The sky above the city hummed with a preternatural energy as Leo and Lucifer stood suspended in the ether, two celestial titans locked in a silent glare. Below them, hidden within the jagged shadows of the ruins, the Governor watched with bated breath. He felt the static in the air prickle against his skin.
"It is too soon," the Governor whispered to the empty air, his eyes darting toward the girl beside him. "I cannot intervene yet. Alice must be taken to sanctuary. If these two truly unleash their fury, nothing—not a single stone or soul in this city—will remain."
With a flick of his wrist, he began to draw the shadows around Alice, but his eyes remained glued to the heavens.
Above, the silence shattered. Without a word of warning, Lucifer lunged. The air screamed as his fist cut through the atmosphere, but Leo was a mirror to his violence, meeting him blow for blow. The sound of their collision was not merely a physical thud; it was a clap of thunder that shook the foundations of the world.
Suddenly, a sharp, rhythmic sound echoed over the roar of battle—a clapping of hands.
Before either could react, the very fabric of space warped. A violent surge of transportation energy seized them, dragging them upward, past the veil of the clouds. The sudden shift in momentum threw Lucifer's balance. It was the only opening Leo needed. With a guttural roar, Leo delivered a devastating strike directly to Lucifer's jaw.
The impact discharged a blinding wave of pure energy. Lucifer was sent hurtling downward like a fallen star, crashing through the roof of a skyscraper with the force of a meteor.
The Cursed Blade: Khunxzo
Watching from the darkness, the Governor's face paled. "He fell... but it isn't over. Not yet." He gripped Alice's arm, stepping deeper into the gloom. "We must move." In a swirl of ink-black mist, they vanished into the shadows, reappearing moments later within the hollowed shell of a neighboring building.
Inside the wreckage of the first tower, Lucifer pulled himself from the debris, spitting blood. "I knew it wouldn't be simple," he growled, his voice a low rasp.
"You should never have come here," a voice rang out. Leo descended through the shattered ceiling, landing softly amidst the dust and twisted rebar.
Lucifer didn't answer with words. Instead, he reached into the air and pulled forth a weapon that seemed to drink the very light from the room. It was a jagged, obsidian blade that pulsed with a sickly, violet hue.
"Khunxzo," Leo whispered, his eyes widening in recognition.
"The Cursed Blade," Lucifer sneered, running a thumb along the flat of the steel. "Forged for the sole purpose of extinguishing the Immortals. It has been lost since the Great Creator War, hidden in the folds of time. I found it, Leo. Right where you left it."
Leo tightened his stance, his expression hardening. "It matters not. Against me, that steel is a toy. I need no blade to finish this."
Lucifer laughed, a hollow, mocking sound. He swung the blade in a wide arc, sending a wave of necrotic energy toward Leo. Leo moved with the grace of a predator, dodging the strike with a dancer's fluidity. He closed the distance in a heartbeat, his hand striking out like a serpent, catching Lucifer squarely in the throat.
Lucifer collapsed, gasping for air as he hit the cold stone floor.
"Go back to your father, Lucifer," Leo said, looking down at him with pity. "Tell him you failed."
The Ultimatum of Souls
Lucifer coughed, a slow, dark smile spreading across his bloodied lips. "I always knew... I could never best you in a fair fight, Leo. That is why I didn't come for a fight. I came to deliver a gift."
Leo's brow furrowed. "What gift?"
Lucifer raised his hand, and a sphere of swirling, golden light manifested in his palm. The energy within it was frantic, screaming with a silent, ethereal agony.
From his hiding spot, the Governor let out a strangled cry. "No... it can't be."
High above on a distant rooftop, the Principal sat in silence, watching the scene unfold through a pair of silver spectacles. Beside him stood a shadow, a presence he spoke to in hushed tones. "Who do you think will prevail? The warrior or the deceiver?"
Back in the wreckage, Lucifer held the sphere aloft. "This is the soul energy of Urumi. You recognize it, don't you? If I crush this ball, her soul will be erased from the entire multiverse. Not dead, Leo. Erased. Total non-existence."
Leo froze. The fire in his eyes died out, replaced by a cold, hollow dread.
"Now," Lucifer hissed, standing up slowly. "Stand still. Be a good boy and stay silent, or she vanishes forever."
"How do I know you won't harm her anyway?" Leo asked, his voice trembling with suppressed rage.
"You don't," Lucifer retorted. "But you have no other choice."
The Golden Chains of Fate
Leo dropped his guard, standing like a statue amidst the ruins. Lucifer approached him, his eyes gleaming with a sadistic triumph. He reached out and snatched a locket from around Leo's neck, tossing it aside like trash.
"By the Cursed Chain, I summon thee!" Lucifer shouted.
From the cracks in the floor, ethereal golden chains erupted. They moved like living snakes, lashing around Leo's limbs, binding his torso, and pinning his arms behind his back. Leo grunted as the metal seared his skin, the holy and unholy enchantments of the chains neutralizing his power.
"Do you remember these, Leo? Forged before the Creator War specifically to bind your kind."
The chains began to glow with a blinding radiance, pulling Leo backward into a swirling vortex of darkness. Leo, his hands bound and his strength failing, closed his eyes and whispered a frantic, ancient incantation. The words were lost to the wind as the darkness swallowed him whole, transporting him into the bowels of the Infinite Prison.
The Gates of Hell
As the dust settled, the Governor looked toward the Principal, who had descended from his perch.
"What do we do?" the Governor asked, his voice shaking. "They've taken him to the Infinite Prison."
The Principal adjusted his glasses, his face an unreadable mask of calm. "Do nothing. For now, let the play reach its climax. Lucifer is acting on orders from the depths. Let us see how far he dares to go."
Deep within the subterranean layers of the world, Lucifer stood before the massive, obsidian-clad gates of Hell. He threw his head back and laughed, a sound that echoed through the canyons of the damned.
"I have done it! The time of the Great Freeze is over! Open the gates!"
A massive, hulking figure—the Warden of the Pit—stepped forward. "If you wish for the gates to open, a price must be paid. The laws of Hell demand an atoning soul for one so great as the prisoner you bring."
Lucifer didn't hesitate. He turned toward a stone altar nearby, his eyes wild with a dark, frantic energy. He drew a ritual dagger and sliced his own palm, letting the blood drip onto the ancient stone.
"I call upon the spirits of the deep!" he roared.
As his blood touched the altar, a ghostly, translucent form began to rise from the stone. It was a flickering, tormented soul, trapped between worlds. The stone table groaned under the weight of the magic as the soul was pulled into the physical realm, a key made of spirit and blood to unlock the eternal doors.