(Planet Ixtal, Soron’s POV)
The broken man’s breathing steadied slowly as the divine glow of Soron’s healing faded from his skin, his wounds sealing like cracks mended by light.
He blinked a few times, still dazed, then looked up, his bloodshot eyes meeting the angry god’s gaze.
"My Lord..." he began, voice hoarse and uneven, "I... I don’t even know where to start."
"Start from the beginning," Soron said quietly, his tone steady but heavy enough to make the man’s shoulders tremble. "Tell me what happened after I was gone."
The broken man swallowed hard, wiping at the dried blood on his chin with a shaking hand. "It all began with that cunt Raymond... the son of the Eternal Sovereign. The one the Righteous Soldiers now call the ’Cult Conqueror’."
Soron’s eyes narrowed slightly, the air around them tightening.
The man continued, "He... he killed Commander Charles, my Lord. Killed him in front of everyone at Juxta. I don’t know how he did it, but that was when everything started falling apart."
*Crack*
The faint sound of stone splitting echoed around them as Soron’s fist clenched, the pressure of his rage bleeding into the ground.
"Go on," he said, his voice low, calm, yet burning underneath.
"After Commander Charles fell... the Righteous Faction came down on us like a swarm," the broken man said, his words trembling.
"They said Juxta was a den of devils, and they made sure no one left it alive. Tens of millions died, My Lord. The heartless bastards destroyed the whole planet....."
Soron’s expression darkened, his gaze distant, remembering faces, voices, laughter that had all gone silent.
"The Elders?" he asked sharply. "What of them?"
The man nodded quickly. "The Dragon and the Shadow Dragon took charge once the news reached Tithia.
With Commander Charles gone, everyone was scared... half the army deserted within days. But the Shadow Dragon, Lord Leo, refused to give up.
Said he had found a way to save the people."
Soron’s brows furrowed. "A way?"
"Yes, my Lord," the man said, his voice gaining strength as he spoke.
"He created something, a device to survive the harsh environment of the Time Stilled World.
Said it would keep the civilians safe while we rebuilt our strength to face the enemy.
He moved almost everyone there—women, children, craftsmen, the sick. Maybe seventy, maybe eighty percent of us were saved because of him."
Soron’s eyes softened slightly, though the veins in his temples still pulsed with restrained fury. "And the rest?"
The man’s voice broke as tears filled his eyes. "The rest... the rest stayed behind. Some of us couldn’t leave, we were too old, too weak, or too stubborn to abandon the land we were born on.
Lord Dragon... he took whoever wanted to be saved but couldn’t by Lord Shadow Dragon and scattered them across neutral planets, said they’d blend in and rebuild someday. But..."
His voice cracked again. "But not all made it. Some planets turned us away, others sold our people to the Righteous. A few of us,like me, stayed here, hiding, running, watching everything we ever loved get buried under their boots."
He let out a shaky breath, his words dissolving into quiet sobs. "It’s been hell, my Lord. Months of it. We kept praying for a sign, for you. Some of us thought maybe you’d forgotten us, that maybe you were never coming back."
Soron’s eyes flared faintly red at that, a faint tremor spreading through the air as he rose to his full height, his shadow stretching long over the ruined plain.
"Forgotten you?" he said softly, the weight of his voice shaking the ground. "No. I may have been gone, but I never forgot."
The man wept openly now, clutching at his chest. "Then you really came back... it wasn’t a dream..."
Soron’s gaze swept across the horizon, his fury returning with the force of a storm barely held in check. "Dreams don’t bleed," he said. "And soon, neither will the ones who did this to you."
He turned toward the distant banners of the Righteous Faction, his aura flickering like molten sunlight behind a storm cloud.
"Go on," he said again, quieter this time. "Tell me everything. I want to know every sin they committed against my people..... Spare no detail, for I’m about to return it tenfold."
—-----------------
(Meanwhile Mauriss)
The news of Soron’s return travelled fast, and soon reached Mauriss on planet Granada, who received it like a benediction wrapped in madness, his laughter spilling out before reason could catch up to it.
"You’re back? You’re finally back! Hahahaha," he crooned, the sound breaking into a choking fit as he doubled over, clutching his stomach and keeling forward in a spectacle of glee that looked almost pained.
He wiped a trembling hand across his mouth and sat back, eyes bright with something like hunger as he folded his fingers together and spoke as if savoring each syllable....
"I wish I could see your face right now. How does it feel to return to the ruin of your sacred haven? Does it burn you from the inside? Do you ache for blood and for the sound of righteous bones breaking beneath your feet?"
His voice dropped to a slow, dangerous tempo, each question delivered as if it were a knife turned gently in an old wound.
"Does it enrage you? Do you want revenge? Hahahaha, I bet you do."
Mauriss let the echo of his own laughter hang in the air, as raindrops slid off his bare chest.
"Burn," he whispered, relishing the emotion behind the word, "burn bright in the anger you feel now, for very soon you will burn out."
He allowed the threat to sit there like a smoldering ember, not quite extinguished, as he imagined the unfolding carnage with the slow, methodical pleasure of a man who had tasted chaos and found it sweeter when wrapped in ruin.
"Give them hell, Soron, remind the universe as to how great of a villain you truly are, for your fall will only mean great lengths, if your terror was legendary."