“The nature of the nephilim is complicated by the ambiguity of Genesis 6:4, which leaves it unclear whether they are the "sons of God" or their offspring who are the "mighty men of old, men of renown". Richard Hess in The Anchor Bible Dictionary takes it to mean that the nephilim are the offspring, as does P. W. Coxon in Dictionary of deities and demons in the Bible.”

- The Journey to the Afterlife

***Dedessia, the Sea of Souls, Mana Storm***

***Shade***

The portal is gone, which is a victory if Moonray's disjointed bits and pieces of information hold a grain of truth. Not that I would give a shit about something that came from his tongue. Once we are able to, the information has to be verified.

I turn my attention to the almost invisible web of pathways which are spreading from the storm. Our seed took root and switched to an immaterial form, fulfilling its purpose in connecting the various realms and locations to each other. After an initial growth spurt the process slowed down and is now advancing at walking speed. That's quite good if we keep in mind that the roots are currently reaching out towards several different realms.

The mana storm is still there, but smaller and diminished. The reason for its existence isn't gone, so it will continue to feed the seed until it spreads throughout the entire multiverse. When it reaches other storms, it will use them too.

The process will take a while, but it's not like we don't have the time to watch. However, there are still other clans to be taken over, alliances to be made, spirits to be killed. No, I doubt that I'll run out of things to do any time soon. And once the seed connects to the other realms I will have find out what this new multiverse looks like.

And once I am done with this realm...

Elona flashes into existence right next to me. “These new pathways are a bitch to use. I had one hell of a ride just to get from the camp to here. Why are you standing out here all alone?”

I shrug my shoulders. “Just watching the seed doing its thing. There would be hell to pay if something went wrong. And I think the reason for the bumpy ride is that the mana storm sends an energy resonance through the pathways. But I think the effect will lessen once the network grows enough to compensate for the chaos magic of the storm. Until then we shouldn't grant any lesser gods access to the pathways.”

Elona purses her lips and crosses her arms in front of her chest. “I am not sure if we should grant anyone access? We should just keep the network to ourselves. It's not like we owe the multiverse something. And just look back at the past. It's not like free movement did the gods any good. All it caused was even more chaos and bloodshed than we would have accomplished on our own. A god shouldn't have more than one world to play with.”

I nod. “I certainly won't give them free access to the pathways. Certainly not with all the new features which were added. But if Moonray's words hold a shred of truth, then we need more people to be able to travel around. If this multiverse is as complex as the previous one, then we will need a lot of people to explore it.”

Turning, Elona takes a look at the hydra's corpse. “At least our immediate food problems are solved. That will last us for a while. Add in all the small ones and we are topped off.”

“Are you are sure that it is edible? From what I heard, Manti shot quite a lot of her poison darts at it,” I ask, not trusting such a food-source.

“It will be fine once the flesh is cooked. Manti's poison might be extremely deadly, but it dissolves at high temperatures and becomes harmless.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Sounds like you already studied her poison?”

“As you tend to accuse me of being a 'witch', it would be highly embarrassing to be killed by said poison or anything else of the sort.” Elona raises her chin in defiance.

“Though I doubt that Manti would have done that. She isn't the type.” If she wants to kill someone, she challenges him or her in the open.

“When we first met she was quite hostile. And I had no way of judging her character that fast, so researching such a dangerous weapon was the obvious thing to do. But after I found out that high temperatures counteract the poison I quickly stopped wasting time on it.” Elona twirls a lock of hair between her fingers.

I scratch the back of my hand, feeling an uncomfortable itch. “Though high temperatures can be quite deadly too? Especially if they have to be high enough to cook meat? It sounds more like having to choose between two different ways to die.”

“Oh, that's not true. There are ways to cook someone and keep him alive at the same time. There is a little bit of healing required, but I think it's preferable to dying. Don't you have something similar in one of your torture chambers?” Elona asks with an astounded expression.

No? I would have never gotten the idea to cook someone while keeping him alive! My stomach turns just by thinking about it. “I think there are better ways to torture someone. My techniques are all aimed at motivating the targets to spill their secrets. I doubt that cooking someone allows them to talk. It would probably end up in a lot of gurgling and gulping down hot water. And then they can't speak because their tongue is too swollen to utter a single word.”

“But it certainly sounds like you already tried something along the line. Who said that you have to submerge them completely. Just cook the lower half and the problem is solved. But enough of this. We should return to the camp and have a talk with the family. This battle did cost us and we have to mourn the dead. Then we have to rebuild our strength. Moonray will pay for his deeds, may it be tomorrow, or in a few thousand years. He angered the only two people who hold grudges for quite some time.” Elona links arms with me and turns us towards the camp.

A small smile steals itself onto my face. “You are right. It wouldn't be the first time that we hunt someone for millennia, just to get some petty revenge. We don't forget that easily.”

Elona kisses me on my cheek. “That's right. Moonray will have a bad day once we find him again. He will regret that he is giving us the chance to rebuild our strength.”

I scratch my cheek. “Do you think he will realize that the return of the pathways is our doing?”

Elona's expression shows her uncertainty. “Not sure. He will notice them at some point. We went to great lengths to prevent anyone else from interfering with, or using, the new pathways. Moonray's words of departure sounded like he is interested in dimensional travel, so I think his curiosity will force him to meddle with our creation.”

“And once he does, we will know where he is,” I finish her thoughts and put on a vicious grin. The gods of other realms will surely investigate the new pathways once they notice them. Which won't be as easy as it sounds. The pathways of old came in two different versions. A bright and strong one, which shone for every god to see. And a weak and diminished one, which required skill and concentration to sense at all. The reason for that was to be found in the amount of energy which was transmitted through them.

While the bright ones could be compared to the good, old cable wires which use electricity, the diminished ones may be compared to light-wave cables. The two versions accomplish the same thing, but the latter needs a little more skill than the other. And since we created the new pathways, we also have administrator rights. Nobody can use them without our permission.

We leisurely walk back to our camp. The aftermath of the fight wasn't all that rosy. We may have won the battle, but we had to pay a high price. We lost forty-four of our higher immortals and six hundred of our mids. The corpses are still being sorted from the mountains of creatures which were slain today. To think that there is an entire realm of those things waiting for us makes my back shudder. Regaining our old strength is more important than ever.

First thing on the list will be to give Dedessia a new culture. The old ways of small, tribe-like societies have to become a thing of the past. If we want to face the other realms, we have to band together and form a unified society.

For that reason I have to use my crystal technology to its fullest. Not only do we have to create a self sustaining habitat, it also has to be big enough to hold an entire culture. Yes, there is a lot of work to do.

Up until now we were caught inside a web of action and reaction. Either towards the hostile nature around us, or towards our enemies. This has to end. And I will see to it. The first step will be to create a firm foothold for our society, preferably mobile. We have to travel around in order to gather the other clans. It will be the quickest way to increase our numbers.

“Shade? What are you thinking about?” Elona pokes my side. “I see it in your expression. You are scheming something. And not without some very shady thoughts.”

I smile and hug her. “You know me too well.”

.