Amazel craved a sharp arc through the air, a trail of frost crystallizing in its wake. 'Glacial Lance.'
Hundreds of jagged icicles, each the size of a spear, sharpened into existence above her. With a final flick of her wrist, they hurled towards her enemies with the force of a blizzard.
Orcanon responded not with a spell, but with a raw, guttural roar. He opened his maw, and a torrent of high-pressure water shot forth, a liquid battering ram that met the icy barrage head-on. The lances shattered, disintegrating into a harmless shower of mist and slush.
Seizing the opening, Orcanon launched himself from the ground, his trident aimed like a harpoon at Amazel's heart. But as he descended, his target vanished. She teleported in a whisper of displaced air, appearing directly behind him.
'Glacial Lance.' Another volley, point-blank.
Orcanon twisted mid-air, throwing his hands out. Water swirled from the humid void, forming a thick, rotating shield of aqua energy. The icicles hammered against it, shattering one after another, but the shield held firm.
While the elemental duel raged above, the fight on the ground descended into a far more personal brutality.
---
On the ground, Kratos and his siblings charged as one. Their weapons glowed with the concentrated light of their divine domains. "I'll handle the assassin," Kratos barked, his eyes locked on Julie. "You three, take apart the skeleton."
Nike nodded, and she, Bia, and Zelus veered toward Druvak.
In response, the green fire in Druvak's skull flared into an inferno. The gem set in his sternum pulsed with a ghostly radiance, and the dark blade of his sword erupted in matching emerald flames. He gave his spectral steed a light tap with his heel.
Neigh!
The phantom horse surged forward,its speed doubling as it charged the trio. Simultaneously, Julie fully unleashed her Slaughter Divinity. Her playful demeanor evaporated, replaced by an absolute, chilling ruthlessness. Her eyes burned a bloody red, and a crimson haze began to drift from her body like steam from a fresh kill. She began a steady, unhurried walk toward Kratos.
Druvak leaned slightly to the left, sword in his right hand, reins in his left. As Kratos came within range, he executed a clean, powerful slash.
At the last possible moment, Kratos dropped into a slide, kicking up a plume of dust. He raised one arm, his arm guard taking the brunt of the blow with a shower of sparks. The force of it still rattled his bones. He used the momentum to roll back onto his feet and immediately renewed his charge—not at Druvak, but at Julie.
He brought an axe down in a devastating overhead strike. Julie took a single, precise step back. The axehead passed so close it stirred the hair around her face, yet she didn't blink, her expression utterly impassive.
He followed with a vertical slash. Again, she shifted her weight, the blade missing her by a mere millimeter. Frustrated, Kratos swung downward once more. This time, Julie didn't dodge. She ducked inside his guard, her obsidian dagger licking out to slice a clean line across his forearm. Golden ichor welled up, but before a single drop could hit the ground, it vaporized into dust and was drawn into the red haze surrounding Julie. In the same fluid motion, she drove her other dagger deep into his left side.
Kratos staggered back, gritting his teeth against the white-hot pain. He clamped a hand over the wound, cold sweat pouring from his temples like a river. He glared at Julie, who watched his suffering with clinical detachment. His gaze flickered to his siblings.
Bia and Zelus were locked in a fierce melee with Druvak, while Nike harried him from a distance, her arrows guided by her divine luck to strike at the joints of his armor, restricting his movements. It was a stalemate, but one Kratos could see was deliberate; Druvak was holding back, toying with them, keeping them engaged.
A glance upward showed Amazel and Orcanon in a stalemate of their own, a swirling vortex of water and ice. Then he looked back for Julie.
She was gone.
'Shit! I lost focus!' A searing pain erupted across his back. He spun, but saw nothing. Another slash bit into his heel, and he stumbled. His eyes then caught the drifting golden dust from his wounds—it wasn't dissipating randomly. It was flowing in a specific direction, toward a shimmer in the air.
Understanding dawned. He gripped his battle axe and, without looking, swung it backward with all his strength.
The sensation of cutting through flesh vibrated up the shaft. He turned to see Julie's invisibility fail, a deep gash now open across her stomach, dark blood flowing freely.
Yet she didn't stop. She swung her dagger in a downward arc, the blade grazing his face and slicing cleanly through his left eye. As she lunged for his head with her other dagger, Kratos unleashed his divine energy in a raw, concussive shockwave. Julie was thrown backward through the air.
She landed in a perfect, fluid backflip, but the blood loss made her sway, dizziness clouding her vision. Ignoring the grievous wound, she infused her dagger with Slaughter essence. It began to hover, a red haze swirling around it like a vortex. Then, it shot away from her, not at Kratos, but into the distant crowd of enemy soldiers.
It became a blur of death, piercing vital points with unerring accuracy. Wherever it went, it left a crimson trail and a field of dried corpses. The crimson mist of their life force and essence streamed back toward Julie. She took a deep, shuddering breath, inhaling the essence of thousands. The remaining mist was absorbed through her skin, and before Kratos's horrified eyes, the terrible wound on her stomach sealed shut without a trace.
Kratos cupped his hand over the ruined socket of his eye. He tried to call upon his innate divine power for regeneration, but it was useless; Julie's attack had unmade the flesh itself, and his power could only stop the bleeding. His remaining eye widened in revulsion and dread as he witnessed her restore herself by consuming the lives of his army.
"…Monster," he breathed, the word a hollow whisper of disbelief.
At the word, a slow, chilling smile finally cracked Julie's cold facade. It was a predator's grin of pure, twisted pride. She took it not as an insult, but as the highest compliment.
Then, she blurred and vanished again.
Kratos's heart hammered against his ribs, a frantic drumbeat that drowned out all other sound. The world narrowed to the space around him. He gripped his axe, swinging it in wide, violent, paranoid arcs.
Clang!
A spark flew as his axe met her dagger. He swung again; she parried. He switched to a horizontal slash, and she dropped low, her blade grazing his torso. But this time, Kratos didn't flinch. He followed through, pivoting to sweep her leg. Julie crashed to the ground.
Seizing the opening, he brought his axe down in a killing blow. Julie threw herself into a desperate roll, the axehead biting into the earth inches from her face. She sprang to her feet and charged. He met her charge.
Suddenly, he hurled his axe. It spun end over end, its speed and her momentum making it nearly impossible to dodge. Julie bent backward at an impossible angle, the weapon whistling past to sever a few stray strands of her hair.
But Kratos had predicted this. As she fought to correct her posture, Kratos divine energy-enhanced fist drilled into her face. Spittle and dark blood flew from her lips. He followed with a savage uppercut that snapped her head back, then drove his knee deep into her stomach, doubling her over.
Yet even as he inflicted damage, she delivered her own. The dagger in her hand plunged into his thigh as his knee connected.
Kratos roared, gritting his teeth as he yanked the blade free. Julie wiped the blood from her mouth, a cold fire in her crimson eyes.
SNAP!
He broke the dagger in two over his knee. Now, both are weaponless, they stared at each other across a few feet of blood-soaked ground. Then, with a shared, wordless understanding, they charged once more.
---
Meanwhile, a distance away near the waterfall of the River Styx, a separate, brutal conflict unfolded.
CLANG!
A shockwave rippled out as a scythe sheathed in death essence met a dark trident infused with monstrous sea energy. The concussive force threw both Thanatos and Phorcys back.
Phorcys anchored himself with his powerful octopus limbs, his tentacles digging deep into the soil. Seeing his brother momentarily pressed, Charon raised a hand wreathed in emerald soul fire. 'Necromancy—rise!'
The ground erupted as skeletal hands and heads clawed their way to the surface. In seconds, they formed a chattering, clattering army of the dead. Not to be outdone, Phorcys summoned his own horde from the spectral mists: nightmares of the deep with the gaping jaws of angler fish on the torsos of powerful mermen. The two unnatural armies crashed together in a chaotic, grinding melee.
Once more, Thanatos and Phorcys charged one another, their divine weapons clashing with earth-shattering force. Charon saw an opening and thrust his hand forward. 'Soul Flare!'
A torrent of green flame, roaring like a dragon's breath, shot toward Phorcys. Phorcys' eyes widened, every sense screaming in alarm. Thanatos seized the distraction, his scythe cutting a silent, deadly arc.
Suddenly a shield of swirling water materialized around Phorcys, blocking the soul flare, but Thanatos's scythe sliced through the aquatic barrier as if it were a thin sheet of parchment. Phorcys flinched at the last moment, but the scythe's edge still sheared off several of his writhing tentacles.
Nereus appeared then, riding a cresting wave of summoned seawater. "Apologies, brother. I was detained."
Phorcys nodded, but rage boiled within him, his muscles bulging and swelling with primal fury. Charon, undeterred, unleashed another Soul Flare, this one a vortex of even greater magnitude.
Nereus answered by sweeping his arm, releasing a high-pressure torrent to counter the soul flames. Water and fire clashed in a hissing maelstrom, creating a dense, obscuring cloud of steam. Within the mist, the relentless clang of Thanatos's scythe and Phorcys's trident continued without reducing in intensity.
It was then that Hypnos arrived behind Thanatos, lounging on a soft, self-conjured cloud, his eyes heavy-lidded with sleep. He lazily raised an arm. 'Sleep…'
A wave of irresistible, soul-deep lethargy washed over them. Nereus stumbled, the strength of his water torrent faltering. The soul flame began to overpower his defenses. The same magical lethargy seized Phorcys; his movements turned sluggish, his reactions fatally delayed. They were cornered, their divine energy sapped by an invisible force.
'Purification.' 'Charity.'
An intense, purifying light bloomed within the steamy battlefield, its holy radiance evaporating the skeleton army where they stood. The minds of Phorcys and Nereus cleared instantly. A strong wind dispelled the mist, revealing Iris, now clad in resplendent golden armor, a sword and shield in her hands as she gracefully descended to the ground.
"You are late," Nereus grumbled, his voice tight with strain.
"Forgive me, Lord Nereus," Iris answered, her gaze fixed on the sons of night. "Some persistent pests blocked my path."
ROOOAARR!!!
Phorcys roared, the sound echoing from the depths. His body swelled with knotted, sweating muscle, his eyes burning crimson with untamed rage. He charged forward, his regenerated army of monsters surging with him.
Thanatos didn't advance. He simply swung his scythe in a wide, horizontal arc. A crescent of pure black energy, silent and absolute, flew toward the horde. Phorcys leaped high to dodge, but the wave of death passed cleanly through his monsters, disintegrating them into nothingness in a single, silent sweep.
Phorcys descended from his jump upon Thanatos, his trident held high for a crushing, downward blow.
CLANG!
Phorcys's trident met Thanatos's up raised scythe.Thanatos blocked the attack, but the blow was so powerful it forced him to one knee, the ground beneath him cracking and splintering like a massive spiderweb.
From behind Phorcys, Iris charged, her sword aimed at Thanatos's exposed side. Charon shot a series of jagged, dark energy spears, but Iris deftly neutralized them with spears of her own brilliant light. Charon gritted his teeth and unleashed a final, full-force Soul Flare, pouring his power into it.
Nereus, recovered, shot a massive water torrent, canceling the attack once more. 'We're being overwhelmed,' Charon thought desperately. Then he remembered that his brother Hypnos also their. 'Where is that lazy bum? Don't tell me he fell asleep at a time like this!' His eyes frantically scanned the periphery and found Hypnos sitting cross-legged on his cloud, slowly, contentedly eating a slice of chocolate cake.
Charon's blood ran cold. 'Wait... is that the same dessert?' Sweat, cold and unpleasant, trickled down his temples as the memory of that particular horror resurfaced.
On the battlefield, Phorcys drove a powerful knee into Thanatos's chest. Thanatos was thrown back several meters, a trickle of golden ichor dripping from the corner of his mouth.
Cough!
Thanatos coughed violently, spraying golden blood. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, looked up, and saw Phorcys and Iris charging in a final, unified assault, their weapons aimed directly at his heart. In mere moments, he would be run through.
And yet, Thanatos did nothing. He sat on the ravaged ground, perfectly comfortable and still. His eyes held theirs, but his lips were curved into a small, knowing smile.
Iris felt a sudden, instinctual chill at his absolute, unnerving calmness. Her sword and Phorcys's trident were a heartbeat away from piercing his chest.
CLANG!
Iris's eyes widened in disbelief. 'What!? How is this possible?' Both of their attacks were stopped by a single, black dagger, held effortlessly in Hypnos's hand. His head was still bowed, his long black hair obscuring his face. His wings, which were always neatly folded, now spread wide and casting a dark shadow over them. A pitch-black halo began to rotate slowly above his head.
Hypnos beat his wings once, unleashing a gale of chilling, black ominous wind that forced both Iris and a stunned Phorcys to skid backward.
Iris's pupils constricted to pinpricks. She took an involuntary, fearful step backward, her warrior's intuition screaming of a terrible miscalculation. 'his laziness is not weakness…it is restrain.'
Phorcys, however, fueled by pure rage, was undeterred. He bellowed and thrust his trident in a furious lunge. Hypnos, without even looking, flicked his dagger and deflected the blow. Enraged beyond reason, Phorcys unleashed a wild flurry of swings and thrusts, but the result was always the same—effortless, almost bored parries. In a final, graceless act of frustration, Phorcys hurled his trident like a javelin. Hypnos shifted his body with a minimal, almost imperceptible movement, the trident passing so close it stirred the hair over his ear.
Still, Phorcys did not stop. He swiped with a clawed hand. Hypnos caught his massive wrist, halting the blow mid-swing as if it were nothing. Phorcys tried to pull free, but the grip was immovable, like being held by the roots of a mountain. He swung with his other hand. Again, Hypnos caught it. Then, with a motion that was almost casual, Hypnos kicked him squarely in the chest. Phorcys was thrown back several meters, landing hard, leaving both of his severed claws in Hypnos's unyielding hands.
Hypnos tossed the twitching claws aside as if discarding garbage. He stretched his whole body and wings, arching his back like a great cat awakening from a centuries-long slumber. He swept his hair back, revealing pale white skin, sclera as black as the void, and piercing, luminous golden eyes. A devious, unsettling smile played on his lips.
Shadow itself melted from the ground and climbed up his legs and arms like living liquid, combine and hardening into a pair of wickedly sharp, sleek black blades.
Phorcys staggered to his feet, his arms already regenerating with a sickening, wet sound. Enraged beyond coherence, he made a small cut on his palm and sprinkled his potent blood on the ground. Where each drop landed, a snarling, fully-formed deep-sea monster clawed its way into existence. Still not satisfied, he sent out a psychic call, summoning the Leviathan and a giant sea serpent. Finally, his own body swelled, growing to a gigantic, towering size.
Behind a horrified Iris, the air itself shimmered as thousands of lances of pure light materialized, their points aimed at a single, smiling figure.
Hypnos merely tilted his head back and let out an eerie, echoing laugh.