The distant roar grows like a rolling thunder that crackles across the sky.
The demon drums fall out of rhythm.
Some of the forward brutes halt mid-stride, their jagged jaws lifting toward the sky, nostrils twitching. The demon commanders bark for them to move, but the command dies as light begins to spread across the red-choked sky.
Nicolas's eyes widen on the wall.
"What now…?"
A thin line of gold splits the clouds.
Then another.
Then dozens, cracking open the red storm.
Cyra's breath leaves her body. "Angels."
White fire streaks downward, trailing radiant smoke that curls like burning silk. The demon front ranks panic, shoving back against the ones behind them as the sky fills with descending wings of light.
The angels land like missiles.
Impact after impact slams into the demon army, exploding into shockwaves of holy force. Massive serpentine demons turn to ash instantly. Armor shreds. Banners fold. Screams ring across the battlefield.
Lisa grips the wall. "They didn't come to reinforce us… they came for him."
Her gaze locks on Abbadon.
The Destroyer does not move.
He watches the angelic descent with a stillness so complete it frightens even the council.
A squadron of angels gleaming gold, their faces lit with blinding intensity touch down before him. Spears lower. Shields rise.
Their commander steps forward, radiant wings cutting through the haze. His voice booms:
"Abbadon! By decree of our lord, you will submit to command and follow the lords will."
The demons around Abbadon freeze.
The angels stand firm.
Abbadon tilts his head a fraction, the gesture barely perceptible. "You command me."
"It is not a request," the angel replies. "The lord demands your compliance. You were summoned for annihilation of the demonic threat not the destabilization of realms."
Mephistopheles's eyes narrow, tail swaying like a blade.
"The lord? They interfere now?"
He steps forward, pacing like a serpent.
"You have no authority here, angel. The old ones gave Abbadon to the infernal command. He listens to—"
"Silence."
The angel does not raise his voice, yet the air claps like thunder.
Mephistopheles's mouth snaps shut involuntarily.
The demon ranks hiss, wings flaring, claws digging into the earth.
The angel commander points his spear at Abbadon again.
"Destroyer, follow your intended protocol: eradicate hostile demonic entities. You will—"
Abbadon's wings shift once.
Just once.
A ripple of pressure sweeps outward with no sound, no light.
The angel commander disintegrates.
His entire form simply collapses into fine white dust, drifting away on a wind that wasn't there.
The angels recoil.
The demons recoil.
Even Mephistopheles takes a step back.
Abbadon's head turns slightly, his voice still emotionless.
"Both sides presume to command me."
He raises one hand.
On the walls of Sanctuary Nicolas feels the air drop ten degrees.
"Brace—!" he calls, but the warning drowns in the roar that follows.
Abbadon's palm faces the battlefield.
The world buckles.
Lines of space twist into spirals. Stone liquefies then refreezes mid-air. Color smears. The demons nearest him begin to contort, their bodies elongating unnaturally before rupturing into black smoke.
The angels fare no better.
Those that try to fly are dragged downward by gravitational spikes. Limbs bend at impossible angles. Wings snap like twigs. Their holy auras flicker violently and extinguish one after another.
Mephistopheles raises both hands.
"MY LORD! The army must be preserved long enough to breach Sanctuary!"
An angel screams from above, "ABADDON—FOLLOW THE LORD'S ORDER AND—"
Both voices cut off when Abbadon flicks his fingers.
Two spiraling pillars of crushed reality erupt beneath each speaker, swallowing them.
The council watches, speechless.
Jennifer covers her mouth. "He's killing both sides… without effort."
Leo mutters, "He's not fighting. He's… obliterating them."
Cyra whispers, "His power is not something we can handle."
Another explosion of warped gravity tears through a cluster of demon cavalry. Bones fold inward. Armor collapses like imploding cans. A shockwave rips outward, flattening a hundred more demons.
Lisa's voice cracks. "We're watching both armies vanish."
Nicolas grips his sword so tightly the blade vibrates. "He's deciding neither side is worthy of giving him orders."
"Then who does he listen to?" Jennifer asks.
Lightning answers her.
Huge, rolling arcs crack across the horizon, black lightning that doesn't belong to the angels or the demons. The clouds churn violently, splitting open like a wound.
A column of energy rockets downward far in the distance, exploding into a plume of light and dust.
Pete's eyes widen. "He's here."
The sound hits Sanctuary several seconds later, a deafening, expanding boom that shakes dust off the walls and sends demon soldiers stumbling.
Abbadon raises his head.
His wings twitch.
"His presence grows," Abbadon murmurs. "The vessel nears completion."
Nicolas stiffens. "Vessel?"
Cyra answers first, breath trembling.
"He means Mike's transformation."
Mephistopheles snarls, flames curling at his hooves.
"So the angels fear him. Sanctuary abandoned him. And you—" he gestures at Abbadon "—take amusement in his growth."
Abbadon's eyes do not blink.
"I take interest."
Angels surge forward, spears glowing. Demons surge to meet them. The field dissolves into chaos, holy fire clashing with hellfire.
Abbadon does nothing.
He simply walks forward, drifting above the carnage.
Where he passes, both sides die.
An angel charges with a blazing sword.
A demon leaps with a serrated pike.
Abbadon lifts one hand.
Both vanish in a burst of compressed force, leaving only charred silhouettes burned into the ground.
He moves through the battle like a surgeon cutting away unwanted tissue.
Nicolas watches with horror.
"He's not choosing a side. He's… preparing the battlefield."
Jennifer looks at him. "Preparing it for what?"
Lisa's voice shakes. "For Mike."
The storms in the distance grow brighter. Dust clouds lift. The air bends as something cuts through it at ridiculous speed.
Thunder overlaps itself again and again.
"Here he comes…" Cyra whispers.
Pete leans forward. "Faster than before. Way faster."
The horizon explodes.
Mike's silhouette tears through the clouds, charged with furious black and red fire. His compact new form pulses with raw power; fire whips off his arms and shoulders. His wings leave burning streaks of ionized air behind him.
His laughter, wild and ecstatic echoes across the battlefield, even over the screams and clashing of armies.
"HE'S ENJOYING IT," Leo growls, startled.
Jennifer's eyes widen. "His laughter… it's disturbing. Has he gone mad."
Lisa's heart clenches. "He's become more maniacal lost to the madness of power."
Mike angles downward.
Right toward Abbadon.
The Destroyer finally stops moving.
He turns fully toward the incoming meteor of fire and fury, his wings folding behind him as if in anticipation.
"DRAGON!" Abbadon bellows into the air with excitement. The council nearly losing their footing as the pressure of Abbadon's voice reaches them. "ENTERTAIN ME DRAGON, ENTERTAIN ME NOW!"
Mephistopheles screams over the chaos:
"STOP HIM, YOU FOOLS! SHOOT HIM DOWN!"
The demons fire everything, flame bolts, acid streams, spears, but Mike tears straight through the barrage. Projectiles vaporize before touching him. Shockwaves blast outward with every flap of his wings.
Angels launch volleys of radiant javelins.
Mike doesn't even notice; they curve around him as if the air itself refuses to obstruct his path.
He locks onto Abbadon.
The council holds their breath.
Nicolas whispers, "Mike… don't—"
Too late.
Mike roars a sound that shakes the bones of the earth.
Abbadon lifts one hand, calm as a statue.
The two forces collide.
And the world ends.
For a moment.
The impact detonates in a sphere of blinding light. The shockwave expands faster than sound, flattening demons by the hundreds. Bodies fly. Siege towers collapse. The ground ripples like liquid.
The crater forms instantly a perfect circle nearly a mile wide, gouged out as if punched by a god.
Dust pillars rise into a mushroom cloud.
The council is struck back from the wall by the force despite the wards. Everyone hits the stone behind them, some kneeling, some sliding back several feet.
The gale continues for a full ten seconds before the wind finally dies.
Silence follows.
A heavy, suffocating silence.
The dust clears slowly, revealing a massive, obsidian-sided crater glowing with molten rock and black flames. Charred demon bodies litter the edges. Some still burn. Others are gone entirely, erased.
At the center two silhouettes hover.
Mike and Abbadon.
Locked arm to arm, energy flaring around them like colliding stars.
Neither moving.
Neither yielding.
Nicolas staggers to his feet. "They are going to destroy the world.."