Caelumis tilted his head as Vireon spoke to the tiny mortal below them. Caelumis had long forgotten his name from before he was brought to rule this world. So had many of the others had as well, except for Vireon, that weirdo could remember nearly anything. Caelumis scoffed as Vireon looked over at him.
"What?" Caelumis asked, lazily leaning in a dainty office chair, beside him was the map and layout of the dungeons they had created a long while ago. Vireon shook her head.
"You know I can read your mind, right? For the god of faith and virtue, you sure are one mean bastard."
Caelimus flipped her the bird, and Vireon chuckled. Their appearances were strange. Caelimus was dressed in pure gold armor. The engraving of a griffin on the chestplate. The pauldrons were large and angled, adorned with the picture of lions roaring. He had a caped hood; the hood itself defied all logic and was blacked out completely. Hiding Caelimus's face underneath.
He had a golden aura that flowed intensely from his body. Of course, that was his mana, constantly leaking out. Vireon herself had a blue aura; her body looked like that of a construct from the future. Caelimus could vaguely remember the impression of a future that he never lived to see. Vireon looked like one of those constructs.
Smooth plastic skin, small slits, and lines were metal-connected. Her arms were six in total; she wore a lab coat. Her hair was a light cyan. She had constant digital blue screens that appeared and disappeared all around her. Her six arms were always typing or doing something of that effect.
"Well, what can I say. I mean, the people sure do love my blessings. Especially that Destiny girl... if she succeeds, she may become one of the youngest Holy Blades ever seen."
Vireon glared at him.
"You know that girl is very close to our experiment, right? Only the authorities know what will happen to this world if you make her succumb to your twisted morals."
Caelimus waved his hand.
"I mean, protecting the innocent, ending lives that take them, what's so bad about that?"
"You forgot to mention that you bless people with visions... and you kill those who kill in those visions instead of reforming them for the better. You know how many genius minds and prodigies we could've used were killed because a prophet of yours had a vision of them killing someone?"
Caelimus shrugged "That's just my rules; they follow them perfectly, besides the future is the present for us."
"Yeah, for us, gods, not our subjects."
Vireon shook her head. "Regardless, a little vision of yours has put one of our greatest experiments." Vireon pointed downwards to the struggling Quinn as he approached closer and closer to an exit of the dungeons. "In mortal danger, that's the whole reason Destiny is even in your stupid kingdom to begin with."
"Fine, fine, alright. I'll tell them to leave him alone, or something of those lines. Speaking of that, what happened to the other one? You know that scrawny, dirty kid."
Vireon had a beam of pride in her face. "She is magnificent, she has already learned to control her own blood, and soon she might learn to control other people's blood as well."
Caelimus's aura changed to one of interest. "You're telling me she can control blood? Oh thats... so evil, she's definitely gonna be evil." Caelimus shook his head. "Don't you know the basics of creating a good hero is giving them powers that seem good. Like, take the Wayfarer, for example. His power was pure white; it was pure. The elves, humble creatures, Beline has done well in making them feel like good kin of her magic".
Caelimus pointed down to Quinn. "Look at that freaky abomination attached to his arm now." The green organism was writhing and sucking up his blood. Quinn couldn't see it, but the mark on his chest began to glow a bright blue. Obsecured under leather underarmor and bronze plating. "I mean, that's gross. Would you trust someone like that?"
Vireon pondered for a moment; in that same moment, Beline had finally returned from whatever nature project she was working on. She wore brown and green robes, a green aura surrounding her. A silver crown and pointy ears accompanied her. Fitting for the goddess of the elves. She held a long wooden staff in the shape of a double helix. Astrael had accompanied her, his purple flesh writhing with each word spoken.
Caelimus raised his hand, and a tendril from Astrael's mass of flesh shot out. The sound of a loud clasp reverberated throughout the room. Despite Caelimus's faith-based magic directly countering Astrael's forbidden magic, the two were great friends. Vireon and Beline embraced eachother in a quick hug, discussing how both Astrael and Caelimus were idiots.
Caelimus rolled his eyes under his hood, looking over at Astrael. "Where's Thael?"
Astrael's body writhed, forming that of a somewhat human shape, if not for the constant eyes, mouths, and spines poking out from the occasional spot. "Your guess is as good as mine. You know that guy seems to love his craft. He's Mr Fundementals for a reason."
Thael... the first person who solved their predicament centuries ago when they had first been assigned as the gods of this world. Pulled from... Caelimus turned to Vireon.
"Hey, nerd, where did we come from again?" Caelimus asked with the slightest hint of sincerity in his tone. That was rare for his tone when talking to Vireon; he must've actually been asking.
Vireon displayed a hologram, that of a sphere that floated with countless white dots in the background. The sphere was a mix of natural colors. "We came from Earth."
"Right, Earth... Thank you." Earth was their home, and they were once weaker than the mortals they ruled over now, so much weaker. Caelimus shuddered at the thought. He was glad he had forgotten about those days over the time they had spent maintaining the dungeon and the magic of this world. Thael was the one to come up with the idea of the dungeons. He had built a foundation upon which the other four could go wild with their ideas.
Astrael looked downward and let out a chuckle. "Hey, look, that experiment has one of my creations stuck to his arm, can't believe the crazy bastard is still alive."
Caelimus nodded "Well, he is 'our' experiment. At least according to Vireon." Caelimus looked down and let out a breath of excitement. "Oh... he's met with Destiny again, let's look at this."
From seemingly thin air, two beanbag chairs had appeared out of thin air. Along with an array of earthly snacks. Vireon was the one who had collected a database of everything she could remember from Earth. Caelimus was glad she didn't exclude the snacks; they tasted so good. At least, as good as a mortal snack could be to a god. Astrael's flesh formed a large box; a birds-eye view of Quinn's predicament was on full blast.
Vireon and Beline looked down at the two with disappointment.
"Let's just go before they start screaming." Beline commented. Vireon nodded in agreement. A door appeared out of nowhere, and Beline opened it. Vireon stepped through, and Beline followed. The door then poofed into nothingness.
***
Quinn stammered further along the poor dirt road. Nearby adventurers making their way to the dungeon shuddered at his presence; he couldn't blame them. The organism on his right was still sucking his blood. As it turned out, Quinn hadn't been in the dungeons for longer than a day. His time there was just so hellish that it felt longer.
He felt his muscles ache as he collapsed to the dirt. The damn organism wouldn't listen to his commands. So many thoughts were racing in his mind. That voice, it wasn't a coincidence that it appeared only after he cursed out the gods, right? Was he speaking to the deities? That was impossible; someone of such low mana control like him couldn't have. He was not chosen by Beline or blessed by Caelimus. He was positive that if he tried forbidden magic, even Astrael would reject his presence.
The voice was distinctly female. What did they mean by struggle onto eternity, that was the last thing Quinn wanted. Quinn hoisted himself up onto his fours. The sound of armored footsteps approached, stopping right in front of him.
Quinn looked up. He had never been happier to see this woman in his life.
"Destiny, tell me, are you real?" Destiny looked down at Quinn with pity in her gaze. She was no longer wearing her helmet; her hair was a short and dark brown, as it was supposed to be.
"Yes, Quinn, I very much believe I'm real." Destiny said with a soft smile, and she raised her sword, attempting to strike the organism. The organism writhed in response... and burrowed into his body.
He was now perfously bleeding from the wound it had left in his shoulder. Quinn let out a gasp of pain as it condensed itself within his veins and muscles.
"Destiny... it hurts. Help me" Destiny wasted no time hoisting him around her shoulder.
"Lets get you to a temple."