"Just what happened here?" Talos asked Arnold as soon as they arrived on the Island.

"Battle... with a Demigod..." Yan replied before Arnold got the chance to.

"Oh really? I thought it was a battle between two ant colonies." Talos shook his head before looking at the hell in front of him.

Talos thought that the scene they had made in the wasteland was as bad as it could get. But Arnold proved him wrong, yet again. The island was in far worse condition than the wasteland had ever been. No matter where Talos' eyes went, all he saw was carnage and death. The entire ocean around Cetus was filled with corpses. Even, Yan, who was a master of death felt a bit out of place with all the death around him. One could guess that things have gotten way out of hands, when a Lich starts freaking out after seeing death all around him.

Upon, Arnold's request, the warriors along with his summons were busy collecting the corpses of the Olympians in a heap, while the bodies of warriors were being organised in neat rows. The only thing was, no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't find everyone's corpses as most of them have been either  tossed in the ocean ot have been eaten by the whale they were standing on. Out of the thirty-five thousand warriors who were missing, they could only manage to find the corpse of about a couple of thousand of them. 

While the two of Arnold's summons were shocked after seeing the aftermath of the battle. The warriors who had seen it all happen right in front of them, felt something they had never before: A sense of guilt after winning the battle. They were used to celebrating even the smallest of victories. However, that wasn't the case this time.

Despite this victory was the biggest victory in the history of humanity, no one was happy with the end result of the battle. Even if the humans had won against the Demigod and his army, it didn't felt like a victory to them. The sad thing was, they were right.

There was no victor in this battle. Most of the warriors felt disgusted due to their inability to protect their comrades. And no one could blame them for feeling that way. After all, they had won after sacrificing more than thirty-five thousand people.

These people were just like them who had family and friends that they won't ever get to see again. All because of a demigod who woke up on the wrong side of the bed and decided to rain hell on them.

They felt like they had no right to be happy. For the world, they were heroes, but in their eyes, they were just cowardly basta*ds who survived just because they decided to stick close to Arnold's summons rather than go all out in the battle.

They thought taking out their anger and frustrations on Hercules would have them feel better. But it didn't. Their anger was gone but regret had taken its place. It was clear from their faces how much of a toll this battle had taken on both their body and their soul.

Prior to this fight, they thought of themselves as unrivalled stars. Only now they realised their strength didn't mean sh*t in front of the vast universe. There was always someone better than them. They now realised that all they had was borrowed powers, and nothing more. If it hadn't been for Arnold, all of them were as good as gone. The world was filled with better and worse versions of loss. And for them, this was the worse loss they could ever experience. 

Arnold had expected this much to happen, however, he had no idea how to console them. Thanks to his actions up to this point,  he had became more or less emotionally dead by now. The only people he still had feelings for were his family and his enemies. To the rest of them, however, their existence did not matter to him. He had gotten angry at Hercules when those thirty-five thousand people lost their lives, not because he was compassionate about their existence. He only lashed out because he felt like Hercules had disrespected him.

Also, the only reason he let Hercules be killed by them was that he wanted to send a message to the gods. He didn't do it because he had a sense of justice or something. However, before Arnold could further self assess his situation, the warriors interrupted him. His arrival on the island had not gone unnoticed.

"Arnold, we have collected as many corpses as we could but-" Nicole wanted to give her brother an update on the situation, but was cut off immediately.

"Why are you working? I thought I told you to rest? Oh just forget it, we'll chat later." Arnold waved his hands around, "Thanks to everyone for their work. My summons will handle the rest. I know you must be tired so for now, I'll open up a portal that'll teleport you to china. Accommodations for your arrival have already been made there. So feel free to stay there for as long as you need to. Also, I'll make sure everyone who lost their lives, receives a farewell they deserve." 

Saying so, Arnold opened a travel portal. He could open the travel portal more often now as he had dumped all of his residual potential points to level the skill up. As a result, the cooldown of the skill had been reduced to five minutes. Thus he could use the portal without much hassle. The warrior thanked Arnold for his efforts as they stepped into the portal one after another. Everyone except Arnold's summons and the council members left the island without causing any hassle.

"What are you people waiting for?" Arnold asked them, "When i said you can leave, I meant all of you. Well, except nicole as I still need to have a talk with her."

"We just wanted to check up on you if you were okay..." Seomun was the first to respond while the others nodded behind her.

"Oh... um... yeah. I'm fine. Y'all should get some rest. I'll be joining you people soon." Arnold gave them a half hearted smiled as they left and the portal closed behind them, "Alright you two, get to work. Yan, revive those Olympians and Talos, get ready to revive Hercules."

"Wait! Arnold! Are you out of your mind?" Nicole intervened, "That guy can kill you if you give him the chance!"

"You worry too much," Arnold flicked her forehead, "He'll be my bit*h. Just wait and see."

***

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