Chapter 410: Betrayal of his Brothers in Arms

Loriel, flying at his side, observed the carnage with growing horror. Sulyvhan’s power was terrifying. He was not fighting; he was erasing his enemies from reality.

Each blow delivered with the fourth movement left a trail of silvery void behind him. She understood at that moment why the Seraphs were so afraid. Sulyvhan was no longer human; he had become an anomaly, a predator that even the angels could not hope to tame.

"Further, Alexander!" she shouted to cover the din of bones shattering. "The command post is just behind that ridge!"

She guided him toward the convergence zone, a narrow ravine where the Seraphs Michael and Jophiel waited, hidden in the folds of space, ready to unleash a power capable of razing a continent.

Sulyvhan, intoxicated by the battle and the proximity of his beloved, did not perceive the stiffness in Loriel’s wings. He propelled himself forward again, his black and white blades tracing arcs of death. He descended toward the ravine like a comet, massacring the last guard demons with disconcerting ease.

...

The din of the battlefield was now only a distant hum, muffled by the steep walls of the ravine where Alexander Sulyvhan had plunged.

At his side, the Archangel Loriel wielded her ice sword with impressive fervor, her silver wings casting blinding sparks against the creeping shadows of the last guard demons.

Alexander felt invincible in this symbiosis of steel... He chained cuts with deadly fluidity, his two twin blades, one of ebony and the other of alabaster, dismembering the lava gargoyles that tried to block their path.

"Alexander, to your right...!" cried Loriel while projecting an arcana mana discharge that pulverized the head of a monster about to leap.

Sulyvhan did not bother to reply, his body reacting on instinct. He pivoted on his heel, the chain of his black sword wrapping more tightly around his forearm as he sliced a demon’s torso in two. The black and viscous blood splashed his plate armor, but he did not slow his macabre dance.

< Art : Sundering Eclipse >

< First movement : Crescent Moon >

A blade of white aura split the air, severing the limbs of the surrounding creatures with precision... Entrails spilled onto the ground while the monsters’ agonized cries echoed in the rocky gorge.

For long minutes, the duo advanced as a single entity, united by half a century of shared battles and secret nights. Alexander felt safe with her, convinced that nothing, neither god nor demon, could break their united front.

Yet a diffuse unease began to scratch at the walls of his mind. The demons seemed to part too easily, as if they were being allowed through... And suddenly, silence fell. A heavy, artificial silence that seemed to devour even the sound of his own breathing.

Alexander stopped abruptly, his senses on alert. He turned to seek Loriel’s steel-gray gaze, but she was no longer at his side. She now floated several meters high, her wings deployed in all their majesty, her face once again that cold marble mask he had learned to hate among the other angels.

’She moved away...’ he thought, an icy chill running up his spine. ’Why did she leave me alone here?’

He swept the area with his silver gaze. He was completely isolated at the center of a circle of golden runes that began to pulse in the rock. It was then that seven familiar silhouettes emerged from the folds of space, positioning themselves in a semicircle in front of him. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

His generals. Draken, Stavenger, Ashborn, Silvernight, Kaelen, Pendragon and Dantalion. They no longer wore their usual field armors, but ornaments imbued with a power that made reality itself vibrate.

"Lord Sulyvhan," began General Draken, his voice amplified by a new magical resonance. "Your reign is coming to an end. You have become an anomaly that the world’s balance can no longer tolerate."

Alexander remained motionless, his swords hanging along his body. "I knew these angels were plotting something... Draken... Stavenger... You speak of balance while you kneel before those who ignored us for three hundred years?"

General Pendragon took a step forward, an aura of crushing gravity emanating from his body. His eyes shone with an unnatural golden glow.

"We are not kneeling, Alexander. We are evolving. The Seraphs have offered us what your ’Aura’ could never give us: divinity. Arcane mana now flows in our veins."

"They gave you a leash, and you call it a blessing," retorted Sulyvhan with a contempt that made his former allies grit their teeth.

"Enough talking!" thundered Draken.

The seven generals attacked simultaneously. This was no longer the warrior combat Alexander had known. It was a deluge of divine power. Kaelen unleashed a wave of arcane flames, a white fire that consumed even the stone of the ravine.

Sulyvhan used < Aura Repulsion > to deflect the blaze, but the pressure was so strong that he felt his bones crack.

Suddenly, Pendragon raised his hand.

< Arcane Magic : Gravitational Crush >

The weight of the entire world seemed to fall on Sulyvhan’s shoulders. His knees sank into the rocky ground, his muscles straining to the brink of rupture.

The other generals gave him no respite. Dantalion moved with a speed that only time magic could grant, his arcane blade tracing a deep gash on Alexander’s shoulder plate before he could raise his own sword.

Sulyvhan struggled for every inch, every movement. He projected salvos of < Flux Slicer > to sever the magical bonds that restrained him, but for each spell broken, two others took its place.

The coordination of the seven traitors was perfect, orchestrated by the raw power the Seraphs had injected into them.

Silvernight and Kaelen attacked in concert, one manipulating light to blind him, the other using mana chains to immobilize his arms. Alexander felt the tip of a spear pierce his left flank, the searing pain tearing a grunt from him. The red blood, his own this time, began to soak his tunic.

’I can’t... they are too powerful... and this magic is draining my strength...’ he thought as he barely blocked an axe blow from Ashborn that should have split his skull.

He was backed against the ravine wall. His armor was in tatters, his body covered in magical burns and gaping wounds. The seven generals stopped a few meters away, observing their former master with a mixture of fearful respect and cruel triumph.

"Do you see, Alexander?" asked Stavenger while wiping a drop of blood from his own cheek. "Even your absolute mastery of aura can do nothing against the will of heaven. You are only a mortal who forgot his place."