Hades crossed his arms just as the arc of energy slammed into him.
A dark ripple surged around his body. His aura that once calm and controll now flared outward like a living shadow. Black tendrils of raw underworld energy danced across his body, the air around him warping under the pressure of his magic power.
It was a clear sign that Hades was using more than just his authority. He was tapping into his true power.
His boots slid slightly against the air itself, pressure pressing down from all directions. A grimace twitched at the corners of his lips as the energy bore into him.
The attack wasn’t just powerful, it was different. Its nature didn’t belong to the Angel, Demon, or Celestial. It was foreign but also powerful.
And it was hurting him.
He gritted his teeth.
"So... it’s just as I thought," he mused darkly. "This anomaly is different anything the we have known."
With a guttural shout, Hades shoved his hands forward. His power flared, shadows coiled outward in violent rings, and the energy wave attack from Clyde shattered like glass, splintering into fading streams of light and magical power.
But he didn’t even have time to breathe because Clyde was already there.
The anomaly broke through the mist of broken power with his sword raised, eyes locked in. He brought his Elderglass blade down with monstrous force.
Hades barely had time to draw his own weapon. He take a sword forged from midnight steel, conjured from the shadow at his feet.
The blades collided with a deafening crash and a shockwave rippled everywhere around them, blasting the nearby clouds into spirals and splitting the sky with force.
They stood locked mid-air, swords crossed and grinding with pressure. Sparks danced between the edges of their weapons.
Clyde grinned, a wild light in his eyes.
"I’ve always wanted to fight you," he said, voice calm but layered with glee, maybe, or purpose. "You’re... kind of famous where in my world before."
Hades bared his teeth slightly, strain showing on his face.
"You knew who I was... and still chose to fight me?"
Clyde tilted his head, pushing his blade forward just a little more.
"You kidding? You’re a myth where I’m from. God of the dead. Ruler of the underworld and all. Scary as hell. Never thought I’d actually meet you," Clyde said.
Then, his tone shifted. Become cold and sharp. "But now that I have meet you, I think I just want to see you die."
Hades narrowed his eyes. "Why?"
"Because I’m sick of seeing your kind use mortals like tools. Like toys. Like things to break." Clyde’s answer came low, quiet, and heavy.
Their swords trembled in their clash, pressure mounting between them like thunder about to break.
"I’m tired," Clyde growled. "Tired of being under you all! Just like all the mortal you treated like thrash!"
Hades said nothing, only stared harder. For the first time in an age, the god of the dead felt something rare creeping in.
It was not fear or panic.
Because the thing pressing against his blade wasn’t just powerful. It was unknown, and that what makes him dangerous.
Behind them, high above the sundered battlefield, Gabriel finally able to move again.
Smoke curled from the seams of his golden armor. His wings were scorched and frayed, feathers still smoldering at the edges.
His body trembled, muscles twitching from the aftershock of Clyde’s lightning. The pain was deep. Not just physical but something spiritual, something that shook his very essence.
He gritted his teeth, refusing to let the humiliation sink in. Clyde had overwhelmed him. And now, he was standing blade-to-blade with Hades.
Gabriel’s eyes flared with more fury. He wouldn’t allow this.
With a burst of golden light, Gabriel launched forward gripping g his spear tightly in hand. He streaking across the sky. His power pulsed violently, trailing a storm behind him as he dove.
Clyde immediately turn after sensing the danger.
The instant before the spear struck, Clyde spun on his heel. His Elderglass sword lashed upward.
The two weapons me and the force of the impact cracked the air like thunder. Sparks flew.
Gabriel pushed, trying to pierce through, but Clyde had already shifted again.
With a sudden burst of strength, Clyde kicked off Gabriel’s chestplate and vaulted backward, his body flipping once mid-air before landing on a jagged outcrop of broken stone nearby.
His chest rose and fell in controlled breaths. His eyes that still glowing with that unnatural storm glanced between the two legendary figures before him.
One, the cold god of the dead. The other, the Archangel.
Clyde grinned as he lowered his blade slightly.
"You both coming at me together now?" he said. "You jumping at me at once?"
He raised his sword again, the tip humming with layered energy.
"Let’s make this fair," Clyde said.
For the briefest moment, something shifted in the air. Their pride.
Gabriel and Hades, beings revered as legends, hesitated. Not from fear but from the sting of truth.
They had never jumped an enemy before. Never stood side by side to cut down one opponent. That was what their legions were for. If they ever fought, it was them and their enemy alone. Never this desperate.
And yet here they were. An anomaly had forced them out of their thrones. Had wounded Gabriel. Had made Hades struggle.
It burned at their pride, but that moment passed like smoke.
They understood what Clyde was. He wes something who born of defiance, chaos, and raw will. Something that bring corruption to all the higher realms.
Gabriel’s wings flared with divine gold, his spear pulsing with power. Hades melted into shadow and slipping between light and darkness. And together they lunged, the twin forces of death and divinity.
But Clyde was moving as well.
He reached deep into that boundless well inside him. Power surged. His body flared with a storm-black aura that overrode the light of this domain. An energy that not born of any one realm but all of them and something beyond.
The very space around him twisted, the wind howling, the sky fracturing in pulses of unnatural color.
When Gabriel struck down, Clyde blocked. When Hades came from the side, Clyde twisted, parried, and countered.