Book 7, Chapter 61 - Doomsday Shif (2/2)

All the churches in the city lay in ruins.

The situation was as follows: Stormford’s leadership had formally declared their independence from the gods. Many in the city supported their decision, but there were still many who refused to believe the wealth of proof shoved under their noses.

Dawn was indignant. “What the fuck is their problem? Isn’t it obvious by now?”

“I doubt it’s religion. They’re probably scared. We don’t even know what’s going to happen when war with the gods comes.” Cloudhawk watched the tumult unfold and heaved a sigh. “We’re so far beneath them.”

His defeatism took Dawn by surprise. “What’s going on?”

He didn’t hide anything from her, so he answered honestly. “The God King and I fought.”

His revelation hit her like a ton of bricks. “What? You and the God King...”

“Actually, it was the God King from a thousand years ago. That’s who I fought.”

What the hell did that even mean? The God King from a thousand years ago? Even if Cloudhawk was a thousand years old, the sentence didn’t make any damn sense!

He walked her through the events within the Source crystal. She listened in shock, amazed that the God King could do what Cloudhawk claimed. Was he saying that their enemy knew what Cloudhawk would do a thousand years before he did it?

“This can’t be right. If the God King knew about you, why not get here earlier to make sure you weren’t a threat? If he knew exactly where you’d be, he should have at least left a few Supreme gods to deal with you, right?” Dawn was filled with skepticism. “IF the God King was really able to see that far in the future, there’s no way you could have gotten this far.”

Cloudhawk scowled at the weighed the situation. “That’s the crux of this problem. I think it has to do with the Great War. It was more complicated than we understand.”

“More complicated?”

“Even the God King’s power over time has its limits. I’m willing to bet it had to be in a certain place with a certain relic to access a time a thousand years in the future. But even if he can see and interact with the future, he can’t go there. Maybe it can’t even pinpoint the exact time things occur.” Cloudhawk paused for a moment before continuing. “Anyway, there’s one thing we can say for certain. The God King knows about me and where I would be – but he didn’t kill me. It wants me to get stronger.”

“Maybe it hasn’t had a challenge for so long and is looking for an opponent?” Dawn surmised. “A lot of the best run into this problem.”

“You underestimate the gods. I’m sure there’s some deeper reason.”

Whatever the case, if the God King wanted to kill Cloudhawk then he’d had any number of opportunities to do so. Hell, he could have been silenced as a baby. But the God King did no such thing. That could only mean Cloudhawk was worth something to it.

But he had felt it. There was definitely the intention to kill Cloudhawk in that attack. So Cloudhawk might be valuable, but also a threat. Probably that was the reason why the God King seems to be wavering between killing him and letting him live. He could tell from their exchange that the God King tried to kill him with a heavy heart. But even if it didn’t want to kill Cloudhawk, there was precious little time for him to save himself and his species.

Dawn asked the obvious question. “So what should we do now?”

“Move.” He replied.

“Move? Move what?” Her confusion was clear.

“Everyone.” After this conflict Cloudhawk saw their shortcomings clear as crystal. It was not yet the time to face the gods, and being forced into conflict would only result in mankind’s extinction. “The army of the gods will be here soon and we can’t fight them off. I’m talking about an exodus. From this whole planet. We can’t stay here.”

Dawn looked at him with wide eyes, speechless. He wanted to evacuate everyone. Where? He was talking about a huge number of people!

The first thing that came to her mind was the city beneath the jungle planet. Why not? Maybe the Demon King knew what would come and prepared the place for them.

“But we can’t possibly transfer everyone.”

“We have no choice… it’s the end of the world.” Cloudhawk cast his gaze across the city and delivered the verdict in a low, sad tone.

Dawn believed him. An unprecedented disaster was on its way.