The Broken Halo

[A/N: This bonus Chapter is thanks to mistyclouds. Thanks so much and please thank him in the comment section for me.]

——

Enigma watched the crater disappear beneath dust.

Blackmoon had dragged a god through a mountain, twisted his remaining arm with a power he shouldn’t have as a Greater Demon, then struck him with four separately compressed elements.

Wind. Lightning. Fire. Shadow.

And throughout most of it, he had looked almost relaxed.

The God of War was weakened. Enigma understood that better than anyone.

But he was certain Blackmoon had not shown everything either.

The young Daemon had scarcely acquired this body. His Greater Demon breakthrough was just as recent.

What would happen once he consolidated that realm and learned to use everything he had gained?

Enigma did not know that the first task was already complete.

Simon’s control over his internal energies had allowed him to stabilise his new realm without the prolonged adjustment others required.

However, mastering his changed body remained another matter.

Enigma studied the four pale horns.

Two swept backward. Two rose above the temples.

Which Daemon race possessed that arrangement?

None he recalled matched the whole figure before him.

His Ouroboros bloodline stirred, urging him toward a challenge.

Then it recoiled slightly.

But it was not because of submission but wariness.

Unknown to Enigma, that challenge was directed toward the Nine-Tailed Byakko. But this Byakko carried the destructive changes wrought by tribulation lightning, and another powerful lineage existed alongside it.

His blood recognised a threat his knowledge could not identify.

’What exactly are you, Blackmoon?’

A figure suddenly burst through the dust.

The God of War emerged with scorched armour and blood running down his side.

However, he attacked neither of them.

He flew toward the rift.

Enigma’s expression sharpened as he understood what the God of War was trying to do.

Retreat.

For all his arrogance, the god had recognised the need.

Blackmoon was stronger than either of them had expected. Replenishing Aether in the Demon Realm was painfully difficult, and even a god could not keep spending their aether without consequence.

An ordinary invader would have exhausted his reserves long ago.

The World-Sovereign Physique helped. Darius’s inner world provided immense reserves and allowed faster replenishment than an ordinary vessel could manage.

But even those advantages were insufficient for the situation.

Because the god was not fighting only Blackmoon.

Enigma’s presence remained a threat even while he watched. Killing Simon might leave the god too exhausted to survive another opponent.

So he was changing the battlefield.

On Earth, Aether would be easier to replenish. The realm’s suppression would fall upon the pursuing Daemons instead of him.

Enigma almost admired the decision.

Then he moved to prevent it.

But thunder cracked overhead.

Simon was already racing after the god, crimson lightning trailing through the wind around his legs.

Enigma stopped himself from entering their path and followed at a wider angle.

Simon watched the iron-grey figure cutting across the sky.

”Leaving already?”

The god did not answer.

Simon raised his hand. A blade of wind crossed the escape route, forcing the god sharply upward.

”I thought you were the God of War.”

A second blade struck from below.

The god shattered it with a short hammer blow without stopping.

”Or does the title only apply when you’re winning?”

The God of War’s jaw tightened as he repeatedly told himself to ignore Simon and reach earth.

But the laugh behind him scraped against his thoughts.

He wanted to turn. To close his remaining hand around that mouth and break the jaw beneath it.

Another crimson bolt forced him sideways.

Simon’s next attack arrived before he recovered his course.

The god deflected it, losing more speed.

”You were much louder with your hand around my neck.”

Fury climbed through him.

He almost abandoned the escape.

Then something about that impulse made him pause inwardly.

He had been injured and humiliated. Anger was natural.

But this urgent need to answer every word was not.

He was the God of War. He knew the difference between an insult and a reason to change tactics.

So why did each sneer feel impossible to leave unanswered?

His awareness turned inward.

Two colours writhed against the barrier enclosing his chosen- Darius’s sea of consciousness.

One was deep purple and the other was crimson.

Thin strands crawled over its surface like worms searching for an opening.

The god’s expression stiffened.

’When did those get there?’

His divine presence had kept them outside.

Yet their pressure was already stirring emotions within the vessel, aggravating his fury and wounded pride. They had hidden beneath feelings he already possessed, making his own thoughts seem increasingly urgent.

Without him, they might have entered the mind of his chosen completely.

’What foul things are these?’

He did not recognise the powers, but they belonged to Pride and Wrath.

A sharp warning interrupted his inspection.

The god rolled aside.

Crimson lightning passed beneath his cheek and tore through a distant ridge.

BOOM!

He wanted to examine those invasive threads properly.

However, survival came first.

His Will closed over the barrier.

Iron-grey light swept across its surface, catching both colours before they could withdraw.

He crushed them.

The unnatural heat drained from his thoughts.

He still intended to kill Simon.

But he no longer felt compelled to abandon his escape merely to answer the next insult.

He glanced backward.

A thin trail of blood had appeared at the corner of Simon’s mouth, but the young Daemon’s speed did not lessen.

”So that is what you do now after becoming a pathetic Daemon,” the god said coldly. ”Worming into another’s mind?”

Simon wiped his lip with his thumb.

”You’re wearing another man’s body. Spare me the sermon.”

The god’s expression hardened.

”Then learn something useful.”

He turned his remaining palm backward.

”War God Art: Battlefield Execution.”

A spear appeared across Simon’s path.

An axe fell above him. A sword swept behind his back, while chains rose beneath his feet. Hammer and halberd converged from either side.

Simon did not stop to destroy them all.

Wind tightened around his body.

He shot above the hammer, slashed a reaching chain with a narrow wind blade, and twisted past the spearhead.

The weapons collided behind him.

BOOOOOOM!

The blast caught his trailing hair, but he was already accelerating.

Ahead, the God of War had gained distance.

And beyond him, the rift came into view.

Enigma reached it first.

He had followed the destination rather than every turn of their pursuit.

Emerald light spread from his claws as he placed himself across the approach.

”Going somewhere?”

The God of War’s eyes darkened.

”GET OUT OF MY WAY!”

His Aether surged.

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

Armoured figures unfolded around him.

One rank became ten. Hundreds spread across the sky, with more emerging behind them, each carrying his face and a different weapon.

They were not empty images.

Enigma’s first strike met a wall of shields. He shattered it, but spearmen thrust through the openings while swordsmen swept toward his flanks.

Archers fired past them at Simon.

Other manifestations scattered toward the rift’s edges.

The expenditure dragged at the god’s reserves.

He accepted it.

This power was buying an escape, not another exchange of wounds.

Enigma tore through a spearman and kept his attention upon the real body.

He would not be distracted by another decoy.

The God of War planted his foot against the air.

”Godbreaker Step.”

BOOM!

A circular shockwave burst beneath his heel.

He did not teleport.

His body crossed the space in a violent rush, crushing the air into a straight corridor of destruction.

Enigma turned to intercept.

But three shield-bearers struck him from the side while an axe descended toward his wounded shoulder.

He broke through them.

The delay was enough, and the god passed him.

The rift filled his vision.

Then space folded directly ahead.

Simon appeared between him and the crossing.

”I didn’t give you permission to leave.”

The young Daemon’s hand was already reaching toward him.

The God of War saw the open fingers.

The same hand that had driven his face through the ground.

For a moment, his expression tightened exactly as Simon expected.

But he did not slow down.

Simon drove his palm forward.

Behind them, Enigma cleared the final shield and turned.

Both were watching the god.

Neither was watching the shield-bearer that had circled low beneath the clash.

It had never joined the attack.

Its task had been to reach the rift.

Simon’s fingers touched the god’s throat and sank into the Aether coat protecting the god’s body.

His eyes narrowed.

The figure before him was no longer flesh.

However, it was still a combat manifestation.

Its shield slammed toward Simon’s chest, forcing him to turn his reaching hand into a block.

Below them, the waiting shield-bearer’s smooth armour became dented and scorched.

Blood appeared along its side.

The God of War had exchanged positions.

Enigma’s claws swept downward.

Simon tore the manifestation apart and twisted toward the real body.

But they had been drawn away from the rift.

The god was already at its edge.

He had used Godbreaker Step to make them commit to stopping the fastest, most obvious threat.

And left himself another place to stand.

The god glanced upward, his bloodied mouth tightening into a cold smile.

Then he crossed the rift and vanished into Earth.