Threads of the Soul

Chapter 504 - 504: Playing in the Sandbox

Two figures slowly rose from the ruins of the Sphinx, one of them being carried by the other. At the presence of these individuals, chaos erupted within the nearby city of Gaza. Not just because one of their oldest and most beloved monuments had been suddenly destroyed.But also because every single Equine creature, whether they were a horse to begin with or had evolved into horse-adjacent creatures, began to run wild. This was especially bad as the city had become home to a population of centaurs.

These centaurs did not originate here, and instead had made the trek from Greece in the attempt to make a new home for themselves. But just as they had started to make the locals comfortable with their presence, they suddenly went mad.

They drew their weapons, slaughtering everything that dared to stand in their way, be it civilian or soldier, as they carved a bloodied path towards the Sphinx.

Even their own friends were not spared from this slaughter, and when they begged for an explanation, all the centaurs could say was, "I'm Sorry... Our True Lord demands it." before their blade fell and continued the slaughter with tears staining their eyes.

High above the city, in the ship from another world, Astra's attention was locked solely on the individual floating above the ruined Sphinx. He held a golden Trident in one hand and a limbless Director Zero in the other.

He was floating there, giving a curious and yet rage filled looked towards the ship they were currently in. A look that Astra was happy to return, as she could feel the disgusting aura that radiated from this man.

The aura itself was not actually disgusting, in fact it felt truly divine as he radiated the Divine Energy like a sun full of blessings. It was what that represented that churned her stomach and boiled her blood, because she had felt that same type of aura before in the God of Thunder.

It was the aura of the traitor gods, and of her new punching bag. One that should easily hold up to her wrath.

"Bobby, do you see what I see?" Astra called over her shoulder as she stood at the edge of the open door. Bob's body shifted from the Pilots seat, leaving the ship on its very basic auto pilot.

He narrowed his eyes, looking over the situation, before his eyes trailed down to the ground.

"I believe that I do Mother."

"Good. Why don't you go play in the sandbox then, I'll join you soon."

Bob nodded at the order before stepping forwards and plummeting out of the ship. The air roared past his head as he fell, however he didn't turn himself into his regular cloud form to fly. Instead he pulled his body inwards like a turtle.

His head and limbs retreated, swirling around the core of his being, as it formed a heavy black ball of nanomachines the size of a bowling ball.

The bowling ball plummeted to the ground, slamming into the ground with an explosion of sand before the sand beneath it swirled and swallowed the ball whole.

The entire desert came alive, as if each grain of sand had a will of its own. But they did not, they all obeyed a singular will.

The sand surrounding the Pyramids and flowing out into the desert stirred as it began to rise and rise. It pulled itself together, forming a colossal torso that stood at 60 metres tall. A new head sprouted from this torso, along with heavy arms that slammed down into the ground.

A face formed on the head of the sand Colossus, which immediately narrowed its eyes and glared at the floating man who was like little more than an ant before it.

"Drop him. Now." The Sand Colossus whispered, although that whisper boomed for miles around, forcing many to wince in pain from the deafening sound.

"Don't worry about me. Kill me if you have to. They need me alive for-" Zero desperately whispered in a wheezing, raspy voice, forcing himself to get out even the smallest sound before another squeeze of Neptune's hand cut off his oxygen supply and knocked him out the next second.

Neptune sighed in annoyed, glancing down at his target, before looking up at the Sand Colossus with dead and lazy eyes.

"So be it."

He spun rapidly, launching Zero's unconscious body through the air as he flung him deep into the desert. Panic immediately flushed Bob's face as he commanded all of the particles under his control.

A giant hand erupted from the sand beneath Zero's flight path, shooting high into the air and catching him before he could land. At the same moment, Bob's colossal head exploded, taking half of his body with it, as the golden Trident burst through him like a rocket.

The Trident quickly spun in the air and obediently shot back to its owner. Neptune caught his weapon as he fell, his body whipping along with its momentum as he flew through the air along with it, shooting straight towards where Bob had caught Zero as the Sand Colossus had to reform his body.

Thunder rumbled in the skies, a sound that brought comfort to Neptune and even put a smirk on his face, as he remembered all of the slaughters he had committed beneath that sound. However that comfort and those fond memories were blasted out of him rather quickly, as a bolt of lightning crashed into his back and sent him hurtling into the ground.

He bounced along the sand, which quickly began to stir at his presence. Dozens of hands shot from the sand, trying to latch onto him and drag them down into their embrace.

Neptune quickly spun his Trident, carving through the hands of sand. But for everyone one he destroyed, two more sprouted from the severed tendril. He spun his Trident again, water manifesting from its tallest point, as he formed a ring of salt water around himself, turning the hands that touched it into piles of soggy sludge that splattered to the ground.

Thunder rumbled again, and this time he finally looked up at the Storm Goddess that hung in the sky as electricity sparked around her body.