The whole castle was on high alert after it was reported that the gods were coming to invade them. Everybody was preparing their gear for one last fight. The maids were donning their battle clothes while others were preparing their spells, illusions and some were summoning demons to fight in their stead.

However, on the wall sat two people who looked into the horizon while drinking and chatting.

“Barbato, do you know nostalgic this is?” Minerva asked the large man.

“Yes, I do remember the feeling of fighting in the front lines. When you meet with the enemy and none knew the outcome until the end. Such good times they were,” replied Barbato.

“So can you guess what today’s outcome will be Barbato?” asked Minerva.

“The cards are not on our side today. We will all fall here today,” replied Barbato.

“If today’s fate is fixed what about the future,” asked Minerva.

“If everything goes to plan then the future is looking fucking bright to me,” replied Barbato.

“Then let's fall as gloriously as we can,” replied Minerva

“Then I’ll drink to that and leave the future to him,” replied Barbato.

The two then raised their cups emptied their content and then proceeded to walk into the hall.

Lyoss was currently and was waiting when the doors were opened when Minerva and Barbato entered. Barbato walked to Lyoss and signalled for her to move where they had been earlier while Minerva was standing near the circular pillars on the right side.

She cast some form of magic making the pillar’s glow change from blue to red and the rest of the pillars followed the same. After finishing her cast, she then proceeded to pull some items from her storage space which she then placed on the floor.

“Are all the ingredients there Minerva?” asked Barbato.

“I had checked and confirmed all of them all here, Barbato,” replied Minerva.

“All that is left is now the summoning,” said Barbato.

Minerva was then instructed to door the same pentagram Lyoss had seen on the door while Barbato removed an old parchment from his storage space.

The parchment had listed the necessary items required for the summoning which were:

* Crystallization of death

* Fate’s blood

* Blood of the Fallen

* Creation magic

* Soul of a god

* The essence of the summoned

Barbato looked at the ingredients which Minerva was unravelling and remembered how they had been on death’s door many a time to gather them. Back then he questioned the purpose of doing so but it seems they finally found their use.

He read the instruction and relayed them to Minerva who followed them as instructed.

Minerva placed an ancient cauldron with equally mysterious sigils in the middle of the pentagram followed by the black orb used to check the status of the boy but no one knew it was the crystallization of death except Barbato and Minerva. Second, she removed Fate’s blood which was sealed in a blue jar, poured it and mixed it with the black orb. This caused the mixture to obtain a silver-black hue which was frothing.

The blood of the Fallen and Creation magic was obtained when the baby’s palm was cut and the blood seeped into the mixture.

Next was the Soul of a god and Barbato produced a bright shining gold-coloured essence from his storage space. It had no definite shape and was wiggling around his palm where it was held tightly. He added the soul which caused the mixture to froth violently causing cracks to appear on the cauldron.

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The last and final ingredient was the essence of the summoned. Minerva this time produced a black essence also sealed in another ancient jar with similar sigils to the cauldron. The black essence was bubbling and upon inspection of the jar, one would notice that the sigils were fading in both colour and strength.

“This is my most primal form of existence. I offer myself willingly both in body and soul and bind myself to thee using the boy as the medium and you as the summoned. I bind thee to the boy as is required as his magic flows from the boy to you I call upon you ‘Deus Mortis’,” shouted Barbato as Minerva poured the black essence into the cauldron.

The mixture frothed extremely violently and the ancient cauldron exploded sending its pieces flying everywhere and the hall was suddenly plunged with black mist and the aura of death was everywhere. The aura was so deep that one felt the icy cold fingers of death grabbing your soul. One couldn’t endure it but could only quake in fear and despair silently on your own.

The weather outside wasn’t good either but was filled with red lightning and earthquakes which shook the whole valley and its neighbouring terrain. Everything in the whole valley was chaotic and nothing was able to resist the sheer aura of death in the area. This summoning had set the stage for maddening things to happen soon.

On the other side of the valley was the enemy had prepared themselves sufficiently and were marching to the battlegrounds. Most of the individuals were mostly SSS ranked individuals with also a few gods mixed into the fray. This group was an amalgamation of the strong. They were happily marching and charting along the way when suddenly everything got fuzzy.

The air got chilly and they were all hit by an aura of death and despair. Most of them didn’t know what was happening but only one goddess knew what this was. She had experienced it before first hand and the outcome was the worst she had ever seen up to date.

“Barbato, what have you done!” she exclaimed in shock.

People started falling and some started foaming at the mouth while shaking violently. Some severe cases had people bleeding from their orifices while screaming in agony.

There was shock and despair among them as they saw their comrades fall never to rise again.

“Atut, what is happening,” the hero shouted while dragging himself near the goddess.

“They have already summoned it. Never did I think I would experience this again,” Atut shouted back to the hero.

“Who can the infected be healed?” shouted the hero.

“They can’t once one is infected even; we gods cannot heal them or be healed. This magic is ancient which even predates even creation. The only thing we can do is kill the infected to stop it from spreading,” Atut answered.

When the people heard they were to kill their comrades they started doubting whether what they heard was true or not. No one wanted to kill their friend who they had been together through thick and thin. Whatever or whoever that had caused this had dealt them huge damage and planted seeds of despair among them at the same time.

One of the individuals saw his friend was infected and tried to heal him.

“Dom, it's me, Matthew,” pleaded Matthew as he tried to heal his friend.

Dom only replied with a single bite to his which caused dark veins to start developing from his hands and spread towards his chest.

One of the gods, Aleron made quick work of both Matthew and Dom by slicing their heads off with a single spell. Once the others had seen what had happened to Matthew also started killing the other infected people. They were killing the infected who they didn’t personally know or associate to avoid the pain of killing a friend and since Aleron didn’t know anybody here personally he went on a killing spree by slaughtering anyone near his vicinity.

Everybody had a look of guilt and disgust on their face but this was the only way to move forward. They swore silently to revenge their brethren once they reach the enemy’s camp. This resulted in creating a sense of brotherhood which further united them and their belief that their enemy was the greater evil that needed to be purged.

The hero was shocked as brother slew brother because he had never envisioned this would happen. The hero was not one of this reality but a summoned champion. His home was all bliss and beauty but once he came here the degree of violence and chaos shook his understanding of peace.

The goddess then went ahead and painted Barbato as a demon king who was to be killed. At first, the hero didn’t believe her but after he saw Atut’s vision he became worried for humanity’s sake.

In the vision, he saw that Barbato had enslaved most of the Kingdoms while the people were suffering such that death was a relief and after experiencing their despair in the vision, he decided to unite all the human kingdoms.

Most of the Kingdoms were reluctant but after seeing the vision their cold hearts were shaken that they began to demand the killing of Barbato that instant and that’s why they were now heading to kill the demon king Barbato.

After the mass killing, they all marched on with a heavy heart and after walking for a long time the shape of the castle become clear as day.

It was big and well-fortified while somehow looking dejected. They all held their weapons, skills and magic close to their hearts as walking away now was not an option. They all knew the war had already begun the moment they laid their eyes upon the castle and they were willing to give it their all to return home safely.