Seraph slowly made his way through Lutenia’s dark streets leaving a trail of blood as he went.

::Just…Another few blocks…Assuming I won’t pass out from blood loss…:: Seraph thought tiredly, trying to tolerate the pain in his chest and right arm as he moved.

::Dimitri is gone, his soul is stuck floating around since the Gates of Hell are still damaged, if I’m lucky this will be the last time he ever appears. Now if I can just destroy Gabriel I’ll be done with this entire ordeal…:: Seraph determined. He kept moving along until he heard a rough rustling come from behind him. Seraph spun around and found himself face to face with the last angel, Gabriel. His expression was no longer calm and he looked rather angry.

“You…” Gabriel stated roughly, his voice no longer smooth and misty. “You killed the Messiah! You’ve ruined my plans to bring all of these humans together under the will of god!” Gabriel growled angrily, reaching out quickly and grabbing the chain around Seraph’s neck, the one he had received as a punishment for fusing himself with the beast Fenris. He forgot all about the chain that now acted as the only thing that would determine the start of the Ragnarok, the end of the world. Gabriel yanked on the chain and slowly began to choke Seraph with its metal links.

“But now…You’ve given me no choice! The humans will now become corrupt and blinded with their own ambitions once more! So no more! I’m going to end all of it!” Gabriel tightened his grip on the chain, Seraph fighting against his restraints, trying to breath let alone break free. “No more, I’m ending all of this and starting over! Let the era of Ragnarok begin…” Gabriel growled pulling harder in the chain still. Seraph continued to fight to break free but it was pointless. The angel kept pulling back on the chain until not only was Seraph about ready to pass out, but the chain itself began to emit a low grinding noise. Gabriel sneered and with another pull had shattered the chain at long last, Seraph tumbling to the ground rasping for air. The chain in Gabriel’s hand erupted into bright crimson red flames and vanished. Gabriel’s usual smile soon returned and he let out a quiet laughter.

“Why?! Why would you do this?!” Seraph chocked out glaring up at Gabriel.

“Because my attempts to unify this world have been ruined. Look at what has just happened to this city! Countless have just died in their slumber in your senseless battle. The damages that this planet have underwent are irreversible. All shall be purged, there will be nothing left of this damned world,” Gabriel declared.

An instant later a bone chilling wind blew through the city, and probably all around the world too.

“I have more to attend to. You are lucky foul demon, you are spared this time,” Gabriel warned lowly. The angel spread his wings out and flew away, leaving Seraph’s body on the street, the winds picking up furiously and chilling him to the bone. The demon slowly got to his feet, looking around at his surroundings and finally looked up at the sky, more importantly the moon.

The moon suddenly began to become eclipsed by some mysterious force of nature, one that he inadvertently helped cause. Seraph watched as the moon slowly was blotted out of the sky as if it were being swallowed by some demonic beast. Within just a few minutes it was gone, the sky pitch dark, and the only light coming from the street lamps.

::This…Is going to end very badly…:: Seraph thought wearily, continuing to make his way back to the lake before it froze over in the rapidly cooling air.

* * *

“You’re not…Serious are you?” Ethernial questioned of Seraph.

“I don’t have the chain around my neck, and after I fused with Fenris I received it. So if it’s not here, then someone broke it and the Ragnarok is starting,” Seraph explained yet again.

After a very slow and agonizing trip Seraph found that to his fortune the ship was out of the waters and its crew were about to go and investigate all of the chaos in the city. Sonaris was the first to notice the wounded demon and called all of their attention to him. A few minutes later he had informed everyone of what had happened on his evening out. First his run in with Egeus, then his battle with Dimitri when he was destroyed, and then his run in with Gabriel and how he had shattered the chain when the temperature began to drop and the moon to vanish from the sky.

Ethernial shook his head and then began to bang it against the table he was sitting at. Seraph raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything, he was basically feeling the same way. Sonaris and Yasosume were also seated nearby, Sonaris stressing out, Yasosume stressing out and complaining incoherently.

“You should get some bandages for those injuries,” Sonaris jumped in. Seraph ignored his suggestion and looked at everyone in the room briefly.

“Where’s Tikai?” Asked the demon, everyone just exchanging the same confused look.

“Actually I was about to ask you that…” Ethernial replied, Seraph frowning at the answer.

“She’s not back?” Seraph asked again, and again everyone said no. Seraph let out a low growling that conveyed a sense of being distraught, Sonaris now raising his eyebrow.

“She did go and help you when E.L.I.T.E attacked, and it’s been about 6 hours since then. What happened?” Sonaris inquired, Seraph looking away from his accusing stare.

“Not your concern,” Seraph muttered, earning him the accusing looks of everybody else.

“What stupid thing did you say this time?” Yasosume questioned, Seraph growling back at her.

“I said it is none of your concern! There are more important things to deal with then her anyway,” Seraph snapped back, effectively silencing the room, mostly by stunning them once more with his callous behavior.

“Well, Ethernial, you’re well versed in Norse mythology it seems, what can you tell us about the Ragnarok?” Sonaris said, breaking the silence and starting things up again. Ethernial thought for a moment and lifted his face off of the table and began to talk.

“Lets see…Ragnarok is basically the end of the world, said that already. According to the books and scrolls I read basically a harsh and cold winter will start things off. The sun and the moon will be swallowed up by the wolves Skoll and Hati, the stars disappearing from the sky shortly after and plunging the Earth into darkness. Then the real fun starts. Fenris will have broken free and start rampaging about, but that was messed up thanks to Seraph. Three crows would then call out to the gods, another to the giants, or I guess the demons and such, and the third one would call to raise the dead,” Ethernial explained.

“Well some of that has already happened, or just got messed up. Fenris is a good example. And so is the calling of everything. We have the ‘gods’ which is probably Gabriel and his angels. We already have the dead running around as monsters. And the giants would be the demons and that’s Seraph,” Yasosume added on.

“Anyway, some more things happened like the Earth shaking, trees being uprooted, the sky and land being poisoned by the Jormungand, a giant serpent also called the Midgard Serpent. Lets see…The sky being ripped apart, fire, lots of it burning the land and sky, killing all, and eventually after a lot more killing and dying the Earth will sink into the sea. After that…Well I don’t know, the ending is sometimes just a total end or a new beginning and all that. So I don’t know how it’s supposed to end, but I guess we’ll all find out, won’t we?” Ethernial finished, an air of hesitation in his voice.

“So what do we do to try and stop the end the world?” Sonaris asked of nobody in particular.

“This is my doing, this is my fault, this is going to be my responsibility,” Seraph murmured, looking down at the floor. Yasosume abruptly got up from her seat, quickly walked over to Seraph and grabbed his right arm, the demon letting out a hiss from the sudden pain.

“Look at yourself! You want to try and stop the end of the world in this condition?! Let alone do it on your own!” Yasosume ridiculed, Seraph growling undignified in response. He yanked his arm free from her, only to cause another jolt of pain to shoot through his arm, Seraph wincing noticeably, trying not to let out any noise.

“There you go, you’re not going to last very long out there in this condition. And since you said to me you’d do what we wanted, you had better keep to your word!” Yasosume lectured. Seraph looked down and nodded his head.

“Alright, alright…” Seraph submitted, instantly backing down for some odd reason.

“So what’s the plan of attack?” Ethernial said, continuing the conversation. Sonaris let out a quiet “hm” and then stood up.

“We know what is basically going to happen. The temperature suddenly dropping and a blizzard suddenly starting. The moon vanishing from the sky, the sun has too by now I’d imagine. Even if the events are going faster then they probably should be we know what’s going to happen. So we have the ability to stop it, or at least fight back!” Sonaris declared. Seraph gave him a sideways glance and shook his head.

“What point is there? Ragnarok was the Norse’s predetermined end. What can we do to stop this?” Seraph muttered.

“You should be the last person to talk about predetermined fates, Seraph,” Ethernial interrupted, Seraph grumbling under his breath at the remark.

“What do you mean?” Seraph grunted finally.

“Airaxen was basically ruled by destiny, until it really came down to the wire. Not even destiny could predict what would happen and he made his own destiny in the end, which was good for all of us luckily. But during this he knew and didn’t care, saying he made his own destiny, and that’s probably true. My point is, you either sit back and do nothing, or make life work for you,” Ethernial concluded, Seraph staring at him blankly.

“Do you seriously expect me to believe that garbage?” Seraph grumbled, lowering his head and putting his face in his left hand.

“Do you have any other choice?” Yasosume then added, Seraph staying silent and not growling his dislike of what was being said for once.

“I think we should take the rest of the night to go ready ourselves, and Seraph, you should see Maria about getting your injuries patched up,” Sonaris instructed. Seraph looked up at Sonaris and nodded slowly.

“I need to stop coming to this city…Everything bad happens when I’m here,” Yasosume grumbled annoyed, Sonaris barely stifling a laugh at the remark.

* * *

Seraph followed the directions given to him by Ethernial to where Maria would meet him after getting some medical supplies from a storeroom.

He decided it would be best to just cooperate, he wasn’t in good condition with all the blood he had lost through just his three injuries. Seraph quietly sat on a table with a white cloth on it that was set up in the middle of the room for his use. He had turned off the lights in the room and closed the door, since it had no windows there was no light to irritate the thoughts of the demon.

“…”

“Is what we’re doing…Right?”

“Satan recruited us to get rid of his problem with the angels. What he told us made it sound like he was the good and righteous one, but now because of our actions we’ve just doomed the entire planet! We’re the bad guy…And I think we’re the ones who are wrong…”

“…”

Suddenly the sound of the door knob being turned interrupted his train of thought and made his eyes shoot open. The nurse Maria cautiously walked into the dark room carrying a small supply of medical utilities.

“Sorry to keep you waiting! I’ll just turn on the light-” Seraph cut Maria off with a wave of his hand.

“No…Leave the lights off,” Seraph murmured. Maria shook her head and put down all of the supplies she brought onto the table next to Seraph.

“Maybe you can see in the dark, but I need light to see what I’m doing, mostly trying to fix you up,” Maria protested. She reached for the light switch again and this time Seraph didn’t complain. With a quiet click the lights flooded the room, Seraph wincing slightly when they came on. Maria walked over and frowned slightly.

“I can’t see the injuries well with that blood stained jacket on,” Maria instructed, Seraph raising an eyebrow at her. Maria returned the look and glowered in return. “Just do it, I’ve seen it all, so lets do this without any complaints, ok?” Seraph eyed the nurse funny for awhile then nodded slowly. His wings folded themselves up, and withdrew into his body through the jacket where they simply seemed to vanished. Seraph mutely pulled his gauntlets off and placed them to the side, taking his shoulder pads off next. He paused for a moment then undid the collar of his jacket along with the other buttons. Seraph then took the bloodied garment off, folded it methodically and placed it next to his pieces of armor. He sat there on the table now with his upper body exposed, and like his jacket, he was also covered in blood.

Maria frowned again and took a cloth and dampened it.

“You know, Seraph,” Maria spoke as she took his right arm and started cleaning it up. Seraph winced slightly and then looked over at her quizzically. “I don’t know if I should be doing this…You are technically the bad guy…” She muttered. Seraph looked away and chuckled lightly.

“What is good and what is bad? I was enlisted by Satan to defeat the power drunken angels that were trying to destroy Hell,” Seraph said quietly, Maria pausing in her work.

“Well how can you trust-” Maria was once again cut off by Seraph, he simply decided to ignore her and continue speaking.

“I didn’t agree at first, if there was no Hell there would be no evil. That isn’t true. Hell provides the temptation and evil that each soul needs in order to have free will. If Hell and its evils weren’t there then we would have no free will, because with free will we can make decisions that we know are wrong but must be done at times, or simply indulge ourselves to enjoy life. The end result would be total and absolute control from those above, and we would be nothing but mere soulless shells of what we were,” Seraph paused and looked at Maria, who quickly diverted her gaze and continued cleaning his right arm. “So am I the ‘bad guy’ because I was sent by the devil? Or am I really just a desperate angel?” Seraph asked, a chuckle following it.

“I don’t know…” The nurse replied, the demon nodding his head.

“I don’t either,” was all he said. Maria finished getting rid of all the dry blood around Seraph’s arm, now able to get a good view of the actual injury itself. His upper right arm was struck by the blast from the deceased Dimitri. The attack had caused a chunk of his arm to become simply incinerated. Underneath his skin were countless strangely colored blue and red veins that probably were like the ones in the normal hybrids. The broken veins seemed to sprout new ends and were slowly snaking their way towards each other to reconnect and repair the damage. But regardless, the injury looked extremely painful.

Seraph looked at his right arm and then pulled it free from Maria’s grip, wincing slightly as he did so.

“I was lucky that my arm wasn’t severed with that attack. A bit more to the side and I’d have to gather the energy to regenerate the limb,” Seraph said mundanely, Maria’s face becoming sympathetic.

“That must hurt a lot…” She sputtered out before she realized how stupid she sounded. Seraph nodded solemnly.

“Yes, it does. But I’ve gotten used to pain…” Seraph explained. Maria frowned at the statement and sighed quietly. She disposed of the bloodied cloth and got a new one to clean the blood on his torso.

Maria motioned for Seraph to lay down, which he did, then moved closer to better get at the blood stains. She didn’t pay much attention before, but now that she was able to get a closer view of Seraph’s body she noticed all of the countless scars that covered his body. Some were small and were either small cuts or bullets that grazed him, others looked to be full out sword slashes or even blasted apart portions that had long regenerated themselves.

“My god…” Maria whispered under her breath. Seraph simply lay there and stared at the ceiling, counting the tiles to himself. Maria continued her work diligently, even having to get another cloth to finish the task. When she did finish cleaning his chest wounds she also took a good look at them. Each were jagged and fairly large, able to provide a view into Seraph’s body. Like his arm’s interior, it was the same in design with the vein structure. Unlike the arm however there were what appeared to be strange internal organs, visible in one of the openings was a strange pulsating organ slowly that was probably the heart of the demon.

The demon sat up and looked down at his chest and placed a hand over the injury. He laughed quietly, but the action was a bad idea and caused him to wince.

“It must hurt so much…” Maria said again, more sympathetic then last time. Seraph didn’t respond right away and just looked down.

“As you might have guessed from my scars, I’m used to knowing pain. Don’t worry, I’m just a demon who has the fortune to have a kind nurse try and heal him,” Seraph chuckled, again wincing slightly. Maria shook her head heavily and got some bandages ready.

“Why do you torture yourself like this?” Maria inquired, Seraph grunting to himself.

“I’m alright, don’t worry. The end of the world is nearing and as long as I’m in good health and can fight I’ll be alright,” Seraph dismissed. Maria shook her head and began to bandage his right arm up.

“…Has Tikai said anything about me…?” Seraph suddenly asked, Maria pausing in her work and looking at him quizzically. Seraph looked away quickly and stared at the metal plated floor.

“She didn’t talk much about you. To be honest ever since you-I mean Airaxen died Tikai just kinda became blank and stoic. She stopped being as vibrant and I knew whenever she smiled she just didn’t want to show that she was afraid. I didn’t talk with her very much recently but I think she’s finally starting to crack with all of the mental attacks I’ve heard about from a certain blue haired person,” Maria explained, Seraph closing his eyes and lowering his head further.

“You know, Seraph,” Maria began, shaking the demon out of his thoughts and causing him to look at her. “From all I heard about you, you don’t seem…Evil and demonic, more like misunderstood. Are you just trying to make the world think you’re the bad guy when you’re just trying to figure things out?” Maria spoke, once again Seraph becoming silent. Maria finished bandaging his arm and began working on the patching up the injuries on his chest.

“I’m sorry I can’t offer you much more medical attention then a few bandages. I can’t do much for all of you hybrids,” Maria said after applying the last bandage.

“It is alright. I only need to gather energy to repair my demon body. I’ll be alright in a few hours time,” Seraph reassured blankly, voice lacking its normal icy undertone and more human sounding.

Seraph then reached for his jacket but Maria took it before he got to it.

“If you don’t mind I can clean this up and patch it up for you. It doesn’t look good to walk around with a jacket covered in blood and holes,” Maria laughed quietly, Seraph nodding slowly. In return she gave him a oversized grey shirt to wear in the meantime.

“One last thing, Seraph,” Maria said again, Seraph looking at her as he slipped the shirt on. “I thought you were someone evil, someone that would be Dimitri’s successor. However you aren’t, you really are just a desperate angel,” she said softly, Seraph smiling thinly to himself.

“Thank you.”

* * *

Seraph retired to his assigned room on the ship and carefully stretched out onto his bed, still wearing the baggy grey shirt until the nurse Maria returned with his jacket. The lights were turned out as usual, and he had covered up the windows to make the room completely dark.

There Seraph lay in his peace and quiet and realized just how tired he was, fighting all day and night constantly. From battling with the people that had just taken him in, to fighting with a false angel. Now that the day was pretty much over, despite having to witness the start of the end of the world, he rather just rest at the moment instead of worrying, at least he would try and put his troubled thoughts aside for once and sleep.

::Just for a little bit…I want to rest…:: Seraph thought sleepily before being lulled into a deep slumber.

* * *

“It’s you again…” Seraph muttered quietly, residing in a dark corner of his dreamscape, hanging upside down from the ‘ceiling’ which to him was just a random stairway he decided to sit on that appeared to be the right orientation depending on his location. Across from him floating in the air was once again Satan, the 6-winged Angel of Death, sporting all black from head to toe and dressed in a fine business suit.

“Yes, it is me again, isn’t it?” Satan responded coolly, whether or not he was angry when he spoke was impossible to tell with his icy voice.

“Are you here to punish me for this? Here to bestow your divine wrath?” Seraph asked shortly, looking at the ground, or the ceiling be the case.

“Actually, no,” Satan responded, finally landing on the ground and looking up at the upside down Seraph. “I’m here because I’m telling you that I want you to decide.”

“Decide what?” Seraph inquired curiously, eyebrow raised.

“Your destiny. I have come to realize something. I enlisted you to allow the humans to have their free will, and yet at the same time I’ve stripped you of yours. I did whatever I could to fight those corrupted and power drunken angels, and yet I have become like them. And now with the onset of Ragnarok and with it the possible end of this Earth, I’ve had time to think as I tried to launch my counter offensive against Heaven,” Satan explained casually and with a wave of his hand.

“What exactly have you thought about then?” Seraph asked once more.

“I believe that now it is time for you to decide what to do with your destiny. If you do not wish to stop the Ragnarok then I will not go back on my deal. I said I wanted to protect the free will of humans, and I will honor my word, regardless of whatever name you call me. However, I would prefer it if you did try and help prevent the Ragnarok…” Satan mused quietly, a thin smile on his face. Seraph didn’t speak back he simply sat there, until he finally looked at Satan.

“I don’t understand…It’s almost like you’re giving up on what you fought for…” Seraph stated, Satan shrugged casually.

“I got this job as the Angel of Death because I volunteered to oversee Hell. None opposed me when I did this, I had the reputation as the most compassionate of the angels, some even wanting me to take the highest ranking in Heaven, which I refused. I knew that the only person that would have accepted the job as overseer of Hell were those that were corrupt and only wished to become more powerful. I wanted the job because I appreciated the humans and wanted to make sure that the darkest entities entering through the Gates of Hell would be given a lesson to repent and better themselves. Not because I was the unlucky one to be chosen for the task,” Satan explained quietly, Seraph looking at him peculiarly.

“What’s your point?” Seraph murmured in return.

“My point is I haven’t given up on what I fought for, and I will not give up until I cease to exist. But I will not go against all that I have believed in, even if it is only because of one person. And of course, even if you do not wish to fight against Gabriel any longer I am Satan after all, and I have all of the demons of Hell to follow my command. I will never give up without a fight,” Satan declared. Seraph looked at Satan’s face carefully, it was perfectly calm, and for some reason even slightly friendly.

“Can I really trust you? Even with my fragmented memories, I can still remember that you tricked me to enlist my services,” Seraph grunted.

“I know, another mistake I made in desperation. Do not worry, I always keep to my word,” Satan reassured.

“…If I decided to not fight anymore…What purpose would I have to exist? What could justify all I have done, all that I have killed…What could justify my being?” Seraph asked desperately of the angel.

“I can not answer that. Make your own destiny,” Satan replied and then with a wave of his hand vanished from Seraph’s dreamscape, and probably for the last time.

* * *

Seraph awoke suddenly when the ship’s intercom buzzed to life, on its other end was the voice of Sonaris.

“To every able bodied fighter aboard the ship, in less then half an hour we will be mobilizing and fighting to try and stop the end of the world! So eat a good meal and most of all, have some fun with everything,” Sonaris blared over the intercom, his sarcasm dripping from the last words he said.

Seraph growled to himself, annoyed to have to wake up so rudely. He slowly sat up and placed his hand on the dresser next to the bed, looking for a clock or sorts. Instead he found a small pile of clothing, next to it were his silver armor pieces, Maria must’ve placed them in his room while he was sleeping, Seraph assumed. He took off the shirt he had received and slipped on his newly sown jacket and then put his armor back on, appearance restored and ready to face what awaited him on the 7^th day of his existence. If the last 6 were any indication of what was in store, Seraph suddenly began to consider simply going back to sleep and hoping no one bothered him.

Regardless Seraph still dragged himself out of bed and out into the light filled corridors of the ship. He looked down at his jacket briefly and took note of the fine repair work Maria had done, and then carried on. Unlike the previous times he walked along the ship he had familiarized himself with its maze like insides and easily found his way into the large recreational area that most of the people aboard spent their time in.

Inside he found Sonaris sitting in a chair, leaning back with his feet up on a table and his cheeks slightly rosy, probably the sign of him indulging in alcohol that night. In his left hand was what appeared to be a microphone that connected to the rest of the ship’s intercom, in the right he held a spoon and was twirling it around casually.

“You don’t look very good…” Seraph commented quietly, Sonaris chuckling quietly to himself.

“Oh don’t worry about me, unlike all of the others I can handle myself when I’m drinking,” Sonaris reassured and then pointed off to the corner where Ethernial and Yasosume lay, dazed and most likely unconscious. “It’s those two that can’t handle themselves when drinking!” Sonaris laughed and threw the spoon across the room and right into the metal wall.

Seraph raised an eyebrow, looking at the black haired man peculiarly, never imagining he could prove to be reckless in any degree, at least according to his few memories of Sonaris.

“Has Tikai come back yet?” Seraph asked, Sonaris pausing in thought and shaking his head.

“For some reason she still hasn’t turned up, I’d imagine she could take care of herself but then again she never stays out this long…” Sonaris murmured now realizing the matter was brought to him. Seraph’s face changed to that of worry for a brief instant before it turned back to his normal stoic expression.

“Now why would that be bothering you of all people?” Sonaris asked, laughing slightly, the signs of his intoxication showing even more so. Seraph looked at Sonaris oddly for awhile and grunted, folding his arms together and leaning against a wall.

“What? Did I find the kink in your armor?” Sonaris teased, a large grin showing up on his face. Seraph narrowed his eyes dangerously and began emitting a low growling, his fangs showing. Sonaris sneered at him knowing he was getting closer to unraveling the demon’s inner workings.

“Well if you were worried about her at all, why would you ever say such cold hearted things to her? Hm?” Sonaris pried, Seraph’s growling getting louder.

“Enough,” Seraph growled angrily, eyes nothing more then slits by then.

“Oh it’s not that hard of a question! I’m just curious to know why you’re wondering about her!” Sonaris cackled, swinging his legs off the table and standing up in one quick and fluent motion, now eyeing Seraph with a smug grin. “Or are you trying to cover up for something, the mighty demon trying to hide from something?!” Sonaris mocked, Seraph finally had enough and lunged at Sonaris, reaching out to wring his neck. Sonaris however sneered and reached back and grabbed a new spoon and then threw it forward, the small metal utensil striking Seraph right in the center of his forehead. Seraph stopped his charge, he knew that Sonaris was just giving him a warning, telling him not to do it again or it would be a sword through his head next time.

“Why are you doing this to me?!” Seraph snarled, trying to resist the urge to start a fight.

“If you answer my question, I’ll leave you alone,” Sonaris stated, picking up another spoon and twirling it around. The demon backed down quickly, looking down at the ground.

“I…I…” Seraph began slowly. “I’m afraid…Of her,” he murmured quietly.

“Why?”

“When I looked at her and my memories came back…I was afraid of what she would think of me…Of what I am now,” Seraph leaned against a wall and looked down, his long bangs of dark blue hair covering up the rest of his face.

“What would I do to know that I had once died to save this world and I couldn’t at least find a place for myself in that girl. The one that was the deciding factor in that decision to sacrifice my life for all of yours, well, what do I have left to hold onto? She doesn’t even look close to how I remembered her, it just shows how long it has been, and all that has changed…I was afraid…I’m afraid of her rejection…No matter how unlikely it may seem to you, I know you can not look at me the same again, and the same applies to me. I’m afraid that I will be looked at differently and then…Be alone again…” Seraph muttered quietly, he had said his piece and hoped it would satisfy the persistent Sonaris.

“And all of the things you said to Tikai were provoked of that fear. I imagine no one would be watching you when your face was sympathetic and worried,” Sonaris commented. The two stayed silent for a long period of time before Sonaris showed signs of movement. He placed a hand underneath the table then pulled out a full bottle of red wine and handed it to Seraph.

“You’re not perfect, you are only human after all. But stop running and confront your fears, if you don’t you’ll never find any peace. So you going to keep running or will you do something?” Sonaris inquired. Seraph raised his head and looked at the bottle being offered to him. Seraph shook his head and pushed the bottle away.

“I’ll think about it. Lets just get something useful done,” Seraph grumbled, Sonaris smirking and putting the bottle away.

“I thought you’d say something like that. Ok, lets wake those two up and see what we can do,” Sonaris suggested before walking over to the heap of bodies that were the other two members of their little group. He bent over and picked them up one by one and seated them against the wall. Seraph filled two glasses with cold water and threw the liquid at both of them. The two redheads woke up instantly both shouting wildly having woken up so suddenly. After coming to realize that they weren’t going to drown, or they didn’t get slapped for molesting some girl, the full extent of their hangovers then came into play, the two falling over on their sides and complaining about something different.

“Lightweights,” Sonaris commented to himself, a smug grin spread on his face.

“Great, I’m cold, wet, and have a headache,” Yasosume grumbled, Ethernial simply laying on the ground unmoving and groaning occasionally. Seraph shook his head dismally and grumbled something under his breath.

“If these are the best example of what will try to stop the Ragnarok, then we might as well give up and save the effort,” Seraph commented cynically, rubbing his hand over his face. Sonaris shrugged his shoulders and picked up a television remote, pointed it at the appliance and turned it on to the news. As he expected all that could be talked about in the media were the sudden strange and frightening phenomena occurring all across the planet.

“Looks like you were right, Ethernial,” Sonaris commented, folding his arms together as he watched the report. “All over the world people have said that the sun hasn’t risen, the moon has also vanished and even the stars have started to disappear from the sky. There have also been a massive amount of monster sightings, many of the major cities of the world are under attack by the beasts, not to mention the weather has become so cold so fast its affecting the populace as well,” Sonaris summarized for the others, Seraph grunting his annoyance of the situation.

“Until we can figure out where Gabriel is we should just take care of the crowds and make sure they aren’t panicking too much,” Ethernial jumped in, raising his arm up to show he was still paying attention as well.

“All of you go fight those monsters. I’ll look for Gabriel on my own,” Seraph declared, mentally reminding himself he was lying and was more interested in trying to find Tikai. Sonaris shook his head to the statement and stepped towards the demon.

“I’m going with you. Currently it is unsafe to go out alone,” Sonaris pointed out, Seraph eyeing him carefully before shrugging.

“Alright,” Seraph submitted, there was no point to argue with Sonaris, even if he was intoxicated he was still more keen then he was sadly.

“Then I hope you two don’t mind going alone to Lutenia to fight the monsters,” Sonaris apologized, Ethernial shrugging and Yasosume nodding her head.

“Enough talking, time to save the world,” Seraph finalized, leaving the room followed by the rest of the fighters.

* * *

“Why is it so damn cold out here now?” Yasosume muttered, shivering heavily. The city of Lutenia was currently experiencing what was the most powerful snowstorm in all of its history. Visibility at best was a few feet in front of their faces anything past that would be blocked out with whipping snow. The lake had already frozen in just a night, and still the temperature kept dropping.

“Well it’s your own fault to go out in this weather with a shirt and some pants!” Ethernial pointed out, also shivering in his white jumpsuit. Seraph folded his arms together and scoffed at the two.

“It’s just some cold air,” he gloated, until a particularly strong gust of ‘cold air’ blew past Seraph, his facade collapsing and he also began to shiver. “Alright, I take it back, it is damn cold out here,” Seraph muttered under his breath, Ethernial laughing at the demon’s expense.

Unlike all of his companions Sonaris was perfectly fine, wearing his suit of armor that contained a nice layer of padding that doubled up as insulation.

“Yeah, and then we got stupid Sonaris with his fancy suit of armor,” Yasosume grumbled, Sonaris just grinning in return.

“Alright we have some jobs to do, lets just get moving,” Sonaris directed, everyone else grumbling because he was the only one that would still have feeling in their body.

“We’ll go and take care of the monsters then,” Ethernial said as best as he could with his teeth chattering together. Seraph nodded and was about to wave the two off until the sound of heavy machinery entered their ears. Seraph looked to the sky for where the sound was coming from, still unable to see through all of the snow.

Suddenly, through the snowstorm a silo of rockets blasted apart the ground, the attack not striking any of them but close enough to be taken as a warning shot.

“Who’s out there?! Show yourself!” Sonaris demanded, and it wouldn’t take long for his demands to be met. Descending from the sky and clearing up the sky for view were two mechas obviously from the organization E.L.I.T.E.

Seraph flinched when he got a good look at the mechas two mechas coming down, one was the dull colored mecha of Madam DeMonte, instead of its sniper rifle it was carrying a handheld rocket pack. Along with it was the immense dragon mecha that belonged to Sirius Orbit.

“That’s impossible! Seraph killed those two! It can’t be those commanders again!” Yasosume shouted, arming her laser rifle. Seraph growled lowly, lance forming in his right hand. The only response from the mechas was laughter, twisted, evil laughter from what was undoubtedly were the voices of the ‘dead’ commanders.

“It will take more then that to kill us,” Sirius declared.

“This time we’ll kill you dead! I mean…Oh forget it!” Ethernial grumbled having messed up his dramatic battle cry.

“No, we only want the demon and that wannabe samurai,” Madam DeMonte stated, pointing an arm of her mecha at the two.

“Oh? And what’s going to stop us?” Yasosume challenged.

“This is going to stop you,” Sirius answered, from above them another massive craft entered their sight. The ship was a decade old Myreison battle ship, the ones they had seen such a long time ago on their escapade to rescue Yasosume from Omega. The ship was massive, able to cover a fair portion of the lake in its shadow.

The craft was circular in design, two nearly blade like edges on either side of the ship with a large central tower sticking out of the top and bottom of the craft. However this Myreison battleship was heavily damaged, portions of the ship were nearly about to break off and were haphazardly repaired at best. Gigantic cracks sometimes ran across the entire ship, the signs of its age were clearly evident.

The ports of the ship opened up and from them swarms of E.L.I.T.E mechas poured out, all of them heading into the city carrying vast arsenals of weapons.

“Better hurry! If you don’t there won’t be anything left of Lutenia!” Madam DeMonte taunted, explosions quickly occurring all over the city, the sound of citizens screaming and buildings smashing into the ground entering their ears.

“Don’t worry about us, take care of the situation. We’ll handle these E.L.I.T.E imbeciles,” Sonaris reassured.

“Yeah well, if you guys die I won’t like cleaning up your mess!” Yasosume shouted as she and Ethernial headed off into the city. Seraph directed his attention back at the rather not dead E.L.I.T.E commanders.

“Well you have us on our own, now what?” Seraph demanded, only to be greeted by laughter from the two mechas as they took to the air once more and unexpectedly began to retreat to the Myreison battleship.

“Try and keep up!” Madam DeMonte shouted down at them.

“You should be honored! You are the first ones to get the chance to step aboard of E.L.I.T.E’s battleship!” Sirius laughed, releasing his mecha’s small army of orb bit robots to pursue the two heroes.

“How can you have such technology?! All of those battleships were destroyed years ago! Only the Myreison have knowledge to repair one of those!” Sonaris deduced, a large wolf head cannon forming on both of his arms, each with a long barrel like that of a sniper rifle, as well a red tinted glass visor formed over Sonaris’s right eye to act as a targeting device.

“Hurry up!” The two pilots shouted in unison, Sirius firing a concentrated blast of blue energy while Madam DeMonte released the rest of the rockets in her weapon before discarding it. Seraph leapt to the side to avoid the attacks, Sonaris following suit and then opening fire on all of the bit robots with deadly accuracy.

“Move it! This is the only chance we’ll get to destroy E.L.I.T.E for good!” Seraph ordered, leaping into the air, his dark blue wings sprouting out of his back. The demon shot through the snowstorm up at the battleship, Sonaris lagging behind, he could fly but it would be slower then whatever speed Seraph could achieve. The two commanders didn’t bother attacking anymore and simply entered through an open port in the battleship, their pursuers entering the ship shortly after.

Seraph and Sonaris followed the two mechas out of the large mechanical room and into a massive corridor, big enough for both mechas to travel through it side by side.

“Hurry, hurry!” Madam DeMonte kept going, the mechas drifting through the corridor while facing the two, now arming their weapons.

“They’re just leading us deeper into their headquarters!” Sonaris growled, losing the sniper rifle on his left arm while the rifle on his right arm changed form and grew a massive barrel instead like that of a cannon.

“I know, they might have field advantage but it doesn’t matter! These idiots might’ve taken Tikai so I won’t let them slip away so easily!” Seraph nearly roared, giving a mighty flap of his 6 wings and stabbing forward with the sword end of his lance, his target was the torso of Madam DeMonte’s mecha. She parried the move with the sword blade and deflected the demon with her automated suit’s superior servos. Sonaris struck next with a large blast of blue energy from his cannon, the attack getting countered with a blast from Sirius’s draconic mecha, both beams exploding in the confined space. The smoke caused by the explosion temporarily stunned Seraph and Sonaris, allow the E.L.I.T.E commanders to attack.

Sirius shot another beam his attack slicing through the smoke. Sonaris saw the beam coming at them through the smoke with his visor and pushed Seraph to the side as he leapt to the opposite side, the beam passing harmlessly between them. Madam DeMonte struck next, shooting forward and stabbed at Sonaris. Seraph took to the charge this time, the sword blade of his lance radiating a bright light.

“Dark-light!” Seraph shouted, his blade turning into a beam of light. The demon slashed up and easily sliced the metal blade off, not to mention leaving a good cut in the entire ship.

Sonaris smirked at the demon who did the same, the two then rocketing forward to launch another wave of attacks. Sonaris put his left arm out, masses of small lights forming around it. He waved his arm forward, all the lights shooting at the two mechas. The attack only caused minor damage to the mechas, nothing more then a set of dents in the armor.

“What are you trying to do with such a weak attack?” Madam DeMonte taunted, the two mechas quickly turning into a different corridor, leading the two deeper into the battleship. Seraph also thought something similar to what Madam DeMonte said, Sonaris however kept throwing his energy attacks at the two mechas, all his attacks doing were causing nothing more then little dents. However Seraph suddenly realized what he was doing and he abandoned the use of his lance, the weapon leaving in black flames. He instead grabbed each of his gauntlets and transformed them into his two sleek black handguns and assisted Sonaris in his attack. Even if the bullets Seraph used were enhanced with energy bursts they didn’t do much more damage then Sonaris’s attacks, however all of their small attacks on the two mechas starting to add up as chips of the armor began to rapidly come off.

The E.L.I.T.E commanders disregarded their attacks and began to launch theirs’. Madam DeMonte’s mecha reached back and grabbed the sniper rifle that was strapped onto its back. Sirius charged a blast from his cannon head for the entire time he was under attack. He let loose a blast of energy at the two. Sonaris pointed his cannon up at the ceiling ahead of them and blasted a large hole in it. The two quickly shot up into it before the beam hit, the attack blasting a hole in the wall behind them instead.

Madam DeMonte pointed her rifle up at the roof and began to blast holes through it in an attempt to hit the two but from the looks of the empty holes, she wasn’t hitting anything. Suddenly the two came in from the side wall, having blasted a hole in the wall of the outer hall and struck them from there. Sonaris blasting twice with his cannon, Seraph having put away his hand guns and let loose a blast of white beams from his piercing light attack. Both mechas were hit with such force that they both were sent smashing through the opposite wall and into the main reactor room of the entire ship.

The two mechas slowly climbed to their feet, however massive plates of the armor had broken off exposing the mechanical workings of each which were unseen due to the lack of light in the room.

“All of those little attacks on your mechas wore down your armor,” Sonaris began to explain as he walked into the reactor room.

“Making it more susceptible for a stronger attack,” Seraph finished, his right hand still with some lingering white glow around it.

“It doesn’t matter, we have you where we want you!” Sirius laughed, both mechas stepping aside allowing a man to step out from the shadows and face the two heroes.

“So you are the demon that destroyed our biomechanical laboratory, and you are one of the pests to my organization,” he spoke in a low gruff voice.

“Then you must be-” Sonaris paused in mid-sentence and pointed his cannon at the man.

“I am Dante, top commander and leader of E.L.I.T.E,” he spoke, now fully walking out from the darkness to allow himself to be seen.

Dante was tall with a good build, wearing a long black trench coat. On his face were two long scars that went across his eyes, but it probably didn’t matter to him since he could still see them. He had blazing red hair that stood straight up in spikes. One thing stood out about him, one very noticeable thing, a set of large bat like wings.

“Another hybrid?” Sonaris inquired, Dante’s face however contorted into anger at the statement.

“Don’t call me such a filthy thing! I am no hybrid, and neither are my commanders!” Dante roared.

“What do you mean?” Sonaris asked, raising an eyebrow slightly.

“We are the last of the Myreison race!” Dante declared angrily.

“That’s impossible! Dimitri committed genocide and sacrificed the entire Myreison race to fuel his power!” Sonaris retorted, only angering Dante more.

“That tyrant Dimitri nearly got us all, however we escaped by shedding our bodies and dawning these human ones to avoid the sacrifices. We hid for years in the ocean where we escaped his reach. After Airaxen destroyed the capital and Dimitri we decided it would be time to reclaim the glory the Myreison civilization lost eons and eons ago! We once ruled the surface of the world until we were degraded to hiding underground! So in these times of peace we created this organization, E.L.I.T.E, recruiting all of the lowlife humans as our men. It was easy to find an army to fight for us, they wanted a battle and they have it, and follow our orders without fail. And when we have crushed all that stands in our way, then the Myreison civilization shall rule again!” Dante explained, like most villains he liked to hear his voice apparently.

“Why do you need me then?” Seraph asked, Dante waving his hand in response.

“You are unlike anything we have encountered before, as a scientist I want to study you and figure out what makes you tick. If I can do this, then the Myreison race will leap through evolution! As for you little weak hybrids, you are nothing more then a pest to me. Now then, I know no reason for this to be peaceful, nor do I want it to be!” Dante laughed, flapping his wings and shooting into the air. By then Sirius and Madam DeMonte had combined their mechas once again, the mecha boasting a rifle on its shoulder, a massive cannon for a right arm and a long whip like weapon for a left arm.

“Now it makes sense how neither of you died, even after I reduced your mecha to scrap metal. Well, this time I’ll do a better job of killing you!” Seraph growled.

“All this time, this entire organization was being run by some vengeful Myreisons? Now that’s a riot,” Sonaris chuckled.

“Don’t mock us!” Sirius growled, pointing his cannon at Sonaris.

“Crush them!” Dante ordered, the gigantic mecha stomping at the two while Dante drifted back into the shadows.

With the order given Sonaris and Seraph faced the inhuman commanders of E.L.I.T.E in their combined mechas again. Seraph put his hand out where it began to radiate a stronger glow and took quick aim.

“Piercing Lights!” Seraph called out, beams of white light firing out of his palm and bombarding the mecha. The mecha getting struck head on, blasts of white light illuminating the darkened room.

“Keep on your guard, Seraph, it’s never that easy,” Sonaris cautioned, and sure enough an explosive shell from the mecha that was obviously still standing. Seraph noticed the shell first and spun to his side and shot out his wings, the very tip of them striking the shell and knocked it off course where it exploded shortly after, the demon withdrawing his wings before they were caught in the blast.

When the smoke cleared the two got a good look at the mecha with very minimal damage considering the ferocity of the attack, only a few holes along the armor. What was strange was underneath the armor were the trademark colored vine system of all Myreisons, but definitely not characteristic of any mechas.

“What’s going on here?” Sonaris trailed off, an eyebrow raised.

“You see, we prepared this time, and merged with our mechas, now it is as if they were our real bodies!” Madam DeMonte explained, firing another shell from the rifle on the mecha’s shoulder. Sonaris leapt over the attack and rained blasts of energy down at the mecha, all of which however were countered with a blast from the cannon on the right arm.

Seraph attacked when Sonaris kept the mecha preoccupied and created his lance from the air, slashing forward with the hook blade and cutting into the armor. The demon began to prepare his Dark-light attack and have it strike from within but that wouldn’t happen, the whip arm came and smashed Seraph away with incredible force. Sonaris changed the setting on his weapon, the weapon’s barrel reshaping into 5 smaller ones arranged in a circular fashion like a machine gun, another duplicate cannon forming on his left arm as well. He flared his rockets and shot back, away from the mecha and released a barrage of small blue beams that chewed away at the armor rapidly. The dual mecha pointed its cannon at the two and fired an enormous blast of energy, Seraph stood his ground despite the attack and shot his lance forward, the tip of the weapon glowing white.

The attack made contact with the weapon and exploded violently, the floor of the room breaking apart, however it crumbled in strange plates instead of chunks of concrete like an explosion should create. Suddenly two waves of white and black energy shot out of the explosion, the dual mecha barely avoiding being subdivided. Seraph emerged from the attack with minor damage, a small patch over his right arm was blasted off, his inner workings revealed and blood flowing out of the injury profoundly.

“Damnit, thought that would’ve hit,” Seraph growled weakly, placing his left hand over his injury from the stunt.

“You assume too much of yourself!” Sirius shouted, firing the rockets on its back and shooting forward taking aim at the demon with the weapon on its left arm. Sonaris came to the rescue with his twin katana swords. Having ditched his cannons and resorted to his tried and true blades, he came in between the two and stabbed both of his swords straight into the exposed bodily systems of the mecha, instantly causing it to crumble backwards and cease its attack.

“You alright, Seraph?” Sonaris made sure, the demon laughing under his breath.

“I’m fine, my ego is just a bit bruised,” he replied, putting his lance into his left hand instead of using his right like normal.

“Wait, what are you doing in that state?” Sonaris questioned, Seraph gave him a sneer and laughed quietly, walking towards the downed mecha.

“I’m getting back your swords,” Seraph answered, he obviously was about to do something sinister. Sonaris took a step away to watch as Seraph stood right in front of the mecha as it climbed back to its feet.

“Instead of your probably routine taunting, I’m just going to beat you down,” Seraph said quickly, his hands glowing black. The demon raised his lance up and brought the lance-hook blade out, down with lightning speed, then performed an uppercut with the other side of the weapon delivering two swift attacks. Seraph brought the lance back around and began a furious assault of stabs and thrusts with the sword blade of the lance.

The mecha toppled back, its internal ‘organs’ shredded to pieces and sprayed out all over the floor. Seraph twirled the lance around and let it dissipate into the air. He drifted over to the mecha quickly and pulled both of Sonaris’s swords free, tossing them back at him. Sonaris caught them and crisscrossed the blades, sliding them together as they glowed a soft blue light, the blades turning from solid metal into masses of energy.

Sonaris ran forward, his two swords becoming one massive long sword that he needed both hands to hold, its hilt a ruby red one that had formed from out of no where, the blade itself a massive beam of blue tinted energy. As the mecha was still recovering from Seraph’s sudden attack. He brought the sword up to about his hip, weapon out to the side. The mecha tried to attack but Seraph also came to attack, coming in from the side where he wasn’t noticed by the automation, and sliced the barrel of the cannon off, stopping the attack and distracting it for Sonaris to attack. The swordsman moved the sword blade back to point behind him then, then spun around, performing an uppercut at the same time and effectively slicing the mecha clean apart right through the torso. He then brought the weapon around and up then straight down through the center of the upper body, effectively ending the lives of the two E.L.I.T.E commanders.

“Well what do you think of that, Dante? Your two commanders were dispatched easily and now it looks like you’re the last Myreison, hiding behind the shadows, what a humiliating way to go as the commander of E.L.I.T.E,” Sonaris mused loudly, waving his sword around and trying to find where the last commander ran off to.

Dante stepped back into the little traces of light within the room, his face not showing any sign of angry or remorse for his fallen commanders.

“You have no honor, you shouldn’t be called the commander of anything!” Seraph shouted, launching his verbal attack on Dante right before he began to launch his physical one. He had put his lance away a long time ago and now pointed his glowing palm at the final Myreison.

“Piercing Lights,” Seraph growled, blasts of the white energy ripping through Dante’s body with ease. Sonaris raised an eyebrow, Dante had been blasted to pieces all that was left was the upper portion of his chest, wings and his head, all of which surviving the barrage relatively unscratched.

“Be careful, Seraph, this is much too easy,” Sonaris warned as he gripped his sword tighter. Seraph looked at him skeptically but nodded his head anyway, he was no fool to fall for someone playing possum.

Sonaris repositioned his sword to prepare to strike again, however the floor of the reactor room suddenly began to rumble and break apart into large platforms, the entire ship itself broke apart, only the area where the reactor itself was unaffected. As they were exposed to the harsh subzero environment, Sonaris and Seraph became distracted from what was happening with the severed Dante.

As light from the outside world flooded the inside of the room it revealed what the reactor’s structure really was; a gigantic golden mecha body encased in the translucent red capsule that they assumed was the reactor. The body was humanoid shaped, standing about 30 feet tall clad in thick plates of armor. Hundreds of thick wires connected the body to the top and bottom of the chamber, probably as some sort of life support system. A number of thick red wires connected the neck region from the torso, another capsule like structure built into the body that possibly contained the core. What remained of Dante’s body was lifted off the ground by his bat wings.

“For years we’ve been developing this, a machine to recreate the entire Myreison population! However I decided to turn the machine into a new body for me. I could become a new god for the upcoming era!” Dante cackled.

“You fool! The Ragnarok is occurring! There won’t be a new era!” Seraph roared back, his body emitting a dark blue glow. “So get out of the way!”

“We have better things to do then dealing with your little organization!” Sonaris added on.

“End of the world?! I can survive anything! But I will make sure you won’t survive for another day!” Dante laughed as the entire ship had finished separating, forming sets of stairs with the massive platforms, the capsule in the very center with Seraph and Sonaris right at ground zero on a platform right in front of it. The capsule’s reddened walls all blasted apart and rained shards down onto the city below. Sonaris leapt at what remained of Dante, however something came to attack him as he did so. A black humanoid mass leapt out at the swordsman, however a blast of white energy from Seraph’s hand blasted the creature into oblivion before it could strike Sonaris.

“What was that?!” Sonaris exclaimed, looking around for where the attack came from.

“Don’t know, it just came out of nowhere,” Seraph muttered. Sonaris suddenly realized what the attack had done, distracted them from Dante’s actions. And by the time it had dawned on the both of them it was too late.

Dante’s body had affixed itself into the neck of the giant golden mecha body, the vines sticking out of his body attaching to the terminals and ports inside of the automation. From the back of the mecha a large golden shell in the shape of a normal human’s skull and came down around Dante, encasing him inside the machine. Ruby red orbs of light lit up inside of the eye sockets and the entire mecha began to shift and move.

“Damnit! He got to that armored exoskeleton,” growled Seraph, angry at his own ignorance to the underhanded plan.

“Do not stand in my way! I shall become the new ruler and lord of this pathetic planet!” Dante laughed. From the soles of the robot’s feet and numerous engines on its back the massive mecha took to the air, flexing its new limbs.

“I hope I wasn’t that conceited when I used to fight you in the past,” Sonaris chuckled, Seraph shaking his head.

“I’ve told you all before, I’m not the person you think I am,” Seraph replied lowly. Dante’s new body was surprisingly agile for its size, quickly charging at the platform Sonaris stood on. He leapt up and performed a back flip onto a higher up platform as the one he just left was smashed into debris with a mighty punch from Dante.

Seraph knew that his lance or guns would have no effect upon the great machine, and found himself sifting through his battle options as fast as he could considering that Dante was forcing Sonaris to take the defense.

Sonaris had no room to strike back, leaping to a new platform as the last was shattered with another swing of a fist, slowing down in the slightest would mean he would be struck by the object and most likely knocked across the island.

::Come on, Seraph! Do something! I can’t keep dodging like this!:: Sonaris thought desperately, Dante moving back quickly and pointing both open hands at Sonaris. On each palm was a large circular opening. The capsule showcased in the torso of Dante’s body suddenly began to bubble and glow red, a large mass of black matter forming inside of it. The substance shot straight up the capsule and into some other part of the mecha, and shortly after two sinister and deformed Myreisons shot out of each palm, both charging at Sonaris to strike him down. He gripped his long sword with both hands and executed a single horizontal slash, easily dispatching the Myreisons and letting their corpses drop to the frozen lake below. But as Dante had planned he now had an opening to hit the swordsman, opening his mouth and allowing a silver cannon barrel to emerge, instead of an opening at the end a ruby red gem occupied the space. Sonaris kicked off the ground and launched himself into the air, barely missing a beam of enormous crimson energy firing out of the cannon, the beam measuring nearly ten feet in diameter.

But now it was Sonaris’s turn to attack. He flew in from above and came crashing down with his energy long sword and slashed at the head. But to his utter shock his weapon didn’t penetrate the armor, instead the energy blade actually shattered into particles of light, his blade instantly returning to its original state as two katana blades, however each blade was smashed apart leaving him only two hilts to fight with. Dante closed his mouth, the cannon returning into his head. He looked up at Sonaris and laughed heartedly, swiping at Sonaris but he was too fast and evaded the attack.

“My armor can generate wavelengths of energy that are stronger then whatever you can throw at me, and then it’ll cancel your attack out with ease!” Dante cackled and charging at Sonaris once more.

This time Sonaris wasn’t able to distance himself from Dante and found the massive gold fist closing in on him way too fast. He was struck by the limb and sent soaring through the air, smashing right through two platforms before losing enough momentum to just smash into the third platform, landing on another platform below him.

Dante cackled and raised his fist once more, this time however a powerful concussion shell had struck the hand, sending a massive crack all along the gold armor plating.

“Sorry for the delay, I needed to see what we were up against before trying something,” Seraph apologized, his gauntlets gone and in their place were a set of black cannons. On the right arm he had a single barrel cannon, on the left was the larger double barrel blaster. Sonaris sat up slowly, and scoffed at the demon.

“I was wondering if you had abandoned me!” Sonaris laughed in spite of the situation.

Dante spun around to face Seraph and pointed an open palm at him, the capsule starting work to produce more Myreisons to swarm him. However from watching Dante attack before, Seraph knew how to strike. He targeted the capsule directly and shot off a set of three explosive shells, two small ones from the left cannon and a single large one from the right gun. Dante didn’t expect the attack and sustained a direct hit in the torso, the capsule having being made out of durable glass only cracked. However the jarring explosion killed the fragile entity it was trying to create.

Dante growled menacingly, hoping that neither of them would take note of his weak point, another direct hit would shatter the capsule and render the original purpose of his new body null and void.

Seraph quickly leapt across the platforms to where Sonaris lay, helping him back up to his feet.

“I can’t help you anymore, Seraph. My swords have been destroyed and all of my weapons are now energy based and his armor can resonate to the same energy I use in my weapons,” Sonaris murmured, still trying to get his wind back from the punch he received.

“Doesn’t matter, I’ll destroy the armor and you strike it, just keep alive for now,” Seraph instructed, hurtling Sonaris away to a platform adjacent of them then leaping to a higher up platform as Dante charged and smashed the platform into pieces.

“Stop wasting my time!” Seraph roared, blasting away at the shoulder joints of the mecha. Dante ignored the blasts, opening his jaw up and revealing the beam cannon hidden in his mouth, the gem glinting red for a moment. Seraph took note of the weapon’s structure for a moment then gave a mighty flap of his wings to shoot higher up as dozens of platforms were incinerated by a burst of red energy.

::That cannon inside of his mouth has no shielding or special armor…:: Seraph noted mentally, glancing down at the scene to see where Sonaris had went. He had moved to a lower set of platforms behind Dante, on his right arm was a sniper rifle as well as an eye piece over his right eye to target. He took aim at the soles of Dante’s feet where the two largest rockets were placed. Sonaris fired a concentrated stream of blue beams to strike the cables and mechanical workings that held him up. The preciously aimed beams blew out one of the engines, Dante very quickly noticing that he was under attack. The massive gold body suddenly shifted and tipped, losing a good amount of its lifting power.

Seraph raised an eyebrow, commending Sonaris’s ingenuity and then took his chance to strike, opening fire on the left shoulder joint. Dante spun around on Seraph to try and smash him to pieces, but the second he turned his back Sonaris resumed firing upon the weakened area that Seraph had created, the armor no longer present and unable to stop his energy based attacks. The thin blasts of blue energy were quickly breaking through the mechanical workings that operated the limb.

Dante was easily being overcome by the double team tactics, and in turn he decided it would be time for him to fight back with every ounce of his being.

Dante put his arms out and spun around furiously, Seraph and Sonaris leaping away and landing on a platform a few meters away as the behemoth smashed apart every platform within its massive reach. Dante then ceased in an instant, pointing both of his palms at the two, the capsule in his torso activating once more to create Myreisons to attack with.

Sonaris pointed a cannon straight down the opening in the palm of Dante’s right hand, the result was blasting apart the inside of the barrel, as well as killing the Myreisons that tried to emerge from the mecha. Seraph followed suit and fired a shell into the other palm, effectively destroying the inside of the tube as well.

Dante didn’t care however, unbeknownst of them he had the ability to change the output of his hands. Since the ability to create men to fight with was eliminated he set them to a more direct and much more destructive purpose. From each opening a pack of rockets shot out, catching the two fighters off guard. The rockets were slightly off target and struck the platform in front of them, each one getting blasted away in a different direction by the high grade explosives.

Sonaris landed on a platform behind the one he was previously on, his armor now cracked severely but still intact. The demon was closest to the blast, and was knocked up and backwards, landing on a platform that was about five meters away from the one he was just standing on. Seraph wasn’t as fortunate and was once again bleeding from wounds that had just reopened due to the force of the blast.

“Damnit, how many times is this going to happen to me?” Seraph groaned weakly, a grim smile on his face.

Dante laughed mechanically, opening his jaws and letting the cannon remerge and point at the injured demon. The weapon charged in an instant and released a burst of red energy. Sonaris came to the rescue, grabbing Seraph and taking both of them out of harm’s way, taking residence on a platform just outside of the blast. As Dante recovered from the recoil of the cannon Seraph stood back up carefully, pointing his right cannon at the head of the mecha.

“Did you notice when he uses that cannon he’s the most vulnerable? And the cannon itself isn’t as armoured as the rest of the body,” Seraph pointed out, Sonaris nodding his head slowly.

“Wait for an opening, when he uses that cannon again I’ll take care of it,” Seraph instructed, Sonaris eyed him carefully and then nodded, the two of the scattering to whatever platforms remained to once again continue attacking Dante’s mechanical body.

Sonaris continued his attack on the left shoulder joint, however without Seraph’s dual attacks Dante instantly turned on Sonaris, pointing both of his palms at him. From each opening in the massive hands an orb of red plasma shot out with incredible speed. Sonaris leapt up into the air, performing a back flip to land on one of the few remaining platforms, the one he just abandoned being reduced to fine dust by the sheer force of the explosions. Before Dante initiated a second wave of attacks he was struck in the back of the neck by three high power shells, the result was a massive crack forming in the thinner armor plating.

Dante spun around and gave no lenience towards Seraph and released a mass of the red plasma at him. Seraph flapped his wings and shot back quickly and stuck to the air since there were no more platforms left for him to stand on, at least none that were near enough to get onto. Dante brought his fists up and charged at the demon, aiming to smash him into pulp. Seraph folded his wings in quickly so he could drop down rapidly, just avoiding the massive limb, the wind produced by the motion however was enough to shake the demon off balance. And it was with that disorienting movement that Dante swung his other arm at him.

Sonaris once again came to Seraph’s aid. With Dante foolishly exposing his back to him, he quickly blasted the two back mounted rockets, with a set of carefully aimed shots he easily dispatched the supports of the enormous automation, instantly throwing it off course.

Seraph had recovered by the time Dante noticed he was suddenly losing altitude, the demon unfurling his wings and darting to the side and out of the way.

Dante spun around so he could look up at his two attackers, throwing one last ditch attack against the duo. As the servos of the jaw activated and began to reveal the weapon within. Seraph saw the chance he waited for and his entire body glowed emerald green, shoulder pads transforming into the silver armor plate, his wings changing into a large metal disk and finally the massive leg armor that housed the missiles and rockets. In an instant Seraph armed all of his weapons, the disk on his back separating and getting into firing position, pointing his two cannons straight at the one Dante was preparing.

“Final Artillery!” Seraph growled, streams of rockets firing out of his back and legs, and a grand total of five radiant blasts of blue energy surged out of the barrels and electrified the air as they flew at Dante. And in turn the red blast of energy emerged from Dante’s mouth.

With the energy released from the collision of the two attacks all of the remaining platforms were cracked or smashed into slabs of rock. Dante increased the power of his attack, rapidly peeling away Seraph’s blue beam. But Seraph didn’t care, his projectiles had arced around the side and gone completely out of Dante’s sight. However they came in right from the two sides the behemoth, the explosives striking the cannon and shredding the weakly armoured weapon to shrapnel. As a result Dante’s attack instantly ceased, the flow of energy to the weapon going out of control and shortening out the rest of the circuitry in a series of violent explosions. To add on top of that Seraph’s attack was now unhindered in its progress, smashing through the opening and into the body.

Dante had no chance to survive with all of the damage that was caused, but more would be caused. Massive blasts of fire and brimstone shredded the automation apart, golden plates of armor raining down in the frozen lake below, smashing the sheets of ice apart.

Seraph’s armor returned to normal, now Sonaris and the demon watching as the gigantic combination of parts were blown apart and vanished into the waters below, along with it every trace of the organization E.L.I.T.E. Sonaris looked over at his partner and laughed.

“You could use some real armor,” Sonaris commented, banging on his armor with his fist, however pieces of his armor that were damaged fell off from it. Seraph scoffed, the sound was quiet since he quickly put a hand to his side, still injured from the explosion he was hit with.

The two just hung in the frigid cold blizzard air, snow still being whipped around. Seraph just reminding himself of what he really had to do, stopping the Ragnarok that he had started with the help of Gabriel. Finally Seraph spoke up and broke the frozen air.

“Come on, we have to stop what that madman Gabriel caused.” But of course, as if on cue a ghostly white spirit came from above them and struck Sonaris in the back, with a swift punch having knocked him forward with incredible force and straight into a building. Seraph was left on his own to deal with the apparition. He prepared to fight but with a simple snapping sound the entity left in white flames.

Seraph growled loudly, loud enough to overcome the roar of the wind around him, his growling only becoming louder when he caught sight of the white haired look-alike.

“Demon…It seems you have ridded this world of more riff raff, another sinner like all of you,” Gabriel murmured quietly, his voice resonating with contempt.

“You shouldn’t have the right to talk like that! Sinner?! You’re the real sinner! Declaring yourself the one with right enough to decide the fate of this entire world!” Seraph raged, his anger could melt away all of the snow that was being sent flying about.

“No, it is you that has sinned, can you imagine the kind of peril you have put this poor child through with your sinister existence!” Gabriel furled up one of his wings, behind it was Tikai, clad in her blue armor and hovering in the air perfectly still, eyes covered by her hair.

Seraph’s stoic face suddenly showed emotion, signs of surprise that quickly changed to all out rage. The demon shot forward and swung his right fist at the angel, slamming it right into the jaw of the celestial being. The attack seemed to work perfectly, however Gabriel just sneered to himself. He fell out of the air, his red cape fluttering as he descended to the frozen waters below.

Seraph looked at the blond and quickly went over to her.

“Tikai! Are you alright?! Did that scum hurt you?” Seraph asked frantically. For awhile Tikai stayed still and then looked up at the demon, and to his relief she was smiling.

“Seraph…” Tikai whispered, her voice strangely affectionate in comparison to its normal tone. Suddenly the voice in the back of Seraph’s mind flared to life.

Seraph didn’t understand what his other half was saying, then he noticed something odd. Around Tikai’s neck was a small silver chain necklace, attached to it was a cross. Tikai suddenly put her fist up against Seraph’s torso and before he could react her gauntlet had opened up and the three barrels blasted three blue beams right through the demon’s body.

The seraphic demon quickly fell from the air, trails of blood flowing out of his new injuries. When he hit the ice surface of the lake he created a large red mark, staining the white ground. Seraph groaned weakly, trying his best to sit back up, only to cough up more of his blood in doing so. Despite how much pain his body was feeling it was nothing to the kind of pain he felt inside.

Tikai landed on the ice in front of him her false smile quickly evaporated, her gauntlet still pointed at him.

“That is nothing compared to the pain you put me through!” Tikai shouted, more like roared over the howling blizzard. Seraph had got back to his feet by then, but he felt like he just got knocked back down by what she had just said.

“It’s Gabriel who put those thoughts into your head! They’re just fake!” Seraph spluttered out desperately, the mask of his icy voice suddenly being replaced by one of fear and hesitation. Tikai laughed quietly and fired another shot at Seraph, the demon just barely jumping out of the way.

“No, he only opened my eyes to what you really are! You’re a foul creature from hell that was sent by Satan, only meant to deceive and blind me from the truth! Now die and rot in hell for all of time!” Tikai hissed, from her back she pulled out the Marimatsu and charged straight at Seraph, a burst of speed from her thin mechanical wings venting out blue flames to let her move faster. He put his right hand out, forming his lance in a burst of black fire. With all the strength he could muster he did all he could to parry the move with the sword blade of his lance, and to his surprise, as the unstoppable force met the unmoveable object he stopped the sword before it could slice him apart. Seraph flapped his wings and drifted back, spinning around at the same time, Tikai blowing past him since her engines were still turned on to full blast.

One of Gabriel’s heavenly spirits attacked again, the white spirit coming in from Seraph’s side and striking him in his right hand, scorching his limb and making him drop his last defence onto the ice. Tikai swung back around to get another slash at Seraph. His arm fell slack against his side, raising the other one to try and do something to defend himself. Fortunately, a streak of blue light came from behind him and destroyed one of the wings that propelled Tikai along. Having lost one set of engines she began to spin out dangerously, the female sticking her feet forward and touched down on the ice, sliding to a stop.

Sonaris pulled himself out of the building, lowering his wolf cannon slowly. Gabriel remerged, wrapping his long cape around himself. He eyed Sonaris carefully then directed his attention to Seraph briefly before looking over at Tikai.

“Come. Your purpose is to lead me to the gate, we have no time for this!” Gabriel stated, wings unfolding and then taking to the air. Tikai got up slowly, putting the sword on her back again before shooting one last glare at Seraph.

“Fall down and die,” she hissed angrily before following the angel into the darkness of the night. Sonaris slowly made his way to Seraph, his armor falling apart slowly as he approached, all of the fighting he had just done was taking its toll. Seraph let out a sigh and fell to his knees, right arm limb and unresponsive.

“We should find the others, see if they need any help to clean up what’s left of E.L.I.T.E,” Sonaris suggested, Seraph nodding slowly. His thoughts somewhere else, more specifically on the results of his transgressions.

* * *

In half an hour they were back outside of Sonaris’s mechanic shop, shivering more so then from when they first departed.

“The blizzard got worse,” Ethernial commented as best he could with chattering teeth.

“We should go back to the ship, we’ve all taken some substantial damage from our battles,” Sonaris said, taking note that Ethernial and Yasosume had both lost a fair amount of armor and both looked worn down. Yasosume glanced over at Seraph who was leaning against the building wall and holding a new, or possibly just reopened wounds from a little while ago.

“Hey, demon boy, what the hell happened to you?” She inquired, Seraph ignoring her question. Sonaris eyed the demon carefully then decided to change the subject.

“Come on, Maria can do something about all those injuries,” Sonaris offered his hand to the demon. Seraph shook his head and straightened up.

“I can make it back, I told you I’m used to pain,” Seraph chuckled, starting to walk to the back of the shop, but then pausing for a moment.

“What is the gate that Gabriel mentioned?” He asked of them, everyone pausing in thought. They all had a feeling of a strange familiarity but the exact memory escaped them all.

“The tower in the center of Lutenia is an ancient relic called the Main Gate, but it’s been locked up since you-I mean, Airaxen, went in. I don’t think there’s anything left in there either,” Ethernial tried answering, but Seraph shook his head.

“No, it’s something different. The memory is there, but just out of my grasp. Well come on, it’s damn cold out here,” Seraph expressed with a wave of his left hand.

* * *

Seraph found himself without his jacket again, under the weary eye of the nurse Maria, trying to clean his chest off again, and once again try and provide some medical assistance.

“I swear, you’re more reckless then Sonaris before Airaxen showed up!” Maria grumbled, but quickly looked at Seraph apprehensively, he returned the look with a stoic stare of his.

“It’s alright, I’ve gotten used to that name,” Seraph replied lowly.

“I still don’t understand why you hate everything about Airaxen so much, why is that?” Maria inquired, no longer afraid of speaking freely to him. Seraph paused for a moment to gather his thoughts, then looked at Maria carefully before speaking.

“It reminds me of everything I can’t have, yet at the same time it’s all staring me right in the face, taunting me. All the hopes and dreams that came with these memories are now tormenting me, since I know they are all impossible, they’ve become my fears,” Seraph explained, he saw no harm in telling the nurse, nor did he want to have the information pried out of him.

“But why would they scare you? Wouldn’t you just try and achieve them again?” Maria pressed on. Seraph shook his head slowly.

“It has been ten years since I was alive as Airaxen, and in that time so much has changed. What chance is there that I can just continue life as I left it? And more importantly-Forget it,” Seraph dismissed quickly, diverting his face from the nurse. Maria eyed Seraph for awhile then decided it best to let the matter go and continue bandaging the demon’s new wounds. Nothing was said until the procedure was finished, Seraph murmuring his thanks and putting his jacket and armor back on before leaving the room quickly.

Seraph walked down the corridor silently, hands in his pockets and thoughts distracting him from the current situation.

::I have to keep focused, with Gabriel moving along with his plans to make his utopia, not to mention the hold he has on Tikai…:: Seraph’s thoughts trailed off for a moment as he reminded himself of all of his idiocy in the last week of his ‘rebirth’.

::Damnit…Why have I been so stupid?! Letting my fear and indecisiveness rule over my better judgment…::

“I know, I know. But…I feel so weak…”

“No! that’s not it…It’s just…”

“I don’t know, I guess I just don’t know if I should still be here, if I should still be alive. Maybe…Gabriel isn’t the wrong one. I mean, having good intentions does nothing if there is no one left to look at you without hatred.”

“…Just leave it be.”

“I said leave it be.”

With a fierce shake of his head he shut out the voice of his other half. Seraph paused and leaned against the wall, thinking about something different this time.

::I suppose as all of those would say, it is time for me to meet my destiny. I just wish I knew what Gabriel meant by gate…:: Seraph’s thoughts suddenly cut off as he triggered one final memory that he was able to keep.

A surge of images came to him, this time he saw crisp and clear scenes of the final battle a decade ago. Dimitri summoning his three deities, and each one being destroyed one after another. Then the phantom taking a large crystal key and throwing it into the ground, sending both of them into a higher plane of creation; Destiny’s Gate. There he battled with the hideous Neverborn to stop him from gaining the power to change the laws and way of the universe with nothing more then the flick of a wrist. And it was there where he succeeded, and ended his life to do so.

As the images stopped coming to him, Seraph regained his composure and murmured a few words to himself.

“Destiny…Really getting sick of that word…”

* * *

“I can’t believe I forgot about that! Destiny’s Gate would be the perfect place to end the world and rebuild it!” Sonaris exclaimed, astonished he had forgotten that critical location. Currently at that time they were flying through the massive black clouds as the black masses continued to pour snow onto the frozen landscape of the Earth. The destination of the crew was the dead sea where the Myreison capital sank.

“So we’re just going there, and go to beat down Gabriel?” Yasosume asked as she fiddled with her rifle.

“Yes, that’s about all there is to it, angel or not he isn’t invincible,” Seraph murmured, gripping his two gauntlets tightly, rubbing them a bit self consciously, he wasn’t entirely sure about what he had just said. Ethernial sat at the controls of the massive ship, steering it through the clouds and more importantly, avoiding the beasts and monsters that were literally coming from the sky.

“I didn’t think it was possible but there’s even more of these things forming. I just hope Lutenia can defend itself from the monsters without us around,” Ethernial spoke up, expressing his concern.

“It should, and if anything else the damage can’t be worse then what Seraph caused,” Yasosume joked, the demon growling lowly in return.

“It was Dimitri that caused most of the damage,” he muttered in an attempt to deflect the statement.

“And what about when you had the power of Fenris? You were going about the city and sending it crashing to the ground!” Yasosume retorted, Seraph grumbling to himself.

“That one doesn’t count…” Seraph muttered once more, Yasosume laughing at the feeble reply. She patted him on the back roughly and chuckled to herself.

“Don’t worry about it! That place is the world’s punching bag if you ask me!” Yasosume continued on, Seraph nodded his head slowly, his focus in other places. Ethernial could then be heard mumbling to himself irritated.

“The monsters have just dropped off the radar suddenly, and the reason is there’s something with such a strong aura it’s scaring them away,” Ethernial announced, eyeing the radar screen as it suddenly detected a massive object coming from behind them.

“Is it Gabriel?!” Seraph suddenly demanded, his mind back in focus with the situation. Ethernial shook his head however.

“No, he has a different aura, this one is…I’m not sure how to describe it, but it’s gaining on us!” Ethernial warned, everyone aboard scrambling to a window to try and spot the entity. Sonaris tilted his head slightly in confusion.

“I don’t see anything out there, are you sure it’s just not interference of some kind?” Sonaris questioned, and to answer him was the sight of a gigantic black serpent leaping from the ice below. The massive serpent had a giant flattened out part of skin around its head, just like that of a cobra’s, other then the massive size difference it looked like a normal snake. It shot a menacing glare with its golden eye that was at least as big as any of them, and then smashed back into the ice and ocean waters below.

Sonaris blinked at the sight and then cleared his throat audibly.

“Alright, I withdraw my statement,” was all he said as he and everyone else, except Ethernial began preparing weapons. Ethernial began to flip a number of switches on his control panels, and then spun around.

“Sonaris, you’re the most well versed in flying a ship in extreme situations, at least second to Tikai. Can you stay behind and pilot this thing? I set up whatever weapons this thing has for you to use,” Ethernial instructed, Sonaris staring a bit uneasily.

“And what are you going to do?” He inquired. Ethernial laughed to himself and pointed a thumb up at the roof.

“I’m taking everyone up top to see what we can do about that thing,” Ethernial replied, and leaving before Sonaris could protest, not like he would’ve anyway, to pilot a massive ship while a more massive serpent attacked it, not a problem, as long as he didn’t have to deal with the blizzard again.

* * *

The three fighters emerged on the top of the massive green ship, amidst all of the freezing cold blizzard winds and blinding snow, to which they all began to grumble and complain about the weather.

“Why isn’t that wuss Sonaris out here?!” Yasosume growled annoyed, shivering heavily. Ethernial laughed and moved towards the front of the ship to get a view of the waters below.

Seraph had ignored the weather and stared down at the ice below for a sign of the serpent.

“It must be the Jormungand, the Midgard Serpent that is chasing us,” Seraph mused, having little difficulty in keeping upright in the winds.

“That’s probably right, but I’m more worried about when that thing reappears,” Ethernial shouted over the winds. Seraph nodded slowly, taking hold of his gauntlets and transforming them into his six-shooter handguns and began to open fire at the waters below.

“What’re you doing?” Yasosume yelled at him. “The shots from your little guns won’t even break the surface!”

Seraph ignored her and continued to bombard the ice with his attacks, what he was trying to do was agitate the serpent to resurface. It didn’t take long for his calls to be answered, the massive snake shot out of ice, sending sheets of it flying into the sky.

“Hit it with everything you can before it attacks!” Ethernial commanded, throwing blasts of psychic energy at the serpent’s head. Yasosume blasted with a stream of flames from her left hand and streams of energy from her rifle. Finally Seraph continued to pelt the serpent with his bullets. However the combined attacks did little to the Midgard Serpent, just peeling away some of its thick armor hide. The serpent hissed loudly at the feeble attacks, spun its head to look at its attackers, opened its massive jaws to reveal the enormous fangs hiding in its mouth. From the depths of the serpent’s bowels came a large jet of green acid that shot straight at Seraph. He shot his wings out and let the winds carry him back about ten feet to easily avoid the acid, however, when it struck the ship it rapidly ate through the metal hull. Yasosume eyed the damaged part of the ship carefully and then looked back at the Jormungand which still had its jaws separated and wide open.

“Hey!” She shouted, Ethernial and Seraph looking at her quizzically. Yasosume pointed straight at the jaw of the serpent, the fleshy inners of the snake being revealed, giving them a weak point to target, had it kept its jaw open a bit longer.

“I’ll try and provoke it to attack me, you two should be able to blast a hole through its head,” Seraph declared, running across the ship and leaping off the front of the hull, Sonaris who was in the control room watched the demon fall right out of the sky in front of him, rendering him only able to shake his head at the sight.

Seraph dove through the hole in the ice the serpent vanished into, now swimming in the frigid depths of the black ocean. At that moment he suddenly realized his visibility underwater was anything but good.

::I suddenly think I should’ve thought this out some more…:: Seraph thought to himself as he drifted in the waters. The serpent hungrily circling the demon from afar, watching and eyeing him with its yellow eyes. Seraph put his right hand out and let his lance form in it, keeping the weapon ready to defend himself, but not attacking with it, waiting for the serpent to strike first and give itself away.

It didn’t take long for the Jormungand to shoot at Seraph from his backside, the massive jaws parting as it tried to engulf the demon in its mouth. Seraph spun around and jabbed the hook blade of his lance straight into the roof of the serpent’s mouth, the blade’s progress stopping when it struck the bone. The gigantic snake thrashed dangerously, shooting through the ice and back into the surface. Even with giant masses of blood spilling out of the serpent, it continued trying to rip Seraph apart, rapidly closing its mouth with him, and his lance in it. Seraph stabbed the other end of the lance into the creature’s lower jaw, effectively keeping its mouth pried open. He glanced up at the ship, Yasosume and Ethernial nodding their heads and pointing their weapons into the open mouth. The serpent hissed loudly, Seraph eyeing the insides of its mouth as the muscles began to convulse, the beast was about to hurl out a mass of venom. The demon glanced back up at his allies, they had fired their shots, but they wouldn’t arrive in time. He threw his right hand out, pointing it at his weapon, the lance evaporating into flames. The jaws slamming shut with him inside of the snake.

Ethernial looked on in shock, Seraph was just eaten by the Midgard Serpent, seconds before their attacks struck it’s hide, doing nothing to it.

“Damnit…” Yasosume muttered, her ears flattening against her head. Suddenly a blast of the acid erupted from the front of the serpent’s head, among it was Seraph, clad in silver and emerald green armor that wasn’t even damaged by the powerful acidic venom. With the acid caught inside of itself the serpent dissolved its own head. The mighty Midgard Serpent crashed to the icy waters below, fading out of existence as a mass of glowing blue lights erupted from its body. With the serpent destroyed it hopefully left them with an open path to the fallen capital.

Seraph’s heavy armor left him so he could travel back to the ship easily, a warm reception of relief and congratulations greeted him. But Seraph’s mind was still in other places, drifting further away as they got closer to the fallen capital city. They all returned into the ship, the damage they suffered from the serpent’s attack was minimal, at least after considering what could’ve happened to it.

Sonaris peered over his shoulder at everyone and tapped the radar screen with his left hand.

“While you guys were up there fighting that serpent I detected something up ahead on the radar. Two small readings, probably Gabriel and Tikai,” Sonaris suggested, his eyes wandering to Seraph to watch for a reaction, but he appeared to think nothing of it. Suddenly Ethernial collapsed to the ground, Yasosume rushing over to help him back to his feet as he clutched his head.

“What’s wrong?! What happened?!” She demanded, Ethernial groaning in response. He blinked a few times then reopened his eyes, just as the radar monitor began to emit another beeping noise, something else had appeared within its range.

“I don’t know…Something just appeared from out of nowhere, its aura is so evil, it’s…Ugh,” Ethernial muttered before he passed out, being caught off guard by whatever it was he sensed had drained him of most of his energy. Sonaris armed the ship’s weapons and eyed the airspace in front of them carefully. In front of them a drifted single person, head lulled back. Seraph quickly moved to the front windows to get a better view of what it was. The person wore a cracked and damaged suit of tarnished gold and silver armor, most of the body was damaged and underneath the fragments of armor was a decaying body. Seraph growled angrily, he didn’t need a second glance to realize the armor belonged to the body snatcher Dimitri, who apparently wasn’t as dead as Seraph thought he should be. The undead Dimitri looked at the oncoming ship, from his back sprouting a set of skeletal angel wings, the ruminants of black feathers dangling from some of the bones. Below them a tattered set of faded red bat wings emerged, flapping gently.

Sonaris also didn’t need a long time to piece together what, or rather who was up ahead and didn’t hesitate in arming all of the weapons aboard the ship. Multitudes of medium sized rocket packs appeared along the sides of the green craft. With the flick of a switch countless hundreds of small sleek rockets screeched through the cold air, streaking straight at Dimitri. Dimitri let out a strange and loud groaning, from his back a black entity erupted, drifted up above him and reshaped itself into the strange female creature that Dimitri sported in his Neverborn form. It towered over Dimitri, the eye within it’s mouth peering out from her lips. The vertically positioned eye on her forehead opened up and glanced from side to side. The mechanical armor on her arms shifted slightly and she then moved her massive arms, getting used to them again. As the rockets came closer the entity shot her real eyes open as a set of strange rockets of her own shot out to counter the attack.

Seraph watched the scene carefully, none of their rockets succeeded in getting through to actually strike Dimitri. The demon looked back at Sonaris who shook his head, it would take much more then conventional explosives to get past this new obstacle.

Yasosume propped the unconscious Ethernial against a wall and went over to Seraph, arming her rifle.

“I thought you killed him!” She protested, Seraph nodding his head slowly.

“I did…But his soul was full of hatred and revenge. And since Hell’s Gates are destroyed, it couldn’t go to its final resting place. It was just a matter of time before it manifested itself,” Seraph explained, fists clenched tightly. “There isn’t time for