The High Priest's cruel smile lingered for a few seconds then a his gaze flicked towards the horizon.
Where a colossal black-and-crimson mushroom cloud had just erupted.
The shockwave rippled outward across the Paris skyline, flattening rooftops and sending helicopters banking wildly to avoid the blast.
Even from this height, the explosion lit the clouds.
"Hmph." The priest's voice dripped with dark satisfaction. "Looks like Kael is going wild down there. Your friends are probably dead already, worm."
"That blind fool never knows when to hold back… but his rampage will make excellent kindling for the Lord of Flies."
He turned his attention back to Baudin floating before him, the golden orb between the demon's teeth spinning faster, pulling Baudin's body inexorably towards the rift behind the staff.
Baudin strained against the black chains, muscles bulging.
His greatsword was still clenched in his knuckled fist. With a guttural roar he twisted, swinging the massive blade in a desperate arc that shattered two of the chains.
But the chains tightened even more.
The chains reformed instantly, thicker and heavier, crushing inward. Baudin's ribs creaked audibly.
The portal behind the staff wider, its edge lined with screaming shadow faces that reached out slowly devouring the very air around him.
"Maugier—!" Baudin's voice echoed across the sky. "Do it now!!!"
Far below on the shattered avenue, Maugier Poirier slammed both palms to the ground. His eyes blazed. "On it!"
Massive golden chains erupted upward from the pavement in a roaring storm—hundreds of them, thick as ship cables, blazing with supportive mana. They shot skyward like reverse lightning, wrapping around Baudin's torso and yanking hard.
"I said it's useless!" the High Priest barked, swinging the staff in a wide arc.
The golden orb flared, sending a wave of black pressure that should have shattered Maugier's chains on contact.
But the distraction was exactly what Baudin needed.
The momentary shift in the priest's focus loosened the chains bind by a fraction.
Baudin's eyes flashed. He lunged forward, greatsword leading the charge, the handler of the blade now inches from the High Priest's sneering face. "Got you, idiot."
Baudin's full-powered swing connected.
The High Priest was proppeled backwards through the air, body spinning wildly as he smashed through three ruined buildings in rapid.
The priest's scream of rage cut through the chaos before he vanished into a cloud of dust and debris below.
Baudin hung in the air for a split second, blood dripping from his grin.
He let out a loud, mocking laugh that echoed across the city-block. "Hah! Thought you had me, huh? Should've watched your damn back!"
From the rising dust below, a furious silhouette levitated back into the sky, his robes are torn and his eyes burning with pure, unfiltered hatred.
The staff trembled in his grip as black mana surged around him.
"You… dare mock a chosen vessel?!" he snarled, voice no longer calm but laced with fanatic rage. "Then witness true despair!"
He thrust the staff skyward.
"O' Lord of Flies…Through the veil of endless night and the scream of the forsaken, I offer this blood-soaked sky as tribute!"
"Open wide, let the unblinking Eye that pierces every soul awaken!"
"Gaze upon the weak! Gaze upon the proud!
Devour their courage! Consume their defiance!
From the blackest hunger of Beelzebub,
I call thee forth."
The air tore open behind him with a sound like reality screaming. "Let my law manifest..."
"Arcane!" A massive rift wider than any portals split from the heavens.
"Abyss of the All-Seeing Maw."
From its depths rose something colossal: a single, monstrous eyeball the size of a small building, its sclera veined with pulsing black mana, the iris a swirling vortex of crimson and gold.
Back to the apartment, Loki sat cross-legged on the couch, controller in hand, completely absorbed in a game of Mario Kart on his PS5.
Nyx lay on the opposite cushion, belly up, purring softly in deep sleep.
A strange, familiar prickle crawled up his spine—the same feeling he sensed once before, long ago, in a place he couldn't quite remember.
"…Huh. That mana signature feels kinda familiar," he muttered.
Then he shrugged, turned back to the screen.
"Whatever, peach is not beating me today."
Back on the battlefield, Mathis stood motionless amid the ruins.
One boot rested firmly on the chest of the cultist, who lay beaten and bloodied on the ground.
Mathis's sword directly punctured through the cultist heart.
The cultist coughed up blood, yet still managed a mocking, wheezing laugh. "Heh… you feel that too, don't you, old man? That eye… that beautiful, all-consuming eye—"
Mathis's gaze lifted slowly towards the sky.
His grip on the sword tightened by a fraction, his voice remained calm.
"Stay down," he said quietly to the cultist.
He stared back to the cultist "You're still alive? How many times do I need to land a hit so you can just die already?"
The cultist coughed up another mouthful of blood, yet his lips twisted into a mocking, wheezing grin. "It is impossible to kill me... I'm a human who was granted regenerative abilities by the Almighty—!"
Mathis didn't let him finish.
He lifted his boot and brought it down again in a single, merciless stomp.
The cultist's ribs cracked audibly under the heel. "Agh—!"
"Stay down," Mathis repeated, voice still calm. "I won't ask again."
The cultist's eyes bulged, but the grin never fully left his bloodied face.
Baudin hovered in the air, still bound by the remaining black chains, greatsword clenched tight, breathing hard.
The High Priest's voice rolled out, low and reverent. "This… is the true form of my Arcane," he intoned, spreading one arm toward the colossal eye
"Abyss of the All-Seeing Maw. It does not merely see. It devours every emotion, every flicker of hope, every last drop of courage you insects still cling to… it drinks them in."
"The longer it stares, the weaker your will become. Your legs will tremble, your heart will betray your, your very soul will beg to be consumed. And when the Eye finally closes… everything it has tasted will be erased from existence."
He smiled, wide "Now…enough of talking..."
The High Priest thrust the staff forward. "Time for you to die."
The colossal eyeball's pupil dilated with horrifying speed.
A beam of pure, soul-rending darkness erupted from its center—straight towards Baudin.