The air trembled.
Clyde floated, wrapped in a storm of darkness, lightning, and fla like a strange aurora that bled into the sky. The mist that poured from him was not just shadow but sothing older ancient. Tainted by truths no mortal or god was ant to know and it spread fast.
The dark mist rolled across the domain. It swallowed light, drowned the sky in churning black, blotting out even the golden brilliance of Gabriel’s wings.
All the soldiers scattered across the far reaches of the battlefield froze as one. So fell to their knees. Others dropped their weapons, clutching at their chests as if a phantom hand had closed around their hearts. They did not know why but every instinct scread for them to run. But they don’t have anywhere to run.
Even the hardened soldiers who had fought on the battles for centuries, felt sothing primal twist in their souls.
Gabriel and Hades stumbled backward, instinct forcing them away from the epicenter of Clyde’s power.
They did not speak. Their breath ca ragged. Their hands trembled slightly. Their hearts pounded in their chests but no longer out of anger. Now it was fear.
Clyde’s eyes, crackling with that unnatural storm-light, slowly opened. He looked down at them. Saw their clenched jaws, their pale faces and their stiff postures, and the shiver running through them.
He grinned.
If he could’ve seen himself now, maybe he’d be afraid too. Power crackled over his limbs, arcs of blue lightning surging down one arm, a whip of living fla curling around the other. And in the center of it all, the black mist churned.
"You feel it, don’t you?" Clyde spoke with echoing voice.
Neither Gabriel nor Hades answered. They only stared. Their bodies ready to move but they don’t if they need to attack or flee.
Clyde tilted his head. "This is not mine alone."
He raised his hand, and the mist thickened around his body. The pressure increased so violently the clouds above cracked like glass, and chunks of broken light fell like shards of a shattered sky.
"Before I showed myself like this, I had a feeling." He chuckled darkly. "Two, maybe three of you would co. Maybe even more. So I made preparations."
The mist pulsed and for a mont, sothing looked back from inside it. Sothing massive, made of many eyes and a voice.
Gabriel took a step back.
Clyde continued, the grin never leaving his face. "I asked the Ancient One to lend his strength. Turns out? He was eager."
A mont of silence happened.
Then Hades exhaled. "That power, what is it? It doesn’t belong in any realm."
"It doesn’t," Clyde agreed. "But right now it doesn’t matter."
Gabriel’s grip tightened around his spear. He said, "You’ve corrupted yourself as well!"
"No," Clyde said, floating forward a few paces. "I was given this power. Just like one of you."
The sky then letting out black rain.
The ground below had started to crumble and drift upward like shattered islands, caught in the gravitational pull of his power.
He pointed his sword at them. It humd with the energy.
"Now you’re afraid. Good. You should be."
He raised his free hand and clenched it into a fist. The mist around him surged like a tidal wave. And in that mont, both Gabriel and Hades felt it clearly.
He wasn’t holding all his strength yet. He was still restraining it. And even at that level of power, he had pushed them to the brink.
They were higher beings. Leaders of higher realms. But right now they were prey of sothing bigger.
Clyde’s grin deepened. "Shall we continue?"
Hades glanced sideways at Gabriel. The ground still trembled beneath their feet, and Clyde’s presence now lood bigger.
Gabriel didn’t take his eyes off Clyde as he spoke. "What will you do, Lord of the Underworld?"
Hades didn’t answer imdiately. His eyes flicked toward the storm-wrapped figure floating in the sky. There was hesitation in his gaze, not out of cowardice, but out of calculation.
Then, without turning, he asked Gabriel in return, "I must ask what will you do first."
Gabriel’s jaw clenched, and for a mont, his radiant wings trembled with restrained emotion.
The fear that had gripped him earlier still lingered at the edge of his thoughts but now it was burning away. Consud by sothing hotter.
"Kill that abomination," Gabriel said, his voice like thunder behind clenched teeth. "I will avenge Uriel. No matter what he’s beco right now I will end him!"
The fury in his words surged outward. He no longer cared that Clyde was wielding sothing from outside their reality. It didn’t matter. Not when Uriel’s blood was still warm in his mory.
Hades gave a single nod after a long pause, his face still looked calm.
"Then I will help. Zeus and Poseidon’s forces are on the way. If we can hold him here and stall him just long enough, they’ll arrive," Hades said.
Gabriel nodded, and his golden wings flared with renewed brilliance, washing the battlefield in searing light.
He raised one arm, and with a burst of radiance, a portal tore open in the air.
From it erged a radiant shield etched with runes. Without hesitation, he throw his spear away then reached into the light again and drew forth a blazing sword.
Without another word, Gabriel launched himself into the sky.
Behind him, Hades stepped forward as the shadows around him grew denser. The earth darkened under his feet.
With a whisper, he raised his hand and from the ground erupted a mass of skeletal warriors, clad in ancient bronze and black iron. A hundred of them erged. Their eyes glowed with violet dark fire.
"Kill him," Hades commanded.
The undead horde surged forward like a wave of death, their armor rattling, their swords raised high. They charging toward Clyde from behind Gabriel’s shining advance.
Above, Clyde’s grin only widened as he watched them co.
"Good," he said, voice echoing across realms. "Co at !"
Clyde imdiately moved as well.
With a crack of displaced air and a flash of power, he shot forward straight toward Gabriel.
His Elderglass sword now infused with the storm of darkness, lightning, and fla. The weapon trailed a wake of destruction through the air like a cot made of rage.
Gabriel raised his radiant shield just in ti.
CLASH!
The clash rang out like a bell tolling the end of all things. The impact unleashed a shockwave that tore through the battlefield, flattening trees, crumbling pillars, and sending nearby soldiers flying.
Sparks and embers burst between them as their blades t, Clyde pressing forward with overwhelming force.
Gabriel grunted under the weight, his shield arm shaking from the impact, sword keeping up with the flurry of attack from Clyde.
Clyde fought with incredible power but he didn’t just strike wildly. Every attack was calculated to break, tear, and overwhelm the Archangel.
Gabriel countered with his own skills.
But Clyde knew that he wasn’t fighting Gabriel alone.
From behind, the rattle of bone and steel filled the air.
Clyde turned his head slightly and saw scores of skeletal warriors rushing from the shadows. Their hollow eyes burned violet and their armor clanked.
They ca with their blades raised to pierce him from behind.
Clyde didn’t flinch.
He slashed once behind him and send a massive arc of energy that exploded outward. The streak is black, edged in white fla and stitched with bolts of searing lightning.
It scythed through the oncoming horde. Skeletons shattered mid-charge. But not all of them perish.
So of them pushed through. So shielded by dark enchantnts or simply too old or have more power of underworld in their bones to fall so easily.
Clyde twisted and t Gabriel’s charge again. The Archangel drove his sword downward and Clyde caught the blow with the flat of his blade.
Sparks and shockwave erupted again between them, and the shock sent tremors through the battlefield.
Clyde pushed forward, sending Gabriel sliding back across the sky.
Another skeletal warrior lunged from below—Clyde turned midair, his palm glowing with pure energy. He unleashed a surge of lightning that reduced the undead to molten fragnts.
He spun back around just in ti to parry Gabriel’s blade again.
CLANG!
Their duel beca a blur of motion and fury. The sky thundered with their clash. One mont Clyde was on the offense, raining down blow after blow, and the next he was dodging a blinding counterstrike, Gabriel’s sword singing with holy light.
Seeing that his skeletal warriors couldn’t deal enough damage, Hades narrowed his eyes.
So be it.
Hades stepped forward, cloak billowing as the ground beneath him split apart. A dark chasm opened and from it rose his weapon, a massive bident. Twin blades of blackened iron glead with a cold light.
He gripped it tight, and with a single motion, launched himself into the sky.
The air cracked open as he flew upward, trailing shadows in his wake, toward the raging battle above. His eyes locked on Clyde
With a thunderous roar, Hades joined the battle in the sky.
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