A/N: Finally time to get that gear and take the fight to the Void Goids!

  It's definitely still there.

  -x-X-x-

  As Sophia and Tyranos follow Oren to the cliff-face, all Sophia can think is that she hopes it's all where Oren left it. The st thing they need is for the God Killer's armor and bde to have been pilfered by someone else at some point in all this time.

  Still, they'd certainly had to go pretty far out of their way to get here. The nearest road was weeks away without spending a huge amount of divine energy to traverse the distance faster, and there was no mortal settlements around for leagues and leagues. That gave Sophia some peace of mind about all of this. It seemed as though Oren had picked a pretty good hiding pce.

  Of course, eventually they arrive at the sheer cliff face that the waterfall to the side is pouring down from. It goes up quite a ways, so much so that Sophia has to crane her neck all the way back and still can't see the edge of it when they're right against it. This close to the cliff face, she CAN see behind the waterfall now… but she doesn't see anything in the way of armaments or an entrance.

  "One second."

  Sophia jolts as Oren suddenly leaps up onto the cliff, driving his fingers into the rock to make himself temporary handholds. She watches him scale the cliff face and sidle off onto the sheer rock behind the waterfall for a moment, a little perplexed. Coming up beside her, Tyranos snorts derisively.

  "Like a damn monkey."

  For some reason, that raises her hackles for a moment. Sophia almost leaps to Oren's defense before thinking better of it, blushing a bit as she wonders exactly where her defensiveness was even coming from. In the end, she concludes that she's still perhaps a little bit upset about the conversation her Uncle and her had a month ago, back when they were just a week into this journey.

  She would be eternally grateful to Oren for dragging the two of them into his training sessions, because without that, she's not sure where she'd be at with her Uncle after all this time. Even if it did seem a little silly to be bouncing around while Oren flung himself at her at breakneck speeds trying to catch her and 'tag' her. Especially when she could just teleport right over and 'tag' him right back immediately afterwards, making it impossible for him to ever stay untagged for long.

  But then, as Oren put it, it wasn't about winning or losing. It was good, solid training for the Otherworlder, and Sophia could tell that he'd gotten faster, stronger, and more durable in the time they'd been traveling.

  The worst part of it all is, Sophia knew it wasn't Tyranos' fault. She'd struggled these past few weeks, not because she was angry at her Uncle, but because she couldn't accept that her father was anything less than perfect. And yet… it was obvious the more she thought about it that she hadn't known nearly as much about Law as she thought she had.

  It was just hard because she would never be able to confront him about it. She would never get to demand the answers from her father that she sought. He was dead and gone and Sophia was left holding the pieces. Was he a monster? Was he simply stuck making hard decisions to try and keep the world from falling apart around him? She would never know, in the end.

  Suddenly, her Uncle's hand falls upon Sophia's shoulder, causing her to jolt in surprise and look to him. He gives her a smile and a nod.

  "Almost there now, Sophia. I apologize if I upset you before… but I'm gd to be here with you now, dear niece."

  Flushing, Sophia lowers her eyes to the ground for a moment before shaking her head.

  "No… you didn't upset me… or if you did, it doesn't matter because it was necessary. Everything you told me was something I needed to know even if I didn't want to hear it. I just… needed time to really process it all."

  Tyranos hums knowingly and opens his mouth to respond, but before the Ancient God can say anything, he's cut off by a shout from Oren.

  "Here!"

  They've both been watching Oren as he's moved along the wall behind the roaring waterfall. The Otherworlder has been randomly tapping the rock and pressing his ear to the cliff face, clearly looking for something. Until finally, it seems he's found it. Rearing back his hand, he brings it down like a cudgel, using his fist and entire arm to sm through a specific part of the cliff face.

  It crumbles too easily to have been rock, even with Oren's enhanced strength. Indeed, it turns out to be something of a fa?ade, and before long there's a rge man-size hole in the cliff-face hidden out of sight behind the rge waterfall. As Oren hops from his hanging position to stand in the middle of it, he grins down at them with his hands on his hips.

  "Come on up!"

  Sophia looks to her uncle, who gives her a nod. With but a thought, she brings them both up to the tunnel entrance, nding with room to spare since Oren has taken a few steps back. Of course, the tunnel is extremely dark thanks to the waterfall hiding it, and it only gets darker still the deeper back it goes.

  Oren pulls out a ntern he'd bought when they were getting supplies for this trip and lights it, providing them with the ability to see as he leads them in. Sophia can't help but stare at the walls around them curiously. She's never seen anything like it before. It was almost…

  "This tunnel… it doesn't look natural, but it also doesn't look like it was carved out by tools."

  Tyranos' voice cuts through the silence, causing Oren to gnce back and chuckle.

  "Oh, that's because it wasn't. I dug this whole thing out with my bare hands. It really didn't take that long to be honest…"

  Sophia blinks and Tyranos pauses briefly before chuckling as they continue on.

  "So the armor and bde have been here all this time? Languishing in the dark. Amusing."

  Oren just nods, leading them deeper down the tunnel.

  "It seemed like the best pce for them in the end. Didn't want them to be easy to find, after all."

  Finally, they arrive at the end of the tunnel, which it turns out opens up into a surprisingly rge room. Not too rge, but certainly big enough to house somebody. When Oren sees her and Tyranos looking around curiously, he goes a bit red.

  "Ah… I carved this pce out when I still thought I might stick around and… guard the armor and sword, I guess. Fancied myself as some 'eternal guard' sitting here and watching over their resting pce to make sure they weren't stolen or something. That was before I finished digging out this room and quickly realized just how mind numbing such a thing was."

  Reaching up, Oren scratches his cheek in thought.

  "Plus, I would have still had to go out foraging for food and supplies all the time, making it more likely that someone might catch sight of me and follow me back here. In the end, I figured it was best for me to just seal the pce up and get as far away from it as possible."

  Oren finishes off his expnation with a shrug. Sophia understands though. She can't imagine what it must have been like for him back in those days. He'd just been fooled into sughtering the Heavens and was given a mandate from her dying father to find a way to hide his armaments. Oren had done so... but just sitting in this cave day in and day out would have been impossible.

  "Certainly an intelligent choice. Has it worked? I see neither armor nor weapon, but the pce looks retively undisturbed and the barrier you put up to hide the entrance seems to have held…"

  At Tyranos' words Oren nods and then holds out his torch. When her Uncle doesn't take it, Sophia steps forward after a moment and grabs it instead. Giving her a grateful smile, Oren turns and looks down at the ground.

  "… I think they're still here. I don't know why anyone would retrieve them and then bother covering their tracks to be honest. But… well, only one way to know for sure in the end."

  Walking forward, Oren begins to stamp on the ground with his boot in a few pces, seemingly looking for something.

  "Let's see…"

  He stomps around a bit longer while Sophia and Tyranos watch on, until finally he grunts. Sophia doesn't really hear any difference in the st stomp when compared to the others, but Oren nods decisively and drops to his knees.

  "Here. This is where I buried them."

  "Heh. The strongest armor and weapon in the entirety of Creation and he buried them in the dirt…"

  Her Uncle's voice is soft as he mutters to himself and Sophia doesn't pay him much mind. She's too focused on watching Oren suddenly start digging like a mad man. The goddess would question why he was digging with his bare hands… but truth be told, it's working for him. He digs fast and hard, unearthing more and more dirt and piling it off to the side of him as he goes.

  In just a couple minutes, Oren is in a hole as big as himself. Just when Sophia is beginning to wonder how deep he really buried them, the Otherworlder's voice cries out.

  "They're here!"

  A moment ter, the first of many pieces of armor wrapped in cloth is lifted up and set on the ground to the side of the hole. And then another… and another… Sophia swallows thickly as she sees the torchlight glinting off of the glimpses of armor under the cloth wrappings. She can barely make out anything, but what she does see takes her breath away. The craftsmanship… even with just this much, she can tell it's something special.

  Oren finally finishes with the armor and straightens up to his full standing height in the hole, lifting up what is clearly a sword also wrapped in cloth. Giving her a grin, he hops up out of the hole.

  "It's all here, Sophia."

  His smile is infectious, because Sophia quickly finds herself smiling right back at him.

  However, when she opens her mouth to say something… the words never get a chance to come out, choked off by the sudden pressure of her uncle's divine walking stick pressed against her throat hard enough to cut air flow and forcibly tilt her head back.

  Oren freezes in pce, his eyes widening as Tyranos takes her hostage. Because that's what's happening. It takes Sophia a moment to truly process it as she futilely gasps for air, but eventually she processes what's going on. Her Uncle is holding her in such a way that he could probably break her neck in an instant. And she knew just how powerful his stick was, how much of his own blood he must have infused in it over the millennia. It was akin to having celestial metal at her neck once more.

  "Good boy. But you've done your part now. Put down the sword so I'm not forced to break my niece's pretty little neck."

  Sophia can't see the Ancient God's face, but his voice… his voice has changed completely, going from old and wizened and grandfatherly to something far darker and more sinister. She tries to swallow, but she can't… she can't breathe and she's starting to see stars.

  Seeing this, Oren growls but tosses the sword to the ground in front of him.

  "Why-!"

  "No talking. I'm not interested in that right now. The dagger too, obviously. Kick them both over here as well as the armor. And don't try anything… we both know I'm still much faster than you."

  Frustration etched across every inch of Oren's face, he nevertheless does as he's told. Every piece of the God Killer's armor, as well as the God Killer's bde and the celestial dagger they got back in Oakvale to boot. All of it nds to the side of Sophia and Tyranos, even as the Ancient God pauses for just a moment before humming his approval and finally letting up on Sophia's neck.

  Not entirely, mind you. He loosens his grip just enough that she can breathe again, but the walking stick is still pressing against her throat, ready to silence her in a moment if need be. Sophia hacks and coughs briefly and then sucks in rge lungfuls of air before finally speaking up. Tyranos had told Oren not to talk, but Sophia can't help herself. She has to know.

  "Uncle… why?"

  Fortunately, the Ancient God doesn't decide to tighten his grip again. He does chuckle, however, a dark malevolent noise that grates on Sophia's senses.

  "Why? You haven't managed to figure it out yet, Sophia? I'm a little disappointed in you. The 'why' should be obvious. Did you really think my brother would allow a conceptual god to stay on the Mortal Pnes after the schism? No, of course not. He was much too controlling for that. Honestly… I'm a little disappointed that you thought I was really a God of Travelers and Roads. Roads, Sophia. Seriously?"

  W-What? Forcibly held hostage with her back against her Uncle's chest, Sophia can only stare bewildered at Oren… who has his eyes narrowed as he stares intensely at Tyranos over her shoulder.

  After a long moment of silence, Tyranos sighs.

  "It seems I must spell it out for you, dear niece. After we finished dealing with the Otherworlders, your father couldn't stand sharing leadership with me any longer."

  No…

  "Even though I was his beloved brother, he betrayed me and those under my care and threw us away, tossing us into the Void and imprisoning us there for thousands of years."

  Please, no…

  "I am not the God of Travelers and Roads, thankfully. I'd frankly rather die than be saddled with such useless domains."

  Please…

  "No… I am Tyranos, King of the Void, God of Tyranny and Conquest. Leader of those so-called 'Gods of the Void' that you two hoped to sy. And now… I've won."

  Fuck.

  -x-X-x-

  A/N: Yeah, yeah, maybe this twist was a little too obvious to be called a twist...

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