"By the way, are you the Purgatorio? Did Sloth knock around the gateway to the Netherworld?"
Hundreds of Purgatorio opened their mouths in eerie unison, their voices rising maniacally.
"We know how cunning you are, esteemed one."
"We know."
"We know it very well."
"You cannot deceive us."
"Calling others is invalid."
"You cannot send the signal to the army."
"It won't be any fun then."
"The fun will be over."
"I want to enjoy it."
"Want to enjoy it."
"Really want to enjoy it."
Hahahaha!
"Your divine blood..."
"Our high priest used the authority of the great Lord to slow everything around Slumber Pit Village."
"Around the whole area."
"Whole area."
Hahaha...
Hahaha...
The number of Purgatorio swelled again, faster than before like an endless river pouring forth.
"Hahaha! Do you half-lings think you can defeat me? With just that?"
The wings covering Raka's back extended majestically, unfurling to blanket the sky in ice.
Instantly, half the Purgatorio froze solid and shattered to dust.
The other half stared at him, still grinning wickedly.
"Of course we cannot defeat the esteemed angel but our lord can."
As they spoke, the top of the cave blasted off. The sky, where the sun still lingered behind clouds, darkened as a crimson moon hung ominously overhead.
"North!"
Raka's face paled as he called out....
**************
The altar room lay opposite the cage chamber, but even assessing their security, it was hard to tell if it was a decoy.
The essence of ice and the essence of laziness differed, yet shared eerie similarities.
Both could reduce time, speed, space, and life though not fully control them, they could slow them to a crawl.
Sloth could even cloud the mind, dulling thoughts.
So, even knowing his location, striking at him proved nearly impossible under Sloth's authority.
As I entered the room, the whole place began to crumble. The bodies strewn on the ground were crushed beneath falling boulders.
A pool of blood formed, and in its center, a child's body floated above the surface.
The cave's roof exploded outward. Where the sun should have blazed in the sky now hung a bloody crimson moon.
My thoughts sharpened, vivid and urgent.
Sloth had woven his divinity with that of the previous God of Ice, Olwen Frozenlight, pulling off something ridiculous.
Olwen had once slowed time across the entire region with his power, while outside, time flowed normally. The high priest had used the sacrifices to invoke Sloth's authority, slowing the whole area and nullifying the space above the Sea of Unity.
The two divinities clashed, canceling each other out the value above reduced to zero.
Time snapped back to its original rhythm.
Moonlight bathed the cave in red.
Slowly, horns began to emerge from the child's head. He drank the blood like a starving shark.
Before I could act, the high priest appeared to guard him.
He cast the Seal of Bloodline to suppress my movements.
The seal glowed brightly, illuminating the cave as the priest coughed up blood.
"Long live Lord Sloth! Release us from our karma!"
He uttered those words before collapsing, dead from overusing the Bloodline Seal and Sloth's authority of 'Laziness.'
His sacrifice bought the child enough time to drain the blood.
The cave shook not just that, it seemed to weep.
The child's body no, Sloth's grew rapidly.
Sloth opened his mouth and spoke in a gentle voice.
"Nice to meet you, newly ascended God of Ice, North Frozenlight."