The Broken Halo

The first barrier split around the spearhead.

Avaros drove both hands forward, forcing the remaining darkness to converge upon its point. The impact bent his arms and peeled flesh from his palms.

Above him, the jaws closed.

Nereth’s sword shield shattered beneath the lower fangs. He lurched upward, directly into the force spilling past Avaros’s defence.

”AVAROS!”

The Superior Demon King turned, but it was too late.

An enormous fang entered Nereth’s back. The pressure accompanying the spear drove him farther onto it, crushing his chest against the emerald-lit edge.

His Cataclysm Heart burst.

The power around his sword vanished. His wings jerked once, and the upper jaw closed over the place where he had been.

Eshar screamed.

He twisted through the collapsing fire rings, trying to follow Avaros toward the gap torn by the spear. A lower fang caught his right leg.

The Infernal Demon ruthlessly decided to tear himself free.

His leg remained behind.

Blood sprayed from the ragged stump as Avaros seized his shoulder and dragged him through the opening. The spear passed beside them, splitting Avaros’s breastplate and opening a deep groove below his collarbone.

Then it vanished into the distance.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

A straight channel ripped through the ruined mountains. Dust burst outward on both sides, and the closing jaws crushed everything the spear had left between them.

The trapped fire and darkness exploded.

Avaros and Eshar were hurled through the clouds. Far below, another section of the valley sank, and a wall of pulverised stone rolled across the broken approaches.

When the jaws dissolved, pieces of Nereth’s sword fell out of the emerald light.

Nothing living followed them.

Nereth, a Demon King was dead.

Avaros caught himself above a shattered ridge. His wings were torn, his palms were bloody, and every breath pulled against the cut across his chest.

He looked back.

Nereth’s presence was gone.

Beside him, Eshar pressed both hands against what remained of his thigh. Black-red fire closed over the stump, stopping the blood without replacing the missing limb.

His armour had split across his stomach. Blood escaped through the gap whenever he coughed.

”Nereth...”

Avaros did not know why he said the name.

There was no response to wait for.

They had come as three Demon Kings. They had formed their defences together but one attack from each of their opponents had been enough to shatter their defenses.

Eshar raised his head toward the silver-haired figure beneath the enormous serpent silhouette.

”What the fuck are you?”

His voice shook.

The question no longer demanded obedience. He needed an explanation for the Supreme Abyssal Heart he could still sense inside something that had just helped kill a Demon King.

Avaros looked toward the God of War.

The God of War remained in the air, his left hand was empty after releasing such a terrifying spear. However, there were no signs of exhaustion and strain from the god.

Their confidence had depended on limits neither of them understood.

Enigma lowered his arms.

”I told you to fuck off.”

Eshar’s fingers tightened against his stump.

”Leave,” Enigma continued coldly. ”Or you can join him.”

Avaros’s jaw clenched.

”You killed-”

”Yes.”

The god smiled.

”Would you like to finish the sentence?”

Killing intent spread from both figures.

Avaros felt it settle against his injured chest. Eshar’s flames drew closer to his body, and neither looked toward Nereth’s remains again.

There would be no Chaos Manifestation and no final threat delivered for the sake of dignity.

Avaros caught Eshar’s upper arm.

The Infernal Demon did not shake him off.

They fled beyond the broken ridge, keeping their defences raised until the dust swallowed them.

The God of War watched them go.

”I expected you to object when I attacked your fellow demons. Not help me kill one.”

Enigma scoffed.

”Fellow?”

He wiped blood from his chin.

”You still haven’t learned the difference.”

”Apparently not.”

”Demons are lesser descendants. Calling one a king does not make it the equal of a Daemon with a fully awakened bloodline.”

His eyes followed the retreating presences.

”And those three have done nothing to make me regret saying it.”

The god chuckled.

”They came to defend their realm.”

”They came to demand obedience from something they did not understand. The moment the obedience they demanded required strength, they discovered that they had no other choice than to run away.”

Enigma’s expression darkened.

”They have an entire realm behind them, and they are still struggling to conquer mere humans.”

The God of War chuckled.

”Humans whom you keep underestimating.”

”Humans whom you and the other bastards keep strengthening.”

The god’s smile widened.

Enigma continued before he could speak.

”I know you interfere. I know you arm them, bless them, and descend when a useful favourite humans of yours dies. That does not make the demons’ failure any less disgraceful.”

His fingers curled.

”They should hate you for it. Instead, they argue over rewards, threaten their wounded, and congratulate themselves for surviving. Then they wonder why their blood recoils before mine.”

The God of War looked at him for a moment.

”You really do despise them.”

”I despise what they have become.”

BANG!

A distant section of mountain collapsed and fell, but neither turned to the sound.

Then the god rolled his remaining shoulder. Torn armour slipped farther down his chest.

”This battle has gone on long enough.”

Enigma’s eyes narrowed.

”Tired?”

”Of interruptions.”

The god extended his left hand.

”One attack. The strongest you can give me. I will answer with mine.”

Enigma studied the familiar confidence on the God’s bloodied face.

Then he grinned.

”Try to leave enough of that body for me to swallow .”

The god laughed.

”Try to reach it.”

He stepped forward.

Iron-grey spears appeared behind him in perfectly aligned rows. Each possessed a narrow crimson groove, a broad cutting head, and a shaft longer than a soldier’s body.

Another step.

The rows multiplied, stretching across the sky.

”War God Art. March of a Million Spears.”

The next ranks formed above the first. More appeared beneath them, then behind, until tens of thousands of spears faced Enigma.

The god’s hand moved slightly.

Every spear turned with it.

They were not a cloud of weapons waiting to be thrown. They held formation, leaving lanes through which the ranks behind could advance without striking those ahead.

Crimson light travelled along the grooves.

One rank brightened.

Then the next.

Then the entire army.

HUMMM!

The sound of vibrating metal became a deep hum that Enigma felt through his teeth.

The god stopped walking.

”Unfortunately, this boy cannot yet bear what a million would require.”

The unfinished shapes gathering at the rear dissolved. Their power flowed into the completed spears instead, sharpening their edges until fine cracks appeared in the air around them.

”But tens of thousands will have to do.”

Enigma looked across the formation.

”You brought another army.”

”And you brought a mouth.”

”Then stop complaining when I feed it.”

He spread his arms.

”World Serpent Art. World Devouring Serpent.”

The silhouette of Serpent’s Eclipse bent toward him.

Its shadow deepened. Scales that had been visible only as outlines became solid black plates, each bordered by emerald light. The pale gaps between its coils closed as more of its enormous body took shape.

Enigma’s own scales rose slightly from his skin.

Blood ran between several that had been damaged earlier. He did not wipe it away.

Behind him, an immense head descended through the clouds.

It did not fit between the surviving peaks.

One side of its jaw passed behind a mountain. The other emerged through dust far beyond the opposite ridge. Its neck curved away into kilometres of black body, disappearing and returning behind the broken landscape.

No single glance could follow all of it or see the serpent in its full glory.

It was beyond massive.

The serpent opened its eyes, and emerald light fell across the spear formation.

The God of War’s grin slowly widened.

Enigma remained humanoid beneath the manifestation’s brow, his silver-white hair whipping upward. When he curled his fingers, the creature’s jaws parted.

Rows of black fangs lowered past the cloud bank.

Its lower jaw descended beneath the hanging dust. Between them lay a darkness that gave no hint of where the throat ended.

It inhaled.

The scattered ruins lifted.

Boulders rolled uphill, left the ground, and accelerated toward its mouth. A broken mountain spur tore free in several pieces. Dust streamed around the fangs in long ropes before disappearing inside.

The god’s nearest spears leaned forward toward the world serpent’s mouth.

He closed his fingers, and their formation steadied.

Enigma saw the adjustment and laughed, blood shining on his teeth.

”Hold them tighter!”

The god drew his left hand back.

The foremost spears separated into a broad crescent. Those behind packed into narrower ranks, their points aimed through the space that would open between the serpent’s fangs.

Aether pressed around the shafts until the crimson grooves burned white at their centres.

Enigma brought his hands forward.

The World Serpent lowered its head.

Its body moved behind it, vast coils dragging through the sky. Space creased along the creature’s jaw, and the ground beneath its shadow began breaking before anything touched it.

The god’s eyes were fixed on the darkness beyond the fangs.

”Advance.”

The first rank vanished.

The second followed so closely that both became a single wall of crimson points. Tens of thousands of spears drove forward in successive formations, some rising toward the eyes, others sweeping beneath the jaw.

The central ranks aimed straight down the throat.

Enigma thrust both hands outward.

The World Devouring Serpent lunged.

Air burst between the advancing army and the descending mouth. A thin white fracture crossed the sky.

Then the first wall of spears struck the serpent’s open jaws.

BOOOOOM!!!!