Deity 2.318

Viggo was traveling on his runic mount through the desert after completing his task in the underground city and securing Diarmuid, son of Odysseus. As a result, Sakura and Ana were in a cart pulled by rune horses. At the same time, Sara and Diarmuid were in the back, under a fabric awning that protected them from the desert.

Viggo was covered with the black hood just like Sakura and Ana. Viggo's horse and wagon were moving at the same speed. Pretty quick for a desert trip, but considering runic horses were a lifeless entity, it could be considered logical. A normal horse would have died days ago with this workload.

Ahead was only a vast desert with heat waves that formed mirages distorting the distance. The inclement sun in the sky and with nothing but sand in sight.

Suddenly, in the distance, Viggo saw a huge creature emerge from the desert. It was a rock worm that rose and plunged back into the sand.

—Stop!— shouted Viggo as his horse slowed down.

At the same time, Sakura pulled on the reins and the horses slowly stopped until they braked.

Viggo looked at Sakura and Ana and said —Wait for me here, if something happens, I'll order it for you—

Sakura and Ana nodded; all could see was her face under the dark hood.

Viggo advanced with his runic mount at full gallop and saw how the desert deformed as if they were waves of the sea. He had seen something similar when a whale or shark approached the surface.

The desert sand deformed with the advance of the creature and jumped the sand everywhere until it re-emerged.

The worm with a rocky cover emerged from the sand rising ten meters high. He took the posture of a menacing snake and opened his mouth into four petals with sharp teeth. He let out a roar and stared at Viggo as if he had eyes, but the entire outer surface was covered by scales that looked like stone.

Viggo jumped from the runic mount and vanished the horse to only remain the medal that flew into his hand. Viggo took the medal and kept it in his ring. Then he made the axe Leviathan emerge from his soul. He held the weapon in both hands and prepared for the impending attack.

The rockworm lunged at Viggo by opening his huge tooth-covered mouth as if he wanted to swallow it in one bite. However, Viggo jumped to the side, took the axe with both hands, and threw an upward cut. The large frozen edge of the Leviathan axe next to Viggo's strength left a two-meter-long cut all over the body of the rockworm. However, it was far from enough to be able to kill the creature.

The rockworm disappeared under the sand while Viggo kept watch over the surroundings. At first glance it looked like it was gone, but the tremors in the sand persisted. Viggo kept the Leviathan axe inside his soul and extracted the chaos swords. This time he injected the weapons with his soul strength and the serrated blades ignited in a terrifying fire.

Viggo watched the surroundings, looked under his feet, then the surroundings and used his instinct to guide himself. Then he looked under his feet and prepared for the impending attack. The tremor became more and more sonorous and loud under his feet. Viggo waited until the last second, jumped to the side and when the huge body of the rockworm emerged, Viggo let out a war cry and threw the swords sideways, holding the chains and making an ascending and descending crosscut as fast as he could as if drawing an 8.

The swords with the heat of the primordial chaos left a deep wound on the rock worm. A part of his feet fell off, leaving a huge black blood stain in the sand. The creature let out a roar of agony, stood up as if it were a menacing snake, and opened its huge mouth covered with sharp teeth.

Viggo remained calm and began to surround the creature as if he were evaluating it. He frowned at the sight of the blood. He was almost certain that this creature also had an obsidian nucleus in its heart and that is why it had grown to this size. Viggo vanished the swords of chaos and called Calibur, the sword of sunlight. This time he channeled divine energy, and the blade was surrounded by rays of sunlight. The creature once again lunged at Viggo as if it wanted to eat him in one bite.

Viggo gave a brief jump to the side and with both hands made a perfect cut over the head of the creature. The rockworm wasn't even able to dive into the sand. He lost the tip of his body, moved as if he was having spasms and fell sideways on the sand staining it with his black blood.

Viggo did not keep the Calibur but walked to the body of the rock worm. He imbued the leaf with more sunlight and opened the creature's body from beginning to end. All the internal organs were scattered in the sand revealing an elongated intestine and a huge sac of green bile the size of a human being. Inside the intestine you could see some half-decomposed skeletons. Possible victims of the rock worm.

Viggo went to the heart, a bag of black liquid like night. He opened the bag of a slit and the dark liquid fell staining the sand. Viggo took out of his soul the gauntlets of his turquoise armor. He didn't dare to touch any of this with his bare hands. Last time the little obsidian stone try to consume.

Once Viggo put on the gauntlets, he approached the heart while stepping on the entrails and blood of the rock worm. He took the heart and opened it. In effect, there it was, the obsidian stone in the center of the heart as if it were a nucleus with several membranes nailed to the walls of the heart. The stone was the size of a normal person's fist, too big compared to the one he took out from the bokoblins.

When Viggo took the obsidian stone with his right hand, the obsidian stone reacted, and the membranes stuck to the walls of the heart came loose and tried to hold on to Viggo's hand. However, as his hand was encased in the gauntlet, the stone relinquished its grip on him and retracted its membranes until it became a single, glowing, dark body.

Viggo pursed his nose, passed the obsidian stone from his right hand to his left, and took out of his ring a metal container like a box. He placed the container on the ground, over the bowels of the rockworm and opened it. Then he places the obsidian stone inside and wait to see the reaction of the stone, but this time the stone did not try to extend its membranes or escape. So, he closed the container and kept it inside his ring.

Viggo turned away from the body of the rockworm and walked back to where the wagon was with Sakura and Ana in the front.

—How's everything?— asked Viggo.

—Diarmuid was scared, but that's it— Sakura replied from the driver's seat. Next to him was Ana, both dressed in black hoods to protect themselves from the strong desert sun.

—Viggo, wash yourself, you got dirty with that black blood— Ana said in a soft, seductive voice.

Viggo nodded, walked over to the cart, and looked inside, under the fabric awning. He saw Sara hugging her son while the little boy looked at Viggo with those eyes black as two olives. Viggo smiled and said —Don't worry, buddy, everything is fine—

Little Diarmuid from his mother's arms stared at him and absorbed in the vibrant red hair. He just stared at Viggo, and the latter gave a chuckle and walked away from the cart.

Once Viggo washed and changed clothes, he summoned his rune mount, climbed in, and they continued their journey.

—Sara— said Viggo in a loud voice.

—Yes— Sara replied from inside the cart, under the cloth cover.

—Those creatures, the rock worms, do they only belong to the Kaios Desert?—

—As far as I know, yes— Sara replied in a powerful voice —when I was adventurous, I talked to many people, and they never told me about other rock worms like those in the Kaios desert. However, it is also not that a low-level adventurer goes to the places where these things live. It is only us because of the reckless king of the gods who travel directly through the territory of those things—

—Nothing happened, I already told you, you have nothing to fear with me. That thing, the rock worm, is strong, but I assure you that even Sakura and Ana could also beat it—

—Yes, of course— Sara replied with a mocking tone—"they're just two level five adventurers"—

Sakura and Ana chuckled. Viggo's power scale was far above normal people and for him, the two level five adventurers were no different from two level two adventurers.

However, Viggo understood this as a wake-up call and made him understand that he had become desensitized to danger. He had faced his father and master, two monsters who could have defeated the rockworm with bare hands. So, the rockworm was nothing to him, but to the desert people it must be a terrible monster, at the level of an earthquake or worse. If he was going to be the king of the gods, he had to understand people, from the weakest to the strongest.

Viggo was moving forward on his runic mount while thinking about these things. King of the gods, he thought. It seemed so far away a year ago, but now it was only a couple of days away. He was only one shot away from sunlight to make his divinity bloom. Then, he would be the first mortal to attain divinity. After that, came the big task.

Viggo looked at the desert ahead, with its heat waves distorting the distance. However, in his mind he listed the steps he had to follow and how to organize the continent. Then declare the creation of the empire, kill the gods who oppose him and use its divinity to strengthen humanity. They, those gods like Ares owed it to humanity for stopping their advance. Instead of strengthening humanity, they turned the world into their playground and turned humans into their servants. Now, Viggo, had to travel a path of more than thirty years to unify and strengthen humanity.

In the afternoon, Viggo was able to see the huge walled city of Shalzard, country of the Oases. It had huge walls over twenty meters high with guards stationed at the top. On the right side was a road that led to the country of Zolingham, the blacksmith city. On the left side was a road leading to the city of Lioad, a port city, in the country of Israfan.

The walled city of Shalzard was built around four oases that were controlled by the king of Shalzard. Desert tourist spot, where nobles and merchants came to enjoy life when they could not afford a trip further south, to the Country of Opera Meilstora.

Here was the other person Viggo was looking for, but different from Sara, she was someone important who had been sent out of Opera Meilstora for having escaped her engagement to the god Poseidon when she was young.

—Jason— Viggo said with a smile on his lips —even dead you still give trouble—