***The Crystal City, The Ragnarok***

***Angrod***

The beams of our energy weapons continue to lance out in all directions, creating a criss-crossed spectacle with the Nomad's own weapons as we attempt to find the enemy.

Just sitting here, waiting for a battle to start, it is pure torment. I hate the times the most when there is nothing else to do but to wait for the inevitable.

“Do you have any idea how they will attack? Will they come from all sides or use a single direction?” I ask Lada who is standing next to me with a complicated expression on her face.

“I am sorry. Enyo isn't predictable in that regard. Maybe we should run? Can't this ship teleport away despite blocking someone from boarding with teleportation?” Lada looks around, hoping for a positive answer.

“It's okay. We came here looking for a fight and ready to pay the price. The Council's impatience turned us into the defenders, which is an advantage. Nullifying any unauthorized teleportation is another great advantage to ours.” I turn to one of the technicians. “Are the soul traps activated? I will be damned if we lose anyone permanently.”

The man nods.

“Soul Traps?” Lada asks.

“A safety measure. It's no real consolation if someone falls in battle, but at least they can reincarnate on our world.”

I push a button on my chair to activate a communication-link to Nicosar who is coordinating our forces. “Tell me immediately if there are problems anywhere. I want to be there if El Shaddai appears.” As long as we can keep the forces of El Shaddai occupied, the Nomad can continue to search for a weak point in their city.

“You can't! You are the king! What if something happens to you?” Nicosar's voice comes back, annoyed that I would risk myself.

“Celes and I are the only ones with almost complete memories. We are the strongest fighters we have. Almost everyone else is just a novice in wielding their powers. There is no choice but to counter their god-level fighters with people of equal strength, so tell me if you spot an extraordinarily strong foe!” I insist.

“As you wish. I'll inform you.” Nicosar cuts the line.

Then I look at Lada. “I suppose the god of love and harmony is a bad fighter?”

Lada nods with a pained expression, but suddenly she lightens up. “But I could try to convert them to our side. I am a well-known figure after all! If I beg them to stop, some will surely listen.”

I tilt my head while I think about it. “And how will you talk to them?”

“She can use the fortress's speaker system,” one of the guards suggests.

I nod. “Okay. It won't hurt.”

With nothing else to do, we have to wait another five minutes until we receive the expected message from one of my men. “We are being boarded at multiple points. Somehow they managed to break some of our airlocks!”

His voice sounds disturbed.

I have to admit that I share his feelings. We designed the fortresses with the possibility of being boarded in mind. The regular entrances should be very secure. To approach and break the seals without anyone noticing until the enemy is already on board is disturbing.

A technician gives us a schematic of the fortress and I watch the tactical view. The enemy chose four points to enter the ship. One is close to the command centre. Another is near the engines. The other two are distributed evenly over the fortress, a sign that our enemies just chose random points of entry with the highest probability of hitting something important.

“Set the energy weapons to fire on the entry points on the Nomad and tell them to do the same. Fire the plasma cannons too and set the trigger to the minimal range. All at once,” I instruct my people.

“But we will damage our own fortress!?” an officer complains.

“We can repair it and the hull should be able to take a few blasts. If we manage to take out most of their reinforcements it will still be a win for us.” To tell the truth, I don't care about losing the fortresses if it means that we can take the Crystal City. We still have one more at home and several are in construction.

If we manage to take out a good number of the enemy's fighters and capture their base while keeping our own forces mostly intact, it is a win for us.

The fortress is shaken by explosions which feel like a sizeable earthquake.

“Maybe it's time to start your speech Lada.” I nod to her and a technician shows her a console.

Then I turn my attention to Celes who is standing beside me. “Why are you so silent? Something wrong?”

“The whole situation feels fishy! I am thinking about our position. Isn't it unreasonable for the Council to throw all their forces at one fortress and ignore the other one?” she asks.

I sniff, seeing her point. “They operate under the assumption that their city is protected well enough by their barrier. From their point of view, there is no need to split their forces between both vessels. They intend to take us one after the other.”

The room is shaken another time as I speak.

“There is a request for aid at the breaking point close to the power core's position,” one of my men informs us.

Celes is about to go when I stop her by grabbing her arm. “Wait until we have confirmation that we are truly needed.” I turn to the man. “Send reinforcements.”

I grab my staff and stand up, expecting that from now on it won't take long for a Council member to make an appearance.

It takes a few more minutes of hectic back and forth between our forces and the attackers while we get to watch through the fortress's surveillance system.

Finally, El Shaddai and Enyo reveal themselves as they blast right through a line of our men with a large group of invaders following in their wake.

“That's strange.” I shift my weight around, having an uneasy feeling about this. “Why are they sending their aces first?”

“I don't know.” Celes clicks her tongue. “But they will reach the core in a few minutes if we don't stop them. They probably noticed that we are committing more fighters to that area.”

I turn to Nix. “Keep watching out for the other Council members.”

Then I walk out of the room, followed by Celes and Lada, and several royal guards behind them. While I walk, I take a look back to Lada. “Given up already?”

“They are too occupied with fighting! They don't listen at all. I have to be there myself!” Lada answers with an angry voice.

Shrugging my shoulders, I continue to walk down the corridor towards the battle.

Coming closer to the surface, the temperature starts rising until a wave of heat hits me. Any mortal being would have been charred to a nice black crisp, but the godly aura of energy, which is unique to an ascended being protects me.

I turn around a corner and witness some of our warriors in a tight situation with several enemy soldiers at a large crossing of two main corridors.

My men wield weapons made out of crystal and are clad in a similar black and white armour as myself, enhanced with crystal chain-mail. Our enemy's armour is white and they wield crystal rods which emit a pure white light.

More stolen technology? I hate to say it, but whoever made those put more effort into it and had more knowledge than myself. At least they don't have armour like ours.

The effectiveness of their weapons is proven when one of my men gets impaled by a spear, his armour proving mostly ineffective.

I don't stop walking and enter the fight with a wave of my staff, sending a purely kinetic blast at the enemies. It is powerful enough to compress the air in front of me, causing flash of light as it sends the enemy soldiers flying. One of the men is hit by the full fury of my attack and gets instantly splattered across the wall as a fine paste.

No longer protected by his godly aura, the mortal remains ignite and disintegrate in the hostile atmosphere which is polluted with energy and spells, leaving nothing behind but charcoal dust.

My men immediately use the opening, clearing a path for me.

I walk past the scene of fighting warriors, leaving them to their job.

Further back should be an observation platform. The enemy likely entered the fortress through an airlock there.

After a few metres, I arrive at a big room where heavy fighting is taking place. Many of the combatants use close combat weapons, but some rely on magic. Spells are flying back and forth inside the big observation hall.

Some insane mage actually summoned an elemental which is shooting icicles at everyone who gets too close.

It is the pure chaos of battle and my heart soars at the sight.

The main goal of our forces is to delay and to keep the enemy from advancing – though it is clear that they are too few.

And then an enemy soldier who just struck down one of our people comes running in my direction.

A crystal hairpin shoots past my temple, embedding itself in the soldier's left eye. He instantly goes limp and drops to the floor, sliding forward until his lifeless body stops just a metre in front of my feet.

“Oh! Those work better than expected.” Celes skips over to the dead body and retrieves her hairpin, only then realizing the disadvantage of her weapon. The crystal weapons are able to penetrate almost every mana-based defence. They are a mass of highly concentrated mana after all.

But that doesn't protect them from getting soiled with blood... and that is exactly Celes's problem.

Smirking, I enter the fight by transforming my staff into a halberd and slash at the closest enemy. The runes of my weapon glow as an arc of energy is projected outwards, sending the soldier flying.

Another one tries to close in from the side, but suddenly Lada throws herself at him, clinging to his feet like a petulant child. “Nooo! Peace! No violence! We should love each other instead! Stop the senseless fighting!”

For a mere moment even I am too startled to react, marvelling at the pink aura surrounding the Goddess of Love!

The startled soldier is stunned by the mesmerizing beauty who threw herself at him, pressing her boobs against his hips. I use his distraction to give him a lesson in fighting by wielding my halberd in an arc to bring it down with a satisfying 'swoosh' – cleaving him in twain from his right shoulder to his left upper arm.

The soldier's remains tumble to the ground, covering the speechless and shocked Lada in blood and gore.

Laughing insanely, I continue on to my next target. With a short glance, I witness Celes victimizing a soldier with an acupuncture treatment to the throat. Her hairpins move expertly, each stab hitting a vital point in skilful stabs as she gives extra care to joints and painful areas.

Grinning at each other, we continue onwards – quickly changing the tide of the battle. Realizing their situation, our enemies fall back. They obviously dread becoming our next victims.

We quickly manage to push the invaders back and establish a fortified position. Having stopped the enemy's advance, we wait until reinforcements arrive. Once we are sure that the position is firmly in our hands we go onwards to push the enemies out of our fortress.

Affirming our direction with the fortress's surveillance system, we head directly towards El Shaddai and Enyo. As we push the enemies back the fight slowly relocates to the outer areas of our fortress.

The attackers must have broken the airlock when they entered. The closer we get, the harder it gets to breathe and I have to rely on my aura to keep myself alive.

We come across a heavily damaged section where our fortress is completely open to the thin air of the high altitude, a result of the Nomad taking shots at us. There is a wide, round corridor burned into our ship, the edges still glowing. Nodding to Celes, I decide to follow it and once we reach the surface, I can see the true extent of the damage. Cracks are running through the crystal surface of our once wonderful fortress and it seems like some structures broke off.

Outside, we are met with the remaining enemy forces which weren't taken out by the Nomad's friendly fire.

We decide to join the chaos and immediately the fight evolves into a three dimensional battle with the defenders at the surface of our fortress and our enemies trying to regain their foothold after the Nomad's devastating attack.

At last, we encounter a golden figure and an armoured Amazonian woman.

El Shaddai and Enyo!

They are fighting like adults among toddlers. My people are sent flying by them and they radiate enormous power. Clenching my teeth, I fight my way through their minions and Celes follows me.

El Shaddai wields a spear and Enyo has a one-handed sword and a shield, their weapons are emitting the same light as those of their soldiers. Together they look truly stunning in their golden armour as they swipe across the battlefield, sending our men running for their lives.

Pushing myself off the fortress's surface, I fly towards my target and our weapons clash with a flash of light.

“Look who we have here! The king decides to enter the fight.” El Shaddai grins at me while effortlessly holding my weapon at bay.

“Unfortunately, it seems like I will have to deal with you myself. I wonder how long your forces will keep fighting after you are gone?” Oh, hell. Why do I need to have a third-class villain conversation with this guy?

El Shaddai pushes out his chest, looking smug. “You are very conf-”

Aw, forget it! No sense in talking.

Closing in and bringing forth my forehead, I headbutt El Shaddai with my horns, cutting his monologue short.

He stumbles back and I follow up with a swipe of my halberd and a curse which he deflects by cutting the forming spell-matrix with his spear.

***The Crystal City, The Ragnarok***

***Celes***

Left, left, right.

I sidestep a series of blows from Enyo’s sword which would have cut me in half. The longer I fight her the more respect I gain for my opponent’s fighting style.

Enyo clearly isn’t a pure martial artist like myself, but she can keep up effortlessly with my inner mana manipulation.

Redirecting her sword, I allow myself to bounce off her shield to gain some distance. A quick succession of blows follows within a split second, taking all my concentration.

“Fascinating! You are doing all that with body enchantments alone,” I comment, knowing that my eyes are shining. It’s been a long time since I encountered someone who could fight me on this level.

Ascathon doesn’t count since his style is too different from mine. He always tries to kite me for as long as possible, playing defence in the hope of wearing me down.

With Enyo it is close quarters combat all the way!

As we fight, the battle between our factions heats up again, the soldiers slaying each other with abandon.

Then I see a chance and step into Enyo’s guard. My hairpin shoots forward just to glide off Enyo’s armour as she shifts her stance slightly. A twist causes a blade to slide out of her shield.

I know that I have been had, but there is nothing I can do as she slices my thigh open with the sharp edge of her shield, forcing me to lock down her sword-arm in order to not be beheaded.

“Hahaha!” Enyo laughs in glee as she pushes the shield down, fully intending to slice off my leg.

And then the tricky weapon hits bone and stops, stunning Enyo into silence.

“Crystal bones! Bitch!” I hiss between gritted teeth and thrust my open palm at her chest with all the force I can muster, opening a gateway to my mana and sending it out through my palm.

I feel the bones in my forearm break and Enyo’s armour dents inwards before she is sent flying into one of the fortress's support structures – some huge sensor dish which rises out of the rest of the fortress. Her impact breaks off the dish and creates a sizeable crater inside it.

Circulating my inner mana, I feel the bones pop back into place and the wound on my thigh close rapidly after a short resistance. There was some sort of curse on Enyo's weapon, but I easily overpowered it. Few things can turn my own power against me. I confirm that my arm is usable by forming a fist. It is numb but works well enough to punch things.

“Fucking bitch made me get carried away.” I ended the fight far too soon.

But then I see a person peeling herself out of the crater inside the tumbling sensor dish and narrow my eyes to see better.

She pushes herself off, drifting back in my direction while peeling off the cracked and deformed breastplate, revealing padded chain-mail beneath.

I grin, glad that my opponent didn’t keel over after a single shove. It might even be possible to go all out on that one.

***The Crystal City, The Ragnarok***

***Angrod***

I don't have the time to pay much attention to my wife's fight, but from what I saw it looks like Celes isn't having an easy fight either.

Suddenly, El Shaddai flashes forward and I only barely manage to evade the tip of his spear which scratches across my chest piece.

Looking down, I find that it left a deep gouge behind. It's like my armour is nothing more than paper to that damned spear.

I try to counter-attack, but El Shaddai's spear seems to be everywhere at once, ghostly afterimages making it hard to attack with my halberd. He effortlessly keeps up the pressure, even forcing me to detach my blades from my armour to keep him busy with his own defence.

Then one of the ghostly images stabs towards my face and I have to twist sideways, but something hits my leg – forcing me to hiss in pain.

That's going to be a bad bruise!

If my staff hadn't been so heavily enchanted, I would have already lost.

As much as I would like to gain some distance, close quarters seems to be my only choice. El Shaddai is sticking to me like glue. It's a shame. I really would like to use my long range abilities properly!

“Finally becoming aware of your mistake? We don't rule the Multiverse for no reason!” El Shaddai boasts with a savage look on his face.

“I had hoped I wouldn't need it. But it seems like it is necessary to go serious on you.”

Thrusting out my halberd, I expand my aura and emit my full power towards him, grasping for everything my divinity can give me. I delve deep and reach for the Chaos within me, the blast of energy turning red and chaotic.

Losing his hold, the old god is thrown backwards like a doll and smashes into a group of fighters.

He is right. If I allow this fight to continue in the same manner, he will win. It's not a matter of power, but one of skill. He is far superior to me in close combat. Which makes it just a matter of time until he gets me.

This calls for a savage solution. Man, I would have never thought that I would be forced to cheat.

I transform my halberd into an oversized axe to free a hand for spellcasting and clear my throat, readying myself to speak words from a dimension far removed from this one. “Nier lus vrei oust neben, Nashok!”

A small ball of red light forms above my hand, far different from my earlier casts. It spreads an unfriendly feeling and space seems to distort around it. I smile wryly at the little spell that took the former 'me' so long to invent. “Hello. Long time no see,” I talk to the little red ball of energy while I float towards El Shaddai who is getting back to his feet, setting down on the fortress's surface.

He looks a little ruffled, but he is uninjured.

I provoke him. “How interesting. I never would have thought that I could send the mightiest being in the multiverse flying.”

El Shaddai's face distorts in anger and he jumps at me.

Using the axe, I block a stab to my chest, avoiding a mortal wound. El Shaddai immediately follows up by aiming the next one at my abdomen, but instead of retreating, I jump forward and allow him to stab through my side.

I welcome the fire of pain and laugh as I push forward, impaling myself. El Shaddai's eyes widen, but he doesn't let go of his weapon, even as my right hand – and with it the red orb – impacts his chest.

The spell activates and a howling tornado of red energy erupts out of El Shaddai's back. The escaping streams of power rip through my hand, shredding it to pieces.

El Shaddai screams in terror and I slide backwards, riding the burst of power erupting from his chest as it carries me with it.

I watch El Shaddai's disbelieving expression as the unleashed spell shreds his body and soul to tiny pieces, practically disassembling him.

I only notice that I am still laughing insanely when I get grabbed at my shoulders as some of my people do their best to pull me out of the fight.

Seeing El Shaddai's terrible end, some of the enemies flee, which encourages our people to intensify the pressure.

I try to activate a healing spell, but it fails. The mana somehow disperses before I can form the correct pattern. Looks like those light-weapons have the ability to stop someone from using healing magic.

That sucks! If I had known that, I wouldn't have jumped so willingly into that spear.

“The king defeated El Shaddai! Go forward and drive them off!” Lada's voice carries over the battlefield despite the thin air at this altitude.

Two healers immediately start taking care of me while I start to laugh like mad, waving the stump of my arm. “Did you see that? What a worthless bunch! They are the rulers of the multiverse and die such a pathetic death.”

The healers and soldiers around me look really worried as they watch my antics, and my ignorance of such minor wounds.

Little did I know that I created another weird rumour that day.

***The Crystal City, The Ragnarok***

***Celes***

Angrod did it.

Although... he once more managed to hurt himself.

Idiot!

Why does he always sacrifice his health? I take a moment to watch my husband being pulled out of the fight by a few soldiers. El Shaddai's spectacular death dealt a heavy blow to the enemy's morale.

I bet he didn't even notice the curse on those light-weapons. Which means that I have to heal him later.

Then I have to return my attention to my own fight.

Enyo is a tough bitch. Her armour is so sturdy that even my new daggers cannot scratch it. Angrod insists on calling them oversized hairpins and I have to admit that I tend to use them in such a manner. They are convenient and I don't like big weapons anyway.

Though, my fists are the superior weapons in this case.

Enyo and I seem to be natural counterparts. While I concentrate on offence, Enyo favours defence.

It's only lucky that I am a little faster than her, so she isn't able to deal any meaningful damage to me. The only problem I have is how to end our duel without pulling an 'Angrod'.

We exchange another series of blows and Enyo tries to bash me with her shield, but I use the shield as a stepping stone and jump over her, slashing at her eyes and clipping her temple with a foot while doing so. Enyo quickly tilts her head forward and my daggers just scratch her helmet.

During the whole fight, she had a satisfied grin on her face, seeming almost as insane as Angrod.

Her sword is a little long, and the weapon is starting to annoy me.

Charging in, I try to get through her defence and parry a strike by her sword as I tackle her. Now too close for her to freely wield the sword, I wrap my tail around her ankle.

Naturally, she tries to increase the distance to one that's comfortable to her, but I pull her back in at the same time. She stumbles and tries to regain her balance, but it is too late.

Now looming above her, I thrust my hand downwards and release my inner mana with my full force. Our auras waver for a second against each other and then I concentrate my energy on a single tightly focused spot, sending forth ripples of power.

Her chest-piece vibrates and a spray of blood erupts from her mouth as the energy is transmitted via ultrasonic means. Another swing of her sword forces me back, but the damage is done. Enyo's eyes unfocus for a moment and she spits out a mouthful of blood before she catches herself.

I see. I may not be able to get through her defence, but certain attacks can circumvent it.

Having found her weakness, I start supporting my normal attacks with outbursts of the same effect, going all out on my enemy.

A minute later, Enyo is on her knees and I am panting heavily. I am not sure if I can keep going much longer, but Enyo is in very bad shape.

She tries to get up, but I float forward and catch her sword-arm. Using one of my hairpins, I slide it into the unprotected space between the layers of her armour, forcing her to drop her Shield.

We wrestle, but somewhere along the battle Enyo's concentration started to wane. I quickly pull in one direction, then in the other and forward, dislocating my opponent's arm and disarming her completely.

Pulling further on her now useless arm, I pull her in one direction while bringing my knee up, swinging it in the other. My thrust connects with her head, snapping it sideways and caving in a part of her skull. The unleashed shockwave from our clashing auras clears the space around us and drives me back.

Twisting, I land on my feet on the fortress's surface.

Enyo kneels for a moment, facing me while her vacant eyes stare into the distance. Then she falls forward, her upper body impacting the ground like a log.

I wait for a few seconds, ready to continue the fight, but she doesn't get up, so I stride forward and call for our forces to advance. “The Council's leaders are down! Advance and drive them off of our fortress! Show no mercy!”

Then I look back at Angrod and the healers around him, but the idiot gives me a thumbs up... at least he tries... without his hand.

I let out a sigh of relief and decide to continue assisting our troops. After they lost their leaders we got a unique chance to break their forces. All we have to do is to keep showing our presence on the battlefield and the psychological battle should be ours.