After receiving the call from the Ancient One Clyde imdiately sought out Asqa and tell her to have breakfast.
Without hesitation, Asqa stopped her training, nodded, and followed him inside.
The morning air was crisp, a stark contrast to the weight of the universe teetering on the brink of collapse. Within this mansion, an unnatural peace remained, isolating them from the encroaching chaos.
After freshening up, Asqa joined Clyde in the dining room, where the servants moved setting out a lavish spread before them. The aroma of well-prepared dishes filled the room, and they ate with deliberate ease, savoring the taste of luxury that felt almost surreal in a ti like this.
Asqa couldn’t help but marvel at the contrast. The universe was unraveling, corruption spreading like a disease to the followers and their master alike, and yet here she was, eating in comfort.
It felt almost wrong to enjoy sothing so simple while others suffered. But for now, she pushed that thought away.
Halfway through the al, a mory surfaced, and Asqa looked up suddenly.
"Clyde," she said, setting down her fork. "Have you thought about Sonya?"
Clyde paused, glancing at her. "Sonya?"
"Yes. Back in the Selection Stage she was with us. But after that, we lost track of her because we were all separated everywhere." Asqa frowned. "Do you know where she is?"
Clyde was silent for a mont, then shook his head. "No. I haven’t heard anything about her since we passed the Selection Stage."
Asqa’s fingers tightened around her cup. "I wonder if she’s okay. With everything happening now it’s hard not to worry."
Clyde leaned back slightly, his gaze turning distant.
Sonya had been a good person. She was strong and reliable. She was a part of their old team. Just like the party he had ford in Sivagadh Fortress, he can trust her to watch his back.
But now she was missing, and there was no telling if she was safe, struggling, or already dead.
But even if he found her again... what then?
Would he try to save her? Or would he let her fate play out like so many others in the universe?
He sighed slowly. Before he could make that decisio he needed to know if she was even alive. Maybe she was long gone and his thoughts wouldn’t matter.
Or maybe she had found safety in the domain of one of the higher beings and enjoyed her ti as their servant.
For now, there was no way to know aboout that.
As they finished breakfast, Clyde stood and stretched. "I have so things to take care of so I think I will go for soti. Don’t worry, this place is safe," he said.
Asqa looked at him for a brief mont as if debating whether to ask does is he wanted to go, but in the end, she simply nodded.
"Alright. I’ll keep training then," she said.
With that, they went their separate way toward their own business at hand.
When he arrived back inside his own room, Clyde let out a sigh. His armor was still gone, his coat nothing more than a charred ruin in the corner of his room, a reminder of his last battle with Asmodeus.
He glanced at it once, then turned away. No use lingering on it. He also cant ask Hamr to make the new one for him.
Or maybe he can? Maybe he should pay them a visit?
Then he strapped his Elderglass sword to his hip and stepped outside the mansion.
Demon soldiers followers of Graemory stood at attention the mont they spotted him, saluting with disciplined precision.
Clyde halted before them. "Any news from Graemory?"
The soldiers exchanged glances before one of them, a broad-shouldered soldier shook his head. "No word, my lord. It’s been days."
Clyde frowned. If she wasn’t reaching out at him at all it could only an one thing, she was dealing with her own problems. This actually not surprising.
His fingers tapped idly against the poml of his sword. He still hadn’t told her everything about the Ancient One’s plan—how he had beco an instrunt of sothing far older than any god, sothing that intended to erase everything, including the higher beings themselves.
Was she going to be destroyed too?
Before, Clyde wouldn’t have cared. He had no love for Demons, Angels, or Celestials, not after everything they had done. But Graemory was different.
She had given him this place to hide, had offered him resources and aid when he needed it. Maybe she had done it for her own gain but it didn’t change the fact that he had benefited from her actions.
Could he really just stand by and let the Ancient One erase her like the rest?
He clenched his jaw. "Maybe, I’ll ask the Ancient One to spare her."
For now, there was nothing he could do about it. He had a destination in mind, Archangel Uriel’s domain.
It was the first higher-being realm he had ever visited and the coordinates were already stored in his amulet. That made it the easiest place to reach.
Without any hesitation he reached for the amulet at his neck, the cold tal pressing against his palm. With a single thought, he activated it.
The portal appeared before him. Showing the landscape of her domain. The Demon soldiers behind him gasped at the sight but said nothing. Clyde stepped through and then, he was gone.
---
When Clyde stepped into Uriel’s domain, he braced himself for an attack. The last ti he was here the Archangel had made it clear that he was unwelco.
Fire. Fury. Curses hurled at him with divine fla.
Clyde had escaped with Asqa back then, and he didn’t expect a warm reception this ti either.
His body tensed as he imdiately sprinted forward, hand gripping the hilt of his Elderglass sword, ready for the first strike to co.
But nothing happened.
No burning spears rained from the sky. No divine soldiers descended upon him. The usual suffocating pressure of thr Archangel’s authority in this place felt dimd and weak.
Clyde slowed to a stop, frowning. Where the hell was everyone?
The sight around him stretched in eerie silence. So of the white towers stood untouched but there were no guards an no defenses.
This wasn’t right.
Uriel was said to be ruthless, having hot temper, ans powerful but careless was not one of them.
Clyde had expected at least so form of security. Like so automated defenses to blast him out of existence the mont he stepped foot in the domain after what happened before.
But instead nothing.
He exhaled sharply, eyes scanning the horizon. Maybe Uriel was too busy dealing with sothing else.
If that was the case, then Clyde had two possible explanations.
One, Uriel was focusing her power inward, fortifying his core sanctum instead of stretching her influence across the entire domain with her trusted followers that wasn’t corrupted.
Or two, so corrupted warriors had already torn through her defenses before Clyde even got here and wounded her badly.
Clyde activated [Flight] and his body lifting effortlessly into the air as he ascended above the golden expanse of Uriel’s domain again.
Even from above, the silence felt unnatural.
Last ti, the air had been thick with the scent of burning flesh, screams echoing in the distance as divine flas consud everything in their path. Now?
Only ash and old smoke remained.
The corruption was still there like the withered plants, scorched grass, and the land that slowly rotting from within
But whatever battle had raged here before had long since burned itself out.
Clyde kept his guard up, his hand never straying far from the hilt of his Elderglass sword, scanning for any movent below.
Uriel’s destruction was more evident now. More collapsed structures, charred ruins, and the remnants of her divine wrath .
But one thing was certain, she hadn’t bothered to clean up the aftermath.
Clyde narrowed his eyes as he flew closer to the heart of the domain where Uriel’s sanctum resided.
He already saw that buildings before but didn’t have ti to really appreaciated it.
It was a towering citadel of white stone and golden spires that ant to reflect the Archangel’s absolute authority.
But now it looked abandoned.
The grand entrance stood wide open.
Clyde hovered for a mont, watching and waiting.
No guards standing watch.
Uriel’s sanctum was completely unguarded.
Sothing was very, very wrong.
Slowly, he descended, landing just outside the entrance.
Still nothing for few seconds.
Then a shriek tore through the silence.
Clyde’s head snapped up just as hundreds of Uriel’s forr followers ca charging from the depths of the building. Their bodies twisted. They were divine warriors before but now they just beco rabid beasts consud by corruption.
Their eyes burned with mindless rage, their shrieks echoing through the ruined domain.
Clyde unsheathed his Elderglass sword as he surged forward.
The first creature lunged. He cut it down in one fluid motion.
Then another. Then the dozens others.
The air filled with the sound of steel tearing through flesh, but they kept coming.
---
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