Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 247: The Blood Lake

Chapter 247: The Blood Lake

The Administrator’s tone was that of a man endlessly curious, almost whimsical yet ultimately firm.

"But you built the Heavenly Tower," Dasha continued. "So you did have a relationship with the gods at some point or another. After all, many of the Architects are gods themselves. Athena in the House of Wisdom, Hachiman and the Alaisiagae goddesses down in the Underground. I wonder what happened to put you, an Administrator above these Architects, in a place like this." Dasha pulled his arm back and checked his surroundings again. "No windows. No openings. No air conditioning. You have been sealed here."

"You have no idea what you’ve done, do you?" said Thales. He put down his hoodie and ran a hand through his hair. "You—hohoho—you have ruined everything." He was laughing, full of anxiety and joy and fear all at the same time.

"Where are you? Where are you sealed? Is escape what you seek?"

"...escape. Escape?" Thales inhaled, chuckled, and turned his back on him. He returned to writing. "I have no use for you, man of the mask. I have my own plans."

"How pathetically human, Administrator of the Heavenly Tower. ’All things are full of God.’" The quoted remark caused Thales to stiffen ever so slightly. "Is that not what you said? Why reject me so? I killed the Will-o’-wisps and did as I was told. Your rejection does not make sense to me. I can help you."

"No. No, you don’t understand anything. I need the one with the Valknut."

"Why?" Thales was a genius like him—so why? What was with his attitude? Why not tell him?

"The ignorant should remain ignorant. That is what makes them so." Thales blinked and briefly returned to writing. "Oh, another thing to write—"

"Agreed." Dasha’s gauntlets crackled. "Thales. Thales of Miletus. Today, that would be in Balat of the Aydın Province of Turkey. I will be sure to give them your name when I slaughter them. I doubt they will recognize the name anyway. A pathetic legacy with no people to speak of...an ignorance that the world will participate in."

A man of humanity. A man that opposed ignorance. A man that was beyond his times. That was Thales.

"Oh?"

"You don’t seem to recognize this mask, do you? It belongs to the butcher of London. I will happily slaughter your people, Thales of Nothing. Unless...you have something to offer me?"

"Oh-ho." Thales did not stand up. He remained, back turned. He put his stylus down, calm. "What do you want?"

"I am here to amass power as the tower desires it. So give me the power I seek."

"For what reason?"

"To kill the gods."

"No. No, no, no, you lie. If you were interested in such a thing, you would not speak with such thick dullness. You would be passionate. You would be with the Skeptic Society. You are not. You are..." Thales faced him again. In his eye was agonizing disappointment. "You must be the—"

Thales, interested in all things. Some called him the first Greek engineer, mathematician, and scientist. One of the Seven Founding Wisemen of the Greek land. He chose the element water, not the gods, for his basis of reality.

He could have been useful. Alas...

"Get on with it. I am going to slaughter you and the other creators anyway."

"Oh. Ohhh." The walls seemed to thin. The piercing eyes of the Administrator became dark. "To think I would agree with Confucius...you are what he feared. Yes, yes. You, my masked friend...you must be eliminated."

The end of his voice marked a drop in the atmosphere. Everything grew heavy with tension. An incalculable energy crackled between Dasha and Thales. One of darkness, the other of nothingness. The walls of the workshop began to crumble and disintegrate into a fine mist that swirled around the space like a ghostly veil. The floor underneath dissolved and the world, this spaced workshop, transformed into a dark, murky lake.

Thales dissipated with the veil. The sky, which had been black, became filled with code.

’A blood lake and a sky of code...?’

Dasha was able to give a cursory glance at the blanket of green symbols and numbers before the blood red waters rumbled.

’Something huge is swimming in the depths.’

"Begone for good, The One Who Will Devour The Darkness. Know thyself."

The blood lake churned and roiled, a dark shadow forming. Dasha’s Qi Sense flared to life. Whatever was under the water, it was ginormous. Several times larger than himself, no question. The lake continued to shake and the enlarging shadow touched his feet. That was when he dashed back and that was when the shadow rose.

[ Name: Scylla

Level: 90

Class: Sea Beast ]

Over thirty feet in height, Scylla was a grotesque half-woman monster. Above her waist, she was a woman with a deeply green complexion. Sprouting from the back of her neck were another six necks that were a deeper shade of green and were tipped off with serpents rather than human faces. Along her waist were six growling dog heads and rising from the waters, presumably her legs, were twelve green tentacles. A hydra maiden of impossible composition.

The twisted dragon-like heads cast a shadow over the lowly human. His mind was not afraid. His Qi cycled through his body madly.

The once still waters began to shift faster. He raised his arms but was too slow. One of her leg tentacles lashed out, striking Dasha square in the mask with a force that sent him hurtling across the lake. He skipped across the surface of the water like a stone.

He came to a skidding halt and caught his winded breath. Drip. A piece of white shrapnel fell. A strange feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. He reached up to touch his mask. "Hrm." His fingers traced the jagged edges of the newly formed chip.

Thales was gone—and in his place was one of Greece’s greatest killing machines. Scylla, the man-eating monster that once battled Odysseus, hero of Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey.

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