Ōmeteōtl lay on a table in an infirmary of the arena, body almost completely unravelled except for the shoulders up. Their skull was missing bits in a swath of places. The Four Tezcatlipocas all surrounded their parent, Quetzalcoatl having shrunk down to the size of a mere garden snake to fit in the room.

"Ōmeteōtl, you're gonna make it, just keep fighting!"

"Don't fall asleep, if you fall asleep you won't wake up again!"

"We just got you back, you can't go! We need you!"

"You don't deserve this! You sacrificed everything to fix our mess, you can't die like this, you deserve better!"

Ōmeteōtl smiled at the love seeping from their sons, but also somewhat annoyed by all their constant yelling, and that was saying something when it was coming who loved to yell.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of them." The voice came from one of the two doctors that walked in, a pair of twins with horse heads. They were the Ashvins, Hindu gods of the medical arts and the replacement doctors for Revelations after Asclepius' murder of Jupiter.

The twins walked over to the near-dead Ōmeteōtl, holding bowls of powdered herbs that radiated multicolored magic light. The duo began rubbing it all over Ōmeteōtl, the god's wounds immediately beginning to heal, muscles weaving back into proper shape. Skin covered Ōmeteōtl's exterior while their interior filled with all the fluids they had lost.

It took less than a minute before Ōmeteōtl was as fit as they were before their match had begun.

"Our work is done." The Ashvins made their way out.

The Four Tezcatlipocas leapt atop their parent and embraced them so tight it hurt Ōmeteōtl.

"I get you're all happy, but if you keep squeezing, I might just need the Ashvins to come fix me up again."

"We're just so happy you're okay!"

"Of course I'm okay. As long as you four need me, I'm always gonna come back. That's what parents are supposed to do."

"Fucking shit ass bullshit titty shit!" Satan was stomping on a series of Yahweh figurines that were available in the arena's gift shop, turning each to bits.

"Ass fuck whore ass shit fuck cunt!" Sin was doing the same thing her mother was.

"Sin really is your kid." Astaroth was watching the mother-daughter duo rage. "We should probably pick the next fighter, y'know, instead of wasting time breaking Yahweh's merchandise."

"I'm venting! I need to have a clear head to make proper decisions! This is necessary!"

"Yeah!"

"Satan, I think you might be a bad influence on your daughter."

"You say that, but I just decided who we're gonna have fight next!"

"Okay, but now we have less time to get ready because of your little tantrum."

"Not if we go fast!"

Satan ran off at full speed, Sin following behind, then followed by Death and eventually Astaroth after she let herself have a moment to just process Satan's moodiness.

They stopped before one of the waiting rooms for the human fighters, Satan knocking hard.

"It's your turn to fight! Can we come in?"

The door opened and inside Satan's group went.

The room was made of wooden planks and was notably dirty. It was like the home of a medieval peasant. Within, sitting on a wooden chain, head in their hands was an individual with short black hair, wearing silver armor that glittered in the light, as if radiating a divine aura. The individual's face was in their hands, but they raised their head when Satan and her entourage appeared. It was a woman with a handsome face, one that gave the feeling of a fairytale prince.

"Jeanne, my knight in shining armor, how're you feeling? Ready to fight it out?"

"Ah, of course. I'm as ready as I can be." Jeanne got on her feet.

"Great." Satan's eye fell on Sin, who was looking intently at Jeanne. "Are you interested in Jeanne, sweetie?"

Sin looks away, embarrassed. "Sorry. She's just really cool. Knights are cool."

"It's fine." Jeanne smiled. "Knights are cool, or at least the ideal they represent. Most knights were just bullies who abused their power."

"Yeah, but you're different. You fought for your people and even died for your ideals. You're the ideal of what I knight should be but real!"

"I don't know about that." Jeanne averted her gaze, her smile shaky.

The side of Satan's mouth scrunched a bit. "You seem a bit down."

"There are some things bothering me. I'm still struggling a bit with needing to kill.

Sin raised an eyebrow. "Wait, Jeanne, have you never killed anyone? I thought you fought in war and everything? You led armies."

"I never personally killed anyone. I fought to knock out my opponents and focused mainly on leading my men, being a strategist."

"Ah, I see."

"I was raised to believe killing was wrong, so I couldn't bring myself to, even when I was fighting on the front lines. Honestly, it's probably pretty cruel of me to avoid killing by my own hand while commanding my men to kill for our cause in my stead. I placed all guilt on them. I'm still responsible for those they killed, I just created some distance between myself and the actual act of taking life, so I could pretend I was innocent."

"I think you're being hard on yourself. I can't say that your explanation for why you did what you did was wrong, but you're saying it like it makes you a bad person, and I think that's going a step too far. You were fighting for your country either way, and I think that's most important."

"Exactly." Satan agreed with her daughter. "And now you're gonna fight for humanity as a whole, there's nothing more righteous than that, even if you have to kill."

"Thank you. You're both right. It's just that, after so many years, needing to take a life, after avoiding it for so long, is going to leave me stressed. The most disconcerting part for me is that I worry that when I kill my opponent, I'll feel underwhelmed, that the weight of taking a life won't feel heavy to me. If that happens, I think life as a whole will be less meaningful to me."

"I don't think you have to worry about that. If you're so concerned about losing your belief in the value of life, I don't think it'll waver. Got anything else to get off your chest?"

"The thing that bothers me most is that the gods are trying to kill humanity. I dedicated my life to Yahweh, to being a holy soldier, listening to the voices I thought were divine spirits, but now it turns out the gods want nothing more than for me and the rest of my kind to be eradicated. Everything I've ever known has been a lie."

"I…don't…have anything I can really say for that one to comfort you. That sucks. You're right to be upset. All I can say is that you should let your frustrations out so they don't fester and distract you during the match."

"I don't want to let them hinder me, but I just can't stop thinking about them. I died for my faith, but it turns out I was dying for nothing. It's as if my whole life was just a big joke, a prank played on me by the god I revered."

"Maybe you should use this tournament as your way of getting revenge against Yahweh and the other gods. Get angry, you've got every right to be. Just make sure you channel that anger into strength rather than let it blind you."

"I'm not angry, though, not at anybody but myself. I was a half-hearted knight who tried to pretend she was sinless by not killing with her own hands and getting others to instead, and in the end it was in service of a god who wants all humanity dead."

"There's nothing I can say that'll change your mind, so instead I'll just say that you should still channel that anger and frustration for the fight, it really can make you stronger."

"I'll try."

"That's all I ask. Now, your partner."

Walking forward from the back of Satan's group appeared a scrawny fallen angel who was wearing dirty clothes and smelled putrid as if he had never showered in millions of years, which he hadn't.

"Hey, I'm Belial."

Jeanne wanted to gag but she didn't want to be disrespectful.

"It's nice to meet you, Belial. You are the fallen angel of worthlessness and vice, correct?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I can't say I'm not rather worthless and viceful, so I guess it's fitting."

"You've got some confidence issues. They're probably some good psychiatrists and stuff in the afterlife you could talk to."

"I appreciate the offer, but I'd rather not have the time wasted on me."

"Y'see, it's statements like that that make it clear you need some psychiatric help."

"There really isn't time for that now, but I'll consider it."

Belial extended his hand, which Jeanne took, the fallen angel transforming into his holy relic form.

Yahweh was lounging, happy with the current winning streak the gods were having and confident that they'd be able to make it three this time, when Azathoth appeared again.

The creator was on her knees at speeds faster than what even Shaka, Elizabeth, or Amaterasu could achieve.

"Azathoth, good to see you! What would you like, now?"

"Tournament's still boring. I really am going to wipe away everything if you don't do something asap to make things interesting."

"I'm so sorry! Would you happen to have any more suggestions? My intellect just can't compare to yours!"

"Try interfering with the fight itself as it happens."

"I see. The thing is, it'll be really hard for me to hide that I'm interfering if I do that."

"I don't care. Do it."

"Yes, of course!" Azathoth blinked away and Yahweh had to restrain her desire to say or think anything negative about the pink deity. "Time to cheat harder than ever. I just wanted to watch humanity suffer and die horrible deaths, is that too much to ask?"

The closeness of the last round's end, the hair difference that separated victory and defeat, had the audience for both sides revved up and ready for the next match, both sides beginning to stomp the ground in unison, a sort of solidarity formed from their combined enthusiasm.

"I was gonna ask if everybody's excited, because I feel that it's pretty obvious what the answer is!"

"We're already at the ninth round! It feels like Revelations just started yet we're already so far in! So spectacular! It shows just how intense these matches are! Time slows to a crawl, yet also moves at light speed!"

"For this round, the fighter of the gods requested this!" Anansi pointed to the sky above, which was once again a veil of night, but this time, it was a beautiful tapestry of stars, nebulae, and other astral bodies. It was a display of the natural wonder of the universe, all that the heavenly night sky can provide. "They wished for this wonderful view!"

"What the fighter of humanity requested was that!" Apollo made a sweeping motion toward the battlefield, which looked no different than normal, just the standard black and white checkerboard pattern. "Nothing! They requested nothing!"

"Next up, who's the guest commentator for this round?"

"The answer would be the Greek god of sleep, Hypnos!"

Hypnos was a young man with wings on his head. He leaned his head on his hand, half-awake.

"Hey guys, happy to-" Hypnos yawned mid sentence. "be here."

"Such enthusiasm to see from you Hypnos! Normally you'd be completely asleep, you must be very energized!"

"I'm just excited to see my mom fight. Spoilers."

"Spoilers indeed, but moving on, how about we get to the fighters!"

The sky above started to ripple like water, a drop of black coming down and splashing onto the ground of the battlefield.

"She is the Greek goddess of the night. She's a primordial god, one of the oldest beings to ever exist!"

"My father, Jupiter, may he rest in peace, was terrified of incurring the wrath of this deity, so much so that her son Hypnos could get away with any slight!"

"It's true, I'd fuck with Jupiter a lot and he couldn't do anything about it."

From the pool of darkness, a figure began to rise.

"Gods, humans, and all other manner of entities are terrified of this dark goddess. Like her sky that looks over reality, her presence looms over all, filling almost every being with an instinctual unease, filling them with the worry that they may be snuffed out by the colossal power she holds."

The figure wore a t-shirt and jeans, and their hair was a mass of darkness that hid the goddess' eyes, the darkness filled with lights like stars.

"She is the mother of other primordial deities, one of the eldest, wisest, strongest beings of all! She is Nyx!"

The expected cheers followed, Nyx just standing with her hands in her pockets.

Pluto and Neptune felt a chill go down their spines from their seats in the stands. They both had experience getting on Nyx's bad side and paid for it. Pluto in particular lived in the same realm as Nyx, so he had an especially large number of experiences seeing what the goddess' wrath looked like, and he wished he could forget.

"Fantastic! Now, to the human fighter!"

The gates on the human side opened and armored soldiers began marching out. They were knights of France. At the front of the group was a knight on horseback, carrying a banner that billowed in the wind. The mounted warrior had a shield on their back, a sword at her side, and a golden jousting lance in her hand.

"She is the The Maid of Orléans. The savior of France! She was burned as a witch, but now she's considered a saint!"

"She was a master tactician and a warrior of skill nigh unparalleled! Truly, she is one of the greatest examples of humanity!"

All but the banner carrying knight stopped their forward movement, returning from whence they came, leaving the lone female knight and her steed.

"She fought to do the work of the gods, believing she heard their voices. But, now she must fight against those same gods!"

"This is the tragic tale of the hero named Jeanne d'Arc!"

Humanity cheered harder now than they did for the initial appearance of any other human champion. Jeanne herself felt unworthy of those cheers, making her feel the pit in her stomach grow deeper.

"Jeanne! Oh, to see you again after so long!" The mustachioed man squalling like a child was Gilles de Rais, former ally of Jeanne during the Hundred Years War and serial killer of children after the Maid of Orléans' execution. He was trying to use magic to summon a demon through human sacrifice to revive Jeanne, so grieved was he by her unrightful murder. "I'm sorry! I committed so many atrocities, but it was just because I missed you so, my beautiful Jeanne!"

"This is ridiculous. A female knight? Women cannot embody chivalry." Gawain, one of the Knights of the Round Table scoffed. "If a knight is to fight, it should be you, my king, or at least Lancelot." Gawain looked to King Arthur and Lancelot, who were both in tears. "What's wrong?"

"How do you not see it, Gawain? Can you not see the greatest knight on that checkerboard field? She radiates all that chivalry is meant to be. I can see it just in how she holds herself. It is like looking upon the face of a predator, you instinctively know to run, but in this case, I feel the need to kneel in reverence. She is the ideal of the ideal."

Gawain felt inadequate. He had failed to see true chivalry that brought King Arthur, the man he respected most, to tears. He wondered if it was a case of himself being too viceful, but then he realized that it was actually that Jeanne's chivalry was simply too large for him to comprehend. It was like a normal person trying to see the whole universe at once while still being within it, it is impossible while stuck with that perspective.

Nyx walked up to Jeanne and extended her hand. "Hi, I'm Nyx. I know we're about to fight to the death, but let's not be spiteful about it."

Jeanne smiled and got off her horse before shaking the night goddess' hand. "It's a pleasure."

"I'm actually against the whole extinction of humanity thing, but there's nothing I can do. Well, I could refuse to fight, but I'd just get killed by Yahweh."

"I'm happy to know there are gods that don't hate humanity. It makes me feel a little better after devoting my life to a god who hates us."

"Oh, right, yeah, that'd suck, huh? My condolences. This whole situation is the worst, but we gotta roll with the punches."

"That's true. It's nice that you're a good person, though I think it will actually make it harder for me to bring myself to kill you. If you were like Jupiter or Necessitas, I'd get into the proper mindset easier."

"We're both just doing what it takes to live. Actually, you're trying to save your whole species, so you've got the moral high ground over me. I just don't wanna die and make my family sad."

"That's a righteous goal, though. There's no shame in it."

"Then you shouldn't feel shame either. Come at me ready to lop my head off, and I'll be ready to do the same to you. No hard feelings."

"No hard feelings. That, I think, actually makes me feel a little better."

"Good. I'd be the one feeling bad if I just killed you and you didn't fight back. That sounded messed up now that I say it out loud. I'll still feel bad if I win, for obvious reasons, I just wanna make that clear."

"Worry not, I understood your meaning."

"Okay, good. I had a moment like 'oh no, I was just trying to make sure there were no hard feelings, but I think I just said something that threw that right out the door!' It would've been real awkward."

Jeanne chuckled. "I was very upset before, but you've helped my mood quite a bit. Thank you."

"No problemo. Everybody watching's getting real hyped up, so we should probably get to it. Good luck."

"Good luck."

Nyx returned to where they stood initially and raised her fists while Jeanne got back on her horse, banner and lance in her hands.

Suddenly, Jeanne was hit with dizziness. She shook her head and felt herself regain her equilibrium, assuming it was just her anxieties getting the better of her for a moment.

Yahweh sunk into her chair's cushions with a pleased groan, Jeanne not knowing what the creator had teleported inside her.

"It's time everybody! The gods have a two win lead, but humanity could start taking things back like before! On the other hand, the gods could get their third win in a row, the longest streak yet! Let's see what happens!"

"The ninth round of Revelations, Nyx vs Jeanne d'Arc, begins now!"

Gabriel's horn was blown.