Chapter 60

Originally published on 16/2/2022

"Alright, here you go!" Palutena spoke to the latest batch of fighters that had come to her for healing, just after they'd finished being healed up. "Be safe!"

Roxas' first wife took a breath as she watched the batch of approximately three hundred fighters raising themselves up into the air (either on wings or through some other magical means) and flying back towards the battle. Tapping her staff into the ground to replenish the healing magic that had been focused into a large runic circle that she'd been standing in the middle of (put together by Scathach) since the battle had begun, she looked out over all the fighting that had been going on for the past several hours. On the hills, in the valleys, up in the sky... and all of it started by her mother.

Palutena sighed as she looked down at where Hera and her subordinates had come into the Mirror Dimension-variant of the hilly area that everyone was currently fighting on (she doubted that Hera had moved too much from where she'd come in). Ever since she and Yahweh had split up so long ago, she'd always been like this.

It was her fault that Yahweh and Hera had split up. It was her fault that Hera had turned into this. It was... her fault that this had been happening.

"Lady Palutena!" a group of Lilim soldiers appeared in front of her this time, jolting Palutena out of her musings. Every single one had some kind of injury, ranging from minor, to severe, to 'it was hard to believe that they hadn't dropped dead from that level of injury' injuries. Forcing down the unpleasant feeling in the pit of her stomach that formed at the sight of those injuries, Palutena rose above the runic circle that she'd been standing in the middle of, and silently gestured for the Lilim soldiers to get into it so they could be healed.

There were far more soldiers that had come to her than the circle could naturally fit, just over a thousand, so they went in groups of around four hundred, with the most-injured naturally going first. For the most severe injuries, Palutena had to summon a set of silver rings to enhance her healing magic in order to heal the severely-injured quicker. Once they were done, the next two groups moved in and were healed, with Palutena sending them on their way once she was done, same as the others.

Once everyone was gone, Palutena cast her eyes over the battlefield again. Past the Archviles (how Hera had managed to take THEM from the pits of Malebolge, not even she had anything close to an idea), past the Demons that they were summoning out of their own brand of demonic power, past the remaining Magicians, past the remaining Giants, past everything...

No.

This couldn't go on any more. Palutena wouldn't let this go on any more.

When Hera and Yahweh had split up so long ago, with herself being the core reason that that had happened, that had been the start of Hera being... how she was now. But Palutena would never have guessed that Hera would've descended to this low, allying with terrorists like the Khaos Brigade and attacking Roxas.

This shit HAD to stop, and Palutena knew she could do it.

After another group of soldiers, this time Devil soldiers, came up to her in need of healing, and after Palutena quickly did just that, she dragged her staff along the ground in the shape of a particular rune, that signified powerful healing magic. It only took several seconds to do, but once it was done, she poured a portion of her power into the rune, causing it to glow a bright green, showing that the rune was activated and had her power flowing through it, whether or not she was there to oversee the healing of whoever stepped onto the rune.

With that done, the greenette Goddess rose herself into the air, and flew forwards over the battlefield, scanning the battlefield for any sign of her mother, so she could put an end to the battle, once and for all. She knew that Roxas had asked her to stay back, she knew that he hadn't even wanted her to come along for this battle in the first place... but she also knew that she could end this quickly.

And once it was over, once Hera was brought down, or even killed (though Palutena, in her heart of hearts, really didn't want to have to personally kill her own mother)... everything would be fine.

Palutena passed over where the bulk of the fighting was going on, where there was no sign of her mother (as far as she could see). Making it over the last of the hills and onto the open plain that separated them from the town, and from Hera's temple, Palutena made a beeline for the latter, figuring that that was where Hera would probably go. However, before she could get up to full speed and fly all the way there, she noticed a certain white-haired lilac-eyed young Goddess floating some ways beneath her, the sight of which made her slow down slightly.

"Hebe..." Palutena spoke, slightly sadly, as she moved down onto a level with her half-sister. "What the hell did Hera tell you to make you side with her?"

"Enough." Hebe replied, holding a hand up and beginning to charge up a light-attack of some kind. "Moth- Lady Hera told me all about you, and what you're really like!"

"Oh, really?" Palutena asked, an eyebrow raised. She didn't raise her staff to directly prepare for a fight, but she subconsciously prepared to cast a protective barrier at a second's notice, in case Hebe actually did fire at her. "And what, pray tell, did Mum tell you about me? Because I've got a slight feeling that what she's told you is... inaccurate."

"Lady Hera told me enough." Hebe replied, pointing her hand at Palutena and continuing to charge her attack. "All that I need to hear. About your disrespect, both as her daughter and as a fellow Goddess-"

Palutena resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

'Funny, last I checked I wasn't Mum's daughter, in her eyes.' she remarked. 'But now she calls me such when it's convenient for her. And I'm not even gonna dignify the 'fellow Goddess' bit.'

"-About your disloyalty to your family-"

'Only because it's not the family that she wants me to be loyal to.' Palutena mentally replied, suppressing a giggle as best she could.

"And about how you're not in your right mind, so Moth- Lady Hera thinks you need to be put right!" Hebe finished, slightly insistently. She seemed to have noticed Palutena's suppressed smirk, and looked slightly indignant at Palutena's seeming casual-ness at the whole situation. It looked somewhat cute, on the small white-haired Goddess.

After that, Palutena couldn't suppress her giggle, which gradated to a full-on laugh.

"And she thinks that trying to kill my husband- the father of my child- is going to put me right?" she asked, through her laughter. "Does THAT sound like someone who's in their right mind, to you?"

That seemed to be enough for Hebe to fire off the attack that she'd been charging up. But for all the charging-up she'd done, Palutena was just as ready to block her attack as Hebe had been to fire it, and did just that with a smoothly-created barrier, deflecting the attack right back at the young Goddess in question. The attack that Hebe had charged up seemed to be powerful enough to temporarily daze her when she was hit by it, said temporary dazing being exactly what Palutena needed to take advantage of to wave her staff, and have her tied up in magically-enhanced ropes within a second of Hebe being hit with her own attack.

"Hera is crazy, Hebe." Palutena replied. "And if she gets her way here, it's only going to get worse for everyone. Not just me, not just Roxas, EVERYONE. And trust me, you don't want to still be allied with her when she inevitably comes down. Please, sis, I'm giving you an out, here."

Hebe stopped trying to free herself from her older half-sister's restraints, widening her eyes from Palutena's words. It was instantly plain on her face that Palutena's words had sunk in a little, that she was considering it. Which was all Palutena needed to see.

"I know you're not a bad person, Hebe..." Palutena spoke, in a softer tone, her staff lowered. "Don't let Hera poison your mind like she's done with so many others... please."

"I..." Hebe blinked, very clearly thinking hard about what Palutena had said. She was very clearly mentally on the fence, and Palutena was pretty sure she knew what would serve as a good metaphorical push for her.

"Look over there." Palutena spoke, floating aside and pointing with her staff to the battle going on far below her and Hebe. "I know you can see it, Hebe. That's what Hera's bringing to the world, and it's what she'll bring EVERYWHERE if she isn't stopped. And all because of... what? Some wish to see HER version of things imposed everywhere? Spite against everyone who doesn't agree with her way of thinking? Because she's crazy? I don't know! But is that really someone you want to follow, potentially to your death?"

"N-no!" Hebe squeaked, continuing to strain against Palutena's magically-formed restraints. "I don't want to die!"

"And you won't." Palutena replied. "You'll be alright, don't you worry." She waved her staff, and released Hebe from her restraints. Hebe immediately floated towards Palutena and wrapped her arms around her, burying her head in her chest. Palutena was all too happy to return the hug, smiling. At least she was able to convince someone to leave... whatever the hell her mother was doing.

"...Your husband is really lucky." Hebe remarked, her voice slightly muffled thanks to where her head happened to end up while she hugged her older half-sister. Palutena let out a small giggle at the remark, and pulled back.

"You have no idea." she replied, letting Hebe go and raising her staff, the orb of which glowed a bright blue. "I'll send you somewhere safe, sis." she continued, as Hebe began to glow blue herself. "Tell anyone who asks that Palutena sent you, okay?"

Hebe nodded, and disappeared in a blue flash of light. No sooner was she gone from the battlefield did Palutena begin to blow a bright green light as well. She barely got the time to realise what was happening before she felt herself ripped away from her current position on the battlefield, and transported to a different place, somewhere indoors. Yahweh's daughter had a couple of seconds to take in her new surroundings, figuring out that she was inside a temple of some kind, and that that temple was most likely Hera's, before a beam of fiery energy came flying at her from her right.

Raising her staff, Palutena cast a barrier in front of her, blocking the energy that had been fired her way. With her free hand, she sent several bolts of light energy in the direction that the energy-beam was coming from, unable to see who was attacking her from her current position but hoping that she could hit them and throw them off their attempt at burning her alive.

One of the energy-bolts that she'd thrown out evidently made their mark, as a noticeably female hiss of pain met her ears from the direction that the fiery energy-beam was coming from. Said energy-beam subsided a couple of seconds later, revealing Hera. She was holding a hand over one eye, probably where Palutena had hit her with one of her bolts.

Scowling at her oldest daughter, Hera flung her free hand at Palutena, using her divine power to throw a large chunk of a nearby pillar in her direction. As the piece of pillar approached her, Palutena pointed her staff at the pillar, sending a pulse of blue energy through it. The pillar burst apart on contact with the blue energy, splitting into many tiny chunks that Palutena flung back at Hera, who rose a barrier of her own with her free hand to block her returned attack, while she finished healing her eye with her other hand.

"Why do you keep coming back into my life?" Hera growled, glaring at Palutena. "When you KNOW I don't want ANYTHING to do with a traitor like YOU?"

"Coming back into your life? COMING BACK INTO YOUR LIFE?" Palutena repeated, her green eyes blazing as she glared right back. "You came WAY more into my life than I into yours! All Roxas and I did was move into a villa that Azazel gave us, how does that come anywhere close to you trying to kill my husband?!"

"That experiment of yours is hardly husband material." Hera replied, smoothly. "I truly expected better of you, Palutena. Just another way that you've disappointed your mother."

"I think I'll take that as a compliment." Palutena retorted, her staff still raised. She fired a powerful beam of light out of it, which Hera was barely able to block with a hastily-formed barrier, before returning fire by conjuring a number of horses out of fire, and sending them rushing at Palutena, who swung her free hand and sent a wave of water over the horses, putting out the flames instantly.

"All of this could've been avoided!" Hera yelled, bringing her hands together in a loud clap. Palutena felt the floor beneath her rumbling, as well as the ceiling dropping, and quickly warped herself backwards. She was off the section of the floor that she'd previously been on microseconds before it flew upwards at speed to meet the section of the ceiling directly above it, which had been dropping at a similar speed. With that kind of speed and power behind it, her body would've most likely been heavily damaged, and that was to say nothing of the baby that she was carrying.

Hera growled at her oldest daughter as she landed, and swung her hand in a large circle, forming spikes of ice in a circle all around her. A snap of her fingers sent said spikes flying at her at the same time, forcing Palutena to warp herself out of harm's way again.

"If you'd just had the sense to pick ME, stay with your MOTHER over that fool Yahweh!" Hera continued to scream, tears in her eyes now as she raised a hand, pointing it dramatically at Palutena, who landed easily a couple of dozen feet away from where she'd warped. "That day, if you'd just come with me, you could've had the perfect life!"

"What, as just another weapon of yours? As another pawn for you to throw away as a part of the Khaos Brigade?" Palutena replied, raising her staff again and pointing it at Hera. "Why are you even involved with the Brigade in the first place? What do you get out of it?"

"EVERYTHING!" Hera screamed, firing another powerful bolt of energy at Palutena. Not at her face, this time, but at her stomach. Palutena, not expecting this, was only barely able to summon a barrier around her belly to block the attack, gazing back at Hera with a shocked expression on her face. "The respect I had as Queen of the Olympians! The power that my name carried across the world before Zeus... that fucking bastard..."

Palutena found herself becoming more and more glad by the second that she had taken more after her father than her mother in every aspect but physical appearance.

"But we're weak right now." Hera continued, her eyes cast down towards the ground for a moment. "I don't know why, but Ophis has just up and left the Brigade, robbing us of our best asset. When we get them back, we'll be able to continue, and put this world right..." she then looked up at Palutena, a pleading look in her eyes. "Palutena, please..."

"Save it, Hera." Palutena replied, an icy note in her voice as she raised her staff again, pointing it at her. "I don't need to hear another word to know what you're going to say... go fuck yourself."

A shocked look came over Hera's face for a moment as she took in what Palutena had just said to her, but it was quickly replaced by a very ugly look indeed. Raising one hand, she fired a blast of dark magical energy at Palutena's stomach. Palutena, who was prepared for it this time, waved her staff and formed a powerful barrier just in time for Hera's energy-beam to be blocked. But before Palutena could fire off a counterattack past her barrier at her mother, Hera raised her other hand, causing it to begin glowing. Before Palutena could counteract what Hera was doing, another bolt of dark energy flew out of Hera's newly-raised hand and struck Palutena's barrier. A second later, said barrier began to crack and dissolve, as if the energy that Palutena had been putting into it was being sucked out.

Palutena let out a cry of surprise and instinctively raised her staff to protect herself and her belly, with the original dark energy that Hera had fired striking the hand in which she held her staff, causing her to drop said staff, which Hera pulled to her hand with more energy.

"So, you've made your choice." she spoke, her voice even colder than Palutena's had been a moment earlier. Hell, it was coldest that Palutena had EVER heard her mother speaking, which was saying a lot. "If you won't wake up to your purpose, Palutena... then maybe my next grandchild will."

At that moment, the wall that Hera directly stood in front of was blown out.

Line Break

"Focus on the Pinkies!" A captain among the Devil troops yelled, firing a powerful bolt of lightning out of one hand. "Stop them from breaking our formation and fight through the Malebolgeans!" The Pinky, the charging Demon that the Devil captain had fired his lightning-bolt at, shrugged off the magical energy as it struck its large, bulky form.

It was a boar-like beast with huge tusks that could bite and shred anyone who was unfortunate enough to meet it at close-range. It had beady, glowing eyes and a gaping maw filled with sharp fangs. There was a thick layer of armour on the Pinky that covered its back, legs, arms and forehead. Its flesh was pink in colour, while the armour was a more reddish-pink with a knurled, almost chitinous-like appearance and ridged with tusk-like spines, giving them a dinosaur-like appearance as well.

Noticing the Devil captain that had attacked it, the Pinky charged, letting out a loud guttural squeal as it did so. The captain that had fired at the Pinky let out a scream of fright, spreading his six wings and attempting to fly away. He succeeded, but didn't get away from the Pinky completely unscathed, as his right leg was caught within the Pinky's jaws, and torn off with ease.

Thanks to it having come much closer to the soldier-Devils than before, and thanks to it having stopped moving, the Pinky was now a much bigger and easier target for the Devil soldiers closest to their now-one-legged captain, who bombarded the aggressive pink Demon with all manner of magic until it finally stumbled and fell, where it then moved no more. Their victory was short-lived, however, as another two Pinkies were summoned out of thin air by some of the Archviles that stood at the back of the crowd of Demons (none of which had been slain by the Devil soldiers that presently stood against them), joined by two Pain Elementals that floated above, and a Mancubus that stood behind the Pinkies.

Pain Elementals, cousins of the Cacodemon, were floating spherical demons with a single eye and a large human-like jaw, that was surrounded on either side by several well-articulated mandibles, each capable of individual movement. They were a leathery brown colour in comparison to a Cacodemon's dark red, and possessed large pronounced horns atop its head, with several smaller sets of horns stubbing its brow and scalp, resembling scant hairs in a weird sort of way. On either side of its body, it possessed a long, muscular arm with three claws at the end of each arm.

The Pain Elemental reached into its own gaping maw with one of its hands, and somehow pulled out a large flaming skull with red eyes, large horns and sharp, pointed teeth inside its mouth. Letting out a scream of mixed pain and anger, it threw the skull at a nearby group of Devil soldiers, scoring a direct hit on them before anyone had a chance to throw up a barrier. The impact of which threw the Devils that had been hit in every which way, allowing one of the Pinkies an easier time at charging into the ranks of the Devil soldiers, squealing loudly all the while and chomping on anything and everything it could reach. The Pinky managed to charge its way through a large chunk of the Devil soldiers before its weak flank was impacted by a Devil who'd managed to get off a lucky shot, stunning the Demon for long enough that death soon followed via further bombardment.

"Keep fighting!" Zeoticus Gremory yelled, firing an explosive spell at the open mouth of an approaching Cacodemon. The spell activated inside the flloating demon's mouth, blowing it up from the inside. "Get to the Archviles!"

A large group of Devils, who had just got done killing a group of Imps and Gargoyles, rose up into the air and flew above the Demons, making a beeline for the Archviles. However, a disgusting-looking ball of demonic goo flew through the air towards them, fired off by the Mancubus, the most revolting-looking of all the Demons. It bore a single eye and a large, gaping mouth that constantly hung open with sharp, rotting teeth.

It was covered in armour that looked like it was made from a chitinous material, that covered its chest, shoulders and lower body, leaving both its back and enormous, loosely-hanging stomach exposed. The stomach had a large scar on it that ran down the middle, and the chest-piece of the Mancubus' armour bore an orange, glowing demonic rune. Covering the Mancubus' arms were two large chitinous growths with two orange glowing barrels, that served as its main armament, one of which it had shot the aforementioned ball of goo out of. The Mancubus also bore piping that led from its upper back to its arms, most likely for the goo it secreted to traverse towards its makeshift arm-cannons.

None of the Devil soldiers were able to see the ball of goo that the Mancubus had fired at them until it was far too late to attempt to conjure up anything to block the goo. Zeoticus flung out a barrier himself, trying to cast it over the group of soldiers that had rushed forward. Though in the back of his mind, he had a feeling that the energy that he'd thrown out, which would become a barrier that formed around the soldiers when it made its way to them, wouldn't get there in time. That it wouldn't be able to protect the soldiers that had been given to him.

However, before the shield that Zeoticus had cast could wrap around the Devil soldiers, and before the Mancubus' goo-ball could strike them, a bolt of light energy flew through the air and struck the goo-ball, disintegrating it instantly. Looking up at where the bolt had come from, Zeoticus saw the brunette glasses-wearing woman who had been talking with Dulio back on Mount Olympus. The one that Roxas hadn't been able to take his eyes off of when he, Palutena and the rest of his peerage had warped in. Nothing was different with her appearance-wise, sans the fact that ten pure-white wings were extended from her back, from which she hung in mid-air.

Next to her, Dulio floated, yawning as he looked down at the Demons, the Archviles in particular. Most of them looked up back at him and, with screeches of rage, swung their arms at him and sent powerful-looking waves of demonic flame his way, snarling at the two Angels, their arch-nemesis species.

Dulio simply waved his hand, sending out a gust of wind so cold that it froze the Malbolgean-cast flame where it was. Raising his other hand into the air, ominous-looking dark clouds began to gather directly above the Archviles. Seconds later, powerful bolts of lightning came down from the clouds, striking the Archviles with enough Holy energy to disintegrate the demon-summoners in one shot. As soon as the first of their number had been struck down, the Archvile's screeches of rage became squeals of fear, as they looked all around, as if some way off of the battlefield would magically open up for them.

None did, and it didn't take Dulio much longer to wipe out the Archviles, with minimal effort on his part. He was out of their range of direct fire, they were weak to Holy energy (which he infused into every attack he fired off via his Sacred Gear: Zenith Tempest, the second-strongest of the Longinus-Class Sacred Gears, and the second-strongest Sacred Gear period), and he didn't have to worry about the other Demons that they'd summoned thanks to his fellow Joker. Said fellow Joker had manifested magical chains that came up from the ground, around every Demon that currently stood on the ground, and infused light energy into the chains that purified the Demons, killing them nigh-instantly. After that, she moved onto the flying Demons, eliminating them with the same bolts of light energy that she had used to disintegrate the demonic goo that the Mancubus had fired at the group of Devil soldiers.

The whole process didn't even take twenty seconds to finish, after which Dulio looked over at his fellow Joker with a grin.

"Nice one, Chisato." he remarked. Chisato only smiled back, as Zeoticus raised himself into the air on eight Devil wings. He'd seen Roxas flying over the hills, and he intended to help his grandson out.

Line Break

Out of Roxas and Ares, Ares was the first to charge, letting out a war-cry and flying at the Nephalem, his fists coated in divine flame. Roxas dodged to the side as Ares' fist almost met his face, and swung at the God of War's back with Clarent Galatine. His sword met its intended target, carving a deep gash into Ares' lower back. Ares let out a cry of pain as he felt Roxas' main weapon penetrating his back, and whirled around to face the Nephalem, who had already flown backwards and put a sizeable distance between himself and Ares.

Whipping out Ombra with his free left hand, Roxas fired a bullet of darkness-infused energy at the Olympian, scoring five direct shots in Ares' stomach before Ares was able to begin flying at him again, the sight of which he dispelled one of his three firearms. Clarent Galatine was dispelled as well when Ares got close enough, with Roxas being forced to meet the God of War's hands in a struggle of strength. Hissing in pain as Ares' divine flames met his flesh (but, for what was probably the billionth time in his life, thankful for the Angelic side of his nature as a Nephalem), he attempted to push back against the strongest son of Zeus and Hera.

Such an endeavour quickly proved hopeless, as the only centuries-old Nephalem's strength- though considerable- could never really compare with a God who had lived for millennia, and had lived and breathed battle and bloodshed for his entire existence. Roxas quickly disengaged from the struggle, summoned Clarent Galatine in a flash, and took a quick swing at Ares as he stumbled forward in mid-air. Roxas' sword met its mark, slicing through Ares' right wrist before the God could put up any sort of defence (though Roxas wasn't exactly sure if the word 'defence' even registered with any meaning in Ares' mind) and cutting off his hand.

Ares could only blink, looking rather stupid as he did so, at the sight of his right hand dropping to the ground a couple of hundred feet below where he and Roxas floated in mid-air, before looking back at Roxas, an expression of apoplectic rage slowly forming on his face.

"I'm not sorry." Roxas remarked, taking a breath and readying himself as Ares, fully coating himself in the divine fire that he'd previously just coated his hands in, lunged at his opponent with an animalistic scream of rage. Roxas flew backwards again, putting distance between himself and Ares that Ares closed just as quickly, throwing a devastating-looking punch that JUST missed Roxas' head. Though some of Ares' divine flames did lick Roxas' face, so close was his fist. Grimacing from the pain, Roxas whipped out Ombra, aimed for Ares' flames-coated head and fired. Another yell of pain from the God was enough tell that Roxas had hit his mark, and the flames around Ares' top half subsided.

Blood spewed from Ares' left eye, where Roxas' darkness-bullet had struck. At the sight of his own blood, Ares let out another scream and dove at Roxas, fully intent on beating the Nephalem to a pulp. He came at Roxas hard and fast, forcing the Nephalem on the defensive. Flame-covered punches, kicks, thrown fireballs and blasts of divine energy, all of which Roxas was forced to narrowly avoid or deflect with either Clarent Galatine, or a hastily-formed barrier. The older son of Sirzechs and Grayfia didn't even have the time to think about throwing anything back at Ares, let alone actually go through with such things, such was the speed and force of which Ares kept coming at him. No matter what he did, and how hard he tried to get away from Ares, he'd close the distance that he formed between the pair of them as fast as he could make it.

There was also the option of teleporting away, but... no.

Letting out another scream, Ares threw another punch Roxas' way, one that Roxas attempted to block with a hastily-formed barrier, thinking that he'd be able to block- or at least deflect- it without much trouble. However, to his horror, Ares' punch was powerful enough to go straight THROUGH the barrier that he'd formed, and collide with his face. Roxas barely even had time to let out a yell of pain from the powerful God's burning fist, before Ares followed up his punch with an axe-kick that struck Roxas in the head, and sent him down to the ground with meteoric force.

It was lucky for Roxas that Ares didn't immediately capitalize on the dazed state brought on by such a kick to the head, instead opting to float above Roxas' half-conscious form with a smug smirk on his face, the divine flames that surrounded his body now dissolving, allowing him a better sight with his single eye.

"Ow..." Roxas groaned, doing his best to pick himself up, but stumbling back to the ground in the middle of the crater that his body had formed when he hit the ground.

"Not so tough now, are you, Gremory?" Ares asked, slowly descending from his position on high and looking down his nose at his opponent. Though he looked, admittedly, pretty badass while floating above his downed enemy, the image was slightly ruined- in Roxas' opinion- by the fresh blood pouring from the eye that he'd shot him in.

It was also totally ruined on top of that by the fact that it was Roxas himself that Ares was looking down on. Fuck that noise, the Nephalem thought.

"Still tough enough to not die in two hits from you, you fucking meathead." Roxas replied, finally getting to his feet and shaking the last of his dizziness from his head. "I'd say I'm tougher than most, thanks to that."

"Fair point." Ares replied, touching down on the ground and regarding Roxas with a sneer. "It's just too bad that you're not on the right side. You would've made a very valuable member of Lady Hera's for- AGH!"

Ares stumbled backwards, looking down at the freshly-formed extremely gory hole in his stomach, where he'd just been shot. Roxas, through his own pain, grinned, the Vindicator out and in his left hand, all three barrels smoking.

"Forces that haven't even learned to not let your guard down while talking?" the Nephalem replied, grinning. "I'd say I'm more valued than anyone among your forces. And that includes your cunt of a mother."

"Learn THIS!" Ares screamed, throwing another punch at Roxas' face. Roxas ducked, and neatly rolled to Ares' side, dodging the fireball that Ares sent flying at where he'd been seconds earlier. "AND THIS!" Ares screamed again, turning to where Roxas now was and sending a beam of fire out of his mouth directly at Roxas, forcing him to jump backwards. "AND THIS!" Ares dived forward, throwing yet another punch, but Roxas was able to jump to the side again, taking to the air with his white wings.

"STOP MOVING, YOU FUCKING FREAK!" Ares yelled, taking to the air himself. Before Roxas could make another turn, Ares grabbed Roxas by one of his ankles, and flung him back to the ground, quickly landing on top of him and stomping on his chest for good measure. Roxas coughed up blood as Ares stomped on his chest twice more before forming an impromptu right hand out of divine energy, using it to pick Roxas up by the shirt and punching him in the face, sending him flying hundreds of feet away from the God of War, away from Hera's temple and back towards the range of hills that he'd just come from.

Roxas, having been knocked temporarily unconscious by Ares' punches, came to as his body slammed against the ground, bouncing a couple of times before rolling over and over, and eventually coming to a stop. Ares was on him before he was able to pick himself up, his body still dripping blood, bits of stomach and other such gory shit thanks to the hole Roxas had blown in him with the Vindicator. The Nephalem's vision was swimming thanks to the punch to the face Ares had delivered him, and he was too dazed to offer any resistance to Ares picking him up by the shirt again, nor to try and stop the God of War from punching him in the stomach this time, causing him to groan in pain and puke... something. With the state he was in, Roxas wasn't quite sure if he was throwing up blood or... well, puke.

Either way, Ares' stomach-punch was followed up by a face-punch, angled such that it sent Roxas down into the ground, rolling over a couple of times before he came to a stop again. Through his fucked-up vision, Roxas saw Ares standing above him, summoning a large fireball in his good left hand.

"In case you were wondering about your band of sluts, Roxas..." Ares remarked. "Don't. I'll be sure to take good care of them. Show then what a REAL man is."

Lowering his hand, the fireball in Ares' hand became bigger, looking like he was about to send it at the downed Roxas and burn him alive. However, something came in between Roxas and Ares, casting a large barrier to protect him from the fireball that he'd sent off. The barrier broke seconds later, and Roxas heard a scream of pain, followed by the sound of another punch, this time one that Ares dealt to his unseen saviour.

At the same time, Roxas felt something wrapping around himself, vaguely heard the sound of a transportation-circle activating, saw the accompanying flash. When the flash faded away, he felt the familiar warmth of healing magic, and the pain all over his body began to subside. As well as that, his vision also returned to him, steadily revealing where he now was: on a magically-created platform, a couple of hundred meters away from where Ares was standing, looking wildly around to try and find where Roxas had been teleported to.

As his vision fully returned, Roxas saw a pair of arms wrapped around him, as well as... a person slumped on the ground. Smoke rose from them, as if they'd been on fire. Squinting a bit, he could see that the smoking person had... red hair.

"Fuck... no!" Roxas shouted, making to fly forward and help whoever was lying there. He wasn't entirely certain exactly who was down there, but the red on top of their head- as well as them lying at Ares' feet- was enough to narrow things down to two potential individuals. And the thought of either of them lying at Ares' feet, dying or already dead... didn't feel good, to say the least.

However, before Roxas could even get off the platform that he'd been teleported onto, the arms around him tightened their grip, keeping him from moving too much.

"The hell?!" Roxas muttered to himself, redoubling his efforts to get out of the grip of whoever was holding him, but his efforts were answered by the person behind him redoubling their efforts, in turn, to keep him held in place, as well as a spherical golden barrier forming around him, the platform and who had been holding onto him. Roxas squirmed around, looking behind himself at who had been holding him back, and the shock of seeing APHRODITE holding him back was enough for him to almost completely stop his attempts to break free of her grasp.

"Roxas, please..." Aphrodite whispered into the Nephalem's ear, as he began attempting to escape her grasp.

"Let me go, Aphrodite!" Roxas shouted, wriggling and struggling against the Love Goddess' surprisingly strong grip. "I'm not gonna let-"

Aphrodite slapped Roxas in the face, instantly shocking him out of both his talk and his attempts. Holding a hand up to where the Goddess had struck him, Roxas turned around, and noticed that Aphrodite looked like she was holding back the urge to cry.

"No..." the Love Goddess whispered, her tear-filled violet eyes seeming to shine in the sunlight as she stared Roxas down. "You're not going to kill yourself like this, Roxas. Not in a battle you can't win..."

Aphrodite and Roxas continued to stare each other down in silence for a few seconds, both quietly daring the other to try anything. Neither moved, or even blinked, for a solid few seconds, before Aphrodite spoke up again.

"...Not alone, at least."

Line Break

Sparks shot out in every direction as Diana's sword clashed with Scathach's spear, both warrior-women straining against each other in their contest of physical strength. Diana had a rather ugly look on her face as she glared Scathach down, while Scathach stared back with a more neutral look for a couple of seconds, before jumping backwards and carving a rune or two into the space formed in between herself and Diana.

Diana stabbed her sword into the ground, channelling some of her divine power through it and sending immense amounts of lightning through the ground, blowing up a large part of the ground, including the area within which Scathach stood. The purple-haired warrior-queen jumped into the air just fractions of a second before Diana's lightning activated, twisting herself around in mid-air and slashing at the bits of land that came flying up at her.

As soon as Scathach had the chance to, she stretched her hand out and cast a platform from her magical energy, twisted herself around in mid-air, landed on the platform she'd just cast and sprung off of it, back to safer-looking land. Flipping over in mid-air and landing on the ground, she had to quickly raise Gae Bolg and block Diana's sword from taking her head off. Scathach swung back at her opponent, but Diana jumped backwards as she did so, causing the tip of Scathach's weapon to just barely scrape her armour rather than gouging a deep wound in her stomach.

As Diana landed back on the ground, Scathach fired a powerful bolt of magical energy out of the tip of her spear, right at where she'd slashed at Diana seconds earlier. Diana was only barely able to get one of her bracelets in-between the energy-bolt and her stomach, absorbing the energy into said bracelet. Another of Scathach's spear-launched bolts of energy was absorbed into her other bracelet, before Diana readied her sword again and dashed back towards her opponent, closing the distance between then in the blink of an eye and making to stab her in the chest.

The only thing Scathach could really do in reaction to the awkward position that she'd suddenly found herself in was drop Gae Bolg entirely and reach out to grab Diana's sword in her gloved hand, forcing it away from her chest. She managed to catch Diana's sword in one hand, the blade of which dug deep into her palm, sending blood everywhere, but Scathach's only reaction to this was to throw Diana's sword aside- out of her hand- with the leverage she'd now gained, and follow up with a punch to the face with her other hand.

Diana stumbled backwards a bit, opening herself up to a roundhouse kick from Scathch, who picked up her spear with the hand she'd punched her with as hand she'd grabbed her sword with healed before both their eyes. The daughter of Zeus and Hippolyta landed on the ground, rolled and sprung back to her feet, grabbing her sword as she did so and jumping further backwards to put more distance between herself and Scathach.

Now it was Scathach's turn to go on the attack. Sending a couple more bolts of energy Diana's way out of her spear, Scathach launched herself forward so quickly that she reached Diana before the bolts of energy did, with her next slash of Gae Bolg only barely being deflected by Diana's sword before both bolts of energy struck her in the face. Taking advantage of Diana's slightly dazed state after being struck in the face by the energy-bolts, Scathach slashed a couple of times at Diana's chest with Gae Bolg, sweep-kicked her to put her to the ground, and cast a powerful explosion-spell with her free hand, sending Diana up into the air.

Relaxing slightly, Scathach extended a hand out, sending dozens of bolts of magical energy into the air, mentally directing them to surround and bombard Diana, who didn't look like she was able to offer up much resistance to what was now happening to her. The energy-bolts all struck her body from every angle, the explosions from which all added up into an enormous explosion. The kind that would kill most beings, Scathach thought.

However, seconds later, as the effects of the explosion dissipated from above... Diana was not most beings.

The Amazon/Goddess Hybrid emerged from the Queen of Dun Scaith's magical assault: parts of her armour damaged, bits of her hair singed, but otherwise unhurt. She let out a scream as she flew down at the ground, striking her bracelets together and letting out the energy she'd absorbed from Scathach's earlier magical bolts, combined with what the purple-haired woman assumed was a pretty great amount of her divine power. The force of such an output of energy was enough to send Scathach flying off her feet, leaving her on the defensive as Diana flew her way, thrusting her sword straight at Scathach's chest, much faster than she'd done so earlier.

Scathach rose a hand, casting a magical barrier that deflected Diana's thrust away from her chest. She didn't completely escape harm however, as once Diana's sword slid off of the barrier she'd cast, it still caught her pretty deeply in her lower-left side. Blood poured out of Scathach's wound, but that was ignored as she returned the favour, thrusting Gae Bolg towards Diana's chest. The Amazon jumped back as Scathach's wound finished healing, looking like she'd never slashed her side in the first place.

'She should've been dead from that...' Diana thought to herself, looking wildly from where she'd slashed Scathach to her face, impassive expression and all. 'At the very least, nearly dead. And she regenerated from that, and the hand-wound, and she hasn't reacted at all to anything so far! I thought she was human, WHO AND WHAT THE HELL IS THIS WOMAN?!'

Diana's thoughts went unanswered as Scathach continued her assault, throwing in a combination of thrusts, slashes and fired bolts of magical energy, forcing her even more and more on the defensive with every passing second. Not used to being on the back foot like this, Diana was forced to use everything in her arsenal- her sword, her bracelets, even her limited magical abilities- to keep Gae Bolg from piercing her body in any way. Scathach may seem to have impressive regenerative abilities (however the hell she attained those), but Diana didn't have anything like that.

The Amazon/Goddess Hybrid grimaced as the tip of Gae Bolg slid off of one of the bracelets she wore as she raised it to block an attempt by Scathach to stab her in the chest, and was forced to lean back in order to stop it from piercing her shoulder instead. However, she was fractions of a second too late, and felt the tip of the spear grazing the top of her left shoulder. She jumped back, glaring at Scathach, who paused, looking over at her.

"It doesn't have to be this way, Diana." Scathach spoke. "It's not too late for you."

"It's too late for you though, Scathach!" Diana replied, dashing forward as fast as she could go and thrusting her sword forwards in a stabbing motion, letting out a yell as she did so. Scathach raised one of her hands off of Gae Bolg to cast a defensive barrier, and sent a powerful pulse of magical energy through it just as Diana's sword came into contact with said barrier, hoping that it would be enough to blow Diana off of her feet, and open her up to a position in which Scathach could easily end the fight. Hopefully non-lethally, as in spite of Diana being on Hera's side, Scathach still had some respect for her as a fellow member of the SSPCH, and maybe something close to a friend. Warrior-queen she might be, but an emotionless robot she was NOT.

Diana jumped into the air just as her sword touched Scathach's quickly-formed barrier, completely dodging the energy-pulse that Scathach had aimed at her. Flipping over in mid-air, Diana landed behind Scathach and swung at her unprotected back with a scream. Scathach turned around, but wasn't fast enough to block Diana's sword, which went right into her side and ended up lodged somewhere in her stomach. Ignoring (or not even registering) the dull pain that came from such an attack, Scathach shoved her head forward, headbutting Diana and sending her stumbling backwards, letting go of her sword as she did so.

As Scathach's body finished healing around her sword, Scathach pulled Diana's sword out of her body, tossed it aside and threw a punch at Diana's stomach, one strong enough to force the daughter of Zeus to double over, winded. Scathach reached out, grabbed Diana by the hair with one hand and pulled her towards her, then drove her knee into Diana's face a couple of times, before finishing the job with a roundhouse kick that sent Diana to the ground. The Amazon didn't move for a couple of seconds, but slowly raised her head in an attempt to get herself back up.

However, that attempt didn't last very long, as Scathach closed the distance between herself and Diana within two steps, and kicked her in the head again, fully knocking her out. The warrior-queen of Dun Scaith took a couple of breaths before dispelling Gae Bolg, and holding out one hand towards Diana, summoning magical chains that wrapped around her unconscious form. Once the Amazon was fully bound, Scathach cast a transportation-circle on Diana, sending her off the battlefield.

Line Break

Serafall and Fianna flew together, in semi-perfect unison, blasting through whatever was unfortunate (or just dumb) enough to get too close to them with their powerful ice and fire attacks. As the former Sitri and Phenex Heiresses, respectively, their great control over their considerable reserves of demonic power allowed them to essentially breeze through whatever came their way, with a freezing/burning death awaiting any enemies that got near them.

Fianna looked down over the hills that had become the battlefield, noticing that things were beginning to spill out from the range of hills that things had been confined to originally, and onto the stretch of land that separated the hill-range from Hera's temple, and the town of Olympia right by it. Hera's forces were beginning to break ranks and run away from where the battle was currently at, most likely in the vain hope that they could escape to safety. Though both Fianna and Serafall had seen others of their side going beyond the hill-range, none of them seemed to have moved to stop Hera's forces from escaping the confines of the range that Roxas had originally led them into.

Two Satans doing that job wouldn't be that bad of an idea, Fianna thought as she dived down, blasting a couple more monsters with her fire as she descended. Serafall- who'd gotten a good look up her fellow Satan's dress- followed a couple of seconds later, summoning her staff and using one end of it to impale a Cacodemon through the eye, and using the other to freeze a Pain Elemental via her signature ice-magic, followed up with another blast of demonic energy that blew it out of existence.

As Serafall reached Fianna's level, she pulled up, shaking Demon-blood off of her staff as she surveyed the area of the battlefield where Hera's forces scattering from. Pointing her staff at a few Magicians that were attempting to run, she had charged up some demonic energy and was prepared to fire it- which would've blasted them out of existence even faster than you could say "Holy shit, Serafall and Fianna are hot as fuck". However, right as the energy she had charged up was about to be fired, Serafall felt several powerful attacks being launched hers and Fianna's way.

Whirling around in mid-air, she redirected the energy she was about to attack the Magicians with into a barrier that covered herself and Fianna, protecting them from the combination of divine ice and divine fire that had been flung their way. Both attacks collided with the barrier MICROSECONDS after Serafall had put it up, with the opposing elements so close together causing an enormous explosion, the blowback of which Serafall and Fianna were somewhat protected from by the barrier. When the smoke cleared, Serafall and Fianna were faced with Deimos and Phobos, two of Ares and Aphrodite's sons, and the Gods of Terror and Fear.

Before any of the Satans/Gods spoke, Fianna- who had instantly identified Deimos and Phobos as members of Hera's circle of warriors, waved her hand and conjured up an enormous bird made out of dark blue fire, and sent it straight at the pair of Gods. As it flew towards them, it sent out smaller similarly-coloured fireballs out of its own mouth, and sent slower-moving waves of fire at them out of its wings.

Phobos reacted first to the summoned opponent, firing several large spikes of ice up at the flaming bird that Fianna had sent his and Deimos' way, most of which made their mark and heavily damaged the beast. However, some of them were aimed at Fianna and Serafall, the latter of whom threw up another barrier to block them, while firing ice-spikes of her own over at Deimos, who dodged out of the way and threw back multiple fireballs, those white in colour as opposed to Fianna's dark flew upwards, out of the way, but as she did so, Phobos angled one of the ice-spikes he'd thrown that didn't hit the fiery bird that Fianna had just conjured, up towards one of the fireballs that Deimos had thrown at Serafall. The two elements colliding like that again caused a massive explosion, the blowback of which sent both Serafall and Fianna flying away, both Satans completely off-balance for a few seconds.

Those few seconds were all that Deimos and Phobos needed to, as one, charge at their opponents. Phobos flew at Fianna and Deimos at Serafall, their hands blazing with their respective elements. Serafall let out a yell of pain as Phobos's fire-coated fist crashed against her face, and attempted to counter with a blast of demonic energy from point-blank range. Phobos, however, simply batted her staff to the side, causing her energy-shot to sail harmlessly by him.

It almost hit Fianna as she duelled with Deimos, but Serafall didn't have the time to shout out an apology before Phobos began his attack again, conjuring a spear out of white fire and attempting to stab Serafall with it. The ice-wielding Satan dodged out of the way and flew backwards, firing many shots of icy energy at the Fear God as she went. Phobos just span his flaming spear in his hand, blocking and instantly melting all of the icy shots that Serafall sent his way. He flew forward, closing the distance between himself and Serafall within seconds and thrusting his spear towards her stomach, something that would surely have done major damage to Serafall, perhaps even killed her, if it had met its mark.

But Serafall was fast enough to fly upwards, completely out of the way of the spear, before it pierced her flesh, firing a few powerful icy shots of energy back at Phobos as she went. One of them made their mark, drawing out a growl of pain from the God, who gave chase. Phobos was faster than Serafall, and closed the distance between them within another few seconds. Instead of thrusting at her again with his flaming spear, he reached out with his free hand, towards Serafall herself. Unprepared for this, Serafall wasn't able to stop Phobos from touching her face.

Almost instantly, Serafall was back in the Underworld, in a city in Sitri territory.

Everything was on fire, the screams of dying Devils rung in her ears, and she felt herself rooted to where she stood. Or was she in the air...? She wasn't sure. Seeing something like this in front of her brought such a stab of horror to Serafall's core that she'd forgotten where she was.

The sound of a loud female scream, followed by a sword slash, caused Serafall to whirl around. Half a second later, something flew out of one of one of the burning buildings and landed in front of her with a dull thud. Serafall looked down... and her heart almost stopped.

It was Sona's severed head.

Just as Serafall realised what was in front of her, and just as she was about to scream out in horror and sadness, the nightmare disappeared from around her as quickly as it had come, just as something was driven into her stomach.

She was back in Greece, where she'd been fighting earlier... and Phobos had driven his flaming spear into her stomach, impaling her. Serafall was too shocked from what she'd just seen to even register the burning pain that came with being stabbed in the stomach by a spear of divine fire. Seeing Phobos in front of her, Serafall reached out and formed a spear of ice in one shaking hand, firing it out of said hand straight at Phobos, who let out a yell of pain as he was impaled.

Serafall moved herself backwards, off of the flaming spear that she'd been impaled on, letting out a hiss of pain as she did so and holding her stomach with one of her hands, holding up her staff with the other and glaring daggers at Phobos. Her eyes swimming, she fired more spears of ice out of her staff at Phobos, with most of them penetrating his body and dealing more and more damage to the God. When five or six spears were embedded in Phobos' body, Serafall pulled him towards her with some of her demonic energy, drove her knee straight into his divine crotch, and flung him behind her. She then whirled around and fired a volley of icicles Phobos' way, followed up by a volley of faster-moving fireballs, all of which made their intended mark of hitting the icicles and setting off large explosions around the Fear God, dealing more damage to him.

Meanwhile, Fianna was grimacing as her arm, which had been deeply slashed by a sword made of Deimos' divine ice, healed in a flash of flame. It was costing her more demonic power than she usually expended on healing in fights, thanks to the divine energy the Terror God put into every attack he flung her way, and fighting back against him was harder as a result.

She thrust one hand forward, sending a powerful beam of fiery demonic energy out of said hand and directly at Deimos, who had begun firing a powerful beam of icy divine energy directly at her. The two beams collided right in the middle of the space between Fianna and Deimos, causing a powerful explosion between the two of them.

Fianna was the first to disengage her energy-beam, and flew towards Deimos as fast as she could. Igniting her fists in blue flames as she flew, she didn't even give Deimos the chance to fight back as she slammed her flaming right fist through his stomach. Deimos let out a yell of pain as Fianna pulled back her fist (which was now coated in divine blood and guts), coated her other fist in flames, and ran Deimos through with that, giving him a second hole in his chest to match the first.

Pulling back her left fist (which was just as coated in divine blood and guts as her right) and vaporizing the blood/guts on both of them with a simple pulse of fiery energy, Fianna kept up the assault on Deimos by placing both of her hands together and sending a compressed beam of flaming blue energy straight at the Terror God's head, vaporizing said head within seconds.

Fianna took a couple of breaths to come down from her adrenaline-high before turning around to go assist Serafall (who looked to be at a disadvantage in her battle against Phobos). She was just about to blast off to assist her fellow Satan/lover, before she heard a loud noise behind her. She was barely able to turn around to find the source of the noise, before she felt a hand touching her face.

And all of a sudden, Fianna was back in the Underworld, in Hell's capital. But the usual hustle and bustle of city life didn't greet her ears like every other time she was in the city, NO. Instead, all was silent... eerily so. Fianna looked around, trying to find any sign of life in what seemed to be a ghost city, but didn't seem to find any.

Then the smell hit her. A smell so strong and so horrible that it made her gag almost on instinct. Holding a hand to her mouth and nose, she looked around more wildly, looking to see where the smell was coming from... what she eventually clapped eyes on was nearly enough for her to throw up in her mouth.

Corpses: a fucking MOUNTAIN of corpses that piled up to about the size of most of the buildings that Fianna could directly see. Without actually moving herself, she felt herself moving towards them, close enough that the stench of death became unbearable... and she could recognise some of the corpses in the pile.

Rika. Renzo. Ruval. Riser. Ravel. Serafall. Ajuka. Sirzechs. Grayfia. ROXAS.

'This isn't real...' Fianna tried to speak, but found that she somehow couldn't speak out loud, so mentally resolved to just mentally speak. 'This definitely isn't real... but it feels real. SHIT, it's not real!'

As Fianna cast her eyes further up and up the pile of corpses, the more and more Devils she recognised among the dead. Though the knowledge of this not being real still persisted in the back of her mind, it didn't stop her from being overrun with the biggest of all 'unholy fucking shit' feelings. When her eyes reached the top of the pile, she noticed a lone figure standing atop the mountain of corpses. Their features were undiscernible from where Fianna was standing in relation to them, but their overall build led Fianna to believe that the figure was a male.

The figure, looking down at Fianna, raised a hand and charged up a light-attack of some sort, aiming squarely at the blonde Satan. It took a couple of seconds for them to charge up their attack before they fired, and rooted to the spot as she was, Fianna was powerless to defend herself. And right as the figure let fly their attack... Fianna felt her whole body overcome with cold.

It was so cold, it hurt, Fianna thought, not even realising that she was back in Greece, on the battlefield that she'd been fighting on, rather than in Hell and being confronted with all her dead loved ones. It took her a couple of seconds to realise that Deimos had frozen her in a block of ice before flying over to assist Phobos in his attack on Serafall... ice infused with divine energy, if the burning (in spite of how cold it was) that she felt all over her... everywhere, was anything to go by.

Grimacing from the pain, it took a particularly powerful pulse of demonic energy for Fianna to destroy the block of divine ice around her. Shaking her arms and legs to bring feeling back to them, and focusing heat into them to speed up the process, she flew over to Deimos (who seemed to have regrown his head, and was working on repairing the holes that she had punched in her moments earlier), Phobos and Serafall to assist, her hands now blazing.

Deimos and Phobos both looked around, in unison, and turned away from Serafall to face her as one. Makes sense, Fianna thought, as she would absolutely be a higher-priority target in a battle-scenario: larger reserves of demonic power than Serafall and regenerative abilities thanks to her heritage as a Phenex were all that was needed to prove that. As the two Gods charged up attacks of their respective element to unleash upon the blonde Satan, Fianna quickly charged up a small, yet powerful ball of fire and flung it... directly between them, her eyes squarely on Serafall.

Realising what Fianna had in mind within half a second, Serafall fired an equally powerful, yet equally small, bolt of icy energy at Fianna's fireball. Both elements clashed with each other directly in-between Deimos and Phobos, and the opposing elements- combined with their compressed nature- triggered an explosion FAR greater than the others, that blew Deimos and Phobos away in opposite directions. Noticing that both Gods looked rather dazed by their combination-attack, Fianna dashed off as quickly as her wings would allow her to, eyes blazing with fire, in order to put an end to Deimos once and for all.

Serafall, seeing an equally golden opportunity, swung her staff towards Phobos and fired off as many spikes of ice as she could, hoping to not leave a square inch of the divine prick's body without her trademark ice inside it. Once she'd fired off enough large ice-spikes (as far as she was concerned) into Phobos' body, she sent pulses of demonic energy through them, blowing them up from within in hopes that, in pieces, they would do more damage to Phobos' inner body than being impaled multiple times over most likely already would.

Turning around, Serafall noticed that Fianna had- through whatever methods- all but vaporized Deimos' entire body, sans his head, which was dropping limply to the ground. Fianna had a small smile on her face, which quickly vanished as she seemed to notice something behind Serafall. Turning around in mid-air, Serafall saw Phobos, still with all the ice that she'd flung at him still stuck in him, flying past her faster than she could react and attempt to stop him, and flying straight for Deimos' falling head. Both Satans dived down after him, but the Fear God got there first, grabbing Deimos' head and clutching it close to himself.

Right as he did so, a dark aura began to seep from Deimos' head, and surround Phobos. His violet eyes began to glow brightly as the aura surrounded- and seemed to embrace- him, and the power that both Fianna and Serafall could feel emanating from him... became far more pronounced. It was an incredibly creepy sight, seeing the butchered God raising a hand (which was covered in his divine blood, thanks to Serafall driving an ice-spike through his wrist) and summoning an incredibly powerful, and incredibly compressed, ball of icy energy. Neither of the two female Satans were particularly squeamish, but this... ew.

Both Fianna and Serafall remained on-guard for what Phobos was to pull next, with both Satans widening their eyes in shock as, after Phobos raised his other hand, he summoned an incredibly powerful, and incredibly compressed, ball of fiery energy... Deimos' fire.

"NO!" Fianna screamed, beginning to fly forward. But no sooner had she begun did Phobos bring his hands together in a clap... and everything went white.