Trespassers of The Fire God

Peter and Adri were restrained in both body and spirit. The webs had restricted their movement and prevented them from using any kind of power. They were on sacrificial tables or at least they appeared to be sacrificial tables from the way there was blood channels. They were gagged, but could see. Above them were huge spiders like the one in the cave that started this whole thing. It was very terrifying to see death and know it was coming and do nothing.

"Foolish for you to come to me." The voice was high pitched and fast, like the universes most creepy impatient accountant. "The Fire God sent just two to my world, my harvest, and yet you two have hurt me, hurt my children, and your God saw fit to sacrifice you to me." From above he looked like a man, but now up close they could see its face was more spider, too many eyes, teeth that looked too crammed into too small a mouth. The creature was a grotesque mockery of a person and a spider.

Adri and Peter could say nothing, the creature had a variety of knives it was playing around with. Deciding where, and how to cut into Peter. Adri could just watch all the while struggling with her bonds. The spider creature selected a long curved knife and chose to dig into Peter's side. She heard Peter's scream as the creature sliced into him and felt her blood boil in rage at it.

"Yes bleed, bleed trespasser, bleed for me." The creature sounded happy and that made Adri even more angry. She couldn't even contain the rage it made her feel. She screamed and in that scream the bonds burned off her in a gust of flame. She extended a hand and her shield and sword were with her. The creature turned to look at her and she smashed its wretched head in with the shield. Wounded, but not dead she brought her sword down in a flurry. She heard its cries to stop, but did not heed them. By the time she was finished its guts were coating her. She could hear the spiders coming for her and Peter. Even could feel the ones from up above descending, and she welcomed them with a smile. She would kill them all, and they would all burn.

Step Into My Web

Adri and Peter were moving slowly now. They hadn't seen any spiders since the collapse, but knew more were around. As they moved into the cave it became less a cave and more of a temple. Which was more frightening because temple implied people or at least something with hands was down there with the spiders. Peter was humming to himself and Adri hit him, she wanted to hear any noise in the dark, but there was nothing. Only the sound of their footfalls as they descended into the spider temple.

The cave gave way to a inverse temple, with floors upon floors of people wrapped in webbing struggling against the wrapping. It was horrific and took Adri and Peters breath away. At the bottom was a man spider. The bottom of a spider, but the top of a man, it was being attended by other smaller creatures like it. They were bringing it blood from the people up above. Adri was about to say something to Peter when she felt a sharp prick at her neck. She looked above and saw the spiders had the drop on them. Peter had be similarly envenomed. She saw him drop his hammer and then the webbing started, with dawning realization she caught on they had been lead into the very trap they sought to destroy.

Only way forward, is Through

The spiders were never ending. Peter was tired of swinging his hammer, Adri could barely lift her sword. Their bodies were stacked up in walls of twitching burned creatures. Adri was shocked they could keep coming, eventually she'd figure they'd run out. But the bodies kept adding up and the blood and gore caking their weapons and armor got thicker and thicker.

"You know I'm kind of surprised they haven't tried to go around." Peter said something so stupid Adri wanted to smack him right in the face, but she knew she'd need him. Of course after he said that the spiders attacked from the other direction pinning them against the burning corpse wall and the still surging spiders coming from the other direction. They were both getting wound down from all the attacking. Peter knew they couldn't keep fighting, and so he pushed Adri past the corpses and swung mightily at the side of the cave they were fighting in. His blow aided by the strength of the fire god brought the cave down on their rear and crushed the pursuing spider hordes. What little of a force was left in front of them were easily dealt with.

"Why didn't we do that first?" Adri had a smile on despite now being trapped with the spiders in an unknown portion of the caves.

"Well I wanted to keep the way behind us open, when the spiders blocked that off, figured might as well choose the path with less of them."

"Less of them for now, they'll get back around."

"And we'll catch our breath and crush the bastards." Peter swung his hammer up on his shoulder and Adri appreciated how much more confident he was then when he was historian in their previous order. She needed that walking into the spider den. She knew what was ahead would make what was behind look like a picnic.

They'll Be Fine

"Your own champions now, how low class." The Fire god and Hanlon were playing their usual game. She had shown up post seeing the huge spider and Hanlon had a smile on his face that let her know he knew everything.

"From the creature who invented necromancers and keeps one around as a personal afront to the gods I'll take that as a compliment."

"For me sure, I have to do things in the dark by the nature of who I am, but you, you never engaged in that kind of thing, you have your sins, but never did you empower champions. This is not a normal thing for you." Hanlon was delighted The Fire God had taken his advice, in a way he knew she would, such was the nature of their relationship.

"I'm just going to let that slide, were you aware the spider god might still be around." The Fire God did not know for sure, but figured if anyone would know if it was really dead, it would be the Death God. Hanlon smiled at her inquiry and she knew that it was.

"Now I know why you had that whiff on you."

"What whiff?"

"Fear, you ran across one of his planets, and now I know where your little people are, oh this is rich."

"You do anything against my champions..." Hanlon held up his hands.

"Oh please why would I bother? No this will be delicious, you are now the one trespassing on someone elses territory. It's been a while since gods have gone to war."

"I'm sure my people will be fine, they've got my fire, that's enough."

"Against the spider god? Sure sure." Hanlon smiled in a way that unsettled the Fire God, she started to wonder if her people would be fine, and what she had accidentally let them walk into.

Spider Squashers of the Fire God

Adri smashed the spider in its fangs with her shield. She felt them sliding around on the metal and she hoped what ever venom it had wasn't corrosive. The creature howled at her and tried to move to her right. She brandished the sword and lit up the blade to keep it more to her front. She was hoping Peter was getting an angle on it, but she could see he had tripped and ended up entangled in some webbing and was flailing like an idiot. She sighed knowing this was going to come down to her. The spider rushed her shield now trying to up and over her to trap her underneath its weight. She went with the creature letting it push her down and then brought her sword up at the time impaling the creature and dropping its guts down upon her. The smell was a foul ichor that almost made her vomit. She pushed the creature in its death throes off her shield and looked for Peter who had seemingly freed himself from the webs only to be entangled by more of the spiders brought by his flailing.

"Seriously Peter?" They were smaller than the creature she'd slain, but Peter was still entangled partially in the web and he was having trouble swinging his hammer in the tighter quarters, she saw blood on his torso, so one of the creatures had obviously bitten him.

"I hope they're not poisonous." Somewhere in the universe Trezlan felt a pang of anger and he did not know why.

"Can't you burn things? Burn some things!" Adri was kind of upset, sure it been a while since they'd use the fire god's power, but Peter was definitely slacking in his application of it.

"Right sorry, sorry I should have..." One of the spiders was about to sink its fangs into Peter's neck and Adri was not close enough to stop it.

"PETER KILL THE GODS DAMNED SPIDERS!" Sensing her importance placed on killing things, Peter extended a ring of fire around himself that vaporized the spiders, and their webs and came close to burning Adri's face. The fire spread around the room quite well and burned most of the webbing down. Adri was impressed.

"So that's that right, got all the spiders?" Peter used some of his power on his wound and looked to seal it off.

"Yeah no, whatever grabbed at me had hands Peter, we have to go deeper."

"You're just a bad person Adri." Adri let that go, she could see where the cave went deeper in, and from noise coming that way, whatever lived there, now was aware someone was coming. She readied her sword and told Peter to do the same. They were about to have more friends.

A Godly Pep Talk

"I hate spiders." The Fire God had no real love for any creature, but spiders specifically drew her ire. She recalled as a fledgeling god there was a god the creatures themselves had. It was her specific goal starting out to see that god wiped out, and she thought she'd mostly succeeded, but seeing the large spider under the ground facing her champions she felt maybe it had just let her think she'd succeeded.

"You didn't know?" Peter was kind of surprised at the Fire God's appearance let alone her seeming surprise at the spider.

"Know what? That there is at least one and possibly several other large spiders? No this catches me completely unaware, I knew something was wrong here. I'd heard calls for assistance from the down trodden, but I did not assume gigantic freaking spiders was the problem." The Fire God was amused by the situation, but not that amused seeing where the spider was.

"So you want us to kill them?"

"I want you to burn every last one of these god awful creatures to the ground, I want you to have them running in terror at the sight of fire and my champions. I want every last one of these creatures to have the last thing they see is one of my champions crushing its life with my power. So yes kill them." Adri and Peter were inspired by the Fire God's hatred. Though seeing the huge spider in front of them, it definitely did not seem like it would simply be a case of just swinging a weapon and calling it a day. "Ok so you're both good? You're.. oh god it moved, all right well have fun kids I'm going to go somewhere else for a bit." The Fire God disappeared in a gout of flame just as the huge spider slithered down from it's position and faced Adri and Peter.

"Well I feel good about our chances." Peter didn't sound that convinced and Adri smiled.

"We've got the god of Fire on our side, these things don't stand a chance." She readied her shield and charged forward.

These Look Intentional

The cavern was definitely man made. It was the one thing that was apparent to both Peter and Adri. That the creatures whatever they were, were only using something that was already there. It wasn't a sewer either, it was some kind of underground cavern used for something they couldn't figure. With the ceiling being soft enough for someone to be pulled through, but still maintain hardness for people to walk through. The more they traveled the seemingly endless cavern, the more they were certain this was what they had been sent to put an end to. Eventually the man made tunnels gave way to an older more natural foundation and that's when they noticed the webbing. It was thick and covered everything. Among the webs were bones and dried husks of people.

"Fire god be damned its a lair of huge spiders." Adri spit it out. She hated spiders, hated them like nothing else.

"We don't know that, other insects have we... oh shit." They hadn't noticed it at first, but just past where they had come in was a rather large black spider, it appeared to be sleeping, but Peter knew as soon as it sensed disturbance on the web it would attack.

"So we can just pull back get a ticket to a new planet and start over right?"

"No Adri we are the voice of our god, we have to do something about this, people are dying."

"Peter you are such a kill joy." Peter was about to touch the web when the Fire God herself made an appearance.

"And how is my voi,, holy shit that's a big gods damned spider."

Things in Shadows

They could hear things in the dark around them. Adri didn't want to give light to things, almost wanted to slink out of the cave they'd found themselves in, but she knew she had to light things up. She knew she had to brighten her sword up and see what had taken those underground even if she didn't want to. It was wordless between her and Peter, they both gave light to their weapons and the cavern at once dark illuminated and there was nothing. They swept as far as they could see and the cavern was empty. Clearly it hadn't been as of late, they could see the blood from where Adri had struck one of the creatures, but as far as that creatures existence or the noise it had made originally? Nothing existed.

"Well I feel awkward." Peter was the first to say something and it caused Adri to laugh even though there wasn't really anything funny about their current circumstance.

"Which way do we go ahead or behind?" Both seemed equally as horrible based on people being drug under.

"Well people were drug ahead of us, so I'd suggest we go that way.

"Seems like a valid plan if only simplistic."

"We're wearing armor given to us by the Fire God chasing after creatures under the earth we didn't even see, simplistic is what we got."

"Fair enough." Peter took his hammer in both hands and went forward, into the dark and towards what sounded like chittering. His strength of resolve fading with each step.

One Way, But not The Best Way

"I can't believe you support Morris." Adri and Peter were in their small shanty near the fields. The days work had been finished and they were watching the local entertainment channel. The program they were having a disagreement on was a popular dating program where people were randomly paired with each other and go on dates. Peter was shocked Adri supported Morris a person Peter found personally repellent.

"He seems nice."

"Did you see what he did on the last date?"

"Did you see the size of his arms?" The debate had raged for hours, and was raging when the first scream hit the air. If Peter and Adri could have afforded a nicer living space they might not have heard it, but since they barely made enough to keep the lights on, the scream almost sounded like it came from within their shack. It was a man's scream, and one of pain and fear. Adri and Peter were outside immediately and as Adri had predicted their armor was on, their weapons were also seemingly willed into existence by the need for them as well. They fanned out to look for the source of the noise but came up with nothing. Whoever had screamed was gone. As if plucked from the planet. Other people had emerged in this small shanty community, and they were surprised to see Adri and Peter in their armor.

"Anyone know wha..." The man tried to say something, but he was ripped mid sentence underground, the others who had emerged befell similar fates. Peter and Adri shifted their feet and looked at the ground. They heard it before they saw it. Just a vague rumbling under their feet and then claw like hands emerged from underneath the dirt to drag them under. They jumped backwards and the hands followed, Adri struck out with her sword and when it hit a high pitched screech came from under the ground and the hands shot back under.

"Tunnels?" Adri seemed confused, her sword had a black blood on the end of it.

"One way to find out." Peter took up his hammer and swung as hard as could at the ground, the blow didn't seem to do anything at first, and then the ground underneath their feet gave way and they tumbled into the dark below them. They fell for longer than Peter would have liked and only at the last minute did he shield them from hitting the ground harder than he'd probably want to. Adri fell on top of him and knocked the wind out of him.

"One way, but not the best way Peter." Was what she said as she struggled for her breath in the dark.

Work of the Fire God

"I'm concerned about where the armor goes." Peter and Adri had been on planet for a few days. The planet was named Cyros, their pilot had said this was where she was told to leave them, and so she did. Cyros wasn't much to write home about, mostly an agricultural world on the edge that fed corporate planets deeper in. Apparently according to the Hand the planet had a sickness that only Peter and Adri could heal. It was cryptic as a message, but they felt they couldn't exactly demand more of the person who saved them.

"Clearly its magical armor, it'll just appear when we need it." The armor had disappeared shortly after the Hand had picked them up, which left them naked, Peter was entirely embarrased until the Hand found some clothes on board, Adri had never been bothered by being naked, so it didn't bother her that Peter had seen her naked.

"I don't like that it leaves me naked really, or that somehow its stored on my body."

"But burning people alive is fine." They had to find a place to stay in Cyros, they didn't have that. They had been sleeping outside for the past few nights, but after a run in with the authorities they were told to find work, or find their way off planet.

"Point taken."

"We're getting off task, we need to find something to do here or we'll wind up doing some time in the local jail where I don't think we'd be doing very much good." Peter agreed, and he really didn't want to spend any time in prison. They continued walking around, hoping to find a job they could be qualified for. Peter hoped to find an archivist position, Adri something in security. All they could find was labor at one of the aggro farms. Loading and unloading the auto trucks that came in. Honest work and it let them afford a small place for rest and meals, but it certainly didn't seem like the kind of job their god would want of them, let alone help a planet become pure again. Still it was nice to do something. That's how things went for a time. And how things would have kept going if not for the attack...

Welcome to The Family

"I don't understand any of this." Peter had waited for a bit before speaking. He wanted to understand, but he was completely lost in all of this. Adri looked at him with annoyance. The Hand, who went by that name because of the weapon she carried, didn't seem bothered by it at all.

"The Fire God doesn't exactly like direct intervention, or at least she didn't until you two, in the past my order would intercede at key moments prompted by our god, always from the shadows. Now you two will apparently be our God's voice, striking fear back into the galaxy, and bringing people back to worship of the true God." She said it like it had already happened, it seemed like a big order of work for Peter and Adri. Adri wasn't even that strong a believer in the Fire God, she just liked the martial aspect of things.

"That seems a bit steep for just the two of us."

"You have power, its in both of you clear as day, you are no more people than I am just a mere pilot. You'll get guidance from our lord, don't worry, she is all around us." That didn't seem very reassuring the Adri and Peter, but compared to being dead a couple times over like they'd be, it was better than nothing, which seemed about right for how the universe seemed to treat things.

"I don't know really, I'm sorry, its just too much right now." Peter who had been the true believer, was more lost that Adri, she could hear in his voice the sorrow about everyone they had lost. And even with their new found power, it didn't suddenly make things easier.

"Don't worry young one, you will, you're part of the family now, and family always looks out for each other." That made Peter feel slightly better, until the Hand was showing off her piloting skills and made Peter vomit. Apparently being family also meant being a dick just to show off.

Let Me Lend You A Hand

Peter and Adri felt they were screwed. The ship was exploding, probably some self defense measure that killing the captain had initiated. They had found new suits so they could survive the cold vacuum for some time, but without a way of getting away from the ship, this seemed like at best a way to die in space of oxygen asphyiation. But it was better than being blown up. Adri grabbed Peter's hand as they stepped out of the airlock and into space. The ship exploded behind them soundlessly, small portions detonating and then imploding. It would have been beautiful if not for the obvious danger to Adri and Peter.

"Well the voice of the Fire god didnt' last very long." Peter sounded glum, Adri couldn't blame him, it sucked to be brought back to life to die.

"At least we go out with a bang eh eh?"

"Adri I don't think this is a time for jokes."

"Perfect time for jokes, I mean what better way to face oblivion." Peter said nothing, he just floated next to Adri watching the explosions. And that's how they would have stayed had a ship not shown up as if called from their god (which to be fair it was). The cargo doors opened on the ship and not wanting to look a gift ship in the mouth they both climbed inside. The ship was fairly bare bones, and only had one person piloting it.

"Sit rest you've had a very trying day." The pilot was a woman, sounded like mid forties to Adri and Peter.

"Who are you? How did you know to come get us?"

"You're our gods voice yes? I'm her hand, and you definitely needed one just now."

Smash Bang Time

"You freaking parasites." It seemed rude to both shoot at you and insult you. That's the one thing Peter took from the gigantic robot smashing through the lounge. Adri had used her shield to block most of the projectiles, but Peter saw some make it through to her armor and knew that she'd been hit. He could sense it in a way he couldn't explain. He also knew he could heal her when the time came, but they had to destroy the robot first which seemed a little hard considering their current circumstance.

"We need a plan." Adri and Peter were crouched behind the remains of some kind of dining table. The man in the robot was tromping around near by, they had managed to get away from him after he fired a rocket off that obscured his vision.

"Oh now we need a plan."

"Don't start with me Peter."

"So what do you propose?"

"Well I get out there and distract him with my shield, and then you get behind it and hit him with that hammer like you've never hit something before. Hit him so hard his family will feel it into the afterlife."

"Better plan than waiting to die." The robot turned a corner and Adri charged at it with her shield, she smashed the gun arm hoping to knock it off balance, but seemingly didn't do anything. She was about to bring her sword down on it when its other arm smashed into her and sent her flying backwards. Adri hoped she had bought enough time for Peter, but she didn't see him anywhere.

"Stupid fools, do you really think your armor and ancient weapons can do anything to my armor?"

"Well we had hoped to not run into a big robot." The man was about to say something in return when Peter came crashing down on his head. The mace smashed the robot on top of its operator. His anguished wail reverberated in the room. Peter turned to Adri who looked pretty beat up, he reached out a hand and she felt better.

"Are you feeling better?"

"Better that you didn't wait forever yeah." Adri hit Peter on the shoulder and they both had a laugh about things, until something exploded deeper in the ship.

"We should probably."

"Yeah leave, definitely leave." They didn't really know how to get off the ship, or where they could even go, but it was the thought that mostly counted about getting off the ship.

An Interlude on Sickness

*Bleargh* Trezlan couldn't figure what it was. Something was dying inside of him. Every time he'd eat, or drink, or just exist he'd be vomitting. SiC had him examined and said it was some kind of food illness not related to what the machines fed him. Trezlan scoffed at this, but only between vomiting spells. He had discovered every bathroom on the ship and had come to prefer a few of them over the others. The robots for their part made sure he was comfortable when he'd collapse in his own vomit somewhere.

Still stomach illness was no fun for the Lorentino. Though the fresh voices of the fire god would probably exchanged places with him based on their current predicament.

Ok So Not As Easy As It Appeared

"I think this is a bad idea." Peter and Adri had put on enviromental suits to survive the vaccum. But now they were outside the ship sliding alongside the bulkheads towards the front of the ship and Peter felt there were flaws to what was going on.

"Interior bulkheads were too tough to cut through, but I just know this ship has a lounge toward the front, all we have to do slice through some viewing glass and we'll be good to go." Peter remained unconvinced.

"I dont't think it will be that easy."

"We're running out of air on these suits, so its either that or die, you're choice Peter." They had reached the viewing glass and Peter dismayed, it wasn't just simply cut through something, it was cut through something and then fall twenty five feet. Adri had left that part out.

"I forgot to ask how we survive getting sucked back into space once we slice through?" Adri raised her sword up and Peter wanted to stop her, but wasn't quick enough.

"Eh details." She brought the blow down and the viewing glass exploded inwards dropping both of them inside. Peter focused on the ground and managed to create a bubble to stop their fall. but not before they both slammed into the ground hard. "Like I said, we're fine." Up above the glass was sealed off by another bulkhead before they were sucked into space. Peter was about to say something else when a robotic suit smashed through the entrance and armed up a large cannon at them.

"Fine eh?"

"Ok we might slightly be in trouble."

The Voice Speaks

The medics that greeted Adri and Peter were surprised to say the least. Two people being dressed in armor of old, charging out of a shuttle with weapons held high would surprise anyone. Any sympathy for the medical personnel had been bombed out of them when this ship had killed friends and family. There were three of them waiting at the shuttle entrance. Adri killed one with a thrust, while Peter crushed the other with his hammer, the third man fled and Peter reached out with his hand and burned the man alive. It was an amazing thing for a non magical user to have magic like that, it was also terrifying. Peter simply extended a hand and killed a man. The champions didn't have much time to adjust to their new state of being, boots were tromping in their direction.

The soldiers emerged not really covered in body armor, but they did have rifles. Adri lowered her shield and marched forward, extending out from the shield was a barrier of fire, the soldiers bullets slammed into and were flatted like they'd hit hard steel. Panic'd they fired faster hoping to drop the shield before she got to them, but it didn't work. Adri reached the group and with super human strength carved them up, her blows sending men and body parts flying. Blast doors slammed down to lock the champions in, but between Peter's hammer and Adri's sword, they were easily sliced open. The Fire God's voice would not be denied.

****

"I don't know sir, whatever they are, they are carving their way through the ship!" Griggs heard the paniced ensign and felt sad. What had gone from being an easy operation had become a mess, and now some kind of armored warriors of old were burning and murdering their way to him. It all went wrong somewhere and Griggs was reluctant to say where.

"Decompress the lower decks."

"Sir!"

"JUST DO IT!" The ensign worked with trembling hand, Griggs knew this would kill hundreds of people, but the two people were already doing that, so it wasn't like he was really killing them, which is what he told himself.

****

"Do you hear something?" Adri was busy pulling her sword out of a wall where she had thrown it to impale someone.

"A hissing noise."

"Decompressing the ship? Wow that's ballsy, stupid, but ballsy."

"So what do we do?" Peter was worried, though Adri despite not knowing how to fly a shuttle had actually done some work on ships.

"Come with me Peter."

Future Uncertain

"Still unable to contact the strike team sir, though it appears two of them survived by thermal scans." The bridge crew was waiting in silence since the lady in red had wiped out what appeared to be their whole team. They were unable to get a visual on what had happened, so they were down to thermal sweeps and those had indicated two people had survived, which implied they had killed the woman who had gotten their team.

"Comms?"

"Down still, whatever that bitch hit us with has messed up everything. I swear she didn't even show up on thermal." The interloper had caused a panic on board. Captain Griggs barely got anyone focussed on the mission after she had seemingly appeared from nowhere and hit their ship with some kind of sensor damaging burst. They figured it was a virus of some kind, but engineering had reported their sensors were apparently literally fried.

"Autopilot work?"

"Yes sir."

"Bring them up, I don't know why they haven't gotten it going, but they may be hurt, so get medical down there."

"Yes sir." Griggs sat back in his char, he wanted to know what in the gods name was going on.

****

"We're moving great job Peter!" They had been in the cockpit for a bit trying to figure out how to get the shuttle moving, so far they'd not been able to glean anything and all of a sudden the ship was moving.

"I didn't touch anything."

"Crap that must mean they are autopiloting us, which hopefully means they are going to bring us on board."

"Hopefully?"

"Well they might know we are followers of the Fire God and they are planning on piloting us into the sun."

"Adri in the future remind me what a cynic you are about things."

"If we have a future."

"Adri!"

Go Forth And Burn

"And so I come to you two, who asked nothing and were willing to die for me, which you should, but it was brought to my attention I've relied on sins and a particularly annoyingly self interested family for the majority of my conflict resolution, and that's probably not for the best for me." The Fire God wasn't great at explaining things, then again she'd never had to in the past. She just did things and the universe dealt with the consequences.

"What would you have of us?" Adri spoke for Peter, which seemed about right since Peter was still dumbstruck by the actual Fire God resurrecting them and then conversing with them.

"I want you to be my voice, and my voice is filled with rage right now. For too long my people have been hunted, ever since the red war I've been silent, working in the shadows, no longer. You will be my champions." She waved her hand and they were suited in armor of old, it was light almost like it wasn't there, but still sung with power. At the same time both Peter and Adri felt infused with power, neither one had any natural magical ability, but now they felt like they could do all kinds of things.

The fire god looked at Adri and handed her a sword and shield, "You shall be my sword and shield, both defense and offense, shield those who need protection, smite those who offend." She then turned toward Peter and gave him a hammer that was almost the size of him, "And you shall be my hammer, the world is full of nails and you shall smash them, but at the same time, hammers are constructive, so you'll have the power to heal as fire does, burning away the infection." They both nodded at her choices.

"Where shall your voice first go?" Adri felt alive more than ever, not just the power of her god, but the power of devine purpose.

"Your enemies came here in a small craft, you can take that to their larger craft and deal with them, this organization has opposed me and mine for too long, I have allowed their bullshit for long enough. Bring them low, but only use the weapons I have given you, my voice must be clear, my purpose direct."

"Yes my lord." They answered in unison and made their way to the shuttle waiting outside. Once inside Adri sat at the controls and turned to Peter.

"So can you fly a shuttle?"

"No."

"Crap." So it was a bit of a rough start for the Voice of The Fire God.

Only Fools Don't Believe in The Power of Gods

Peter and Adri were still stunned by the loss of everyone they knew when they heard boots coming in their direction. They knew it wasn't anyone coming to help, it was whoever had killed their friends and family coming to finish the job. Adri looked for something to do some damage in return with. All she could come up with was part of the ceiling she took up like a shield, she hoped to block some of the incoming fire to get close enough to do more. Peter just resigned himself to his fate, his only worry was the volume of history he carried was the last of its kind for the worship of the fire god.

Their executioners arrived, and said little. Adri charged and the ceiling panel was able to deflect some of the bullets before it was punctured and she was gunned down. Peter upon seeing his last friend die screamed and charged forward, he too was met with bullets and died slightly behind Adri, a tribute to never being able to keep up with her. The men confirmed both deaths and were on the way out when a woman in a red suit appeared. They who had never seen the Fire God mistakenly believed she was someone who had been missed by their scans and they opened fire on her, which did nothing. The bullets drilled through her clothing, but did not seem to affect either.

"What are you?"

"The god of whom you have murdered my followers." The men laughed.

"Right whatever force field you have bitch it'll fail with enough..." Their leader didn't get to finish, he was burned from the inside out, The Fire God thought little of these insects, even less so when they didn't give her the proper respect. The rest of the men for all the good it did opened up on her. She killed them with all the effort of swatting a particularly annoying fly. The troops dealt with The Fire God approached the bodies of her last disciples. So many of her people had been killed, so many followers lost, and she cared little. But this, whatever this was, upset her. These followers had mainly just wanted to believe. The large one in front of her even carried a volume of her history, he had shielded it so that it might survive when he would not. She reached down with her power, tapped into something she normally did not and brought them back to life. They looked surprised about being alive, and then shocked when their God herself stood in front of them.

"I'm sure you two have some questions."

The Last Disciples

"Come on hurry up." Adri Raiyne was tired of waiting for her slower companion. They were late for prayer already and with his doddling they'd be even later. Her companion a large oaf of a man named Peter Haknawa was trundling along behind her, his nose in a thick volume detailing the history of the Fire God. Peter dwarfed Adri in size, but she had always known him to be more gentle than anything, in their martial sparring he lost more often than not.

"Sorry just feeling a bit winded."

"If you'd work on cardio more you'd have better wind." Adri doted on Peter, but she found him the most easy going to work with among the disciples. Everyone else was all war and bringing glory, Peter spent most of his time reading up on the history of the fire god and fishing, it was such a weird thing, but it ingratiated him to her. For Peter he was just glad Adri who was very good at all the physical things he lacked at was willing to work with his coordination. He had a lot of strength, but lacked the dexterity to properly implement it. Adri joked he should just carry a big club, that way if he hits someone it'll be the last hit they'll ever receive.

They were late for the service. Peter was looking for an obscure history of a previous Father in their church and Adri didn't want him to be last into the hall as always, so she waited around. She didn't know he'd have been this late or she would have let him be the last one. They were half way down the hall when the blast hit. They felt the impact before they saw the destruction. Some kind of orbital strike from the impact of it. One minute they were moving towards the prayer hall, the next laying flat on the ground. More shots landed in other subsequent areas. Whoever was killing the Disciples knew exactly where to fire. Adri looked on in horror as all the living spaces were vaporized before her. Peter sat clutching the book he'd taken from library, she could hear him crying above the screams and burning. It was over in minutes, but the impact would linger.

They were now, the last Disciples of the Fire God.

The Indifference of the Gods

Praying to the Gods is a fools errand. No matter how devout, no matter how much you have sacrificed, ultimately they do not care. Sure divine intervention has occurred, but only at their behest, not because someone asked. You are better off believing in yourself and ignoring the Gods than expecting their help. But every once in a great while, when boredom or a Divine plan is at play, they do interfere at the behest of a prayer. It's not something anyone can really point to. Usually just a legend of a legend. Someone heard from a guy that a guy once asked a god for help and it happened.

Most of the stories have to do with Trezlan Lorentino. Who does not really pray as he whines, and the gods interfere for him if only because he amuses them more often than not. But there are others who in their moment of need are granted clemency. Though never usually the Fire God. Her indifference to her subjects bordered on cruelty. She didn't even have open worshipers any longer and she cared very little for who remained with her. She viewed those who had given her power as means to an end and their current struggles not worth it.

The last true order of Fire God followers wasn't much. It was a group of no more than sixty who still carried on the martial tradition. But things were about to change for the last order, and in that change something that hadn't happened before was about to happen, and all the universe would feel the repercussions.

I Feel You Aren't Taking This Seriously

"Sir." SiC was following along behind me, we had left the planet behind, I wanted to fire a parting shot just to be sure everything was dead, but SiC convinced me it was a waste of resources. Damnable robots not understanding sometimes a waste of resources is a gift of anger. Still I was feeling pretty good, got my sword back, killed the death god gun again (stupid thing stop trying to kill me). It was somewhat successful of a mission.

"Yes?"

"You should really be checked out, you had exposure to things down there, both magical and physical." I waived him off.

"I'm fine, you guys worry too much, there are several things that can kill me, but nothing down there came all that close. Aside from boredom, the hand doesn't know how to argue at all." SiC stopped me, I was annoyed at its insistence even it was heartwarming the machine cared.

"Sir your calllous disregard for your personal safety is noble at times, but you really need to be more careful."

"I'll be careful when I'm dead SiC."

"That will be more likely to happen with your current attitude!" I walked off waving my hands. I swear to the gods I invented my own mother that I never had. Ok not so much invented as programmed and stole, but still the point remains! Damnable robots! Stop caring so much!