"Instead of fretting over who helped me, maybe worry about how you’ll beat me."

The elder’s words pulled a bitter smile from Delta, a crack spreading across a mirror.

"Heh, you’re right. Every time that guy lends a hand, we never succeed. Can you imagine it? One man turning gods into a hornet’s nest. Funny, isn’t it?"

Delta poured mana into his long blade and snapped his wrist. A white arc, fast as lightning, tore toward the elder.

Before he could blink, the elder was cut, like a leaf nicked by a passing gale.

Seeing the hit land, Delta laughed, wild as a jackal under a blood moon.

"Ah? Isn’t it funny? Huh?! Answer me! Hahahahaha!"

The elder touched the gash across his chest. Without that smoke’s blessing, he’d already be a corpse on cold stone.

"Come on! Aren’t you strong? Think that bastard’s help makes you untouchable? Think you can defy gods?!"

Watching Delta rant to the air, the elder couldn’t help the thought that rose like smoke.

— Looks like that guy carved a deep grudge into these gods. Just a name, and he snaps.

"Ice Spike Rain: Three Hundred Rounds!"

At the skill’s name, the elder dragged smoke into his lungs and hauled his wounded body aside. Icicles bristled where he’d stood, a frozen thicket on blood-soaked ground.

Seeing his attack dodged, Delta raked his hair, irritation crackling like dry straw.

"You all love to run, don’t you? Think gods are easy marks? What do you take us for?!"

He leveled the long blade at his hip. His agitated eyes went glacial, his face flipping quicker than a turned page.

"That cigarette only bulks your body. Your nerve response hasn’t caught up. That makes this simple."

The elder’s heart lurched and stalled, a drumbeat cut mid-stroke. His worst weakness lay bare.

"Sword: Flash Combo!"

Delta blurred into afterimages. A breeze kissed the elder’s cheek, and then cuts bloomed like red plum blossoms after snow.

No good. Three seconds are almost up. The next slash will punch straight through me!

He snatched the smoke to his lips and tried to draw deep. A slash flashed. The cigarette split in two, fireflies snuffed out on the dirt.

Delta’s assault halted. Mockery sat on his face like frost on iron.

"How is it? Hurts, doesn’t it? Feels awful, right? That thing he gave you looks invincible, but the weakness shines like noon sun. I cracked it without trying. Looks like she isn’t that kind to you after all."

The elder stared at the fallen smoke, his last crutch broken like a snapped reed in a flood. Without it, he had no right to challenge a god.

"Enough talk. Today’s been rotten. Too many things I hate. I’ll kill you, then fetch that tool."

He strode close and raised his long blade, an executioner lifting a cold moon.

"Die."

The blade fell.

It worked. No sudden attack, no shouted "Stop!" to save him. The elder’s neck offered less resistance than paper; the blade slid through, and his head thumped down like a stone in a well.

This is the war of gods and men, hidden in shadow. This is the so-called truth. Humanity in rout; gods with no mercy, a winter with no thaw.

"Alright. That about wraps it up. Time to find that thing."

He turned from this bloody ground toward a bloodier field ahead, where more bodies waited like driftwood on a red tide.

————————————

"Ah!!!" With a final scream, the last human on that field crumpled into a pool of blood. One small front in the war closed like a torn banner in the wind.

Delta stood atop a mound of corpses, surveying a sea of gore. He crooked a finger at a nearby god.

"You. Spread word to the surrounding empires that every human here perished. Say the demonic beasts went berserk, turned savage. By the time we arrived, all humans were dead. Yeah, say that. Add a little spice if you must, but don’t overdo it. Got it?"

"Yes." The god bowed and withdrew, a shadow slipping off a wall.

Delta drew the wand he’d used back in Old Sika Village. He drove its butt into the earth. Red sigils spidered over the village like veins across stone. This time the magic array flickered, then shrank to a single point.

He hurried to that spot. Joy welled in his eyes, bright as dawn on black ice.

"Found it at last… We can go home, Alpha…"

He traced the array with his palm, and a black stone coffin rose like a moon from a dark lake. Trembling with excitement, he caressed the coffin and reached for the lid. A frightened shout snagged him like a thorn.

"Report! The two little girls we captured fought their way back! They’ve gained a lot of power!"

Delta roared, temper flaring like oil to a spark.

"Handle it however you want. Hold her off. Stop bothering me!"

He heaved at the lid again.

Krak-krak-krak—

The lid fought him; even a god had to strain to pry it up, inch by grinding inch.

"But—" The voice behind him started, then cut off. A rough male growl flipped into a girlish lilt.

"Found you, bastard!"

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