Druvak closed his eyes, the pleas of his soldiers a distant echo beneath the monstrous gathering of energy. His voice was a shattered whisper, lost in the din. "Please… my lord… Hades… help us…"
Suddenly, the world dissolved.
The sound of battle vanished. The smell of ozone and blood was replaced by cool, damp air. The sensation of shattered bones and fading consciousness was gone. Druvak opened his eyes. He was seated on the familiar giant stone in his old, secluded cave. In his hands rested not the cursed red blade, but his old, trusted, rusted sword.
His skeletal hands trembled. This was no illusion—the weight of the stone, the chill of the air, the solid feel of the hilt. It was all terrifyingly real. A profound disorientation seized him.
"Calm yourself, Druvak."
The voice was heavy, familiar, and resonated from the shadows of the cave. Druvak whirled around to see Hades, his form composed of darkness and quiet authority. The death knight fell to his knees, his voice a raw, desperate scrape. "Please, my lord! Please, save them! I beg you!"
Hades stepped forward, his presence filling the cavern. He placed firm hands on Druvak's shoulders, not out of pity, but with command, and forced him to his feet. "Druvak," Hades said, his voice leaving no room for argument. "I will not save them." He paused, letting the refusal hang in the air, then pointed a finger directly at the cracked sapphire in Druvak's chest. "You will save them."
"How?" Druvak's voice was hollow.
"Druvak, the abilities you gained upon your evolution were merely a glimpse," Hades explained, his words measured and potent. "A fraction of what lies dormant within you. I know you have felt it. But the question is, why have you refused to let it rise?" Hades gazed at Druvak.
Druvak hid his eyes and hesitated to speak. Before he could say anything, Hades continued, "Well, whatever reason you have. Now is the time. Let what must bloom, finally bloom." As the final word echoed, Hades's form dissolved back into the shadows from which it came.
Alone again, Druvak's face hardened with resolve. He looked down at the sapphire gem, its light faint behind a web of cracks. He placed a hand over it. No more holding back. Let it bloom, even if it consumes me whole.
He focused, pouring every ounce of his divine energy not into his limbs, but directly into the fractured core of his being. The sapphire gem ignited, not with a flicker, but with a blinding, solar radiance that filled the cave with impossible light.
Deep within his soul, two new divinities tore through the barriers he had built: the Godhood of Judgement, cold and absolute, and the Godhood of Sin, dark and consuming. They resonated with each other, a harmonic and dissonant chord that shook his very essence. For a terrifying moment, they clashed with his Weapon Godhood, threatening to tear him apart. Then, balance was forged in the crucible of his will. The three powers found a stable orbit around each other, a trinity of immense power.
Energy, raw and limitless, flooded his broken body. Bones snapped back into place, knitting together with threads of blue light. The cracks in his sapphire gem sealed, its glow stabilizing into a fierce, constant star-brightness. His divinity didn't just recover; it ascended, shattering its previous limits to peak at the level of a High God.
---
On the battlefield, time seemed to stretch. Armaror's tri-headed maw unleashed a condensed beam of pure annihilation, aimed at the heart of Druvak's army.
Mia, locked in combat with a gorilla-goat chimaera, felt the world shrink to that incoming wave of death. Her wand slipped from nerveless fingers, clattering to the ground. Her legs gave way, and she dropped to her knees, eyes closing as she accepted the end.
One second passed. Then two.
But the searing pain never came.
A light, not of destruction, but of pure, azure power, enveloped the field. It was so intense that it threw long, stark shadows behind every rock and soldier. A collective gasp rippled through the army.
Mia's eyes fluttered open. She saw Geo's broad back, still standing firm against a chimaera. Peeking around him, her breath caught in her throat.
There he was.
Druvak stood between them and the energy beam, his feet planted firmly in the earth. He held the Raktrakshasa blade horizontally with unwavering resolve. The apocalyptic beam crashed against the dark red sword, and where they met, energy was not deflected but annihilated, consumed by the blade's hungry edge.
With a final, thunderous clap of energy, the last of the beam vanished. Druvak landed lightly amidst his troops. He turned to Geo. "Geo. Water."
Bewildered but obedient, Geo handed over his canteen. Druvak uncorked it and poured it over his own skull. The water hit his bone and instantly flash-boiled into sizzling steam, washing away the grime of battle. His gaze then found Mia, who was still crouched behind Geo, wide-eyed.
"Mia!" His voice was not angry, but sharp with command, snapping her out of her daze. "Stop slacking! Return to your post!"
"Ahiee! Y-yes, Master!" she stammered, scrambling to her feet and snatching up her wand, her commander's persona slamming back into place.
Druvak then grabbed the remains of his broken armour and ripped it from his body, casting it aside. He stretched his arms. Now, I feel free. His burning gaze locked onto Armaror, who was breathing heavily, exhausted from the massive expenditure of power. I've had enough of this. It ends now.
He took a single, powerful step, then another, moving from a run to a leap that defied reality. He rocketed upward, through the oppressive underworld sky, breaking into the vast, empty expanse at the realm's bottom. He hung there for a moment, a speck against the infinite dark.
He closed his eyes. Two fingers glided along the length of the Raktrakshasa blade. As they passed, the dark red light intensified, and the sapphire gem on his chest burned with the intensity of a blue star, a beacon visible to the entire army below.
Then, he fell. He plummeted like a meteor, a doom comet wreathed in crimson and azure energy. A sonic boom formed around him.
'Vengeance Knight Sword Art: Sin Execution.'
He did not swing at Armaror. He simply passed through him, a single, vertical line of light, the result of intense heat.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then, a clean, precise line of crimson fire ignited down the centre of Armaror's colossal form. The chimaera split perfectly into two halves. The slash continued unimpeded, carving a vast, smouldering canyon into the earth behind him that plunged deep into the underworld's crust.
The two halves of the monster remained standing for a second before the divine fire erupted from within.
"Aaaaahhhh!!!!" "Nooooo!!!" "Aaaaaa!!!"
Three distinct voices of lion, wolf, and orc shrieked in unison, a chorus of pure, unimaginable agony. The crimson flames consumed him, burning not just flesh, but soul and sin, a purification by utter annihilation. The wailing echoed across the plains for a long, terrible hour before finally fading, leaving only a pile of glowing ash.
Druvak landed softly beside the remains, the light fading from his blade and gem. He simply lay down on the scorched earth, utterly spent.
Mia approached, her face etched with grief and exhaustion. "Master… our losses… We lost thirty per cent. Their valour carried them to the end. Another twenty… their limbs are severed, their bodies broken beyond easy repair."
Druvak sat up, his movements slow. He looked at her, his gaze unwavering. "Mia. Never forget their sacrifice. Remember their names. Carve them into your soul. This victory is built upon their honour." Mia nodded, a new resolve hardening her features.
"Gather our brave bodies. We will return them to their families for their final honours. Tomorrow, we march for the central land."
Mia bowed deeply and left to carry out her orders.
The next day, as the army prepared to depart, Druvak raised a single hand. A cold, blue soul-flame kindled in his palm. He knelt and pressed it into the soil.
The ground fractured. Tendrils of silent, cold fire surged from the cracks, racing through the ruins of the Crimson Fort. They did not burn with heat; they consumed with a chilling finality, scouring the land of its pain and corruption. In unison, Druvak and his entire army turned and bowed deeply to the pyre, a final salute to the fallen and the horrors they endured.
Then, they turned and began the long march home.
---
(Earlier: While Druvak explored the laboratory)
High above the eastern wastes, Hades, in his form as a colossal Black Phoenix, circled the jagged peak of Siscil's domain. He descended upon her castle, finding it not fortified, but empty. Not a single servant, soldier, or trap barred his way. Only a profound, waiting silence. Hades knew why. He moved through the sterile halls with unerring purpose, as if he walked a path he had tread a thousand times.
He stepped into the deepest chamber.
A torrent of viscous, green acid shot from the darkness, but Hades tilted his wing and flowed around it effortlessly. Another jet followed, then a third—each melting the floor and walls where they met.
From the shadows, Siscil, the Duke of Gluttony, revealed herself as a colossal, translucent slime, within which the dissolved forms of her own servants and soldiers floated like grotesque trophies. She surged forward, attempting to engulf him, her body spreading like a catastrophic net.
Hades did not dodge. He simply murmured, "Nether Crown."
A black crown with a violet lustre hovered over Hades's head. "Freeze."
Siscil froze mid-lunge. Her form shuddered, trapped by absolute authority. "What is this? What is happening? I cannot move!" her voice gurgled from within her core.
Hades walked calmly through her immobilised, gelatinous body. Each step echoed in the hall. Unknown fear consumed Siscil's mind. Hades stopped before her core, a pulsating, emerald orb. He reached out and snapped his fingers.
Snap.
The entire massive form of Siscil exploded. Her body collapsed inward, dissolving into a pool of inert, clear fluid, leaving only her glowing core hovering in the air. Hades plucked it from the air, the energy within it stilling instantly.
He paused, a distant look in his eyes. A faint, proud smile touched his lips as he gazed out across the underworld. "Druvak… you have finally unleashed what you suppressed for so long.