Chapter 486 - Real Enemies (1)

"We can keep doing this for all eternity." Arnold mumbled while playing with a scalpel he had forged using celestial gold, "Neither you nor I will age even a second, and I'm not going to stop until you tell me what I want to hear. I'm having fun doing this too. After all, that bastard Hermes died before I could witness a god withering in pain."

He was talking to a naked Heimdall, who had been tied up to a chair using chains made of titanium. Considering the weak and pathetic state he was in, it wouldn't have mattered even if he was tied up using a single thread. Heimdall wouldn't have been able to lash out at his torturer. 

On top of that, even if he could get free, what could he possibly do? He was inside Arnold's domain. Normally he could have contested the ownership of the domain using his influence, but in front of Arnold, Heimdall's existence was, in simple words, pathetic.

A small pool of his blood and sweat had formed below his feet. Blood drizzled out of the hundreds of cuts Arnold had so generously gifted him. Heimdall had become the canvas to Arnold's sadistic inclinations. The prominent example of it was... Heimdall's missing eyes.

He took pride in being the one who can see everything. So Arnold did what any sadistic torturer would do... he took away Heimdall's most prized possession and gouged out his eyes. The eyes were now stored on Arnold's inventory. Waiting to be used to upgrade his armour later on. 

That's right, Arnold had decided to keep a remembrance of all the gods he would kill from now on, starting with Heimdall's eyes. He would start the hunting season of the gods soon, and wanted all of them to feel frightened when the wait of their sins started drowning them in a sea of regrets.

He wanted to see their expression when they saw him in an armour covered with organs of the higher entities he had killed. He wanted them to know exactly whom they had messed with. 

But that part of his plan will come later. First, he needed some information from Heimdall. He could have evolved Natasha and then used her abilities to get what he wanted out of Heimdall, but he didn't.

Arnold wanted to make Heimdall suffer as he had never before. He wanted him to feel the despair and powerlessness he had felt when they took Nicole away from him. 

"You know, back when I was giving a thousand cuts to Hermes, I didn't realise that I was doing it all wrong. Using a sword was the worst way to go about it." Arnold emotionlessly mumbled before dipping the blade into an acidic solution, "Swords aren't meant for torture. They are meant to do the killing. An instant release from this accursed universe. That's when it hit me to make something small and precise that would cause immeasurable pain to someone, but won't kill them."

"I swear... I don't know..." Heimdall weakly mumbled before blood gushed out of his mouth.

It had been a week since Arnold began torturing him, without any breaks. The torture had put Heimdall on the verge of breaking, but he still hung on to the hope that someone would save him from the demon Arnold had become. 

"You expect me to believe that? You still had your all-seeing eyes with you when that bastard ran away. So I know you saw where he went. I tried saving you this misery by using the wish I had, to know his location but it seems that the Immortal had turned against me as well. No worries, I will kill him soon enough..." Arnold snarled and yet another clean-cut in Heimdall's chest, "Until that moment arrives, you will tell me where Johnny is, whether you like it or not."

"AHHHH!!!!" 

***

Heimdall's ear-splitting scream could be heard anywhere within the domain. Arnold's summons were worried for their master's mental health as he hadn't properly grieved Nicole's loss yet. They all knew he was in pain, they all could feel it.

But there was nothing they could say or do to calm him down. His rage had blinded him completely. They knew it because he completely ignored the one person they thought could have calmed him down.

A week had passed inside Arnold's domain since he stored Nicole's corpse there and went back to Earth, However, he didn't go there to mourn the loss of a sister with his family. He went there to gather his elite troops while leaving the rest of them there to protect Nina and the others in case the gods decided to pull another low blow and hit his family next. 

Nina knew something was wrong with Arnold the moment she saw him and Talos filled her in with what happened. She was stricken with grief as well, after all, Nicole had been a friend to her for years. She had always been there for her and now she was gone.

However, she knew Arnold would be much more devastated than she was. Thus she rushed over to console him, but as she did, she realised that Arnold wasn't emotional at all. He didn't even shed a tear. It was as if he was... already dead inside. Talos still remembered the words Arnold told her back then when Nina tried to snap him out of his mindset.

"Why mourn the loss of someone who will be back with us in no time? I will get her back even if I have to freeze hell and burn down the heaven. I will get her back. No matter the cost."

These were the last words anyone of them heard coming from Arnold's mouth. Afterwards, he went into the forge made something and ever since then he had himself locked up with Heimdall and began torturing him. However, not all of the summons were worried about the universe like Talos. All they cared for was revenge.

"We'll kill every single one of those bastards!!!" Asterios couldn't hold back his rage anymore, "By the time we are done, there shall be no trace of beings such as gods! How dare they do something like this to our master!?"

"Calm down Asterios." Grock reprimanded the raging minotaur, "Let the master dictate what he wants to do first. Only then would will we do something."

For the first time since turning into one of Arnold's summon, Grock was the one not itching for a battle. Although their Master was strong, he was outnumbered and this time their enemies weren't monsters. This was a battle where the numbers could decide the end result, at least this would happen until Arnold gained some more power. 

"Grock's correct." Tiamut mumbled softly, "The gods might be weak in front of our Master when they are alone. But collectively... they are a force to be reckoned with. If we were to engage in a battle now... we might not win."

"So what do we do? Sit here waiting for them to decide our fate?" Even Bad-Breath wanted revenge over those bastards.

"Don't worry about that." Tiamut mumbled, "The gods have their own disagreements that they'll have to deal with first. Unless the master does something drastic to incite them, like obliterating an entire Pantheon, I doubt they would ever unite against us. On top of that, most of them don't even like Zeus, which might even prompt some of them to join us and destroy Zeus... that is if the master didn't decide to kill them first."

"For now... we can only wait and hope that torturing one of them would be enough for the master to have a cool head while going about things." Talos replied to them, "In the meantime, we should start preparing for the worst. We need to expand our forces and increase our personal strength as well."

"Agreed." Miro nodded along with the rest of them.

"Another good thing is, we can gather information about our enemies easily through scriptures and other holy texts, but they can't." Alice chimed in, "If we make our moves correctly, we will have the element of surprise over them."

"I may not be able to fight, but I can help you out with making weapons and constructs. As long as I have enough materials, that is." Dani jumped in on the chance to prove her loyalty to Arnold.

They knew the path ahead of them wasn't one they'd look forward to, but it was a path they were destined to take.. A path to annihilate the gods, or die trying.