Chapter 9:
Gatefall — Valefar's Claim
A cold voice slipped into the hall like a knife.
"Hello, pitiful humans," Valefar said, his tone amused and deadly.
Paul's aura flared in response, an intense pressure swelling around him. "Pitiful humans," he echoed, and the hall shuddered as his power answered the insult.
Frostgard bared his teeth and growled an accusation that carried like thunder. "He's the one hunting our Realm Beasts."
Ashley's fists curled. "Why are you hunting them?" she demanded.
Kyle stepped forward, blunt and furious. "Do you have a death wish, old fool?"
Valefar smiled — a slow, patient smile that did not reach his eyes. "Old fool? I did not come here to fight. Hand over those monsters to me."
Stellavore's wings folded, and she shrieked a sound that made the chandeliers tremble. "We are monsters," she replied, the declaration rolling from her throat in a challenge.
Ezra's voice, tight with warning, named the presence that chilled everyone: "He's an underworld ruler — Valefar, the Wisest Lord."
Paul's jaw set. "I don't care if you're a demon lord or not. You can't just make demands."
Valefar's tone hardened. "I wasn't asking. I am ordering you to give me them. You are no match for me."
Kyle spat in reply. "Guess we'll have to give you one then."
Paul's thoughts sharpened, calculating. For him to be a ruler of the underworld, his level of grace and mana must be high, he thought. Then, in a quiet mind-voice, he spoke to his cousin. Can you hear me, Kyle?
Yes, my king, Kyle answered.
"Me and you will attack," Paul mouthed. "Ezra takes the rest to somewhere safe."
Copy, Ezra replied.
Paul fixed Valefar with a steady gaze. "I want to fight you, Valefar — but not here."
Valefar laughed, an ugly sound without mirth. "Do you think you can fool me, human? I am the Wisest Lord in the Underworld."
"Now, Kyle," Paul said.
They moved as one.
Paul and Kyle attacked together, a flash of coordinated fury, and Valefar reacted with a single command. "Move back — smash your head on the wall."
The world tilted. Paul and Kyle were shoved backward by a violent unseen shove, and their helmets of resolve met the stone with bone-jarring force. They hit the wall hard; stars flashed behind their eyes.
Kyle blinked, dazed. "Paul, why are you shocked?"
Paul's voice was a hiss. "That's Cosmic Authority."
"What's that?" Kyle asked, pain lacing the question.
Paul had no time to explain. "Watch out!"
Valefar's fist struck Paul with the force of a thrown mountain. The king flew, a comet of flesh and power, hurtling miles before he smashed into the earth and skidded to a stop.
Valefar turned his attention to the beasts. "Now for you, monsters."
Kyle, gasping, gathered himself and called out a skill in desperate focus. "Elemental Release — Night Dreams."
Valefar's eyes narrowed. "You look like you just learned this move." He moved with surprising swiftness — until Ashley's foot slammed into him and sent him flying.
"What are you doing here?" Kyle barked at Ashley.
"I came to help," she shot back.
"No — you shouldn't be here. Go somewhere safe," Kyle snapped, though the worry in his voice betrayed him.
"And let my brother die?" Ashley snapped back. "Stop ordering me around. I can fight too."
Paul's voice, ragged and damp with pain, carried from where he lay. "You fool. This is an underworld ruler, not a common street villain. Leave it alone. It's an order."
Ashley's hand trembled, but she planted her feet. "Please. I can fight too. Remember you trained me, Paul."
He coughed, blood at his lips. "Then fight for the future, Ash. Your life is more important than our deaths. Flameheart, take her away before Valefar recovers."
The flame-beast obeyed with a low growl. "Yes, my king."
Valefar roared in fury, rage like volcanic steam. "How dare you make me bleed, you foolish human! You will pay for this!"
Kyle's shout cut through. "Here he comes."
Paul forced himself up, summoning what strength he had left. "Elemental Release — Dragon Fire."
A stream of scorching power lanced outward, and for a heartbeat Valefar wavered — until he made the choice every ruler of the underworld makes when cornered. He would not be alone.
Valefar drew sigils in the dust and muttered an incantation. The ground opened with a sound like a cracked drum. From the summoning circle rose a giant — a warrior of the underworld, hulking and forged of nightmares. "Now it's two versus two," Valefar said calmly.
Paul barked orders. "Stellavore!"
"Yes, my king," the dragon answered.
"Looks like our first battle together is going to be hell," Paul said. "Kyle, take the giant warrior. Stellavore and I will handle Valefar. Let's go."
Kyle gathered his power. "Elemental Release — Gravity Control." He pressed forward, a conduit of weight and pull. "That should hold you down." He switched almost instantly. "Elemental Release — Anti-Gravity Control!"
The giant warrior screamed in fury as gravity bent and tore around it. For a long beat, the plan worked. The behemoth smashed and strained against the shifting fields, but then — the impossible happened. With a scream of metal and bone, the giant burst its bindings.
"Kyle!" Paul's shout was frantic.
Kyle's breath hissed in his teeth. "It's finished — it broke free. Nah, this is not good."
Paul turned back to Valefar. "Now it's your turn."
He unleashed a storm of strikes — the earth itself became his hammer. Elemental Release — All Round Might. A colossal, spectral hammer slammed into Valefar three times in brutal succession.
Valefar staggered, and for a second the tide turned. Then the Wisest Lord's voice rose, cold and terrible. "Humans, humans, humans. You useless beings with selfish desires." He let loose a low, resonant chord: Elemental Release — Songs of My Grace.
Shock waves poured across the battlefield. Paul's knees buckled; he slid down, collapsing as the pressure crushed at his chest.
Kyle's thoughts raced, a private argument with himself. Should I try the temple? Now that Paul showed me how to use it… He heard a sound, ancient and far-off, like stone grinding on stone.
The giant warrior slammed into Kyle without mercy, fists pounding, hurling blood and ash. Kyle coughed, blood on his lips. "Still no good, huh? After all this training, I pretend I'm strong — but I'm not. Just a teenager who loves to play games and watch sports."
Something inside him steadied, answered the fear with stubborn resolve. "Elemental Release — Temple."
Stone rose around the giant, summoned from the very space itself, a cathedral of gravity and structure that coalesced and telescoped, enclosing the warrior in a prison of living temple. The enormous figure thrashed and banged; the structure closed like a maw, hemming him in. Minutes passed and the giant's struggles faded into silence. When the dust settled, Kyle gasped. "I did it. At last I can construct a temple without killing innocents."
Paul looked toward him, a brief flare of pride breaking through his pain. "Looks like Kyle's done. Now it's our turn, Stellavore. Co-attack!"
"Dragon Breath — Volcanic Avalanche!" Paul and Stellavore roared as one, a tidal wave of fire and molten stone that screamed across the field.
Something anonymous—an invisible hand of authority—met the attack and split it apart like thunder striking a cliff.
Valefar's expression did not change as a second figure stepped into the noise. "Took you long enough to come, Valecton," Valefar said with a sneer.
Valecton, tall and dreamlike, stepped forward, eyes cold. "Valefar, what are you doing? I told you to get the Creation — not those useless creatures."
Paul's breath hitched. "Who is he? Your partner?"
Valecton bowed with a shard of courtesy. "Please forgive my brother for his foolish act. We are here to capture you - Creation."
Paul's voice was a blade. "Me?"
Valecton's answer was measured. "Please do not try to resist. We need you alive."
Paul's brow furrowed. "What do you want with me?"
"For supreme being awakening," Valefar said.
Paul blinked, incredulous. "Supreme being awakening? What are you talking about?"
Valecton said softly, "You wouldn't understand. We, rulers of the underworld, have lived for three million years, seeking ultimate power."
Valefar nodded like a man reciting a benediction. "Then she told us about you — that if we consume half of you we will become Supreme Beings."
A cold, animal laugh left Paul's throat. "She? Well, I'm not letting anyone consume me. It's just you two, then."
Valecton's lip curled. "Who said we were two?"
Something tore free out of Valecton's flesh. Night-stitched shadow peeled away and became a figure, stepping into being like a thought made solid.
"Finally some action," Nighma purred — his voice full of relish.
Stellavore's scales bristled. "It's three against two?"
Nighma laughed, flat and cruel. "Three? You must be joking." he drew his own sigils and called into being an anti-creation circle. "Summoning — Circle Anti-Creation: Hoila & Memo."
Two dark shapes shimmered — Hoila and Memo — void-forms designed to unmake rather than to be unmade.
Stellavore's snarl carried fury and confusion. "What the hell is he?"
Paul's mind raced. What of Kyle? he thought. We can't take five of them.
"He's still unconscious, my king," Stellavore reported, wings beating like a judgment.
Paul's face found steel. "Then we will have to fight them." He pulled himself up despite the bleeding ringing his skull and shouted the words that made blades of light bloom. "Elemental Release — Mighty Kill!"
Steel and spirit met. Paul lunged and, with a blade of concentrated will, sliced Valecton's hand clean off.
Valecton merely smiled, a blade of spite. He sang the underworld's song — a wave that twisted at the inside of lungs: Elemental Release — Songs of the Underworld.
Pain lanced through Paul's ears; crimson threaded out and ran down his face. He gasped, eyes wild.
"Get a hold of yourself, my king," Stellavore cried, her breath scorching like a forge. "We need to block their attack."
Paul forced a grin that felt like a curse. "I'm all right, Stellavore. Let's just keep attacking." He plunged into a move born of the blackest edges of magic. "Forbidden Element — Infinite Darkness."
The effect was catastrophic. Hoila was trapped in a well of collapsing night; her voice was choked off as dimensions folded and sealed. Stellavore followed with a devastating, sorrowful blast — Dragon Breath: Volcanic Flame of Sorrow — and Memo burned, reduced to ashes on a wind that tasted of regret.
Valecton sneered, voice full of contempt. "Knew those two were useless." He reached within himself, authority like a cancer. The pressure hit Paul like a physical blow and his eyes bled.
Paul's scream tore the air. "Ahhhhh!"
Stellavore's scales rattled with fury. "He has Authority too. Who gave them access?"
Valefar's last gambit rose in a tremor. "I will use the last one." His command was a cruelty disguised as mercy. Authority coalesced, and Paul felt the world tilt.
White heat closed in. W...what— Paul's thought trailed into nothing as darkness swallowed him. He lost consciousness, the last sight a smear of dragon breath.
Stellavore roared one final time, summoning her own cataclysm. "Dragon Breath — Volcanic Avalanche!" she unleashed the full fury of the beast.
Valecton looked down with contempt. "It's useless. Your king has lost consciousness. Your volcanic avalanche cannot be powerful anymore. Carry Paul, Valefar."
Valefar's voice was a soft promise and a cruel order. "Yes, brother. Bye, Stellavore. You don't need to cry. When we have consumed him, you will leave for your world of freedom."
Somewhere, Kyle stirred.
Dimensional energies converged. A gate, hungry and bright, opened with the same dispassionate inevitability as a tomb lid.
Valefar and Valecton — with Paul cradled between them like a prize — walked toward the wound in reality. The gate pulsed as if it had been waiting for the exact hunger they carried.
Kyle pushed himself to his feet, staggering, the world a haze of smoke and pain. "O...oh, Paul," he rasped, voice cracking. "Oi — wait. Where are you taking Paul to?"
Valefar's answer was a sneer. "Regain consciousness first before you say anything. Bye."
The gate began its slow, terrible closing.
"Paul!!!" Kyle's cry shredded the air as the Dimensional Gate snapped shut and swallowed the king whole.
Silence slammed into the empty space where the gate had been. Dust fell like forgotten promises. Kyle stood trembling in the ruin of the hall, palms splayed in helpless outrage as a new reality settled — one in which the king was gone, the underworld had taken what it wanted, and the wind carried a single, inevitable thought: war had begun.
To be continued...