"Weren't you the one that sent me there?" Himiko asked innocently "You kicked me in the chest right?"
One of the soldiers laughed at that remark earning him a swift plasma blast from Elizabeth who was standing next to him.
"Control your people," Elizabeth hissed at Henry and Jenny since she could feel the terrifying pressure of the little girl Zeel was trying to appease.
Henry nodded and waved his hands to disperse the soldiers remaining in the room. Henry's intuition was telling him that the soldiers wouldn't be useful for what came next.
Zeel walked towards Himiko nonchalantly. Usually, he would be careful around dangerous Beings, but despite her age, Himiko was still a child at heart.
"You promised me something," Himiko said, not releasing her hand from the red gem in Nick's.
Zeel was also very careful to make sure that she didn't spontaneously release the gem. After all, releasing the gem meant that it belonged to Nick.
Giving Seth's Divine Spark to Nick would be like pouring kerosene on a forest fire.
Together with Seth's dagger, the gem would create a ceremonial artifact that would drag The God of Death into Nick's body.
"I always keep my promises," Zeel replied with a straight face.
"No you don't… but she does," Himiko replied, avoiding Zeel and pointing at Alice.
Zeel cursed at Himiko's coincidental choice since Alice was looking for a child and Himiko was looking for a mother to take care of her.
Luckily, Ahmanet was there to save the day.
"You would betray your God, child?" Ahmanet asked from her chained prison.
"I only have one God and he still waits for me in the Highest Dimension," Himiko replied dismissively.
As far as she was concerned, Seth was also her enemy and Zeel was just a necessary evil to deal with another evil.
"Zeel… maybe we can -" Alice wanted to suggest helping Himiko but Elizabeth stopped her knowing that right now was no time for sentimentality.
Zeel glanced back at Elizabeth thankfully and said "Lesson 101 Alice – remember to never make deals with anyone unless they're a devil.
With the devil, you know he will try anything to get your soul but with everyone else, you become uncertain, and uncertainty leads to death,"
"It's too late," Ahmanet said, the chains falling off her body without any resistance as she stood.
A pulse of energy shot through the room causing Zeel, Nick, and Himiko to quickly react.
"Something is wrong," Elizabeth said, turning her body to look in the direction that Zeel, Nick, and Himiko were now looking.
There was a distortion in the air and then a strange twist that flickered in and out of existence as if unsure to make its presence known.
Zeel walked towards the distortion and slowly, his light-brown skin turned a ghastly white color. Alice's eyes opened wide, she could feel that Zeel had turned pale from fear.
Alice and Elizabeth disappeared from their location and reappeared next to Zeel. Ahmanet, Henry, and Jenny were the last three to arrive in front of the distortion.
And there all of them stood, some knowing exactly what was happening, and others confused waiting for an explanation, but nobody was fighting at this moment.
The distortion flickered a couple more times and images started to flash through the air like television channels that were receiving a bad signal.
"What are we looking at?" Jenny asked frightened, not daring to believe her eyes.
Jenny's doctoral degrees could, of course, make a couple guesses about what she was seeing, but it didn't make sense in her mind.
"This is a temporal distortion of sorts… but this is very targeted like nothing I have seen before," Henry said, his eyes glistening with anticipation at what he was about to witness.
"It's called a Time Shadow," Himiko stated in her childish voice "It means we are all fucked!"
"Time Shadow?" Elizabeth and Alice asked at the same time.
"Your husband has neglected to teach you many things, Goddesses," Ahmanet said and continued "Just before the death of a God, their pantheon manifests to warn them of their demise.
Gods are beyond 3rd Dimensional Beings unlike ourselves… any 4th Dimensional Being, just before they are about to die will see a Time Shadow that shows them how they will die,"
"But if you don't mess with time… time won't mess with you," Alice said, quoting something Zeel had been saying since the beginning.
"Hehehehe," Himiko started giggling while looking at Zeel "I wonder how you raise such powerful idiots,"
*Twrp*
Himiko didn't know when, but all she felt was a small sting on her cheek as Elizabeth zapped her with a ray of multi-colored light.
"Children should speak with respect," Elizabeth chastised.
"You didn't have respect when you were younger," Alice pointed out but her eyes didn't move from the stabilizing distortion in front.
Actually, Alice merely entertained a little humor during this time because Zeel told her to keep everyone calm until the distortion had fully stabilized.
"How much do you know about the Homo-Superiors?" Himiko asked Elizabeth and Alice who just shrugged in response.
"Then let me educate you about the little I know about them…" Himiko said and turned her gaze to the distortion as everyone listened for her next words.
Everyone's priority was the distortion because, despite Himiko's efforts of distracting them from the serious atmosphere around, everyone could instinctively feel the end coming.
"The Homo-Superiors are a race of mass murderers, yes… but they were efficient and got the job done.
If a war started with the Homo-Superiors, it ended just as quickly with the death of a few key personnel.
Like I said… they were efficient and could calculate the three people to kill to stop a war that would have cost the lives of trillions otherwise. So despite their nature… they were a greatly respected race.
What made the Homo-Superiors hated was their scientific principles. Every time the Homo-Superiors met a new species in the vastness of Universe Zero, they would always assume war.
They would attack that species and wipe out the civilization overnight with a massive Bomb of some kind. Then they would collect samples of the species genetic code.
When the war was over, they would study and recreate the civilization of the species in a controlled section of their space.
If they could recreate the species as they were before the war, then the Homo-Superiors would allow the species to venture back out into space as their vassals.
However, if they couldn't understand the way to recreate the species, then the species would remain extinct.
To sum it up, the Homo-Superiors thought like this 'Anything new… destroy it… then recreate it… if it can be recreated, that means that we understand it, and we are superior to it….
However, if it could not be recreated… that means it was better dead anyway since it was out of our control'…"
By the end of Himiko's story, the only two people that looked at Zeel the same were Alice and Elizabeth.
Alice and Elizabeth always assumed that Zeel's race was crazy, and now they just had confirmation. However, everyone else was slightly more afraid of Zeel.
Himiko giggled at their scared reaction and added "If you're afraid of that… imagine what happened when they discovered the rules of 'Time' and applied their 'unique' scientific approach…"
"What are you trying to say?" Zeel spoke for the first time since the distortion started.
"I am saying that Crawfords and Time don't get along well… and whoever shows up on that," Himiko said pointing at the distortion in space "Is going to die without exception,"
As if on cue, the Time Shadow stabilized and everyone witnessed the events that led to the death of those present within the Time Shadow.
The first thing everyone noticed was a dark world filled with black mists, followed by Henry's withered body falling onto the pitch-black soil.
Then there was Jenny who had a sword through her chest as Nick held her in his arms, but Seth's dagger was also pierced through his heart by Ahmanet.
Ahmanet, unlike her usual appearance, had no tattoos and redness had returned to her cheeks signifying that she was once again mortal.
Further back on the chaotic battlefield was a dead Elizabeth whose body was bathed with white flames.
Far above in the skies filled with darkness was an indescribable creature of the abyss fighting with a Draconic, lightning-blazing Zeel.
Next to Zeel was a dead Lina Cali and Ruri – Queen of The Shadow Dimension.
Codes flickered across Zeel's pupil as he examined the Time Shadow but he never once saw Alice or Himiko, meaning that they were the only two people that had a chance of survival.
Silence reigned for what felt like an eternity until Zeel performed a set of complex gestures that caused the Mbeamer on his wrist to light up with white colors.
Zeel only whispered one sentence into his Mbeamer "This transmission is open to the entire Multiverse: This is the end of The Crawford Family…"
With Zeel's statement, silence reigned once more. Nobody knew the complications that would arise from the complete fall of the Homo-Superior Race until the future.
Another Chapter...