POV Abel
Yielding in brute strength only to my father and the Seraphim, I am rightfully considered Heaven's strongest warrior. But all this power is not just a gift; it's an incredible responsibility.
Unlike the other Exorcists, I simply do not have the right to succumb to the intoxicating thrill of battle. Protecting my father, saving wounded comrades, holding the front line, and dueling the strongest, most dangerous demons—all of this falls directly on my shoulders, and no one else is fully equipped to handle it.
Even though I take massive risks by throwing myself into the absolute thick of it time and time again, I will never put other, less experienced warriors in the line of fire.
I simply cannot fail my father. Not again.
Father was always... a complicated soul. I remember him perfectly as he used to be—back in Eden, before Mother consumed that cursed Fruit and turned into a monster of Darkness. And before he became the first king of humanity... I will also never forget his face the moment Cain betrayed us.
The emotional agony he endured broke something vital inside him. After all the horror and death, he buried his true feelings deep down for hundreds and thousands of years. Adam hid his vulnerabilities, his love, and his attachments behind an impenetrable mask of an arrogant, selfish, sometimes even infantile fool who didn't need anyone in this universe. He played that role for so long, and so masterfully, that over time, even I—his own son—almost believed it...
That is, until our first full-scale war with Hell. It was there, on the battlefields choked with the bodies of demons and angels, that his mask of feigned indifference finally cracked. Beneath it, I saw a ruthless, icy fury directed at our enemies, and a desperate, almost feral terror for his loved ones—a fear my father had so diligently hidden from all of us behind his crude jokes and arrogance.
To this day, I remember in vivid detail his darkened gaze and heavy words after that horrific battle, a battle from which I was the sole survivor in my squad. I remember how he ignored the Seraphim's orders and, risking his own soul, charged headfirst into the endless demonic legions, taking their attacks head-on, shielding us with his own body... It was during that brutal slaughter that my respect for him surged anew.
I never stopped loving him, but after his first death and our reincarnation in Heaven, he changed so drastically that I had almost lost faith in him.
How blind I had been.
Now, standing in the middle of a crumbling Paradise, fully aware that the fate of the entire universe hinged on the outcome of this specific battle, I had no margin for error. And that is why, when... Eve (I could no longer bring myself to call her my mother) appeared on the battlefield, I snapped to my senses faster than anyone else.
The aura of her power pressed down on my shoulders with terrifying weight. It felt as though even I was just some tiny bug standing before a deity capable of erasing me with a single movement—which, unfortunately, wasn't far from reality. But I was no longer the naive boy I was so many years ago. Now, I understand my role and embrace my duty.
I caught her gaze and saw exactly who she was looking at with that strange, anticipatory, and terrifying smile: my father, who was holding an impossible amount of Light dancing in his hands.
His plan could not fail, which meant she had to be stopped at all costs! At least until my father's spell was ready to unleash!
My blade erupted in blinding flames of Light. I launched myself forward, leaving a golden trail in the air behind me, and charged straight at her to intercept. If something happens to me today... He'll look after Danna and Kana. Adam loves his granddaughter just as much as he loves his own children...
POV Adam
One second passed since Eve's arrival, then a second. Suddenly, a figure wreathed in pure Light slammed at top speed into Eve, who for some reason was smiling creepily right at me. It was Abel.
My heart skipped a beat.
Knowing Eve's true power, physically feeling her overwhelming might distorting reality itself around her, I knew exactly what she could do to him. A simple snap of her fingers would be more than enough to unmake the kid down to his base atoms. And Abel was far from stupid—he understood that perfectly well, too. He had to.
Yes, technically she's his mother, but even knowing from Lilith's stories that her terrifying persona as the "insane avenger against God" was just an act and a cunning game, I couldn't help but worry about my son. Say whatever you want, but no parent, no sane parent in their right mind, can just stand quietly on the sidelines while their kids risk their lives throwing themselves onto a live grenade.
To my colossal relief, the woman didn't counterattack. She merely dodged his glowing blade and continued her slow, inevitable march toward me, her unblinking gaze locked dead on me.
"Abel!" a painfully familiar voice rang out from behind.
Space flickered, and Seth, along with Abaddon, who was shrouded in Darkness, rushed to their older brother's aid, unleashing a hail of blows on the woman from all sides.
I just ground my teeth together.
I can't stop them.
I just can't, not right now!
If I drop my concentration, all this energy is going to detonate!
My sons' combined assault actually had an effect—to everyone's surprise, Eve really did slow her pace, continuing to evade the lunges of the three warriors.
Notice: she was evading, not just ignoring the attacks by tanking them on some shields like I initially thought.
As if they could actually do some damage to her.
"Hold it!" Lute, who had jerked forward to help the princes, stopped abruptly, shooting me a tense, questioning look.
"Stick to the plan," I replied tersely to my valkyrie, noticing out of the corner of my eye that the enemy troops, who had been paralyzed by the pressure of Eve's aura, finally snapped out of it and charged at us with renewed vigor. I need protection, otherwise the monstrous risk my kids are taking won't mean a damn thing.
Looking nervously at the three angels fighting desperately against Eve, Lute finally gave a curt nod and went back to guarding my stationary ass. Her tight lips made it clear she hated seeing the boys take such a risk, which was honestly pretty touching—they definitely weren't strangers to her anymore.
Even Abel.
My other "generals" (honestly, now that almost all the male veterans are back, the Heavenly Host can actually be called a proper army, not just a big squad or a "battle harem")—namely Joan and Dimitri with their Angelic Steel spears—also moved in to back up Seth, Abaddon, and Abel.
Just a little longer, friends... Please, hold on!
With Eve's arrival and the shattering of Heaven's dome, the atmosphere on the battlefield did a complete 180.
Cain, receiving a massive boost in motivation and freed from Seth and Abel's interference, let out a booming laugh. For some unknown reason, his attacks hit harder, and his regeneration kicked into overdrive, allowing him to shrug off almost everything the Deadly Sins threw at him.
But the ancient demons weren't about to roll over. They were the Rulers of their own worlds, and now, with the fate of the entire universe on the line, they weren't holding anything back, going all out just as they'd promised a certain golden-winged angel.
Satan let out a deafening roar. With every strike, with every wave of hatred and fury Cain radiated, Satan grew larger and physically stronger—the concept of Wrath is pretty handy when fighting an opponent like Cain.
The dragon, barehanded, his fists coated in red-orange energy, caught the First Murderer's lethal tentacles and tore them off with a wet crunch, taking blows against his impenetrable hide that would have flattened any of his siblings.
"Is that all you've got, you pathetic mortal?!" Satan bellowed, unleashing dozens of crushing blows. The only downside to his concept was that by giving in to Wrath and drawing immense power from it, he partially lost his self-control.
Asmodeus, filling the area with a strange pinkish-purple smoke that didn't obscure his allies' vision, created hundreds of illusions, disorienting the mutated Cain so he couldn't land a hit on the real Sins.
Leviathan, transformed into a massive two-headed serpent, unleashed torrents of acidic water that melted away Darkness itself, while Beelzebub zipped around, pelting the Horseman of the Apocalypse with magic and summoning swarms of insects that swarmed the open wounds on Cain's body.
But Lilith's influence was the most prominent of all. Hovering high in the blackened sky, the Queen of Hell sang. Her song, steeped in primordial magic and sounding nothing like mortal music, severely crippled Cain's monstrous regeneration. The wounds inflicted by the Sins no longer closed instantly; moreover, the magic scrambled his madness-torn mind, forcing him to attack Asmodeus' illusions and granting the Sins vital windows for counterattacks.
"Pathetic worms!" Cain snarled, his voice duplicating and grinding. With another sweep of his tentacles, he swatted Beelzebub and Leviathan away. "You serve garbage! Surrender now, bow before the might of True Darkness, and maybe I'll let you serve me! What does Heaven matter to you?!"
Lilith paused her song for just a second, fixing him with an icy glare of pure contempt through the slits of her white mask.
The Queen of Hell had a reputation, and in the Underworld, her word carried even more weight than that of her chronically detached husband. Furthermore, the Sins' pride would never let them surrender so easily, not after giving their word to Adam—an old enemy they all respected.
"Go fuck yourself, you ugly piece of shit!" Beelzebub snapped, forming a massive orb of toxic plasma in her hands and chucking it right into Cain's face.
Mammon, panting heavily while standing next to Belphegor—who was pinning Cain to the ground with gravity magic—suddenly popped his head out and yelled in his raspy voice:
"Hey, horns! What exactly are you offering? Like, a cut of the souls? Territory?"
The rest of the Deadly Sins and Lilith floating in the sky instantly whipped their heads toward the Lord of Greed, glaring at him with such intense disgust and judgment that even the demon felt a pang of shame.
"What are you all looking at?!" Mammon protested, throwing his hands up and nervously adjusting his jester hat. "We need to buy time anyway! What? I'm just negotiating!"
The battle resumed with renewed ferocity. Cain roared in fury, realizing he was being openly mocked, and unleashed a maelstrom of spiked tentacles down upon the demons.
Meanwhile, in another sector of the ruined First City, a clash of even greater proportions was unfolding.
The massive entity, composed entirely of eyes, maws, and absolute gloom—the Elemental of Darkness—began adapting to the combined assault of the two strongest brothers.
Having lost a chunk of its mass from the previous strike, the monster howled with thousands of voices. New tentacles rapidly sprouted from its gaping wounds, this time covered in Light-reflecting spikes. The beast became faster, more aggressive, and its attacks took on a terrifying unpredictability, leveling everything within a kilometer radius.
Lucifer and Michael, ancient beings whose rivalry spanned millennia, were forced to cast aside all their grudges. To survive and protect their home, they had to sync up completely, and to their own surprise, their teamwork flowed effortlessly.
Michael, clad in shining armor, caught the crushing blows of the tentacles on his golden shield coated in white Light, blocking strikes that would have effortlessly leveled a mountain. In that same second, Lucifer used his speed to slip in under his brother's guard, delivering devastating thrusts with a massive spear forged from his own power.
At that moment, the enchanting magic of Lilith's voice rippled further across the battlefield, reaching their sector. Hearing his wife's song, Lucifer felt an incredible surge of energy. Pushing aside his worry for his beloved, the King of Hell threw himself back into the fray with renewed vigor.
"Now, brother!" Lucifer shouted, going into a steep dive to dodge a lethal beam from the monster's maw. "Just like last time!"
Michael didn't reply; he just gave a curt nod.
The Seraph drove his spear into the golden cobblestones and began channeling all his holy might into his hand. A blindingly white pillar of Cleansing Flame shot up into the heavens.
Lucifer tucked his wings and plummeted like a stone, dropping straight toward Michael. An orb of Hellfire condensed in his hands—black, laced with crimson veins. A split second before impact, Lucifer merged his magic with his brother's, exponentially amplifying the attack.
Two opposing, seemingly incompatible elements entwined into a single spiral. The white and black flames formed a devastating, all-consuming vortex of conceptual fire that slammed dead center into the Elemental of Darkness with a deafening roar.
The explosion was so powerful that the shockwave scattered the Exorcists and demons fighting nearby. The heavens flared with an ultra-bright flash, blindingly brighter than the sun itself.
When the smoke and dust cleared a little, only a charred, smoking mound of flesh remained where the titanic monster had once stood. The Elemental had lost all its tentacles and most of its maws. However, to the brothers' horror, the surviving central eye slowly focused on them, and the charred flesh began knitting back together with a sickening squelch.
The beast was still alive.
And right in the center of the plaza, the most critical fight of all was taking place: Eve versus Adam's generals and sons.
This was no longer a simple game. Eve saw that the orb of Light in her ex-husband's hands was reaching critical mass, that the unknown spell capable of turning the tide of the war was almost ready. That meant she could no longer just toy with the weaklings trying to stall her.
However, the Avatar of Darkness didn't even try to attack them seriously. She used no energy attacks; she just kept moving forward, now completely ignoring their strikes entirely.
Abaddon, having shifted into his battle form, let out a roar and unleashed his strongest attack on her—a stream of black energy sparkling with hundreds of golden motes. It was a stunningly beautiful sight, deeply reminiscent of a starry night sky, and the attack's power rivaled that of the Seraphim, but...
Eve didn't even look at him.
She just swatted the back of her hand at it like an annoying fly. The devastating attack collided with an impenetrable wall of distorted reality, and the Prince of the Abyss, who had been lunging in for close combat, was launched backward with a crunch, slamming into the ruins of a colonnade a hundred meters away.
Seth and Abel, acting in tandem, threw up multi-layered shields of pure Light in her path, drawing power from their father's "Little Sun." But even that didn't slow Eve down.
She walked through the barriers as if they didn't exist; the shields shattered with the sickening sound of breaking glass from her mere presence.
Joan of Arc, letting out a battle cry, made a desperate lunge, trying to drive her Angelic Spear into Eve's exposed flank. But Eve ignored the thrust as well, and the Angelic Steel spearhead stopped dead without even scratching her skin. Joan was then blasted away by a telekinetic wave.
She was invulnerable.
Lute, who had been sharply monitoring the situation, chose this exact moment, noticing that the enemy forces, distracted by the Sins' battle and the fall of the Elemental, had broken formation.
"Weapons free!" her magically amplified, ringing commander's roar echoed out. "FIRE!"
A deafening, rhythmic thunder tore across the battlefield. The elite Exorcist squad, armed with heavy-caliber rifles, grenade launchers, and machine guns forged from pure Angelic Steel, unleashed a hurricane of fire.
The armor-piercing rounds, heavily laced with holy energy, literally ripped Cain's body and the Goetian demons to shreds. Even the stunned and wounded Elemental of Darkness, which had just started regenerating, got caught in the crossfire from the heavy weaponry. Letting out a final, gurgling shriek, it finally dissolved into chunks of slime. Cain, his armor weakened by Lilith's magic, howled in agony as dozens of bullets shredded his tentacles, forcing him to retreat under Satan's relentless assault. The Army of Darkness faltered.
Emboldened by their success, some of the Exorcists shifted their fire toward Eve. Hundreds of angelic steel bullets tore toward her. But... they did absolutely nothing. The bullets just dropped to the ground, and the explosions only kicked up clouds of dust.
Eve was only a few dozen paces away from the paralyzed Adam. She raised her pale hand, and a spear composed entirely of Darkness began to form in her grasp. She didn't intend to kill her husband—her target from the very beginning was the sphere of Light that could ruin all her plans. If she destroyed it, Eve would no longer have to fear Adam. And she couldn't care less that destroying the Sphere would wipe out almost her entire army in the crossfire—she already owned their souls, which meant their power was hers anyway.
Eve hurled the spear. The lethal projectile, leaving a black trail in its wake, tore through the air with such force it seemed to rip reality itself apart. Adam couldn't move; if he twitched, the spell would just detonate.
"NO!" Abel screamed. Ignoring the agonizing pain in his broken bones and his sheer exhaustion, he threw himself directly into the path of the black spear.
He didn't bother throwing up shields, knowing Eve's magic would punch right through them. Instead, Adam's son drained as much Light from the "Little Sun" as he possibly could and placed himself squarely in front of the spear.
KRAK!
The Spear of Darkness pierced him with a wet thud, punching straight through Abel's golden armor. The sickening crunch of breaking ribs echoed out as the terrifying kinetic force of the impact launched Adam's son backward, landing right at his father's feet. Abel collapsed onto the golden tiles, leaving wide streaks of blood in his wake, but he had fulfilled his duty: the spear hadn't reached its target.
Adam stared in absolute horror at his bloodied son, who lay at his feet with a sad smile.
Something flared in the Archangel's eyes—something that made even Eve, whose smile vanished instantly, flinch.
The miniature "Sun" in the golden-winged man's hands, pulsing with unfathomable power, reached its absolute limit.
The spell was fully primed.