The jagged volcanic rocks of the southern valley were gone. In their place, a sprawling sea of liquid glass bubbled and hissed. The heat radiating from the abyssal crater was a heavy, spiritual pressure that crushed the breath out of the mortal champions. The dark red bruised sky had been devoured, replaced by suffocating pitch black.

Malgreth, the King of Demons, stepped out of the abyss.

He was not an avatar forged from residual magic. He was the ancient king, the primeval nightmare. He stood twenty feet tall, his body forged from condensed, obsidian-like muscle that seemed to consume the light around him actively. A jagged crown of burning black bone protruded from his skull, and his eyes were two whirling vortexes of hellfire.

The sheer gravity of his presence forced Terravarous, Ignis, and Daemon to their knees. The Colosseum Champions, who had just executed the ancient Warlords, could barely lift their heads. Their weapons felt like they weighed a thousand pounds.

Kairos Vedaryan stood in the center of the liquid glass. Asteria rested in his hand. The silver light in his irises flared, pushing back the oppressive heat, but even he felt the immense, terrifying density of the Demon King.

But as Kairos locked eyes with Malgreth, a sudden shiver ran down his spine.

It wasn’t fear of the monster in front of him. It was a cold, piercing sensation striking from hundreds of miles away. Kairos turned his head slightly, his silver eyes looking past the burning ridges, staring toward the eastern horizon.

From the East, an overwhelming, suffocating wave of pure despair pulsed through the leylines of the continent. It was a darkness so profound that Kairos could taste it on his tongue, a bitter, hollow ash that promised nothingness.

"Luna," Kairos whispered profusely.

He knew that aura. It was the Fallen Monarch. The ancient god of the void had descended upon the Eastern Front. Kairos’ heart hammered against his healed ribs. Luna Zephyros was arrogant, brilliant, and hopelessly reckless. Luna would fight the god. Luna would open the Cosmic Lock to match the ancient despair, and without a healer, the infinite mana of the cosmos would violently melt Luna’s mortal brain in minutes.

Kairos turned abruptly, snapping his focus back to the medical camp.

"Soltheia!" Kairos roared, his voice cutting through the suffocating air.

The young Princess of Sylphyros looked up. She was covered in soot, kneeling beside the breathing, stabilized body of Karl Wade. Her green healing light had faded, leaving her exhausted and pale.

"General Kairos?" Soltheia coughed, struggling to stand.

"You need to leave. Right now," Kairos commanded. He kept his body positioned perfectly between Seyana and Malgreth. "The Fallen Monarch has arrived in the East. Luna is facing an ancient god. He will open the seal, I know about that lazy bastard. If you are not there to constantly heal his nervous system, his brain will rupture, and the East will fall."

"But the wounded!" Soltheia protested, looking around at the battered Solaris soldiers and the unconscious Karl. "I cannot leave the vanguard! Malgreth is right there!"

"I have the wounded," Seyana stated firmly.

The Crown Princess stepped forward. Her golden light radiated outward, creating a warm, protective dome over the medical camp, shielding the mortal soldiers from Malgreth’s crushing heat. "I will take care, Soltheia. I can hold the healing front here. But only your purifying water can soothe the cosmic burn in Luna’s mind. Go."

Soltheia looked at Seyana, then at Kairos. The silver light in Kairos’s eyes demanded obedience. She nodded vehemently.

Soltheia placed two fingers to her lips and blew a piercing, high-pitched whistle.

SCREECH!!

From the high clouds, a massive Sylphyros Fast-Hawk dove toward the battlefield. The giant bird, possessing a wingspan of thirty feet and feathers as hard as steel, landed vehemently in the ash outside the melting glass zone.

Soltheia scrambled onto the back of the massive bird. She grabbed the leather reigns, her ocean-blue eyes filled with fierce determination.

"Don’t you dare die while I’m gone, Kairos Vedaryan!" Soltheia shouted. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

SWOOSH!!

The Fast-Hawk beat its massive wings, generating a gale that kicked up the ash. It launched into the pitch-black sky, turning east and accelerating to supersonic speeds. In a matter of seconds, she was a mere speck against the dark clouds.

Kairos exhaled slowly. The board was set. The pieces were in motion. He turned his attention back to the towering obsidian god standing in the magma.

Malgreth tilted his head. The flames in his eyes swirled with dark amusement.

"You send a single healer to stop the Void," Malgreth’s voice boomed, vibrating directly inside the marrow of their bones. "The Fallen will consume them all. The East is already dead, mortal. And soon, the South will be mine."

Malgreth took a single step forward.

CRACK!!

The liquid glass beneath his foot shattered. A massive shockwave of raging hellfire erupted outward, rolling across the valley like a tidal wave.

****

Hundreds of miles away, the Eastern Front was drowning in shadows. The dead gray sky had literally shattered. Huge, jagged cracks of blackness tore through the clouds, looking like broken glass hanging in the heavens. From the largest fissure, the Fallen Monarch descended onto the ruined plains.

He did not possess the brute, fiery mass of Malgreth. The Fallen Monarch was cloaked in shifting, elegant shadows. His armor was forged from the darkest corners of the abyss, absorbing all light that dared to touch it. A majestic cape of living darkness flowed behind him, and his eyes were hollow voids of nothingness.

The moment his boots touched the ash, the despair aura hit the mortal army.

THUD. THUD. THUD.

Behind the massive granite wall, ten thousand seasoned Solaris infantrymen dropped their iron spears. They fell to their knees, weeping uncontrollably. The sheer density of the Fallen Monarch’s aura stripped away their will to live, their hope, and their courage. Veterans who had fought Aberrations without blinking were now curling into the fetal position, waiting for death.

Velanor Banner gritted his teeth. The young earth mage slammed his hands onto the top of the granite wall, trying to draw mana from the bedrock, but the earth felt dead. The leylines were paralyzed by the ancient god’s presence.

"I can’t feel the stone," Velanor gasped profusely, blood dripping from his nose. The despair was crushing his lungs. "It’s suffocated."

Beside him, Catherine Sylphyros leaned tiredly on her ice staff. Her beautiful silver-blue eyes were wide with terror. She tried to summon her Absolute Zero, but her internal core refused to ignite. The coldness of her magic was nothing compared to the void radiating from the Monarch.

"We can’t fight this," Catherine whispered, her voice trembling. "This isn’t a Warlord. This is the end of the world."

Out on the ruined plains, standing alone between the broken wall and the ancient god, was Luna Zephyros.

The Night Emperor’s stark white hair blew wildly in the erratic wind. His dark uniform jacket was torn and stained with his own silver blood from his previous battle with the King of the Black Mist. He stood with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, his posture arrogantly relaxed. But inside, his mortal heart was hammering fastly. The Fallen Monarch stopped thirty yards away. The shadows around him writhed like living serpents.

"The boy with the heavy eye," the Fallen Monarch spoke, his voice was smooth, melodic, and infinitely sad. It was a voice that made you want to surrender. "You crushed my King. You wield a drop of the cosmos. But a fraction is nothing against the infinite."

Luna slowly pulled his right hand out of his pocket. He wiped a fresh streak of blood from his cheek. The shimmering silver light in his left eye flared, pushing back the encroaching shadows just enough to give Velanor and Catherine a chance to breathe.

"I’ve been told I have a very heavy punch," Luna smirked, though the smile was strained. "Let’s see if an ancient god can take a hit."

Luna didn’t wait. He stamped his boot into the ground.

BOOM!!

A massive pillar of inverse gravity erupted beneath the Fallen Monarch. The sheer force was designed to launch the god into the stratosphere, crushing him against the atmospheric pressure. The gravity pillar struck the Fallen Monarch. Nothing happened.

The ancient god didn’t flinch. The shadows wrapping his armor simply absorbed the gravity, nullifying the attack instantly.

The Fallen Monarch raised a single, elegantly armored finger.

"Kneel," the god commanded quietly.

SMASH!!

An overwhelming, invisible force slammed into Luna’s shoulders. It was pure, concentrated despair manifested as physical weight. The ground beneath Luna expeditiously cratered. The Night Emperor was forced down to one knee, the bones in his legs groaning under the impossible pressure.

"Luna!" Velanor screamed, trying to vault over the wall, but the despair aura pinned him to the granite.

"Stay back!" Luna roared vehemently, his teeth gritted in agony. The silver light in his eye flickered violently as he fought to stand back up.

****

Back in the South, the situation was equally catastrophic. Malgreth’s wave of hellfire crashed into Kairos. The Conqueror of Time accelerated his timeline, blurring through the flames and lunging at the Demon King’s chest. He swung Asteria in a brutal horizontal arc.

CLANG!!

The blackened silver blade struck Malgreth’s obsidian flesh. Sparks of silver and hellfire exploded across the valley. But the blade did not cut. The temporal distortion wrapping Asteria ground fiercely against the condensed density of the Demon King’s body, failing to pierce the armor.

Malgreth laughed. He backhanded Kairos with terrifying, casual speed.

BAM!!

The colossal fist struck Kairos in the ribs. The impact was devastating. Kairos was launched through the air like a broken ragdoll, soaring over the melting glass and crashing into the jagged remains of a volcanic ridge.

"Kairos!" Ignis yelled.

The fiery royal compressed his blue flames, sprinting toward the Demon King. Daemon flanked him, roaring as he unleashed wild orange tornadoes. Terravarous charged from behind, his massive diamond fists raised high. Malgreth didn’t even look at them. He stomped his massive, burning foot.

RUMBLE!!

The ground instantly ruptured. Massive geysers of liquid magma erupted from the earth, slamming into the three champions. Terravarous was blasted backward, his unbreakable diamond armor cracking under the sheer thermal shock. Ignis and Daemon’s flames were instantly snuffed out by the overwhelming heat of the demon lord, their bodies tumbling across the burning ash.

Malgreth turned his burning eyes toward the medical camp. Toward the golden light.

"The Dawn," Malgreth growled, taking a heavy step forward.

Seyana stood her ground, her amber eyes defiant as she raised her rapier.