Once they returned to shore, Thal didn’t sense any unusual activity in the skies, it was completely quiet.

“Alright, looks like nobody noticed our fight…” Thal remarked.

“I think you just jinxed us…” remarked the witch.

“Looks like the gods can’t deal with a bit of cloud cover…” Mattius taunted,

Unlike Darius and Thal, the witch and Mattius were completely dry thanks to the water-walking potion.

“Hey, your world is pretty big, you try looking at all of it at once!” Thal replied with a hint of irritation evident in his voice.

“Quit arguing, what do we do now?” asked Darius, he was extremely thankful for finally reaching land.

Thal removed his coat and wrung it dry, he did the same thing to his hat.

“Well, we’d be better off if we dealt with Melnym,” Thal explained.

“The god of magic?” asked Mattius.

Thal nodded.

“Getting her power is a must, the item she will become will amplify your power, you’ll be able to cast faster and further,” Thal explained looking at Mattius.

“Imagined having to face two or more gods with your magic,” Thal taunted Mattius.

“Quit jinxing us!” exclaimed the witch.

That’s when it happened, the clouds parted like the red sea, exposing four humanoids falling down from the sky.

“Shit…” Thal sighed.

The light of the moon came down clearly, it illuminated the whole beach.

They dropped into the water causing it to move aside, the entire sea moved as far back as possible, exposing the dead whale and thousands of now suffocating fish.

“So, in the end, you’re a traitor, Thal…” one of the gods, the one dressed in a dark blue, navy suit with a pair of glasses and black hair tied back into a ponytail.

“Oscar…” Thal thought.

“Well, I was hoping to deal with you one at a time,” Thal cracked his knuckles, the mortals were nowhere to be seen.

His confident self was as expected, an illusion.

The true Thal looked mortified, he turned to Darius, Mattius and the witch.

“You three need to get out of here, fast…” he explained.

“We’ve lost any and all advantages here,” Thal continued.

Mattius clenched his fists.

“What the hell do you mean!? Are you seriously giving up now?!” he asked.

“Quit acting like a spoiled brat, you don’t need me to hold your hand, do you?!” Thal demanded.

Mattius gritted his teeth.

The witch watched the conversation coldly as the illusion continued to taunt the other gods.

“I’ll place an illusion on you to disguise you, you’ll be able to go off and train somewhere, then you’ll be able to take these assholes out once and for all!” He continued.

“As if I’d believe a god can show empathy for us!” Mattius erupted.

Thal rolled his eyes.

“Does that matter? Can you take down three combat gods-?” he was cut off by a projectile smashing through the illusion.

The illusion exploded into a puff of smoke leaving the real Thal knocked to the ground along with the three mortals.

“It’s over, Thal,” Melnym announced, she was clad in a robe the collar of which blocked half of her face, on her head she wore a small top hat.

“I expected more empathy from you specifically,” Oscar remarked.

“…” Thal didn’t bother getting off the ground, he didn’t stand a chance one-on-one with any of the four gods that appeared, not to mention all four.

Darius got up from the ground, clutching the red sword that manifested in his hand.

The witch let out a sigh as her hands became engulfed in black smoke.

Mattius watched the two.

“On second thought, I think we should actually -” he was interrupted by Darius.

“Do us a favour and take mid-life crisis Thal away,” Darius said as a second blade of the same colour appeared in his other hand.

“The three of us are one thing, but you and Thal will definitely come up with a plan to catch all of them,” the witch said with a thumbs up.

Not seeing any flaw with their logic, Mattius grabbed Thal and started dragging him away.

Thal didn’t protest, either way, the mortals blew their chance, all four of them would be dead soon.

An explosion came from behind Oscar, Delirax and Timmothy charged into battle.

Darius charged forward.

He crossed weapons with Timmothy.

He looked like a floating set of armour with no legs with a puff of smoke in their place, he used sharpened shields for maximum defense as well as the ability to deal some serious damage.

It took only a second, Darius slashed from the right from the left, the blades leaving nothing but scratches on the shield-blades as Timmothy was left with no opening to strike.

Delirax, the long-coated god with a brown top hat and fingerless gloves charged at him from behind, the two sickles in his hands his preferred weapons.

He had dark blue hair and a goatee.

Before he could strike Darius, he was pushed back by a murder of crows so full and so strong that it knocked him to the ground.

“How rude!” he exclaimed, looking up and seeing the same flock of birds flying up and turning back down to hit him like a swarm of heat-seeking missiles.

Effortlessly the god slashed every bird the flew down turning them into minced meat, feathers rained down as the witch gasped for air.

“Alright, then, masked stranger, I will play with you first…” Delirax said running towards the witch, his sickles in his hand which he placed behind his back.

He arched his body forward as he ran.

Carelessly, Delirax slashed at the witch as soon as he came close enough to.

Not able to dodge the attack the witch was stabbed through the stomach, blood gushed out bathing his hands in red liquid.

Delirax looked up expecting some sort of cries of pain only to be met with a burning sensation in his hands.

“Necrosis…” the witch remarked.

“I expected you of all people to remember your handiwork, god of raid bosses,” the witch remarked as Delirax cried out in pain, his skin was peeling, his blood becoming black as it made its way up his arm.

The god started clawing at his arms, removing the black flesh as best as he could, but he couldn’t out-claw the spread of the infection.

With a snap of her fingers, the witch summoned dozens of undead, from the sand they crawled, spears, swords and axes in hand.

With a disgusting crunch, Delirax’s arm was missing, it was ton off by one of Melnym’s floating ghost-arms.

It fell to the ground and turned to black sludge.

Another arm made its way to heal the wound.

“T-thanks…” Delirax replied.

Melnym gave him a thumbs-up as her hands continued to fall down onto the battlefield like artillery fire.

Darius saw the shadow appearing under him.

“It’s one of the hands!” he thought.

Darius jumped back as a ghost-hand fell down, crushing the spot he stood on, leaving the sand packed hard, pressed into a rock.

Again and again, this happened in rapid succession as Timmothy came closer to Darius.

“I HAVE COME TO AVENGE OUR FOLLOWER, THE PALADINS YOU HAVE SLAUGHTERED!” Timmothy cried as he smashed his shields into the ground, launching the sand, the rocks and Darius below up into the air.

It was like a localised earthquake.

Even there, Darius was not safe form the ghost hands as they rained down at him, one struck his arm, tearing it clean off.

The torn-off arm was mushed into a paste on the ground.

“I HAVEN’T GOTTEN THIS FAR TO DIE TO A RE:ZE*O LAWSUIT WAITING TO HAPPEN!” Darius exclaimed seeing that ghost hands closing in.