Island God: Going From Level 1 To World Ruler-Chapter 48: Chaos Unfolds

Gool stood frozen between Midas and Sergalas. His face was pale with fear.

’It’s been nine grueling hours...’ He thought to himself, ’I understood that this was Midas’s plan... but it’s taking longer than anticipated.’ He knew this meant that time was running out.

Just then, faint thudding noises sounded in the distance. It sounded like the trampling of horses, or the marching of an army.

Gool’s ears perked up. He glanced in the direction of the noise.

"Orcs..." He muttered, "They are close." He said under his breath, trying to follow the noise with his eyes.

While Gool was busy doing this, Midas and Sergalas were warring in a furious battle of egos.

Both now had extremely focused and intense expressions on their faces.

Midas’s calm expression had left hours earlier. He now fought and clawed for every other second he could hold his breath.

Sergalas was not any better, the serpent’s eyes wide with fury and its jaw shut tight.

They hadn’t broken eye contact for hours. They had not said a single word to each other, yet a dangerous rivalry had formed.

’Just a little more... a little more and I can make this snake surrender.’ Midas encouraged himself to keep going. He felt palpitations in his heart, his lungs aching to breathe again as his throat attempted to gasp for air.

Yet his lips remained sealed.

A second passed, and a gulp-like noise sounded from Sergalas’s throat. The serpent’s eyes flew open as wide as possible.

Midas noticed this, ’He’s struggling!’ His exhilaration boosted as his eyes also opened wide.

Sergalas raised his head abruptly before suddenly opening his mouth and unleashing a blast of wind.

The howl of wind was like a tornado, swiping Midas and Gool up from the ground and flinging them into two separate sides of the cavern.

They skidded off the ground and slid to their own respective stops, immediately getting up and facing Sergalas.

"You lost!" Midas said, panting. "I won! I defeated you!" He couldn’t help but celebrate, unable to contain his excitement and relief.

When Midas finally turned his gaze to face Sergalas, the expression he saw on the serpent’s snake made his smile quickly turn into a frown.

It seemed from the looks of it that Sergalas wasn’t going to accept his loss humbly.

"PUNY HUMAN!" Sergalas roared at the top of his lungs, his voice a mix between a screech and a war cry. The entire cavern reverberated from the noise, stalactites falling from the ceiling.

Sergalas slithered forward, crashing through pillars and walls as in a mad rampage.

Midas couldn’t do anything but look forward with awe and horror. He was stuck between a wall to his right, the lake to his left, and another part of Sergalas’s body right behind him. Even if he tried to move, there was nowhere he could run that Sergalas wasn’t already at.

"YOU WILL BE REMEMBERED AS DUST!" Sergalas roared as he swung his head down and crashed the top of his noggin into the floor where Midas was standing.

Gool had been flung to the opposite end, seeing Sergalas bee-line toward Midas and crash down into him.

As he saw Midas get seemingly crushed, he felt his heart skip a beat. He froze, shock, dismay, and realization all setting in at once.

’Backwards? No. He couldn’t have gone backwards or forwards. He was stuck. He is dead...’ Gool said to himself, at a complete loss.

However, his time to grieve was cut short.

"Krahh!" A battle-cry sounded from behind.

Gool turned and saw hundreds of orcs storming into the main cavern room through one of the larger tunnels, a few dozen feet away from him.

He quickly ducked, running and hiding behind a large boulder.

He turned and peeked past the corner as he saw the orcs lining up large catapults, hoisting massive rocks the size of refrigerators.

"Fire!" A tall white orc with a large red tattoo roared, raising his large broadsword into the air.

The four catapults launched the boulders into the air. They crashed into the side of Sergalas, making the beast flinch back with pain.

"Orc filth! Is that your weapon!? Pathetic! Be gone!" Sergalas raced forward, sliding his tail across the cavern room and swiping away at dozens of orcs.

Orcs flew into the air, others running forward with weapons in hand to attack the mighty beast.

Several hundred orcs lined up at the back and took a knee in unison. They charged their bows, launching a barrage of arrows that assaulted the serpent.

Within seconds, the silence of the main room of the cavern had been shattered. Steel rang against scale. Arrows vanished into shadow. Stone shattered. Screams rose and were swallowed whole.

Sergalas roared with rage as he fought. Dorhal shouted commands while strategically attempting to take the drake down.

In the midst of all this, Gool stood still and gazed forward with a hollow look in his eyes.

The man that he had pledged everything to was now dead. His vision narrowed into the center of the room.

Just then, he noticed a sudden ripple in the lake. A series of ripples and bubbles popped up from the center of the lake.

And then, an empty glass bottle, triangular in shape, floated to the top out of nowhere.

’What?’ Gool thought to himself, confused, ’There’s only bones down there... the only way ripples could start at the center of the lake would be if something, or someone, is in there.’ The bottle was also highly suspicious.

At once, he began to sneak his way around the battlefield and run toward the lake.

Unfortunately for Gool, the only way to actually gain access to the lake was to somehow make it through the army of orcs. Not to mention Sergalas, whose movement was unpredictable due to his sheer size.

As he neared the body of water, Gool broke out into a full sprint.

He ran into the center of the battlefield, running around catapults and warriors. He slid in between the legs of orcs and above fallen bodies, his eyes locked onto the lake.

Dorhal looked down, noticing a familiar goblin running across the warzone below.

’Gool? Isn’t he under that player now? What is he doing here?’ He thought, confused. Then, his eyes slowly widened with realization. ’He’s here... Midas is here.’ Chills crawled up his spine.

"Search for Midas! Keep on the lookout and stay on your feet!" Dorhal began to give out new instructions.

Gool managed to make it to the foot of the lake before diving in.

In the depths, he noticed Midas swimming toward a tunnel in the floor-bed.

Midas glanced up as he heard Gool plunging inside, the two making eye contact.

Gool felt a wave of relief crash over him. And then, he felt revitalized. Ready to fight on for another day, his spirit was reignited.

Seeing Midas attempt to escape through the water tunnels, Gool gestured for him to follow him instead.

The two swam to the opposite end of the lake before popping up above the surface.

"Come, Midas! I’m sure I can find my way out of here!" Gool said, running toward the closest tunnel.

Midas didn’t hesitate, following along.

’That... was close.’ Midas thought to himself, thinking back to how he managed to barely survive.

When Sergalas crashed his head down, Midas knew that the only opportunity he had to escape was to dive into the lake.

However, he wasn’t quite close enough to be able to jump straight in.

So, in that moment, he decided to take one step forward before jumping--sacrificing his left leg.

His left foot and calf were crushed like an ant under the immense weight of Sergalas’s temple. However, he managed to heal himself in time by using up the health potion that he got from the mystery box.

’This time, it’s gone for good.’ He said to himself as he followed Gool.

"HUMAN!" Sergalas’s voice roared from behind.

Midas and Gool turned as they ran, looking at the enormous serpent suddenly turn and face them.

"Keep your eyes on your enemy, you big lizard!" One of the orcs screamed, running forward and stabbing his blade into Sergalas’s body.

Dozens of more orcs followed, forcing Sergalas to turn and wriggle them off.

"You will not survive! You are not my king! You will not win!" Sergalas’s last words echoed through the entire chamber as Gool and Midas entered a tunnel exiting the main room.

Just as Midas left the main room, he noticed a bright purple shine on the ground. The light was cast from behind him, making him turn and glance into the main room one last time.

Thats when he saw a giant purple hex, no smaller than half the size of Sergalas’s body, summoned in the air at the center of the chamber.

It sucked in enough air to cause a whirlwind before condensing completely and dissipating into the air.

A large grin stretched across Midas’s face, "I did it... I DID IT!" He cried at the top of his lungs, "I conquered Sergalas!"