The girl did not wake, nor did her fever worsen. While it was difficult to tell, to avoid any potential worsening of her condition it was likely that slowing time for her was the best choice. It certainly would not hurt.

The stairs were carved from stone, leading upwards a short distance. It was rather unremarkable in all respects, but adorning the walls on either side were strange geometric shapes, faintly glowing and overlapping one another, leading back down to the hexagonal chamber.

At the top of the staircase was a solid steel door. While it appeared to be somewhat dented from the outside, it was otherwise holding fast.

A voice spoke from beyond the door.

"Prepare for another volley, we'll get through sooner or la-"

Once the gods reached it, it slid open almost immediately.

Beyond was a stony expanse, light gray rock making it apparent they were either on some kind of plateau or the top of a cliff. Beyond that, some distance below, there was a considerable distance completely taken up by the greens of some form of forest. It appeared considerably more temperate then the jungles some deities may have been used to, but it would still feel somewhat familiar to those who engrossed themselves in nature.

Perhaps more pressing were the mortals in their immediate vicinity.

There were at least two dozen of them. All of them were clad entire in some form of unusual black and red armor, shiny and looking rather different from even the heaviest armor any of the deities would be familiar with, some portions composed of some form of fabric as well. At the head of the group was a figure with even more bright armor, two curling horns adorning his face-concealing helmet.

They were armed with swords, and strange devices that looked like some sort of tube. The devices would be entirely unfamiliar, and yet Ashte would immediately recognize them as weapons. They all seemed quite shocked by the sudden appearance of the gods, thought judging their reactions beyond the helmets was difficult.

That wasn't all.

A single especially large figure, humanoid but enormous, some form of metal construct, lay on the ground cut completely in half. One arm was composed entirely of a blade, the other an enormous version of the tube-weapons held by the armored men.

There was blood on the stones. Dozens more of the armored figures lay dead, stabbed, cut apart, and otherwise killed by some manner of extremely sharp blade.

Beside the doorway lay another fully armored figure. They were clad in white and gold armor with a tattered blue cape, damaged heavily with numerous holes pierced through, two swords piercing their chest and blood covering the front of the armor. Their helmet, reminiscent of that of a knight's, was cracked to reveal an empty, staring blue eye. In their left hand they gripped an impressive sword, white with a gold hilt, even in death.

The moment the red armored mortals recovered from their surprise, they were raising their weaponry.

"Hold your fire!" commanded the man with the horned helmet. "They have the priestess."

The armored figures hesitated for a moment, then lowered their weapons slightly.

"Sir, wasn't there only supposed to be a single knight?"

The soldier asking the question was entirely ignored as the man in the horned helmet stepped forward.

"You're surrounded," he began, "By the authority of the Holy Emperor of Durma, surrender the Flower Priestess at once."

He paused for a moment, as his eyes fell on Alasayana.

"Consorting with a beastkin... Disgusting," he continued, the contempt audible in his voice, "Surrender or die. You have no other options. We [i]will[/i] carry out the Holy Emperor's will."

The soldiers raised their weapons once more.

Certainly, gods were diminished, weakened.

But by no means were they [i]helpless[/i].

[@Rune_Alchemist][@Click This][@1Charak2][@Raineh Daze][@Renny][@Martian]