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"AAAAAH—!!!"
Hawk looked down. Beneath the heel of his shoe, Gabriel was putting on a desperate show of defiance. The Archangel was using every last ounce of his remaining strength, straining to push himself out of the rubble.
A flicker of dark amusement crossed Hawk's eyes.
Slowly.
Gabriel's back arched, and he actually managed to lift Hawk's foot a fraction of an inch.
The next second.
Hawk pushed down.
BOOM!
SQUELCH—!!
The overwhelming power of his fully realized Cosmo—the Mind-Phoenix Gold Reality Universe—surged through his leg. With a deafening crash, he drove Gabriel back down into the ruins.
This time, there was a sickening sound, like a watermelon being crushed under a sledgehammer.
With a wet pop, Hawk's foot plunged directly into Gabriel's back, leaving a perfectly shoe-shaped crater in the Archangel's spine.
And—
When Hawk lifted his foot, a heart—a bizarre organ with eight distinct chambers—was pulled from the wound, stuck to the sole of his shoe.
He ground it into the rubble, reducing it to bloody pulp.
Don't want to talk? Fine. You don't have to.
As the heart was destroyed.
Gabriel instantly stopped struggling.
His body began to dissolve into pure white light beneath Hawk's foot, breaking down and scattering. Just like the millions of heavenly beings and hundreds of Archangels before him, Gabriel was reduced to raw, fundamental energy, reabsorbed into the fabric of the Heaven Dimension.
A soul emerged from the dissipating light.
The moment it appeared, the magnetic pull of Hawk's Underworld seized it, dragging it down into the Prison of Ice.
At the exact same time.
A crystal materialized amidst the fading white light of Gabriel's body. It was milky-white, shaped like a perfect diamond, and it slowly floated upward, hovering right in front of Hawk.
[The Core of Heaven!]
[Claim it, refine it, and the Heaven Dimension is yours!]
The instant the milky-white diamond appeared, Hawk understood its exact purpose.
But…
It felt too easy.
The Core of Heaven. Shouldn't this be in Yahweh's possession? Why did Gabriel have it?
Was it simply because Gabriel was the Guardian Archangel?
And more importantly.
Where the hell was Yahweh?
As Hawk pondered this, the hovering crystal hummed. With a sharp bzzt, it projected a beam of light.
The beam hit the empty air in front of Hawk, and the ambient energy of Heaven coalesced around it, forming a lifelike holographic projection.
God—
Yahweh!
He appeared against a pristine white background, sitting on a pristine white throne, dressed in pristine white robes. But his skin was surprisingly dark, as if he suffered from an extreme sensitivity to sunlight. He sat in the projection, hands slightly raised, a serene smile on his face, looking at Hawk as if greeting an old friend.
"You've arrived."
"..."
Hawk's first instinct was to retort, "Yeah, and I probably shouldn't have."
But!
He looked at the projection. Yahweh seemed to have known he was coming. He didn't look angry that his dimension had been destroyed, or that his countless angels had been slaughtered. He just sat there, smiling that serene, infuriating smile.
Hawk's mind raced.
In the projection, Yahweh stood up from his throne and took a step forward. The white background vanished, and the hologram seamlessly overlaid itself onto the ruins, making it look as if Yahweh was standing right there in front of him.
But Yahweh wasn't there.
The moment the projection appeared, Hawk's Seventh Sense had locked onto the faint energy signature connecting the hologram to its source, and he traced it back.
He followed Yahweh's scent across the cosmos, piercing through countless dimensional bubbles, until he finally lost the trail in the vast, chaotic sea of the Multiverse.
It seemed... Yahweh wasn't even in this universe anymore?
Was that possible?
Hawk pulled his Seventh Sense back. He looked at the smiling Yahweh, let his visor slide down, and scoffed.
"Coward."
"I call it wisdom."
Yahweh's smile didn't waver as he met Hawk's gaze. "If you had simply looked into the future before you came, you would have seen that I haven't been here for a very long time. Not since you killed my projection."
Hawk heard the words, and his mind immediately flashed back to his own timeline. He remembered the blinding, almost desperate brilliance of his future—the seductive, overwhelming temptation that had practically screamed at him: 'Look at me, or you'll regret it forever!'
So—
That had been a warning?
Hawk thought about it, his eyes fixed on Yahweh.
The next second.
He smiled, too.
"So where are you? Tell me, I'll come find you. We clearly have some misunderstandings. Maybe we should sit down, have a chat, and bury the hatchet. After all, the universe is a big place. Plenty of room for both of us."
"..."
Yahweh didn't answer. He just looked at Hawk.
Hawk smiled back.
They stared at each other.
After a long moment.
"Hahaha!"
Yahweh burst into laughter.
Hawk listened to the sound, a vein throbbing in his forehead. Looking at that smug, ancient face, his disgust for the 'Lord' skyrocketed.
A moment later.
Yahweh's laughter subsided. He met Hawk's gaze, his voice echoing through the ruins of Heaven.
"God is everywhere!"
Tch.
Hawk let out a short, dismissive laugh. "When I find you, and I tear you apart with my bare hands, you're going to regret turning down my peace offering."
The smile finally vanished from Yahweh's face.
"Phoenix, wielder of the Fire of Life, the Fire of Immortality, and the Fire of Rebirth. The next time we meet, you will be the one who regrets trying to conquer my Heaven."
"Oh?"
Hawk raised an eyebrow. He raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist.
Whoosh!
The milky-white diamond, the Core of Heaven, flew into his grasp.
The crystal was saturated with Yahweh's energy. All Hawk had to do was purge that energy, replace it with his own, and the entire Heaven Dimension would belong to him.
From then on.
He would be the undisputed master of Heaven.
The new God!
With a thought, Hawk summoned his Cosmo. His energy flared, surging toward the white diamond in his hand.
It looked as if he was about to refine the Core right then and there, claiming Heaven right in front of Yahweh's face.
But!
Just as his energy was about to touch the Core, Hawk looked up. He met Yahweh's eyes, a mocking, derisive smirk playing on his lips.
"You really want me to absorb this thing, don't you, old man?"
As the words left his mouth.
Before Yahweh could even react, Hawk's right hand tightened around the Core. His grip shifted, his fingers transforming into the unyielding, crushing talons of the Phoenix.
Trapped within the Phoenix's Claw, the Core of Heaven was crushed.
CRACK—
BOOM—!!!
Five massive fissures appeared on the surface of the Core. The next instant, as the Phoenix Claw closed completely, the crystal shattered and detonated.
Hawk opened his hand, letting the pulverized dust of the Core sift through his fingers. He looked at Yahweh with an expression of mock seriousness.
"You know what? You're right. I'm taking your advice. Just so I don't regret it later... I think I'll pass on taking your Heaven."
"..."
The smile on Yahweh's face froze completely.
The next second.
The projection of Yahweh slowly flickered and faded away.
Hawk pulled his consciousness inward, descending into his own soul.
High above the Underworld.
He stared down with cold, emotionless eyes. In the Prison of Ice, the millions of heavenly souls he had just slaughtered—along with the hundreds of Archangels and Gabriel himself—began to slowly merge and coalesce. From the swirling mass of their combined souls, a figure emerged.
It was Yahweh.
But the serene smile was gone. His face was dark.
Incredibly dark.
Even his voice, when he finally spoke, was a low, ominous rumble.
"When did you figure it out?"
"Let me think."
Smiles don't just disappear.
They transfer.
Hawk, floating down into the Prison of Ice, wore the exact same smile Yahweh had sported just moments ago.
"Was it when you warned me not to take your Heaven Dimension?"
Yahweh's expression twitched.
But Hawk wasn't finished.
"Or was it when you told me that 'God is everywhere'?"
"Or maybe when you basically admitted that if I had looked into the future, I would have seen that you weren't here?"
"Or perhaps it was the simple fact that when I broke in, you were nowhere to be found."
"Or maybe..."
"It was when I went to see Father Moreau, and he told me that he had already abandoned his faith and forsaken you?"
Hawk listed the clues, ticking them off one by one.
With each point, Yahweh's face grew uglier.
Until the very end.
When Hawk mentioned Father Moreau, Yahweh's expression became utterly, completely twisted with rage.
Hawk's smile, on the other hand, was absolutely radiant. He looked at Yahweh and shook his head, looking genuinely amused.
"You left too many holes, Yahweh."
"Who do you think I am?"
"Some muscle-bound idiot like Mephisto? All brawn and no brains?"
"I am not Mephisto!"
"I lived as a normal human for sixteen years. I've walked through fire, I've waded through blood, and I've fought countless battles to get where I am. I am a Saint. I am the Lord of the Phoenix."
"Any trick you know, I know."
"And the tricks you don't know? I know those, too."
"But most importantly."
"You were sloppy!"
"You were so fucking sloppy."
Hawk looked down at Yahweh, whose face was a mask of impotent fury. "Do you know what makes a successful plan?"
He didn't wait for an answer.
"The simpler the plan, the less room there is for error."
"But you—"
"Your little scheme... it was so convoluted, so drawn out, that if I hadn't figured it out, I would have felt like I was insulting my own intelligence."
"The only reason I didn't call you out on it sooner was because I wanted to see if you had any new tricks to show me."
"And what did I get?"
"I was really looking forward to seeing what you'd come up with."
"And it was this?"
"You wanted me to refine the Core of Heaven, to absorb your main body into my Cosmo, so that your soul—hidden within the souls of your angels—could merge with it, bypass my defenses, and destroy my universe from the inside out?"
"You really dropped the ball on this one, you know that?"
"I only had to use one trick."
"I just opened the door and let you walk right in."
"And now—"
"Tell me."
"Yahweh!"
"Do you have a backup plan? Because if you don't, you are about to suffer in ways you can't even imagine!"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk—"
"..."
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