A hush fell across the ruined domain.
The crackling of unstable stormlight and the hiss of black fire were the only sounds as the words hung heavy in the air.
"Lord Susanoo is dead!"
The world seemed to freeze.
Zeus stared unblinkingly. His body stood rigid. Lightning flickering faintly across his skin as if his own power couldn’t decide whether to lash out or vanish.
Demon King Bael stood still beside him. His demonic wings half-flared and his eyes wide for the first time in centuries.
All around them, soldiers of Zeus and and Bael, stood in stunned silence as well. They couldn’t believe this.
A Celestial was dead. Not wounded or ealed or just vanished from his domain. But dead.
Such a thing was unthinkable. For eons the higher beings had fought wars across planes and timelines. They shattered worlds, burned suns, and raised mortals as soldiers.
But the Celestials, the Demons, and the Archangels, never died. Not truly. They could be cast down, imprisoned, or weakened, but always they endured and then raised again to start another retaliation which start another war. And it keeps repeating itself.
That was the order of things.
But now that order was broken.
Zeus’s jaw tightened until his teeth ached. He looked at Bael and Bael looked back.
For once, the fire in the Demon King’s eyes was not rage or ambition but was uncertainty. Something stirred in both of them. Their fear amplified.
The fear of the unknown. The fear of what it meant for their kind to be truly MORTAL. The fear of change.
"How...?" Zeus’s voice was rough, barely audible. His mind reeled at the implications.
Susanoo’s storms once drowned armies of titans and shattered another domain.
And now he was gone. Killed by the very anomalies they had no idea could to it.
"This is not a mere rebellion or a challenge. This is extermination. They really able to kill us," Bael’s voice was cold but shaken.
The soldiers behind them murmured in dread. Even the proudest among them looked shaken. No speech could rally them now. The weight of what they were witnessing was too great.
They all had to ask themselves the same question:
If Susanoo could fall, who would be next?
Zeus stepped forward, his boots crunching ash and broken stone. He knelt briefly beside the cracked altar where Susanoo’s palace once burned with pride. Now, it was cold.
"He fought to the end," Zeus whispered, more to himself than anyone. "And they still able kill him."
Zeus rose, his stormlight flickering dangerously. His sorrow was folding into fury. But behind that fury still lingered the chill of fear.
For the first time in untold eras, the gods knew the taste of mortality. Its not taste good at all.
Zeus turned from the cracked altar.
"We have to go. The other Celestials must be warned. If this isn’t stopped now, there won’t be a cosmos left to defend," Zeus said with grim voice.
Bael nodded without hesitation. "You’re right. We need to move before the next one falls."
They both raised their hands, power coiling in their palms as they began carving a new portal through the realmveil.
Behind them, the remnants of their armies gathered quickly, silent and tense.
But then a voice came fron behind them.
"M-My lord... what about us?"
A frail voice echoed from the broken stones.
One of Susanoo’s followers, a young-looking warrior in shattered armor stepped forward. His eyes wide with fear and desperation.
Behind him, dozens more gathered. Their were the followers in different occupatipn like the warriors, priests, servants, and and mages. All marked by Susanoo’s sigils and now theye were broken ans lost.
They had no more orders or master so no more reason.
"We have no master now," he said, falling to his knees. "Please... take us with you. We can serve. We can fight!"
His plea hung in the air like a prayer choked by smoke.
But Zeus and Bael didn’t answer.
They didn’t even glance back.
To them, the fallen followers of Susanoo were just exhausted tools and remnants of a god who died.
Mortal-born, weak in power and purpose. They were not allies, they were just liabilities.
The portal swelled to full size.
"Please!" another follower cried out, a woman clutching a storm-blade with bloodied hands. "Don’t leave us! We’ll die here! We’ll be USEFUL!"
The priorities of the Celeatials had shifted. Their own survival and fear clouder everything else. What were the use of taking a few desperate followers to beings who now felt death?
One by one, the armies of Zeus and Bael stepped into the portal. Zeus and Bael were the last.
And without a word, they vanished into the port.
The port snapped shut with a thunderous crack.
Silence fell once more in the ruined domain.
The followers remained, beneath the shattered sky. Abandoned by the powers they worshipped, they stared at the empty space where the gods had stood.
Their faces were a storm of despair, confusion, and betrayal.
Their master was dead and now in the ruins of the realm of storms they were lost.
Bael and Zeus flew through the void with grim purpose. They moved faster now so their magic power burning brighter with every second. The faster they moved, the more power they spent. But neither of them cared.
The weight of what they had just seen drove them forward.
Then, just moments later, they felt it again.
A ripple of cold dread across their senses.
Another domain loomed ahead. Even from afar, they could feel the residual sting of corruption laced into the fabric of the domain.
Zeus slowed. His fists clenched. "This is Tsukuyomi’s domain."
Bael narrowed his eyes.
They descended in silence. The realm was silent and desolate. The moon above was shattered into drifting fragments, its pale glow replaced by a dull haze of corrupted energy.
Bael exhaled slowly, his voice flat. "He’s gone too."
Zeus didn’t answer immediately. He was already walking through the ruins. His face was stern.
"They came here," Zeus finally said. "And they kill him as well."
Bael looked up at the broken moon, then back at the scorched path of destruction. "We’re too late again."
The anomalies were gone.
But their message remained. Clearer than ever. They would not stop. They were hunting gods. And they were winning right now.