Zion stood over Arion’s dead body, his eyes unfocused and his face blank. He could feel, couldn’t think, couldn’t see, or couldn’t hear. He was completely unconscious.
The intense battle with Arion not only pushed Zion to his limits, but it also made him forcefully ascend to the realm of the gods, which was too much for his demigod body to handle.
Because of this, his body shut down, and he started dying.
Blood dripped from his eyes, nose, and ears. Then, an intense pain surged through his body.
"ARGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!" Zion’s energy erupted, spreading violently throughout the area, ripping his body apart.
"ZION!" Tessa controlled Zion’s suit, making it fly toward her as she too flew toward him to meet in the middle.
She checked his vitals, and they were spiking beyond belief. She had seen nothing before. It was as if every cell in his body was self-destructing, but because of Zion’s healing factor, he just kept regenerating, creating an endless cycle of pain.
"Hold on! I’ll help you! I’ll save you!" She flew Zion to their lab, where their best doctors could have a look at him.
"Seriously?! You get to fight Cernunnos while I’m stuck with this half stack of a man!" Erebosa shouted as she clobbered Ivaldi in the face.
"Suck it up. We have to end this quickly before Bhamut destroys my heavenly realm. Even if your hell realm keeps it from being completely destroyed, our power will still be affected." Luminera blocked a huge wave of vines that had spikes of divine energy.
"Better not look down on me simply because I’m not as strong as Cernunnos, because if you do, you’ll die!" Ivaldi shot divine flames toward Erebosa, which she casually avoided.
However, as a dwarf, fire wasn’t meant to be used as an attack, but as a tool. He summoned his hammer and pounded the flames, a metallic sound reverberating through the air. From the flames, a massive magic cannon was created, which blasted Erebosa into a mountain.
"Sister!" Luminera shouted with worry. She pushed Cernunnos back to rush to Erebosa’s aid, but her movements faltered as a blue mana rope wrapped around her leg.
"Where are you going?" Ivaldi smirked.
"Nice, little brother!" Cernunnos yanked the rope and kicked Luminera to the ground.
"Trade?" Ivaldi asked.
Cernunnos shrugged. "Why not?"
The two blasted off in different directions.
"Ugh, fucking bastard!" Erebosa snarled, clutching her ringing head as she forced herself upright. The world spun, her vision hazy, until a black dot loomed in the distance. It grew, swelling larger and larger, until she realized it wasn’t a dot at all, it was a claw tearing through the air, aiming straight for her.
She hurled herself to the side just as Cernunnos’s massive hand crashed into the mountain behind her, the impact shaking the ground and sending shards of stone flying like shrapnel. "So now you wanna fight me?" she spat, planting her foot and launching a kick toward him.
But he was faster. Her leg was caught mid-swing, and with a savage snarl, Cernunnos slammed her back into the mountain wall. The rock cracked and crumpled under the force. He lunged in close, his gaping maw snapping open, teeth glinting as he aimed to tear her head off.
"Close that filthy mouth, you mutt!" Erebosa roared. Her eyes burned with purple light, and twin beams exploded from them, striking Cernunnos square in the chest and forcing him back with a thunderous crackle of energy.
The battle raged like a storm. Each strike, each spell, carried the weight of life and death. Erebosa’s devil and demonic power collided with Cernunnos’s divine energy in a violent clash that shook the surrounding landscape. Yet here, surrounded by the breath of the wild and the raw strength of nature, Cernunnos’s power grew fiercer, feeding on the land itself.
Every blow she landed seemed to barely scratch his beastly frame, while every swipe of his claws or strike of his fists made Erebosa wince and grit her teeth in pain. She felt herself slowing.
’It’s been so long since I’ve been in a real fight... I’m rusty as hell,’ she thought bitterly. But giving up wasn’t an option, not when she still had tricks left.
"What’s wrong?" Cernunnos taunted, his voice dripping with mockery. "Lost that confidence you were so proud of? Do you see now the gap between us?"
"As if, you stupid bitch!" Erebosa barked back. She clasped her hands together, purple sparks sizzling between her palms. Slowly, she drew her hands apart, the energy swelling, growing brighter and larger until it swirled into a blazing orb the size of one of Zion’s massive war vehicles. The ground trembled under its radiance.
"Heh... I learned this one from my sister. [Devil Nova Blast]!" she cried.
The orb erupted, splitting into hundreds of needle-like beams of purple light. They screamed through the air, piercing Cernunnos’s defenses and slicing through his flesh. Each impact left trails of smoking wounds.
With a furious roar, the god launched himself skyward, weaving through the deadly barrage. But the beams pursued him relentlessly, curving mid-air like hunting serpents. Some struck the mountainside, detonating in showers of stone, while others nicked his limbs, drawing more blood.
"Don’t think you’ve cornered me!" Cernunnos bellowed. He blew into his hand, scattering a spray of glowing seeds. When they hit the ground, they sprouted violently, twisting and expanding into grotesque monsters that immediately charged at Erebosa.
Her attack faltered. She had no choice but to cut off her spell and deal with the rushing horde. The moment she did, Cernunnos swung back around like a predator seizing its prey, his claws extended for the kill.
"You’re dead!" he shouted, glee thick in his voice.
"You know," Erebosa said with a wicked grin spreading across her face, "if there’s one thing I learned from Zion, it’s that nothing is off the table when it comes to winning."
In an instant, a massive force field snapped into place, sealing the battlefield, Cernunnos, his creatures, and Erebosa all trapped inside. Her entire body began to glow, light radiating off her like a blazing star.
Cernunnos froze. His eyes widened in shock as he realized what she was about to do. "No... stop! Are you insane?! You’ll kill yourself!"
"Hahahahahaha!" Her laughter was unhinged, reverberating inside the force field. "Shut the fuck up... and die with me, bitch!"
The explosion that followed was cataclysmic. The force field contained every ounce of destructive power, trapping them in a miniature hell as the blast consumed everything inside.