David rose into the sky to observe the tide of battle around him. From above came balls of fire raining down to soften the defenders. Those which came close to military targets were defended by shields, but civilian targets were not. Ordinarily this wouldn’t make much sense, as the leadership would soon become rulers of empty walls, but if there wasn’t much hope of a successful defense without extreme sacrifice from the start then this strategy might make sense. This was especially true now, as the only guaranteed 11th hour play to secure victory from the jaws of total defeat wouldn’t leave survivors if it came to that.

Though it hadn’t yet. Many of the civilian buildings had been reduced to rubble, but there were a scarce few corridors of force that protected a few arterial streets from bombing. This allowed as many people as possible to escape to nearby military fortifications. Primarily these shields were centered on the school’s main gate, but a not insignificant number of worthless adults were using the defenses intended for future archons to their immediate advantage, or, well, survival.

A shell struck David in the head, and his hair melted, head exploding like an overripe melon to leave a stump at the neck. By the time his eyes recovered Amanda was with him, slightly below.

“That looks like it hurt!”

David shrugged.

“Not really.”

They ascended higher into the sky, past the ruined timbers of a floating box David had once known as his harem home. The roof had been blown off, and the doors were destroyed. Every interior wall save one was also annihilated, where three women were sheltering with seemingly no means of coming down. They began to frantically call out to him, making shouts of “Henry save us!” and the like, but the trio would be lucky to starve, much less for David’s saving grace, so he fell backwards to the earth to just below the floating house’s foundation.

The cries did not stop, but he was able to ignore them with the help of its thick floor. Amanda said nothing.

David watched as the city below fell further into ruin. There would be many corpses, but so long as they remained warm the power would not fade, and as they cooled only small amounts would leak out. They would remain fresh enough for use until long after the battle ended.

Outside the walls was a mid-sized force, slightly on the smaller size. Something easy to mobilize for a small to mid-sized state but simultaneously far more than enough to conquer a single city. David wagered Zorvilon counted among their number, given the constant barrage of fire the city had taken on. It was possible, even likely, that they had accounted for his presence and brought force to match his known combat stats, most likely estimated primarily from his fight with Zorvilon years prior.

However many soldiers they brought would be insufficient.

However many archons they had would die.

All the blood of all the soon-to-be corpses would run in rivers pouring into David’s ravenous maw to satiate a hunger for power that could not be filled.

He was eager to start. There was no signal, but it would be obvious when the moment arrived. There would be a fading of strength from below as the stamina of far too small a force became incapable of sustaining a defense against gods that had once served the absolute ruler of all the domains brought to splinter in his absence and David’s coming presence.

The Left Hand of God could only survive for so long against the Covenant of Ancients strong enough to serve as the right.

David waited patiently in the sky as the cries from above died out. Amanda did not speak, likely fully aware of the calculus at play and willing to partake. What choice was there, anyway? This city was going to be conquered, perhaps not razed, but conquered, and the ends of a conquest were always the same. There would be blood fire and death. There would be a sea of blood to fill the high-water line of the reservoir erected to pin in the cattle now bleeding out.

David waited until the sun rose, and then at last the rubble came fully into view. Why didn’t they fight? Why did they sit and wait for death? He didn’t know, but it soon became obvious.

Ultra-Grand-Supreme-Omega-Undefeated-Heavenly-Zenith-of-All-Creation-Absolute-Master-of-Quintessence-and-Stacker-of-Paper-to-Fill-the-Heavens-as-Dao-of-all-Things-Green-and-Powerful Chad Anderson, Zi Lor, Chen-Thai, and a small company of the strongest fighters leapt over the walls, and behind them a massive golden barrier of intricate thread spun into existence above the city itself to defend all in their absence.

It seemed they needed time to prepare both themselves and this final defensive technique.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

David lowered himself to just above the barrier, but high enough where he could still see on all sides of the fortress-city. He could feel the growing power in the air, and its simultaneous rapid diminution by the golden barrier that grew ever-brighter. Only when it was half as bright as the sun itself did it finally stop and plateau. They would defend themselves totally to protect what was soon to be totally lost. And after such a long night of wallowing in artillery fire and sorrow? Pathetic.

David watched the surroundings as the fighters fell to all sides of the fortress. Why they scattered into a force far their superior he did not understand. All it would accomplish is shooting into infinite paper. No matter how strong or fast the bullet, it would be stopped eventually.

The golden barrier made it somewhat hard to watch, given a half-star was still more than capable of blinding any who dared look at it. David could regenerate from such things, but it was a pain and made concentration on any given point difficult for the massive color variance. Given this annoyance, he moved to the only side likely to have something worth watching.

Chad Anderson lived up to his name and title. He rushed straight for Zorvilon, who rose as a column of fire to blacken out the stars. And yet there was still light. Supreme Archon Anderson flew upwards instantly, red tornado forming around him all the while. It seemed he would attempt to dissipate Zorvilon’s amorphous form.

Zorvilon arched himself upwards in the shape of a satellite dish, then began pouring thin rays of fire to the focal point at its center— Master Chad. Chad was prepared for this, finally revealing why he had split from both Covenant and Triumvirate— he would not be bound by either Yadabaoth or new gods. He would not restrict heavenly talents to one path or another. He would not follow in the footsteps of dead gods and lost believers of one long departed.

A bright yellow star exploded into being on the battlefield and blew away the smoke and dust that once obscured so little already to now total irrelevance. There was no longer any use to an amorphous form. There was no longer any use to shooting fire at the embodiment of light. And yet Zorvilon must surely have known Chen-Thai’s technique?

Of course he did. The clouds spilled over and around Anderson, encompassing him entirely in a thick sphere of smoke, but in the same instant Chad’s column of red energy poured up from below to blow Zorvilon away. He flew apart in all directions, but instead of being scattered to the seven winds a single body instead formed directly above the star, beginning quickly to fall to certain death by way of nuclear fusion.

Fusion? No, that would give off far too much energy, even if it did seem a literal star was present in terms of luminosity. There was heat, but there was also fire. There was light, but there wasn’t enough. This was a false star, a thing of beauty and oh so little substance. And yet strong enough to masquerade in a show of strength. Moreover, what use was a star in trying to burn fire?

Zorvilon fell and was not burned to the surprise of none. And yet the master of the left hand had expected this, too. His form began to spin slowly outward into a disk as he himself allowed gravity to take hold. The two fighters began to fall in unison as an accretion disk of sorts formed from the energy of Yaldabaoth collected over the course of the battle so far. A yellow-red cross formed with Chad Anderson at its center, slowly growing tighter and yet consistently avoiding contact with Zorvilon, perhaps to avoid wasting energy on him.

It seemed he had waited to conjure the technique to avoid damaging his city, as upon contact with the ground it was scoured for hundreds of feet around, and yet in the same instant the damage ceased, finally collapsing inward to its core and forming the single mass that defined the innermost point of all accretion disks.

He was still an old man, but that hardly mattered now. All the strength of a star was embodied in the heart of a grain of sand for all the difference the size of a man made to its infinite power.

And yet so little damage was had to the walls and to the earth. The grass was charred for perhaps miles, the soil itself rendered barren for hundreds or perhaps a thousand or two feet, and yet so much power radiated from him? Perhaps he could conquer a mountain, and yet so little damage had been done.

Then Zorvilon decided to kill all of his subordinates, perhaps explaining why he had brought so few.

A massive explosion rang out and blew a hole in the fortress city, killing everyone on this side of the battlefield and scattering stone to the skies while tearing a hole hundreds of feet deep into the earth. It began to heal almost immediately, of course, but the man made structures atop it did not.

David could enter the leaky pin now, or he could wait, but he supposed he could see this through.

It didn’t take long.

Ultra-Grand-Supreme-Omega-Undefeated-Heavenly-Zenith-of-All-Creation-Absolute-Master-of-Quintessence-and-Stacker-of-Paper-to-Fill-the-Heavens-as-Dao-of-all-Things-Green-and-Powerful-Mega-Elder-Dao-of-the-Art-of-Left-Handedness-and-Writing-With-a-Slightly-Damp-Quill-to-Summon-the-Brightest-Star-of-Heaven Chad Anderson was strong but Zorvilon wasn’t the only Covenant member around, and had finally grown tired of the honourable duel they had partook in thus far.

Indevelyn began to conjure plant life to absorb the energy recklessly leaking from a dying old man, and Dagon, Lord of Blood, finally decided to wrestle control over Yaldabaoth’s essence spilled over every hill and valley so many eons ago. Chad would need to fight all three of them at once. He would need to wrest control of the ambient energy from Dagon, suppress himself to control Indevlyn, and use every ounce of strength he had left to best Zorvilon. But did he give up? No.

“Begin when ready!” he shouted at the top of his lungs, clearing his mind and taking a wide martial stance. He would not lose here. He could not lose here.

David knew he would lose here, so he popped inside the city and began enacting the countermeasures the top brass had strove so strongly to prevent needing.

“Oh we’re going to have so much fun today!”

He licked his lips in preparation. They were salty and stained with ash.