Jalen pierced through the clouds in his god form, his skin coal black and coarse, and his eyes burning with determination. A thousand angels trailed him, the smallest force Yun was willing to part with to escort a being of his stature. If left to her, Yun wanted an eye-watering 500,000 angels to accompany him, a fourth of Genesis’ forces. His heart could only take so much worship and praise.

Soon he passed over the sprawling canyons, his vigilant gaze swiping the grounds below for the tsuchigumo, Jigoku Kumo. At last, her time had come. A few miles ahead of the place where he placed the portal, he spotted them. Jigoku Kumo was locked in a battle with the angels he ordered to watch her. They were three circling the demon now, evading the deadly energy beams she emitted from her hands, while two hung further back.

He went to the two angels. One of them lay motionless, lacking a wing, cradled in the embrace of the other, who also suffered injuries.

The abled one spoke when he arrived. “Most High, the demon slew my brother.”

He placed his hand on the forehead of the dead angel. “Retreat to the human’s side. You have done well. Your brother will rise when you arrive.”

Tears filled the angel’s eyes. “I humbly accept Your mercy and grace, Almighty Father.”

Afterward, Jalen ordered the other three angels to retreat as well before his eyes finally rested on the tsuchigumo for the first time since she stole a portion of his life force. Jigoku Kumo had paused her onslaught and was gaping at the thousand-strong legion of angels that doused the sky above her. His angels, clad in battle armor and wielding divine weapons, regarded her with disdain and revulsion. One command and they would obliterate the tsuchigumo to pieces. In fact, he knew fully well that Kaldor alone was enough to deal with the elusive demon whose strength lay more in manipulation, illusions, and trickery than in all the battle prowess she fought so hard to increase by stealing powers. But he stayed his hand. This was far too personal to delegate to anyone else.

As if to compound his overwhelming show of force, a red star appeared above, dwarfing the planet in its entirety. The atmosphere was bathed in an overpowering red glow that drowned out all semblance of the main system’s starlight. His angels and himself were cast in harsh red light, the landscape below faring no better. Thankfully, that was the extent of the red dwarf’s influence on the planet.

“Father! We meet again!” Aleph voiced into his head with its distinctive ethereal tone derived from vibration frequencies. “It is a pleasure to see you.”

“The pleasure is mine,” he voiced back. “I hope everything is well.”

“Yes, Father. Much of the cosmos is mapped and documented thanks to the Overseers I created and Yun, who handles the judgment of life, among other affairs. I wish to show you my work when you have the time.”

“That is fine. However, it will have to wait. As you can see, I have a demon to exterminate.”

“Then I will gladly bask in your presence and watch you work, Father.”

Then Aleph acknowledged Overseer Zenithar, who, in turn, greeted his creator.

With the most powerful beings in his universe serving as spectators, he descended between the canyons toward the tsuchigumo and landed softly. The demon backtracked into the shallow river, the victorious smug that plagued her face when she trapped him under that church and killed the sisterhood of nuns who helped him all but gone.

“Who are you, and what do you want?” the tsuchigumo inquired, her darting eyes ever weary of the angels above and the star that seemed unnervingly close to the planet.

“Have a guess, Jigoku Kumo,” he said.

The tsuchigumo’s eyes widened at the mention of her name. Her eight legs skittered backward into the middle of the river, her human torso the only part visible now.

He stepped to the lip of the river. “Whatever tricks you are inscribing on the riverbed with your legs and blood will not work. In this universe, nothing hides from me. The water thrashing around your body betrays you. The fish that swim between your legs see through your deceit. Today marks your damnation and there is nothing that can stop me from exacting my revenge. Step out of the river and die in a dignified manner, Jigoku Kumo.”

Using the water to mask the movement of her lower arm, she fired a red pulsing beam that he effortlessly blocked with his arm.

“Let me jog your memory, tsuchigumo,” he continued, folding his hands behind his back. “There was a monastery that had fallen on hard times. Its buildings now stood as a shadow of what it once was. You killed and consumed the nuns living there. Then, controlling the mind of the abbot, you used him as an elaborate scapegoat to steal the power of a god you trapped in the chapel’s basement. Triumphant in your plan to seize his power for your own, you set the compound ablaze, all clues of your presence forever lost to the ashes. Ring any bells?”

The tsuchigumo’s usual grating voice sounded weak. “Erebus? No. Wait, you don’t have to do this! I’m sure we can work something out. Belial would lay that city to waste while we battle here.” She cautiously glanced at the angels above.

“Then you misunderstand my priority, Jigoku Kumo. I have yearned for your destruction since the day you ripped my life force from me. Everything else is secondary. Even the destruction of Hermosville.” His eyes could barely contain his erratic life force. “You will answer for all their deaths. Every last nun. Rest assured, the angels are only present to spectate. Only I will beat you to death.”

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Two golden beams spilled forth and turned the water into a sizzling eruption of gas. The tsuchigumo evaded the attack. However, she wasn’t his target. The sigils she drew on the riverbed were. That threat nullified, he chased after the fleeing demon. The tsuchigumo’s powerful long legs propelled her forward across the rocky terrain, swaying side to side to throw his aim off.

Instead, he fired his cosmic beams into the side of the canyon ahead. The ground trembled under the immense pressure of the steep canyon crashing, as countless boulders and debris descended on the tsuchigumo, who used a myriad of her energy beams to tear through the oncoming landslide. Despite her efforts, a pile of rubble buried her.

Other times, Jalen would have waited to assess the situation. However, his yearning to kill the demon overpowered all rational thought. He dove into the landslide. A swift bladed hand swung to decapitate him from his supposed blind spot, but he docked below it and head-butted the demon in the face. Her head caved in on impact and she screamed, aiming to create distance between them. Distance he had no intention of giving. A thunderous blow sent her into the heavens, her flight path sending her clipping off the top of the canyon and out of view.

He flew after her, the procession of a thousand angels moving with them and singing his praises to the high heavens. As expected, the tsuchigumo was fleeing, northbound, over the rolling hills into the mountains. Any other being may have given chase, but not him. Not a Cosmonar in his resident universe. After all, the ground beneath her eight pointed legs had betrayed her again.

He dove away from the tsuchigumo toward an unassuming spot on the ground, his fist springing loose and expelling a violent gust of air in its wake. His punch hit nothing but air. However, a gasping shriek revealed to him that the demon barely evaded his attack. A blade slashed his chest, drawing blood. Then another ran across his forearm, only to end up firmly in his grasp. He pulled in the invisible demon, calculating where her body ought to be, then delivered a gut-wrenching strike to the spider portion of her body. The invisibility hiding her body dispelled on impact.

Her armored carapace absorbed most of the damage, but as the tsuchigumo crashed through a small hill, he could tell she was hurting. And hurting badly. Relentless in his pursuit, he chased after the demon, not giving her a chance to recollect herself. His fist sank into the soft earth as she swerved away, using every ounce of her battle experience. With a roar, she unleashed a fury of bladed attacks and precision strikes that admittedly pushed him back and forced him to reconsider his approach.

He frowned, bleeding from a thousand cuts, some of which stung as only a poison-infested wound could. For the first time in a while, her face changed into a crooked grin that displayed missing teeth.

“Your second death will be a painful one, Erebus,” she said. “That venom was developed in close collaboration with my brethren to kill archdevils. Let us make a deal. Return me to Earth, and I will give you the antidote.”

He dropped to his knee, grimacing, with a glare directed at the demon. “Never.”

The life force coursing through his very being already identified and isolated the foreign toxins as soon as he found out what it was. Pitted against the destructive nature of his life force, it was hard to believe that the venom could prevail. Not even the poisoned mist of Èlivágar, the river of creation, could down him in his battle with Nidhogg. So as he rose to his feet, he feigned a losing battle with the venom, drawing her closer.

The triumphant smile evaporated from the demon’s face as his fist smashed into it. Then, seizing her by the throat, he shot faster than a bullet toward the base of a tall mountain, a sonic boom cracking the air as he accelerated. The split second before he crashed into the mountain, he raised the demon’s body. The impact was cataclysmic, the mountain’s base exploding in a shower of rock and debris as he drove the tsuchigumo through it with unrelenting force. Inside the mountain, the world was a blur of darkness and stone. The tsuchigumo struggled against his iron grip, screaming at the endless jagged rocks that smashed against her.

Finally, with a thunderous boom, they emerged from the other side of the mountain, their momentum carrying them over a vast expanse of trees. He released the demon, and she plummeted into the forest, bouncing across the earth as trees splintered and fell in her wake.

Soon her chaotic fall came to rest while he still bore down toward her, his fists reared back and itching to pummel her.

“Leave me alone!” She screamed, her guttural voice echoing across the devastated forest. As she roared, a torrent of smoldering fire erupted from her mouth and bathed the air above as high as a hundred feet.

It was his intention to burst through that fire, but the damage it caused to his skin quelled that idea. Backed against the wall, she continued to spill the stream of fire everywhere. The forest lit ablaze as her deathly screams foretold the fire’s destructive power.

Red light shining from Aleph above joined with the fiery blaze from below to cast his otherwise monotonous skin in vibrant colors, his mind working to carve a path toward the demon. With a raise of his hand, he expelled clouds of his life force, making sure to keep all his senses trained on the demon. Soon, slivers of golden light, mostly drowned out by red, covered the sky. And from does golden clouds spilled forth a torrent of rain just as ferocious as the demon’s fire.

The two opposing forces clashed over the next few minutes, the unrelenting downpour battering the fierce flames. The demon saw the writing on the wall, her terrified gaze which reflected red light directed helplessly at him. He met her gaze and descended, his golden beams unleashed as he drew near. She made no attempt to dodge, instead blocking his attack with a force field while readying her stance for their eventual clash.

Her shield exploded like glass when his fist clashed. Expecting that exact outcome, she threw everything she had at him. Every slash, stab, punch, and bright energy attack. And yet she was coming out worse for wear. For every slash that broke his skin, his returning blow shattered her limbs.

“Is this it?” he bellowed. “Your final pathetic stand? You will pay for what you did to Abigail, you fucking bitch! I’m right here. So steal my power again. Steal it again, bitch! I dare you!”

Their blood spilled across the scorched, blackened earth. Down to five legs and two arms, she turned to run away. But he snatched another leg and ripped it off.

“Come here!” He called, chasing after her.

He crushed another leg in his pursuit. Then another. And another. She summoned every last ounce of her strength and opened her mouth to expel fire at his face. However, he docked under the blazing heat and drove an uppercut into her jaw. Her jaw shattered, and she plummeted to the earth, her only strength left in the limbs that struggled to pull her away.

Victory in his grasp, he marched beside her, anger and torment raging within him.

“Please, have… mercy,” she begged. “I never should have gone against you. Please give me a second chance.”

He kicked her and planted his foot on her chest. “Should’ve thought about that before crossing me.”

Jigoku Kumo screamed and thrashed about as his foot sank into her chest, cracking her ribcage. He savored her dying cries as the life drained from her eyes. Soon, she became motionless, the cacophony of falling droplets washing away the blood from his healed wounds. The angels sang triumphant praises in his name. Overseer Zenithar hovered above, meticulously documenting the events alongside his creator, who towered over the planet.