The ice quickly thawed, leaving the young girl exposed. She slid down once enough ice had vanished and landed on her feet. Blinking her eyes several times, she focused on the people in front of her, staring at them with interest. She then took several deep breaths as the entire fortress shook with the movement of her body, scaring almost everyone in the room. Laz moved in front of Nagi and pushed her behind himself as he stared at the young girl who had exposed her high level god realm. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Seeing his actions, her eyes landed on him and Laz figured out several things at once, the most important being that this wasn’t just some young girl, but a very strong and experienced women who just happened to look young.

While they stared at each other, the sound of more ice breaking occurred as several more bald people were released from their icy prisons. While several of them caught themselves and stood when their feet hit the ground, there were quite a few that ended up falling down flat, not stirring in the slightest.

Still, those that did wake up, moved to stand behind the young girl with the purple dress, none of them speaking or even making any noise.

In response to this, Eris, Hera and Pooja stood forward behind Laz, who was now silently letting out waves of power himself, clashing against the waves that the awakened were making, each of them showing that they were high level god realms.

More and more ice broke as more and more bald people awoke, those who landed on their feet and those that would never stand again. By the time the last of the ice had broken, out of the hundreds of people who had been sealed up, barely over a hundred had survived and gathered behind the young girl. All of them were now staring at Laz who stood at the front, Nagi, Eris, Pooja and Hera behind him slightly as the rest were now huddling back, taking cover behind the guards who, despite their weaker realms, still stood forward and placed themselves between the threat and the generals and ministers who had followed along.

The young girl with the bald head suddenly smile and said something, but Laz had no idea what language she was speaking.

*Kat?*

"I have no idea. It’s not something in any of my databases. Checking through the arcane languages, but it will take a while..."

"Daddy. She asked who are you?" Nagi said, stepping to Laz’s side and grabbing his shirt.

Laz looked down briefly at Nagi, but she shook her head. She had no idea how she knew, but she did.

"Tell her if she wants to fight, then she will find out who I am. Otherwise I have no obligation to tell her," Laz responded. Both Hera and Pooja reached forward and hesitated, as though they wanted to say something to him. But they both backed off just as quickly.

Nagi repeated the words to the girl in her language who then laughed and stepped forward, lines of different colors appearing all over the exposed parts of her body, even on her bald head as they took on an almost circuit like appearance. Her power suddenly shot up and clashed with Laz’s god power, pushing it back.

Laz then stepped forward himself, his hair turning a reddish white, his eyes gold as his skin became grey while the black tribal lines worked their way all around. His aura of power, pushed back, then surged forward again, regaining it’s lost space and threatening to knock hers back.

Surprise shook her body, but her smile intensified.

Before anyone could stop them, they disappeared in a flash, clashing several times all over the room as booms echoed out. Such intense action caused the entire building to shake from the clashes.

Barely anyone could follow them except for Hera and Pooja who’s heads were on a swivel as they looked around at the clashes. Fists, kicks, palms, elbows and knees clashed repeatedly. After several minutes of this, the two reappeared in the same spots they had vanished from. The girl was panting while Laz looked unmoved. Seeing this several of the other awakened stepped forward, activating their own transformations as the lines covered their bodies as well.

Seeing this, Pooja and Hera stepped up, but Laz put up his hand to block them.

"Did you think that this was all I was capable of?" Laz asked with a laugh. As he did so, his aura spread out more, shaking the very foundations of the building. The red ring of the apocalypse appeared behind him as well, the four points showing their symbols and they spun in a circle, drawing even more energy to himself. While he had held back before, unsure of just how strong he had become, now he didn’t bother to hesitate.

This time, with twenty opponents, Laz didn’t bother to play nice, not holding back in the slightest as he strode forward, disappearing along with the others. This time though, his actions were smooth but powerful, every swing taking out one of his opponents, their defenses crumbling to dust before his strikes. In less than a third of the time he took the first time, twenty hurt bodies lined the floor, leaving only eighty left standing along with the first girl. ]

When Laz stopped this time, while there was some sweat on his head, he didn’t show any other signs of fatigue, as though he could keep going if they wanted to.

This time, forty of the remaining ones stood forward, ready to engage. While they were larger in number, their overall power was smaller as many of those were only in the mid god realms.

The girl in purple then raised her hand to stop them as Hera’s children showed up, including Athena and her close sisters along with Aphrodite, Artemis and Penelope. They stood beside their mother, all looking prepared to fight.

The girl in purple said something then and Laz turned to Nagi.

"She says she guesses you don’t know who they are?" Nagi answered.

"Your people have been lost in the river of history," Laz responded before turning to Hera and Pooja who both shook their heads.

"I can’t say how long ago your empire stood, but it’s far more than ten thousand years buried."

For the first time today, the girl in purple looked truly shocked and couldn’t help but take a step back. Laz then turned to look at both Pooja and Hera and spoke about the invaders he had witnessed attacking them and destroying their world. Neither woman spoke at first, but then turned to one another and chatted back and forth for a while before turning back to Laz.

"The records kept by the Asura at their rise spoke of discovering the ruins of a long dead technological empire built from a lizard like people. But even then there was no mention of how long ago such a race existed. I can only say I know about it since I used to love examining old empires and researched them in my younger days," Hera explained.

"So if it was something found at the beginning of the Asura’s rise... how long ago would that have been?"

Hera hesitated, clearly thinking it through.

"Probably around one hundred and fifty thousand years ago, based on the galactic calendar."

Laz nodded his head and then repeated what they had just spoke of with the girl, causing her body to shake as the others rushed forward to support her, helping her into a sitting position. Laz strode forward and removed a padded stool from his spacial ring, offering it to them. They glared at him at first, but soon accepted it and let the girl sit down.

After collecting herself, the girl looked up at Laz and asked a question that Nagi translated.

"How do you know what happened to our empire if it was so long ago? Even the others seemed to have never heard of us yet I can tell they are far older than you," she asked.

Laz thought about it a little and figured it shouldn’t matter but still turned to Hera.

"Get everyone not a god to leave, please?" He asked. Hera looked at him a little funny, but then ordered everyone out. For good measure, except for her daughters and Pooja, she didn’t let anyone stay despite their objections.

Once they were alone, Laz brought out Jormungandr from the space it rested in with a thought, allowing the sword to fall into his hands.

Seeing this sword, the awakened people all dropped to their knees while Hera, her daughters and Pooja just looked on in awe.

"The world may had forgotten, but he has remembered every time in his long history when he changed owners. The fall of your empire and the rise of another? He has seen it so many times that I actually find it impressive that he remembers your people. But apparently your leader was a strange one in that he lived for as long as he did after receiving him, solely because he never used him. So I guess it stuck out in his memories," Laz said as Nagi translated.

The awakened just broke down crying at these words.