Chapter 35

Chapter

Thirty-Five

HACO

" S o we meet again, blood of my blood," Leviathan sneered, his sinister voice sending quakes in its wake. Burnt golden scales, a golden muzzle, and threatening, plate-sized crimson eyes clouded my vision as the Infernal dragon leaned in to grab me.

No memories had come forth upon Infernum's awakening. I did not recognize this hellish beast before me, the only deduction of his name was learned by the downed demonic dragon Ragnar grappled with. Teeth and claws and chestnut scales flashed as the two shredded past muscle and membrane, black and gold blood trailing into the sludge on the snowy ground.

I kept my gilded gaze on the nefarious creature before me, brandished bronze wings looking too thin as its veins crawled with onyx. Vehemence consumed me as I willed the memories to come forth, needing to know any battle strategy this banished God may take. No remembrance rang through; the Creators' wills worked to eradicate any knowledge of the other eight Gods from existence.

It was excruciatingly frustrating but satisfying to know their legacy had truly been forgotten.

These scaled beasts wanted that power Asmodeous had offered within their time in the Living Realm. They waged a war against their own kind, our once shared golden blood flooding the earth as they reshaped this world over and over. These selfish creations had thirsted for more, just as the known Gods and I had, but they let that desire for more cloud their bloodlust-filled minds.

I did not know why my brethren, the Gods of the Divine known to the mortals, did not follow Asmodeus and his wishes. Why, even with our own need for more , we didn't turn against our Creators. I longed to know the reasoning, the history of how we came to exist, while the others were banished and forgotten not only to us but the medial realm.

The Creators had cursed the traitors to reside within their fiery realm of lost souls, their titles and powers stripped. They lost their names to time, their existence in this world absent. Like most power-hungry bastards, these Gods wanted to call the world their own, to be the only Gods that this realm worshiped.

But in their misdeeds, they not only lost their will to keep existing but also their legacy. No temples, memorials, or altars honored them with wishes or blessings. This world didn't know them, didn't idolize and worship them.

They were nothing and that thought was as satiating as it was nauseating. For every living soul that didn't know of their existence, there was another scrap of memory within the banished Gods' minds of us . These hellish monsters knew of each of us, our powers and strengths, and where our weaknesses lay. They had the upper hand, the knowledge of how to defeat us and take the living realm as their own.

And I wished to know the same.

But my desire and need for that forgotten knowledge could be damned. There was no time for questioning or bargaining as Leviathan opened his burnt gold muzzle, fire sparking in his scarred throat. My own Godsfire shimmered around me, its trickling flames shielding me from the Infernal dragon's magic. However, the shield was unnecessary—the demonic beast's fire sputtered out as quickly as it came, not even enough flame to roast a chicken leaving his maw.

His powers were cursed and weak, our Creators withholding that mighty fire that lay within his chest as punishment.

Leviathan snarled with cracked and rotting fangs as my voice carried over the chaos and destruction in the air. "You share no blood of mine, traitor." My flames pulsed out, cocooning his scales with their molten heat as he screamed out in agony. His flight didn't falter, his wings keeping a steady beat despite my Godsfire using him as kindling.

I kept willing my power, its endless hymn singing to my fiery blood as scales cracked and sizzled, giving way to rotting flesh. Leviathan's crimson eyes seared through the flames, their reddened glow burning brighter than even my own. That fire began dwindling despite my calling, those eyes vivid and aglow before his maw shot out, snapping at me.

Shifting an onyx wing, I let the membrane flare as it battered Leviathan's monstrous skull, the back of my clawed hand rattling his brain. Black blood dripped from his nostrils, smoke billowing out as he lunged for me again, only that time I didn't dodge it or ram him.

I shot for the sun, wings profusely flapping.

Up and up and up we soared, moving along the wind currents Aither created to my benefit as she caught another demonic dragon in a tornado. I flicked my wings, changing my angle and flipping backwards only to tuck my wings in and drop from the sky, directly onto the beast's back. As I clasped my jaws around his neck, he tried to maneuver, to buck me off, but it was too late. I increased my pressure, feeling for his windpipe with my teeth and crushing it before he could let out another sound.

My claws released his crisped body and I watched as he plummeted towards the earth, blackened blood falling from his wounds like a storm. Smaller, lesser demons dropped like flies around us, their putrid scent turning rotten the longer they inhabited this realm.

From the canopy of the darkened sky, more dragons—both Godly and Infernal—fell with their tails and necks limp, juxtaposed by the Blood of the Divine and Infernal falling like rain. Leviathan's hulking form hit the sludge with a resounding thud, rocks and earth shooting up around him. Blackened blood mixed with that oozing scum rising from Infernum as his tattered wing twitched, cracked bone piercing the scales.

Lithe's frightened voice filled my skull, the tiny dragon's words panicked and distraught, making my golden blood run cold. Reombarth and Kano are down, they took the crown!

Leviathan kept twitching in the mud, more demonic bodies falling from the earth's atmosphere on top of his shifting form. Crimson eyes popped open once more as clawed hands dug into the sludge, pushing his large body back up as he smiled at me cruelly. Gods were downed but not dying, their Godly blood healing the hellish wounds slowly, too slowly. Our warriors were dying, horses and Pegasi cut down with rusted blades as the undead rose once more.

This battle was at its tipping point with no triumph in sight.

The Infernal dragon flung his long neck upwards and bellowed at the sky, so full of rage and command. Immediately, Infernal beasts with tattered and torn wings rose, their souls regenerating upon entering hell immediately. They shot up at the sky, their bodies pointed like arrows of fury.

At the head of the oncoming swarm was a feathered and black-scaled creature, red irises tinged with yellow and filled with death. Plumes of fire left my throat, disintegrating the flighty monsters and clearing my line of sight to the rising banished God.

However, Leviathan was no longer on the ground, a large pool of black blood was the only thing that remained. His gloomy voice came from the darkness before razor-sharp teeth shredded my wing's membrane. "I will destroy you, Haco," he promised, his gore-covered claw ripping into my spine.

Flames flared out behind me, fire licking off my scales as he hollered in pain. That word kept circling in my head as I swung around, one wing keeping me mobile in the murky sky. Destroy.

Tendrils of Godsfire consumed the demonic dragon as he screamed out commands for my death. That word wouldn't stop echoing through me, similar to the bloodlust we always fought against.

Destroy.

Destroy.

Destroy. It.

DESTROY IT!

It wasn't my own subconscious repeating that phrase, but a voice deeper and more profound than any that ever walked this earth. Its aching command was shattering my skull, the words battering against it, trying to find their way out.

Luminescent obsidian pulled my gaze towards the sludge, where a lean reddened figure walked along the battlefield in admiration. Crimson claws were raised in the ashy air as their hooved feet clopped through the mud and bodies. They stopped in the midst of the battlefield, their arms outstretched as they inhaled—despite the lack of a nose upon their rotting face—to scent the death everywhere.

The Demon King, Asmodeus.

Destroy it, the voice commanded again, more of a whispered demand that time.

We already knew we needed to destroy the Crown of Daemonium, that much was clear from the beginning. After nine days of using differing forms of magic in an attempt to destroy that cursed circlet, we came out fruitless. We all knew what we had to do, and had wanted to crush that thorny crown within our grasps, but we didn't know how.

Its dark power was too strong, the might of Infernum embedded within.

But we were the Gods of the Divine and our magic was given to us by the Creators themselves. That power should've overwhelmed the crown, our magic bleeding in, but our yielding of magic was never enough. The diadem just absorbed our power with ferocity, the moonstone's opalescent hue glimmering with glee.

It was made from the power of Infernum, so surely the power of the Divine could release it.

Leviathan was clawing at the shield of flames encasing him as I studied the Demon King below, the crown of blackened thorns sitting on their crimson skull. Destroy it, that incessant voice urged again, and I wanted to rage against it. Wanted to scream and shout at the Divine, at our Creators.

It kept echoing, over and over, driving me to the brink of madness, my scales bristling uncomfortably.

Destroy it.

Destroy it.

Destroy it.

And so I dove towards Asmodeus, abandoning Leviathan to the skies. Both wings were tucked tightly into my sides, the broken one aching, but I kept diving as my Godsfire rained down onto the realm, burning the lesser demons to ash.

Asmodeus looked up at me, twin ruby eyes embedded in their skull. They gave a broken smile, cracked and crimson skin splitting as they opened their arms as if for an embrace. The realm shook and stones cracked as I pummeled the Demon King into the earth with that phrase repeating in a chorus.

Destroy it.

Destroy it.

Destroy it.