Back in the clearing, Gerad stood up to the enraged Vol Drung.

"Evil devil! I shall quell your reign of terror!" He managed to yell before being bludgeoned back into the forest, nearly half dead by Vol Drung's incomplete war hammer.

The general, now enraged, jumped back into the mix with tremendous force as he unlocked the blockers for his high performance cyber bionics.

He lunged at the god from the side and delivered a punch that could destroy a mountain. Vol Drung was surprisingly forced to a knee as he reeled back stunned.

Gladius was no amateur and did not rest on this little win.

He continued with a barrage of clean, finely aimed attacks to Vol Drung who struggled for a moment to keep up before getting to his feet and contending with the blows.

The two went at it for a long moment before Vol Drung let out a laugh of visceral excitement before exploding his knee into the generals helmet.

The man staggered back in a stunned manner, blood pouring through the shattered glass on the Centurion prime's visor.

The god advanced slowly, gloatingly floating towards the general who ripped his helmet off to show a freshly broken and bleeding nose set below eyes so cold and steely that his gaze felt like a blizzard of frozen glass.

"Kneel before your one true master." Vol Drung ordered as he approached.

"I don't kneel to terrorists." The general stated before deactivating the level two cybernetik blockers before beginning his rapid advance towards the god.

A fraction of a second later and the two were once again locked in brutal combat.

The gods overwhelming power and aeons of warmongering and crusading pitted against the most finely tuned master of combat in the galaxy.

Gladius' veins pulsed blue as the hyperoxidated blood pumped through his artificially enhanced muscles in order to keep up with the gods immense speed and brute force.

The superchip implanted in the generals brain was nearly short circuiting as it tried to map out Vol Drungs fighting pattern onto the generals motor cortex.

The god laughed with guttural excitement.

"You are no mere mortal! You shall make fine stock for my new dominion once I break you! An apostle even!" He yelled as he increased the intensity of his bludgeoning until finally the general could not keep up no matter how hard he pushed himself or the armour.

With a roar, Vol Drung unlatched his nearly complete war hammer and smashed the general out of the frey.

"Behold! I have claimed the weapon of the king's hand! I will take up the responsibility left behind by the interloping bastard!" Gerad burst out of the canopy and announced at the top of his lungs.

Vol Drung stopped in mid air and stared at the peculiar creature swishing his rapier about, yelling long winded threats at the god whilst holding the missing piece of Dar Gul.

He let out a scoff of disbelief before blasting towards Gerad at a speed that blew the winds around him into a backwards fury.

He picked the mushroom man up by the neck and held him aloft as he squirmed.

"You cannot hold a hero in this manner!" Gerad yelled through suffocated breaths.

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"Although you are amusing… You are weak… and must perish. And I will be taking that artefact." The god said in a low growling monotone that froze the air.

"Gerad! Nooo!" Puella screamed.

Just before the antediluvian deity could murder the self proclaimed hero, Hans picked his half sobered self up and threw himself back into the battle.

He hit Vol Drung back onto the ground harshly in a fit of uncontrolled rage.

The god yelled in anger.

Hans roared back.

The two lunged towards each other with tremendous force, and when they met, the surrounding radius was blown to a crater as they exchanged blows.

Hans throwing rage filled, hap hazard slaps, flings and punches to the god.

Vol Drung could barely keep up as his blood vessels erupted to the surface of his skin.

Hans continued to batter the god back on his haunches even as his fists seeped red with his own blood as his bones fractured and broke upon the ancient deities' dense bodice.

Watching from afar as he staggered to his feet, the general checked his communication implant.

"Blitz nought bridge, do you copy?" The general said through laboured breathing.

"General Lyanus sir! We copy, what is happening down there? We're getting nothing from the rest of the operatives! Over." The bridgeman said with a tense voice.

"They're dead… all of them I need reinforcements asap! Port the Blitznought at low orbit! We're finishing this right here, right now." Lyanus roared through the comms as he watched the two combatants rage on from afar.

Destroying the environment around them as if they were a hurricane.

"Copy General! Reinforcements incoming!"

Back on the battlegrounds, Hans was beginning to tire but not in vain.

The god was furious, his body bruised and beaten more than it had been in aeons.

He saw Hans stagger in fatigue and with a guttural bark he slammed his weapon into the berserker's chest and sent him flying into a mound of soot.

Blood leapt from his mouth as he slammed into the soft soiled mycelium.

He lay there on his back, unmoving.

Vol Drung floated slowly over to Gerad who was still holding the last piece of Dar Gul.

His hulking, rasping figure cast a shadow over Gerad who slumped and dropped his eyes as his knees buckled.

"Give it to me you pathetic whelp of a mortal." He said with a voice that sounded as if he burned brimstone in his throat.

Gerad gulped and shivered as he looked over at Puella.

His spouse looked at him with a conflicted expression.

He smiled meekly before looking back up at the god with stern eyes despite his cold sweats and buckled knees.

"Not now nor ever foul demon!" he yelled in a nearly convincing manner.

Vol Drung let out a single laugh before sucking most of the life energy out of the mushu and taking the artefact.

"You have more to you than I expected. For that I will let you live. But now, it is time to reclaim my true power."

"NO GERAD!" Puella yelled as she ran to her spouse.

The God attached the last piece to the rest of the hammer and was knocked staggering to the ground by the power that surged forth from the weapon.

Its carvings began to glow an ominous purple as the winds around Vol Drung intensified.

He began to laugh maniacally as a dark aura began swirling around him.

He began to grow in size and power.

At the same time Bob was flung back into the clearing towards Lyanus from the canopy.

He rolled and tumbled to his feet with a cough and was panting heavily with his pistol in his hand.

After him Timus followed with a smug grin

"What'd I miss?" The bounty hunter asked nonchalantly despite the hell breaking loose around him.

"The op's gone south… your pals either dead or damn near… the talking mushroom is on the brink and the monsters got his favourite toy back." The general stated stoically.

"Shit…" Bob said as he cocked his pistol.

Suddenly the god convulsed rapidly, like an animal on the brink of death.

A powerful, bright bolt of light shot out from around him into the sky above.

He laughed tyrannically.

"I Vol Drung! With my former might restored, use the power vested in me by my brethren and by the power of Dar Gul, I announce that the reclamation of my dominion has… begun!" A huge rift opened in the upper atmosphere and hundreds of sphere ships began to materialise in the sky.

All casting ominous shadows across the planet, cloaking it in darkness.

"The misanthropic age of man is at an end, now is the true reign of Vol Drung!"