Druvak closes his eyes, the pleas of his soldiers a distant echo beneath the monstrous gathering of energy. His voice is a shattered whisper, lost in the din. "Please… my lord… Hades… help us…"
Suddenly, the world dissolves.
The sound of battle vanishes. The sll of ozone and blood is replaced by cool, damp air. The sensation of shattered bones and fading consciousness is gone. Druvak opens his eyes. He is seated on the familiar giant stone in his old, secluded cave. In his hands rests not the cursed red blade, but his old, trusted, rusted sword.
His skeletal hands tremble. This is no illusion, the weight of the stone, the chill of the air, the solid feel of the hilt. It is all terrifyingly real. A profound disorientation seizes him.
"Calm yourself, Druvak."
The voice is heavy, familiar, and resonates from the shadows of the cave. Druvak whirls around to see Hades, his form composed of darkness and quiet authority. The death knight falls to his knees, his voice a raw, desperate scrape. "Please, my lord! Please, save them! I beg you!"
Hades steps forward, his presence filling the cavern. He places firm hands on Druvak's shoulders, not out of pity, but with command, and forces him to his feet. "Druvak," Hades says, his voice leaving no room for argunt. "I will not save them." He pauses, letting the refusal hang in the air, then points a finger directly at the cracked sapphire in Druvak's chest. "You will save them."
"How?" Druvak's voice is hollow.
"Druvak, the abilities you gained upon your evolution were rely a glimpse," Hades explains, his words asured and potent. "A fraction of what lies dormant within you. I know you have felt it. But the question is why have you refused to let it rise?" Hades gaze at Druvak.
Druvak hiding his eyes and hesitate to say. Before he could say anything, Hades continued, "Well, whatever reason you have. Now is the ti. Let what must bloom, finally bloom." As the final word echoes, Hades's form dissolves back into the shadows from which it ca.
Alone again, Druvak's face hardens with resolve. He looks down at the sapphire gem, it's light faint behind a web of cracks. He places a hand over it. 'No more holding back. Let it bloom, even if it consus whole.'
He focuses, pouring every ounce of his divine energy not into his limbs, but directly into the fractured core of his being. The sapphire gem ignites, not with a flicker, but with a blinding, solar radiance that fills the cave with impossible light.
Deep within his soul, two new divinities tear through the barriers he had built: the Godhood of Judgent, cold and absolute, and the Godhood of Sin, dark and consuming. They resonate with each other, a harmonic and dissonant chord that shakes his very essence. For a terrifying mont, they clash with his Weapon Godhood, threatening to tear him apart. Then, balance is forged in the crucible of his will. The three powers find a stable orbit around each other, a trinity of imnse power.
Energy, raw and limitless, floods his broken body. Bones snap back into place, knitting together with threads of blue light. The cracks in his sapphire gem seal, its glow stabilising into a fierce, constant star-brightness. His divinity doesn't just recover; it ascends, shattering its previous limits to peak at the level of a High God.
---
On the battlefield, ti seems to stretch. Armaror's tri-headed maw unleashes a condensed beam of pure annihilation, aid at the heart of Druvak's army.
Mia, locked in combat with a gorilla-goat chira, feels the world shrink to that incoming wave of death. Her wand slips from nerveless fingers, clattering to the ground. Her legs give way, and she drops to her knees, eyes closing as she accepts the end.
One second passes. Then two.
But the searing pain never cos.
A light, not of destruction, but of pure, azure power, envelops the field. It is so intense that it throws long, stark shadows behind every rock and soldier. A collective gasp ripples through the army.
Mia's eyes flutter open. She sees Geo's broad back, still standing firm against a chira. Peeking around him, her breath catches in her throat.
There he is.
Druvak stands between them and energy beam, his feet planted firmly in the earth. He holds the Raktrakshasa blade horizontally with unwavering resolve. The apocalyptic beam crashes against the dark red sword, and where they et, energy is not deflected but annihilated, consud by the blade's hungry edge.
With a final, thunderous clap of energy, the last of the beam vanishes. Druvak lands lightly amidst his troops. He turns to Geo. "Geo. Water."
Bewildered but obedient, Geo hands over his canteen. Druvak uncorks it and pours it over his own skull. The water hits his bone and instantly flash-boils into sizzling steam, washing away the gri of battle. His gaze then finds Mia, who is still crouched behind Geo, wide-eyed.
"Mia!" His voice is not angry, but sharp with command, snapping her out of her daze. "Stop slacking! Return to your post!"
"Ahiee! Y-yes, Master!" she stamrs, scrambling to her feet and snatching up her wand, her commander's persona slamming back into place.
Druvak then grabs the remains of his broken armour and rips it from his body, casting it aside. He stretches his arms. 'Now, I feel free.' His burning gaze locks onto Armaror, who is breathing heavily, exhausted from the massive expenditure of power. 'I've had enough of this. It ends now.'
He takes a single, powerful step, then another, moving from a run to a leap that defies reality. He rockets upward, through the oppressive underworld sky, breaking into the vast, empty expanse at the realm's bottom. He hangs there for a mont, a speck against the infinite dark.
He closes his eyes. Two fingers glide along the length of the Raktrakshasa blade. As they pass, the dark red light intensifies, and the sapphire gem on his chest burns with the intensity of a blue star, a beacon visible to the entire army below.
Then, he falls. He plumts like a teor, a doom cot wreathed in crimson and azure energy. The sonic boom created around him.
'Vengeance Knight Sword Art: Sin Execution.'
He does not swing at Armaror. He simply passes through him, a single, vertical line of light by the result of intense heat.
For a heartbeat, nothing happens. Then, a clean, precise line of crimson fire ignites down the centre of Armaror's colossal form. The chira splits perfectly into two halves. The slash continues unimpeded, carving a vast, smoldering canyon into the earth behind him that plunges deep into the underworld's crust.
The two halves of the monster remain standing for a second before the divine fire erupts from within.
"Aaaaahhhh!!!!" "Nooooo!!!" "Aaaaaa!!!"
Three distinct voices of lion, wolf, and orc shriek in unison, a chorus of pure, unimaginable agony. The crimson flas consu him, burning not just flesh, but soul and sin, a purification by utter annihilation. The wailing echoes across the plains for a long, terrible hour before finally fading, leaving only a pile of glowing ash.
Druvak lands softly beside the remains, the light fading from his blade and gem. He simply lies down on the scorched earth, utterly spent.
Mia approaches, her face etched with grief and exhaustion. "Master… our losses… We lost thirty per cent. Their valour carried them to the end. Another twenty… their limbs are severed, their bodies broken beyond easy repair."
Druvak sits up, his movents slow. He looks at her, his gaze unwavering. "Mia. Never forget their sacrifice. Rember their nas. Carve them into your soul. This victory is built upon their honour." Mia nods, a new resolve hardening her features.
"Gather our brave bodies. We will return them to their families for their final honours. Tomorrow, we march for the central land."
Mia bows deeply and leaves to carry out her orders.
The next day, as the army prepares to depart, Druvak raises a single hand. A cold, blue soul-fla kindles in his palm. He kneels and presses it into the soil.
The ground fractures. Tendrils of silent, cold fire surge from the cracks, racing through the ruins of the Crimson Fort. They do not burn with heat; they consu with a chilling finality, scouring the land of its pain and corruption. In unison, Druvak and his entire army turn and bow deeply to the pyre, a final salute to the fallen and the horrors they endured.
Then, they turn and begin the long march ho.
---
(Earlier: While Druvak explores the laboratory)
High above the eastern wastes, Hades, in his form as a colossal Black Phoenix, circles the jagged peak of Siscil's domain. He descends upon her castle, finding it not fortified, but empty. Not a single servant, soldier, or trap bars his way. Only a profound, waiting silence. Hades knows why. He moves through the sterile halls with unerring purpose, as if he walks a path he's tread a thousand tis.
He steps into the deepest chamber.
A torrent of viscous, green acid shoots from the darkness, but Hades tilts his wing and flows around it effortlessly. Another jet follows, then a third each lts the floor and walls on et.
From the shadows, Siscil, the Duke of gluttony, reveals herself a colossal, translucent sli, within which the dissolved forms of her own servants and soldiers float like grotesque trophies. She surges forward, attempting to engulf him, her body spreading like a catastrophic net.
Hades does not dodge. He simply murmurs, "Nether Crown."
A black crown with violet lustre hovering over Hades's head. "Freeze"
Siscil freezes mid-lunge. Her form shudders, trapped by absolute authority. "What is this? What is happening? I cannot move!" her voice gurgles from within her core.
Hades walks calmly through her immobilised, gelatinous body. Each step echoes in the hall. Unknown fear is consuming Siscil's mind. Hades stops before her core, a pulsating, erald orb. He reaches out and snaps his fingers.
*Snap
The entire massive form of the Siscil explodes. Her body collapses inward, dissolving into a pool of inert, clear fluid, leaving only her glowing core hovering in the air. Hades plucks it from the air, the energy within it stilling instantly.
He pauses, a distant look in his eyes. A faint, proud smile touches his lips as he gazes out across the underworld. "Druvak… you have finally unleashed what you suppressed for so long."
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