The Broken Halo

Heavenfall Arsenal struck the tightening coil.

The first swords buried themselves between its scales. Enigma clenched his fists, and the serpent’s body bent around their blades, crushing them sideways. A hammer struck deep enough to tear a hole through the coil.

Then the weapons trapped inside it burst.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

Iron-grey light forced its way through the gaps. The coil split along its underside, spilling a torrent of shattered weapons into the valley. Spears driven off course punched through distant ridges. The land enclosed by the serpent rose in enormous slabs, then fell into the spaces beneath it.

Enigma staggered in the air. Blood ran from his nose.

Across from him, the god emerged through the broken coil, another piece of his breastplate falling away. He wiped his bloodied mouth with his left thumb.

Then he laughed.

”I’m not going to lie. It’s been a very long time since I enjoyed a fight like this. Not bad snake. Not bad at all.”

Enigma also could not help but bare his teeth.

”Keep laughing. I’ll give you something to choke on.”

”War God Art. Eight-Armed Calamity!”

Six enormous iron-grey arms unfolded behind the god. A spectral forearm completed the outline beneath his missing elbow but the flesh itself remained severed.

Eight hands opened.

The six behind him seized a spear, axe, greatsword, bow, chain, and hammer. Each moved independently, already preparing a different attack.

Enigma’s grin widened.

”World Serpent Art. Nine-Headed Hunt!”

Nine black necks erupted around him. Their heads rose higher than the surviving ridges, emerald eyes opening above mouths lined with curved fangs.

Enigma could see through every pair of eyes.

One head lunged upward as another disappeared into a spatial opening beneath the god.

The spectral spear pierced the first head’s mouth.

An axe split the one emerging below.

The other seven struck before either destroyed head finished dissolving.

CLAAAAANG!

A sword caught one set of jaws. The chain looped around another neck and dragged it into the hammer. Three heads spat emerald venom, forcing the god to twist while his bow released an arrow into the throat nearest his face.

Enigma shot between the moving necks.

His heel struck the god’s jaw.

BANG!

The blow snapped the God of War’s head sideways. The god caught Enigma’s ankle with his spectral right hand and grinned through blood.

”My turn!”

He swung.

Whoosh!

Enigma hit a serpent head hard enough to burst it. Before he could rebound, the greatsword swept toward his neck.

”World Serpent Art. Scale Exchange.”

Enigma disappeared and the blade struck a single black scale.

It burned away.

Enigma appeared beside a prepared scale farther down the falling neck, a matching gap exposed on his collarbone. Used that way, the bloodline scale was consumed rather than returned to him.

The god was already coming.

”Godbreaker Step!”

He kicked the air and crossed the distance in one violent burst. The shockwave followed after him, punching a tunnel through the falling debris.

Enigma ducked the spear, caught its shaft beneath his arm, and spat blood into the god’s face.

”Fuck off!”

His forehead struck the bridge of the God of War’s nose.

BAM!

The spectral chain caught Enigma’s waist.

Both pulled.

Neither let go.

For an instant, they were face-to-face between snapping jaws and swinging weapons, laughing and bleeding while each tried to drag the other into the next strike.

Enigma released the spear.

The sudden loss of resistance carried the god a little forward.

Exactly where the remaining serpent heads had been herding him.

”World Serpent Art. Maw Beyond the Sky!”

Space split above and below the god.

Black jaws emerged from both openings. Their curved fangs dwarfed the spectral arms between them, and emerald light burned along rows of teeth stretching across the sky.

The mouth closed.

KRAAAAAAM!

The sound struck the ruined valleys like a falling mountain.

Enigma’s smile lasted one heartbeat.

A crimson light appeared between the teeth.

”War God Art. Worldbreaker Hammer!”

Inside the mouth, the god closed his left fist. His extra arms dissolved, pouring their power into a colossal hammer that enclosed his entire arm.

He punched upward.

The serpent’s upper jaw burst.

Broken fangs spun into the clouds, and the god followed through the opening, the hammer already turning toward Enigma.

”Bad mistake snake! You brought me CLOSER!”

It descended before the Daemon could retreat.

”World Serpent Art. Worldskin!”

Black scales swept over Enigma and expanded into a vast, transparent serpent-like shell. He stood inside its head as the hammer struck its brow.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The shell folded.

Cracks raced from its head down hundreds of metres of scales, spreading the impact across its entire length instead of letting it crush the body inside.

Even so, Enigma coughed blood.

His remaining hunting heads disintegrated in the blast. Beneath the airborne shell, an entire slope folded into a crater, throwing the far side upward like the edge of a tipped bowl.

The god pressed down harder.

Enigma’s hands shook beneath him.

”Break!” the god roared.

Enigma looked up through the fractured scales.

”Wrong direction, you fucking bastard.”

He turned his waist.

”World Serpent Art. Tail That Splits Mountains!”

An enormous tail appeared behind the god halfway through its swing. Its tip struck him across the back, driving him sideways while his hammer remained committed downward.

BANG!

The hammer tore free of Worldskin.

The god struck a ridge. The tail followed, swept through its summit, and carried the debris into the next mountain.

For a moment, the horizon vanished behind rising stone.

Enigma ripped away the broken shell, breathing hard. Blood covered his teeth, but his grin had become almost savage.

”Get up!”

A figure stepped from the dust.

Then another.

Then hundreds.

”War God Art. One Man, Ten Thousand Soldiers.”

The god’s voice came from every direction.

Thousands of one-armed figures spread across the ruined slopes and filled the air. They were solid manifestations of Aether and Will, carrying weapons that moved with different fighting styles.

Then they charged.

Enigma cut through the nearest three with his claws. A spearman farther away became the real god, his presence sharpening just before he thrust.

The point tore across Enigma’s ribs.

The Daemon struck back.

His fist burst the figure into Aether.

The god had already moved into another manifestation.

”Why don’t you try and find me!”

A hundred identical mouths grinned.

Enigma’s eyes flashed with a cold light.

”Why bother?”

He flung both hands apart.

”World Serpent Art. Sky Swallow!”

A gigantic serpent head rose above him and opened its mouth. The approaching soldiers bent toward it, dragged off their attack paths before disappearing down its throat.

The swallowed power did not enter Enigma. It gathered inside the manifestation, lighting long emerald lines beneath its black scales.

The god appeared in an archer outside the pull.

He drew.

A crimson arrow passed between the serpent’s teeth.

It struck deep inside the swollen throat.

The head jerked. Cracks spread down its neck as the swallowed power began bursting before Enigma could release it.

The god laughed.

”You said you were going to make me choke on my laugh?! Now CHOKE on what you swallowed snake!”

Enigma’s fingers clawed inward.

He had no time to turn the entire head.

Instead, he tore open a second mouth along its cheek.

The accumulated power erupted sideways.

BOOOOOOOOM!!!!

An emerald-black torrent swallowed the laughing archer and every manifestation behind it. The blast struck the mountains beyond them, punching through their slopes before lifting the broken summits into the sky.

The serpent head blew apart above Enigma.

He plunged through the fragments, one arm hanging briefly limp before he forced it upward again.

Far across the blast’s edge, the God of War appeared inside the last soldier he had kept outside its path.

Half of his armour was gone.

He spat blood and started laughing again.

Enigma wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

”Still hiding in your army?”

”You just fed it your power and threw it back at me,” the god called. ”I’m beginning to enjoy you.”

”Then come closer. I haven’t finished disappointing your worshippers!”

Neither sounded like the figures who had begun this battle.

The god’s red hair clung to his face. Enigma’s silver-white curls were tangled with blood. Each watched the other through the drifting ruins, searching for the small weakness the next attack could widen.

”You have seen only a handful of my arts,” the God of War said.

Enigma’s eyes narrowed with fierce amusement.

”And I have shown you a handful of mine. Try surviving the next one before you start boasting!”

The god extended his left hand.

”Spear That Pierces the Horizon.”

A plain iron-grey spear settled into his grip. It looked insignificant beside the weapons that had destroyed the mountains, until the air along its point cleared in a straight line through the dust.

He drew it behind his shoulder. Crimson light compressed along its shaft so tightly that the weapon began humming.

Enigma spread his arms.

”World Serpent Art. Serpent’s Eclipse.”

A colossal silhouette rose behind him. Its coils climbed beyond the broken clouds, covering the battlefield in darkness edged with emerald. Light burned between every scale on his body as the manifestation strengthened the bloodline techniques he was preparing beneath it.

Both began to move.

Then three presences reached the battlefield.

They were distinct, powerful, and also approaching fast.

Demon Kings.

The god’s throwing hand stopped. Enigma’s raised fingers became still.

Both looked beyond the other.

And they both narrowed their eyes with displeasure too.

For a moment, the spear continued humming while the immense serpent darkened the sky.

Neither released his attack.