Chapter 5: A God's Wrath

The seven remaining supporters of Belos slowly inched away, nervous, as their fellow human was possessed by some kind of monster that was supposed to be their hero.

He pointed to the one who asked about palismen, and said, "A palisman, is a creature made from palistrom wood. It contains a magical essence that I must absorb in order to maintain my human form. When I got struck by lightning, all the remaining palismen I had were destroyed."

"A-And where would we find more of those things?"

Belos began pacing up and down the room in frustration. "Only the Boiling Isles has the wood needed to make them. The portal was destroyed when I went through it. Anyway, I need to meet up with one of my other operatives. Meanwhile, I need you to retrieve my staff for me. Oh, and if you happen to come across a golden mask over there, bring that too." Belos started to exit the house.

"Wait- How do we-"

He stopped and interrupted, "Just figure it out yourselves. Our mission will be impossible without that staff. It is essential to the plan. Do not fail me." His cold eyes narrowed at them, before he continued to leave.

While Belos was on the way back to town, an infuriated Atlas was in the bushes waiting to ambush him.

When he passed those bushes, Atlas felt like something else was taking over inside him. He sensed a strong power growing within, and with a swift wave of his hand, a tree collapsed in front of him.

Belos jumped back in alarm. "Who's there? Come out you witch!" For a moment he had forgotten that he was completely defenceless against magic without his staff.

He emerged from the bushes and stood in front of Belos, his eyes burning with pure hatred.

Belos stepped back nervously. "Uh... I-I'm very sorry... about what I d-did to you earlier... But is it really worth killing me over? I'm the saviour of humanity. You can't just doom us all over a grudge..."

Atlas held out his hand, and a huge branch was ripped off its tree. It flew into his grasp. He spoke bitterly, "You murdered everyone I ever cared about, and I was forced to watch helplessly!"

Belos looked at him with confusion.

"But that couldn't be true. I have murdered no humans-"

"Oh stop with your pathetic lies. Luz, the human? Caleb, your brother? Were they not human?"

Belos stammered, "B-But how do you-"

"Eda the owl lady! An entire population of witches I have been watching over for centuries! King, my son!" Atlas swung his tree branch at him with extreme speed, knocking him to the ground.

"I had good reason for what I did! Those monsters deserved everything they got! And the humans? They betrayed their people and they paid the price."

"WEH!" With a deafening shout from Atlas, Belos was shot into the air, and he flew for a while before finally crashing down into the ocean. This scream also caused a lot of trees and a few buildings to be torn apart. During Belos's final moments of consciousness, as he sunk into the ocean, he realised that the power of Atlas seemed familiar to him...

He had just dropped Kikimora and her ugly robot thing into a pit. Luz's friends were all trying to fight Belos, with very limited success. Luz had already been completely turned to stone. King shrieked loudly at him, which nearly caused the wall to collapse.

At the time he'd assumed it was some kind of normal demon power he had never seen before. But if King was the son of a being as powerful as whatever Atlas was supposed to be, it had to be something more. He had always thought that the dog's skull looked a bit like the skull of the Titan...

Atlas's eyes stopped glowing. The strange presence he felt inside him started to exit his body in the form of a ball of light.

Belos's small group of scared allies, who had started calling themselves 'The General's Coven' at his request, were now standing around a science lab, ready to get Belos's staff.

"He gave us no direction for this mission. Do we even know where it is?"

"Why are we even doing this? That guy might be lying. Maybe he's one of the witches and he's here to learn all about us and then report back to his witch superiors."

"You saw what he did to Evan. We're gonna be next if we don't cooperate with him! Let's just go do it already."

They wore white lab clothes, disguising as scientists who worked there. The plan was to give them a forged legal document ordering the transfer of the staff to another facility.

Belos woke up on the ocean floor. He was unable to swim. The water was speeding up the decay of his body. He gasped for breath, and eventually realised he couldn't survive unless he abandoned his body and found a new one later. The dark green sludge of Belos began to exit the dying Evan.

An unrecognisable monster rose from the water, terrifying the people around him.

Nobody else was anywhere near him anymore except for a few seagulls. There was no way he'd be able to get close enough to someone when he looked like this.

Belos's goo jumped into the seagull's beak, taking control of it's body. He started to flap his wings and jump up, trying and failing to take flight. He groaned in exasperation.

After far too much time spent trying to fly, he gave up and started walking very slowly with his short bird legs.

Belos sat on the edge of a building. When someone stood still in the perfect place, he left the seagull in the form of its excrement. Landing on their head and entering their ears, he regained a human body and left behind a pile of bones in some goo.

Belos noticed that Trevor was there, presumably waiting for him. So he started to walk over to him. On the way there, he realised how much he had missed having normal-sized legs.

"Trevor. Go to our previous meeting area."

They split up to avoid drawing attention to them, and met in the dark alley.

"I have the explosive stuff you asked for. But why do you look like someone else now?"

"This world is dangerous. I keep losing my human bodies. I had to be a seagull for like an hour!"

Trevor stifled a laugh.

Belos glared at him. "You're lucky you're such a good subordinate. The General's Coven will be back with my staff soon. We can execute the plan then."

"General's Coven? What's that?"

"Well my group of followers had to have a name. And my last crew was called the Emperor's Coven. I'm the Witch Hunter General, and this is my coven. General's Coven."

"So you were an 'emperor' before?"

"I really have to go home. They may already be back."

"Alright. You can tell me on the way."

"Fine." They started to walk back to his house, while he explained his entire history as Emperor of the Boiling Isles.