Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

A beautiful yet sadistic smile appeared on Melinda's lips at Hal's words and he, as well as all others at the scene, could tell that she was contorting the worst punishment possible for the General who could not possibly escape her clutches.

With the calm that had accompanied Hal's victorious and grand return, the forces of the Sapphirine Cult could finally breathe easy. The ladies of the Legion all looked up in awe at their powerful leader who they could all lay claim to as their man.

Rita smiled up at Hal and then sought out Svetlana with the connection all members of the Harem possessed to deliver a message straight into the mind of the Blue-eyed witch,

"You led me to him, for that at least, I thank you," 

Many would have turned on Svetlana due to her acts but Rita was not one of that many and even then, she was not blind to the Duchess' faults. 

One of those faults involved neglecting her son and having Rita be her only eyes and ears for his safety but Rita understood that if it had not been for that particular fault, her life path would not have changed so drastically and wonderfully as it now had and for that she was grateful.

Rita was not the only one reminiscing on how much Hal had impacted their lives.

Marla remembered how she had been a servant for the Holgers only to be brought so close to Hal's side and given the opportunity to harness the power she possessed and had not known about before him. 

Karmen remembered how she had been a slave and Hal had set her free with the option to walk away safe or to give herself to him, body mind, and soul. Every minute she had lived since then, she thanked her stars that she had chosen right.

Every member of the Legion was a bit vulnerable and they forgot about the fact that the Nexus world was still cracked to simply spend time basking in Hal's- their victory and the dawn of a new age.

Even Melinda, with her mind awash with creative means of torture, did not forget to bask in the glow of success and in the joy that she was Hal's and he was hers.

Being connected to his women as he was and now possessing godly cultivation made it so that Hal was bombarded with all that they could feel and were thinking but he was not overwhelmed... Rather he welcomed the bombardment as he prepared to begin the true restoration of the Nexus World.

Before he could start the restoration though, a dark cloud, thick and ominous, covered the atmosphere outside the Nexus world and got closer and thicker by the second.

"That feeling... Gods!" Melinda said with furrowed brows as her look of pleasured contemplation was replaced with one of seriousness at the matter at hand.

"You sense right, my dear," Hal said and he released her waist to vanish from the Nexus world and confront the cloud approaching.

With Hal gone, Melinda was of course instantly left in charge. She bound one-armed Karmit and rallied the troops for the possibility that the battle was not yet over.

The thought on the minds of the men and women of the Sapphirine cult was the same; Could they truly stand a chance against the coming threat?

Melinda might have been the first, after Hal, to sense what the dark cloud meant but the rest were not too far behind.

What they had just faced was nothing, absolutely nothing compared to what they could feel was coming and they were worried.

They had absolute faith in their Lord but caution remained as well as the good sense to know that while they would die for him, he was not quite at his all-powerful phase yet.

...

In the vacuum of space outside the Nexus world, Hal appeared before the dark cloud that was simply a crude manifestation of the combination of Armies from every one of the ten Primevals to form a massive Armada.

There was no surprise on Hal's face, not because he was all-knowing (he was quite close) but because this was very much expected.

He was now a god and had claimed godhood through the Nexus world which now made the Nexus world a godly domain capable of occupying godly beings.

Before, they could not enter or would risk a catastrophe but now they could come in, lay waste to all occupants and take the world as theirs should they desire.

This was what Nihasa had been referring to when she said Hal was at his most vulnerable to her now that he was a god.

Speaking of Nihasa, she as well as all other Primevals was absent from the scene but she, just like the others, had sent representatives. Her representatives were easily recognizable to Hal especially since he had had them within him up until he created Infinity and stripped himself of his Mother's imprint.

"Hello, Hal. You look... Different," Myra said with her usual sultry smile and a serious-looking Tiberius by her side.

Myra's observation was warranted. Apart from the physical changes to Hal's appearance, his very aura had changed and expanded exponentially since they last met, and she as well as every Primeval representative present could feel that he was still growing.

"Hello Myra, I trust you are manipulatively well in my Mother's ever so manipulative clutches," Hal said with a small smile.

"I'm as well as I ever was..." Myra said and she seemed to have more to say but was quickly interrupted by a scaly individual with a perpetual frown,

"We are not here to chit-chat or hear you reminisce with the The problem," he said.

"We have a history with the 'Problem', Forgon, and we can help this all go smoother," Tiberius said.

"'Problem'? See you getting all sentimental with all the personal name-calling," Hal said with a chuckle.

"Your history with the Problem is of no use here. If anything, for that history, you should be banned from involvement, you red-eyed swine!" Forgon said.

"You're really going to let him disrespect you like that?" Hal said to Tiberius who ignored him to address Forgon,

"There is no reason to sound so spiteful,"

"There is every reason," piped a green-eyed god that Hal instantly tagged as having a connection to Zalser, the Primeval Asura, and hence a connection to Karmit and the dead forces of the Asura Primeval.

"We are not here to negotiate... There is nothing to negotiate." said the green-eyed god and his loud words spurred the agreement of the combined Army.

"You are right. There is nothing to negotiate and I would never dream of trying to negotiate with you rowdy bunch," Hal said.

"Hal," Myra called to him and flew closer to him, 

'We bring a message from your Mother,' she told him telepathically and Hal frowned in annoyance at her infiltrating his mind to deliver such pointless (according to him) information.

He reinforced his mental guard, ignored Myra, and continued,

"I wish not to negotiate but to tell you a tale,"

"We do not need your words, whatever they might be," Forgon said.

"Oh but you do," Hal told him with a grin.

Myra tried several times to break the mental defense and when she failed, she decided to let it all out in a vocal outburst,

"She is giving you one more chance!" 

"You succubus whore, what are you doing?!" yelled the green-eyed God.

"Let her speak," Tiberius said with bright red Fiendish eyes and the overwhelming presence of a representative of the Primeval Devil Queen.

"One last chance. Let go of this pipe dream of doing it on your own... Surrender yourself to her governance, allow your world to become a province of the Hellish plane, and let her be your protection against the troubles to come." Myra said and stared into Hal's eyes with a non-sexual intensity that did not quite match the non-existent outfit she had on.

Hal stared back for a good minute before he looked away to address the Armada in a cheery tone,

"The tale I wish to tell you is of the untouchable clause still present in the Ring of Neglected worlds, for it is that clause that will stop you from accomplishing what your masters have set you out for.

I am happy, giddy even, to tell you that you shall return to them empty-handed and oozing disappointment,"