Chapter 34: Puppets of divine

They looked left and they looked right. The colors all around them were not making any sense to begin with, but there was something more that smashed against their perception of reality.

"What... is that...?"

The demons were famous for creating or carving as they call it, strange creatures that short circuit your senses and mind when you perceive them.

For humans, these things are so unique and unfathomably strange that when one looks at them, they are practically looking at things that makes them scared for their life, makes their stomach churn, or worse, urges them to end their own life.

And that is only because they perceived these beings somehow.

The cases of people who survived after coming across a demonic beast were pretty low. Most who survive lose their minds or go mad forever.

However, there exists something even worse.

"Puppets."

Gods are divine entities who have powers that one cannot comprehend, powers that are simply too unnatural for mortal minds.

When they appear in the physical world for their motives, they create what one calls a puppet out of any living entity that they find.

Just like demons, they carve out creatures of unearthly nature from these simple creatures and at the end, a simple rabbit becomes a seven headed flying horse with at least seventy eyes, fifty wings resembling pigeons, and teeth that seem to belong to a wolf.

These are the creatures they do not write stories about.

Beings one cannot either imagine or want to come across in their lifetimes. Yet, slowly, their party was being surrounded by these creatures from all sides.

There were dozens of them around them right now, each and every one of them possessing powers of at least (S-rank) creatures.

Their strong mentalities, trained to resist psychological attacks such as this one, protected them against these beings.

"Sir mage, please do as I instruct." They were a party of six in this space, the four of Parliament, the king and the red mage.

Firstly, as instructed by the masked man in the party of four, the rest of the people formed a circle around Barn, their weakest link for combat.

However, this was also the most important part.

-Oooooooong!

Once they had formed an encirclement around her, she activated a protective barrier through a device she had taken out of her storage bracelet.

The barrier was golden and for some reason it made them invisible to the creatures that had been locked onto them until just now.

"Hmm?"

"No time to be surprised. We have to take them down." Andrew said. "Sir mage, focus offensive single-target spells on those creatures on the ground first. After that, target the things in the air all at once with an AOE spell."

His instructions were clear. But, not simple enough for the red mage.

"What is AOE?"

The king knew the terminology since he had heard it from his younger children, but the mage wasn’t a keen chatter. He knew the texts and scriptures of the older books, even the newer discoveries in the field of magic, but this generic terminology was too much for him.

"Just... do as I say, Sir mage." The king took on the role of guiding the mage while the others assumed their formations.

When they were in place, they started their long-range attacks, slowly taking out the (S-rank) creatures that the four of them could not take out so easily with their current preparations.

"Done."

"We will move right away."

Once the creatures were taken care of, they moved forward to a different area.

The space that was supposed to be narrow and small had turned into a vast area, a sea of strange colors and a forest filled with strange predators.

"Now, Sir mage!"

They fought against one monster wave after another, seeing no alternative since they were blocking each path that they needed to take in order to reach the true centre where the fragmented divine was located.

They killed the strange creatures, hid under the unique barrier that even the Red mage could not grasp the principle of, and they moved, fought, won, and moved forward.

They weren’t killing all the creatures of the divine either. They were leaving most of them out since they were following only a certain path.

The ones on this set path just happened to be far greater in numbers and strength than the ones scattered around in other areas.

They would also call for help when they detected an ambush, but they were dying like flies, and that would be signal enough for the one in the center.

They were hoping that the divine had not succeeded in what they were doing. It takes around a few months for making a vessel out of a mortal body, and even if they have another apostle doing the work, the smart prince must have resisted quite a bit.

He must have sensed the invading divinity before he was abducted as well. That is the reason he resorted to witchcraft at the end, but he could not fend him off.

He wasn’t a Witch himself and even after knowing the principles, he could not control the power of a different kind as efficiently as he wanted.

Had he been a true witch, the divine wouldn’t even have taken any interest in him. He would belong to nature, and taking control of him would be impossible.

But he wasn’t.

He was a mortal who could use the powers of other species, something similar to what Spot does, and that was a blessing far greater than what any of the gods can give.

He was priceless, and since he was discovered by an unknown divinity, it was certain that they would make haste of their plans.

But, they were unlucky this time.

"Looks like we have arrived on time."

When they reached the center of this artificial space, they found what seemed like a temple.

Well, it was an open area with a roman theme, an empty lot with a marble roof suspended on several delicately crafted beams.

The pillars that were holding the roof from all sides were in a pantagonal shape, and in the center of this pentagon, there was a glass cylinder, filled with a golden fluid.

Inside of this tube, floating, was a young boy with tens of strange wires and tubes connected to his body.

There were several ’eyes’ around each and every one of the pillars supporting the roof, the eyes of the one who had kidnapped the child of a king.

[ "Oh..." ]

A voice spoke to them when they arrived at their destination.

But hearing it almost shattered their eardrums...