Chapter 936 - 935: Who Summoned HIM?!

Earlier, beyond Velmora.

The clash of Lord Enigma and the God of War’s attacks collided..

The World Devouring Serpent broke through the final ranks of spears.

Iron-grey shafts burst inside its jaws. Thousands more pierced its black scales, tearing through the emerald light along their edges.

Lord Enigma coughed blood beneath the manifestation’s brow.

But the serpent kept advancing.

The God of War raised a shield with his remaining hand.

The jaws closed.

BOOOOOOM!

The shield buckled, and the God of War’s body vanished beneath falling fangs. The impact drove him through a mountain, splitting its upper half from the stone beneath.

However, the serpent was already breaking apart.

Spears buried in its skull detonated. Its lower jaw disintegrated before it could finish closing, and the God of War tore free through the opening.

He landed amid shattered stone, blood running from his mouth. Half his breastplate had caved inward.

Across the newly opened chasm, Enigma pressed a hand against his side. Blood slipped between his fingers, staining the scales beneath them.

His attack had been stronger.

Only slightly, but it was not enough to end this.

The God of War straightened, spat blood, and smiled.

"That almost hurt."

Enigma chuckled.

"I made a god bleed. Not bad."

An iron-grey hammer answered.

Enigma slipped past its head and drove his claws toward the god’s throat. A shield intercepted them, and another shockwave swept the broken mountains.

They fought through the settling dust, neither willing to leave the last wound unanswered.

Until crimson light touched their faces.

The hammer stopped.

Enigma’s next strike faltered too.

Far away, above Velmora, dark clouds had gathered across an enormous stretch of sky. Crimson lightning moved within them, illuminating layer after layer of cloud.

Even across that distance, the gathering pressure reached both combatants.

"A Cataclysm Tribulation?" the God of War muttered. "Which Lord dares become a King now?"

His smile faded.

"No. That colour..."

The lightning writhed again.

"And that destructive intent. This is different."

He extended his perception, but the distance and the power gathering over the city denied him a clear view of its source.

"Another Demon King should not be born now. We would not allow it. It would upset the balance."

Enigma barely heard him.

His eyes were wide because he knew what he was seeing.

Ancient texts in the Abyss had described crimson lightning summoned by something other than the forging of a Cataclysm Heart.

A demon becoming a Daemon.

Fragments of the knowledge remained, but the means of accomplishing it were supposed to have been lost beyond recovery.

And now the sky above Velmora matched those records.

"Impossible."

The God of War turned.

"You recognise it?"

Enigma closed his mouth.

Whatever was happening over the city, explaining it to this god would be the worst thing he could do.

The silence made the god’s brows draw together.

Then he looked toward Velmora again.

"It seems descending into your realm was worthwhile after all."

Aether gathered beneath his feet.

"Whatever called that storm, I will reach it first. A demon, a weapon, some buried treasure... I would like to know whether it deserves to be taken or destroyed."

Enigma appeared in his path.

"Am I air to you?"

His scales shifted beneath his torn clothing.

"We were fighting. I don’t recall letting you leave."

The God of War studied him.

Then his mouth curved.

"Almost convincing. You really are a snake."

Enigma said nothing.

"You know what that tribulation means. You know what is causing it. And now you are suddenly concerned about our unfinished fight?"

The god glanced past him.

"Whatever is beneath those clouds would benefit you."

He paused.

"No. Your kind."

His smile sharpened.

"Daemons. Still hoping the world will return to an age when your blood meant something."

Enigma’s expression went cold.

"Drop the act," the god said.

Enigma opened his mouth.

But the first crimson bolt fell.

Both looked toward the city.

A red flash climbed through the clouds, followed by thunder that rolled across the distance and shook dust from their clothes.

The God of War’s eyes narrowed.

"That isn’t merely testing a body. It is trying to destroy whatever stands beneath it."

"Then let it," Enigma replied.

The god gave him a sideways look.

However, he did not advance.

Interfering with a tribulation meant drawing its punishment upon himself. It would account for the strength he brought into its reach, answering his interference with something far worse.

He wanted the thing below.

Not the lightning meant to kill it.

A second bolt descended, thicker than the first.

Then a third gathered into a crimson shaft.

Enigma watched without blinking. In the old descriptions, there should have been four or five strikes unless the one facing them provoked a harsher response.

And unless the bloodline of the Daemon was the noblest of all.

But even the early strikes carried more power than he had expected.

The fourth fell.

His fingers tightened against his wounded side.

Someone was still surviving beneath that.

The fifth attack twisted as it descended. Crimson lightning wound around itself, becoming a rotating drill that drove toward the same point below.

The God of War stopped smiling entirely.

And then the remaining lightning began gathering together.

Enigma’s breath caught.

A head emerged within the clouds.

Long jaws opened, and a vast body followed, formed from the power that should have descended in separate strikes.

A dragon.

The remaining tribulation had become one final assault.

It plunged.

The horizon reddened, and the thunder reached them with enough force to make the god’s damaged armour rattle.

But the dragon did not vanish in a single explosion.

Its body kept driving downward. Lightning continued pouring through it, feeding the destruction below.

Enigma could no longer see what lay beneath the storm.

He did not need to.

His expression had become painfully still.

What sort of bloodline required this?

What demon had reached an origin that provoked such a response?

A familiar face entered his thoughts.

’Blackmoon?’

He almost rejected it.

An Archfiend?

A hybrid Archfiend, at that?

But the location troubled him, and the possibility refused to leave.

He had no proof, but he would give the god none of his suspicions.

Beside him, the God of War spoke quietly.

"That cannot be allowed to remain."

The interest had left his voice.

No talk of treasures now.

"No demon, weapon, or artifact should bring this into the realm. Whatever survives beneath it must be destroyed."

"You have not even seen it."

"I have seen enough."

The dragon continued descending.

Neither spoke again until the thunder finally began thinning. They waited while the last brilliance lingered over the distant city.

Then the lightning ended.

The God of War moved without a word.

Enigma was already intercepting him.

However, the figure crossing his path broke into fragments of Aether.

A decoy.

The real god struck from his flank.

An enormous hammer swept toward Enigma’s head. Scales thickened along his raised forearm, and he caught the blow before it could reach his skull.

BANG!

The impact hurled him sideways.

By the time he recovered, the God of War was flying toward Velmora.

Enigma’s lips drew back from his teeth and he clicked his tongue.

"Tch."

He followed.

But several seconds into the pursuit, the god stopped so abruptly that the air exploded ahead of him.

Enigma checked his own advance.

Another trap?

The God of War did not turn to attack.

His remaining hand was trembling.

Enigma watched the fingers spread, curl, then fail to close properly around the weapon forming in his palm.

The weapon fell apart.

"What are you doing?"

The god’s breath scraped audibly through Darius’s throat.

"No..."

Enigma looked past him.

Violet light was spreading above the distant city.

Nothing more.

Yet the God of War turned toward him with an expression Enigma had not seen even when the serpent’s jaws closed over his body.

Fear.

Terror.

"Who..."

His voice shook.

Then he roared.

"WHO SUMMONED HIM?!"

He pointed toward the violet sky.

"Summoned who?" Enigma demanded.

"You fools!"

The god’s face twisted.

"You ignorant fucking fools! Demons, Daemons... was ruining yourselves not enough?"

"What are you talking about?"

The answer never came.

Two long violet seams appeared above Velmora.

They thickened into closed eyelids.

No face formed around them.

Pale lights moved behind dark spheres upon their surfaces, and shadows gathered within the folds of the lids.

The God of War stepped backward through the air.

Then again.

A third retreat came before he seemed to realise he was moving.

His shoulders had drawn inward. Sweat gathered beneath the blood on Darius’s face, and the Aether that had obeyed him throughout the battle flickered unevenly.

Enigma felt the fear spilling from him.

Not the fear of the mortal body.

The god himself was terrified.

His gaze moved from one closed eye to the other. His mouth worked soundlessly, and his remaining hand rose as though it could hide the sight from him.

But he could not look away.

"We’re doomed."

The words barely escaped his lips.

"We’re all doomed."