Dhaka, Dagmar and Asser had never imagined that their journey would end with such heavy and quick losses. It was too fast and too violent for them to react.
Before a minute had passed, most of the three mountains had collapsed into the ground as explosions rang out from their depths. It took only moments for thousands of lives to be lost. It was perhaps the worst loss the Fringe had ever suffered.
The rumbling echoed incessantly. When the three mountains had sunk more than halfway into the earth, they cracked open in the middle. The power that had been brewing within the mountains was unleashed in an energetic burst, causing many of the godhunters within the mountains to howl in agony. One bloody figure after another burst out of the mountains.
At that moment, a thick cloud of smoke began to descend from the sky, carrying a terrifying power with it. Many of the figures that were sent flying from the mountains were crushed by the immense pressure before they landed with an audible splash and turned into flesh paste.
It turned out that the black smoke hovering over the valley, which had accumulated corrosive gases on those mountains, had been waiting for this moment.
The three mountains had become a hell on earth. Even though the explosions had subsided, the howling of pain never stopped, growing louder and more frequent.
Gradually the dust and explosions settled. After the smoke had taken another thousand lives, it dissipated into nothingness.
...
Ashes and dust continued to fall from the sky instead of shards of rock. It seemed that peace and quiet had returned.
The three mountains had completely sunk into the ground, though they hadn't been reduced to rubble. Slowly, injured figures emerged from the mountains, with broken bones and blood at the corners of their mouths. Only a few dozen of them were completely unharmed, and all of them were powerful Highgods.
Dhaka, Dagmar and Asser were the last three to come out of the mountains. When they saw their pitiful subordinates, their expressions darkened; they were like volcanoes, ready to erupt at any moment.
Salas had managed to leave as well. Once again, he experienced the terror of the House of Han first hand.
By now, he had made up his mind to never fight the House of Han again. It wasn't that he was a coward; it was just that they had far exceeded his expectations, based on the fact that Dhaka and the other two had lost almost half of their men before they had even encountered their enemy directly.
Thinking back, Salas remembered how he had been just like the three of them, filled with the ambition to eliminate Pandemonium. But it had trapped him in a strange barrier where none of his subordinates had even seen half a person from the House of Han. He too had suffered such a loss.
Having seen this happen once again, Salas was humbled and accepted his defeat completely. He was no match for Han Shuo in a one-on-one fight, and the power of the House of Han guards was now unmatched by most. Coupled with the crazy defences they used, Salas was no longer sure he could afford to fight them.
He decided to put the idea of getting even with them out of his mind. He had originally planned to settle his debts with the House of Han when all was said and done, but now he was certain that wasn't the path he wanted to take.
...
"Let's count our losses," Dhaka said after a long period of silence and heavy sighing.
His henchmen, who hadn't dared to speak the whole time, immediately carried out their orders. Dagmar and Asser waved for their subordinates to do the same.
The subordinates called out their names one by one, but only half of them answered. Dhaka and the other two Hegemons looked even grimmer.
Soon the verdict was in. Each had come with over a thousands subordinates, but only half had survived. In all, only about to four thousand Godhunters made it out of the mountains alive, with varying degrees of injury, just before they encountered a single member of the House of Han.
"Salas!" Dagmar roared as he shot him a venomous glare.
"We were about to leave this place, but you insisted on going in. What does that have to do with me?" Salas said boldly. He glared coldly at Asser and Dhaka. "So you want to put all the blame on me if something goes wrong, huh? Is that how you usually behave?"
"How did the House of Han know we were coming? How did they manage to set a trap for us? Salas, how can you claim to know nothing about this?" Dagmar spat as he quickly moved his throne close to Salas.
"Of course I didn't know anything!" Salas pointed angrily at Dagmar and continued, "You think I'd betray you? Damn it, I've been chased out of the Fring by Bryan and the House of Han, and my mountain has been razed to the ground by him! I don't even have a home to go back to! And now you say I'd sell you out to him? Have you gone mad over the Quintessence Shard?"
"I don't think the House of Han could possibly know that much. If you hadn't led us here, we wouldn't have come at all," the usually calm Asser said. He seemed to be beginning to suspect Salas as well.
Salas, shocked, suddenly backed away to a safe distance from the three of them. "You have gone mad! You're blaming me for the loss of your men. There's nothing more to be said! I'm leaving and leaving you to deal with this as you wish!"
Then, before they could react, Salas turned into a bolt of lightning and zoomed off into the distance.
Dhaka, Dagmar and Asser blacked out. They hadn't thought that Salas would just disappear.
All three had put the blame for the incident on Salas because of lingering suspicions, but they were more concerned with finding a scapegoat for their terrible losses. If they didn't blame someone else, it would be hard to justify such incompetent leadership to their subordinates.
In truth, they had never believed that Salas would join forces with Han Shuo. As Salas himself had said, he bore a seething hatred for the House of Han. They had clearly researched Salas' own experiences in Pandemonium before inviting him to join them, so while they wanted to blame him, they wouldn't actually act against him.
If they really thought he had betrayed them, they wouldn't have let him know. Instead, they would attack him while he was unprepared. They wouldn't even give him a chance to explain.
Now the three of them seemed even worse off. They hadn't expected Salas to leave without a second thought. After losing their leader, things would be much harder for them, especially with the losses they'd suffered.
"Damn, he's really gone!" Dagmar roared. He was still full of pent-up anger. He had wanted to take it out on Salas, but that had only made him leave.
"There's nothing we can do about it. Given our current strength, we should be able to deal with Pandemonium if we don't fall into any more traps," Dhaka remarked. He knew the three of them couldn't afford any more divisions. Even if he was still frustrated by what had happened and wanted to take it out on Dagmar, he would have no choice but to put up with it.
Dhaka had come full of confidence, talking about how he was going to crush the House of Han, but now he didn't seem so sure about dealing with Pandemonium.
"That's right! We can definitely crush Pandemonium," Dhaka insisted, though it sounded more like self-congratulation than anything else. Considering the losses they'd suffered, nothing they said would sound very convincing.
"Let's tend to their injuries first. It's best if we leave this dangerous place immediately," Asser said, feeling a little uncomfortable at the sight of the three sunken mountains.
The other two agreed and gave the injured Godhunters some preliminary treatment before leaving.
Shortly after they left, Han Shuo and Han Hao emerged from one of the large cracks below. Han Shuo looked around in the air and said somewhat despondently, "Too bad we didn't have more time to calibrate the formation. The implosion was asymmetrical, so the yield was only a fraction of what it should have been. Otherwise, the three mountains wouldn't just collapse, they'd explode. If that had happened, Dhaka, Dagmar and Asser would have been injured themselves, not to mention their subordinates".
"Father, that is a good result. I doubt they'll be able to cause any more trouble for Pandemonium after their defeat here!" Han Hao looked at the cracks and said, "Would the collapse of the mountains and the cracks in the ground affect my underground palace?"
"It will somewhat. But don't worry. After this is over, Han Jin and Han Tu will be able to restore it. I'm sure the rocks that have accumulated down there will make your palace even safer," Han Shuo said smiling.
As he spoke, he waved his hand and gathered the Godhunters' souls that had not yet dissipated into the Cauldron of the Myriad Demon . "Let us go. We'll see them in Pandemonium soon."
"I doubt they'd dare show up again," Han Hao said with a smile. He found messing with Dhaka and others rather interesting.
"That's fine too. In fact, that would be ideal. Let them go to Omphalos. Logue and Tyre will be there as well, so it's best if they duke it out with each other," Han Shuo said with a hearty laugh before leaving with Little Skeleton's half-formed avatar.