Seth was no stranger to the presence of hundreds or even thousands of different sensory inputs being crammed into his head. However usually he kept most of them blocked out, turned down to the point that he didn't actively look at them and only paid attention when something, such as a [Spirit Animal] alerted him of something that needed said attention.

Even with his evolved brain, keeping track of so many different view points would be nearly impossible.

He had also gained that many puppets gradually over the last few months. So there was a difference between adding one pebble to the pile, and having the entire truckload dumped on top of your head all at once. Thus, resulting in the skull splitting migraine he was currently experiencing, and which was causing him to writhe in pain at the moment.

Seth had only experienced being cut off from them once before, and had experienced the same pain back then too. However he had also massively increased his puppet army, all thanks to his handy crafters making new armour sets for him to control. With more puppets, came more sensory data and thus an extra dozen spikes being drilled into his brain.

Thankfully, he had quite a degree of practice dealing with pain, although it was hard to say that was a good thing, so even while his brain was threatening to tear itself into tiny pieces of confetti, Seth quickly set to work sorting out the senses he was being bombarded with.

Soon enough, he had them compartmentalised and rapidly tuned out a lot of unnecessary noise, which made his brain finally stop screaming bloody murder. Since he knew how the battle of the West was going, Seth found himself directing his attention to the East, and what he saw made his blood boil.

***

A sparking, electrified meteor crashed through the wall from with the Eastern fort and sailed high into the air, leaving a streaking and crackling blue trail in its wake. Moments later, a pure white meteor flew out after it, quickly gaining speed and closing the distance to the sparking comet until they met at the peak of its ascent.

Carried on angelic wings of pure light, the man made god known as the Lightbringer wore a cruel, sadistic smile as he slammed his fist into the 'Queen of Lightning' once more. Just like before, she quickly covered herself up with her arms and curled up into a ball, letting his fist collide with the cold, viscous material that covered her entire body.

Even with some of the force being diverted through the non-Newtonian ferrofluid, which rippled frantically from the impact, Astra's curled up body was still launched like a cannon ball. She streaked through the air once more, slamming into the ground and forming a deep crater in the already ruined ground.

Wings of Light spread themselves in the air, attracting the attention from all of those below. Once more combat between mortals halted, all of them froze in either fear or awe, as they bore witness to the battle of Gods.

The Lightbringers worshippers dropped to their knees, muttering prayers and joyous chants of his power and greatness, while the forces of Ravenkeep could only imagine themselves in the place of Astra.

Placing themselves in her boots, they could only imagine the futile effort of trying to fight against him. They imagined their blades shattering against his skin or simply being exploded into a crimson cloud by one of those punches.

In the minds of all, the man flying above them on wings of light like a true angel, seemed truly invincible.

Above them, that particular man smiled wickedly as he felt his muscles tighten and condense, his skin gaining a flawless sheen to it as all blemishes and signs of mortality were burned away to make way for the god he was understood to be.

Clenching his fists, the Lightbringer inhaled the energy flowing towards himself deeply and let out a satisfied sigh. It was more than the simple Divine Energy created by their worship.

It was the power of their perception of him.

The more they pictured his indestructible and all powerful nature, the closer he became to that picture. The tougher he became and the stronger he became, which only served to reinforce those beliefs and perceptions and further empower him.

He was a self fulfilling prophecy.

If you believed him to be, then he was. What better power for a man like him? What else would prove that he was born to be a god, that the power of perception?

No longer did he have to fall back on smoke and mirrors, tricks and illusions. All it took was a silver tongued word here and a little demonstration there, and soon those tricks would become real.

Folding his wings, the Lightbringer plummeted towards the ground in a streak of light. Bolts of Lightning shot from the ground, roaring like dragons as they flew towards him. They struck true, lightning coursing through his body.

But he didn't stop, he didn't scream. He didn't let any sign of pain show, forcing himself to keep his composure until a single thought moved through the crowd like a plague.

'Even the Lightning doesn't affect him. He really is invincible!'

Whether out of fear, dread or worship that single thought spread. And within the presence of the Lightbringer, that thought became law.

When the next bolt of lightning struck him, it met his outstretched hand. The power coursed through his body, yet unlike before there was no pain to hold back nor composure he had to keep.

It simply washed over him as he flew through it without effort, his hand parting it just as easily as one would when they swam through water.

That outstretched hand soon met Astra's which was still relentlessly shooting out lightning, even when their hands clasped together. Holding hands like this was not a romantic gesture, however, as evidenced by him clenching his fingers and wrenching his hand to the side.

Restrained cries of pain left Astra's lips as the delicate bones in her hand shattered and broke as her hand was twisted and crushed.

Her ferrofluid armour was already struggling after the last two punches, and was simply unable to stop the destruction of her hand.

Sparks flew around her sword as it lifted from her hip, swinging itself through the air before its blade stopped dead against the Lightbringers throat, unable to even nick his flawless skin.

"That's a cute trick. It reminds me, I met a fellow from your little city. He spoke of someone able to do something like this with all sorts of weapons."

His hand wrapped around the hilt of the sword, dragging it away from his neck. The sword trembled as Astra's magnetic force struggled and fought against the Lightbringer indomitable strength, but he was gradually winning as he pulled it away and then fully out of her control.

He flipped the sword around, pointing its blade downwards, and slammed it down. A true scream of agony escaped Astra's lips as her own sword was forced through her ferrofluid armour and buried deep in her gut, pinning her to the ground.

Every breath was a struggle and brought with it a fresh burst of pain as the simple rising of her chest tugged at the wound. Even flinching in pain brought with it more pain, as Astra desperately tried to keep her body as still as possible.

Her face twisted in anger and agony as she glared up at the Lightbringer, who was still looming over her as he continued with his grandiose monologue.

"He didn't have very nice things to say about that man, or you. I don't remember his name... it was hard to make out any answer amongst all the screaming. But what I do remember is that spent a lot of his time talking about killing some one armed cripple.

Not that I really cared, in all honesty. Why would I? But he did show an interesting little trick. Why don't I give you a reminder of it?"

A sinister and sadistic smile spread across the Lightbringers flawless and handsome face as his luminous white eyes glowed brightly, like two suns were contained within his skull. The next second, twin beams of scorching white light poured forth from his eyes and started to sizzle into Astra's thigh.

***

Astra's screams echoed in Seth's mind. The horrific sound layered itself hundreds of times in his mind as he heard it through hundreds of ears, witnessing the event through hundreds of eyes from all possible angles.

Even as he sent his army of puppets to attack the Lightbringer, Seth felt utterly worthless as he had to watch them be batted away like unwanted dolls by the indesctructle Lightbringer.

A wave of his hand was enough to send more flying, and the beams of light pouring from his eyes carved through his army as if they weren't even there. They dog piled him, poured themselves onto him and tried to pull him away. Some tried to gouge out his eyes while others struck their blades against his skin. All of them moved as one unit, with one singular purpose.

Yet one after the other they were cut down, battered or smashed until all of his eyes and ears in the battle were snuffed out. But even still Astra's screams remained, echoing in his mind.

The only sound that accompanied it was the rhythmic, thunderous pounding of his heart in his chest as his blood literally boiled and bubbled in his veins.

Kneeling on all fours, Seth dug deep grooves in the stone beneath him with nothing more than his bare hands as he curled his hands, all while they quivered with rage. A guttural, feral growl escaped his lips as his mind zeroed in on one singular thought.

"I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!"