The world Feldway had imposed upon the valley was immaculate.
White marble stretched in every direction beneath a sky of blinding gold. There were no mountains, no clouds, and no horizon beyond what the First Angel permitted. Every surface reflected the authority of the Heavenly Star Palace, while the air itself carried a cold radiance that slowly stripped demonic magicules from anything forced to breathe it.
At the center of that sterile domain floated Feldway.
Three pairs of white-gold wings spread behind him, each feather formed from compressed authority rather than flesh. Their combined pressure flattened the marble below into transparent sheets and forced the remains of Guy and Loki's barriers against the edge of collapse.
Guy Crimson ignored all of it.
He crossed the distance between them in a crimson streak and brought Tenma down in a diagonal slash. The broadsword carried enough concentrated force to erase a mountain range, yet Feldway met it with a small turn of his wrist.
White-gold geometry assembled between them.
Tenma struck a wall made from folded space.
The collision shattered the marble for miles around them. Glowing fragments rose into the air, only to freeze beneath Feldway's authority before they could scatter. His barrier bent under Guy's strength, but it did not break.
"It is pointless," Feldway said. "Within this domain, my authority is reinforced by the original order of Heaven. Brute force cannot overturn the Star King's design."
Guy drew Tenma back.
Then he struck again.
And again.
Each swing landed upon a different point in Feldway's defense. The First Angel formed new barriers faster than the old ones fractured, redirecting Guy's force into the artificial sky and rebuilding the damaged marble beneath them.
Guy's smile widened.
"Then keep hiding behind it."
Tenma descended for a fourth time.
Feldway's spatial wall cracked.
While the two ancient beings traded power at the center of the domain, Loki remained several dozen paces away.
His eyes had narrowed, and the light of Hades pulsed behind them. He did not immediately join Guy's assault. Instead, he allowed his awareness to sink beneath the physical battlefield.
The white marble faded.
The golden sky became a framework of spiritual pathways.
Through Hades, Loki saw the domain as it truly existed: streams of angelic authority flowing from the heavenly gate, geometric anchors keeping the artificial world stable, and hundreds of spiritual connections feeding Feldway's current form.
The First Angel's presence was enormous.
It was also wrong.
Loki watched Guy's sword strike another barrier. The force reached Feldway's body, but the recoil did not spread through it like a living vessel absorbing impact. There was a tiny pause between the physical strain and the authority responding to repair it.
The delay was almost impossible to detect.
Almost.
'That body isn't truly his.'
Loki focused more deeply.
The vessel looked flawless from the outside, but its soul-body connection lacked the seamless harmony expected of an Original Angel. Feldway's consciousness did not fill the body naturally. It occupied it, directing authority through a structure built to receive him but not born as part of him.
It was an extraordinary vessel.
It was not the one Veldanava had given him.
'He's using a substitute.'
That explained Feldway's constant reliance on spatial barriers. He could withstand tremendous force, but he was not willing to let Guy's attacks strike the shell directly. Every serious impact risked damaging a vessel he could replace only at considerable cost.
Guy's fifth strike split three defensive layers.
Loki's mouth curved.
"Guy!"
The crimson Primordial did not look back.
"He's wearing a spare body!" Loki called. "Make him regret bringing it!"
Guy did not ask how Loki had learned that. He did not slow down or demand a useful explanation.
Tenma's next strike landed twice as hard.
The spatial wall shattered completely.
Feldway crossed his wings before himself and absorbed the remaining force. His vessel was driven backward through the white-gold sky, leaving a long fracture in the domain behind him.
Guy followed.
Tenma hammered against Feldway's defenses in a relentless sequence. Each blow forced the First Angel to construct another barrier, and every new barrier consumed more of the authority sustaining both the vessel and the domain.
Feldway's gaze snapped toward Loki.
"You continue to mistake perception for understanding."
"That sounds like something a man in a borrowed body would say."
The First Angel extended two fingers.
A narrow pulse of white-gold resonance crossed the battlefield.
Guy swung Tenma through it, but the light passed around his blade without resistance. It was not aimed at him.
It struck Loki's chest.
The dormant angelic resonance within his soul erupted.
Loki stumbled as light tore through his spiritual pathways. His demonic aura surged instinctively to oppose it, forcing the two aspects of his Nephalem nature against each other. Gold and maroon cracks spread across his arms while the marble beneath him splintered.
Hades immediately wrapped around his core.
Azazel followed the hostile resonance inward, separating Feldway's imposed agitation from Loki's own angelic nature. The conflict weakened, but it did not disappear. Feldway had designed the attack to force Loki to spend power merely keeping his soul in harmony.
At the same time, the celestial domain expanded.
Its white-gold walls pressed outward against the damaged containment surrounding the valley. Cracks opened along the border between Feldway's imposed world and the Cardinal World beyond it.
Loki felt the danger immediately.
If the domain broke through, the accumulated force of the battle would spill across Dagruel's territory.
Feldway had given him three problems at once.
Loki reinforced his soul through Hades. Hephaestus unfolded new supports along the failing boundary, forging temporary structures beneath the damaged barriers. Farce spread across the widest fractures, turning breaks in the domain into painted cracks that could be peeled away and replaced.
His attention divided.
The pressure intensified.
"You are overburdened," Feldway said as he descended through the golden light. "You exhaust yourself preserving a world that rejects what you are."
Loki forced one knee to straighten.
"This world has better food."
Feldway's expression remained cold. "You cling to an identity that brings you only strain."
A spear of white light formed above Feldway.
Guy appeared between them.
Tenma cut through the weapon before it could descend, and the resulting explosion washed crimson fire across the domain.
"Keep the walls standing," Guy said. "I'll deal with the squatter."
"You mean the renter."
"I don't care what you call him."
Guy drove Tenma into Feldway's newest barrier.
The two disappeared inside a detonation of crimson and gold.
Loki returned his attention to the domain's perimeter. Hephaestus reinforced the weakest points while Farce altered the path of several stray attacks, sending them through painted tunnels and harmlessly into isolated spaces. Every adjustment drained him, but it kept the Cardinal World protected.
Guy gave him the time to continue.
Feldway attempted to cast large-scale celestial formations, only for Tenma to tear through them before they could fully develop. Whenever the First Angel created distance, Guy closed it. Whenever he shifted into another spatial layer, Loki folded that layer back toward the battlefield.
Their coordination had become less theatrical than before.
Guy did not need Loki beside him to understand what he was doing. A sudden distortion near Feldway's left wing meant Loki had created an opening. A violet pulse across the marble meant the next celestial strike had been redirected. When Loki briefly weakened a spiritual anchor, Guy's sword arrived before Feldway could reinforce it.
Feldway countered with equal precision.
His six wings became blades of light, crossing against Tenma while dozens of celestial weapons attacked from behind. Guy broke the first wave and allowed the second to pass near him, trusting Loki to intercept what he could not see.
Three golden spears vanished into a door painted across the air.
They emerged above Feldway.
The First Angel destroyed them with a glance, but Guy used that fraction of attention to punch him in the ribs.
The vessel bent beneath the impact.
For the first time, Feldway's physical body failed to hide the force reaching it. A fracture spread beneath his robes, glowing with white-gold light before his authority sealed it.
Loki saw the delay.
He also saw the spiritual connection responsible for repairing it.
"There."
Hades released a narrow pulse.
It did not attack Feldway's soul directly. It illuminated the gap between his consciousness and the substitute vessel, revealing the precise point where control passed from one to the other.
Guy's crimson eyes followed the violet mark.
Feldway recognized what they had discovered.
His wings snapped forward, forming a sphere around his body. Layers of folded space gathered over one another until he stood inside a defense thick enough to survive the destruction of the entire domain.
The battle fell briefly silent.
Guy landed beside Loki, Tenma resting in both hands. His coat was torn, and several cuts marked his face and arms, but his aura had lost none of its intensity.
"You were right," he said.
Loki glanced toward him. "I'll treasure those words forever."
"Forget them immediately."
"Too late."
Inside the defensive sphere, Feldway's thoughts moved with cold efficiency.
Taking Loki alive had become impossible under present conditions.
Guy's pressure left no room for the careful extraction Feldway had intended. Loki's soul perception threatened the connection to the substitute vessel whenever Feldway committed too much power against Guy. Destroying either Primordial would require exposing the shell to the other.
The objective no longer justified the cost.
Loki felt the shift in Feldway's intent.
"He's thinking about leaving."
Guy raised Tenma. "Then we should help."
Loki's gaze remained fixed on the violet point Hades had exposed within the defensive sphere.
They did not need to destroy the substitute vessel.
They needed to make remaining inside it impossible.
Loki lifted one hand. Farce gathered around his fingers while Hephaestus forged a narrow, shifting weapon designed to carry Hades through Feldway's defenses. The construct changed from spear to nail to key, each shape representing another method of breaking the connection.
Guy understood without explanation.
Crimson power condensed along Tenma's edge until the immense broadsword carried its force in a line thinner than thread. Guy would break the spatial defenses. Loki would strike the spiritual seam behind them.
The white-gold sphere tightened.
Feldway's voice emerged from within it.
"You cannot comprehend what you are delaying."
Guy lowered his stance.
Loki smiled despite the strain burning through his soul.
"Maybe not."
The forged key settled between his fingers.
"But we understand that you're leaving empty-handed."
Guy and Loki moved together.
---
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