The Red Hand

Chapter 309 – The Prime Suspect.

In the gray and boring halls of Gale's inner sanctuary, an angry scream pierced the silence that normally filled the God of Order's domain.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN TAHENA'S DEAD?!?" Gale screamed as he tossed a book toward the blue-haired Goddess of Space, Reflia. He'd just been informed of the origin of the strange ripple that permeated the world, and while he'd feared such an outcome to be told was a different story.

"I mean that she's gone." Reflia replied, deflecting the book away with her power. "Surely you felt that twinge? Its not the first time one of us has perished." She was the Goddess of Space and God closest to Elariel. Her short blue hair barely reached her shoulder and her petite frame made her seem weak and unimposing, but she was anything but.

"I did, yes, but..." Gale paused for a moment. He'd been busy reviewing his plans when he'd felt an all too familiar jolt run through his body. "But are you certian that she's dead? We've run into this problem before and it was just an Avatar that was destroyed." He was barely holding onto his composure, and Reflia was shocked to see him in such a state.

{The stress must be pretty bad if even Gale's starting to crack. Though, it's not like I blame him...} (Reflia)

"Why don't you just come with me for a moment." Reflia sighed as she snapped her fingers, and transported them from the drab office-looking building that was Gale's home and moved them to the edge of a black void. "Now, take a look at this." She pointed to the dark space that stood just in front of them.

"That's... Dammit." Gale clicked his tongue in frustration. "I suppose that's conclusive, fuck." The area in front of them was once Tahena's domain within the Heavenly realm, and with her gone, it had been torn asunder and reverted to a blank void that abutted up against the nearby domains.

{Its just like when Vikes killed some of us...} (Gale)

"Alright, so then the next question is, how?" Gale's eyes snapped to her. As the Goddess of Space Reflia was de-facto the second in command of the Gods, and he relied on her in the running of Enoris and its many realms. This was especially true at the moment as Gale was almost entirely focused on preparations for him and the other God to flee to Earth, and he was reliant on Reflia for anything taking place in the material plane.

"I've already sent some of my subordinates to collect information, and well..." Reflia's words drifted off.

"Speak. Whatever you've found, I must know." Gale's harsh words and deep scowel caused Reflia to gulp.

{He's really angry!} (Reflia)

"Based... Based on preliminary reports... It appears that Tahena was attacked this morning while giving her routine blessings in the Imperial Capital." Reflia said, her voice filled with anxiety and fear.

"If her Avatar was the target of an assassination attempt, then we shouldn't be seeing this." Gale glared into the dark void. "So there must be more to this." Avatars dying, while inconvenient, wasn't the end of the world. Every God had gone through losing one or two and it was little more than an irritation.

"Yes..." Reflia nodded. "Now, I don't know how accurate this next part is... But my agents on the ground informed me that a cloaked woman attacked Tahena with some kind of Demonic blade while proclaiming herself to be an agent of one... Demon Lord Akagi." Her words barely got out of her mouth before Gale's power exploded momentarily, flaring up like a torrent of gray and black energy.

*WOOSH*

"Forgive me, that was unsightly." Gale quickly got his power back under control.

"Ah, no, it's..." Reflia was thankful that she didn't need to breathe, otherwise she might've passed out from holding her breath too long.

"I've never heard of a Demon Lord Akagi." Gale thought aloud. "Perhaps this is some new kind of scare tactic created by Vikes' cult?"

{But that wouldn't explain how Tahena was so easily killed.} (Gale)

"It's possible that they're involved. However, I have no conclusive information at the moment. I was already planning on sending Dimack to investigate, and I just wanted your permission." Reflia's oldest Son was a powerful Demi-God, and she didn't want to send him and his Divine weapon anywhere near the Demon Lord Cult without Gale's explicit approval.

"No, I would actually rather you handle this investigation yourself." Gale's words surprised the Goddess. "The last thing we need is for another one of our weapons to be corrupted, and as we still don't know how the Cult did it last time, it would be too great of a risk to send him in now."

{I can't aford to have any more missteps at this stage of the game. My leeway is already quite low and if worst comes to worst...} (Gale)

"Understood, I'll head down shortly." Reflia nodded. “I suppose that it would be best for a God to handle things directly.”

"Are all our Divine Weapons accounted for?" Gale asked about the location and status of the various weapons and their wielders. "If Tahena was killed then the only way I can imagine that happening is if the Cult used a corrupted tool. Nothing short of that would be able to do such a thing." That was the same thing that happened last time and it wasn't as if they'd ensured that the Cult had none left when they last crushed them.

{Though I have a feeling that one in particular may be causing us an issue.} (Gale)

"Besides the weapons that we couldn't recover from the last clash with the Cult, the only weapon that I'm unable to verify the location of is Halifax." Reflia said.

"Have you spoken to Elariel about it? I know that fool has a tendency to get protective of her little pet." Gale sighed. “But surely she is keeping an eye on that thing.”

"Her servants turned me away from her garden, stating that she was currently on the ground using her Avatar." Reflia had insisted that she be allowed to enter, but the Angels that worked for the Goddess of Time rarely interrupted their master while she was busy.

"Why am I not surprised that she's away while a crisis is happening?" Gale rolled his eyes. "But no matter. When you go down there I want you to find and speak with her about Halifax's location. It shouldn't be possible for her to have attacked Tahena, but I wouldn't be shocked if our work on her didn't entirely iron out her prior issues."

"Though..." Reflia started to speak but paused.

"If you have something to say, then do." Gale motioned for her to continue.

"How is it possible that Tahena died just from having her Avatar destroyed?" Reflia asked a very good question. "Even if we assume that Halifax did turn on us, she couldn't do more than just destroy Tahena's Avatar. Actually harming our real bodies through an Avatar like that is far beyond what even she could do, right?" She'd never heard of something like that and figured that even Halifax couldn't manage such a feat.

"At this point, I wouldn't go making any assumptions about that one." Gale shook his head. "Halifax is no ordinary Divine Blade and was given the power to actually destroy souls. I wouldn't be shocked if she could also harm us, at least to some degree."

{Though it shouldn't be possible to harm one of our true bodies from the material world. Perhaps that's some kind of leftover?} (Gale)

"Its... There's no possibility that Vikes somehow returned, right?" Reflia asked, pensively. Such a thought would've been unthinkable, but with Tahena's strange death she couldn't help but be worried.

"If that monster walked our world again, he'd never do something like this." Gale laughed. "No. What we have here is most likely somebody using the title of Demon Lord as a scare tactic, and I wouldn't put much stock in somebody calling themselves a Demon Lord's minion." He continued. "Besides, we confirmed that Vikes' soul was destroyed all those years ago. At best, Vikes' Axe could've been used in this attack, though you said it was a sword if I recall correctly."

{Though I still would like to know where that thing is.} (Gale)

"Yes, and the fact that only Tahena was targeted makes me believe that whoever did this is acting in a deliberate manner." Reflia figured that if this was the work of the Cult, then there would've been far more bloodletting since they tended to kill civilians indiscriminately. "The only other casualties were a few guards, and the assailant even clashed with Emperor Hadrus before vanishing."

{Apparently that idiot Emperor blasted a hole in the side of the Capital's walls...} (Reflia)

"Then I'd like you to continue your investigation with Halifax as our primary suspect." Gale nodded. "If you can dig anything up on the Cult at the same time, then feel free to do so. Knowing how these things tend to go, Halifax is most certainly tied into that group if she really is behind this assassination."

{Though I wouldn't put it past Elariel to have orchestrated this.} (Gale)

After a bit further discussion, Reflia departed to the material world to start her investigation, while Gale returned to his gray and boring office.

"I suppose this will cause a few delays in our plans." Gale clicked his tongue as he exited his office and walked down a bland and boring hallway with no windows. "The loss of Tahena will damage our reputation among the mortals, though it shouldn't stop our departure."

{Though it will slow things down considerably as she was providing quite a bit of the power needed for our ritual. I may even need to dip into my backup plan if things get any worse.} (Gale)

"But still, to take a God's head in the name of some Demon Lord." Gale scoffed. "I don't know who you are or for what reason you've done this, but rest assured, 'Demon Lord' when I find you, I'm going to make you pay for this humiliation."

{And if worst comes to worst, I'll show you what a REAL Demon Lord's power looks like.} (Gale)

While Gale continued to postulate his next move, a figure stood around the corner at the end of the hallway, peaking her head out and watching the God of Order.

"A new 'Demon Lord', huh?" The blonde-haired Angel smirked as she gripped onto the massive scythe that hung from her back. "Well, I at least hope that they're more interesting than the last one Father had me deal with."

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