"I don't need your false compassion!" Hercules roared. "You tricked us into coming here. What are you plotting?"
It was not just Hercules and Angrimar. More and more voices rose. The heretical gods of Utopia, the long-lived beings of the Empire, the fifth-stage mutants of the Wasteland who carried the memories of the Eternal Virus—even the Celestial Master of the Paranormal realm seemed to have heard stories of this power thief in the history passed down through his sect. They all began questioning whether the Heavenly Ascension Ceremony was real and suspecting that they had fallen into Dias's trap.
"Enough!" Dias roared. An invisible sound wave swept outward, instantly drowning out every question in the arena.
"Among you, it seems, are quite a few of my enemies—or their descendants. But the one before you now is no longer Dias, the all-powerful thief of those days." Dias swept his gaze across the crowd. Though he was only a projection, his invisible Killing Intent still silenced the once-noisy Arena.
"The one standing before you now is the host of the Heavenly Ascension Ceremony, the creator of the new world, the maker of its rules, the demigod who has come closer to becoming a True God than anyone in history—Dias!"
"If you want revenge, if you want to reclaim what you once lost, your only chance is to take part in the Heavenly Ascension Ceremony, inherit Godhood, and gain the powers of a True God!"
"Of course, you can decide this is all some scheme of mine. You can refuse to follow the rules and make no attempt to claim the Godhood within your grasp. But then you'll never leave this Arena. You'll only be able to watch as someone else inherits Godhood, gains the authority of a True God, and strips you