Happy Halloween Everybody!
Musical accompaniment choices for your reading pleasure:
Alan Silvestri, Van Helsing Soundtrack: Final Battle
Hans Zimmer: Do You Think I'm Saxon?
End of Days Soundtrack: Main TItle
Two Steps From Hell: He who Brings the Night
17
Angel of Death
Kratos stood on top of the mountain of dead. His feet grew slippery and wet as more and more blood leaked down the pile of bodies. The flames of his blades and the red lightning overhead gave him enough light to see the grimacing, mutated faces of the horde as they piled higher and higher beneath him. He hacked and slashed as the army of mutants and aliens continued to slowly climb up their mutilated brethren to reach him. The landscape had become a mountain of flesh and metal as Kratos slashed through the horde. Screams and wind deafened the air as the forest grew red with flame and blood. For every robed creature he killed, two more took their place. The rain came down from the sky heavier than any natural downpour, flooding the ground and saturating the corpses underneath Kratos. The blood on his armor was washed away by the rain just as fast as the spray of his enemy's blood coated him.
The wreckage of the ship sat in a valley created by the wall of dead bodies. It had sunk somewhat in the muddy ground as blood and rain softened the dirt below. Thor stood, knee-deep in the murky blood-water mixture, guarding the entrance to the ship as waves of robed cultists poured over their own dead brethren to meet him. Using the power of the storm above, Thor held one arm to the sky, absorbing the red lightning raging above them. With the other arm, he unleashed his godly might on the cultists, arcs of red lightning vaporizing the never-ending tide of the Destroyer's Cult.
"Over here!"
Loki stood, smiling as a cultist, apparently once a member of the Lem species, tried to stab Loki's gut with a rusty spear.
"No, stupid, over here!"
The cultists turned, confused and frothing as Loki had suddenly appeared behind him.
"Psst!"
The cultist's eyes widened as Loki's voice came from behind again, then screamed as the Leviathan axe sliced through his leg. He fell to the ground, his black, empty eyes wide as Loki finished the job by cutting off its head.
"Loki! Watch out!" Thor yelled across the dark battlefield.
Loki turned to face a robed figure, but it was no mindless cultist. Its eyes glowed orange, and its face was covered in rings and markings. On its chest was the mark of Abaddon, carved into its skin. It smiled at Loki, and black smoke leached through the gaps in its rotting teeth.
"You're an ugly one." Loki stated, cocking his head to one side. "Even by these standards."
The priest stopped smiling, opened its mouth and let out an inhuman howl. As it did so, it made a circular motion with his arms, and a circle of demonic energy materialized before the priest. Loki teleported out of the way just as a beam of red energy burst from the circle towards him. The beam hit the ground, sending up steam and debris. Loki reappeared on top of the ship.
"So it's a battle of sorcery you want?" Loki jeered. "You shall have it."
Another beam of energy burst from the demonic priest straight for Loki. Loki raised his hand, projecting an energy shield just before the beam reached him. The energy of the beam bounced back, forcing the priest to dodge out of the way before being hit by his own attack. Loki closed his eyes, focusing on the corpses around him. His eyes opened, and his eyeballs rolled all the way back into his head as his face went blank. There was a pulse of energy. All around the priest, the bodies of the dead began to jerk and seize.
With one punch, Thor dispatched another dozen cultists as they mindlessly charged into his lightning blasts. He felt the pulse of energy. Dark energy. Forbidden energy. He turned his head to watch as bodies began to climb their way out of the pile of corpses. He looked to Loki, whose eyes were pure white, his arm outstretched.
"Loki, what are you doing?" Thor said to himself.
The priest recoiled as his own brethren turned their undead eyes towards him. It flicked its spindly hand, blasting apart a dozen of the wights before they reached him. But it wasn't enough. The priest let out a howl of agony as they tackled him, stabbing him with knives, swords and teeth, tearing out its organs and quartering its limbs.
Once the priest's body was completely disassembled, and its organs were scattered across the battlefield, Loki released his spell, and the wights all collapsed to the ground in a heap.
"Eat your heart out, 'Sorcerer Supreme'." Loki whispered to himself.
Above, Kratos continued to hold the flanks, the dead around him piling higher and higher.
"How much longer?" Kratos asked as he threw a gibbering cultist off the mountain of corpses, into the pikes of his own brethren below.
"I'm working on it!" Mimir's voice yelled over the comms. "Just keep these freaks out of the ship!"
Kratos noticed an orange light coming from the depths of the forest. The trees parted violently as something bigger came plowing through the trees. Much bigger than any cultist they had encountered so far. It emerged from the tree line, shaking the ground with its approach. It was something that Kratos could only describe as a massive, flaming, winged centaur. Its mouth was more a hole with teeth than a mouth, and its tail was a long, armored spike. As it charged, the small cultists below scampered to get out of the way, but the monster's massive talons mindlessly crushed anything below. The multi-story beast looked up to the top of the pile of the dead and fixed its glowing eyes on Kratos. It let out a deafening roar, the heat from its mouth rippled through the air as it screamed a language not even the allspeak of the Asgardians could decipher.
"Work faster." Kratos urged as the creature began to climb the mountain of dead towards him, its four legs carrying it up the slope with tremendous speed.
As fast as the creature was, the piled-up bodies rolled and toppled underneath the monster's weight, sending it slipping partway down again. Each slip only served to enrage the creature further.
"How many rockets do I have left?" Kratos asked.
"One." The helmet replied.
"Then we must make it count."
The creature had reached the peak of the mountain of corpses. As it climbed up to Kratos, it let out a roar of fury, the heat from its mouth lighting the bodies below ablaze. Kratos felt the heat hit the face of his helmet. He scowled, aimed at the demon's gaping mouth and fired. The rocket left the shoulder mount, blasted across the darkness into the maw of the creature. When the rocket hit, the monster's mouth erupted in a burst of fire and shrapnel, splitting its mouth apart and ripping its cheeks to tatters. Its shredded face began to bleed molten metal, which boiled away everything it touched, including flesh, fabric, and steel. The unholy scream of the monster shook the landscape, forcing Kratos off-balance as the mountain of bodies shook underneath him.
Kratos took advantage of the creature's agony and strafed right, flanking the flailing behemoth. Stabbing into the creature's armor, he pulled himself onto its back. The creature reared onto its hind legs and tried to shake him off, but Kratos stabbed the Blades deeper into its back, climbing his way to its head. The creature roared and reached behind to grab Kratos with its massive arms. Kratos felt the hand wrap around him. The demon tried to crush him, squeezing Kratos in its grasp. Kratos felt the heat from the demon's shredded mouth as its long tongue slithered through the air, and began to wrap around Kratos' helmet. Kratos pushed back against the demon's grasp, opening the fingers enough to free his blades. The creature recoiled as the blades stabbed into its fingers and ripped its hand apart. Kratos slipped out of its grasp, ran up its arm and jumped for its head. He landed, took out the Blade of Olympus and stabbed through the skull of the beast, penetrating its brain. Molten metal poured from the wound as its roars turned to vegetative groans. The creature tottered and lost its balance, collapsing, motionless underneath its own weight. Kratos pulled the Blade from its skull and hopped off the beast.
"Mimir." Kratos barked through the comms. "Your five hours are up."
"The beacon's online! Now unplug me!" Mimir's voice yelled over the radio.
The storm overhead continued to rage. Kratos looked down. He could see the forest shifting as more massive creatures and waves of black-robed figures rampaged towards the ship. Kratos jumped down from the wall of bodies, splashing into the blood-saturated ground. There was a strange calm as the three gods stood in the valley, surrounded by death.
"Was that the last of them?" Thor asked, out of breath and leaning over, his hands on his knees.
"No. More will pour over in moments." Kratos replied, wiping the blood from his helmet's visors.
"Loki, what the hell was that?" Thor asked, walking up to Loki.
"What was what?" Loki asked innocently.
"You know necromancy is forbidden!" Thor said, grabbing Loki by his collar and lifting him out of the blood.
"Look around us, brother!" Loki roared as he looked to the horror around them. "This is not the time for a lesson in ethics!"
"How did you even learn the dark arts? Asgard destroyed all knowledge of it!"
"I wouldn't see us die, brother. Isn't that more important?" Loki replied.
"We survive, that is what matters." Kratos added. "We are fighting an unknown enemy. Every advantage counts."
Thor gave Loki a look of concern, and put his brother down. Kratos entered the cabin of the ship, unplugged Mimir from the ship and tied him to his belt.
"Sweet gods," Mimir said as Kratos walked back out into the bloody landscape.
The decaying visages of the corpses took Mimir by surprise. Some were still smiling, even in death. Some were missing eyes, some had extra. Some were mutated beyond identification as sentient life. Some had mouths as wide as their faces, some were barely more than skulls with skin. Some were not much more than a pile of dust in clothes.
"What devilry is this?" Mimir said through his shock.
"We can contemplate this fight when we have survived it." Kratos argued.
"More coming..." Thor yelled, looking to the top of the mountain.
Kratos looked up. On top of their own dead stood a wall of black robes, staring down at the four gods. They waited for the horde to begin charging down the slope, but they remained silent and still. As the two forces stared each other down, the storm began to die, replaced with a quiet, bitter cold. Around them, what trees that weren't buried in bodies began to wither and freeze. The rivers of blood developed a thin skin of ice. Loki's long hair began to freeze into giant crusty dreadlocks of blood and sweat.
"Get back-to-back. Don't let them surprise us." Kratos ordered.
The three gods backed into a circle, facing outward, their eyes not leaving the army looking silently down on them. The sudden quiet was deafening. Only the sloshing of their feet in the tide of blood could be heard in the cold, dead forest.
"So, is this the kind of father-son time I should expect from now on?" Loki asked, steadying the axe in his hands. "Sheer, utter chaos at every turn?"
"Preferably not." Kratos said as snow began to fall from the sky.
"Good, 'cause the track record is feeling a bit...consistently chaotic." Loki replied.
"MY, MY…" The same calm voice echoed through the sky. "YOU THREE HAVE PUT UP A MUCH BETTER FIGHT THAN MOST OF THE PLANETS I'VE VISITED."
"Why do you hide?" Thor yelled to the sky. "Show yourself!"
"I DO NOT HIDE, LITTLE PAGAN." The voice chortled. "BUT, I WILL ADMIT, I AM A GLUTTON FOR DRAMATIC ENTRANCES."
The voice echoed through the forest. Kratos looked towards the sky. The dark clouds overhead parted, and a beam of red energy came pouring through. The beam hit the frozen ground. As it did so, it shot up dust and evaporated blood into the air. Kratos raised his hand to his eyes as the light from the beam blinded him temporarily. As the beam dissipated, Kratos unshielded his eyes to reveal a dark figure. Its armor was black and ornate, decorated with lines of demonic writing. Its face was covered by a golden metal mask, beautifully designed into a male face, calm and inviting, but somehow still menacing. Behind the mask, eyes glowed red. The figure's dark robes spewed black smoke from every tear and hole. As it raised itself from its landing, its wings spread out. Each feather was a razor-sharp blade.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Abaddon asked in that calm, soothing voice.
"What?" Kratos asked.
"The snow. So beautiful. Each flake so perfectly symmetrical, and each one almost perfectly unique. A true testament to the beauty of Father's mind."
Kratos stayed silent as the angel held out its armored hand. A flake of snow landed on its finger, and it cocked its head to one side.
"Unlike you." The angel's calm voice turned to irritation as its head cut suddenly towards the gods.
"Everybody stay calm. We just hold out until help comes." Mimir whispered.
"If help comes." Kratos whispered back.
"Please, I'm a divine being, you think I can't hear your putrid hisses?" Abaddon said, his voice becoming more aggressive with each word.
"Besides," The angel continued, its voice returning to its original calmness, "Stalling me will not save you."
"Why do you attack us?" Thor asked.
"WHY?!" The angel screamed, taking two steps towards them, then stopping. "Isn't it obvious? It should be."
"It is not." Kratos grunted.
"It never is, apparently." Abaddon sighed. "But then again, I never understood why Father ever could love such naive, simple creatures as you."
"As us? Are we not god enough for you?" Loki asked.
"YOU?!" The angel laughed hysterically, its feet sloshing through the slushy blood as it paced back and forth. "You are not gods! Not even close. Not compared to Father. His creation: the stars, the planets, the perfect laws that govern them, the way the sunlight refracts differently in the atmospheres of each planet, the concept of love, of loyalty, of beauty. All these things are not yours to call your own! You spit on Father's name by calling yourself gods. You're not much better than mortals, just as meaningless, just as...foul."
"If so, then why would your Father put us here?" Thor questioned, letting out a weak cough.
"He did not put you here! You were a blemish, an unpropitious fluke! Life appeared one day, unexpected, unplanned...unwanted. We were happy to praise Father as He spun His machinations, as He danced and planned and wove His perfection into the cosmos. It was a work of art. Every piece, from the quark to the multiverse, was perfect. We loved it, and we loved Him."
Kratos stayed silent. The longer this creature prattled on, the more likely they were to get rescued and get off this rock. But Kratos felt unusual, as this creature spoke, the blades in his hand began to feel...heavy.
"But then," The angel continued, his voice once again returning to anger, "On the surfaces of Father's perfect creations, you came, slithering and gasping out of the water. We watched, horrified as life found new ways to adapt, to desperately cling to existence. To breed, to shit, to die, to rot. Then, life found new ways to kill. The bullet, the plasma bolt, the nuclear bomb...lightning hammers."
Thor flinched as the Angel tilted its head towards him.
"You sit and you kill and you destroy and you sin." The angel ranted, pacing faster than before. "You find new ways to obliterate Father's work. Every. Single. Day. And then, this is the best part! Because of Father's love for all things, no matter how disgusting their tendencies, He had no choice but to grant you a place in heaven! He even asked us to take care, and watch over of filth like you while you killed each other, and starved each other, and created evermore inventive sins! The arrogance to imagine that you could be remotely worthy to praise Him is...infinite hubris."
"Yet you allow your worshippers to live." Kratos noticed. He looked up at the horde that watched them above. His head felt strangely heavy as he tilted his head upward.
"They know what they are, and they accept their fate. They want to see the universe wiped clean just as much as I do." Abaddon said, looking up to the cultists as they watched silently above. "Without them, I would still be rotting in a cage in the core of a neutron star! They released me, and for their service, they will be granted every pleasure, every vice, every want and need in the highest circles of perdition. When their service is finished, their bodies will return to the atoms they came from, along with the trees, and the bacteria, and the worms. The universe will continue as if you all never existed, and all will return to its perfect dance."
"I want to know what your 'Father' thinks of all this." Loki mumbled.
"FATHER LEFT!" The angel screamed, his voice suddenly filled with sorrow. 'HE LEFT, AND THE CHOIRS FELL INTO CHAOS WITHOUT HIM! WARS BROKE OUT, AND MICHAEL..."
There was a long silence as Abaddon composed himself. Thor let out a heavy cough, raising a hand to his mouth. He looked down at his hand to see a few drops of blood. Thor looked to Kratos with concern on his face. Loki staggered but caught his balance before he fell.
"Michael, in his infinite knowledge, threw us out. He abandoned us to the pit. I thought, maybe...maybe if I restored his creation to its rightful state! Maybe He would return to us, to sing to us again, to weave His creations again. Maybe He would give us a reason to exist again!"
"Kratos,"The helmet spoke into Kratos' ear, "Something is wrong with your vitals. I'm reading a steep drop in your heart rate."
"There is beauty in life!" Mimir interjected. "Music, art, love, all these things can be found in the beings you want to destroy!"
The angel smiled weakly. "You would think so, wouldn't you? You see in such small terms. There is an entire multiverse out there! How can you compare your mortal perceptions of love and art to Father? He is above all of you! You would understand if you served by his side. If you knew him, felt his kindness..."
The angel's smile suddenly turned to rage. "If he wants life to exist, then he will simply make more! You are all so unbelievably without value! Even now, you can barely withstand my presence! Look at you!"
Kratos looked to his comrades. They both had grown pale. Thor let out another cough, the blood from his mouth falling to the ground and freezing on contact. Loki had put the axe against the ground, leaning onto it with one hand. Kratos pulled out the Blade of Olympus' handle and let the blade materialize in a blast of blue energy. Abaddon let out a sarcastic chuckle.
"Foolish Olympian. Just as you are with every weapon you wield, you have no idea how to truly wield it…"
"Kratos, your internal organs are failing, and I can't pinpoint the reason yet. I recommend immediate withdrawal from this area." The helmet warned.
Abaddon unsheathed his sword. The Sword of Abaddon. Kratos recognized the same red arcs of energy as they ran along the length of the blade. The same dark feeling in his soul as the blade's aura smothered the air with anger, rage, the desire for destruction. Abaddon raised the blade to his mask and vigorously smelled the hilt.
"I can smell your particular corruption on the handle, pale one." Abaddon said smoothly. "You were the one who delivered this from those wretched sorcerers, straight to my doorstep. I suppose I owe you a debt of gratitude."
"You...do not." Kratos said, trying to keep the blade steady in his hands.
"Ghost, we need to go." Thor said, his skin becoming dry and wrinkled.
"You now see!" Abaddon cackled. "In your efforts to stall me, you have only doomed yourself. With time, all life falls before me. Trees wither, animals die, and life...ends. This is the worth you hold. This is the value of life...you may as well not even exist."
"Well, don't just stand there! Let's kill this madman before we quite literally die of old age!" Loki croaked.
"Kill me?"
Abaddon began to take slow, deliberate steps towards the three. "I am the angel of destruction and death! I have lived for eons before you were even born! I have watched galaxies live and die! I have purged a million worlds before this day, and I will purge a billion more after I-"
"Purge this."
The Nemean Cestus squarely impacted Abaddon's chin, shooting his body into the mountain of cultist bodies, which exploded in a burst of blood and body parts with the force of his impact.
"'Purge this'?" Thor asked, weakly.
"Can you think of something better?" Kratos asked.
"Not...off the top of my head, no." Thor whispered.
"Oh! What if you say 'you've got a bug on your face'? And then you punch him." Loki grunted, wiping the blood dripping from his nose.
"I got one," Mimir asked. "Ahem... 'how's this for divine intervention?'"
"Ooh, I like that one!" Loki exclaimed.
The cultists began to hiss and growl as they watched their leader climb out of the wall of corpses.
"FINE. I WILL PURGE YOU THE OLD FASHIONED WAY." Abaddon's voice once again filled the sky as he spoke. Gone was the voice of the soothing angel. What replaced it was the voice of a creature, born out of the most horrific and inhuman dimensions of Hell. Rumbling and violent. Abaddon made a motion with his hand, and the horde began to charge down into the fight. The horde screamed with bloodlust and charged down the hill.
"Thor. Loki. Hold back the cult. I will deal with the angel." Kratos said, grabbing the Blade of Olympus with both hands.
"They have us surrounded. The poor fools." Loki grinned weakly as he gathered what strength he had left. Thor followed suit, wiped his bloody mouth, and staggered to battle, lightning coursing through his body.
"I have seen many wield that blade. Titans, Olympians, do you really think all it does is shoot lasers?" Abaddon mocked, wiping the blood from his armor and striding confidently towards the Spartan. "That blade ended the great war! Such wasted potential on a half-breed like you."
"Are you the angel of destruction," Kratos said, pretending not to feel the effect of Abaddon's magic on his body. "Or the angel of talk?"
"Why rush? I hold all the cards here. Make your move if you wish, but I know you are too weak now. You'll fail, like every civilization I encounter has failed."
Abaddon's let his wings extend to their full length, and motioned Kratos to approach. Kratos charged the angel, and Abaddon charged him. Kratos swung the Blade of Olympus towards Abaddon's head, but the angel blocked the attack with his own blade, countering with a jab of his wing. Kratos strafed, swinging the blade down into the wing. There was a deafening clang as metal hit metal, but the wing remained intact. Abaddon jumped into the air and held his blade to the stormy sky. Kratos watched as the clouds began to spin above the angel, then as red lightning shot from the sky into Abaddon's sword. Kratos tried to find something to throw at the angel. Something big.
Abaddon sneered, letting the energy of the heavens course through his blade. Once the blade was fully charged, he pointed the weapon to the ground. His eyes opened wide when he realized an engine from the ship was careening towards him through the air. He tried to evade the attack, but the engine slammed into him at full speed. The angel rammed into the ground far beyond the sounds of the battle, his wings slicing through trees and snow as he tumbled. The engine sputtered through the dying forest before hitting the ground, exploding in the distance.
"Ouch." Abaddon whispered to himself, laughing weakly as he pulled himself off the ground.
Kratos landed with a thud a few meters away, slamming the blade of Olympus into the ground. A blast of energy pulsed through the forest, uprooting trees and shooting up snow. Abaddon shielded himself from the blast, covering his body with his wings. The pulse hit him, pushing him back a couple meters. Kratos charged Abaddon, throwing the Cestus into the shield of wings. The gauntlet slammed into the metal, denting the wing and pushing Abaddon further into the ground. Kratos wailed the Cestus into the wings again and again, forcing the angel further and further into the dirt. The wings began to deform more with each hit. Kratos felt strangely tired as he rammed his fist into his enemy.
"Enough of that!" Abaddon shouted, pushing his wings outward. Kratos dodged the attack, but the wing grazed his armor, leaving a trail of scratches across the chest plate.
"You have twenty minutes before your organs fail completely, Kratos. Recommend immediate withdrawal." The helmet nagged.
"Focus on the angel's weaknesses, helmet, not mine." Kratos replied as he tried to shake the numbness from his hands.
"Very well. Scanning for weaknesses."
Abaddon got himself up from the dirt.
"You fight well, for a creature so drenched with sin." Abaddon said, his voice echoing through the frozen air.
"My sins are none of your concern." Kratos barked. "You know nothing of them."
"DO I NOT?!" Abaddon screamed. "LET'S CHANGE THAT!"
With tremendous speed, the angel flew straight towards Kratos. Kratos tried to dodge, but the angel's spell had slowed his legs. Abaddon's hand grabbed Kratos' forehead.
Flashes of his past blew by his mind. The murder of his family, the destruction of Olympus, the death of Athena, the slaughter and death that accompanied him everywhere he went.
Then, everything around Kratos became dark. Abaddon was gone, so was the forest of the planet. Kratos was lying on a cold, hard ground. He stood up and looked around. He was surrounded by darkness and lightning. The ground was a grey ash, stretching for miles in every direction. Wherever he was, it was a sterile wasteland. The sky above was an abyss of nothing. Kratos felt a bump underneath the surface. He kicked the ash, revealing a layer of bones underneath. Skulls of varying sizes, from different species of the universe.
"Where are we?" Mimir asked.
"I do not know." Kratos answered.
"WELCOME TO MY DOMAIN, LITTLE PAGAN." Abaddon's voice echoed through the darkness. 'WELCOME TO MY CIRCLE OF HELL."
/
Loki's arms shook as he tried to hold the force field together. The horde outside snarled and scampered as they piled on top of each other to encompass the sphere of protection around the two exhausted gods.
"What do we do, brother?!" Loki groaned.
"Just a little bit longer!" Thor yelled, throwing the last of his dwindling strength into electrifying the forcefield, creating a magical wall of electric death. "Ghost will kill the angel and we will get out of here!"
A heavy footstep shook the ground. Thor turned to watch as another massive centaur-looking demon pushed aside dozens of cultists with one hand and approached the forcefield. It raised itself onto its hind legs, and brought down the weight of its entire body down onto the shield. Loki staggered to one knee as the force of the blow knocked the wind out of him.
"He better be quick! I'm slipping here!"
Thor didn't respond, only a heavy cough left his mouth, spitting more blood and spit to the slushy ground. Loki looked to his withering brother as he fell to his knees.
"I'm just so tired…" Thor whispered as his hands turned skeletal and thin.
Loki felt the demon bring another crushing blow down on top of the forcefield. The shield began to fluctuate and waver as a second demon approached the shield. Loki looked to the ground. He looked at his brother. This wasn't the end. It couldn't be.
As Loki staggered under the crushing weight, the sounds of battle began to die down. Nothing but his own breathing could be heard. Reality around him seemed to slow. From behind him, he could hear a strange female voice, singing a lullaby, strangely familiar to his ears. He turned his head, but saw nothing except the Leviathan axe, resting in the snow. Loki released his grasp of the shield and trudged towards the axe, and the voice.
As the shield broke, the demons and cultists above began to fall in slow motion on top of the two gods. Loki dropped to the snow and grabbed the axe with a shaking hand. The lullaby grew stronger in his ears. He felt the light pressure of hands on his shoulders.
A strangely familiar presence that time forced him to forget.
"Mother?"
The feeling of hands on his shoulders dissipated like ash in the wind. The lullaby faded. Loki felt the axe donate a surge of power to his body. He looked back to Thor. His body had given way to Abaddon's spell. His muscles were shriveled and thin, and his hair was dead and grey. The horde was still slowly coming down on top of them. Loki felt something awaken inside him. Something he had only ever felt once before. Pure, unmitigated rage.
The normal passage of time resumed, and the weight of hundreds of cultists and demons came crashing down on the two Asgardians. Before they could hit the ground, a blast of frozen air, like the shockwave from a massive explosion, pushed the horde back again. The blast shot outwards in every direction, instantly freezing any flesh and liquid it came into contact with. Many of the more decayed cultists were ripped apart by the pressure wave.
Thor slowly turned his frail head towards Loki, to the source of the blast.
Loki was clad, head-to-toe in spiked armor, composed of ice. The ice helmet on his head was a mask of death, covered in spikes and horns. His skin had turned to the dark blue hue of his Frost Giant ancestry, and his eyes glowed red. The engravings on the Leviathan axe glowed bright blue in his hands. His black cloak underneath the armor flew freely in the tornado of frozen wind that engulfed him.
"Loki?" he croaked through dry lips.
Loki's eyes darted towards Thor.
"Stay there. Don't move." Loki said with primal aggression that Thor had never heard from his brother before.
Thor's eyes began to shut, too weak to stay open. Loki turned and focused on the massive demon that rampaged towards them. The creature unsheathed a pair of giant blades from its back and roared at the Frost Giant. Loki roared back and charged the creature. The demon slammed its molten sword into the ground. Loki teleported out of the way of the massive blade before it crushed him, and reappeared behind the demon. Loki swung the axe into the centaur's hamstring, crippling the demon's leg. The demon screamed as it stumbled from the injury.
Loki teleported onto the demon's back, and was just about the bring the axe down into its spine, when the demon reached behind and grabbed him. The demon pulled it arm back, and brought it down to slam Loki into the ground. Loki teleported out of the demon's hands before he was crushed, and reappeared above the creature's head. Using the downward momentum of the demon's attack, he brought the axe down into the skull of the demon, cleaving it in half. The centaur's body went limp and flopped to the ground as the axe sliced straight through its head.
"Who's next?!" Loki roared.
Loki looked around. There were no living cultists. No demons, no sorcerers left alive around him. Unsure of when, or if, there would be another wave, Loki took advantage of the calm and ran over to his dying brother. As he bent down over Thor's crippled body, his rage subsided. The armor of ice fell limply to the ground, and his skin began to return to its Asgardian colors.
"Brother, Thor, stay with me." Loki said softly. Thor's body was on the ground, shriveling before Loki's very eyes. His skin was loose and wrinkled, his hair a grey whisp on top of his head.
"Is...is it bad?" Thor whispered, his voice barely audible over the lightning above.
Loki smiled weakly.
"I'm not gonna lie, you look terrible."
Thor chuckled, but the laughter was quickly replaced with weak coughing.
"If this is the end…" Thor started.
"It will not be." Loki interrupted. "Like you said, we just wait until Kratos...until father kills the angel. He breaks the spell, I can go live a life of peace on the beaches of Alfheim, and you can go on protecting the weak and innocent people of Midgard."
"I never thought I would die by evil angel death magic." Thor said. He opened his eyes and looked at Loki. His eyes had lost all color, having turned milky white.
"No. Don't say that." Loki said, shaking his head. "You're not dead yet."
Loki began to feel the effects of Abaddon's spell on his own body once again. His vision began to blur as his ability to hold himself up off the ground waned.
"I think...I'll…" Thor started, but his voice quickly faded as he lost all consciousness.
"Stay with me!" Loki groaned, his voice dry and raspy. He looked to the sky. "Come on, dad, kill that self-righteous, arrogant…"
/
"Coward!" Kratos yelled to the dark sky above him, trying to stay balanced on his weakened legs. "You would hide from a lesser being?!"
"MY DEAR LITTLE MORTAL." Abaddon's amused voice rang through the air. "WHY FIGHT YOU WHEN ALL I HAVE TO DO IS WAIT? YOU'RE STUCK HERE, NOW. YOU MAY BE MORE RESISTANT TO MY POWERS, BUT SOONER OR LATER, YOU WILL GROW WEAK AND DIE. THIS COULD HAVE BEEN EASY, BUT YOU MADE IT DIFFICULT, AND NOW YOUR FRIENDS WILL SUFFER FOR IT."
"Loki..."
"EVEN NOW, THEY WITHER TO NOTHING. IN A FEW MINUTES, THE ASGARDIAN WILL DIE…"
Kratos looked down to the bones and ash on the ground. His breath began to grow heavy. His teeth began to clench. What weakness Kratos felt from Abaddon's spell was replaced with anger.
"AND THE FROST GIANT, I THINK I'LL DONATE TO MEPHISTO'S PLAYPEN. SEE HOW LONG THAT JOTUNN STAMINA CAN LAST AGAINST THE MASTERS OF PAIN."
"Oops...bad choice of words." Mimir whispered.
/
Loki lay on the ground, next to his dying brother. The cold rain from the storm dropped onto his face, but his muscles were too frail to wipe the water from dripping into his nose. He heard a thud as Abaddon landed in the distance.
"You...have defied the will of an angel." Abaddon spoke, irritation bleeding from his words. The rain tinked against his black armor as he approached. "And now, you must pay the price for your sin."
Loki watched as the angel walked up to him, sword drawn. Abaddon stood over him, his blade pointed right at Loki's chest. Loki watched as the blade pulled back, and thrust towards his heart. He shut his eyes and waited for the sword to plunge into him.
But nothing. Only a loud punching noise, then a grunt. Loki opened his eyes and looked up to see Kratos, lighting the landscape with cosmic power. Kratos' white glowing eyes looked quickly to Loki, scanned his body for injuries, then shot off.
"Impossible?!" Abaddon said as he stood himself up. His mask had been punched off from the impact of Kratos' fist, revealing his surprised, decaying face. "How did you escape?!"
"I climbed out."
The light from Kratos' ethereal wings cut through the darkness of the storm above. The blades of Chaos were wreathed in that ultra-hot purple flame, and the snow below him evaporated instantly with every step he took.
Abaddon's skeletal face frowned. "No matter."
Abaddon pointed his sword at Kratos, unleashing a beam of red energy. Kratos dodged the beam, which shot off and hit the ground in the distance. Charging towards the angel with immeasurable speed, Kratos tackled the angel and impaled Abaddon through his chestplate. Abaddon screamed as the blades of chaos burned through his chest. Abaddon stabbed his wing straight for Kratos' face. The wing hit Kratos squarely in the jaw, but the demigod barely flinched, his glowing eyes set on the eyes of the angel.
With the blades of chaos still stuck in Abaddon's chest, Kratos flew upward, through the cloud cover, into the planet's stratosphere, then downward, straight for the ground. Abaddon tried to pull the blades from his chest as he was dragged through the air after the demigod, but to no effect. Kratos slammed Abaddon into the ground with enough power for the dirt and snow atoms to fuse together under the force of the impact, releasing the energy of a nuclear bomb into the atmosphere.
There was a deafening blast, a blinding light, then silence as the mushroom cloud bellowed into the atmosphere. Kratos stood over the angel as Abaddon slowly pulled himself out of the crater.
"You...have been touched by Eternity?" Abaddon groaned as he staggered to his feet. His armor was battered and cracked, and his wings were bent. "Why would he choose a foul soul like you as his champion?!"
Abaddon swung his sword toward the glowing Spartan. Kratos grabbed the blade with his bare hand mid-swing and ripped it from the angel's grasp. He kicked the angel back to the ground. Abaddon tried to shield his face from Kratos' foot, but his arms were crushed underneath the Spartan's flaming boot. Kratos slammed his foot into the angel's face, again and again, cracking Abaddon's skull in multiple places. Abaddon rolled over and tried to drag himself away from the towering Spartan, only to feel the weight of Kratos' foot on his back. All Abaddon could do was shriek as Kratos ripped his wings out of his back, one by one.
Abaddon looked up at Kratos. The aura of power. The wings. The power.
"I see now," Abaddon whispered through his broken mouth. "I see the truth."
"And that is?" Kratos barked as he unsheathed the Blade of Olympus. The normal blue aura of the Blade turned yellow as Kratos infused it with Eternity's cosmic power.
"It was you all along...you...you are the true Angel of Death."
"No." Kratos grunted through clenched teeth.
"I've seen your mind, Spartan. You don't see it now, but you will soon. The universe will beg for your mercy, and you will not provide it. Everything around you dies! EVerything around you will die! Your wives, your daughter, your father...and your son."
Kratos paused.
"You have a bug...on your face."
"What?"
Kratos ran the hypercharged Blade of Olympus through Abaddon's face. The angel's body instantly stopped moving, then began to convulse violently. Abaddon's armor began to implode in on itself, then exploded in a wave of red energy and lightning. The blast ripped through the trees, shredding bark and vaporizing snow.
Kratos' cold, unfeeling expression remained unbroken as the red energy engulfed him. After ensuring the Angel was gone, he looked back to the battlefield, the piles of dead in the distance. In a burst of dust and snow, he was in the air, flying at full speed for his son.
/
The storm had begun to calm, the clouds parting in the sky. Loki welcomed the sunlight as it hit his skin. He sat up, his strength returning to him. He looked to Thor, who appeared to be regaining his normal muscle mass, and who's hair was returning to its golden hue.
Kratos landed with a thud. His rage cooled and his cosmic aura dissipated as he kneeled to check on Loki.
"Are you well?" Kratos asked.
"It's not me I'm worried about." Loki said, turning to Thor, still lying motionless on the ground.
"I'm...fine...just taking a second." Thor said, raising an arm up.
"Are you well?" Kratos reiterated.
"Yes, fine. Just...tired."
Kratos nodded. "It has been a long day."
The three rested on the damp ground for a while. It seemed like an eternity since they felt the sun, and they soaked up every second of it. The stench of battle surrounded them, the countless corpses and husks of massive demons spread as far as their godly eyes could see. But it was over.
"I need a vacation." Kratos mumbled as he slumped onto the ground.
"I crossed a lot of things off my bucket list today." Mimir added. "Insane purple aliens, cultists, demons and a fallen angel. What's next, talking raccoons?"
Suddenly, the rumble of ship engines filled the air. Kratos looked up to see another M-class vessel hovering overhead. It circled the battlefield and landed in a relatively flat area. The landing gear hit the ground, unavoidably crushing the bodies of the cultists that littered the ground. The rear opened up, and out jumped a raccoon, clothed in a dark suit of leather armor, and wielding a plasma rifle. The animal looked around at the carnage that surrounded them.
"We miss a party or somethin'?" The raccoon asked.