Dawn of the Fifteenth Night - The Last Night...?

The comet-like descend that disrupted the entirety of Gantlet just by its presence finally arrived and collided into the flood.

In birdseye, the impact dug deep a massive hole and the explosion pushed waves that made Renir and the Water Sentinel's last clash looked flimsy in comparison.

All life in large proximity was injured if not dead just from the explosion.

However, albeit creating a massive hole in the flood, the being that descended did not even hit the ground but only the water before abruptly stopping, ignoring all the laws of physics.

Like a star that decided to get a closer look. Gantlet seemed as bright as day for the first time since its creation but filled with white instead of blue.

Xenaphez walked out of the cave, boiling every water in its path into steam.

"It is a mystery why humans say that a counterpart of a demon is an angel like heaven and hell, good and evil.", purple fire with shades of darkness was softly being produced from his body, "How is that possible?", Xenaphez looked with its dark purple eyes in terror and saw the same principality that killed him and captured his soul to imbed into this doll.

Just thinking how he suffered waiting in eternity boiled his inexisting blood. Seeing in front of his eyes the cause of his death and most of all, that eternity, the purple fire with the shades of darkness that was soft at first was set ablaze at that moment! As if a large amount of fuel dropped into it.

The lowly body he took form couldn't handle the heat he was producing so it slowly turned charcoal black then slowly, blazing purple.

It was so hot, the water near him instantly turned to air then dispersed and the ground placed his foot slowly turned to magma.

If Renir was still there, he would've died at least twice.

Xenaphez's feet did not stumble when the ground turned to magma as both of his feet float on the air, and then, he flew up.

As he flew up, the water filled the ground he was standing on and cooled down the magma.

He had no chance against this principality but after countless years of being imprisoned inside the wooden doll, he would be considered brain-dead if he did not think of a plan to escape this almighty being.

When confronted, Xenaphez felt what was to be alive again after all his waiting, his fist shivered as it clutched onto his scythe that was unaffected by the otherwordly flames he was producing.

Xenaphez did not emit as much light as the principality so he was covered and vanishing into it as he got nearer.

Only when the light dimmed did Xenaphez saw his real enemy after all this time. The principality wasn't a programmed robot, it was curious as to why this demon was approaching it.

The principality was a pure white humanoid with a body texture of a stone, albeit lustrous. It's head shaped as if it had a hood over it. In the middle of its face was just one big eye that stared into Xenaphez. It has a very broad chest that has a meter of length, while down to it was a slimmed waist then thick hips. Its limbs were not just slim but thin. Its arms are long enough to reach its toes, yet, its legs are thinly stretched too with a pointy end instead of feet. Additionally, for its hands have no palm, just four-jointed fingers, five of it each hand.

Lastly, it has a pair of wings that have some sort of a cape in between. But actually, it was a third "wing". The wings were void of feathers and looked as if they were just bat's wings but purely white.

However, it would never be a part of the celestial hierarchy without its halo, yet, there was no halo to be seen.

When confronted the principality knew this demon's background of being stubborn. It was not accustomed to one approaching the higher existence in a fight. After all, the celestial hierarchy is absolute. An angel cannot defeat the archangel, while an archangel cannot defeat the principality, then it was impossible for the principality to defeat power, and so on.

Coming back to its holy self, it needed to capture this demon again. The halo that should be on top of its head revealed itself transparent towards translucent, then opaque.

This was happening in less than a second.

Xenaphez believed he knew this principality's power more than anyone else. So before the principality uses its power, revealing its completed halo, Xenaphez burst out all his power in a single point!

The purple flame blazing around him was pressured in a single point and exploded in one trajectory, it became a thin beam created out of plasma!

The principality was caught surprised by the sudden power in front of it. The demon actually used all of its power at the very start?

Without wanting to see if it hit the mark, Xenaphez dropped into the flood without the energy to fly and dove deep using all its prowess.

The beam he left vaporized the flood on its path while emitting energy that was too much for simple water creatures to handle as it melted the mountain that it hit!

Fortunately, the principality was shot directly to its single eye that covered its whole face, creating a hole one can see through.

If Xenaphez saw this, he would maniacally laugh but then will turn to depression right after.

Because, contrarily, the principality had not shown any reaction while its eyes recovered in matter minutes by the hole just decreasing its size until it was gone.

It was a celestial being, not an earthly being that physically feels pain...

That beam was all for nothing, yet, Xenaphez had no intention to kill or even damage the principality he hates so much. He knew his limitations and also, fears that it may capture him again.

Xenaphez's plan was to create the greatest attack he can manage to paralyze the principality and give him time to escape while reducing all his soul's energy to basically zero, temporarily crippling himself of power. The latter's purpose was to destroy the only reason why the principality could always pinpoint where he was.

He didn't know what to do afterward except swimming in any directions just directly away from the principality.

No matter how prideful he was before, he could only flee.

His only plan now was so stupid, he could die any moment that he couldn't consider it as one. Yet, it was his only plan.

He would run away, or in this case, until the land formed again, swim away as fast as possible while contracting his regenerating energy.

Xenaphez could not completely contract it so he will save it and try to emit as few of it as possible to make the principality had a hard time tracing it.

After all, the principality was overwhelmingly powerful but not all-powerful.

When he will eventually be found. He will release all the contracted energy like earlier and continue the cycle.

Xenaphez was trying to lure it away while escaping for himself.

'A debt still between us. But now, you are the one who has to pay, my acquaintance.'

....

Behind the Door of Salvation, Renir floated in the white abyss.

Just like the moment before death, he recollected everything he had gone through in a single thought.

It was only a fortnight, yet, it greatly changed him.

'I survived, didn't I?'

While his body, vanishing into the light, Renir felt his power leaving him.

'No...', he wanted to shout but no voice came out as he was devoured in the light, 'See you all... again.'

....

- Breaking News: Multiple cases of... -

Renir heard a voice. The voice was unfamiliar yet how it sounded was.

- The actress was now recovering from her sleep t... -

Time after time, the voice would often emit a static sound which was weird yet oddly normal and again, familiar.

Renir felt soft on his back as he was lying down and something smooth and light that covered his front. It was both warm and cool at the same time.

As his senses slowly returned, he realized there was a long smooth tube between his nose and mouth.

When he moved his hands to try and feel it, he heard a shriek;

"Ah-!"

Renir was shocked but could barely express it. His senses were about to return in its complete state so he opened to be blinded, but as soon as his eyes adapt to the brightness of the surroundings, he saw a white ceiling.

'If Xenaphez was right, shouldn't I be in the abandoned church?'

He rolled his eyes, wanting to know where he was at the moment. Then he saw clinical walls and in front was a tv turned on.

A feeling of relief rose within him, 'I'm back?'

Renir rolled his eyes again and noticed a girl staring at him in shock before she turned her back, ran at full speed, and shouted like crazy;

"Nurse!"

Renir looked confused, it seemed that he was in a hospital...?

But what confused him more was, 'Huh?... who?'