A while after Oren and Sophia depart, long enough for the Otherworlder’s impeccable and enhanced hearing to finally no longer be an issue, a certain cloaked figure appears at the scene of the slaughter. Head tilting to the side, he sweeps his gaze from the pulverized horse to the lifeless Hill Giant’s headless corpse. His gaze lingers on the bloodied club for a moment before he chuckles.

  “As clever as ever Oren. Can’t beat them with your own blade? Turn their weapons against them. Smart.”

  There’s a brief pause before the cloaked figure stiffens and the air starts to ripple behind him. A tear in reality itself steadily forms, creating a hole in the world through which nothing but darkness seems to flow. Turning, the cloaked figure kneels and bows his head.

  “My King.”

  “Raythe. Status update.”

  Keeping his head bowed, Raythe prevaricates. He doesn’t even mean to do it… its just in his nature.

  “Of course, Your Grace. I continue to follow the trail of the last Divinity of the Heavens. I have confirmed her to be nothing too special… a mere Minor Goddess drained of her power. No real threat at this point.”

  There’s a pause as Raythe’s words hang in the air. Then, an oppressive sensation exudes from the portal. Still kneeling, Raythe begins to shake slightly, his shoulders lowering another fraction of an inch as he lets out a gasping breath.

  “A mere Minor Goddess drained of her power. No real threat. Then why, pray tell… is she still alive? How did she kill an entire group of God Hunters? Barely worthless fodder they might be, but even they should have been able to handle a powerless Minor Goddess!”

  Shivering, Raythe nods his head in agreement.

  “Indeed, my King. There has been… a complication. It is the reason I have not been able to report in quite as frequently. I-!”

  The pressure redoubles and Raythe is forced from one knee down to both. A rattling gasp escapes the cloaked man and he falls forward onto his hands.

  “Careful, Raythe. Remember your place. Do not think to… deceive me, no matter how good you believe yourself to be at it. I see through you. Always.”

  “O-Of course, your Majesty. I would never dare. I was just about to say, the complication… the Minor Goddess ran into the God Killer when she was fleeing those God Hunters we sent after her.”

  Its as if the very air has been sucked out of the area directly around the portal. Everything stands still for a long moment. Even Raythe, still on his hands and knees, freezes up.

  “… Excuse me? Did you say the God Killer has been sighted?”

  There’s not a response at first. Only after a beat does the pressure, which had become so titanic as to be impossible to endure, finally pull back. Raythe lets out a shuddering breath as he’s finally able to push himself up off of his hands. Though he dares not rise from his knees, merely resting back on his heels with his head bowed.

  “Yes, Your Grace. The Minor Goddess ran into the God Killer and managed to persuade him to help her. In turn, he slaughtered the God Hunters and-!”

  “What of the armor? The sword? Does he have them with him?”

  Here, Raythe hesitates for a moment… before shaking his head.

  “No, your Majesty. He does not.”

  There’s another chilling sensation through the portal, though not as bad as last time. The unseen voice is… reining it in so to speak.

  “You’re sure? Absolutely certain?”

  Raythe nods.

  “I am confident that he does not have the armor or weapon on him Your Grace. He avoided conflict with normal mundane humans in a town that he and the Minor Goddess stopped in, so I couldn’t be sure… which is why I located an undiscovered Hill Giant community in the wilds near the road they were traveling on. One wholesale slaughter later and the lone survivor was sent into a frothing rage.”

  This time, the voice sounds amused.

  “Heh. And you sent him at our little patsy, to see how he would react.”

  Smiling under his hood, Raythe chuckles.

  “As you said, my King… I have a knack for deception. Turning the Hill Giant against Oren was child’s play.”

  Immediately Raythe tenses up, recognizing his slip up. For a moment, he dares hope that the other will not mention it… but alas, it’s not meant to be. The voice, when it comes through the portal again, sounds contemplative.

  “Oren. How… familiar of you, Raythe.”

  “My apologies, your Majesty. The God Killer and I spent years together. I was the only one he really had to talk to him while we trained him to slaughter the Heavens. Part of that deception involved getting close to him… pretending to befriend him. It would be strange not to find myself thinking of him by his name every now and then.”

  “Indeed? One has to wonder. All that time together… you did good work Raythe. You helped the cause greatly. Even still, how much of it was really deception? And how much of it is you deceiving yourself even now?"

  For the first time, Raythe bristles, growing offended.

  “Impossible, Your Grace. As you well know. I am incapable of self-deception. Oren, God Killer… it matters little what we call him now, does it not? At the end of the day, all that matters is the armor and the blade.”

  There’s a long stretch of silence, during which Raythe stays where he is, kneeling with his head bowed. Finally though, the voice speaks again, sounding almost suave now… sickeningly smooth.

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  “Of course, Raythe. You were telling me how you ascertained that the God Killer did not have the armor and weapon on him by setting a Hill Giant after him.”

  Nodding, Raythe glances over at the Hill Giant and his destroyed head.

  “Indeed. I can safely say that the God Killer has hidden his armaments away somewhere. Otherwise, he would have used them against the Hill Giant. Instead, he was forced to resort to using the Hill Giant’s own blood-empowered weapon against it to finally land a killing blow. Something he wouldn’t have had to do… if he were still equipped with a blade of celestial metal.”

  The voice assimilates this quietly for a moment before responding.

  “So he doesn’t have them anymore. What did he do with them? Where would he have hidden such artifacts? I want that armor and blade, Raythe.”

  “Of course, my King. I swear that I will retrieve them for you, no matter what it takes. But that is why I cannot just kill the Minor Goddess yet. She and the God Killer are going somewhere together and so far they are not aware that they are being followed and watched.”

  “You think that they might be going after the weapon and armor?”

  Raythe nods his head.

  “Yes your Majesty. Yes, I do. It’s the only thing that makes sense, that would explain why they move with such purpose. So long as I stay on their trail, so long as I continue to follow them… I believe it is inevitable that they will lead me to our prize. It is simply a matter of time.”

  A sense of pride swells up in his voice… only for it to immediately be dampened when the pressure from the portal exudes outward once more. Raythe gasps for breath yet again, even as his body begins to shake.

  “My prize, Raythe. Not ours… mine. And never forget that. As for it simply being a matter of time… my patience has its limits. Do not test them. And do not let these two lead you on some merry chase across the lands forever. Do you understand me? I expect results and I expect them soon or I will be most displeased.”

  “Of… of course, Your Grace. I will not let you down.”

  “See that you don’t. I very rarely give second chances… and I never give a third.”

  With those ominous final words, the portal begins to close, the rip in the fabric of reality slowly closing back up until it’s gone completely. The pressure goes with it and Raythe is finally able to struggle to his feet, stumbling in an almost drunken fashion for a moment before turning around with a snarl and whipping his foot into the side of the headless Hill Giant.

  The corpse is just a corpse, meaty and dead. It doesn’t react to his kick in any way. That doesn’t stop Raythe from doing it again… and then a third time for good measure.

  “B-Bastard… tch.”

  Curling his hands into fists to stop them from shaking violently with rage, the cloaked man just stands there for a long moment calming himself down. In the end… the world was built on power. Those who had it and those who didn’t. Before they’d summoned Oren and unleashed him on the Heavens, it had been Law and his fellow divine beings who held the power.

  These days, with the Heavens slaughtered to (nearly) the last and the deities of the Mortal Planes on their way out as well? Well, power could be said to be a lot more… spread out. And yet, that didn’t mean there wasn’t still power concentrated in a few key sources. Raythe wished he could buck the yoke resting around his neck. But no… that would just result in him being hunted down and made an example of.

  “Oren… I’m going to enjoy gutting you, when the time finally comes.”

  If only the ‘God Killer’ had done as he was told back then. Had they not developed a good enough rapport? Had Raythe not built enough of a relationship for Oren to even think twice before running? Obviously not. Somehow, Oren had seen through Raythe’s lies. Not before doing what they wanted of him, but still much, much too early.

  Oren running off and doing who the fuck knew what with his armaments had been a staining black mark on Raythe’s otherwise impeccable record of service. It was the second chance that his liege spoke of. Mercy was not something his superior was known for. Still, he fully believed the fact he was not a bloody stain on the floor for his failure to reel the ‘God Killer’ back in was a testament to his usefulness and value… not a testament to his master’s mercy.

  Finally unclenching his fists, Raythe sighs and looks around at the devastation again. The corners of his mouth quirk up as he takes in the battle site.

  “Sloppy, Oren. Very sloppy. You let your guard down here. Let the Hill Giant get way too close.”

  His eyes linger on the demigod’s corpse for a moment longer… before shifting back over to the pureed remains of the horse and destroyed supplies that had been hitched to it. They would be on foot now, which meant they would likely be slower. Easier for him to keep up with, easier for him to track.

  As well, they would need more supplies. That meant they would have to stop in another town earlier than Oren might have wanted to. Raythe could make use of that.

  Of course, he hadn’t told his master everything. Like for instance, he was still quite confused about why Oren would side with a Minor Goddess from the Heavens… perhaps the last Heavenly Deity still alive at that. Did she not know what he was? How had she convinced him to protect her? Heh, perhaps she was desperate enough to spread her legs for him, but based on what Raythe knew of her ilk, he somewhat doubted she would ever compromise her values THAT much.

  Even still… Raythe couldn’t help the niggling sensation in the back of his mind. It couldn’t be that they knew about THAT could it? No, that wasn’t possible. If they did know… well, there was a reason he hadn’t dared bring up the possibility with his liege.

  At the same time though, the doubt won’t leave him. The thought of Oren having somehow deceived him weighs heavily on Raythe’s mind. It shouldn’t have been possible, all things considered. Raythe was the best liar he knew. His capacity for deception was unmatched by anyone else in the world.

  … But that was the problem, wasn’t it? Oren wasn’t of this world. His status as an Otherworlder was precisely why they’d summoned him in the first place. Raythe had told Oren quite a lot of lies in their time together, but there were also things he hadn’t lied about. The limitless potential of the “Hero”, aka Otherworlders… was one of them.

  Still, it was crazy to think that Oren might have somehow deceived him, found out the truth about what they were preparing him for, and made some sort of plan ahead of time with this Minor Goddess. After all, why the hell would he still go through with the slaughter of the Heavens if that were the case?

  And yet… what was more likely? That Oren had made some sort of plan with this goddess, or that she’d managed to somehow stumble upon him specifically in all the Mortal Planes and befriend him? Raythe… didn’t know. And that bothered him most severely.

  Not as much as knowing that his master was breathing down his neck, however. Knowing how much his liege wanted those God Killing Armaments, Raythe knows it’s only a matter of time before there’s another check in. And if he doesn’t have something to show for it, then he’ll be utterly ruined.

  He needed to push them. Oren and this Minor Goddess. Raythe needed to light a fire under their ass and get them moving quicker than they currently were. Admittedly, tricking a Hill Giant into killing their horse was counterproductive in hindsight, but there was nothing to be done about it. And besides, as long as they had their supply-laden horse, they had no reason to stop in any of the towns along the way to wherever their ultimate destination was.

  A slow grin spreads across Raythe’s face as he consults a mental map in his mind’s eye and contemplates exactly what lies ahead of them. There were possibilities there. All sorts of… potential.

  Obviously, it would have been easier if Raythe could have just walked up and picked up where he and Oren left off. Maybe if he’d come across the God Killer alone, he might have done exactly that. After all, they had spent years together. Regardless of Oren’s treachery, Raythe should have always been his friend.

  … The Minor Goddess changed things though. Her presence meant that Oren had to know more than he let on. Things had unraveled enough for him to discover enough of the truth to not return and that meant Raythe’s cover was at least partially blown.

  Nothing for it. He would just have to play things carefully and wait for an opening to present itself as it always did. Heh, in fact…

  “Let’s see just how sloppy you’ve gotten Oren. All that power seems to have gone straight to your head. It’ll be interesting to see how much you’ve forgotten from our time together.”

  With those ominous words, Raythe takes one last look at the destruction around him… and disappears.

  A/N: TBH, Oren was a little silly for falling for the scam when the guy scamming him was literally named 'Wraith'. Huge red flag lmao.

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