know your limits

As Azrael returned to the physical plane, he noticed that the stone statues that had come alive had barely closed the distance between him and them. He observed as two of the six slowly worked towards him.

Azrael charged at them and with a quick draw of his blade, he sliced off both of their legs, cutting them into multiple pieces.

"Oh," the voice taunted. "It seems you aren't completely incapable."

Azrael had already demobilized two of the six stone statues by destroying their legs, and now all he needed to do was stop the other four. Azrael rushed at the next stone statue, and with one good slash to the leg, he had given multiple more, completely destroying its legs and making it incapable of moving. Now there were only three left: the two that guarded the entrance and the one approaching him.

As Azrael was about to lunge at the fourth one to attack, he heard the pieces of broken stone rolling on the floor as they came together. The remains of the stone statues he had demobilized, including the one he had yet to attack, crumbled as their crumbles all gathered in one spot.

From the gathering, something was being formed. As Azrael watched in shock, it grew bigger and stronger, towering above him. Its size was belittling, and its power was more terrifying.

"Of course, it gets bigger," Azrael muttered as he watched it.

Azrael was done watching, and his only option was to attack the legs again. "What does growing in size do?" Azrael taunted as he launched at the large stone statue.

"You'll just fall again," Azrael said, drawing his sword after having closed the distance between him and the statue. Just as he did that, cuts could be seen on the leg of the statue, but these cuts were nothing but tiny marks, not even deep enough to be considered a dent.

"Huh," Azrael said, realizing that his attack had failed. But before he could analyze what had happened, the giant foot that he had attempted to cut was swinging for him.

With very quick movements, Azrael evaded it, but he was still well within the zone of danger. Again, the statue swung the end of its spear at Azrael, who quickly backed away, avoiding the spear and creating distance between him and the giant stone statue. However, that also didn't keep him safe.

The stone statue's eyes had a malevolent red glow, but as Azrael watched, the light intensified, and he realized with a sinking feeling that something terrible was about to happen. "Oh crap," he muttered, trying to move out of the way, but he was too slow. The beam of light struck the edge of his shoulder, and Azrael felt a searing pain shoot through him. He moved as fast as he could, but the beam was right behind him, almost vaporizing everything in its path.

As he launched around the room, debris flew everywhere as the beam followed him. Azrael could hear the voice taunting him, "dissapointing" it said. He had no plans, no options, and he didn't know what to do next. He was exhausted, and he knew it was only a matter of time before the beam caught him.

But then an idea came to him. He pulled out his sword and held it with both hands, gripping the hilt and the tip. He positioned the sword in front of him, ready to block the beam. The force of the beam pushing against the sword pushed him back, and Azrael cried out in pain at the pressure on his injured shoulder.

Despite the pain, he held his ground, gritting his teeth as he focused on pushing the beam back with his sword. His arms were shaking from the effort, and he felt like he might collapse at any moment.

Azrael deflected the beam with a swift movement of his sword, using the momentum to charge towards the statue. The giant stone figure anticipated the attack and turned around, raising its spear to strike, but the attack which it anticipated was fake.

Azrael was already behind it, ready to unleash his most powerful strike. With a mighty swing, Azrael brought his sword down upon the statue's head, unleashing a deafening shockwave throughout the temple. The sword sliced through the stone as if it were butter, but to Azrael's dismay, the statue remained standing. Hanging from the hilt of his sword, Azrael realized that his grand attack had not done any significant damage.

The statue confirmed Azrael's fears with another attack, slamming its massive fist into Azrael's body with a deafening impact. The force of the blow sent Azrael hurtling through the air, crashing into the wall with a sickening thud. He groaned in agony, his vision blurred and blood trickling from his mouth.

"Mortimer," Azrael croaked, "take me to the Watchers Gate." Silence followed, before Mortimer finally replied. "I'm afraid that's not possible, Azrael. You can only enter the gate twice every dark night,"

Azrael's heart raced as Mortimer's words echoed in his head. He didn't understand what Mortimer meant, but he knew that he needed to act fast if he wanted to survive. "The god form, I hav-" Azrael tried to say, but Mortimer cut him off, insisting that he had to wait " Let that power show itself first,"

As he struggled to comprehend Mortimer's words, Azrael heard a female voice getting closer. "You know, when you walked in here, I was hoping to be entertained," the voice said, its tone dripping with condescension.

"The last visitor was so overwhelmingly powerful that I dared not challenge him, but your showings have been no short of a disappointment," the woman said as she revealed herself: a woman with dark hair and golden eyes.

The woman walked over to the chair which was at the middle of the room and sat down, crossing her legs as she gazed down at Azrael, who was bloody and battered on the floor. "You really came here just to die?" she taunted.

Then, suddenly, Mortimer's voice echoed in Azrael's mind once more: "Now." Azrael's lips curled into a small smile as his eyes began to glow with a devastating and terrifying aura that enveloped his body.

The woman's voice rang out once again, this time with a deadly command: "Kill him." The giant statue's eyes glowed brightly once more as it launched its beam towards Azrael. In response, Azrael raised his hands slightly to face the beam. As the beam hit Azrael's hands, the usual destruction that came from its impact was absent. The beam had dissipated into nothing, leaving Azrael unscathed.