"Pick a side." Amarze's voice cut across the cafeteria. He stood in the center, arms loose, an unbreakable veil enclosing the Saints and Angels together—separating them from the participants. "Thidos is weak. Evil. He's lost his drive, his true self. Let me orchestrate his removal."
"You're getting too cocky, dickhead." Peria tilted his head, spirals flickering faintly in his irises. "Thidos is retiring—that's all. Knowing you, you're aiming to kill him."
"I believe he's justified." Miles emerged from Amarze's shadow, stepping forward with arms crossed. His red-swirling eyes pinned the assembly. "Thidos is willing to discard anyone. Look at the Saint side—we're already missing a couple."
"I agree with the First Angel." Lerais raised his hand to the sky, golden rings of divinity trembling in the air. "Thidos left one of us to die. Who else is he willing to drop?"
"Shut up, douchebag." Rosamire muttered under her breath, gaze fixed on the marble floor, claws twitching against her palms.
Music began to drift through the veil—jazz, soft and soulful, but it carried a sharp weight that made several figures shiver.
"Look at our titles. What do they even mean now?" Amarze laughed, a manic edge cracking in his throat. "I'm the Decimator—no longer the Hero. Shamed, broken… nothing more than a monster in white."
"Amarze the Decimator. Peria the Omniscient. Lerais the Divine. Blarae the Slivers. The deceased Alabendo the Fruition. Apparatus the False. Riolo the Mindful. Prosser the Cherubic. Elaine the Celestial. And the missing Arvo the Bold." Miles listed them, one by one, each title landing like a gavel. "Two of yours are dead. And Thidos does not care."
"Speaking of Arvo." Amarze turned, his stare burning into Paris. The young Saint's gothic makeup ran down his cheeks with sweat. Amarze then swiveled his gaze to Peria. "Where is he?"
"Dead." Peria's tone was glacial.
"Why? Was it Thidos?"
Peria raised a hand, finger pointing straight at Paris.
Amarze burst into laughter. His cackle cracked the veil, tears spilling—not grief, but cruel amusement. "You killed Arvo?"
Paris slapped himself across the face, smearing his makeup further, then regained composure. His eyes spun with spirals. "So what? I had to prove a point."
"Me too." Amarze covered his face with one hand, then pulled it away—revealing a rusty chain sliding from his eye socket. He gripped it and slammed it to the floor with a metallic crash. "Graviel. He does business."
"A chain?" Riolo and Prosser spoke in unison, arms folded.
"It morphs into anything I want. A blessing from the soon-to-be former God of Mutation." Amarze grinned before nodding to Miles. Together they broke through the veil effortlessly, leaving the others trapped inside.
….. Silence.
Rosamire grabbed Paris, her hands trembling with rage. "I never liked you. And in this short time you've already killed someone? How?"
Paris only laughed, spirals burning brighter in his eyes. His laughter swelled into a mad cackle that filled the veil before his body slumped to the floor unconscious.
"What about the Reprisal?" Michael growled, clutching the hilt of his sword.
"Give it up." Peria muttered, his voice dropping to a near whisper as if it were the air itself. "It's already a failure."