Chapter 183 - The World Is Falling Into Ruins

The red bird thought with a lot of hate in his heart, he shook himself violently and the chains vibrated in consonance.

"Little Rufus, I came to help you!" a soft voice sounded not far from the great bird.

The tall and beautiful woman that could not be described in words approached the bird, she was barefoot and there were several cuts on her abdomen oozing a golden liquid. The once-glorious clothes looked in tatters, but she still managed to smile at her old friend.

"Layla," Rufus said looking pityingly at an old goddess and old friend, a trusted battle companion, but now injured and barely able to maintain her corporeal form to speak to him.

"Don't look at me like that dear Rufus, I'm still a goddess and can set you free" Layla said with a smile despite the pain she felt in her gut.

"Don't use your powers, you will be captured by the dark god... You'd better run away and seek help from the Celestial Clan"

"They already fell," the woman said with a helpless expression.

"Has the God of Light fallen?" Rufus said in surprise. After all, the God of Light might not be the God of War, with great strategies and powerful weapons of battle, but he was famous for having the strongest warriors under his command. Only that god fell so fast... It was almost unbelievable.

"He disappeared before the battle... The angels have fallen, and few archangels are trying to make the resistance. They sent signals of help to the God of Nature and the Spiritual Guardians" the woman said, approaching Rufus and touching the black chains.

"And then?" Rufus asked anxiously, their old friends were also in the Celestial Clan. He remembered well when they faced intruders from other worlds, together they were bright and powerful.

"The God of Nature seemed to be busy currently, but he sent General Concilier with a Battalion of 800 people. It's 100 nature spirits, 500 Ogres, 20 Giants, 80 Dramorphs, and 100 High Elves" Layla said indifferently, she didn't seem very excited even with 800 people to fight the dark army.

"Won't that be enough to drive those scums out of Heaven?" Rufus saw his friend with such a nonchalant voice, he became worried and couldn't even get excited about the help sent by the God of Nature. He at least hoped that this help would get the enemies at least driven out of the angels' territory, he wasn't foolish to hope to win the war with just that for support.

"It will help the resistance, and we can last longer, but it won't help the Dark God… That crazy man! You need to find the vessel of his power to weaken and seal it... Ah, what I'm talking about, if we can hold out until we bring the Trinity back, that'll be good enough."

Rufus was silent at the old friend's so disheartened declaration, but looking around and at himself, the dark god is much more powerful than all the gods combined.

Of course, that traitor sold out to the invaders and gained power far greater than they could have imagined.

"Is there no clue where the three Titans vessels are?"

"I never imagined we would be looking so excitedly for the Titans"

"Well, they're just vessels, it's not the real Titans that are much better to deal with. At least we won't be obliterated just for appearing in front of them, and maybe they'll have a better personality than the original Titans" Rufus said with some hope. He thought nothing could be worse than being under the yoke of cruel invaders.

However, Layla, who had lived a part of her immortal life watching the mighty gods shudder in fear upon hearing the name of the Titans, had different thoughts.

"Kronos, Themis, and Ocean... Let's take out the crazy invaders to put an evil that we won't even be able to deal with either..."

"At least they won't sell us to intruders!" Rufus said even more angrily as he remembered seeing his friends and comrades of the same race being captured by the Dark God to be auctioned off to the planet invaders.

"That's true, after all, they just want to destroy the pantheon and make us mortal..."

"At least we won't be sold and mocked by those invaders!" Rufus seemed to be beside himself with rage.

"Don't get too excited, these currents feed on your hate" Layla said, stroking the big bird's neck.

The God of Darkness was a very intelligent current that feed on hate... There was no way Rufus wouldn't be angry after seeing his friends and companions being captured and humiliated.

If it wasn't for Layla he would be trapped for centuries in that crater out of sight.

"Alright, I just need you to calm down, so I can transfer the chains to me"

"This… I can't let you do this. You're going to disappear, I don't want another friend…" Rufus started to speak but stopped as he was horrified at the thought that he would lose Layla too.

So much death and bloodshed since the invaders arrived in the various dimensions, destroying, conquering, and humiliating the locals.

"Don't worry my vase has already awakened, I will live if she manages to obtain the divine objects I left by the human holy sites... If we manage to prevail until the Trinity awakens, the vase can bring me back. Besides, you are more useful than I am, the goddess of life is about to awaken, so you can help her in the war." Layla tried to reassure her friend, but he became even more agitated, shaking the glittering chains as if he was happily drinking. Rufus' despair.

Could it be that the currents were more than fueled by his friend's hatred?

Well, before Layla could continue to persuade her friend, a time rift ripped through time and space above them.

"They are back?" Rufus looked furious looking into the temporal rift, he could feel the frightening power of nature, the celestials, the demons, and even death itself... This was much more than he expected from the Dark God.

Did the invaders give that bastard more powers?

"It's Kronos! But... How is he here? No, this isn't even time to think... What is it?" Layla looked confused, looking at the time rift with various supernatural energies.

There was a strong power of time and space mixed with the other supernatural energies, Layla knew the god of time and the god of space as they are separate deities, these two also disappeared just before the invaders attacked the pantheon, the only one left was himself Kronos who held both powers.

Several arms emerged from the supernatural energies that went to the chains of darkness... Breaking so easily, it seemed a lie that this was a dangerous and unbreakable chain a few minutes ago.

Rufus: (...)

Layla: (...)

Well, they couldn't say they were sad, right?

However, before they could rejoice in their luck, arms made of supernatural energy grabbed Rufus and Layla tried to fight back, but Kronos' power wasn't weak... Or she was too injured to be a worthy opponent. Then she was thrown to the ground with ease.

"Rufus! Rufus! Listen to me, Kronos' power is incomplete, he won't be able to fight the invaders, you have to help him become stronger" Layla's voice grew more and more distant as the great bird's body was placed in the temporal rift.

Layla knelt on the floor panting, the golden blood continued to fall profusely to the ground, her short hair clung to her forehead in the cold sweat, but she could only see the crack closing, letting the crater fall back into silence.

The life slowly drained out of the goddess, who was weakly able to send a message to her vessel when her deity awakened, she hoped it would help find Kronos and Rufus faster.

Death was an unexpected enemy of those who is "immortal", but Layla didn't fight that inevitable, closing her eyes to welcome death as a friend and not with rancor in her final moments.

The goddess of truth perished there.

In the Central Magic Tower in the Wizards' Republic, a great commotion was taking place in one of the laboratories because of the sudden fainting of their great prodigy.

"Miss Darcy!"

"Miss Darcy!"

"Professor Darcy? Somebody call a doctor!"

The Wizards gathered around the beautiful woman who had fainted but was pushed aside by the woman's knight who appeared to be shooing away pesky flies.

"Alene, you skipped meals again!" the knight said as he held the fainting woman in his arms like a princess who has just been rescued from the hands of a villain.

"I'm just not hungry..." The woman who was apparently passed out replied as she was tucked into bed.

"You still trying to retort… Ah, what do I do with you, Alene? Your grandfather is coming back tonight, and you already know..." the knight who had a look that looked permanently fierce said with great kindness and concern, which was a bit funny.

"Gustavo, I'm not starving, do you remember that I ate one of the pills to keep me from being hungry... I just felt a little bad with a bad headache, that's all" Alene said holding the knight's hand who still didn't fully believe in her.

"Alene Darcy, if you think you can trick me like you do your maid..."

"Gustavo, I would never try to deceive you. We made a promise, right? And a wizard always keeps his promises" Alene said showing a hurt look, her midnight blue eyes glistened with tears and Gustavo felt all the anger being swept away.

Alene's eyes were the same as Emery's, as they were twins they had the same pretty face with delicate features and red lips, red hair, and long eyelashes, but the girl had a mole near her mouth, her brother had one spot near the right eye.

So, it stands to reason from the pitiful look she had that the knight's heart shuddered, and he was easily won, sweeping the matter of anything under the rug.