Facing Ur

As they prepared to attack, Soul opened a massive rift, and tentacles of Ulgath'khal surged forth from the depths within. They slashed through the guards, cutting them in two with brutal attacks. The sight was so gruesome that even Lilith and the others couldn't bear to watch, but Ayame remained unfazed. Her eyes widened with delight, and a smile stretched across her face, almost appearing unsettling.

Once the carnage ended, the tentacles began to tear open the cages one by one, freeing the prisoners. Among them was a woman who couldn't walk but desperately crawled toward her daughter. A tentacle gently lifted the child, placing her beside her mother, and then tenderly patted the child's head.

"Elva!" the mother cried out in relief. "Thank the gods, thank the gods you're okay!"

"Gods?" Hyun-Ki interjected. "Thank us... well, thank him. He's the one who helped you escape!"

"No, blood mage!" a man pleaded, his voice trembling with fear. "Please don't kill us, sir! Please, have mercy!"

"Please!"

"Gods, no!"

"Oi, oi…" Hyun-Ki sighed with exhaustion. "We helped you, people. You are free to go."

The prisoners exchanged anxious glances, their silence speaking volumes as they hoped to quietly leave the temple. But the child Soul had just aided stepped forward, defying her mother's warnings, and bowed her head. Soul, his eyes devoid of emotion, watched the child and her mother in silence.

"Thank you," the child murmured. "I pray to you with all my heart."

Soul's skin glowed a faint red response to the child's words. Seeing this, Ayame stepped in front of Soul and grasped his arms, her expression unreadable due to the mask, but her suppressed chuckles were giving away that she was amused beyond.

"You… are a god?" Ayame's excitement was clear.

"Huh?" Ji-Hye's confusion mirrored the others'.

"You just received a prayer, and you grew stronger. Now I understand why you have no mana at all – because you are a god. But since no one has prayed for you, you became weak"

"Weak?" Nia asked. "This is his 'weak' you say? Can create rifts and could possibly take over cities?"

"Who are you…" Ayame said. "Who are you! Who!"

"Yo…" Hyun-Ki sheathed his sword, attempting to make sense of the revelation. "Are you, by any chance, related to Eldrin? Eldrin Nalothar?"

"Eldrin Nalothar… you're his son," one of the prisoners exclaimed. "You are his son!"

"The blood mage's son?"

"Oh my gods!"

"Wow…"

"Gods help us."

Soul remained silent, his gaze steady as he locked eyes with each person in the room, including the prisoners. Ayame stood close, gripping his arms expectantly, while Nia and Ji-Hye stood alert beside Hyun-Ki, ready to defend against any potential threats.

Observing Soul's reluctance to speak, Lilith seized a man by his collar and forcefully dragged him to the ground near Soul.

"Pray to him," she commanded sternly. "Now."

"I... I pray for you with all my heart... Nalothar," the prisoner stammered, his voice trembling.

Once again, a faint red glow emanated from Soul's skin.

"Hmm..." he murmured, his tone as impassive as the Void. "No need to hide anymore, right?"

"Man… you're a god?" Hyun-Ki shook his head in disbelief. "I'm going crazy I think…"

Soul, noticing movement in the shadows, instinctively stretched his arm as blood-red tendrils extended from his shoulders. They wrapped around his arm and shot forward like a bullet. An arrow whistled through the air, aimed at the mother. The tendril intercepted it, pulling her to the side just in time, saving her from the deadly strike.

A man stepped out from the shadows. He had a medium build, a longbow slung over his back, and a long nose. His small ears and features combined into a face that only his mother could love… when she's drunk or blind.

"Well, well… What did I just hear?" he sneered. "A god? Void-God?"

"Hmm… Are you Ur's new champion?" Soul asked. "You don't look like the guards here."

"I am. And I'm here to kill you all. You included, damned prisoners! How dare you stop praying to Ur! I'll rape all of you, starting with that child!" he replied, drawing his sword. "Hope you are rea –"

Before he could finish, a rift opened above him. As it grew, it cut into the man, splitting him perfectly down the middle. His two halves fell to either side, blood pooling on the stone floor.

"Hmm," Soul murmured, closing the rift. "I hope we are ready."

In the man's backpack, Hyun-Ki noticed something shiny. He cautiously moved toward it, ensuring no one else lurked in the shadows. Reaching the split champion, he removed the backpack and retrieved the shiny object.

"It's... an egg? The dragon's egg?" he asked. "Oi, I think I found that mother dragon's egg."

"Good job," Ji-Hye remarked. "We saved the prisoners and found the egg. This is a good day."

"It really is," confirmed Nia. "But we 'only' weakened Ur. We should hit other gods' temples too. Save more people."

"Other gods torture people into praying for their names, too?" a prisoner asked.

"Yes. Sirenar, Nierman, Ur, Minra, Dierman – and Take," Lilith explained. "They all deceive people into believing they're benevolent. But in reality, there's nothing they wouldn't do to gain more power."

"We will teleport you to Snow Fallen," Soul interjected. "You'll be safe there. You can do whatever you want, believe in whichever god you choose. Just keep in mind, they are not what they present themselves to be."

All of a sudden, everything started to change. The walls morphed, the ceiling lifted as if gravity had lost its grip. The floor beneath them shifted, creating a slope that sent the group and the prisoners tumbling into an empty ditch. The sky turned a sickly green, with houses floating and dark clouds casting shadows as they drifted with the wind. Storms raged in the distance, and rain began to fall.

Ur descended from the sky, clad in gold armor with a helmet that fully covered his head, leaving only his eyes visible. His sword emitted a strange, smoky aura.

"This ends here," he declared. "You dare to interrupt my work. Not once, but twice. Freeing prisoners who were devoted to praying to me."

"You... blessed me! How dare you torture people into believing in you!" Ji-Hye shouted in rage. "How! Why!"

"You think I'm the only one?" Ur retorted. "Every god does that. Every single one seeks power. They are as ruthless as I am! But they wouldn't know what to do if they took Take's crown. But I do! I know what this world needs!"

"Ur," Soul said. "I told you you'd be next."

"Yeah..." Ur raised his sword as lightning brewed in the sky. "And I'm here. Let's finish this!"

Hundreds, thousands -maybe more than that- small rifts opened everywhere. From these rifts, countless fiery red eyes appeared, twitching erratically and darting between Soul and Ur. The eyes were too large to belong to a human, yet too small for any known monster. They had an unsettling quality that was impossible to explain.

"You're right," Soul said, his voice steady. "Let's finish this."