Hellooooo again, everyone! My second day of writing continues and I'm having fun! It's unlikely I'll continue this pace as I'm actually job-searching at the moment but I do hope you receive this one as well as the first :)

Once again, please leave me your honest feedback, I loved seeing them last time~

Sam.

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The tunnel slowly started expanding as the group continued down it. None of the beastly residents had dared go near Zed after sensing his power and so skirted round the fringes of the tunnel if they needed to go past. Approaching the end of the tunnel, with his far-reaching Divine Consciousness surging through the passage, he realised that there appeared to be a dead-end. He tilted his head, seeming to be slightly confused.

“You,” he spoke for the first time in several hours to the fairy girl, “Why are we going this way?”

She flinched, before replying, “S-sir… this really is the correct path… the method for entering is just a little… unconventional.” Upon finishing her sentence, they had reached the end of the tunnel, which had spread itself out to now be several kilometers in width, likewise in height. A black flat slab of rock in front of them gave out a heavy monolithic presence as it blocked their path. The flames of Zed’s eyes seemed to dance in surprise; he hadn’t felt an oppressive aura like this for a very long time. What could this be?

Without another word, the fairy placed both of her hands on the smooth surface before forcing her own Divine aura into it, upon which a faint glow started to come out of the rock. Lines of writing immediately started appearing, racing down it as the whole rock seemed to be covered in this moving ancient text. Zed was astounded, the theories that suggested that The Cube was not a natural phenomenon seemed to have some basis after all, although how could the people who have never been inside know this. The ancient text, from what he could tell, was an ancient Heavenly language which must have been lost before his time. Further surpassing his imagination, the monolithic rock face started splitting down the middle and opening outwards, before revealing an enormous paved road (A.N. Think “Follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow brick road!”) leading to a vast open cave, easily a hundred square kilometers in its dimensions, with tall stone buildings lining the streets, similar to what he had seen of his human charges who had built cities like New York City or maybe Tokyo which he had explored during his years overseeing Earth.

“Please, follow me, Lord Zed,” the fairy beckoned, “We must announce ourselves to the guards, the Crimson Crusade, before entering the town.”

They approached a group of identically dressed Gods, clad in crimson red robes, all looking battle-hardened and seeming to be the veterans of many battles. One of them nodded in their direction and they approached to intercept them, as he called out, “Hindu Gods, you weren’t gone for too long this time, huh? What’s wrong, got chased by a Karya (A.N. form of hellhound) or something?”

The party chuckled weakly at this; they had travelled with each other for quite some time, even being forced into The Cube together, so had naturally banded together and so were recognised by the guards when together.

“Well, yeah, something like that…” the elephant God replied in a non-committal fashion, glancing back at Zed, nervously.

“Wait, isn’t there one more God in your party than usual?” the leading guard asked suspiciously.

“Greetings!” Zed chirped excitedly. He had hurriedly extended his divine robe to cover his full body, like a cloak, so none of his skeleton was visible. “My name is Jonah, the newest addition to the team!”

“Oh, a newbie, huh... Well, go ahead and enter the town” the guard responded uninterestedly before turning back to his colleagues.

Zed proceeded to bounce along happily, keeping up his appearance of a youthful, inexperienced God who had been taken along by this seemingly quite well-known party of Gods, who trudged along dismally behind him, as if pondering their ill luck to run into him. He felt this was degrading to his high levels of pride but he was no fool. Anyone powerful enough to establish a town and run an organised force to control those within it was certainly no pushover. Neither was he arrogant enough to assume that he would be the only Higher Being within The Cube; if that little upstart Zeus had managed to break through, after all, then who could say if there wasn’t a powerful God that they had sentenced who had managed to make a breakthrough, too?

It would be better, he felt, to practice prudence, at first, and establish himself whilst drawing on the knowledge of those who had lived within The Cube for many years. The Council of Gods had been pushing people into The Cube as punishment for nearly three billion years, now, so doubtlessly the survivors would have racked up a good deal of information on the goings on inside.

“My lord, Zed,” whispered the fairy girl behind him, interrupting his thoughts, “Please allow us to go and sell our spoils at the market place.”

“Very well,” he replied, “I would like to see a bit more of this town after all. Lead me there.”

They came to a square with many Gods hawking their goods from the labyrinth outside of this haven. There were many Gods, with many different specialties such as Gods of War who had hunted raw materials and Gods of Craft who forged, cooked and created things. A God doesn’t actually need raw materials in the Universe however one can only make armour and weapons capable of harming Gods or divine beasts with equipment forged with Essence of Divinity, something that cannot be formed through a God’s powers but instead is part of their very being. As part of that, it was necessary for Gods to hunt other Gods and divine beasts, the latter being quite rare out in the Universe, to form their weapons and move up in the world.

“Come buy a brand new basilisk fang dagger! 5 Dull Mooncoins!”

“Fresh labyrinth moss! Perfect for basic regeneration potions! 30 Dark Mooncoins per bag!”

Zed was interested to see that there was an economic system, resembling that of the Capital Planet of the Gods, Heaven. From what the fairy girl told him, who had later introduced herself as ‘Yakki’, there were Dark Mooncoins, Dull Mooncoins, Bright Mooncoins and Divine Mooncoins, with 1000 of each being equivalent to 1 of the next stage.

After they sold the worm’s organs and meat, Yakki had called it a Menus, one of the ruling beasts of the area, they distributed 20 Bright Mooncoins to each of the members, including him. He suspected he had gotten the worse end of the deal, what with him single-handedly killing it however he didn’t press them on it, instead making use of their familiarity of the town.

Daedalus Town seemed to have been formed by a powerful God named Lark, having an intense fascination with the labyrinths that had been created by an old God called Daedalus across various planets, including Earth. Common knowledge seemed to be that he and his followers sent many millions of mortals into these labyrinths and for that they were sent to The Cube. Eventually they found this sector of The Cube and chose to settle here, making use of the ancient magical formation’s protection from the native inhabitants. Zed grimaced to think that anybody could admire that old sadist Daedalus’ works, but he supposed it didn’t make any difference to him, even if they had a little bit of history together whilst they both occupied Earth.

Yakki lead him to the God’s residences. 50 meter square holes covering the western wall of the cave, which could be bought for 1 Bright Mooncoin. Yakki explained that the Crimson Crusade allowed them to customise the inside as they chose so long as they didn’t change the dimensions of the caves. Nodding in response, Zed dismissed her, telling her he’d see her again when he needs something else and headed into his new residence.

Being a Flame Lich, he had observed that his needs in regards to, the rather ironically called, living were minimal. He needed neither sleep nor sustenance. Respiration and other such bodily functions had long since ceased occurring in his body. From what he could tell, as long as his soul remained attached to his body, it would function as he had become accustomed to. Through periods of meditation when he had lived in the Universe, he could tell that his grasp on his soul became far less tenuous and something much more real so he decided that in this natural energy rich environment, he would resume this practice.

Beginning by engulfing the room in his True Flame Magic, an unimaginable inferno that repelled all those who came close, he sat down on his knees before entering the closest stage he could get to a deep slumber…