The final corridor stretched before them like a throat leading into the belly of the beast.
Koronos moved first, Daggeroth and Shelove following. The walls pulsed with green light, rhythmic and organic, like the heartbeat of something vast and ancient. The floor vibrated beneath their feet, barely contained energy thrumming up through the stone. The air itself was thick, hostile, watching.
Ahead, they heard it; a deep, rhythmic hum, building and falling like the breath of a deity.
The portal apparatus. Charging.
The final threshold loomed before them. Massive. Black metal. Carved with scenes of destruction, minus the missing halves of the guardian: worlds burning, civilizations falling, a metal figure standing triumphant over it all. A warning. A promise. A taunt carved in stone. But this was not the time for studying doors.
Koronos looked at Daggeroth. At Shelove. They nodded. Ready. As ready as anyone could be for what waited beyond.
Together, they forced the doors open.
The throne room of the Hadron prison fortress was vast beyond comprehension.
A cathedral of madness. Walls of fused metal and black stone, veined with pulsing green light that seemed to breathe. Columns carved with screaming faces, perhaps the souls of those who had tried to oppose him, frozen in eternal agony, or maybe it's art. At the center, dominating everything, the portal apparatus rose like a crystal mechanical monstrosity: a massive construction of dark metal and glowing green crystals, rotating slowly, humming with power that shook the very stone.
Supremus stood before it, his back to them. Tall. Unmoving. A figure of metal and shadow silhouetted against the green glow. He didn't turn. Didn't acknowledge their presence. He didn't need to. To him, they were mere insects.
Corvannafax knelt in chains at his feet. Her armor was battered, her face bruised. But her eyes, when they found Koronos, burned with fury and shame. She had been captured. Used as bait. And she hated it.
Zeyzey stood to the side, apart from everything. Her face was unreadable; the perfect gambler's face. She gave nothing away. Not guilt. Not loyalty. Not fear. Just... waiting.
Koronos took it all in in a heartbeat. The portal. The power. The prisoner. Zeyzey. The demigod.
No time to think.
Only to act.
Supremus spoke without turning, his voice filling the chamber like thunder. "The barbarian arrives. How quaint. Did you really think you could stop me with a sword, a raggedy group, and a prayer?"
Koronos didn't answer. Didn't waste breath.
He moved.
A blast of green energy erupted from Supremus's hand, aimed directly at his chest. It should have killed him. Would have killed him. Except—
Koronos was gone. Translocation: uncontrolled, unpredictable, barely directed but it was enough. He appeared three paces left, the blast searing past where he had stood a moment before and reducing the metal doors behind him to dust.
Supremus turned now, slowly. A metal eyebrow would have risen, if he had one.
"Ah. Unstable power. How delightful." His voice dripped with amusement. "Let's see how long you can keep that up."
What followed was not a fight. It was desperation.
Supremus unleashed wave after wave of majikal attacks: green lightning that cracked the air, force blasts that shattered stone, entropic waves that made reality itself shudder. Each one should have ended Koronos. Each one missed by inches as he flickered, vanished, reappeared.
Every translocation tore at him. The power was barely controlled on a good day. Here, under this assault, it was all he could do to keep from teleporting into a wall or the floor, into a blast, or into nothingness.
The throne room suffered. Blasts shattered columns carved with screaming faces. Lightning scarred the walls. Several of Supremus's metal generals, standing too close, were caught in the crossfire: one dissolved completely, another lost half its body to a misdirected blast. Supremus even destroys his own throne in the attacks. Koronos looks at him and shrugs and Zeyzey snickers.
Supremus looks at her, then back at Koronos and makes a fist, now he's angry. He's going to make a game of it and savor the kill. He was playing a lethal game.
"Dance, little barbarian. Dance for me!"
Through it all, Koronos kept one thought central: Distract him. Keep him focused on me because the others stand no chance against direct attacks from Supremus.
While Supremus hunted Koronos, Daggeroth slipped through the chaos.
Shelove moved beside him, her senses guiding them both. They were invisible in this madness, just two small figures in a storm of destruction. They circled toward the dais where Corvannafax knelt. They don't really have a plan, only get to Corvannafax and try to release her, if possible. They move toward Zeyzey, still standing, still watching.
She watched them approach. Said nothing. Did nothing. Her face revealed nothing.
The portal continued building power, the green crystals rotating faster now, the hum rising to a deafening pitch. The floor shook and cracked. Green lightning began to arc around the sanctum, dancing between crystals, scorching the stone.
The portal was nearly ready. Nearly active. Nearly open.
It needed to build to an immense power to punch through the gods' aging containment wards.
Daggeroth's thought was a single, desperate command: Move. Move now. Don't think. Just move.
Koronos was fading.
Every translocation cost him more. His body screamed. His mind frayed. The unstable power was eating him from within, and Supremus knew it, he enjoyed it.
"You're almost done, aren't you?" Supremus taunted, his voice echoing through the chaos in a fake concern. Then with vitriol, "a few more jumps and you'll tear yourself apart. And for what? To give your pathetic little friends a few more seconds to live?"
He laughed, a sound like grinding metal."Seconds won't save them. Nothing will. They are going to die. You are going to die. Everyone is going to die. The Omniverse is going to die!"
Through the chaos, Koronos saw them; Daggeroth and Shelove, almost to the dais. Corvannafax, watching them come, hope flickering in her exhausted eyes. Zeyzey, still motionless, still watching, still waiting. He couldn't win. He knew that. But he could last. One more jump. Two more. As many as it took.
He flickered again, appearing behind Supremus, the Sword slicing toward his neck. The blade connected and sunk halfway through his metal neck, drawing green fluid from the metal. Should have been a mortal wound, but it wasn't. The wound closed up a moment after the sword pulled away.
Supremus spun, furious, and the chase continued.
The humming peaked.
The green crystals flared with blinding light. Lightning arced everywhere, dancing across the walls, the floor, the ceiling. The entire structure began to crack and tremble. The portal apparatus screamed, a sound like reality tearing apart.
A sphere of green light expanded from the center of the apparatus. Swirling. Hungry. Open. The portal was active. Supremus could leave whenever he chose.
In that moment of triumph, Supremus glanced at his creation. A heartbeat of distraction. A flicker of attention away from his prey.
Daggeroth moved. Shelove moved. They sprinted for the dais, for Corvannafax, for the only chance they had.
Koronos saw them. Saw their path.
He threw himself at Supremus one more time, not to kill, just to hold. Just to keep those glowing green eyes looking at him for one more second.
The fight froze for a heartbeat.
Koronos, flickering, bleeding, barely standing, facing the demigod who could not die. Daggeroth and Shelove, reaching the dais, Corvannafax reaching for them. Zeyzey, still watching, still unreadable, but she stepped onto the dais nonetheless.
Supremus felt them moving. Knew what they were trying.
But Koronos was in his way, and for the first time, the barbarian wasn't running.
Supremus looked at him, really looked, and for a moment, something like respect flickered in those ancient green eyes. "You would die for them?"
Koronos met his gaze. No fear. No defiance. Something worse. Pity. "There's something seriously wrong with you," he said.
For a moment, Supremus was silent. Then something shifted behind those glowing eyes. Not respect anymore. Not amusement. Supremus raged. "HOW DARE YOU PITY ME?! I DO NOT NEED PITY FROM AN INSECT LIKE YOU!" His metal grasping hand reaches out to grab Koronos by the throat.
Then time stopped and the world felt like it exploded.
Green light swallowed everything. Reality folded, twisted, tore. Koronos felt himself ripped from Hadron, hurled through space between spaces, Daggeroth and Shelove and Corvannafax and Zeyzey tumbling with him.
The portal had them.
And somewhere in the chaos, Supremus screamed with fury and hatred.