Encroaching End

  Orobas sat idly in their seat, watching as the spell began to activate, then furrowed their brow. “Hm? Something doesn’t feel right.”

  Bael turned towards Orobas, but his body seemed stiff, “I...can’t move? Curson, did you-”

  But he was cut off as Siti interrupted, “That took longer than I was hoping it would, but it still worked before it was too late.” The plant girl grinned as she looked back to Caedes who was also paralyzed, “What was it you said? ‘They’re no threat?’”

     Caedes groaned and grunted as his body started taking on a greenish color. He was powerless to stop Libero from getting up, knocking down Caedes as he did so, and regenerating his arms.

“That’s all well and impressive, but you’re-” Orobas began, but he was interrupted by a flash of glowing symbols from the sphere that held Curson.

[Spacial Isolation]

    A bubble of twisted space expanded and surrounded the top of the temple apex, turning everything around, the starry sky and the distant ground, to pure black.

“So you really intend to oppose us, Curson!” Bael snarled, looking down at the sphere in his frozen grasp. “Fine then, I’ll-” His eyes widened and his expression turned to shock and horror.

    Curson opened the outer layer of the spell sphere, allowing itself to escape and reform as a hovering eye at the top of the sealed space. This left Bael staring at the inner spell sphere which contained the Fragment of Destruction.

“You! YOU!! YOU’D BRING THIS HERE!?!?” Bael roared, his voice along causing the very space to tremble.

“Had you been content with the power you held, it would not have come to this.”

     The spell sphere attempted to move out from Bael’s hand and he tried to clutch it tightly. However, his arm turned more and more green, then his fingers began turning to mush, allowing the sphere to slip from his grasp. He turned his furious gaze to Siti, who stuck her tongue out at him, then turned his gaze to the sphere that he was helpless to stop.

     My body was carefully moved aside by some invisible force, presumably Curson’s spell, and that sphere took my place in the center.

“No, no! Are you insane, Curson?!” Orobas panicked.

“I had considered many options up to this point. Now, this is the only one left.”

     The sphere unraveled and the temple’s spell lit up. All the air within the sealed space was sucked into that black orb, then all was silent. I tried to wrap my head around what was happening as I watched that fragment, but my mind felt blank. A cold chill, terror gripped me. I didn’t understand, but somehow I knew that touching it would mean certain death.

     The black orb began to expand.

  Bael shouted, his voice now echoing through some kind of power that transmitted directly to our minds, rather than through the air, “YOU WOULD BRING THE LAW OF DESTRUCTION HERE!? IT’LL DESTROY THE ENTIRE DEMON REALM!!!”

“Indeed. If left unchecked, the Demon Realm will disappear. I can only hope that the Creator will put a stop to it. A gamble.”

  Bael flicked his arm, regaining control of his body as he ejected the pollutants in his body that was paralyzing him. “Tch! Then I just need to destroy you and get out of here.”

“YOU’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!!”

[Territory Manifestation: Caelum Sine Finibus]

     The interior of the isolated space filled in with an open, cloudless blue sky. Even the floor seemed to disappear, as if everyone was standing on air.

    Libero, once again in his form adorned in feathers, flung himself at Bael with a fist aimed at his face. Bael caught the attack and slid back, now trembling as he held Libero’s oncoming fists. “What, you think being isolated from my territory is enough? I’ve got enough strength in this body to grind you into dust!!” Bael grunted.

“Hah! Lying to others, now to yourself!? Let’s see if this is the truth or a lie, Bael: I’LL KILL YOU FOR CERTAIN!!”

     Orobas understood Bael’s intentions and turned their attention towards Curson, but quickly found themself wrapped and bound in vines emerging from Siti’s hands. The Demon God turned to Caedes, as if wondering what he was doing, only to find Caedes on the ground, body turning into green mush, with Andre mounted on his chest and punching into his face with four powerful arms.

  As my wound closed and my pain subsided, I slowly rose to my feet, face-to-face with Orobas who glared at me, their voice echoing in my head, “It’s not too late. If you stop all this, we can still send you home! Don’t you want to go home? To leave this place?”

“Yeah,” I muttered in my mind, “But I’m making sure you all don’t follow me.”

     Orobas released some force from their body, bursting the vines off of them, then moving away with some kind of levitation. Their body began to morph and change, hands expanding into enormous, dagger-like claws, body growing large and muscular, huge and powerful hoofed legs, his head growing large and long like a horse’s, and his closed eyes opening to reveal flaming red irises. His body began to glow with a familiar light, one that Orobas themself did not intend.

“Demon God Orobas,” Venia began, her voice seemingly echoing through the airless sky, “For your sin of proclaiming yourself an idol, though false, for pointing your claws at a goddess’s champion, for attempting to claim power at the cost of countless lives, and for plotting to threaten all of creation, your punishment is DEATH.”

“Haha,” Orobas chortled, “A lesser divinity is casting judgment on me, the Demon God of Faith? If it weren’t for your pretentious kind, I wouldn’t even exist! Show me how strong your champion’s faith is, and I’ll show you the gravity of the sin that you seek to punish!”