The Broken Halo

The hammer struck between the descending fangs.

”World Serpent Art. Fang of the World-Eater.”

Enigma twisted both wrists. The enormous fangs did not crush downward together. One hooked behind the hammerhead while the other drove toward the god’s chest, concentrating its power into a single emerald point.

The God of War released the hammer.

”Thousandfold Impact.”

One collision became a succession of blows. The hammer continued striking after leaving his hand, battering the first fang until its curved surface burst.

The second fang reached the God of War’s breastplate.

An iron-grey shield caught it at an angle. The point scraped across the god’s ribs, opening a shallow wound before being forced past him.

Below, an entire mountain shoulder disappeared.

BOOOOOOM!

Rock rose in a sheet wider than the ruined staging ground. The blast stripped both sides of the valley, and its roar swallowed the screams of fleeing demons kilometres away.

Inside the crack, Simon covered his head.

A slab struck the opening and shattered. Fragments hammered the ChaosWraps while UnholyRegeneration continued joining the pathways beneath them.

’Not yet.’

Above him, the god pressed his thumb against the wound.

A green stain remained on his skin.

”World Serpent Art. Sovereign Venom.”

Enigma opened his palm. Emerald droplets gleamed between the scales around his fingers.

The venom attacked one’s circulating energy as well as flesh. Even the shallow scratch had been enough to leave it searching for a route inward.

”You wanted me to block the fang,” the god said.

”I think that’s fairly obvious. I wanted you to choose which fang to block.”

The god smiled faintly.

Rip!

Then he pinched the stained flesh, tore it free, and let it fall.

An ugly but immediate answer. The venom never reached the deeper channels of his chosen’s body.

”Choose better.”

He closed his hand.

”War God Art. Battlefield Execution.”

Six enormous weapons formed around Enigma- a spear ahead, a sword behind, axes to either side, a hammer above, and hooked chains beneath his feet.

There was no distant volley to watch approaching. The execution began with the weapons already surrounding him.

Then they converged.

Enigma’s mantle snapped upward as the chains caught its edge. He turned toward the narrow gap between the spear and one axe.

The god’s eyes followed him.

”World Serpent Art. Empty Molt.”

A transparent, scaled outline peeled away from Enigma. The weapons struck the discarded covering, folding it inward around their force.

The axe beside the gap did not move.

The god had held it back.

It swung only when the real Enigma emerged from behind the collapsing shell.

Swing!

Blood flashed across the Daemon’s upper arm.

”Once was enough to learn that trick,” the god said.

Enigma looked down at the cut.

”World Serpent Art. Slither Between Worlds.”

His body lengthened into a dark outline and slipped through an emerald seam. The movement carried him between two points without crossing the open distance. For an instant, something scaled moved beneath the air itself.

The axe passed through the closing opening.

The god turned as a seam opened behind him, his remaining fist already drawn back.

Only black scales emerged.

”World Serpent Art. Scale Funeral.”

Enigma’s scales divided into separate swarms, and each was sharp enough to cut and strong enough to overlap into shields. This time they formed neither.

They wrapped around the god’s forearm.

Enigma stepped from a second seam above him and drove a knee toward his face.

BANG!

The god blocked with his shoulder. Blood scattered from the God of War’s mouth, but his trapped hand opened, forming a blade along its outer edge.

He cut through the scales and caught Enigma across the ribs.

The Daemon seized his wrist before the strike could deepen.

For a heartbeat, neither could pull away.

Then the god drove his forehead into Enigma’s face.

BAM!

Both figures vanished inside the explosion that followed.

Below, the crack sheltering Simon split from end to end.

He slid down its collapsing side, using wind to keep his damaged arms away from the stone. His next breath entered without the stabbing pain that had stopped him earlier.

A repaired pathway held.

Then another.

’Is it enough now?’

He sent a little bit of demonic energy through the route required for teleportation. He felt pain, but the connection did not tear apart.

His body could finally endure the jump.

The space around him could not yet support it.

Above, the combatants separated. Enigma’s nose bled. The god’s shoulder armour hung loose, and both were already preparing another attack.

The god glanced down.

Simon froze.

Enigma’s scales spread across the sky, but one section remained thin. The god saw the exposed angle beneath his arm.

He also saw where it led.

”You want me higher.”

Enigma smiled through the blood.

”Are you afraid of giving him time?”

”I am deciding which of you should regret your decisions.”

The god struck upward.

Enigma met him, and the next collision carried both figures through the dust into the clouds. The scales left below caught the downward force and burst in succession, spending themselves to keep the nearest shockwave above the ground.

The pressure around Simon eased.

Not everywhere, and definitely not for long.

But the opening he reached toward stopped shifting.

Velmora City.

He found the spatial impression of the street outside Pipeline Inn, and that became his target.

His demonic energy surged.

Blood ran between his teeth.

Simon vanished before the next shockwave of the two monsters above reached the ruined crack.

His boots struck paving stones.

He fell onto one knee beneath the familiar cracked-horn sign. A demon at the entrance recoiled, one hand moving toward his weapon.

Simon ignored him and dragged air into his lungs.

Velmora City.

He had arrived alive.

Far beyond the city, the God of War noticed the disappearance.

”Interesting. So he was able to teleport to such a far distance despite his injuries.”

”That’s one of the reasons why I want him alive. I have a strong feeling he’d be crucial in killing all you bastards up there.”

Enigma loosened his torn mantle and let it fall. Blood marked the black scales beneath it.

”Now, we can fight without worrying about him.”

The god’s eyes narrowed. Loose scales slipped away beneath the drifting dust instead of returning to Enigma.

Neither rushed forward.

The discarded scales had shown the god how Enigma shaped his exits. The exchanged wounds had shown Enigma when the god preferred to counter rather than withdraw.

Both had enough information to make the next attack considerably worse.

The crossed spears on Darius’s chest blazed.

”Divine War Art. Heavenfall Arsenal.”

Iron-grey weapons formed above the shattered mountains, each carved with deep crimson channels. Swords hundreds of metres long hung point-down between spears and enormous square-headed hammers.

The god did not aim them all at Enigma.

Some hovered beside him, aimed sideways to punish a retreat from Enigma. Others formed a second, lower ceiling beneath him. Smaller spears waited farther above, positioned to arrive after the first weapons.

The first descent would force him to use his defensive shedding ability. The second would strike the body emerging from that defence. Escaping through space meant finding somewhere clear within a sky filling with blades.

Enigma looked from one formation to the next.

The god raised his finger.

”Why don’t you shed a skin like you’ve doing?”

Enigma’s lips curved.

”And who are you to tell me what to do?”

He spread both arms.

”World Serpent Art. Coil of the Horizon.”

A black ridge rose beyond the broken mountains.

Then another appeared behind the god.

But these.... these were not ridges.

An immense serpent’s body curved around the battlefield, its overlapping scales edged with emerald light. Sections vanished behind mountains and reappeared on the other side, revealing the size of the circle they formed.

The coil would not chase an escaping enemy.

It would close around everything inside.

Including the arsenal.

The God of War looked past Enigma and saw the scales join behind him. The Daemon had placed the outer edge beyond the weapon formation while he was still inspecting its openings.

”So that is your answer.”

”My answer is to kill you.”

Enigma closed his hands.

The coil began tightening. Mountain faces cracked inward, and loose boulders rose toward its centre. The air between the enormous weapons compressed until their crimson channels shone through a wavering haze.

The god lowered his finger.

Every sword, spear, and hammer descended.

The World Serpent’s coil surged inward to meet them.