In a land far from the Western Empire, which neither sees light nor rain, a lone figure sat on a polished rock. His expression was haggard, reminiscent of one who had exhausted every bit of energy in every fibre of his being. If one wanted to know the true meaning of exhaustion, they could just look at his face, and peer into his eyes. His eyes were green, an even rarer colour than Mane's sky blue pearls. They acted as the only source of light in this man forsaken place. This was 'The Deep'. One of the forbidden zones in Zandor. It was famed for its cruelty in returning all who entered as heaps of skin and bones to its outskirts. This land was a great mystery. Unlike other forbidden areas like the Forest of Gloom that provided reasons for their danger, this one did not. Anyone who dares venture into the Forest of Gloom was aware of the dangers it had. Many kingdoms, and even the Four Empire Coalition had given up on exploring that land because the beasts that resided in it were too

"You are referring to those curiously foolish mortals who stumbled into my domain? They had it coming. I didn't force them to come here now, did I? And what increase could they possibly provide to my strength?" Shiva's words were blunt and harsh. He clearly cared very little for the lives of those referred to as mortals. To be fair, many ascenders disregarded the lives of those way weaker than they were. In their opinion, if you couldn't pose any threat, you weren't worth paying attention to.And in reference to his words, a domain was the true manifestation of an element. It was an area where an ascender would be able to effectively use their elements, without much disadvantage."I just used them for sustenance. That was all I did. And I didn't even actively search for them. They came after me." Shiva's logic was sound. Indeed, he didn't go looking for victims. All those who had died to his law came of their own volition. One could argue that it was their curiosity an

The black book in Thor's hand was a record. It was used to note all those fallen in battle, so that they would be remembered, no matter how long ago it was. For Asgardians were a race that were constantly at war. It wasn't always possible to retrieve the bodies of those who fell. The least they could do was make sure that they were properly remembered and sent off, even if their bodies weren't retrieved."I don't understand. When did this happen?" Forseti questioned, genuinely curious about the new addition to the body count. "If I remember correctly, last night there were seventeen of us." He was truly baffled by the current situation. How could a team that had lost only three members in six months, lose two, more than half that number, in just a single night. His pleasure from admiring the playing kids had long been replaced with sadness, anger, and curiosity. For curiosity, he wanted to know what exactly happened. He was sad because he knew each and every member of the tea

"So this is the place huh." The duo stopped right before a wide and expansive fog. This fog was capacious and covered a great deal of land. It robbed the vision of all who beheld it, making sure that none saw what it was hiding. Yet the eyes of the two didn't register the problematic fog. Thor's eyes that were now as white as lightning easily saw through the fog, and Forseti was no different. Unlike Thor, his eyes weren't white. They were golden yellow. His pair of pupils were displaying a colour vastly different to his natural eye colour. It was a gift from his father- the eyes of light. These were eyes that saw through all illusions, much less a pesky little fog. But it was through these eyes that he realised that the fog wasn't as simple as it looked."Do you see it?" Thor asked. It was obvious that whatever deductions Forseti had made, he had arrived at the very same conclusion. "Yes", Forseti nodded his head. He knew his uncle wasn't referring to the large mountain that

They would even be able to challenge for the rule of a heaven. But they had been killed off before they had attained this status. They were the only gods of their race, and so they were the only ones that made it out alive. They would have argued that this is why the Asgardians sought them out, but they weren't fools to believe that. Even if they got to the stage of becoming ascenders- all of them- they would be ignorant to challenge the rulers of the first heaven. Maybe they could challenge the 3rd heaven, but not the first or the second. It wasn't because the rulers of the other heavens were weak, far from that. Although the heavens were named in numerical order, it wasn't in order of strength, but of formation. What was formed first, was given the title as the 1st, and it extended all the way through to the 7th heaven. But, the older the heaven, the deeper its foundation, and the more unity you would find among its members. This wasn't to say that the 1st and 2nd heavens were per