Cult of Eternity

In the room was three scientist at the far end getting ready to hit a button on a small control panel. In front of them was a large creature. It seemed to be a fused writhing mass of flesh. It's body had several children's heads sticking out.

Once the scientists had pushed the button, a large glass panel came from the ceiling, separating them from Vance and the abomination.

"What the hell is this? A boss fight?"

Saying this, Vance looked at the scientists from across the room. Two of them seemed to be inputting some sort of code on the control panel. However the last one locked eyes with Vance.

The scientist had fear in his eyes. Vance smirked and slightly tugged at his soul to scare him further.

Feeling a pain from the depths of his body, he quickly turned away and hit a button on the wall that seemed to anger the creature.

"Well then." He looked at the abomination. "Who are you big fella?"

As he analyzed it further he realized that it must be one of the results of an experiment on the kids.

"Funny that you think it can stop me."

Reaching his hand out as it jumped at him, Vance tilted his hand to the left.

Submitting to his will, time reversed for the creature. It separated into different pieces of mass that gradually shaped themselves as six different children.

Using his authority over souls to make sure that rewinding time also corrected their souls, Vance stopped rewinding.

The scientist that Vance scared glanced over to see how the battle was progressing. Seeing the children on the floor, his eyes widened. He seemed to hurriedly report what had happened to the others.

Almost as if they didn't believe him, they too turned their heads towards Vance. Noticing what had happened, they turned back and appeared to speed up what they were doing.

Walking towards the glass barrier, Vance spread his shadow out onto the floor and sent the children in. Once he got to the barrier, he tapped on the glass.

"Hey, you guys know this isn't going to work for you right?"

They glanced at him in fear and worked faster.

"It seems you do know... well then I suppose I'll cut this short."

Saying this, he cocked back his fist, coating it with darkness. He swung forward. The punch was light, but the instant it came into contact with the glass, the glass caved in on itself and shattered.

The scientists looked at him in fear as he shook his hand lightly.

"I wonder what would happen if I did that to a human being..." He said while walking to them.

Hearing this statement, they fell to the floor and attempted to flee. Unfortunately, behind them was a wall.

"What a weird place. Looks like the perfect spot for a door."

Glancing at each of them, he tugged slightly at their souls.

"AAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

They let out cries of agony.

"So, any other secret compartments here? If I need to ask the kids, I'm gonna be pissed."

The one who had his soul tugged at twice nodded with tears falling down his face.

"YES YES! There are more, just please... no more..."

"Where's the door?"

"Behind us, they were trying to open it so we could escape."

"Interesting... Open the door."

In fear at what he would do if they refused, they returned to the panel and continued what they were doing. Upon completion, a part of the wall slid upwards.

"Pretty high tech honestly. I don't know that this is entirely magic based."

With a wave of his hand, he ended the lives of the three scientists and continued on through the door.

"What could possibly be the end goal for this... And why do they have so many things that feel like future technology?"

Thinking about things of this nature, Vance followed the hall. Eventually he came into a room filled with desks of research.

"Oh? It seems this is magic based. How smart of them. But why was their only research direction modifying genetics?"

Collecting the research papers, Vance cam across a paper that revealed to him what their plan was.

"What's this? Cult of Eternity? What the hell..."

Reading the paper, it slowly became clear to him.

"They have the king of this kingdom serving as a puppet under them. And they planned to use the attack on the Fatewalker Kingdom as a distraction so they could sneak themselves there too? Why? Cult of Eternity... I'm guessing they're either seeking immortality, or they're seeking to revive some god... I hope it's immortality. Wait... if they were trying to sneak into the Fatewalker Kingdom... then there's a chance they succeeded in sneaking in."

Vance grabbed everything and began preparing to destroy this hidden base.

As he walked out, he killed the three in black that he had left there and collected their souls as well.

Snapping his fingers, the base exploded from the deepest depths, though with Vance's protection, it didn't damage anything besides the base.

"I'm gonna get tired of this eventually. Now I need to plan out more. Maybe I should fuse with more godly sources. I suppose I need to get ready to interrogate the souls further though. And I need to deal with the puppet king. Then I need to make sure there's nothing strange going on in the Fatewalker Kingdom." He mumbled. "Man when did living in another world get complicated? I've got so much to do." He complained as he walked away.

As he walked to the inn, Vance kept looking around to see if there was any other suspicious activity occurring.

"Well since they managed to be so advanced with magic, I suppose I need to be aware of the possibility that they know it was me who destroyed their stuff. And if the king is a puppet, he might send someone after me. Although it's a bit strange... that old man said the reason they invaded was because they detected mana under the castle... Maybe it's not exactly what I was thinking. Are they using it for their experiments?"

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a shadow moving strangely.