at where the projectile should have been thrown, all he could see was a patch of trees.As for the culprit, he was already gone.