Lamia’s eyes widened until spider web cracks began to form on her face due to the strain from her struggles. Her screams of despair and pleasure at the same time were horrifying, Kuranes licked her lips.

The Rune Ship was shoved down the Abomination Core’s throat, tearing apart any delicate organs in the way until it reached her stomach, and there were still four feet of the Rune Ship still hanging outside her mouth, any more and it would have completely impaled her.

Lamia’s most potent instinct, more powerful than anything she could usually control, was consumption. At the best of times, it was practically impossible for her to refuse a meal, and now with her full focus bent on escaping the pull of the Minerva’s Core, there was no hold back as her instinct caught fire and she began to consume the Rune Ship.

Although she knew that devouring this Rune Ship would only lead to her doom, it was a matter beyond her control as her body released digestive juices and her mouth cracked open creating hundreds of new fangs that acted as barbs, piercing into the Rune Ship and dragging it deeper inside her, even when her body had not finished digesting what was inside her.

A single tear fell from Lamia’s eye as her body shuddered, fighting against two extreme forces at the same time. Her screams of pleasure, pain, and despair became deeper, as more of her consciousness was dragged into Minerva Core and she could grasp a hint of the massive designs the Gods of Trion were undertaking and it horrified her beyond reason.

Absomet was mostly silent, only letting out low gasps of pain here and there, but overall the Rune Ship seemed resigned to her fate. The gods watched this grim sight without any interference for the next eighteen hours, but Kuranes did not hide her enjoyment at the destruction of the slow destruction of the Rune Ship.

Her antagonistic behavior against Tiberius was well known, as the two of them competed against each other in every capacity, the winner of this endless game of theirs would be declared the strongest.

Yet there would be no end in sight for these games, after all, they were immortal.

Lamia spat out a tiny section of the Rune Ship, and she held her head, screaming a last act of defiance before she was dragged into the heart with a wet plopping sound, her last cries exploded into the universe,

“Mother, have mercy for your children. We fall into darkness…”

®

Tiberius considered the remains of the Rune Ship, it could have been salvaged but the corrosion of Lamia’s saliva was upon it, and it would take too many resources to bring it back to even a fraction of her previous might, he sighed and turned away.

‘Let her grave be under the light of the stars, the same way he found her.’

Horush began to infuse the heart with energy borrowed from Minerva and the heart began to slowly transform into a cube made from bones and shifting flesh.

On the four sides of the cube were the faces of Lamia, each with various expressions but still horribly aware of her situation as her eyes peered around in anger and madness.

“It is done,” Horush whispered, “we can begin activating the Ascension Platform.”

“Not yet, there is not enough prey to make our heavens stable,” Tiberius growled, “We must make sure everything is beyond perfect, we have only one shot at this, if we fail, the entire universe will bury us under their rage.”

“Not just this universe,” Kuranes chuckled, “All of them. The Trickster is insane, but his depths of vision are… spectacular.”

The three gods tore a path through reality and appeared over Trion, and they began moving towards the palace of the God King where a portal opened up for them and they appeared inside an expansive hall that was built from wood that gleamed like jade.

A fifty-foot statue was situated in the middle of the hall that depicted a warrior clad in black armor. The gods walked up to this statue and its head which was molded from stones and metals and not an Anima turned to them, and the voice of the God King emerged from it, 𝑖𝘦.𝒸𝘰𝑚

“Is it done?”

Tiberius was the one who replied, “By your will, everything is as it should be. We are one step closer to completion and Ascension. Minerva has allowed her Shell to be harvested, the Trickster has fled far from Trion and the harvest is ripe, ready to be picked.”

The eyes of the statue blazed with a red flame and it nodded, with a loud bang, it pushed itself from the position it was standing in and drew a blade that was sheathed behind it.

The gods beginning with Horush walked to the statue and knelt, “I have always hated this part,” Horush whispered to himself just as the blade from the statue decapitated him.

The blade fell three more times, further dividing Horush’s body into four more pieces, and his body bled like a mortal, staining the ground of the temple.

His mouth whispered with dying breath, “My blood lights the way.”

Minerva and Tiberius followed behind, they all knelt before the statue, and their heads were taken from their bodies and their bodies were sectioned into pieces, the statue replaced the blade in its sheath, and the blade was already freed of blood as it drank every single drop that touched it.

The statue of the God King suddenly squatted and began to feast on the bodies of the butchered gods, a long black tongue emerged from its mouth and licked every single drop of blood spilled on the ground, pleasure filled its eyes, it swallowed the cube where Lamia was imprisoned, the Abomination looking at these events with shock and dread.

There was nothing of Divinity in this God King, only evil.

The statue soon returned to its previous position as if nothing had transpired and this hall fell into silence.

𝑖𝘦.𝑐𝘰𝘮