Corpses were littered everywhere. Humans, monsters and aliens alike. It was truly a sickening sight even for those who were used to frequent and merciless battles. The entire arena was covered with an assortment of different coloured blood from a variety of creatures. The floor of the arena had almost vanished under all the blood and gore left behind as the result of the battle royale.

However, Arnold was getting frantic for a different reason altogether. He still needed to kill one more paladin, however, there were no Paladins remaining...

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[ PROGRESS ] : 

• 9/10 Paladins killed

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'Fck... are there no more paladins here?' Arnold cursed under his breath.

He had been continuously using Probe to look for another paladin, but so far, his luck wasn't with him. No matter how hard he looked, he could not find one, or if he did, it was already too late. Things were not looking good. At this rate, he would never be able to achieve godhood on his own and he could not allow that to happen. For the sake of his friends and family, he had to do it. He simply had to.

Heimdall was watching him all this time. He knew Arnold was getting frustrated and he needed to guide him. So Heimdall established another link with Arnold to help him. 

"No more paladins?" He asked Arnold, however, there was a smugness in his voice as he said that. Something Arnold didn't catch on as his full attention was on finding another paladin, "Seems like it. I guess everything's going according to plan then."

"Nothing is going according to the plan!" Arnold absentmindedly replied.

"I wasn't talking about your plan, but 'ours'."

This time Arnold did not let it slip. He clearly heard something that Heimdall wouldn't have said before. He turned towards him and saw that Heimdall was smirking. No, it wasn't a smirk. It was a burst of full-blown laughter. 

"You people think of us too highly of us after reading a few pages of mythology. You think you have us all figured out, don't you? Pathetic humans." Heimdall laughed once again before continuing, "Mythology is nothing but how we gods want you, idiots, to think of us. To perceive us. The 'us' you people read in Mythology have long ceased to exist. The ones we are now is nothing like you think."

Arnold was confused. The look on Heimdall's face was unlike anything he had seen before. He had always seen Heimdal as someone calm, collected and kind. But the twisted expression on his face changed the perspective Arnold had of him.

But even then, Arnold couldn't brush off the feeling that something was amiss. Heimdall was onto something else. Something sinister.

"What did you do?" Arnold asked him. His voice no longer had the warmness it did before, "Tell me what did you do, or I'll-"

"You won't do a thing." Heimdall smirked, "Even if you did, your precious friends would be the ones to suffer as I can change the rules of the battle as I see fit. You know what that means, don't you?"

How could he not? Heimdall was clearly threatening him. What he said, meant one thing... Nicole and Johnny had turned into his hostages. He could do anything he wanted to as long as his plan could amuse the gods. Literally, anything and Arnold would be powerless to stop him. 

For the first time in a long time, Arnold was drowning in the feeling of helplessness. He wasn't powerless, but helpless... and he had to keep his anger in check. For now.

"Now you're behaving like a mortal..."

"Why are you doing this? I thought you were supporting the Immortal one?" Arnold managed to mumble through his gritted teeth. 

"Why would someone in their right mind support a dying god?" Heimdall said matter-of-factly, "That's right. The Immortal one is not as Immortal as you think. Why do you think he suddenly needed a vassal after not caring about anything for billions of years?"

"..."

"It's because he is in search of an heir so that he can die peacefully afterwards. But what were to happen if the heir died before the Immortal one? Zeus will take over as the overlord of the gods and that's when his supporter get rewarded. That's when I'll get rewarded."

"..."

"We have no quarrel with you. It's just your misfortune that you became the Immortal's bit.ch. That was until what you did with Hercules and Zeus... you need to pay for that."

There were a lot of things Arnold wanted to say, but he couldn't. Not until the event was over, because if he were to do anything to Heimdall, not only he could destroy Nicole and Johnny, the rest of the gods would probably simultaneously attack him as well. 

"Why did you help me with the quest then? Or more importantly, how did you know about my quest?" Arnold tried to keep his mind away from getting angry and doing something he would have regretted later. 

"Did I know about your quest? Of course, I didn't." Heimdall shook his head while laughing his a.ss off, "I just saw you sneakily killing of contestants. I thought it was the right opportunity to get rid of you, but 'he' thought otherwise and wanted me to help you out, instead. So I did, by causing enough chaos to help you out."

Heimdall continued, "Then, I noticed you were killing only Paladins and nit the Vassals, so I did what any evil person would do and got rid of all the Paladins. And under the guise of the chaos, 'his' plan was put into action."

"Why are you telling me all this?"

"To distract you..."

"From what?"

"This."

"Master look!!!" Tiamut exclaimed at the top of her lungs, snapping Arnold back to reality, "Something's going on-"

All of a sudden there was a movement in the arena. All of the remaining contestants had surrounded Nicole, Sonya and Johnny who were standing back to back. There was something wrong with the Vassals, all of them seemed stronger than they had been ever before. Arnold immediately saw red. Something was wrong... very wrong.

"Talos! Take aim!" Arnold yelled but Heimdall knocked both of his companions away before they could do anything.

"ARGH!!!" 

The following moment, Arnold saw something that he would have never expected to see in a thousand years. While Nicole was fighting off the vassals... Johnny punched a hole right through her chest...