Vendos Aurelius saw the sky crack. In a mere instant, the air above him grew spiritually thick and heavy, filled with an overwhelming authority beyond what he was capable of mustering. The sky, once azure blue or filled with tumultuous clouds, now was featureless and blank except for the massive crack. Then, in the same instant, the ground became similarly laden with authority. Quicksand-like, it seemed to draw in the fate of those within the Realm, binding their souls to it and forcefully beginning a harmonization process beyond what was natural. If Vendos Aurelius had not been a demigod, he would not have been able to react in time.

  As the crack in the sky formed and the darkness of the truth of the cosmos poured inwards, he activated his powers once again, assuming his Partial Divine Form.

  Siphoning off the golden staff he carried, his body merged with the item, swiftly changing into a form in which he could more effectively utilize his authority. His entire body became covered in golden, plate-like scales. Blue and red wisps of fog drifted off of his figure as a halo as bright as the sun radiated outwards from him. “Riding” on the massive wave of energy from the birth of a new Angel was no small feat, and it took extreme concentration.

  Before he could finish his preparations, he felt another presence. Stronger by far. Older. Authoritative.

  As the Whispering Maiden of Seduction and Envy entered into the Diell Ancestral Realm, Vendos Aurelius, the descendant of the false imperial line, felt terrified. As the ground beneath him became red with maternal blood, the demigod couldn’t help but regret his inability to ascend.

  …

  Hannah finally Shifted.

  What greeted her was not a Realm filled with trees, water, dirt or snow. A nightmare of sizzling, blood red oozing ground was all around her. Crystallized monsters roiled within the infinite expanse, some popping with bursts of blood or other substances, others escaping from their eggs and cocoons and swiftly running off wildly. The sky was devoid of a sun, moon or stars. Instead, it was utterly blank aside from a massive crack through which her sight could not penetrate.

  She was terrified, but she was determined.

  Taking a series of deep breaths to calm herself down, she drew on some of her studies, consciously expanding her spiritual senses around her. Soon, she was able to “lock on” to a number of other auras in the distance, not terribly far from her position.

  Hannah Flos pressed forwards.

  …

  Adam was terrified.

  Before him, the corpses of Juhend, Hellig and Hrime, each more capable than himself in a myriad of ways, lay silent and dead. Sequence, newly ascended into the form of a True Divinity, grasped the Diell Instrument, which had now started to slightly crack under the pressure of its attempt to birth an infant from within itself. And beyond that, the Maiden gracefully approached.

  A wry smile, seductive and hostile, played on the Devil’s lips. Adam’s mind was abuzz with emotional fluctuations and desires, making it nearly impossible for him to act coherently. The oily blackness surrounding his psyche buckled and strained under the spiritual pressure, granting him the ability to withstand the depths of Their presences, if only barely.

  To his side, Gusto lay unconscious. Perhaps a mercy of fate, the Chosen was at least not privy to the deadly onslaught of the Maiden’s form.

  Have to… pray…

  Adam struggled to get his thoughts in order. His brain felt hot, and he could feel each of his veins and arteries as if they were close to bursting. Emotions he had repressed for days, weeks, years, all dredged up at once. An undulating tidal wave beset his mind, forcing him to experience the pains of loss, of love, guilt and more over and over again in fractions of a second.

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  Through it all, despite the infantile monsters crawling their way out of His form, Sequence was laughing. A maniacal laughter, filled with nothing but hatred, malice and scorn. The Angel kneeled down, genuflecting as He grasped the Diell Instrument and proceeded to give birth to yet another monstrous being.

  Many Winged Angel ……… Please …

  Adam knew it was pointless.

  Still, he had resolved that his death lay here. Barely able to shift his eyes, he saw Gusto out of the corner of his eye.

  If I’m able to give even another breath to another person in the face of Them… No, of them… Then it’s worth it.

  Each thought, cutting like a hot knife into his mind, peppered him with thoughts of indulgence, self-harm, sloth or wrath.

  The Maiden in front of him, both pristine in Her resoundingly vivid form and appalling in the corruption of it, gracefully stepped towards Adam with slow, reassuring footfalls.

  Closer…

  Adam began to pray in his mind. Not to Juhend Sureb or the Emaciated Seraph, nor to the Mind Most High or Rainbow Pantheon. Perhaps it was to the Many Winged Angel. In truth, Adam didn’t know what words resounded in his mind. With each millisecond, the pressure grew, forcing the oily substance surrounding his spirit to condense further in. With each millisecond, he lost more and more awareness of such an event occurring.

  Closer…

  The scent of rose petals, of invigorating perfume and estrogen laden chemicals assailed Adam’s nose. It was enough to make his mind instinctively shut off processing for such senses. If he were human, it would have been enough to kill from indulgence with a mere whiff.

  Close…er…

  Reciting prayer after prayer in his mind, Adam could no longer sense the same flow of time he was used to experiencing. He felt things happen slowly yet also knew that they were already done. Like viewing his experience from behind a screen, his mind and soul dissociated from his body.

  The Maiden outstretched a delicate hand towards him, caressing his face. An energetic shock coursed through his body like a lightning bolt, frying his nervous system and forcing a partial shutdown of his faculties.

  The Devil playfully circled Her helpless prey, droplets of acidic birthing concoction worming their way through the ground, through Adam’s clothes and even his own skin and flesh. He felt distanced from this, well aware of the pain he was experiencing, but no longer concerned with its duration or severity. Only biding his time. The oily substance, once surrounding his soul, was overladen almost entirely with it.

  He felt his intestines shift, then grow heavy as a tapeworm slithered its way up into his throat, lodging itself in his nasal cavity. He felt his abdomen grow heavier, stretching out his stomach with the weight of an unborn child. He felt his skin blister and split open, the cries and whispers of a dozen children emanating from within his very soul as it struggled to remain whole.

  Now.

  A smile beamed on the Maiden’s face. It was sharp, white and pristine, with a full row of canine teeth. She seductively caressed Adam’s face once again, moving Her hand down lower on his body.

  Adam’s hand rose to intercept.

  …

  The Composer knew when it was time to leave. His Nascent Divine Kingdom had been shattered by the emperor, and he faced a Partial Divine Form in the Red Oni. Resolving to Shift back to the Physical World, he distanced himself from the Cherubim’s assault. Sending out his spiritual perception, he swiftly located the crack in the sky and fled. He was not inherently afraid of the Cherubim or the emperor, but rather the Angel and Devil presences he sensed within the Realm. He fled, terrified, making use of the crack within the Realm to bypass the difficulties of powering through Sequence’s divine restrictions.

  Neither the Red Oni nor Vendos Aurelius pursued the fleeing demigod. Drawn instead to the resounding pressures of Sequence and the Maiden, the two Partial Divinities moved in unison towards the two True Divinities.

  …

  Hannah pressed onwards. She was soon covered in the blood of a dozen monsters she encountered along the way. Each step cursed her ears with the sounds of infants wailing or mothers screaming. She was hot, uncomfortable, and frequently had to induce gagging to get rid of tapeworms or forcefully slam her abdomen to induce miscarriages of monstrous, half formed fetuses. The very Realm itself was corruptive, seeking nothing more than to turn her into one more meal for its young.

  Still, through the pain, she pressed on towards the only presence she cared enough about to identify. Time, itself partially laden with new concepts, passed by in a convoluted manner around her.

  As if converging towards a single horizon, Vendos Aurelius, Hannah Flos and the Red Oni all laid eyes at once on Adam’s hand shoot up from a still position and grasped the Maiden’s wrist, preventing the Devil from touching him again.