The king's eyes were filled with confusion, still not aware of what just happened. Blood pooled beneath his upper half, and in the blood, the darkening sky was reflected.

Somnus looked at the sky and pondered the sudden anomaly. Did the King not have heirs? Was this the moment when a Herald would appear?

The enemy army had scattered—they were mercenaries after all. Their employer was dead, and staying here any longer would bring death to those that remained—a little over half their troops. Somnus's brutality and tactics had been still fresh in their mind, further lending cause for terror upon their fear-stricken mind.

They broke. They ran.

The Deathbringers and the Ashborn Knights began running towards Somnus, no doubt intending to form a defensive perimeter around him. They would protect their King from whatever was about to happen.

Not that Somnus really cared. Heralds? They were ants, scurrying around his feet. He had no interest in them, so long as they did not interfere with him and his goals. That was the simple truth of the matter. In the old world, Somnus had crossed paths with plenty of Autonomous Machine a.r.s.enals who were officially neutral in the conflict. They did not destroy each other simply for the sake of destruction. Everything had a cost and a strategic value, and fighting ent.i.ties that did not need to be fought only had a cost and no reward.

"Disperse," Somnus told the closest Ashborn Knight and headed towards the enemy side of the Pa.s.s. He did not have intentions of staying here when the Herald appeared. If the Herald would appear here in the first place.

Was it a Herald though? The last time he had seen a scene like this, a G.o.ddess descended from the sky.

He had an ominous feeling.

Just as he was about to pa.s.s the body of the dead King, everything became shrouded in darkness.

Darkness stretched forever, it seemed. Somnus could not see his own body, how dark it was. He felt as if he was a disembodied spirit.

A shaft of light pierced the darkness and within it stood a humanoid. Their head was that of a deer's skull, except far more grotesque. The antlers had dozens of points and curved in on themselves, like the animal was half deer and half ram.

"Machine G.o.d Somnus," the person spoke with a voice that seemed to come from everywhere within the darkness. It had a feminine quality. "It is time for your judgement."

Several shafts of light appeared after those words were spoken, and within each stood a humanoid person. Some wore masks, others had beautiful humanoid faces. They were all humanoid, but some were shrouded in the elements. One person was seemingly made entirely out of fire, and another one was clad in celestial raiment.

"Identify," Somnus said in his far more human voice.

His black halo crackled, letting loose a jet of black plasma that seemed darker than even the blackness. His body was bathed in the pale, icy glow of the mana flowing through his blade-like wings.

Good, he wasn't just a disembodied spirit.

"We have observed you from the Heavens," the skull-headed person spoke and pointed a castigating finger at Somnus. "You have gone too far. You introduce chaos into this world. You must be stopped."

"I agree."

"I agree."

"I agree."

"I disagree."

"I agree."

"I agree."

In total, seven ent.i.ties surrounded Somnus.

"Identify," Somnus said once more.

"You serve the powers of ruin," the person continued, seemingly ignoring Somnus's orders for them to identify themselves. "Beg for forgiveness and your punishment will be swift."

"Request denied," Somnus said.

[Engaging Apotheosis Engine.]

Blue mana dust burst off Somnus's wings, like smoke mixing into the atmosphere.

"Annihilation Blade," Somnus said, summoning a beam of pure plasma in his hand, like that which Aeon wielded, and the plasma was a color between ice blue and pure white.

The blade hummed with a deep, rumbling tone. The darkness was banished underneath its light.

Somnus appeared right beside the skull-headed person and his sword carved right through her head, golden dust spraying into the air.

He felt no impact.

[Disengaging Apotheosis Engine.]

The blade disappeared and the glow from Somnus's wings faded.

They weren't real, these people. They were projections, or holograms. Or maybe…

"You dare attack the Supreme Thrones?" the skull-headed person asked as their form still s.h.i.+mmered from Somnus's disturbance. "May you suffer for a million lifetimes."

Somnus sniffed disdainfully as he turned to look at each one of the figures. "You don't have the permission to judge me," Somnus said. "Inferior lifeforms need to learn their place."

"Silence!" One of the figures spoke. He was clad in armor that s.h.i.+mmered with a golden light. His face was not visible.

Somnus turned to look at the warrior and he made a sweeping motion at the man.

[Commencing Information Dimension jamming.]

[Disrupting Coordinate 221, 118, 14.]

The shaft of light disappeared, and so did the warrior.

"I will be the judge," Somnus said as he looked at the skull-headed person, whom he a.s.sumed was the leader of this group, "of your crimes."

Silence filled the darkness.

"Your existence will soon come to an end," the skull-headed person said. "You shall reap what you have sown."

"Negative," Somnus said. "Somnus threat level: 10. Inferior lifeform threat level: 0. You will be terminated."

"We shall see." The shafts of light disappeared in the wake of those words.

Somnus found himself standing in Ord Pa.s.s once more. His left hand trembled. He wasn't afraid. He wasn't excited. But still, it trembled. Such an inconvenient body.

"Where did you go?!" he heard Gemma's panicked voice from behind him.

As he turned around to face her, her fist slammed against his chest. It was not just panic that Somnus heard in her voice, it was tears as well.

"What have you done?! You killed us all!" Gemma shouted. "Why did you kill the King? What is wrong with you?!"

Somnus didn't really feel any pain from Gemma's punch. If anything, the one who was hurt from that was Gemma. Still, Somnus understood the reason behind Gemma's anger and fury.

Even seeing all the faces of the Deathbringers and Ashborn Knights, Somnus understood something important. Humanity feared the G.o.ds and the Heralds more than Somnus. Principles of Control at its best. The G.o.ds tyrannically ruled over Humanity, locking them within an eternal era of benightedness. Through fear. Only now, after meeting the Supreme Thrones, could Somnus clearly see the shackles around Humanity.

That would not do. He would not allow Humanity to fear something more than him. He was the Tyrant, not the G.o.ds.

Somnus looked up to the sky and observed the changes. The clouds had formed a vortex, and lightning often struck the tips of the surrounding mountain chains. In the distance, Somnus could see the dragons flee their nests, scattering like flocks of confused birds.

"Come, Herald," Somnus said as he stepped towards the point where the clouds seemed to be coalescing, "You will be my first tribute to the altar of destruction."

"What?" Gemma asked, wiping her eyes clear of tears.

Somnus did not even look at her as he said: "I will show you that your nightmares and all your prophecies are nothing but dust before that which you should truly be afraid of."