Doom!
The sea shook, droplets of water vibrating upward like a sudden earthquake, forcing everyone to pause.
"My lord?" Khorn called, looking at where Aron had dropped down. She ignited like a sun, ready to dive into the dark sea. But a huge wave surged behind her.
She turned in a hurry, but it was too late. The heavy wave drowned her completely. Her fire was snuffed then and there. But she was Khorn, the fire of Aron. She had her pride and wouldn't let that burning ego of hers go down. Swimming upward again, she flew, her fire returning as if it had never left.
The bastard son of Poseidon stood atop another kind of flat beast, giving him stable ground on the dark sea. His trident glowed with golden divinity. "Don't worry little ginger. Your so-called lord is finished," he said with a snarl.
"You don't know him, so shut up and just fight, little kettle fishy," she snarled back, her divinity rising high. "I have seen and killed your bastard kind more than you know." She bellowed as she churned her divinity higher and higher, like she had an unlimited supply. A transparent sphere of golden fire covered her.
He smiled, taking those words of affirmation rather than insult, as his trident drew in water and moisture around him, shooting supersonic bullets at her. But they evaporated before they could even reach her shield.
"Little ginger, you forget which territory you're in," he said, concentrating more. "You are above my sea, my water." He launched another laser-focused water blast, cutting right through the shield and onto her shoulder.
"Which is the sharpest thing ever."
She couldn't help but grab her shoulder as the pain settled in. But instead of groaning in pain, she stabilized her own fire, copying his technique—concentrating her fire and shield on one single point.
"Who decided that?" she preached, shooting a red laser right at the bastard of the sea. A huge sea turtle rose up, taking the hit, but it pierced through the shell and onto his shoulder, diverting it away from his heart.
"Aaaa…" he groaned. "You bitch!" he complained, pouring more divinity onto a silver ball in his hand. It transformed and came to life, covering his body like bleaching armor.
Before, they were reaching and feeling the reach of their opponent, but now both of them knew: the ginger was not an ordinary herald, and the cattle fish wasn't just a normal fish as only a few had ever pierced her shield, and a few had ever made him bleed.
The sea buckled.
Khorn hit the air hard. Fire bled from her shoulders, hissing as the wave from below swallowed her. She kicked down, then up, tearing herself free.
Julius was already moving.
A trident snapped forward. The water followed it—compressed, screaming. Khorn twisted. It clipped her side. Fire burst apart. Pain flared white.
She didn't slow.
She burned.
Khorn thrust her hand out. A lance of fire tore across the water. Julius brought his arm up. A wall of water rose. Steam detonated between them.
They closed.
Too close.
Julius slammed into her, shoulder first. The impact drove her under. Pressure crushed in. Her fire flickered. Almost died.
Almost.
Khorn snarled and let go.
She stopped fighting the sea.
She burned through it again, like it was a promise she had never forgotten.
Fire condensed around her fist—small, vicious. She drove it forward. It punched into Julius's armor. Cracked it. He grunted and reeled back.
Blood bloomed in the water.
He stabbed blindly, striking again and again. The trident caught her thigh eventually as it ripped through. Khorn screamed once—short, furious—and tore herself free.
She was bleeding now. She didn't care.
She surged upward, broke the surface of the water, and screamed his lord's name into the storm.
Julius followed.
Water lifted him. Carried him. Obeyed.
"Accept defeat. This is my domain. No fire is allowed to burn on my watch," he said. He was breathing hard. So was she.
"Ha… haha…" Khorn laughed. It came out broken. "You like talking too much, don't you?"
She gathered what fire she had left. Compressed it. Sharpened it. Filled it with divinity.
Julius saw it. His eyes widened. He raised the sea again.
Too slow.
Khorn fired.
The beam burned straight through the water, straight through his defense, straight into his chest. Julius convulsed. The sea screamed with him. But as he fell, he gripped his hand, like he was pulling something.
The water and droplets on her body reacted, and before she even realized, it pierced her—from head to toe.
They both fell.
Khorn hit the water and sank.
She didn't move. Couldn't move. Her body was bleeding from holes all over her body. Her nervous system was utterly damaged. Her light body gradually floated upward.
'I was careless,' she thought, as the water surface around her started turning red. Julius. That much strength and authority over the sea—it should not be possible for a half-blood. But he proved—proved—that he was indeed the son of one of the three main gods.
"You thought I was down?" The irritating voice echoed.
She couldn't believe it. She had put her whole concentrated divinity into that shot. It should have blasted him to pieces. But there he was, gradually rising above the water. Bleeding from his chest but still standing.
"You almost got me there, forced me to use my miracle," he said. His one leg was shaking and twitching. The flat fishy beast swam toward her, taking him near.
"I must have burnt half of my karma invoking that miracle," he whispered as he felt his touch with the sea and water loosening, as even the rain he had brought down had stopped.
It was a gamble at the last second—a gamble which he had won. He didn't know there was someone competent with divinity. But that didn't matter. He would take a herald's head and show it to his father.
'Father will forgive me for spending that much karma if I just show him this red head,' he thought, lifting his trident and pointing it down toward Khorn.
"Are you afraid to die, little herald?" he muttered.
Khorn tried to move, but no—the water droplets were still inside her. But she gathered her remaining divinity, using her positive karma right then and there. It was her last shot. She needed to establish a miracle—fast, quick. But the trident was already coming toward her.
"Afraid? Ha, I have my lord by my side."
"Your lord? Where is he now?" he said, pushing the trident right at her eyes, wanting to see her flinch before she died a dog's death.
'It's too late…' she thought, gazing at the edge of the trident coming right to her amber eyes. But she didn't blink. 'Avenge me, my lord.'
Tang!
A spear clashed against the trident a millisecond before her eyes were smashed, knocking the trident away.
'Peter?' she thought, seeing the golden spear.
She didn't waste even a single second. Her trade with karma churned her divinity. Fire ignited once more.
In the meanwhile, Peter lost his spear, his breathing heavy—the one thing that had been defending him from the axe. Gone. He was already bleeding all over, as his naive self couldn't control his anger, his naive self couldn't ignore Khorn.
Ron slashed toward him. There was no time to think, no time for a plan. There was only action. He had confidence—he could be naive and still be strong, the words of his lord Aron still echoing from that moment, his hand on his heart as he had told him he had chosen him for a reason.
'I am special,' he thought, his adrenaline and rage boiling together. He didn't dodge; he walked head-on right toward the axe, letting it pass by his head, cutting his ear, and letting it land right at his shoulder.
The axe landed heavy and strong, cutting deep into his torso.
"A naive fool until the end," Ron said.
But Peter said nothing, holding the half-blood's wrist. "Welcome to my world," he muttered, ignoring the pain, making himself and Ron invisible.
The half-blood backed away, unwary of what he had just done. His hand and body slowly turned invisible. "...What, what is happening? What did you do?" he roared, gradually not seeing even a single part of his body.
Yes, he saw that panic, the same panic he had felt when he awakened his powers. Our actions and thoughts always came from our vision, unconsciously reading our hands and body. But take that away for a second, the mind gets confused and panics.
But only for a short while, and that simple moment of seconds was what he needed, forgetting the pain on his shoulder as he took out his hidden knife. He didn't use it until the end, and this was it. This was the moment.
He pierced it right at his heart so he couldn't just heal again. And his divinity finished right off, the half-blood becoming visible once more as blood became visible. The hole in his chest became visible. And his yellow eyes, utterly shocked.
"...For my wife!" Peter said, taking out his knife and piercing it again and again into his chest.