The room turned into chaos; pointing at their opponent became impossible. Seraphina and Valerius were preparing for a ritual to connect with the god of deception. No one made a mistake; it was hard to tell who would become an apostle. Zephyr stood in front of Aurelion, challenging him in a battle where he could not win; for him it was a battle of pride, and Kaelen was at the center next to Aurelion, suffering from heavy mental disturbance; he couldn't control anything, only watch.
Gods struggled and stalled time before they lost. Aurelion stood at the center, checking his watch and adjusting his coat, watching events unroll.
Time stopped being a concern; he had gotten most of what he could have. Blessings and information that gave them an advantage to suppress other gods for decades. Getting their identity was never possible; he had known that long before he entered the room. The difference between the ideal situation and the current situation wasn't huge.
Zephyr raised his hands to his shoulders and waited, looking for something in that fight; finally, he got something and tried to catch it from afar, resting his hands inside his pocket. Converting some of Aurelion's identities into gladiators, skinny but lethal, was the only choice he had against Aurelion.
Aurelion's vision shortened to the point where he couldn't see anything beyond the center. Darkness stretched throughout the room. Someone much lower than him in authority could never inflict something like that on him.
"A curse," he guessed.
His soldiers vanished out of thin air; they left no trace behind. The identities he had sent to spy on Seraphina and Valerius suffered from the same fate as those soldiers. It was the first time that he felt challenged in that confrontation.
Zephyr's gladiators rushed towards him with their swords aimed at him even before they closed the gap.
The ones outside of his vision weren't affected by his powers, but the ones that came in his range turned to his side. In the end, they would end up killing each other.
Even Aurelion had never faced something that restrained him as much as this.
1 minute and 20 seconds left.
Leaving the center risked Kaelen. He had to do something fast.
"Why are you wasting your time on a stage 4?" Zephyr said. No reply; he didn't need one.
"Aurelion?" Zephyr provoked him further.
"I don't have to borrow powers for doing the simplest tasks."
"So proud of something that isn't even yours."
"Aren't you the same?"
It had become their personal battle; none of them cared about what their goals were before; it was a battle of proving Zephyr's irreplaceability.
Aurelion looked around the room trying to sense Zephyr.
"I am here, superior stage 1," Zephyr said, toying with Aurelion's senses.
It was enough for Aurelion; the only thing it could be when it didn't reveal the user's location was something available only through gods. Aurelion seized the moment to disrupt it with his interruption ring.
The progress was damaged; it required more time now. 2 minutes left.
His vision came back; the messengers were now there in human form, which explained why the barriers had been removed before. Zephyr stood in front of them all bleeding, struggling to stand, eyes barely managing to stay open. Zephyr had sacrificed his body for this moment.
"You are insane." The words felt like a complaint, but his tone was that of a compliment.
It was an unfavorable matchup. Aurelion had to go up against 13 messengers and the 3 followers while saving Kaelen.
He picked up Kaelen by his waist and readied to leave.
Upgraded Seraphina deceived Kaelen and separated their merged identities. Aurelion couldn't teleport both of them now.
Aurelion used one of the blessings that he had gotten from cultivation, summoning thralls. They copied Aurelion's traits; they moved faster than the gladiators and used corruption. Each hit took a part of you. Stalling time for them to escape. They were made from the blessings he had gotten from the god of control, making them uncontrollable; they resisted every change possible from anyone below stage 1.
He corrupted Kaelen to overcome Seraphina's deception and get him under his control.
He used the god of identity's help and Kaelen's authority to reach the basic form of this world. The void.
It was his first time going there; he didn't have the authority or someone like Kaelen till now.
He could see the origin of everything, each domain ruled by a being who could only be felt. There were some that didn't have an owner; they worked randomly, reacting to their surroundings. They had some form of energy in them with potential, which had no shape; whenever he went close to them, they formed into whatever he thought of them as. Everything there was done automatically; whatever he thought of, he did it.
But there were some voids that he couldn't look into because of the unused potential that would erase his existence whenever he reacted with it. They were the ones with human owners and only 13 in total. It was simple yet hard to accept. Those gods that he had fought for so long were just humans who were scared to leave their voids. How could they gain control over that power? Even a stage 1 like Aurelion couldn't even look at it, and they simply lived there inside nothingness alone for eternity. Maybe that was why they went insane. Still, it didn't explain how controlling earth would help them.
He kept leaping through voids; only some of them reacted to Kaelen, revealing he had a weakness, though very few did. It was impossible for someone else to find them; Aurelion collected them inside his rings just in case.
Kaelen could still sense everything but couldn't react to anything. He had the instinct for it; he was using the energy around him to heal himself both mentally and physically. This was good; he would learn to use his powers quickly this way. Some of that energy was directed towards Aurelion but didn't do anything to him. Whatever Kaelen wanted to do to Aurelion was out of even his capabilities. It was scary for Aurelion: what could be so atrocious that a guy who could challenge gods couldn't do?