Mantle of the Gods

Trent was married.

“You were married to a…” I looked at Tres, who nodded. "...a God?”

“Mortals and Gods interact all the time. But he can tell you about his love life later, the problem is that day in the Gaus Dispatcher dungeon. The fifty-eighth floor. The Primus showed up. Someone in their group had learned that my sister, Dee, was a Celestial.” Tres shook his head when he saw our confusion. "A Tier Five in the God class. Anyway, they got betrayed and the Primus showed up.” He looked at Trent. "Do you want to tell the story or should I repeat what you told me?”

Trent got up and moved behind the couches. He paced for a moment, then turned around and gripped the back of the couch. "There were six of them.” He shook his head. "Fully covered, so I have no idea who they were, but they walked over us like we were nothing!” The white haired man blinked back tears. “We were at the top of Tier Five! They had to be at least Tier Seven for us to be like nothing but gnats as we tried to fight back. Then they killed her…” He had to wipe tears away. "The Desolation wave tore a hole in the floors of the dungeon and shot me down seven floors. It destroyed all of my equipment and left me stranded…” He swallowed. "For a year.” He looked at the two of us. "That is why I emphasize dungeon survival. Because I experienced it. I had to backtrack each floor boss, by myself, which meant kiting for hours, actually it was almost two days with the floor sixty boss.” He shook his head. "But I made it out.”

“And he came straight here.” Tres looked at us. "I’d sent a rescue team after them and would have gone myself, but it was a different city and there are very few times when a God is allowed in a different city peacefully.” He sighed. "They couldn’t find anything, so I wrote him off as dead. But he came back.”

Trent nodded. "That year at the Adventurer Games, Kire walked up to me and told me that I needed to retire or the Primus would hunt me down.” He shook his head. "I don’t know if he is part of it, or if he was just an ally that was used as a messenger, but for the last fifty years, I’ve been a teacher at the Cathedral, kept to myself, and stayed in my lane. But now that I’ve gone back in…”

“To save me…” I could barely breathe the words. I had made him take the target off of Rix’s back and put in on his. And they were so much more dangerous than the Bandits had been.

“I’m sorry…” I hung my head.

“It was an inevitability. But we do need to try to wrap this up as fast as we can and get back to the Cathedral, because that is where all of us will be the safest.”

“Is it even safe for us to be out at all?”

“Attacking us while we’re out and about is a possibility, but I’ve traveled between cities before for Adventure games, so I doubt they’re going to do something so open.” He shook his head "They're going to want to have complete control of the area to make sure there isn’t a loose end like me again.” He shrugged. "Who knows, maybe they won’t consider this to be coming out of retirement. I’ve been down to lower floors before without any problems when I’ve needed All or materials. So who knows?”

“But what about the Primus? I’ve never heard of them.” I looked at the three other people in the room.

“All I’ve been able to dig up is that it’s a group made up of Gods who want to create a world with much less of us in it.” Tres clenched his fists. "I keep hoping that I’ll find something, but if they are going to work together in a team, then there isn’t much that I’d be able to do by myself even if I did find them.” He leveled his gaze at us. "It’s only a matter of time before they come after you. So build a team that you can trust and level them up as fast as possible and then we can work on getting you guys another Tier.”

Rix was just staring at the strawberry blonde man.

“Yes?” Tres snapped his fingers. "Hero girl, are you here?”

Rix nodded slowly.

“Good, then work fast. You should be safe while you’re in the city, but that doesn’t mean you should be careless.” He got up and walked over to Trent. "If you need anything, and I mean anything, call me and I’ll send whatever I can to help.”

Trent gave the other man a big hug. I heard Tres whisper something in the other man’s ear, but I couldn’t hear what he said. Trent nodded, then headed for the elevator.

“Go get some sleep.” Tres shooed us. "I’d bet you’re going to have a full day tomorrow.”