THE FARAWAY LANDS OF OZ - Book One

Part Seven, Chapter Thirty-One: The New Gods

RUBY

I didn't know if the others would agree with my suspicions, but I couldn't care any less to be honest. We had been sent here to find clues about Merlin and if there is anything that could help us find Evanora and these "New Gods" were definitely reason enough to investigate further.
Then it occurred to me: I hadn't asked Egsli about Merlin at all, ignoring the actual reason for our arrival. I would do so, I promised to myself but first I needed to get behind those "New Gods" on my own. Or with my group, for that matter.
The others were going about the marketplace, trying food and drinks, buying souvenirs for their friends and family but I found them fast. They didn't really mix with the crowd of Mayan, half naked men and women. Soon, I had them by my side, walking up the slippery stone steps to the palace.
"You should ready your weapons. We don't know what we are to expect at the top." They did as I commanded, although reluctantly.
Ambra readied her self-made blades that she had crafted during her time in Oz. They were pistols on one end and swords on the other, connected to her lower arm, allowing her to just switch between melee and ranged.
Also, they were powered with the blood she collected from her enemies which she was able to shoot back, and the blades sliced the souls of Ambra's foes from their body, collecting them and giving the weapons spirits of their own. As a Demon Forgemaster, I was more than impressed by their ingenuity of them.
Katina took her wand out of her cane's sheath and waved it, turning it into a pink glowing shield and her cane into a sword. She took off a few inches off the ground, not to fall because of her sclerosis. After the two were combat-ready, I pulled a pair of guns to attach to my heels, a new katana – since Lilia got rid of my last one – and a grappling hook out of a portal to the Gates of Hell. The five of us were ready for battle.
The big, square room was empty, wet and cold. There was no sign of someone living here or having lived here any more recently than two hundred years ago. The floor slipped away under our feet and I had to ignite my sword, so we could see anything.
"We did not expect you here..."I turned around but there was no one there.
"Back to back, people," I whispered to the others. Someone was playing games with us.
"Now, there won't be any forces of Heaven to help you defeat us..."With this said, it was clear as daylight to me who the New Gods were. The only question that presented itself was how they had come here after I, myself, had sent them into their own pocket dimension only several hours ago. Something that I had been certain – and still am – to be foolproof. Could that mean... Was there the slightest chance and possibility that Evanora was here too?
While I was sunken in thoughts, I had not noticed how the Seven Deadly Sins had materialized around us five. But now, they did not look like they had before. They were human – their appearance, at least – and it also reflected upon the Sin they were embodying. One after the other, they introduced themselves as if none of us knew who they were. No wonder, they were the embodiment of all that was bad in the human world.
After their unnecessary and self-centered introductions, I only tightened my grip around my weapons – my companions following my example – and addressed the Sins with confidence.
"What is your business here, filth? Care to explain how you got away that fast?"
The Sins just looked at each other and laughed on top of their voices. "Well it wasn't difficult to escape your pocket realm... Such petty abilities we had never seen."
Superbia was talking for her brethren and one could clearly hear why she was pride, through and through. " Nevertheless, we had to stay in this filthy world for about seven years before your friend," She put an unnecessary stress on the word, "did the stupidest thing and allowed the pocket world to repeat itself... That was our way out... We had never belonged there and so the dimension got rid of us by sending us here..."
I stopped thinking about facing the Seven Deadly Sins. Seven years. Evanora had been captured for seven years while for all of us others it was merely seventeen hours. But if the Sins had been expelled of the realm that meant that she must be...