Luik Gets Up

"Take some time to prepare and when you're ready, we will come to get you." She spun around, heading for her car that Elton was near, much to his delight.

"Do you think you can handle it?"

"Honestly, hard to tell. Black can tell negative emotions from words but I don't know about a super spy."

"You were a spy before. Don't you have anything you can use from your past work experience?"

"I dunno, these worlds are different. This one has magic, that was all biometrics and technology. Hey, you're from the future, don't you have any idea who it is?"

"No, we never got this job. It didn't pertain to us. But we've gone so far off track I doubt much will be the same from here."

He saw Elton fumbling around, opening her door for her as Linda watched, confused.

"A school." He had a few memories of school but they were all fake. He was just hypnotized and was living a brief moment of a lie. Going to a school, this time by his own will even if it was for an undercover job, was exciting. "Yeah, I'll do it."

Zeeth pondered what life would be like at school. What would they teach, what would he do? As he thought, he felt the air moving. Luik began yelling, "EEWOO, EEWOO!"

From the sky, a golden hand and bow were plummeting towards him. It came too fast, faster than he could react. The surprise caught him off guard, allowing the bow to crash beside him and plummet through the ground. It broke a hole and connected to Luik's hand underground.

"Luik! What's that? Why the noise?"

She became silent for a second but burst out laughing. "It's the noise I make to call upon the other parts of myself. Finally, I have two arms. So long, suckers!"

On the walls where they kept the self-moving arrows made from the Judgment stick, the splinters began quivering. They jumped out of their holders, shattering the glass and connecting to the stick around Luik. "My strength! Thank you, puny humans! For feeding me blood and bodies for the strength to call my arms back! As a show of my gratitude, I will leave you alone on my journey to conquer nations and killing deities."

"What is going on?!" Nadaho yelled.

"I'm sorry!" Alba said, "I should've said something sooner, but I saw what she did. She isn't the benevolent Goddess we thought she was, she was using us to gain enough energy to recreate herself. She is a Deity, a group of super creatures out to kill each other and claim themselves the most powerful."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Nadaho asked.

"I don't know! I thought that maybe it was further out," she stopped talking, her eyes glowed purple and her mother, old Alba's voice said, "Would it have mattered? Nothing we do could've stopped this. But it's happening now so stop her before she gets loose. Deities have transcended their mortal bodies and minds, they don't feel empathy for us. She sees us as ants, she's gracious for the help but if she feels like it, she won't think twice about ending or enslaving us."

Zeeth turned around, facing the two golden hands. They held themselves up like a bridge made up of two arms. In one was her arrow and in the other, her bow. She stopped out of the hole in the ground, awkwardly trying to hold the bow. He heard her muttering, "damn, I need more of my body. Eewoo, eewoo…"

Zeeth tried to stop her but a white crack grew in front of her.

"A gate? Now?" Zeeth asked.

"Zeeth, I think I've got it figured out. The patterns in the portal," Page said, "it's a thing for later. First, we have to get rid of this."

The crack split apart and a demon stepped through. It was bright green and transparent, reflecting the light through itself. He felt the very mana around him fluctuate, even with the help of Natural Assistance.

Luik saw the gate and felt an ominous feeling from it. She saw it as an opportunity, a new entity introduced to help her. "Mysterious creature, what is your reason for being here?"

The demon didn't say anything but she went on, "really? That is exactly what I want. How about a temporary alliance.

Oh, you'll want it. Everyone around wants to stop us and I'm afraid it would be hard to leave for you. Alright."

The demon turned around and stared at everyone else, its five eyes glaring at everyone else from its chest.

"I can't get a single goddamn break around here!" Zeeth yelled, "I don't have the energy for this!"

At that moment, Rolas jumped over a wall, watching what was happening, and threw a glass ball at the demon. The demon kicked the ball, smashing it, releasing a large ball of gas. The gas soaked into the demon's body, darkening it. The demon twitched and struggled but the fog took over, forcing the demon to turn on the Goddess and attack her. It moved fluidly, cutting the goddess with its blade-like arms. It caught her by surprise, allowing the demon to slice the arrow in half.

'Stop!' Page heard her say, relaying it to the rest, 'I don't have all my strength back yet! I can't even fight back! What did she do?'

One of her glowing fingers faded away but she used one hand as a pivot, grabbed the demon, and squeezed hard, crushing it. An arm shattered but the other arm cut her fingers off. Rolas used a massive hammer, smashing into the demon, and broke it into bits. She stuck the hammer into the ground and sent a pulse through it. Black veins reach underground and wrapped around Luik, keeping her down. Her bow struggled against the vein but gave up.

"This hammer will keep her down as long as it's here but I would like my hammer back."

"She's a goddess." Page said, "the only way to truly kill her is by destroying all of her. Every single artifact and tool she has ever used, and in this case, created."

"And how many artifacts are there?"

"I have no clue. But I think all of them are here. Tatio hoarded it all, the rest are with the villagers and one is with Zeeth."

"So, my hammer will be here forever?!"

"Erm, indefinitely."

Luik flexed her muscles and glowed brighter than ever. Thick, red veins stretched in her arm, reaching from the center to the tips of her fingers, branching off like arteries and capillaries. They filled her arm, coursing through. She pulled herself even harder, ripping the black veins out of the ground and toppling the hammer. Rolas jumped to grab it, narrowly snatching the hilt. Eddie charged in, crashing into her arm and trying to push her aside but she dug her nails into the ground, moving about a foot before stopping. She threw Eddie aside with much difficulty and grunted, "Get off! Gah! Damn beast! Why are you so strong?"

But with each burst of energy, the veins crawled back and lessened. Zeeth sent a slime, the mammoth slime, at her hands. It crashed into her, flopping and carrying her further with its momentum but she used the rest of the blood, enhancing her arm with a dark red glow, and threw Mammoth aside. Its body wrapped around her before being thrown off, rubbing some of her golden skin onto Mammoth and taking her bow away.

"How, what was that? How did it take my energy?" she spluttered.

"Super enhanced slimes," Zeeth said, "they've been trained and upgraded so much they can take almost any form of magic and absorb it. Masters of taking and absorption."

Rolas rushed at her with the hammer, hitting her without the protection of the red veins. It knocked her aside, allowing her fingers to unlatch. Another hit and she flew into the sky. Page flew up and with one roundhouse kick, he knocked her into the deep chasm the demons created.

"What was that hole? It had some strong magic. Is she dead?" Rolas asked.

"No. The hole isn't enough to kill a Deity. But it will weaken and trap her for now. Meantime," he mentally said to everyone, 'artifacts will no longer be produced. The Goddess that created them wasn't as benevolent as I had hoped. She was trading blood to regain powers and escape to conquer others. Anyone with her artifact, I encourage you to use them as liberally as you can, try to break them as soon as possible and we can kill the Goddess who tried to harm us. Use it for menial tasks, share them with your friends and neighbors, anything you can think of, use it.'

People who saw the entire thing spoke to others about what happened, and in such a small village, hardly anyone missed it.

Soon, people began using their artifacts just as he said. After the death of so many, the people were organizing funerals. They used bows to dig and arrows to carve tombstones.

Many were hesitant on using such precious artifacts but Page convinced them, "the sooner they break, the sooner she can die. And we all saw what she just did, she worked with the demon to kill us, the same demons who have been killing and oppressing you for months.

Pickaxes normally saved for mining missions were used for breaking normal boulders and fixing the walls. Those who were still apprehensive were sent on their usual trips, dwarves mined, using their small bodies and low center of gravity to hack away at the wall and create tunnels with the greatest surface area.

Their smaller body gave them many benefits to mining and forging, they could hit harder and faster and didn't need to dig as much. They used magic picks for the most mundane things, creating new tunnels like ants.

The elves used magic arrows typically saved for battles to hunt animals. After the terrifying incident with Yem, their food reserves were low and people were starving for good meat. Using all their artifacts freely, food came in faster than ever. Children gathered armor and fought each other with sticks and ropes, swinging through the village.

Linda stared at what just happened, wide-eyed. She seemed to be at a loss for words and couldn't quite believe what she saw. Zeeth said to her, "so, when do we get to school?"

Cunner stopped, aghast. Everything that happened, he wouldn't have believed it had he not seen it himself. 'I tried to fight that monster! I, I could've died. So easily. A single twitch of his arm and my head would be gone.'

He trembled where he stood, thinking back on how arrogantly he acted. It petrified him, the thought of speaking like that to such a devil. And the connections he had, the woman with the potion, a single bottle turned a demon onto a Goddess just like that and died.

Without a second thought, he dropped everything he was holding, a single idea in his head screaming at him to just run. Everything collapsed and he bolted away as fast as he could. His friends, startled out of their own thoughts by his sudden actions, jumped to follow.

Zeeth watched them go.

"Do you want me to stop them?" Elton asked.

"No. Let's just go." Zeeth picked up the coffin and approached Linda.

"This is a job only meant for you. Page can make the deal, but I am only bringing you. The rest of your friends will have to figure it out themselves but they cannot go near the building."

"That's alright," said Page, "I have a plan for us."

Zeeth got into Linda's car and drove off with her. "Tell me about the job in more detail."

Page had them circle around him and told them, "as you all know, I live my life for greatness. I simply want to become rich and live a good life, which is what I expect you want as well."

Nadaho nodded, causing Eddie to grunt and Elton clacked, "Yup."

"And I don't know about you, but I don't want to be famous. My father was famous and he tried to push me into his world and the greetings, the polite behavior, it just wasn't my thing."

"I want that." Nadaho said, "being famous, loved by the world, enjoying the attention, that's everything I wish to have. Anime has taught me that much."

"But do you want to deal with the nobles and their constant scheming? Or do you just want to relax and enjoy a famous life loved by all?"

"I guess… the second one."

"Great, then that is fine. Elton, Eddie, what do you want in life?"

"Don't know," Eddie grunted. "Break?"

"Me neither. I suppose, live the easy life as you said. Never have to talk to people I don't like and spending my time relaxing."

"That's great. Find happiness wherever you live, that is perfect. Because Zeeth's life goal is to be the king of the world. To have people all across the globe answer his call and respect him as the king. And it is my goal to make him one because if he is, we can all live our lives exactly as we want. Nothing will be in our way, and if we help him out, he will help us later as well. I have confirmed this with Zeeth a while back, and we have both agreed that "an eye for an eye" is the perfect motto to live by. He will treat you as graciously as you have treated him. So do we all agree to help him out?"

Nadaho raised his hand, "But if he's the king, wouldn't he get the attention?"

"Not the kind of attention you're thinking of. He would be dealing with the fights and arguments rising in the world. Besides, if you have connections to someone attention-worthy, wouldn't you be that way as well? He can't take all the people in the world, some will come to you."

"Yeah," Nadaho had a hazy look like he was immersed in thought. A smile crept on his face and he said, "you make a great point. hehehe."

"If he's the king of the world, he can grant me anything, right?"

"Within his limits. But if it's an empty house or lonely castle that you want, most materialistic things can be granted."

"Then I'm down."

"And Eddie, I'm sure there will be plenty of buildings and people that you can destroy or fight."

"Eddie! Fight! Good!"

"Fantastic. Then, to make Zeeth the king of the world, the first thing we must do is create a great reputation for all of us. Kings in the past have tried and failed to conquer the world, and a large part of that is due to civil wars and infighting. To make people happy that we are their rulers, they must be happy with us. Treat them fairly and they will do the same for us. There will always be a rebellion but if it's small enough, that can be quite easily shut down."