Time flew faster than it ever had, and this time Arnold had to tell Nina what had been going on till now. As if things were to go south, it might have been the last time he would ever see his family and he wanted to tell her everything. Although the probability of something bad happening to him was really low, it was still there. Nina took the news as good as anyone else could have. 

At first, she didn't believe Arnold, but as he kept telling them about the gods and their little game, somehow everything made sense. The dungeons, the superhuman powers, everything. The more Arnold talked about it, the more upset she got. But she also knew what Arnold had done and was doing, was all for the welfare of the world and most importantly the security of their own. 

However, as Arnold was telling her the tales, her warrior side kicked in and she too wanted to accompany him for this crazy event. It goes without saying, Arnold quickly shot her down. He wasn't going to take his wife into the lion's den. No way in hell he would ever agree to something like that. 

He hugged her, waiting for her to calm down, and she eventually did. All this information and knowing Arnold had been secretly fighting against the gods, made her overwhelmed with emotions.

"Now I know why you weren't surprised when Hercules came to kill you..." Nina smiled wanly, "Do you absolutely have to go?"

"I need to put an end to this once and for all." Arnold said before kissing her forehead, "I can't let them play these games anymore, and this is the perfect time to stop them." 

Nina nodded and buried her face in his chest. She was strong so she wasn't going to cry. But she was on the edge of doing so. Just then Orco ran up to them and hugged Arnold's thigh, Aiden slowly crawling behind him. Their smiles solidified Arnold's decision even more. He had to do this. For the sake of his family. 

"There are my strong sons." Arnold smiled before lifting both of them in his arms, "What game are you playing today?"

"Tag!" Orco exclaimed with joy waving his paper sword, "With sword!"

"Oh my, that's wonderful! Can you help me with something?" 

"Anything!"

"Protect your mom and little brother while I'm gone, okay?"

"I will!"

"That's my boy." He gave a kiss to both of them on their cheeks and let them go to play before walking outside with Nina.

Arnold's entire army was out there. Since he was only taking Talos and Tiamut with him, he had decided to leave everyone else to protect his family. He was sure that those bast.ardly gods would try something underhanded to distract him and harming his family would have been perfect to do so. However, as long as they were under the protection of the sampling they would be fine, the rest of his army was there for reassurance and nothing else. 

Outside, a portal was already waiting for him. However, right now it was inactive because they were informed to enter the portal only when their name was announced. Both Johnny and Nina had already gone through their respective portals and now was his turn.

[It's time.]

"Alright." Arnold turned around to tell Nina one more thing but it was as if she already read his mind.

"I know. I won't let anyone go outside the tree's protection. Stop thinking about us and go kick some as.s." 

Arnold smiled and dawned his armour on. With Talos and Tiamut right behind him. However, they weren't alone. Arnold had a leash with him as well. A leash that was supposed to keep his 'pet' in check. Hercules was on his knees walking like a dog behind Arnold as they disappeared inside the portal. 

"This should be fun."

***

On the other side of the portal, the contestant who had arrived there were having a hard time not passing out. Hundreds of gods were present there and their collective aura was making it very difficult for them to even stand.

Seeing all these gods together was super overwhelming, to say the least. After all, they were an existence no mortal was supposed to interact with and even Nicole who was ranked at Cosmic S couldn't help but feel uneasy. 

It was dark, but the stage was clearly visible to them as they were standing on it. The stage was a huge circular piece of floating landmass having even smaller floating islands around it. Each portal had lead them to the central island while the gods were seated in their hovering thrones. The location gave a colosseum vibe, and it was perfect because they were fighting for their lives and freedom but most importantly they were fighting for the entertainment of the gods. 

Earth was ranked as the fourth planet among the seven planets after the first round and hence contestants from only three planets had arrived there before Nicole and others joined the stage. Now, they were waiting for Arnold to arrive there so that they could proceed with the next planets. 

'Most of them have brought at least one companion and here I am with not even one...' Nicole thought to herself and Donna immediately replied to her.

'They brought additional support because they don't trust their own strength.' She said, 'You, on the other hand, are more than enough to kill anyone of them with a snap of your fingers.' 

'Still... I'm thinking I should have taken Arnold's advice and took a couple of his summons to help me out.'

While Nicole was busy debating with Donna, a portal opened up next to her and she could feel Arnold's aura coming out of the portal. However, she wasn't the only one who could feel him coming. The gods could feel him too because the aura he was intentionally leaking, wasn't any smaller than theirs. In fact, it easily overpowered most of their auras. But this was just the beginning of his grand entrance. Just like many times before, Heimdall got up to announce the arrival of the new contestant. 

"And now, please welcome the Vassal who singlehandedly destroyed the world tree. The vassal, who topped the rankings with nothing but his sheer will. The Vassal chosen by the Immortal one, Arnold Ling!"

Arnold walked out of the portal just as Heimdall was finished making the announcement and it was an understatement to say that the gods were shocked to see him. Firstly they saw his black adamantine armour, a treasure even the gods had a hard time obtaining, but this mortal had an entire armour made out of it? How was that even possible!?

While they were trying to get over that shock, they were shocked again to see who Arnold had brought as his companions. Tiamut walked out of the portal next and stood right behind Arnold like a loyal servant. Just seeing a demigod serving a mortal made the gods a bit wary of Arnold. But no one was expecting what was going to happen next. 

They didn't recognise Talos so there was not much of a reaction when he walked out of the portal. However, the gods stood up in shock the moment they saw who was at the end of the leash the Automaton was carrying. It was Hercules! But he was being treated like a dog...

All of the gods immediately turned towards the one Arnold was clearly trying to mock, Zeus. To say that the greek god was seething would be an understatement. But Arnold didn't mind it at all, because he was getting a ton of coins from the gods and the event was yet to start.

"He just had to do that..." Shiva smiled while shaking his head, "This is going to be quite an interesting event."