The world-cracking tide of elements raged. The Flame-Scale Beast, one of the four mountain guardians, trembled so hard its armor rang, eyes wide with shock. Four guardians together could brawl even a visiting god. But this black-haired, black-eyed man. Was he even a normal god at all?
"Big shot, you trying to kill us with the enemy?" Nuhachit blanched, wondering if he had backed the wrong horse half his life.
When a string of crystal-bright orbs rose and circled over Orson’s head, everyone present silently chose last words.
"Not a Forbidden curse, yet beyond any Forbidden curse. So this is Chaos magic," DoomBringer whispered, voice shaking.
He squared his shoulders and stepped forward into a knight’s stance, taking his place before the one woman he had worshiped for a lifetime.
Bellara’s eyes stalled on the gaunt figure in front of her, a guttering candle ready to go out. A thousand years had passed. To kill the boredom she had once tried taking pupils, hoping someone might break the curse and stay with her to the end. Most had turned to bone under the flood of years. Only DoomBringer remained, the boy she had raised with her own hands.
"I will not let anything happen to you. I will not let you run from me again," DoomBringer said, eyes burning.
In a flash she saw him as the loud, troublesome child he had been. Tears stood in his eyes as he roared into the chaos storm, "I follow you to the end. Until seas dry up and rocks rot. Until you stop hiding from me, Master."
For a heartbeat the steel in the weapon god’s heart melted. The edge of her blade went soft. She smiled, bright as spring, and brushed a hand through his white hair.
Then she looked to Orson and found a choice already taking shape. Sunforge was cut off. Infinite Dimensions rules barely functioned here. Without a soul-seal, even DoomBringer at God tier could not become a lower god. He would leave her soon, no matter what she did. There was one way to change it. Close the Sunforge barrier and allow the rules to work again, and he might live. But once the wards fell, the Abyss would pour into this clean place.
A gentle voice sounded. All looked up in alarm. A man in white stood within the circling orbs. He did nothing, and yet a quiet divinity breathed from him.
He reached out and touched one crystal pearl with a fingertip. It did not harm him. He smiled.
"I decide what rises and falls."
Another voice rang, cold as an edge.
"The Earth turns when I say it turns."
Orb stood with killing calm, his dark eyes keen as a knife point.
At the heart of the orbs floated a man whose body looked like living jade, blade brows and straight nose, blood running red beneath transparent skin. Element and flesh braided as one.
"Beneath the galactic dark, where my blade points, mortals become gods," that magnetic voice echoed inside every skull.
They stood rooted, struck dumb. All thought of running blew away. An old and nameless hunger rose, a need to howl and charge beside him into the Underworld, to cut through the Ninth Hell and keep climbing.
It was more than belief. It was the God of Chaos imposing his will. It was also the outlaw heart of a god-slayer. It was the resolve to break the cage and butcher the Abyss.
"A finch in a gilded cage is still a finch. No honor. No freedom. What life is that," Orson said.
Bellara watched his back and knew that line was meant for her.
"Honored guardians," she said, drawing breath. DoomBringer started when her hand slid into his. She gripped him, firm and warm.
"What is it, Lady of Sunforge," Firevenom asked, voice cool.
"Open the barrier. I will show him that Sunforge is not a cage of finches," Bellara said, head high. Her decision had landed. "We are born sovereign warriors. We do not cower."
"You are Sunforge’s lord. We obey," Firevenom sighed, then nodded.
"Good. We are not past the point of no return," Orson said with a small smile. He lifted the War Staff and, with perfect control, guided the string of pearls up into the sky.
A deep hum rolled across the world. The light-web that had fallen over the planet for an age dissolved. The central temple crumpled, and though many hearts clenched, a strange release washed through the crowd. The cage that held them a thousand years was gone.
Above them lay the road to godhood.
A howl tore the air. A sea of demons, uncountable, rolled in like locusts.
"Burst," Orson said, snapping his fingers.
A flower of light opened in the dark. Any demon it touched, high or low, came apart in a spray of bone and black blood. But even a Chaos spell beyond Forbidden could only scoop one cup from an ocean. More shadows surged to fill the gap.
"There are too many," Nuhachit gulped, shivering.
Around him, adventurers felt their hearts squeeze. The swarm turned noon to midnight. Numbers alone could drown them.
"Why did we close it. We are fools. The outside may not be better," someone cried.
"Who decided this. You even smashed the Fire God’s house. Traitors," others spat, panic rising.
A cold shine swung. Heads fell and blood spattered the stones.
"Who dares to poison the line," Darulunina said, eyes red and blade running.
The Wolf Twins stepped forward. There was a king’s weight in them now, enough to crush the urge to break and run.
Darulunina touched her face and the fighter’s mask snapped in place. She lifted her sword high like a scorpion raising its tail.
Her voice flooded the world in burning letters.
"Kill every invader."
In an instant the ranks shifted to ranged, and a tide of arrows and beams climbed into the sky.
"Ascend in steel. Live forever," Cain bellowed. The Undying Lord ship shook free of all limits and punched into the swarm at speed. A lattice of secret beams raked the dark. Every gunshot stitched a rain of butchered carcasses. Hundreds of destroyers unfurled metal wings and knifed into the throng. They died and came back in a blink and left a hill of corpses behind them.
Orson walked the air toward the densest knot of black. He paused and frowned.
"I am trying to save your pride. You are a mid-tier god," Bellara answered, riding light to his side, her steps also on the starsea. Newest update provided by NoveI[F]ire.net
"You only beat me because I was holding back. No, I was holding back an ocean," Orson said, smiling over his shoulder.
"You might beat me alone. But when it is a war against the horde, you are a child," Bellara said, amusement in her voice.
Then Orson’s expression tightened. Space around her rippled. A sky of blades shimmered into being. The shades of Radiant Shuttle’s old masters stepped from memory, weapons in hand.
"You are just cheating," Orson muttered. He had three on his side. She had ten thousand.
"This is called skill," Bellara said with a crisp glance, then lifted her voice.
"Divine Domain. Endless Armory."