The hovering daggers began to melt, the diamond like material of its makeup started to morph into shining bones, and the scented mist created flesh, blood, hair, even clothes and armor. In a single breath, seven deities manifested themselves in the flesh.
At first, they were all genderless, and in the upcoming moments, distinctive features began appearing on their bodies as the scented mist created by the many deaths of the children of Elysium went to work. Hair of different shades, length and textures, masculine and feminine bodies, and outstanding armor and clothing covering them, and the gods of Trion walked the earth once more.
Their arrival brought with it no fanfare, no parade of lights or sounds, just seven figures hovering quietly in the air with eyes closed, as the Aether in the entire valley of Elysium streamed silently into their bodies.
The Aether brought information about all that has been happening inside the Empire for the last 956,000 years—This was when the gods last walked the grounds of the Empire, or as many would know, the end of the Great War.
Of course the Great War has not ended, and the endless battle ongoing on the planet for all these millennia never ceased for a single moment, but only the fight between gods were deemed to be true war, the rest were just minor skirmishes, for it did not matter the scale of the battle and the number of combatants, before the might of the gods, everything else were nothing.
This was the true reality of the universe; Power was the true currency and everything else was meaningless.
Countless heroes and great acts of sacrifices happened every single day on a battlefield that covered millions of miles, but to the Universe, all those cries and stories could as well be silence, in the deep memories of the universe, it was all meaningless… too small, only the gods were large enough to leave a mark.
So when the gods left, officially the war was over for a time, but it would seem that was about to change.
Every Emperor and Empress since the last battle of the gods would return to the valley of Elysium, and the sum total of their reign and experience, all their knowledge about the Empire during their rule would be placed inside Elysium as their final act of service before ascension into the Divine Kingdom of their Primogenitors as royalty.
956,000 years of history were steeped into this valley and the gods silently consumed all of it, for while mortals and Dominators would love the idea of an ever watchful god, the truth was that the affair of the Empire was not of great importance to the gods, what they required was to be given what they were owed at the given time.
Each god has his or her specific needs, and once it was met by their subjects, then the affair of the Empire was left to their mortal descendants to do as they pleased.
As the history seeped into their bodies carried by Aether, their form began to change in subtle ways, influenced by the image of the gods that had been generated in the minds of their descendants.
This change was what the gods truly desired, for it was a great source of power for each of them, it was a relatively formless power that could be used to accomplish miracles—The Power of belief.
The belief of each of their descendants that they were truly immortal and all powerful nourished them, and in a bizarre manner, that belief became reality, and for as long as the billions of subjects of each god believed they were all powerful, then they were.
It was this hidden balance that the gods always tried to maintain, and it was the chief reason why they would never allow their names to be besmirched, after all such powers were the envy of the universe, and the gods of Trion were unique in all the universes because of this trait.
Other gods may derive power from the worship of their followers, but the gods of Trion could also be shielded by something more ephemeral—Faith. The God King Golgoth had created the method for this miracle, and the gods of Trion truly became powerful.
It was the reason after so many wars that had occurred in the long history of Trion and the Empire, none of the seven had ever fallen. How can you kill something that was believed to be invincible and therefore became invincible?
It was the foundation the gods wanted to build upon in order to rise to the venerable height of a Supreme World, and in so doing expand their Dominion on the entire Universe. It was the dream of the greatest of the gods—God King Golgoth, that mysterious ruler of the gods shrouded in fog.
Tiberius was the first to open his eyes from the transfer of knowledge, his physical body had grown to eight feet tall, and he was wearing heavy armor, his pauldron was embossed with two snarling lion heads. His belt were made from countless tiny skulls of the myriad creatures he had massacred and had ever been slain in his name.
Tiberius made no distinction between his foes, and the skulls of gods rested beside the skull of infant gremlins, all were prey.
Behind him was a cape of blood that was flowing like a river, from the cape different bloody weapons would surface, like spears, blades, arrows, guns, and all the tools of battle known to all, and would slowly sink back into it.
He was bald with a cross - shaped scar on his head, and of all the gods, he was the one who appeared the oldest in terms of appearances and he resembled a rugged warrior in his forties, he disregarded the greeting from his brothers and sisters only acknowledging Kuranes with a begrudging slant of his head.
Kuranes with her waist length long hair and charming smile and with eyes that were like twin red suns. She wore a red robe with many pockets, she also wore a spectacle and resembled a mage, the black wand on her left hand surely leaned to that image.
Kuranes and Tiberius walked together, as they were generally acknowledged as the two strongest after the God King. They stood apart from the other five and walked ahead of them, of those five, four stood together leaving the last to walk alone, Minerva.