Requiem, Armor of Corruption

*Slightly earlier*

While Axel was busy throwing down with Conquest, the soldiers were busy trying to evacuate everyone out of the military base.

Well, what was left of it anyways.

It had been ground zero for Conquest's epic arrival and had been pummeled under its massive weight. Thankfully, since they expected the possibility of heavy damages during the war, they had placed every floor of importance beneath the surface. Unfortunately though with very little data on Gods themselves they had no way to measure how effective this strategy would be against something of that magnitude.

The first two sub-levels had collapsed completely which of course trapped everyone on the remaining sub-levels. The soldiers had managed to begin rescue efforts despite this thanks largely in part to a certain individual.

Jayden ran over next to a piece of the collapsed headquarters on ground level where Iris sat with her back against it. She was controlling her breathing in steady breaths as sweat poured down her face. He bent down to her as he approached and offered her a military-issued water jug that was near indestructible(divine beings were not accounted as a possible hazard however).

Iris only nodded and took the jug from him before guzzling its contents.

"Thankfully one of the trucks wasn't completely smashed to pieces. Sooo found this baby tucked away."

Iris gave a thumbs up as she kept the container to her dry, cracked lips.

Jayden's face scrunched a little in worry. "On a 1-10, how bad off are you right now?"

Iris lowered the bottle and looked up at him. "Tell me - did we lose as many as I think we did?"

"...Well.."

Her face seemed to sink some. "I see..."

"But we would've lost so much more if you hadn't been so quick to act! Thanks to you, we were able to save a crap ton from what should've been a complete wipe out." Jayden protested.

Iris struggled as she tried to get up as she used the piece of debris to prop herself up.

Jayden quickly intervened, "Whoa, what are you doing? You need to sit down for a bit after using it. It takes such a toll-"

"We're not done yet. Or did you miss the mythical fucking hydra stomping through the city?"

Jayden put his hands on her shoulders, "Iris. We can't take that thing on. We have to get everyone out of here before one of those balls of fire finds us. Jun would totally agree-"

"So you're just gonna leave Jun behind then?" She said with a stern look on her face.

"No. I mean, of course not. I would never abandon him."

"Then you know what we have to do. Someone is already over there-"

"Noooooope. Big nope! Not doing it. We both know who the fuck is over there." Jayden said, throwing his arms in front of him. "We should instead use his dumb decision to make the smart one and get the hell out of here NOW!"

"I see. So was his thinking really right about contract slayers then? Are we really on that different of a menu that we have to leave this to him?" Iris said as she knew what this would do to Jayden.

"...fine, let's go."

*Present time*

Jayden pulled his bow from his back carrier - the moment he grasped the center of the handle the energy string stretched down from top to bottom.

"So, do we have a plan here?" He asked of Iris as she removed her arm from around his neck.

"Yes." She held out her right hand and looked at the relic of a ring that sat on her finger. She then turned her palm upwards and clenched her fist. "Give me an opening."

Over in the chasm left by Axel's dramatically sized sword, he laid at the bottom of it on his back looking up towards the sky. His sword had returned to its normal size and laid in a pile of concrete several feet away. His injuries appeared minor for someone who had just fallen as far as he had.

But his most grave injury….was his ego.

"Sigh...that..was so embarrassing." Axel whined. "Almost as important though, he could've done that at any time. He chose not to dodge my attacks."

For Axel, this new revelation changed things. While his sword was indeed powerful and could become very large, it was also very very slow. That's why he would try to use trickery to disguise the lengthening of his blade during the attack to throw off his opponent's timing. But his opponent now knew he could easily avoid his strongest moves, and that was quite the advantage.

"Kneel humanity! There is none left who can stand before me!, " Conquest bellowed.

Axel moaned as he slapped his hand against his forehead. "There's gotta be a way to shut him uppppp. Hm?" His attention was caught by a small black light floating towards the beast. Then the small speck multiplied into even more.

"Well shit. I thought he would've been stomped on by this point."

The beast turned his head to see a horde of incoming arrows zooming toward him.

"More of these games?!" Conquest yelled as the beast released a fiery wave of energy towards the arrows. They were consumed easily by the powerful blast.

Just as Conquest ended his attack, a single red arrow crawling with static discharge zoomed through the cloud of smoke left by Conquest's attack and broke right through their defense.

"What is this?" Conquest asked as it slipped by the first head.

The arrow impacted against one of the remaining necks of the beast. At first nothing happened and Conquest just chuckled it away.

That's when it kicked in.

"AHHHHHHHH!!" The beast whaled as the red energy covered it completely. It was forced to a knee as it became encumbered with pain.

As the smoke cleared, Jayden could be seen standing on a building not far away with a smirk on his face. "I can't split it like my other arrows, but one is plenty. Welcome to my binding arrow! The energy attaches to your pain receptors and overloads them! Not even a God is immune it seems."

The beast looked upon him and snarled, "I see another rat crawls out of the woodwork. But don't think for a moment that this is enough to break me." He had already begun to slowly get back up as the effect was waning.

So that's all it can do to a God, eh? Jayden thought. "Well, good thing I'm just a decoy then I guess."

"Decoy?...." Conquest muttered.Thankfully he had impeccable hearing.

That's when he started to notice small strands of black energy floating through the air - twisting and turning as if it had a mind of its own. The beast looked around and saw that the energy was everywhere around them like some kind of weird infection. "Damn not being able to sense energy! Where is this coming from??"

The sound of an armored boot as it clapped against the cracked pavement caught the beast's attention. It looked down and saw an armored black soldier standing on the ground below. It had spiky protrusions on its armor and a skull-like helmet. The black energy swirled around it and leaked out into the air around it. Just looking upon it was enough to invoke nightmare-like thoughts to the beholder.

Conquest felt something drop within him.

"H-how is this possible?! That armor...there's not a God alive who doesn't know that armor! The last ruler of the underworld locked it away! How did you get your hands on it??" Conquest demanded of the warrior.

Jayden looked down at the armored person. "Show them what you can really do, Iris."

Iris looked up at the impending beast through the sinister helmet she wore. Saying no words, she marched toward the still recovering beast.

"Damn that accursed witch! How dare she release such a weapon into the mortal realm. Requiem, armor of corruption!"