GATE: the clash of the titans V2

by Qun Nguyn1

Mostly AUs. A Gate has opened in Tokyo by a Roman-esque Empire, familiar scenario with familiar faces but the people marched through the Gate is from a vastly more powerful magic world. The stage is set. Earth Alliance vs The Holy Empire. Science vs Magic. The power of the thousand sun vs The Beast of the Apocalypse. Let the clash of Titans begin. Let the worlds have War.

33. Chapter 34: Battle of the Divine pt3

Chapter 34: Battle of the Divine pt3

Note:

Guest: SPAM system from command and conquer, I'm sorry but I can't find any information related to this.

Guest: the Holy Empire is probably stronger than the Empire from Drakengard. I'm not sure how strong the watchers are so the result may vary.

overlordwarhammer2019:

The names of the attacks is just borrowed and only loosely connected with the original, coming up with good names for attack is hard! So don't think too much about the name.

Rory is the Apostle of War. Being good at combat is literally her job's requirement. In this story, Rory is over 3000 years old, if she isn't good at martial arts then she will be pretty damn lazy and stupid. The apostles do train with each others and they have all the time in the world to train.

Rory got pretty lucky too, war make her stronger like Ares in DCEU and with the biggest battle in history happening right near her, Rory becomes extremely powerful. Probably 2 or 3 times stronger than normal.

The reason UEADF doesn't use much combat drones is due to politics and their fighting doctrine. The War is basically a massive job program. Automation is not good for employment. Beside most nations don't like American supercomputer control their entire army. The UEADF is a multilateral defense organization not the world government.

Earth army isn't designed to fight semi-immortal demons, they're designed to fight Titan. The UEADF are overreliant on nuclear weapons to deal with swarm tactics.

Magic metals are pretty common in Falmart but magic metal alone doesn't kill demon, holy enchanted Mithril kill demon. Mithril has the ability to hold holy magic for a very long time.

Pandemonium is a legend so no one knows that he would appear. And more importantly he's too strong for a normal Tachyon bomb. Maybe if you can hit him with a fifteen thousand tons 5 trillion dollars bomb, he might die. The Eternal Flame can kill it but it's too dangerous to use near the human base.

---

Minith Academy, New Miraculum, Falmart's Moon Oisin, 52069 I.C

" This mighty Empire can survive on mud and grass, the Earth Alliance can't. Do not afraid my child because we will win."

- Molt Sol Augustus, the 99th Emperor of the Holy Darwinian Empire.

Said Professor Lelei in an intoxicated voice. "Dammit, I used too many magic mushrooms." Lelei blamed herself for falling under peer pressure at the Liberation-day party last night even though she knew she had a class to teach tomorrow. The rainbow mushroom was one of the few legal psychoactive drugs left in the market. It had various mental and physical effects, which include euphoria, altered states of mind and sense of time, relaxation, and an increase in appetite. However, if overdosed, the side effects could include anxiety, delusions (including ideas of reference), hallucinations, panic, paranoia, and psychosis.

"Today's lesson will be about the importance of home front morale in global warfare."

"As you know, in the early stages of the Great War, the Empire's policy regarding the use of weapons of mass destruction was «an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth». However, from 52033 onwards, it changed to «death by a thousand cuts». Does anyone know why?"

"Yes. Lilith," Lelei gestured to the female student at the third rows, who just raised her hand.

"The change in the imperial policy regarding the use of weapons of mass destruction was due to the activation of the 'Moon's Wrath' cannon. With Moon's Wrath, UEADF achieved orbital supremacy over the entire planet and forced us into hiding underwater."

Correct — With NOKIA, UEADF was able to flatten any unprotected city on the planet with almost impunity. However this was not the only reason. The change in policy was also due to the pleading of Princess Pina. The Emperor paid 500 million suwani in royal ransom for her safety return and it was a wise investment. Her Highness' analytical mind and her first-hand knowledge on the UEA's domestic politics were critical in the formulation of the «death by a thousand cuts» strategy.

She was rightly argued that, "If you can hit something with your weapon, you can damage it, however slightly. And if you can damage it, you can defeat it just by hitting it enough times. The exact nature of the attack and how well-protected the target happens to be might affect this, but the fact remains that in many works, huge imposing enemies can be brought down by way of multiple attacks that, taken on their own, barely qualify as pinpricks."

The Princess's argument was supported by her brother the Prime Minister. He asserted that any Total War would be of such a great scale and length that Operational victories would pale into insignificance, and tactical victories would be almost meaningless. The turning point of such a war would not come about as the result of a single operation's capture of territory or prisoners, he asserted, but by the point after which one side could no longer keep replacing its losses.

"In a war of annihilation, both the offensive culmination point and the ultimate defensive line are determined mainly by a spatial line. In a war of attrition, this line often shifts into a temporal category."

Strategic Attrition could be efficiently prosecuted through numerous Operational and Tactical methods. The most famous Operational-level method was encirclement or envelopment, and the most famous tactical method was probably Hit-and-Run Tactics.

Of course, this wasn't an easy strategy to implement, "There are three ways to defend against such a strategy. Healing faster than the opponent can damage and reducing each hit to zero obviate the attacks altogether. As for the third, the best defense is a good offense. If the would-be victim is effective enough at fighting back, and their attacker is too poor at defending, the former will probably live to tell the tale."

So for the strategy to have any chance of succeeding, it had to do three things. First, it had to strike harder than the enemy can heal. Second, it had to penetrate the enemy defense. And finally, we had to survive the enemy's counterattack.

With the activation of the 'Moon's Wrath' cannon, it was clear that the Empire couldn't survive a 'War of Annihilation' but it could survive an 'Attritional War'. Any large scale offensive on the enemy population center would be responded in kind with either nuclear annihilation or relativistic kinetic strike on our cities. So, our attacks had to be fast, the target had to be chosen wisely to deal maximum damage and the measurement of success had to be how much of our force survive the enemy's counterattack. The goal was bleed the enemy to death before we bleed to death ourselves.

Princess Pina argued that instead of killing our enemies, we cripple them physically and mentally. A dead person was a martyr, but a disabled person was a burden. A destroyed city would be a rallying call for revenge, but a city full of blind, dumb, deaf, diarrhea, typhoid, dysentery would be a terrible drain on the welfare system. Every injured man was two men out of frontline and the sight of the patient pooping on the floor was very demoralizing.

A vivid example of this strategy was the famous Operation Hammer and Sickle. The Empire's planners soon realized that the continental United States was too well defended to attack directly, but they had to do something about it, so Operation Hammer and Sickle was born. America was a consumerism society so the goal was to force them feel the price of war. An attack on the American soil was out of the question but an attack on the American meal was possible.

The goal of Operation Hammer and Sickle was the total destruction of the American favorite fruit : Banana. America consumed a huge amount of banana but they could barely grow any on the own soil, so most of their bananas had to be imported.

Instead of attacking the US directly, the Empire attacked their a lot less-defended banana orchards: Ecuador, Philippines, Costa Rica, Colombia and Guatemala. Using 25,000 A-9 magic deep ocean-launched ballistic missiles, each carry 500 liters of super fungus Fusarium Falmartium-B. 70 percent of the missiles were intercepted but the 30 percent that got through were more than enough. Bioengineered from the Panama disease, Fusarium Falmartium was the most powerful pathogen know to man. The Fusarium Falmartium-B was specifically designed to kill bananas, and it did it spectacularly.

In just half a year, all bananas in nature became extinct. The falmartium wilt (as they called) killed any bananas outside the lab. The success of the campaign was beyond the Empire wildest dream. It was only thanks to the human agricultural malpractices of monoculture that this level of success was achieved.

The Operation was so successful that the governments of Guatemala and Costa Rica collapsed. And there were riots in 19 US cities and 50 other cities around the world. The American and UEADF retaliation was harsh but predictable. By the time Operation Eagle Claw was conducted there wasn't a single experienced imperial officers or Category-A and B manpower left on the surface of the planet to attack. All of them were deep underground or underwater, leaving only the poorly-led and badly demoralised vassal force composed of Category-C and D manpower to hold their ground against the fury of the human race.

Operation Apple Pie was not as successful as Operation Hammer and Sickle, but it was also a good example of «death by a thousand cuts». The Falmartium wilt, caused by Fusarium Falmartium-A, destroyed three-quarter of the global apple production. The Western world was absolutely pissed.

---

Imperialium Cellarium, Sadera, Falmart, 52030 I.C

If you were a wine connoisseurs or a wine fanatic then the underground city Imperialium Cellarium was the heaven on earth. Imperialium Cellarium was a wonder of the world, surpassing even the Great Pyramid or the Garden of Babylon. It was the most grandiose and prestigious wine cellar in the empire, storing only the most lavish wine of the imperium.

Inside this massive underground wine city, which was well hidden from the rest of the Imperial Palace, there were 200 miles long tunnels brimming with a wide variety of wines. The limestone in the galleries maintained constant humidity (85–95%) and temperature 12–14 °C throughout the year. The longer some specific wines are stored in such ideal conditions, the more they improve. Some wines were cellared for several century before being used.

Overall, the complex held nearly 20 million bottles. More than 70% of the stored wines were red, 20% were blue and about 10% are dessert wines. The most valuable items of this collection, the Red Widow, worth 5 million suwani a bottle, were used only by the royalty.

"Another one, Your Majesty?" A wine steward kindly asked as she poured yet another round of aged Red Widow wine, each bottle costing more than some kingdoms would make in a year. Molt smiled thankfully and nodded to the beautiful woman, a winged people named Rosian Mailcal, the eldest daughter of the Mailcal family, a well-known winery family. But it was the second man that caught everyone's eye in the room.

"Yes, thank you little one." his voice reminded Molt of his grandfather during his final days, heavy with wisdom and uninterested in worldliness.

For all his power and wealth, the ageing Emperor could do nothing but stare at the transcendence being who sat across from him, smiling happily as he accepted his second glass of wine. For Molt knew how much power that man held. With a single word, the Emperor knew that this man could freeze the Holy Empire almost entirely.

Unlike the usual sort of men who had audiences with the Emperor of Darwinia, who wore grand clothes and bejewelled hats, this ancient man wore an elegant hooded shawl like garment embroidered with star motif. This was worn over a relatively light colored, short-sleeved top which formed part of a tunic with the length down to his feet. His jewellery included two necklaces, and a long cuff bracelet around each wrist. Despite being nearly 9000 years old, the man appeared as a slim, androgynous person with dainty features, seeming to be around twenty-five or twenty-six years old. He had long straight, silver colored and waist-length hair. This was tied up in a braid and worn over the front of his body on the left. His fringe was at a length where sections appeared over his eyes, and on the sides of his face the hair reached near his shoulders. On his head, he had two white wings curved around the top of his head and two smaller wings hanging behind his ears.

He drank deeply, closing his eyes to savour every moment as both of the men knew that wasting was a sin, especially for those of their high standing.

"Thank you for coming all this way, Your Holiness, I only wish my grandfather could have lived to see you again in person. He never forgot your support in the dark days of the civil war, and I am happy that we finally got to meet in person," Molt said as he drank from his mithril wine goblet.

"Prince Hector was a smart boy and a fast-learning student, I just smoothed out some of his problems relating to his 'preference' for women. A piece of advice for all you youngster. Don't sleep with your uncle's wife. But you wouldn't have me here simply to reminisce old stories." He replied, staring directly into the younger man's eyes as he spoke, raising one delicate eyebrow as he did so. Although his facial expression didn't change, Molt couldn't help but guess, the old apostle was smirking.

"Rest assured, I wouldn't have risked the wrath of the Lord of Creation and Destruction merely for some pleasantries. I assure you, Lord Sika, this is important. I'm not getting any younger after all." The Emperor reassured.

Both men chuckled before Molt rose to his feet, gesturing out the balcony and allowing Sika Madu, the Sorcerer Supreme and Apostle of the Darwin, God of Creation and Destruction, to rise and enjoy the subterranean bioluminescent Royal Garden, rumored to be the most exquisite in the entire Empire.

Such a garden was extremely popular among high-class aristocrats, but what caught the eye of the ancient apostle was a giant green egg in the middle of a hexagonal magic barrier. It was like nothing he had seen in his 8800 years of life and he had seen a lot; exotic yet beautiful.

"That egg in the barrier, what is it?" Sika Madu twisted his beautiful silver hair with his delicate hand as he trudged out of the balcony.

The Emperor sat back down with a sigh, taking another gulp of wine as he did so. "It is the reason why I've brought you here Lord Sika, I spent a hefty price to smuggle that egg here undetected. I risked a lot because my grandfather, to his last days, believed that you had ways of getting things done.

Sika nodded slowly, one hand twisted his curled strands as he stared out the window. As if he could divine the origins of the mysterious egg below.

"That egg is…. an unhatched Norn-Queen brought back from the arachnid homeworld of Ziaphoria." Molt winced slightly as he heard the words coming out of his mouth.

"I sound like a damn poacher!" Molt lamented to himself but he paused as Sika's eyes burned with rage, his face twisting into a sneer to reveal his clenched white teeth.

"A Norn-Queen Egg, Really !? You Smuggle the Worlds Devourer offspring, From their Homeworld of Ziaphoria, to our World !? Let me guess, you want to use the world devourer to fight the Earth Alliance. You are wasting your time, the Arachnid army only follow the Hive-mind command. I was hoping that Hector descendant was smarter than this!" Sika growled and slowly rose to his feet, his golden eyes burning in righteous indignation. Before the apostle could raise himself fully, Molt started talking, his voice calm and collected.

"Your Holiness, I know the dangers of getting a Norn-Queen here. But my goal isn't to create an army but to take control of a super weapon that I believe you would be quite interested in."

Sika Madu paused, looking doubtful. You have two minutes, then I'm gone. I respect both your grandfather and your family, but I won't face my Master's wrath for it!"

Molt quickly bowed before the Paterfamilias of the Apostles Council.

"Of course, Your Holiness." Rising back up, the Emperor waved his hand, sending the wine steward running off for a moment into another room.

"I wouldn't dream of wasting your precious time, but I mean what I said; you know the arachnid world of Ziaphoria is a tidally locked planet. When the Arachnids invade a new world, they will make that world into the image of their homeworld using the a bio-device called the Arachnid Pylon. The Arachnid Pylon can warp the space around the planet so that one side of the planet is always facing the sun.

As a result, the planet would not have seasons or a day/night cycle, as half would be in perpetual darkness, a permanent ice age. The other half would contain a giant, never-ending hypercane with permanent torrential rain at the point directly opposite the local star. The continental size hypercane would generate enormous waves in the ocean, which would migrate outwards. They would be wind-driven and would not reach the top of an ocean to the bottom, as a tsunami does. Nonetheless, waves as big and as devastating as those humans call freak waves might be regular.

Only a Norn-Queen can control a Arachnid Pylon and we already have a Norn-Queen in our hand. While we can't control an Arachnid army, we can control one arachnid. Once we have the Arachnid Pylon, we can turn Falmart into an eyeball planet with the day-side at the Spokojny Ocean while the night-side centering around Afrykania. This will turn the enemy territory into a frozen wasteland while our core territory in Azjania will have perpetual torrential rain. I doubt this is enough to drive the UEADF away but I believe this will greatly reduce their range of operation. For even us would have problem living in such an hostile environment." Molt said, calmly drinking some more wine.

"While that's all fine and good, you still haven't told me where those Arachnid Pylon will come from. You don't planning to raid Ziaphoria again, do you? You're lucky the first time, it won't happen again." Sika Madu stared at the Emperor as he spoke with a doubtful expression.

"That is not the problem, Lord Sika. Because we aren't going to raid Ziaphoria but its colony Tyran III."

A maid entered the room, holding a bundle under her arms. She then laid a massive magic stellarium of the onto the table ans as she did a hologram of the heaven appeared. A stellarium was a three-dimensional map of the stars. It was fixtured at planetariums, where it illustrated the local deep space out to 150 light years.

Sika stared at the magic star map in amazement, the craftsmanship was exquisite, reminding the apostle of just how rich the Empire was. The cost of the star map alone could have sustained a small city for almost a decade.

Everything appeared to be in order, Falmart and its Sun at the center. The stars in this Stellarium were strikingly realistic. They were tiny bright points of light. Photographs made stars look brighter by making the circles of light larger, but real stars were so distant that the human eye couldn't see a disk. Even the largest and closest stars were points of light too small for the human eye to resolve.

Molt pointed at a small K-class star about 50 light years from Falmart. "This is the Tyran system, where the Arachnid colony Tyran III located. I believe Tyran III is a recently conquered planet."

Understand the implication. Raising his delicate eyebrows, Sika said expressionlessly, "So you want me to lead a strike team to Tyran III and stole the Arachnid Pylon back."

The Emperor leaned back, staring at the old apostle with a mixture of confidence and respect. "Yes, Your Holiness. It will be a quick strike, an In-and-out type of mission. Of course, it will be very dangerous but you are the most powerful of the 13 Apostles. If anyone can do it, it will be you, Lord Sika." Molt said as he calmly sipped from his goblet.

An Arachnid Pylon, it would be fun to experiment on the World Locker. Sika chuckled at the ideal, with it he could control the day-night cycle and remake the world. Truly a fascinating ideal. With a slight smile, Sika said. "Give me the detail of the plan."

About 15km Outside of Camp Hell-One, Hellgate, Falmart

Boom.

Boom. Boom.

Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.

Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.

The earth trembled from the thunderous explosions caused by the collision between 3 god-like beings. Others could only see blurs, as they were moving faster than speed of sound. Their immense speed released gusts of winds lifted large amounts of rocks and dust turning the battlefield into a giant dust bowl. At the center of the dust storm, Pandemonium was struggling against the fierce onslaught from Rory Mercury and Aleister Cromwell.

By their very nature, Rory and Aleister were extremely annoying opponents and a deathly combo. Rory was the sovereign of warfare meant she became stronger as the battle got fiercer while Aleister had the edge against any creature with blood as he was a pure-blooded vampire. This was especially true after Aleister drank his opponent's blood.

As soon as Pandamonium successfully fended off Rory's attack from the right with an aura infused kinetic shock wave attack, Aleister rushed towards the Beast in blinding speeds from his left. The Beast had not expected the vampire apostle to move so fast.

But he was ready for the attack. The crimson haired Vampire jumped up and attempted a roundhouse kick at him. Because of the speed of the attack, Pandemonium was only able to hastily bring out both his hands to block the attack as he was in no position to dodge it.

When Aleister's kick connected with his hasty defense, Pandemonium felt that the power behind the crimson head's kick was way more that he would have thought. He was unable to hold his ground, thus was pushed back and lost his balance.

Seeing that his opponent has lost his balance, Aleister prepared for another attack by spinning around, while still in midair. His left leg went straight to Pandemonium's face. He knew that even if Pandemonium would block the kick, it would not do him any good — he had put as much power as he could behind the kick.

"Heaven Shaking Iron Kick!"

Pandemonium knowing that it would not end well for him, he threw himself down on his behind. He was already losing balance over the previous kick, so he just allowed himself to fall back. With that, he was able to duck under the kick and fell down on his back. But before he hit the ground, he brought out his hands and used them as cushion.

Aleister landed down on the ground gracefully after missing his opponent, but he did not stop with his attacks. While Pandemonium was still on the ground, he casted a spell. Pandemonium was able to recognize the spell and allowed himself to fall on his back, leaving his hands completely free. He also casted his own spell while still lying down on his back.

''Holy Enhanced: Hellfire Storm Conflagration!'' Aleister yelled as he released black flames of hell. The fire was so great that the heat around the area began to increase. It would probably burn the Beast badly if he was hit by it. But Aleister was sure that Pandemonium would not be hit by the spell. The demon also showed himself to be a master of the elements.

Pandemonium also chanted his own incantation. ''Chaos Release: Great Storm Breakthrough!'' he released a powerful gust of wind that sped towards the incoming hell flames. When the spells collided, they did nothing more than to increase the heat in the atmosphere. When they seemed to be pushing each other for dominance, Aleister's own spell swallowed Pandemonium's wind and continued to match on forward.

Pandemonium knew that his wind spell would not hold up. He just needed it to buy himself some time to get out of the way. He quickly disappeared from the ground and appeared a distance away from the path of Aleister's spell. The spell hit the ground before dying down.

Aleister turned around to face Pandemonium with an small smirk on his face, before he did the same spell again. Pandemonium clasped his hands together, ''Chaos Release: Violent Typhoon!'' he released some much more powerful gusts of winds that had wind blades within them. The wind spell covered a lot of ground before storming towards Aleister's fire spell.

The spell picked up a lot of debris as it sped towards its target. When the spells collided, a resounding explosion occurred, increasing the heat further. And because of the violent storm Pandemonium had released, there seemed to be violent winds, mixed with intense flames picking up. The explosion finally died down, revealing that both opponents were still unhurt.

"Eat this, Goat face!" Not letting the Beast a second to rest, Aleister lunged at Pandemonium from the left with tremendous speed and threw a powerful right hook. 'Blood Phoenix Ascension Fist.'

Realizing Aleister's intentions, without saying a word, Rory charged at Pandemonium from the right with a powerful technique of her own. 'Awakening Breath: Roaring Aura Sky Ripping Fist.'

Pandemonium cursed as he saw two mountain-breaking fists coming towards him from both sides. Caught between a rock and a hard place, he forced to counter them with "Purgatory Abyss Fist."

Three techniques collided sending intense shockwaves across the battlefield, the shockwaves unleashed were strong enough to turn even debris into powder within vicinity.

Pandemonium then unleashed a powerful blast with his mouth to create a distance between them. Unable to dodge the blast at point-blank, Rory and Aleister were sent fly hundreds of meters away. Their landing caused the ground to shatter under their feet. But Aleister's landing was more dignified than Rory's. He landed carefully and did not burrow much on the ground unlike Rory. The ebony hair girl was like a meteor crashing down on earth as she hit the ground.

"Not bad," Aleister was the first to get up and dusted himself. His slender thighs had several scratches caused by the blast but they healed immediately. An eerie crimson aura surrounded the boy as a sadistic smile slowly spread across Aleister's childish face.

"Blood spear!" Aleister summoned a long, twisted in double-helical shape red bident. Spinning the blood spear many times with a mischievous grin on his face, Aleister charged at the Beast in a burst of speed.

"Give me your heart — Secret Technique: Heart Breaker."

Aleister thrusted his spear forward in a completely straightforward motion, creating spirals of red aura that surround his weapon and created shockwaves as Aleister moved forward. Aleister was confident that the power behind the attack was more than enough to pierce the Beast's heart. He had reason to be confident, after all, this attack could penetrate 300 meters of solid steel with ease.

Seeing the incoming attack, Pandemonium next action defied common sense, he closed his eyes while raising his right hand forward like some kind of Wudang priest.

"Hmm... Giving up already!?" Aleister lunged towards the Beast like an arrow.

"Hmm... ?" Rory sensed something was wrong. Panicked, she shouted. "Wait Aleister, don't rush towards him!" But the warning came too late — Pandemonium gently caught the crimson spear blade with one hand and turned his wrist upside down. Seeing the impossible, Aleister mouth and eyes was wide open.

"What the F—!"

"Secret Technique: Demonic Hand of Reflection."

Pandemonium absorbed Aleister's secret technique "Heart Breaker" and redirected its full might into Aleister, causing the Apostle of Vengeance to end up flying across the battlefield like a bullet. The shockwaves of the attack ricocheted throughout the vampire's body and broke all of his bones and internal organs into pieces.

"FUCKKKK — It's Hurttttt!" Aleister screamed at the highest pitch that his broken vocal cords could allow him to. The vampire apostle coughed a huge amount of blood while clutching his stomach as the reversed attack ruptured his internal organs. "…So that's what it feels like to get hit by Heart Breaker...AHHH...I promise I'll never call Iron Spiders a bunch of weaklings again."

On the other side of the battlefield, Pandemonium sighed in relief, "That's a close call, I'm not even sure that technique will work," I learned that technique from a Wuxia named Zhang Sanfeng. Forced to use a human technique, "How the mighty have fallen." Pandemonium lamented to himself but he was immediately attacked by a rain of light arrows engulfing him in flames.

When the flames finally died down, Pandemonium was standing perfectly still without any damage. He tried to move but found out that he could not go away. He looked behind him and saw another Rory kneeling behind him. His legs where pinned to the ground by wooden sticks. The doppelganger dispelled having accomplished its goal. Pandemonium began to struggle to get loose.

Rory did not wait for Pandemonium to break loose, she cast a powerful spell, ''Wareharun Blessing: Wood Serpent,'' she muttered as a wooden snake sprouted out from the ground and rushed at a struggling Pandemonium. The snake wrapped itself around Pandemonium restricting his movements further. However, that was not the only thing the snake was doing. It was also draining Pandemonium of the Immaterium energy. This was a recreation of the goddess Wareharun's wood dragon that was capable of eating mana.

Rory took out her Dark Spear and took a few steps towards Pandemonium. Her movements came to a halt when Pandemonium exploded in a bust of mana lifting up debris.

"Cursed Form —?"

When the debris cleared, the Cursed Beast stood in front of her in all its glory. Before Rory could even think of anything else, the Cursed Beast began to charge an absolute annihilation sphere. Even Rory knew that her Titan could not withstand the might of the 'Absolute Annihilation Sphere'.

The Cursed Beast completed forming its absolute annihilation sphere and fired it towards Rory. Rory casted a defensive spell, ''Wareharun Blessing: Wood Locking Wall!'' Rory slammed both her hands to the ground. Wooden pillars appeared from left and right. The wooden pillars created a dome-shape with Rory in the center. The absolute annihilation sphere collided with Rory's defense incantation. The absolute annihilation sphere exploded in a loud boom and created a large mushroom cloud of debris - a testament to the power of the Cursed Beast.

When the debris cleared, Rory was on her knees panting. She had used too much mana on the spell than she had thought she would. It took a lot mana from her to keep the dome standing up against the power of the absolute annihilation sphere. While still on her knees, Rory held out her hand and stared at it.

'Lord Sika Madu was able to use this incantation in shielding himself against a combined annihilation sphere from nine ancient dragons. According to Master Emroy, it did not take a lot from him to even remained standing. Mine only lasted enough to shield me from the explosion and it took a lot from me. Is it because Lord Sika knew how to use Path energy? Is it because his level of mastery over the wood element was far superior to mine?' Rory questioned in her own thoughts.

Catching her breath, she stood up. The spell had done its job to protect her, but it left her drained for much of her mana. 'Perhaps it is because I have already exerted too much mana already.' Rory thought to herself. She looked at the Cursed Beast to see it charging another annihilation sphere. This time she was not going to allow it to finish creating that thing again.

Her Titan flared up to life and began to charge its annihilation sphere. It did it at a faster rate than it did before. Rory noticed that the Cursed Beast was pooling much of its mana to the absolute annihilation sphere which would explain why it was taking long to complete. Without a second wasted, Rory fired the annihilation sphere towards the Cursed Beast. Upon colliding with it, it exploded. Rory was also counting on the fact that since the Cursed Beast was going to lose its concentration on the absolute annihilation sphere it would become unstable then bang.

The explosion shook the entire battlefield. A large mushroom cloud of debris formed on where the explosion had set off. It took several minutes for the debris to clear allowing everyone to see a rather large crater. It was large because it was also connected with the other two craters that were formed by Rory's attacks. Now there was only one crater. Pandemonium was lying in the middle of the crater.

Rory's Titan was no longer active. The annihilation sphere had taken much of the remaining mana she had. And also defending against the absolute annihilation sphere had taken a lot from her. Rory was on her knees breathing heavily. With the little mana she had now, she could not even summon Enryuu. It would take half a minute to recover, Rory thought.

A large burst of blue mana came out of Pandemonium forming a pillar that kissed the sky. The pillar of mana lasted for a few moments before it disappeared.

Rory grimaced upon seeing that.

'This is going to be annoying,'' Rory said to herself. "Giselle, do your thing!"

"Right on it Big Sis," Without further due, Giselle unleashed a barrage of energy beams. "Titan-Slayer II: Windstorm Spiral Spear X 15."

The concentrated stream of energy, dozens of times hotter than the surface of the sun, caused the area around Pandemonium to evaporate creating a large mushroom cloud of debris. This would buy her about 30 seconds. That should be enough.

Thirty seconds passed in the blink of an eye.

''Well then, shall we continue with this dance?'' As Rory said, a pure wave of potent mana hit the area, coming from Pandemonium. In the next second, she was gone.

Both took off like bullets, picking up dust as they took off. Both had moved insanely fast, making it hard for the untrained eye to see them. The two met in between and threw their punches. Each blocked as they were able to keep an eye on the other. They exchanged punches while moving around the area. This caused several blows to appear around.

This went on for a few moments until Rory suddenly increased her speed and appeared behind Pandemonium. Despite being able to see the Apostle, and blocking her kick, Pandemonium was still sent flying backwards.

Rory did not let up; she quickly summoned a ball of dark energy and turns it into an immensely powerful energy beam to blast Pandemonium. The Beast had recovered from the hit and had just landed down the ground. He quickly used ''Cicadas Molting'' to replace himself so that he did not get hit by the energy beam.

He appeared in front of Rory and drove his right fist towards the apostle's face. Rory was quick to block the punch with both her hands. But she winced when the punch connected with her hand - the Beast could certainly hit hard. Pandemonium was not deterred because of his blocked attempt; he quickly spun around and attempted to kick Rory straight on her face.

But the ebony haired girl ducked under the punch. She then attempted to knee Pandemonium, but the Beast blocked the attempt by using both his hands. Rory smirked then quickly hit the Beast in the chest with. ''Emroy Style: Gale Palm'', the technique sent Pandemonium flying away from her.

Pandemonium flipped several times before landing on the ground. He would have to give Rory some credit, using that technique at such a position required some great mana control.

Both he and Rory charged on forward engaging in a melee battle for the three hundredth rounds. The Beast of the Apocalypse rushed forward and swung his right fist towards Rory's face with some precision. The War Apostle was up to the task as she raised her left hand to put up a firm defense to block the punch. She jumped back for a moment before rushing at Pandemonium again. She attempted a right hook but the Beast blocked her punch. He retaliated with a punch of his own, but Rory was equal to it. This time it was Pandemonium who jumped back to create a distance between him and Rory.

They rushed at each other again and ended up locking hands in a battle for pure physical power. They were both powerhouses in this regard. This forced both to struggle in an attempt to break the other. Because physical strength was not doing it, they used mana to push each other. This caused their respective mana to clash between them and this did not do any good to the ground beneath them. In fact, both of them had their feet burrowed to the ground. The space between them was becoming violent due to the mana acting up upon being released. The ground beneath them was sporting cracks and small chunks of earth were being lifted from the standoff.

Rory then looked straight into Pandemonium's eyes as his eyes spun around for a moment. This forced the Beast to momentarily lose his grip and stop pushing him. A second was all that Rory needed to let go of Pandemonium and spin around. But when Rory turned to kick the Beast, he had already recovered from the illusion he had been put under and was able to duck under her kick. In retaliation, the Beast tried to kick Rory while in that bended position.

Rory was in no position to effectively dodge the attack. But she was able to put up her right left hand to catch the foot. It did not stop Pandemonium from using that to his advantage. He used the fact that she had caught his foot as a center to balance himself while he moved his other foot. He attempted to kick Rory again, and this time it was not an attempt, he succeeded.

His leg connected with Rory's bosom sending her crashing towards the trees but he did not stop with his attacks. He sped off to Rory again, and attempted to smash her to the ground. But Rory quickly brought out her halberd to block his attempt. Pandemonium jumped back from Rory, creating some distance between them. He looked up as the apostle finally landed on the ground with her halberd beside her. Rory stood up straightly and again placed the halberd on her back before narrowing her look to at the Beast.

Rory took out a black knife before bolting towards Pandemonium. The Beast brought out black electrified pike and attempted to stab the girl with it on the shoulder. But the apostle threw the knife at him to which Pandemonium tilted his head to avoid. But Rory then disappeared in a flash of yellow and flashed, replacing the knife she had thrown — instant swapping. An annihilation sphere was quickly formed on her right palm. ''Blackening: Annihilation Sphere,'' the apostle muttered as she smashed the dark spear enhanced annihilation sphere on Pandemonium's back. She let it go before it sent the Beast flying away.

Not so surprisingly, Pandemonium was quick to recover. His skin was scratched at the back but otherwise alright. Rory figured the Beast quickly used 'Absorption' to avoid taking much more damage. This meant that he absorbed the spell before it could tear through his skin. Rory was not that surprised about this. And she only wanted to test the effectiveness of the spell. Rory took out a black knife again and prepared for another round.

''So you can use instant swapping,'' Pandemonium stated looking at Rory. Not saying another word, he charged towards Rory. The apostle did not sit back to watch the Beast attack her. She also rushed to attack the Beast of the Apocalypse. Both attempted to kick the other with the right legs, but this resulted in both legs clashing in midair. Rory retrieved her leg and attempted to punch Pandemonium on the face, but the Beast muttered two words, ''Air Cannon.''

Rory was sent flying away from Pandemonium. From behind a Saibo appeared and tried to kick her on the back, but Rory quickly activated her Titan. But this did not stop her from taking another direction as a result of the kick. Then Rory landed down gracefully before she was forced to raise both her hands to block a high roundhouse kick aimed at her face. Rory quickly grabbed the leg of Saibo tightly and threw it into the air before pointing a finger at the super doppelganger.

''False Darkness,'' she shot a lightning beam towards the super doppelganger. Because it was in midair, it was unable to dodge despite seeing the attack. Rory had shot a lighting beam that was powerful. The beam pierced through the super doppelganger's shoulder and rendered it paralyzed for a few seconds.

Rory created a doppelganger and armed it with a 15-meter-tall Titan before it rushed towards Pandemonium to keep him busy. Rory charged at the Saibo, but before he could reach it, the super doppelganger had already recovered from her spell. It ducked her punch and jumped back before lunging towards her again. Both its hands had turned into blades. While it jumped on her, Rory ducked under the attack and quickly formed her Titan. The last thing the super doppelganger saw was a dark blade piercing through its gut.

Rory retracted her blade. ''This should put it out of commission but just to make sure...'' her Titan fully formed, and threw Saibo into the air. Its blade sharpened dangerously. When the super doppelganger was falling down towards Rory's Titan, its blade met with it and cut it in half. Rory deactivated her Titan and looked back at Pandemonium who had just blown away her doppelganger. She dispelled it, before charging straight towards the Beast. Rory held out her right hand forming a dark sphere. ''Blackening: Annihilation Sphere,'' she muttered before trying to smash the sphere on Pandemonium's gut, but the Beast was fast, having seen her, he jumped away from the path of the spell. Rory hit the ground with the spell.

BOOM.

Another crater was formed when Rory's spell hit the ground. She was not given time to marvel at her work when Pandemonium appeared behind her. The apostle was quick to turn around to block the kick aimed at her back with her left hand. Rory began to form another dark sphere, but before she could do anything, Pandemonium unleashed an energy blast. The force of the blast dispelled Rory's spell and sent the apostle flying away. But this time, she did not go a far distance. She was able to recover quickly.

Upon landing on the ground, Rory smirked before clasping her hands together. ''Wareharun Blessing: Deep Forest Rising,'' the ground began to shake as Rory spoke those words. A dense forest began to emerge from the ground in an instant, the dense forest with high life force charged towards the Beast of the Apocalypse who simply looked calm. Rory continued to hold her hands together controlling the spell before it hit Pandemonium.

The spell could be used to capture an enemy. But Rory wanted to see Pandemonium trying to dodge the trees without getting pierced by any them. It looked as though he was caught up within the trees and captured. But the Beast muttered two words. ''Omni Push,'' the gravity spell repelled everything that had surrounded him. All the trees around from the dense forest Rory had created were blown away from him. Pandemonium had blown them away with so much power that another crater was form where he stood and then there was nothing left standing but him.

Rory then rushed towards Pandemonium chanting a spell. Before she reached him, Rory released her spell. ''Holy Enhanced: Hellfire Storm Conflagration!'' Rory released a stream of black flames that sped towards Pandemonium. The apostle did not stop moving towards the Beast of the Apocalypse as she continued to hold her spell.

Pandemonium chanting a water spell of his own. ''Chaos Release: Bursting Water Collision Waves!'' the Beast spew large amounts of water, filling the crater he was within. The water he released so much that the space around them became like an ocean. Pandemonium began to charge towards Rory within a wave. The apostle' spell had already been consumed by the water Pandemonium had released. It was also a little difficult to create fire given that there was water everywhere. Pandemonium continued to charge towards Rory before holding out his right hand as he reached the apostle. ''Air Cann-''

Rory locked with the target. ''Hardy Flame,'' she set Pandemonium ablaze before he could finish his spell. Rory then jumped away from the Beast, but there was still water where she stood. I will have to do something about this, Rory thought.

''Omni Push!'' Pandemonium blew the flames away from him seeing that he was going to be burned alive. He did not do so without eliciting a small scream of pain. Regardless of who you were, as long as you weren't a god, you couldn't just shrug of the flames of Hardy like they were nothing.

Rory jumped into the air while casting more fire incantation. ''Holy Enhanced: Majestic Fire Destruction!'' the apostle released majestic flames covering a wide area in the form of a wave. The flames were very intense and could turn a tank into ash if caught within their range.

Pandemonium released another water colliding wave again. Added with the water already on the surface, Rory's majestic flames were extinguished by the water. Rory sighed before landing on the water again. Just two more hours, she thought.

B-52 Bomber, 117 Squadron, Canadian Royal Air Force.

"You know, Boss. This LX-700K Liberator anti-personal system is kind of scary. Remember that 2017 short video Slaughterbots? What if the enemy somehow managed to hack this damn thing and use it on us?"

"You need to stop watching those dramatized videos on the internet, Owen." Squadron Leader Hudson Connor shook his head. "The LX-700K Liberator micro-drones are integrated with the most advanced anti-hacking system. And even if the enemy by some magic hacks the system, these micro-drones are still vulnerable to microwave weapons, which we have a lot of."

"Sir, targets is ahead." In the back seat, Flight Lieutenant Mason Lee had the target area marked on the rolling map in front of him. Navigating in the non-Euclidean space of the Eye of Terror was weird, there is no straight line in this sunless place, an aircraft couldn't just retrace its route to get home. You can fly in the same path and get to two different locations, a crew that relied on instinct to navigate could get hopelessly lost.

"We are clear of the prohibited zone."

That was crucial, the last thing the B-52 needed was to get their fragile micro-drones caught in the violently turbulent cloud caused by Russian fragmentation shells. So, the bombers had flown a looped route. Connor could see his target using the bomber infrared cameras. A force nearly half a million strong that was encircled the 157th Motor Rifle Division.

"Its show time!"

The five B-52 swept over the enemy assembly area, raining all their payload on the vile creatures below. Each LX-700K Liberator as fitted to the B-52 carried 700,000 palm-sized autonomous EF-2 "EyeFire" anti-personnel drones. EF-2's processor can react a hundred times faster than a human. The stochastic motion of the drone was an anti sniper feature and just like the latest iPhone 23, it had 8 ultra-high resolution micro-cameras and sensors with advance deep learning facial recognition system. Each drone had enough battery to fly for 30 minutes at 125 kph and was equipped with five grams of shaped explosives enough to penetrate the human skull and destroy the contents.

Long before the B-52 crossed the enemy grounds, they had pulled back into a steep climb, releasing their payload as they did, so the drones were tossed into the mass of infantry, rather than dropped on them. The drones linked with each others, creating a deathly cloud with a hive mind smart enough to kill half a city, the bad half.

"We're clear Peter, Tiger-one to all tiger elements, weapons delivered, time to go home and get some more."

Lee looked over his shoulder at the killer swarm take out an entire enemy army virtually risk-free with surgical precision. "Drop confirmed Boss. So, this is the future of warfare!"

About 17km Outside of Camp Hell-One, Hellgate, Falmart

"You are going to pay for this, Dog face!" Aleister disappeared from view and appeared before Pandemonium in an instant. An annihilation sphere was quickly formed on his right palm. Pandemonium narrowed his eyes. His brows rose up when Aleister produced his own annihilation sphere.

"Reddening: Annihilation Sphere,'' the apostle muttered as he smashed the crimson annihilation sphere on Pandemonium's face.

Boom!

The ball of crimson energy exploded in Pandemonium's face. The Beast was quick to shield his face with both his hands as he jumped away from the explosion. He was able to shield his body by strengthening his hair to avoid being much damage.

''Blood Sucking Whore,'' Pandemonium muttered. Before he could continue on his thoughts, Rory appeared behind him. The apostle had her palm facing him and without much time wasted. Pandemonium was forcefully blown away by a silent ''Gale Palm''. The force behind the spell felt like his body was being pressed down by tons of weight, and it hurt like crap.

Pandemonium was not given the time to recover, as Aleister and his doppelganger, armed with Titan shot multiple blood arrows at him. Pandemonium quickly raised both his hands, and used the same technique he had been using before — Omni Push. The arrows that threatened to dip their fangs on his body were dispersed.

Pandemonium raised his right hand high after recovering and unleashed an energy blast. The blast slammed Aleister down the ground. Pandemonium then turned his eyes on Rory; the notorious Rory was now looking straight at him. Pandemonium held out his right hand, and formed an annihilation sphere. He threw the sphere straight at the apostle. Rory held out both her hands to create an energy shield, the sphere merely exploded upon contact.

''It hurt more than I expected,'' she mumbled.

Pandemonium looked behind him as he sensed something. Aleister was already on his feet and with the Titan formed. The blood arrow he shot towards him was almost three times is big as the ones he had been shooting, and it came at even faster speed.

The Beast knew with that speed, his magic could not shatter it in time. He would have to stop it before shattering it. And with that speed, the feat were near impossible. He held out both his hands as the arrow reached him. As the technique flashed before him, he caught the arrow, but its speed pushed him back a few feet back. For what Aleister thought he would never see, Pandemonium was doing it; he was struggling with his large arrow with his hands... His HANDS!

While Pandemonium was still struggling, Rory charged from behind. The sword of her Titan cleaving through the ground as it sped towards the Beast. Dangerous. His hands and energy were both tied up in his struggle with the arrow. But before the blade of Rory's Titan could reach him, Pandemonium twisted around on his right, while his hands were still holding the arrow from Aleister's Titan. He directed the arrow to the path of the blade and the two collided, making a shockwave.

Pandemonium received the full end of it. But Rory was not quite done yet, the second blade of her Titan rushed towards Pandemonium, coming down on his left side. He was at its mercy, and it took him out into the air. Pandemonium was not given the chance for a breather, Aleister teleported right above him before slamming him down the ground with a brutal punch to his chest.

By the time Pandemonium hit the ground, he already lost an arm caused by being hit by Rory's blade. He received no pity from his opponents. Aleister shot an arrow down at him with the simple purpose of pinning him down the ground while Rory worked. A large rock was thrown down at him, crushing him under its might.

Both waited for a few moments, as everything that was above Pandemonium was blasted away from him. Pandemonium, now that he was given a breather, managed to get on his knees. He grimaced at the thought of regenerate his left arm. It was not the only thing wrong with him though; His breathing was labored, blood all over his mouth.

Before he could even think of regenerating his arm, Aleister appeared in front of him before hitting him with a focused energy blast. The blast sent him hurling into the air, but he was not given the chance to hit any of the rumbles around the clearing. Rory was right above him with a large titan-crystal pole. She swung it downwards with all her might, and hit Pandemonium with it.

Pandemonium felt things break upon contact and he coughed some unhealthy amount of blood. And that was before he could even hit the ground. When he did, it felt like he had been cursed by God. This was surely a punishment of some sort. He continued to cough more blood while down on the ground on his back.

As though in sync, both Rory and Aleister activated their Colossal Titan. Aleister swung the blade of his Titan while charging towards the Beast. Pandemonium jumped into the air before holding out his right hand, ''Air Cannon,'' he muttered, releasing a blast of wind that focused on Aleister's Titan. What Aleister thought could not happen, to his Titan occurred - the spell forced his Colossal Titan backwards before it finally stumbled down on its behind.

Aleister looked straight at Pandemonium. That wasn't just some powerful wind, he thought. It took all his power to maintain his Titan while the spell hit him. And by the looks of it, Pandemonium was not pleased with the result.

Rory flapped the wings of her Titan and took the air above Pandemonium. The blade of her Titan was cleaving through the air as it charged down at Pandemonium. From the speed, it was certainly dangerous and Pandemonium could not block something like this. A swing of a Colossal Titan could cut through a mountain, with Pandemonium current body; he was by no means stronger than a mountain. Pandemonium disappeared into a portal and appeared above Rory. Rory's slashed cut through the ground like a knife cutting through butter.

Pandemonium held out both his hands while still above the War Apostle, both his palms faced the Titan, ''Omni Push,'' given the weight of the Colossal Titan and his position, a gravity spell was surely going to work even better. On cue, Rory's Titan was slammed hard by the force of his spell and it crashed down the ground in a boom that created a large shockwave.

Pandemonium was not yet done though, he held out his right hand, summoning a large black sphere of void energy. Rory, knowing the danger, quickly jumped up to the Beast and swung her blade towards him. The aim was to cut him in half or at least disrupt his control over the sphere, but Pandemonium disappeared from view along with the large ball of energy.

Pandemonium appeared a distance away, still holding the void sphere. ''Now, then, for a good explosion,'' Pandemonium started, still floating in the air. ''Turn to ashes, you persistent worms!'' after saying those words, the Beast threw the large sphere of void energy between the two apostles. Upon hitting the ground, the ball exploded into a large mushroom of debris that shook the entire battlefield.

Pandemonium simply watched with a smile on his face before he descended down the ground. A second later, Pandemonium was on one knee coughing up some blood. That was to be expected. He had already received much damage on his body and he really should not be using high powered speed to move about, especially after carrying something like a void sphere of that magnitude.

Having narrowly escaped death, Rory and Aleister looked at each other with strained smile on their faces. "Hahaha...That is close," an attack of that magnitude was dangerous even for the apostles. They should be more careful next time. At that very moment, the Apostle of Death, Giselle Jizeru fell to the ground like a meteor. Her dramatic entrance caused the ground to shatter under her feet.

"It's time, Sister!" Giselle said with a confident smile.

Rory and Aleister looked at Giselle and nodded. The time had finally come, after 144 hours of brutal fighting. The decisive moment of this battle had come, it was time to end it all. The three apostles then turned to look at Pandemonium with fierce determination in their eyes.

From the other side of the battlefield, Pandemonium stood up and wiped the blood from his lips. He was put on alert as he saw all three apostles had converged. Three at the same time ? This would be tough but it didn't matter, they couldn't kill him. Pandemonium spoke before they could make a move to attack him. ''So, the coward has finally come! It doesn't matter, you three can't kill me and I can do this forever."

Aleister was the first to respond. "No, your're dead already!" Without wasting much anymore time, Aleister clapped his hands together and chanted the ultimate death spell. "Palapon Verdurous: Outburst."

The moment Aleister said that, Pandemonium felt an excruciating pain rocketed to the roof of his skull like an electric shock.

"Ku… u… ughh!"

Pandemonium somehow managed to suppress his scream, which was about to leak out, into a low moan. Excruciating pain — or rather, it was more like being exposed to a white-hot blowtorch, continuously scorching his abdomen, crushing his senses beyond his limits.

"What..is...this?"

"Palapon Verdurous, the King of all poison," Aleister replied in an uncanny tone.

Poison! He was poisoned, when, how ? Pandemonium struggled to remember how and when he was poisoned.

"You don't remember, do you? Like I said, your're dead already. From the very first moment when my punch hit you, your're already dead."

Capable of poisoning someone as strong as Pandemonium without him even noticing, Aleister truly deserved the title the Sovereign of Poison. This is why Aleister Cromwell was the most feared of the 13 apostles even though he was not the strongest. If you fought Rory or Giselle, at least they would give you a quick death. But if you fought Aleister your death would be very slow and painful beyond imagination for he was the Apostle of Vengeance. Committing sin under Aleister's watch and you'll wish you were dead for he was also the Master of Torture.

Pandemonium tried to use his internal mana to push the poison out but to no avail, the poison had spread throughout the internal organs.

What kind of poison was this? The more he pushed the deeper it went.

"It's no use, Palapon Verdurous is the potion among poison, the more you resist, the more it hurts." Aleister said, as casually as if this was a morning tea session. "Palapon Verdurous is actually an extremely potent and virulent mutagenic interdimensional pathogen capable of combining itself with the biochemical structures of other life forms undetected. The poison composed of millions of small micro-organisms of divine origin, which behave as a single parasitic entity that can affect any magical organism even the incorporeal beings. The more magical energy an organism had, the better the effect of the pathogen because it is fed by the mana of the host. The effect of the pathogen is best characterized as magic cancer, your cells are mutating into a cancer cells, which basically means they're turning into tiny bombs. Of course for a powerful being like you, the effects of the pathogen should go undetected for many years but over the past 12 days (6 earth day) you have used an excess amount of magic. That shortened the timetable a lot. So, like I said, we are already win this battle from the moment you carelessly let me punch you."

"You...damn...whore!" This couldn't be happening, Pandemonium couldn't believe what he just heard, this was their plan from the very begining. The battle of the past few days was not aimed at defeating him but to make him waste his magic. Pandemonium tried to think of a countermeasure but couldn't even think straight because even thinking gave him excruciating pain. He must escape first!

"Where do you think you are going!" Giselle was rushed to action, she was not going to let the Beast escape. With her hands crossed, she chanted the ultimate binding incantation. "Hardy's Treasure: Chain of The Underworld."

As she did, hundreds of golden chains descending from the sky and appearing directly from the ground binding Beast's limbs, shoulders, neck, and stomach, rendering him completely immobile. Pandamonium tried to break free but to no avail, the golden chains kept twisting and tightening with enough force to snap the Beast's neck and bend his arms beyond their limits in a direction normally impossible.

"Don't waste your time, the golden chains of the underworld can even bind the space around itself, and is capable of rendering all transportation magic completely useless and nullified." Giselle proudly proclaimed.

The chain was made to bind the gods, making it one of the few anti-divine weapons that holds the concept of "reigning over the gods." The higher the target's divinity, the stronger the chain's strength and durability was, however it was no more than a strong chain for a target without divinity. Pandamonium was technically a demon-god so the chain was nearly unbreakable.

"All right. Let's finish this." Said Rory before raising her Dark Spear high above— Blade of Purification, she muttered.

In seconds, a monumental, dark pillar towered into the sky. Dark light roared upwards, boring through the azure and gaining soaring altitude then spreading in all directions almost as if it had collided violently with the sun. Bit by bit, it was covering the sky of Lemuria. The blue sky was being painted over at terrific speed and the daytime light vanished. Darkness reached the horizon at once, and continued to expand beyond. No, it wasn't the darkness of a void. It was velvety, had a slight temperature… An infinite night sky. An all-healing nightfall that kindly, reliably coated the whole world. This was the legendary "Emroy's Field of Heroes" and each star was a heroic soul.

All of a sudden—

The stars began to move.

Issuing a clear, somewhat bell-like, somewhat harp-like sound, the stars congregated towards the Apostle of War. White, blue, red, green, and yellow light left long, thin trails as they traced out an enormous rainbow in the night sky. The cluster of stars drifted from the sky into a rainbow-colored waterfall and poured down the blade. That was the dream of all warriors in battle hold and mournfully exalt as their final moments approach.

"Time Acceleration," Giselle and Aleister casted the time spell on Rory to reduce the charging time of Rory's ultimate killing technique. The normal 30 minutes wait was reduced to a mere minute.

Then, the very second when the last two golden stars dissolved into the body of the blade. The Dark Spear beamed with the rainbow of emotions from countless warriors. The blade of light rapidly increased in size until it kissed heaven.

The holy blade couldn't be called beautiful, for the description of "beautiful" would only dirty it. To an observer, it looked like a giant beam of light, but the attack's target point was only at the tip. It was the "ultimate slash" that cut through everything in the "area" the light went through.

Without further due, Rory swung the blade of light down towards her immobiled target. The blade containing the power of hundreds of millions of warriors throughout history surged right into the Beast's heart.

Pandemonium could feel an energy of countless colors forming a great waterfall, gushing into the bottomless abyss that occupied every inch inside his body.

His sight was masked by variegated light, and his ears felt the nonstop passage of many layers of voices from countless warriors.

Pandemonium bellowed, shooting bluish-black light from eyes and mouth.

Within the long beams of blue-violet light bulging out of the Beast's eye sockets and mouth, the spectrum began to slowly shift.

From violet to red. Then orange. Past yellow — and then pure white.

Pshk.

That slight noise signified the appearance of a tiny crack in the Beast of the Apocalypse body.

And then another. And another.

White light was peeking out from the fractures. The bottoms his hair were set ablaze.

The edges of his cackling mouth were greatly damaged, as holes opened up in his shoulders and chest.

Even as pillars of light poked out in all directions from the fissures covering his entire body, Pandamonium never abandoned his swearing.

DAMN YOU WHORE,

I WILL KILL YOU, I WILL KILL YOU,

I WILL KILL YOU, I WILL KILL YOU, I WILL KILL YOU ALL!"

His voice grew shriller and shriller, eventually becoming a high-pitched metallic frequency. The Beast of the Apocalypse body, completely wrapped in white cracks— Crumbled inwards and collapsed in an instant. Then released outwards. An explosion of intimidating scale shot up into the distant heavens, corkscrewing as it went.

Guards Special Mortar Division, Northern Front, Phlegethon River.

The great 480mm Shashen magic rockets loaded into the fearsome Stalin multiple-launch rocket system were black, with glaring noctilucent bands painted around their nose. No other rocket had quite such vivid or elaborate markings and for a very good reason, the Orthodox Order didn't wanted these rockets to be confused with anything else. Even the Stalin crews were afraid of them and their cargo. They'd taken them out of their storage boxes with painstaking care, only too aware that one accident, one slip meant a ghastly death for all around them.

Guards General Yurii Leonidovich Zabelin had personally supervised the loading process himself and inspected all the firing connections and status checks before reporting his battery ready to fire. Then, he had been told to wait for the current barrage was the work of the heavy guns. The Stalin launchers with their deadly black rockets would have their time, when the right moment came.

The radio in the command vehicle suddenly jumped to life. The right moment had come.

C-177D "Emma Peel" 48,000 feet over the Phlegethon Front.

"That makes life a bit better." The red-and-gray camouflaged C-177s had burst out of the murk at 48,000 feet and Colonel Haymen had pulled back on the lever that operated the engine filters. They'd rotated though 90 degrees, so they were now parallel to the air flow through the engines and the pick-up in power was immediate. The Great Shadow was back to performing the way she should and the motto held true again. All became insignificant under the wings of the Great Shadow. Anyone who had ever seen the giant shadow of the C-177 knew it was true.

"Hammer Control, this is Storm flight, we've broken out of the clag at 48,000 feet. Air is clean up here. Light still red, but visibility good. Tell the Bones to get up here if they want a long, fast cruise."

"We'll do that Hammer Flight. Be advised, a squadron of B-52s did test drops for you. Computed ballistic corrections hold true, no need to correct programming for bomb drops."

"Thanks Control. And thank the guys in the Gray Lady for us too." Haymen sighed slightly in relief.

That was one of the problems of fighting in non-Euclidean hell, there had been no guarantee that the bombs stuffed into Emma's belly and hanging under her wings would drop true. The only way that anybody could find out was to try and that was what the B-52s had been doing. Drop bombs, compare impact points with those projected and calculate corrections. It had been a long, arduous job, constantly dropping and recalculating, it was lucky the old Gray Lady had been available to do it. Otherwise more valuable aircraft would have had to be taken out of the line.

"Take everybody up to 52,000. We can expect the drop order soon."

"Hey, wait for me." The plaintive voice came from Major Hennessy at the back of the formation. His "Vengeance Is Mine" was the only Boeing C-177B in the group of 72 C-177s that were lining up ready for their strike. C-177B was the resource carrier variant so it just didn't have the engine power of the logistics support variant C-177Cs or airborne aircraft carrier variant C-177Ds."

"Come, on, hurry up old-timer. We haven't got all day."

"Hurry up? Hurry up! I'll have you know that at least our wings are level back here."

Haymen snorted. The C-177s had all been through a very hurried "Big Belly" modification that had seen provision for 7500 kilogram bombs increased from 510 to 800. The problem was that the C and D models had a lighter wing structure than the resource carrier variant and now those wings were bent in a graceful curve from tip to root. Only the solitary B-model had wings that were still uncurved. It still carried more bombs as well, 880 instead of 800.

"OK, OK. All Storm birds. The Gray Lady have confirmed the corrections, we can use the programmed bomb drop. Waiting for word now."

Over the Northern Front, Phlegethon River

It had many names. Some called it 'The Mist of Nothingness', others preferred The Black Shadow of Void. The Holy Order militant eschewed such long-winded nomenclatures and just called it BS. The world at large knew it as Apocryph.

The great black rockets with their gaudy noctilucent markings had been launched all down the line. This is what they had been waiting for, when their ability to saturate an area with fire could be turned to best advantage.

As the rockets had started to descend, the outer casing had been discarded and the ranks of sub-munitions had been exposed. Further down, those sub-munitions had started to be launched and they had formed a spreading pattern that resembled a great shotgun blast. It was the same mechanism that the Americans had used to bring down the hideous mithril rain that had destroyed Abigor's Army. Only this time, when the sub-munitions detonated they didn't bring down a curtain of mithril fragments or blast from shaped-charge munitions.

First they started to spin and the action activated the void core to release the apocryph and then the sub-munitions burst to release a fine gentle black mist, one that none of the screaming hordes of harpies below even noticed for the mist of void as it was odorless and all the black smoke from the burning pyromancer urine look very similar to apocryph. The only thing that Beelzebub and his Army did notice was that the human mage-fire that was pounding the bank of the Phlegethon furthest from the Russian positions had ceased.

Every so often, in a battle, for no apparent reason, the noise stops. The gunfire, the roar of the artillery, the growls, whines and snarls of engines, the demented shriek of mithril bolts hitting steel armor, the crackling grumble of fires, the screams of dying men stop and there is an eerie silence. So it was as the apocryph descended on the positions under harpy attack. The Russian guns stopped firing to save ammunition for the enemies were already dead, they just hadn't realized it yet.

Apocryph was the antithesis of energy, any living things or even spirit or demon being near the Apocryph would slowly having their life force sucked away. Coming into contact with mist directly would cause everything to be completely frozen up and becoming absolutely fragile like dipping an object into liquid nitrogen. Unless you had a divine core, the only way to protect yourself from the mist of nothingness was the Eternal Flame.

A true Eternal Flame was extremely hard to create but you could create a cheaper version in the form of Baolian lantern. Lighting the Baolian lantern on and it would protect the user from apocryph until it run out of energy, usually in an hour. The mass production of Baolian lanterns was only possible thanks to the fact that the Holy Order had the real Eternal Flame.

Beneath, the Russian motor rifle units were sealing down, hoping that their Baolian lantern worked. In case the lantern run out of energy before the mist disappear, they had their mana and healing potion injectors ready to buy them more time, but the truth was that even if they used them, the mist would wreck their bodies. With mana and healing potions they might survive but they would never again be the men they had been once.

Uxaligantivaris concentrated on the Iron Chariot that was under her claws. She and her companions were ripping at it with their claws and breathing fire over it as fast as their bodies could recharge their gas sacks. They had used so much of the fire spell that they had lost the ability to fly but it didn't matter that much. All that mattered was to keep the Iron Chariots under attack so that the foot soldiers following them could destroy the defenses. Then she shook her head slightly, Netherworld was a dim place, its light levels low and subdued but suddenly she could see everything was becoming bright and clear to her.

So bright that the light was hurting her eyes in a way that she had never experienced before. She looked at another harpy that had stopped ripping at the iron projections on the chariot and saw that her flight-mate's eyes were strange, the slitted black pupil had contracted to a fine line, almost invisible in the yellow of her eyes. Her nose was running, mucus streaming out of it and coating her chest.

Uxaligantivaris touched her own nose and realized that she too was streaming fluids from her nose and that there was a strange tightness in her chest, as if she was having problems breathing. But the problem was actually much worse, every cell in her body was sending SOS signal, they were dying. The fact that she didn't die immediately like most living beings was a testament to the power of the Immaterium. The Immaterium efforts to keep her alive was making Uxaligantivaris feel sick and she could feel herself drooling uncontrollably. She couldn't help herself, she vomited helplessly and felt her body loosing strength.

Across from her, the other harpies were collapsing as well, vomiting on to the Iron chariot that was now forgotten as the agony took hold of them. Her flight-mates were defecating and urinating like helpless kidling, their bodies twitching and jerking as they tried to escape the unseen thing that was inflicting this terrible end on them.

Uxaligantivaris felt her muscles become paralyzed and she slipped down the side of the Iron chariot to lie on the ground spasming and writhing as the apocryph destroyed her nervous system. Eventually, what seemed like an age later, she found herself slipping into unconsciousness and never felt the series of massive convulsions that fractured her fragile bones and tore her frozen muscles while she soul vanished into nothingness.

Command Post, Northern Front, Phlegethon River, the Eye of Terror

Beelzebub looked at the horrific scene with utter bewilderment. When the human mage-bolts had stopped hammering his forces, he had thought the battle was reaching its turning point, that the human mages had run out of their magic and that now the humans would have to fight on even terms. He's even welcomed the eerie silence that had descended on the battlefield. He wouldn't make that mistake again, nor would he ever forget what he was seeing.

The silence was part of the mortal magery that went beyond anything he could even imagine, more than he had ever experienced. Not even Pandemonium could do what the humans had done to his harpies for in the few seconds that the silence held, his great flock, still far more than 100 million strong started to die. Not just die, but die in horrible, unspeakable ways, twitching and convulsing in a pool of their own body wastes. Where a few second earlier the human Iron Chariots had been swamped in a sea of harpies that were slowly reducing them to burning hulks, now they stood clear, surrounded by the dying remnants of Beelzebub's prized force of Harpies.

That was when the silence broke for the iron chariots opened fire again, the mage-bolts pouring from the long staffs they carried, sending the orange-red fireflies lashing at Beelzebub's foot soldiers on the other bank. They'd taken the quiet, the sudden end of the mage-bolts to try and rush the river. The forces at the back had pushed hard as they surged forward but those at the front had seen what was happening to the harpies, the terrible death that was engulfing them and they were reluctant to move.

No warriors were braver or more contemptuous of death that the foot soldiers of Netherworld, yet this magery that inflicted a silent convulsing death on its victims was hideous in a way nothing they had previously experienced could be. They hesitated and the combination of their immobility and the advance of those behind was squeezing the foot soldiers of Beelzebub's army into a dense mass alongside the river.

The crackle of fire from the Iron Chariots was suddenly drowned out by the roar of human mage-bolts slamming into his force. For a moment, Beelzebub thought that the mage barrage had started again but he was wrong. For off to his left, a line of one hundred eighty great explosions had torn into one flank of his Army. They were mage-bolts all right but their size was greater by far than any he had seen to date.

Even as he watched the first bolts swelling and bursting, another salvo landed just in front of them, and then another line just beyond them. Then, Beelzebub saw something that had never been seen in the Eye of Terror before, ahead of the great mage-bolt blasts, a shimmering wall was starting to form, a faint whitish-blue cloud that strengthened with every salvo of bolts that landed and started to race across the crowded mass of his foot soldiers. The great orange and black balls of fire and smoke marched along behind the blue cloud. When both wall and bolts had passed, there was nothing left but bare ground and chewed soil.

It wasn't magical of course, it was just a matter of physics and the great bomb bays of the Great Shadow. The first of the 7500 kilogram bombs that had poured from them had hit the ground more or less where they had been aimed, netherworld's atmosphere was dust-gorged and murky but it also lacked the strong winds that distinguished Earth. For the Great Shadow, this was an easy assignment. The bombs had exploded and created a blast wave that had spread out in a hemispherical pattern from the impact point. Sideways, each blast wave had merged with the other 179 in that particular line to form a long cylinder, fronted by the shockwave and centered by a whirlwind of fire and mithril fragments.

Normally, with a few bombs, the blast wave would spread and dissipate but this was the Great Shadow and her wrath was terrible. The next salvo of 7500 kilogram bombs, released by the intervalometers in the C-177s at a carefully chosen interval, hit the ground just behind that advancing shockwave, adding its own fury to the wave that was racing across the ground.

The third salvo did the same, each series of blasts adding its own power to the shockwave that built up in power with every series of bombs that pounded Beelzebub's helpless foot soldiers. The shock wave wasn't just the power of one bomb, it was the power of all of them added together, a cumulative effect that turned blast into a solid, irresistible and strangely beautiful wall that nothing human or demon could withstand. By the twelve-hundredth bomb, the blast wave was invincible and there were seventy more to come before the second wave of C-177s took over and added their loads to the holocaust that was consuming Beelzebub's army.

High overhead, so high where she couldn't be seen or heard from the ground, the Great Shadow wrought death and destruction on the forces gathered below, an apocalyptic catastrophe that the Eye of Terror and its inhabitants had never even conceived. Watching from his hilltop as his army was consumed, Beelzebub at last understood what the living could do when they decided to stop playing with their enemies.

Free Hell, Swamps by the River Styx, Fifth Ring of Terror

Human laughter was not a common commodity in Netherworld. Demonic laughter was, but human mirth was rare in the extreme. So, the sound of three humans laughing uproariously struck Lieutenant (deceased) Kim Ngan as worth investigating. Even as she made that decision, it struck her that she too had not laughed for a very long time.

"Whoever these Korean people are, they certainly make good film, eh, Soon?" Charles was wiping his eyes clear of the tears that helpless laughter had caused. The three men were gathered around a samsung laptop, one whose eight-inch screen was showing the end credits from an episode of the new Korean dramas series 'Black Prince".

"Enjoying the show, gentlemen?" Kim Ngan's voice cut through the end music. She got the impression that they were impressed by the television show.

"Thank you very much. It's been quite a while since I've had such fun." Charles leaned back and started to roll through the list for the next episode.

Kim Ngan chuckled at the scene, the (deceased) Emperor of Darwinian was a fan of K-dramas. "You're welcome. Hey, Charles, I know a very good series…" Then she was interrupted by Thai Hung entering the cave, very fast.

"Boss, got a radio message came in, top urgency." He handed over a slip with the message printed on it. Kim Ngan read it and went white.

"Charles, we got a problem. One of the Spec Ops teams down in the Sixth Circle has sent in a sighting report. There's a major force of Chaos demons, some 50,000 strong with about 2000 harpies, moving along the Sixth Circle boundary towards us. They're the other side of the wall at the moment but they can pass through the gates any point they want to. They'll be here in two days, perhaps three."

The amiable smile fell from Charles's face and suddenly he was the military commander known to history. "They're coming here?"

"Pretty sure of it, nowhere else they could be going with a force like that. If they link up with the forces we have on either side of us, we got real problems."

"Why would they want to do that? You've already stalled the demons there. They'll hit the river flank. How many men do you have?"

"I've got about a hundred soldiers trained to handle modern weapons. That's it."

Charles smiled at the emphasis on 'soldiers' rather than 'men' but let it pass. "So you can't fortify the river boundary properly. I can get some people here, a thousand or more in a day or so and five thousand in two or three, but they won't help much."

"They won't help at all, we haven't a chance to train them to use rifles and we haven't got the equipment for them even if we could. Humans don't stand much of a chance against Chaos demons without them. Still, the river's still on our side."

The comment made Charles's mouth twist in despair. He kept forgetting that this woman was a Lieutenant only, she was a junior officer and had the training to match. In other words, not very much.

"Ngan, in Afrykania campaign I threw 50 bridges over the Anuket River in a couple of days. The Anuket is bigger and faster flowing that the Styx. This river barrier you're putting so much hope on counts for very little in the scheme of things. You need all your…. soldiers… to hold the two end flanks. You can't defend that river as well. If the enemy has 50,000 troops coming in, you're done. Time to get out of here."

"Can't do it. We've got civilians here now, we have to get them out, and the dead we've rescued, we can't hand them over"

"Boss, the British want a word with you, they ran the special ops team that got this warning to us. They say they have some suggestions."

B-700 "Dragon Slayer" 128th Bomb Squadron, Georgia Air National Guard, Approaching Dis

The four B-700 Valkyries of the 128th Bomb Squadron were four of the only twelve B-700s in existence. B-700 Valkyrie was supersonic, variable-sweep wing superheavy strategic bomber and with the wingspan of 110 m it was the largest and heaviest Mach 3+ supersonic military aircraft ever built.

"Everything dialed in?" Major Curtis Trafford looked at his WSO and got a thumbs up by way of response. The four B-700s were in a loose, finger-four formation, cruising at 49,000 feet using six General Electric YJ99-GE-5 turbojet engines. The discovery that the air was clear up here had been a major advantage but it also meant that their target was lost in the rolling clouds of red dust underneath.

The mapping radar was doing a good job of penetrating it though, the city of Dis was ahead of them and the long spur that stuck out into the great caldera of Hell showed up clearly. Their target was where that spur ended in a rounded promontory, for in the center of that feature was Abaddon's palace.

Detroit and Gary were to be avenged and the United States Air Force did not take its revenge by striking at the inconsequential As many consumer advocates had put it, 'if you want action, go right to the top'. There was another saying as well, 'for delicate work, get a bigger hammer'. The hammer hanging under Dragon Slayer was the biggest conventional hammer the United States had just created for this purpose yesterday.

The Ultra Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a 300 thousand kilogram bomb capable of tearing its way through at least 660 meters of moderately hard rock. What it would so to the rock Dis was built on was an interesting question. The hope was that it would collapse the whole spur and drop Abaddon, complete with his palace, right into the center of Netherworld.

The UMOPs had been specifically designed for this mission, normally this kind of bomb was GPS guided but the global positioning system was useless in Netherworld. No satellites and it was not certain whether there was anywhere for a satellite to fly or even anything for them to orbit. Netherworld wasn't Kansas. Instead, the bombs had been equipped with an inertial system that was supposed to prevent them wandering off a true trajectory. That left the aiming job in the hands of the B-700s radar.

"We've got a radar picture now. The spur's showing up really clearly. Also showing was the red carat that marked the predicted impact point of the UMOP. All four heavy bombers were on slightly converging courses and the intention was that all four bombs should hit Abaddon's palace at the same instant.

Beast Stables, City of Dis, The Eye of Terror

"Take care of that wyvern. Feed him carefully, do not let him bloat. If he is made sick I will flay you alive and have you eat your own skin."

The orc blanched slightly and took the reins of the Wyvern away from Belial. In the back of the orc's stunted mind, a memory stirred of the time before these creatures had come. Perhaps it was a genetic memory, perhaps the effect of stories quietly whispered in the dark of night, but there were memories nonetheless. Of a time when the orcs had been free and this had been their home.

Before the demons had come, before the great eruption that had poisoned everything. Now, there were more whispers in the darkness, more words on the wind. Words that said the millennia of slavery to the demons was ending, that the demons had taken on a force to powerful even for them to handle. Words that said the orcs might be free again. And these words were backed by the thunder that never stopped, the thunder that came from the Phlegethon River.

Belial also heard the thunder of the Russian Artillery but it hardly registered. He had other things on his mind, how to present what had happened to his best advantage. He had fulfilled his promise all right, he had identified many enemy great arsenals and destroyed them. The problem was that half his naga were dead and the rest were crippled, stunned by the accident that had taken place during the Third waves of attack. He knew what was the cause of that of course, the other lords had been told to send him their best covens of naga but what they had actually supplied was their youngest and least-experienced.

Lying crippled in her sick-bed, Baroness Yalupki had told him of the trouble in getting the inexperienced naga to sing in chorus and how that had caused the portals to flare out of control. Thought of the crippled naga in her sick-bed made Belial think quickly of Euryale but he dismissed the matter. She was a gorgon, in the final analysis replaceable. If she did die of her wounds, she could be replaced with a new consort, one more fitting to be seen at Abaddon's Court. In the back of his mind was an uneasy idea that it all wouldn't be quite that easy.

He shook himself and walked on. The highway to Abaddon's palace, gleaming red-gold as its bronze plating reflected the fires of the hell-pit below, lead along the promontory towards the domed island ahead. As always, Belial looked down at the tiers beneath, the nine great rings separated by high walls that defined Netherworld itself.

Once he had been banished from the city to the wilds of the North and it had taken millennia to worm his way back in, and then only as something barely more than a court jester. Now he was entering as a potential great lord. One who would bask in the favor of Abaddon himself. Yes, the attacks on Earth and Falmart had gone very well indeed. All that he needed to do was to convince Abaddon of that.

Third Platoon, Second Company, Third Battalion, Fourth Regiment, 247th Motor Rifle Division, Phlegethon Front

"Halt" The order was abrupt and there was a tremor of fear in it. The three BMPs approaching the decontamination facility had been right under the death cloud that the harpies had unleashed in the battlefield. They were doubtless soaked in toxic cloud released by the burning pyromancer urine and there was no way anybody here was going to take chances.

To either side of the vehicles, high-pressure hoses were already pumping out thick streams of alkaline slurry to coat the BMPs in their white paste. Then, a truck backed up, a jet engine on its back.

The exhaust was played over the outside of the armored carriers, swiftly raisingthe temperatures to almost-intolerable levels. Almost, but not quite and the temperature was needed to hydrolyse the residue of toxic gas on the BMPs. Eventually, the jet engines and the sprays had done their work. Detector waved over the carriers remained silent and Pas'kov's little command was ordered to one side.

Yet, the work wasn't done. They opened the hatches on the BMPs and the crews scrambled out, only to be sprayed with alkaline slurry and brushed down with brooms. Once again, the detectors remained silent and, at last, Pas'kov and his men could remove their chemical warfare suits.

"Well done Brothers." A Captain was standing to one side, his own suit still on. "You have fought as heroes today. We will repair your vehicles and send you back soon but until then you can rest. We have vodka for you, and fresh food." Behind them, a group of men were being lead away, gently but firmly. They looked healthy but they moved with the shaking, trembling slowness of very old men.

The Captain looked at them sadly. "They were not so lucky. Harpies had breached the seals on their vehicles and they were contaminated, They used their healing potion but…." He shook his head.

Pas'kov knew what he meant. The healing potion had saved their lives but now they were old men in their twenties and would never be anything more. This was the price of war.

Assembly Area, Northern Flank, Phlegethon River Front

Major Evgenii Yakovlevich Galkin looked at the boxy vehicle next to his tank. One with red mottling applied over its dark gray paint, just as his was mottled with red over its moss-green. The tank looked huge beside his sleek, curved T-72 but there was more to that to fill Galkin with unease. The tank was German.

"Tovarish major" The voice calling from below was in atrocious Russian, the accent making the simple words almost unintelligible. Still, Galkin understood and dropped off the turret of his tank to where the German was waiting.

"Soon we will fight together. I just wanted to wish you good hunting." The words were a lot better this time, Galkin guessed that the German had carefully rehearsed the phrase in an attempt to be friendly. Time to respond. Galkin's German was better that the German's Russian.

"May you have a good bag and a safe hunt."

The German beamed in response, then caught the Russian looking at the Leopard."Have you seen a Leopard II before?"

"Only at our tank museum in Kubinka. This is the first one I have seen on service." The German officer's eyebrows twitched, there wasn't supposed to be a Leopard II at Kubinka. How had the Russians got hold of one? "Is this the first Russian tank you have seen?"

"For me yes. My grandfather, he saw many of course."

"In the Great Patriotic War?"

"He fought at Prokhorovka. With the Panzers, Heer, not SS."

Galkin nodded. Odd coincidence."My grandfather also fought at Prokohorovka. And later."

There was a long silence, neither man quite certain what to say next. Eventually Galkin spoke carefully. "Our grandfathers caused great destruction, between them, at Prokhorovka. Now we can join together and inflict the same those who threaten us both."

The German nodded. "We can. As soon as our commanders let us off the leash."

Belial's Stronghold, Tartaruan Range, Northern Region of Netherworld

"It's a simple question, Baroness, was it sabotage or incompetence? When our Master returns in triumph from Abaddon's court, he will want an answer." The emphasis Euryale put on the naga's rank dripped contempt. The gorgon stared down at the prostrate Yulupki, her pose imperious despite the nasty burns and tears that marked her bronze flesh. As soon as Belial had left for Abaddon's court, mounted on the fastest wyvern in the stables, Euryale had dropped the 'critically injured' pose and started to get her arrangements in order. "Of course it amounts to the same thing, since you personally assured the our Master that sabotage was impossible and any attempt would be suicide for the naga that tried it."

Baroness Yulupki was a much less imposing sight, sprawled on an unkempt couch and still writhing with pain from the injuries she had received in the disastrous ritual. "That would have been true, if the witches the other nobles sent been worthy of the name!" she snapped back. "This group might as well have been hatchlings, it was obvious that they had never worked as a large chorus before." She glared at the memory of seeing yet another limp snakelike form being dragged over the crater rim by the winged silhouette of one of Euryale's handmaidens. The humiliation tasted bitter to the naga leader. "Of course if I'd had a reasonable amount of time to train them…"

"So, what are you going to tell Belial? That his plan was unrealistic? Or that you could not make a gang of hatchlings obey you?"

"I will tell him that this disaster was the result of your servant's incompetence!" Yulupki was screaming at this point. "That a gorgon cannot be trusted with serious witchcraft or expected to survive the least bit of human resistance!"

Euryale flashed a fanged smile back, but it was a humorless one. "You expect that to be believed, do you?"

She was fairly confident that she could prevail over Yulupki, but a fight over blame would leave both of them looking bad. The plan could be disrupted even more, and she didn't put it past Belial to throw a tantrum and dismiss both of them– and if it hadn't been for the apparently successful destruction of the human cities, the consequences would've been much worse. Euryale stared down at Yulupki, waiting for her to falter. It didn't take long. The naga looked away and began to hiss softly; "Well, I mean, I will make it clear…"

Euryale cut her off. "It was obviously sabotage. You detected the culprits, but the unexpected incompetence of the foreign naga masked their actions until too late. They were in the delegation from…" The gorgon's voice trailed off expectantly.

Yulupki looked startled. "I can't be sure, most likely those of Bezeelbub, but it could have been the senior ones from those Asmodeus sent or even…"

"…the delegation from Asmodeus." Euryale continued smoothly. "I hope at least one survived as you know how the Count enjoys dispensing appropriate punishment."

Euryale sighed. From the look on her face Yulupki obviously still didn't get it. "Getting Belial angry at Bezeelbub will only cause unnecessary problems. Asmodeus on the other hand, firstly he is dead… oh, you didn't know? Of course not, silly me, your commendable dedication has left you a little out of the loop." At this point Euryale was simply toying with her rival. "Yes, Asmodeus is dead, and his outer holdings lie ripe for Belial's taking. I think a little extra incentive should get things moving nicely. Understand?"

Yulupki couldn't bring herself to reply, but nodded silently.

"We understand each other then. Excellent." It would be a long time before that one dared challenge her again, Euryale thought smugly.

Somewhere in Netherworld, On The Way To Tartarus

Hello, Memnon, can we talk?"

Memnon recognized the voice in his head. One of the humans making a scheduled contact. The conversation would make a good excuse to rest.

Yes, I am resting for a while. Tell my Master Abigor that I am doing well, that I have covered almost two thirds of the distance to Tartarus.

There was a brief pause and when the voice came back, it was tinged with respect. You have made good time then. We had expected you to be only half way by now. Way to go Memnon!

Memnon basked in the praise, that was a nice thing about humans, when somebody did a good job, they noticed and praised it. Didn't scream in rage and demand to know why the achievement hadn't been commonplace in the past. Memnon thought about that, nobody in Netherworld really tried to exert themselves because if they excelled in anything, that would become the standard they would be held to from that point onwards. 'Just good enough' was the watchword.

My Lord demanded that I move as fast as I could. I just obeyed his commands

Nevertheless you've done well and bought us a little time we didn't expect. Take some of it to rest up. Is there anything you need? We can open a portal to you if we need to.

I am doing well thank you. I hunted on the way up and fed well. Soon I will be at Tartarus.

Good. Find yourself somewhere safe, not too far from Belial's fortress so we can portal our team to you. We'll be in contact again this time tomorrow.

Memnon settled back on his rocks and relaxed, feeling very good about himself. It was nice to work for people who appreciated his efforts.

Beelzebub's Command Post, Northern Front, Phlegethon River

There was nothing left, nothing that Beelzebub could see anyway. He could see what was left of his harpy flock, the ground black with bodies where human magery had slaughtered them. A few survived, some because they were outside the area affected, others by some weird fluke that defied definition. Others were staggering around, their movements jerking and ill-coordinated. But of the foot-soldiers who had been caught under the dreadful barrage of mage-bolts, there was nothing left.

The ground was bare, harrowed, even the vegetation was gone. Swallowed up by the rolling earth that had thrown Beelzebub himself from his feet and shaken him until he thought every bone in his body would break.

He cudgeled his brain, trying to get the thoughts in his head back into some sort of order. The blow had been shattering, a huge part of his army had been squeezed along the banks of the Phlegethon, most of his harpies had been concentrated over the human defenses. Just what had he got left of the 486,000 legions that had started this battle? Not all his legions had been in the waves that had fallen victim to the human mages, surely not all of them had died. He clawed his way to his feet, shouting for a harpy to carry his messages.

One presented himself, dirty, stained, muddy but alive."Sire, I come from Pritograshnaris, Commander of the sixth line of your Army. He begs your forgiveness sire, but he reports that he must halt his advance while he re-organizes his force. His 800 legions are in disarray my Lord."

"Casualties?"

"Not many Sire, the human mage-fire fell short of his line. His formations were disrupted by the earthquake caused by the mage-fire, the foot soldiers could not remain standing while the ground rolled under them. Many are injured but they can still fight…" The harpy stopped, awkwardly, not knowing quite what to say next. Or, rather, not knowing how to phrase the message so that he could survive delivering it.

"What." Beelzebub snapped the response out.

"My Lord, the soldiers, they are reluctant to advance still further. They fear the mage-fire will come back for them and they fear the magery that destroyed the harpies still lingers there." The harpy dropped his head and waited for death.

Beelzebub reflected that it had been a long time since he had last eaten and he could use a snack. However, harpies were in short supply after that terrible mage-blast. It was an unfamiliar feel for a Lord who had built his forces around his harpy-flock. He needed this one alive. Snacks could wait. Anyway, his foot-soldiers were right, the human magery was lingering, he had seen some of them flee forward to escape the mage-fire, across the river and they had died convulsing and twitching just as the harpies had done.

The human defenses were still there, he adjusted his vision to long range and saw the hole torn in their lines, a hole that barely scratched its depths and one that new Iron Chariots were already moving in to fill. He knew what would come next, the chariots would charge and crush his force. It suddenly dawned on him that his 80,000 surviving legions were the only organized military force between the humans and Dis.

"Go to Pritograshnaris, tell him to suspend the attack. Form a defense line on the, no, behind the hills. If the humans can fight from behind hills, then so can we. Dismount the naga from their beasts and get them ready to fire on the human attack. Human magery and mage-fire have broken this attack, now we must break theirs. After you have delivered that message fly south and see Chiknathragothem.

Tell him that our attack here has stalled due to magery of unprecedented power. It is now down to him to break through the human defenses and repel their army. We shall block the road to Dis. He must be the hammer and we shall be the anvil with the humans crushed between us. Now go."

Thankful to be alive, the harpy left. Beelzebub stared after him, then concentrated on the area in front of his position, where the first five line of his army had once been. Incredibly, survivors were moving down there, pulling themselves out of the very earth itself. They were picking themselves up, retreating, staggering would be a better word, back to where his new defense line was forming. His decision to end the attack was the right one, but even if he hadn't made it, what was left of his army would have made it for him.

For the first time in his long life Beelzebub knew the full meaning of defeat. It didn't mean that the benefits of fighting on did not match the costs, it meant that an army could no longer fight. In his heart, Beelzebub knew that this war was lost, that it had been lost before it had even started.

"Sire." A Greater Herald was landing. Beelzebub was shocked, the creature was gray and visibly shaking. "Sire, something terrible had happened."

Abaddon's Palace, City of Dis, Fifth Ring, The Eye of Terror

The four B-700s had already made three runs over the target area, assembling their radar picture and ensuring the primary drop point had been properly identified. Their fourth run was the real thing. At almost the same instant, the four B-700s released the UMOPs. The four massive 15 meter-long bombs began accelerating at 0.8 Gs and quickly turned nose-down, presenting a small, hardened cross-section to the granite they were about to strike.

To be able to penetrate deep into the earth without breaking apart, the casing of the UMOPs had to be very strong. Each was cast in one piece of high-tensile adamatine that would enable it to survive the impact before detonation. At the same time, to achieve the penetration required, ULTRON designed the UMOP to be very aerodynamically clean using nanite coating to reduce air resistance so that, when dropped from a great height, it would reach a much higher terminal velocity than traditional bomb designs.

As they fell, the radar in the nose of each B-700 tracked the fall and the approximate trajectory, and automatically radioed small corrections to each corresponding bomb, causing the fins to slightly turn, adjusting its course. In just under forty-seven seconds, the four bombs had all covered the five-and-a-half mile drop, and at precisely the same time they struck the bronze roof of Abaddon's palace in a square twenty meters across.

As it happened, an unlucky orc was standing directly beneath one of the bombs, which was now hurtling down at more than 1,550 miles per hour; he was crushed into a paste before he realized what had hit him, and his remains were carried down in front of the bomb as it crashed through the floor into the basement, and then through the basement floor into the rock foundation of Abaddon's palace. Each of the four bombs traveled approximately 300 meter into the granite underneath Abaddon's palace before the fuses in their tails initiated. The combined 1200 tonnes of mithril, adamatine and high explosive detonated an instant thereafter.

Because granite is far denser than air, the speed of sound in the rock is much higher than the speed of sound in air. In fact, the speed of sound in granite is approximately 19,500 feet per second. As the bombs detonated, a shockwave formed in the explosive material and hit the surrounding rock at more than 20,000 miles per hour, driven by the gas products of the reaction. Impact from the shockwave vaporized the granite surrounding the bombs, creating a core of superheated rock vapor which followed the pressure wall as it continued at half again the speed of sound through the granite, vaporizing rock which it encountered.

The four roughly spherical shockwaves met each other in less than four thousandths of a second. If an observer could have seen the meeting in a cross-section of the granite foundation to Abaddon's castle, he would have seen the four spheres of superheated gas seem to merge as they encompassed each other, merging into what would appear to be a flattened pancake, centered at the center of mass of the four bombs and traveling outward at mach 3. Looking up, he would see Abaddon's castle– and he would focus on the single wavefront traveling upward, about to reach the surface.

The rock holding back the volume of gas melted under the onslaught of the shockwave, draining energy from it and slowing it until it slipped under the shockwave threshold and became a particularly large and destructive pressure pulse, traveling at just under the speed of sound. Just under six thousandths of a second after the bombs first initiated, the pulse from the blast reached the surface. When it did, several things happened at once. Where it touched the foundation rocks, the stone out of which Abaddon had built his palace transmitted the pulse upward, buckling and crushing the huge building blocks where they stood. Where it touched nothing but air, the spalling effect threw huge chunks of rock into the air, jarring from the spur and turning them into missiles that arced upward and outward to descend in a ghoulish hail onto Dis.

As the pressure pulse reached the edge of the spur, the energy had nowhere to go. If the spur had been made of some extremely ductile metal, it would have sprung out and then back, reflecting the pressure wave back into the interior and causing it to ring like some gigantic, unimaginably deep bass gong. As it stands, granite is nowhere near as flexible; therefore, the pressure wave fragmented the surface of the spur into house-sized boulders and threw them out into the surrounding caldera like pebbles.

Meanwhile, at the top of the spur, the pressure pulse traveled up through Abaddon's palace until it reached the roof, which popped off like an immense champagne cork, jumping several feet before it started to fall back down into the interior as the support columns buckled. Seven thousandths of a second after the detonation of the four UMOPs, Abaddon's sprawling, magnificent fortress, built over a period of scores of millennia, began to crumble, its hard granite rock left with no more structural integrity than a sand castle facing an incoming tide.

Out on the long causeway that lead along the spur from the main circle of Dis to the promontory of Abaddon's palace, Belial lay stunned by the bombs that had demolished the work of millennia. The rolling, heaving shockwaves had thrown him off his feet and tossed him around on the ground as if he was of no more account than a kidling. Once, in the great feasts at Tartarus, one of his minions had said that nobody could call themselves drunk unless they couldn't lie on the floor without holding on.

Now, Belial knew what that meant, he'd tried to hold on to the ground under him but he had failed and it had evaded his grasp at every turn. He was dazed, half-blinded by the great cloud of dust that was enveloping the whole area. Beneath his taloned feet, the ground was still shaking as the after-shocks reverberated in the structure or the rocks thrown high in the sky made their way back down.

He tried to stand but the ground was too unstable, too riven by the blasts to allow him to do that. Instead he crawled, trying to find some cover from the rain of fragments that descended around him. In one corner of his mind, he realized that this was the human response to his attacks on Earth and Falmart. Abigor had said that when the humans fought, they went for the top first, decapitatedtheir enemy and cut away his ability command. The humans had done as Abigor had warned, they had gone straight for the top. Then, another part of his brain told him that this was an insight he had better keep to himself. Speaking of it would mean a hideous death.

He tried to get to his feet again, this time making it as the rolling aftershocks faded away. The causeway in front of him was crumbling, even as he watched, another section broke away and fell into.. what? He needed to see, to assess what damage had been done. It had to be huge, incomprehensible. Belial was beginning to know his enemy and when humans wrought destruction on their enemies, they tended to go for the huge and incomprehensible.

Slowly, carefully he made his way along the causeway, to where the crumbling lip marked the edge of the crater where the bombs, oh Belial knew the right words now, a bomb dropped by aircraft, not a magebolt from a sky-chariot, had landed. Back in Tartarus, a few humans had turned their coats and told what they knew of human destructive powers. In some cases, they knew just the names, in others a bit about how the weapons worked. But this? None of them had mentioned this.

Nearer to the rim, the sentries that had guarded the entrance to Abaddon's palace were dead, blood trickling from their noses and mouths. Other than that there was no reason why they should be dead, there were no obvious wounds on their bodies. Had the bomb been poison? And if it was, why had Belial himself survived. There was much here to think upon and for a brief moment Belial wished that Euryale was with him. The gorgon would see a pattern in this, somehow.

Then, Belial looked down and realized the full scale of the shattering blow the human aircraft had delivered. The whole of the promontory that had served as a base for Abaddon's palace was crumbling, subsiding into the caldera below. He watched it falling, the ground slowly shifting downwards as it settled, spreading sideways as the weight of rocks above compressed those underneath. Somehow, without thinking it through, Belial knew that the settling would continue for days.

There was no hope for those under the ruins, they were either being choked by the dust or crushed by the constantly-settling rock. With another flash of insight, Belial realized that the demon's superb resistance to wounds and infection was going to be a terrible curse here, death was inevitable but the process of having life crushed out of them was going to take much longer.

Of Abaddon's palace there was no sign. Then he looked closer, and realized he was wrong. There were signs of it in the settling debris below. Sheets of bronze from the roof, shattered pieces of statuary, blocks of dressed and polished stone. That was all. Abaddon's palace had taken millennia to build and work on it had never really finished. Always there had been extra stones to add, extra rooms, crueler and deeper dungeons. Well, it was all over now, the palace had been destroyed and its monstrous occupant with it.

Belial felt like screaming with despair, all that work, all that planning and scheming, the stunning success attacks on Earth and Falmart, all had been aimed at restoring him to Abaddon's favor. Now, Abaddon was dead, or dying of slow suffocation in the ruins below. It had all been for nothing. Standing on the crater rim, looking down at the devastation, Belial wept with despair.

Free Hell, Banks of the Styx, Fifth Circle of Terror

The explosions had echoed and re-echoed around the great caldera of hell, stunning the demons and suffering humans alike. Lieutenant (deceased) Kim Ngan saw the shining bronze palace on its rock high above and far away, start to crumble. In painfully slow motion, the whole great structure collapsed, the very rock it was based on falling into the caldera underneath. Kim Ngan realized that at least some of the debris was landing on humans, killing them (again) before they could be liberated. A sacrifice, but one merited by the majesty of the sight that was unfolding above her. 'Shock and Awe' she thought to herself, an overused and much-discredited phrase but one that was curiously appropriate to the sight.

"Way to go fly-boys." Her voice seemed to blend in with the rumble of the collapsing rock. "That's the Air Farce, go straight for the top with the biggest bombs they can carry. Tu-688s I guess, or maybe B-700s."

"You're saying things we don't understand again." Titus Tesla couldn't restrain himself from the half-joke, even in the face of the incredible sight before them.

"Sorry, Titus. We have big aircraft, bombers, to carry very large bombs. I guess the B-52s and C-177s are being used elsewhere and the other types we have are Tu-688s and B-700s. They must have used bombs that penetrate deep into rock and ruptured the very foundations of that place. There's nobody left alive in there, that's for certain."

"Good, very good." Soontir Fel was looking at the subsiding ruins with quiet satisfaction. "Then he's dead."

Kim Ngan was about to respond when she heard another sound, the sky-tearing noise of jet fighters moving fast. The six aircraft erupted out of the dusty sky, arching over Free hell and orbiting around. They were loaded for air-to-air, she could see the batteries of missiles hanging under their wings.

"J-100 fighter-bombers." Then there was another one, one that she found achingly familiar, the rhythmic whoop-whoop noise of helicopter rotors. She'd never realized how much she had missed that noise before. They were helicopters all right, big ones. Single rotor amidships, that meant either US CH-53K King Stallion, Russian Mi-38Ts or British AW101s. Some were carrying slung loads, others were clean and one of them was coming straight in. She saw it touch down only a few dozen yards from her and figures started to pour out. Camouflaged figures wearing red berets. British paratroopers. One of the figures detached from the rest and came over to her.

"Lieutenant Tran Thi Kim Ngan?" There was a heavy accent on her rank and she guessed what was coming next.

"Present Sir."

"I'm Colonel Andy Jackson, commanding officer Two-Para. As senior officer here, I'll be taking over command. Could you bring me up to date on your defenses please? I understand there's some nausea coming this way."

"Certainly Sir, I've got our maps at hand I'll…."

"Welcome to the Eye of Terror Colonel." Jackson looked surprised, a man had just arrived, one with a vaguely familiar face. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Charles Zi Augustus the 55th Emperor of the Holy Darwinian Empire. You say you are a Colonel? That makes you the commander of a cohort?"

"Err, I think so." Jackson thought quickly, his 700 men were about a cohort.

"But not the First Cohort though." Charles's lips twitched slightly. "I am First Consul and commander of two legions in this area. That makes me a General I think. And Miss Ngan is the Second Consul of the forces in Free Hell, which includes one of my Legions. So, that makes me at least, the ranking officer here."

"But you have no idea of what modern forces are capable of." Jackson was caught completely off guard.

"I have some idea, Second Consul Ngan is a good teacher. But, you are right so I must ask that you remain in your position, commanding your Para. Perhaps we can get together and work out how best we can deploy your men."

"Sir, with all due respect, I must insist…"

"That's very good then, After all, the principles of strategy doesn't change much although weapons have obviously done so. Have any of you read my book on Strategic Principles."

"We don't have it I'm afraid." Ngan was trying to stop laughing. The sight of the British officer trying to think of reasons why this shouldn't be happening was hilarious.

"Now you have. With nothing else to do for 25,000 years, I've re-written all my books from memory. By the way Ngan, your translation of the Unification War is very incomplete, allow me to give you a full copy. I've signed it for you. Anyway, Colonel Jackson, what forces did you bring with you."

"Err, my battalion, a battery of 120mm field guns, Land-Rovers with machine guns and grenade launchers. Lot of grenade machine guns. And we have a forward air observer group. We can pull in a lot of air power if we need it." Jackson shook his head, he'd been outmaneuvered and he know it. But then, it was no shame to be embarrassed by losing to an Emperor. Now he'd lost, the next priority was to do the best job humanly possible for his new commander. Honor demanded no less.

Beside him, Kim Ngan felt a mixture of sadness and relief. Her little state had suddenly become an Imperial province but at least she was out of the hot seat at last. Away from the dreadful nagging fear that her next more would be the mistake that brought everything crashing down around her ears.

Chiknathragothem's Command Post, Southern Front, Phlegethon River

The harpy landed, its wings shaking with exhaustion. "Sire, I bring much terrible news."

"Speak." Chiknathragothem didn't have time to worry about the usual genuflections.

"My Lord, the humans have unleashed magery of unimaginable power. Beelzebub's Army is stalled, its casualties are beyond counting. He has forced a crossing of the Phlegethon and break through the human first line of defense but was unable to penetrate deep into the human second line of defense. The human mages breathed death over his forces, their spells robbing his harpies of the breath from their bodies, of the very soul from their body. His harpies died as one, nothing like it has every been seen before."

"That could well describe our whole war with these humans." Chiknathragothem was impatient, he had better things to do than listen to a litany of disaster, even if opportunities lay in them. "Tell me something I have not heard before."

The harpy gulped but he had been tasked to deliver a message and deliver it he would. "The humans also delivered a huge number of mage-bolts, so many that they blended together into one huge cloud of death that drank Beelzebub's army. Together, barely one demon in four survives of his force. He has abandoned his attack and is pulling back in defense to block the road to Dis. He charges you with penetrating the human defenses and crushing them against that defense."

"Is that all." Chiknathragothem's voice clearly indicated that he was contemplating a quick meal.

"No Sire, the worst is still to come. The humans hit the city of Dis itself. They have destroyed His Infernal Majesty's palace, crumbled in and the rock it stood on so that only a pile of sand and ruins remains."

"His Majesty…" Chiknathragothem had gone gray with shock. "Did he survive?"

"Nobody knows Sire. If he was in his palace then he did not. More than forty Grand Dukes and Dukes are known to be dead, and the palace staff are all gone. The dead number in their thousands. And, My Lord Beelzebub says, if Horus or any other Chaos Master get to hear of this catastrophe, and they will, then there will be nothing to keep them out of this realm."

Shocked to his core, Chiknathragothem stared into the distance, trying to imagine the full consequences of what had just happened. If Abaddon was dead, then the great bulwark against Horus absorbing this world into his own domain had gone. There was more to it than that, the life-energy that all demons gathered and paid as tribute to Abaddon was suddenly without purpose. Abaddon had used it to boost his faithful servants over the barrier that existed between this level and the next.

That was, after all, what the great pit of Terror was all about. The demons served Abaddon and in exchange he used the life-energy he had gathered to save them for eternity in the Immaterium. All of this would be lost if Horus was allowed to make his way in and seize Netherworld for his own. The celestial abode that had been split apart so many, many millennia ago, would be reunited once more.

Unless, Chiknathragothem suddenly realized, another took over the role of leader, seized power and used the system Abaddon had devised to guarantee his own survival. In a flash of inspiration, he suddenly realized why Beelzebub was abandoning this fight, he wasn't blocking the humans from Dis, he was advancing along that road himself, to seize power and take Abaddon's throne. He, Chiknathragothem, was being left as the rear-guard to distract the humans from pursuing Beelzebub. He was a sacrifice to Beelzebub's ambition.

For a wild moment, Chiknathragothem thought of pulling back himself, of setting out for Dis in an attempt to beat Beelzebub to the punch. Reality quickly intruded itself and squashed that idea.

Beelzebub's Army blocked the direct road and was much closer to Dis than Chiknathragothem's. Beelzebub had the direct route, Chiknathragothem would have to go around him. There was no way, no way at all, that Beelzebub could be beaten to Dis. Then, another thought entered Chiknathragothem's mind. He had battered his way through most of the human defenses, the end of the great zone of little fortresses that could do so much damage was in sight. One more push, one more effort and he would be through.

Then, the human army would collapse. Beelzebub might enter Dis first, but it would be at the head of a defeated army, a thin shadow of the great force that he had once commanded. On the other hand, once this battle was one, he, Chiknathragothem, could also enter Dis but at the head of a victorious army, one that had defeated the humans who had destroyed Abigor and so badly crippled Beelzebub. The inhabitants of Nertherworld were practical, they would back a winner over a loser any time.

So, he had to win and had to win fast. That made his decision obvious. He would have to group his remaining forces here, at the point where victory was on the point of being won. The remaining naga, the remnants of Belial's wyverns, all in a concentrated blow. Overhead, Chiknathragothem heard the wailing sound of the human sky-chariots as they tore into his dwindling flock of harpies.

His army was mauled, badly mauled, but nothing like the scale of destruction that had been visited on Beelzebub. The white mage-fire had been a shock, more for the horror of its effects than its real damage, but that was all. And there were fewer sky-chariots than there had been.

His advancing foot-soldiers had found the wreckage of two, brought down by the wyverns with their great spiked tails, but it seemed as if the humans were running out of them. Everything suggested that this battle was at the point of balance. His one more push would win it, and with it a far greater prize than was being contested here on the plains of the Phlegethon.