Zeus burst out of the crumbling storm, wreathed in thunder. His body crackled with fury and lightning snaking across his shoulders and arms. He landed hard at the spot where Clyde had stood moments before, eyes searching the scorched battlefield.
But there was nothing. No trace of the creature and no trace of the girl either.
They were just gone after doing so much damage.
Zeus’s eyes widened with disbelief, then narrowed with rage.
With a guttural roar that shook the sky, he raised both hands and unleashed a storm of raw lightning into the earth. The current screamed as it tore into the land, scorching the ground, igniting the trees, and shattering stone. The very mountain trembled beneath the force of his frustration.
His breathing was heavy, his chest rising and falling as the storm faded around him.
From behind the last wisps of the tornado, Hades and Gabriel finally emerged. Their descent was slow, Gabriel’s wings faltering slightly. Their bodies bruised and clothes torn.
They landed beside Zeus, both of them also visibly shaken from the encounter.
Hades stood with his back straight and sharp, cold eyes. When his voice came it was as frigid as the void.
"This is humiliating."
But the cold mask could not hide everything. Beneath his calm, his anger also simmered. Frustration churned. That thing — that creature — had slipped through their grasp again.
Beside him, Gabriel dismissed his sword and shield. The weapons dissolved into pale strands of light before vanishing completely.
The radiant aura that had once blazed around him dimmed to a faint glow, barely more than candlelight. He stood still, staring at the ground in silence.
He didn’t speak because he just had no words.
Inside, his emotions battled. It filled with anger, shame, sorrow, and disbelief. But strongest of all... helplessness.
He had fought with everything he had, and still it wasn’t enough. Not against that thing that had once been human. How had it come to this?
His fingers curled into fists. He never thought he’d feel weak and will doubt his own strength.
Zeus turned slowly to them, eyes glowing faintly behind the crackling residue of power still flickering around his shoulders.
"There’s another one of those creatures," he growled, his voice low and thunderous, filled with venom and disgust.
He didn’t need to explain who he meant. The memory of her strikes, the way she had stood beside that thing. It was burned into his mind.
Gabriel remained quiet, eyes still lowered. Hades looked away, his jaw clenched.
They had failed and now, more than ever, they realized more and more that this war was no longer what they had imagined. It was something far worse.
"For now, let’s rest and heal ourselves. Then, later, we’ll need to hold another meeting with more realms," Gabriel said. His voice sounded softer than before due to the exhaustion he was suffering.
Zeus and Hades had no argument left. They needed to recover, and what Gabriel said was true—they had to convene another meeting with more Celestials, Angels, and Demons, and show them what had happened here and what that creature was capable of doing now.
Clyde and Asqa immediately reappeared in the mansion. They didn’t appear outside where the soldiers could see them but directly inside Clyde’s chamber. Before they set out, he had personally set his amulet to bring them straight here if activated from outside. He knew they would be opening a portal in the middle of the fight.
Clyde collapsed onto the ground. Blood gushed from the stump of his left hand, dripping onto the carpet in his chamber in a worrying amount.
"Clyde!" Asqa immediately sat beside him, holding his shoulders. Her expression looked worried, almost frightened.
Clyde chuckled despite his now pale face. "I’m alright. Don’t need to worry." Then he got back up and sat on a chair. "Use a bit of your healing skill to ease the pain. Turns out this is pretty painful."
Without hesitation, Asqa did just that. She extended her hands toward the bleeding stump, her palms glowing with a silver light that felt warm against Clyde’s body.
Asqa pushed her magic power. Even though she didn’t have much, she used it all to maximize the healing effect.
After about one minute of channeling her healing magic, Asqa began to see changes in the wound.
The bleeding slowed, and something strange started to happen. The raw stump of Clyde’s left arm that once just a mess of torn muscle and exposed bone, began to shift.
At first it was subtle, flesh knitting together, tissue forming where there had been only blood and pain.
Asqa’s eyes widened. She had thought Clyde had lost his arm forever. No regeneration spell she knew could restore a severed limb.
She assumed he had told her not to worry just to reassure her just to make her believe he could keep fighting even with one arm.
But it wasn’t just talk. It was growing back.
Muscle threads stretched and twisted into place. Veins and sinew pulsed beneath the skin as if life itself was being rewound. The bones formed next, not just appearing but extending in rapid motion like watching time in fast-forward.
Asqa sat frozen, hand still extended, eyes filled with disbelief.
Then skin wrapped itself over the newly formed muscle, smoothing over the arm as if it had never been cut. The hand reformed. Fingers twitching as they took shape, nails pushing out at the ends.
"It’s alright now. You can rest," Clyde said, his voice calm.
Asqa slowly pulled her hand back, her healing magic dimming.
She watched in awe as the final traces of the glow faded and Clyde’s new arm flexed naturally, just like the old one. It was a bit red, the skin fresh and raw-looking, but aside from that, it looked whole. Undamaged and alive.
He rolled his shoulder, testing the new limb. Then swung the arm once, then again, checking the weight and feel.
"Just like it was never severed," Clyde said with a small grin. "Hehe."
Asqa didn’t laugh at first. But then, she breathed a sigh of relief, and smiled.