Chapter 11: Atomaly
"What is that?" Kyran uttered as he smelled the stench of blood emanating from the sky. It was nauseating—a potent, pungent smell contradicting the calm home of the gods.
"Humans?" Flora said, pushing Ryu away with her hands and grabbing a black seed carried towards her by blades of grass dancing like a wave.
Pixie flew up, her pink butterfly wings beating hard. "How did they get here?"
Human figures floated down from the crimson oblate cavity in the sky. They donned red long-sleeved robes that were thin to the wrists and ankles but loose at the torso and legs.
A sizeable triangular mask obscured their faces, with the base covering the shoulders. The mask was Vanta black, preventing light from escaping.
"It's the Atomaly," Fauna said, using his hands as goggles.
"What are they?" Kyran asked.
"They're misguided humans," Fauna replied, twirling his curly brown hair.
Ryu looked up and put his hands on his waist as he counted the visitors to his home. Fifty humans were floating as they encircled the gods gathered in the entrance of Flora's garden.
"I'm sorry, we are closed today! We're celebrating my honeymoon, hehehehe….," Ryu laughed with his hands on the air, no weapons on sight.
"Did they find us because of those visitors?" Kyran asked as he ripped a dead branch as thick as his forearm from a nearby Narra tree.
"No. They can't locate us through prayers," Pixie said, flying back and positioning herself in front of Kyran.
"Then," Kyran said, looking down and digging his nails on his palm. "Is it because of me?"
"HAHAHAHA. Don't kid yourself, you brat! You're not that special," Ryu put Kyran's head between his arms, playfully strangling him.
The fifty figures floated in the air and looked down at the gods with no reverence to the deities. Humans dared to look down at gods, a sacrilege to the apex beings.
"What should we do? Should we kill them?" Kyran asked, his heart beating like a drum and his makeshift sword trembling, itching to slice through.
"I like your spirit, brat! You want to take a swing?" Ryu asked.
Flora immediately slapped Ryu's hands and used flexible bamboo to separate Kyran from his bad influence. "Don't involve Ky into this."
Flora took the black seed on her hand and dropped it down in the small crevice of the cobblestone floor beneath her.
It did not take long as a black stem as thin as a finger wriggled out of the rough stone, breaking it to make way for its growth.
"Grow, Gaia," Flora said, and the black stem shot up. It was no bigger than a hand and had no roots, just an s-shaped stem without leaves.
The black stem disappeared in the dim sky until it emitted a bright white flash coupled with a strong shockwave that surprised Kyran.
The black stem grew from the sky and permeated like cracks in reality. The black branches imitated the movement of vines, wriggling until they could find something to hang onto.
Soon after, the black stalks covered the heaven like a bubble, with only tiny gaps showing the ominous red figures above.
"Ahhh…I wanted to fight them. Too bad," Ryu said, putting his hands on his waist and squinting at the barely visible visitors.
Pixie's wings beat slower, back to her normal state. She flew on Kyran's shoulders and poked his cheeks. "Kyran, let's go to my house! You still have to make more decorations."
Fauna looked up at the Atomaly. They were humans somehow able to purposefully break into the heavens of gods—a feat impossible in practicality.
The fifty humans above finally moved and pointed down at the gods with accuracy, bypassing the blurring effect of the black barrier.
The tip of their index fingers shined a red blood light and fired into the center with thin pillars, creating a revolving red lump in the congregation.
The lump sent shockwaves down, reaching the gods and attracting their attention. Kyran felt a chill in his spine, sending cold sweat to his forehead.
"What's happening?" Kyran asked, blind to the event at least five mountains above him.
"How did they get that?" Flora asked, with her voice urgent and with disbelief. She held the hems of her hips and looked up.
Pixie immediately flew up and waved her hands, casting her magic without anything happening yet.
The red swirl of energy above them fired down at the speed of light. Gaia, the ultimate defensive barrier, was left with a large hole in the middle instantly.
The dreadful weapon of the humans against the gods reached the deities, destroying everything it touched. It killed the gods, it ruined paradise, and it erased Kyran's mortal body from existence.
The gods, the immortal beings at the apex, were killed by the humans, their creation. However, the parricidal humans did not rejoice. They looked down and waited.
Soon enough, the reality of destroyed paradise started to crack like glass. The fractures spread until the pieces fell apart, revealing the untouched garden of the gods.
The destroyed reality fell apart—a fortuitous precaution that Pixie created just in time. With their divine pride challenged, the gods below released their godly auras.
Ryu had a moon-curved dirty-white tusk in his hand, thick enough for his brawnwish large hands to grip. It was as long as his height, with the tip almost curving back to him.
His eyes had a physical red fire in his irises, ready to confront the disobedient children that dared to harm his retirement home.
"Wait," Fauna said as he saw Ryu's calves grow two times larger. "It's time."
Ryu turned to Fauna, with his eyebrows in a frown and his fist trembling. His chest heaved up and down, calming the raging blood in his divine body.
Then, he looked towards Ryu, the human child, and his disciple. The fire in his eyes diminished until it was no longer there. His muscles shrunk as he let his weapon fall to the floor, destroying the stone and sinking several feet.
Fauna stood in front of Kyran, who was a few inches taller than him. He raised his heel so that his dainty hands could touch Kyran's head with bits of grey ash on his black hair.
"It's time for you to go home."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone