Time slowed to a crawl as the tortoise felt its own existence start to fade. Emotions and sensations filled its body once more. A desire to survive, a hunger for food, water, and other small comforts swelled up to a bursting point. Things it took for granted until it had them all stolen away from it. The demonic side of it rejected these vehemently, tearing the tortoise apart from the inside.

The fastest way to destroy a demon was to temporarily turn it into the thing it resented most and destroy itself, back to normal. However, the tortoise was not the target but a careless bystander. These feelings faded away as the demon won. Not without consequence as the tortoise realized a hole within its body and soul. What it lost without its own will. A wisp of that what was lost remained in the body, ignored by the demonic side due to its small size and the demon's injuries.

On the battlefield of a storm, a spear made of pure light pulsated within the ground. The root of the attack from before as static electricity was abuzz around it. The electricity from this spear had crawled throughout the ground to affect all in the area. Of the humans, one was curled up in a fetal position while the other was sprawled on the ground, gripping their chest and twitching as though they were having a heart attack.

As for the demon within the clouds, a hole was present upon their body, straight through their chest. A blue liquid flooded from its body like blood and it remained motionless in the air, devoid of life. The spear of the gods hit their mark and the demon was like an angel about to fall from grace. The rest of the clouds began to bleed as well, pouring from the sky. Water, it was water. The wounded cloud freely bled water. After all, a cloud was just water and dust.

Then, the demon began to crystallize. As if the demon had stared into the eyes of Medusa, it started to petrify, starting from its wounds and branching out freely. Ice, the demon was freezing in its deathlike state as if all its energy was leaving. The rain followed in its footsteps, becoming a freezing cold. The spear made constant sparks as the rain interfered with it. The light within it faded away with every drop of water, the water rejected the spear and the spear rejected the water, creating mutual destruction. Sheer quantity made the rain win out. The spear shrunk and sank into the Earth, never to be seen again.

And then the cloud demon moved, for dead it was not. Nor was the coming of the rain unintentional. With a lift of its finger, the rain ceased. Not to be. To where. Frozen in the air until it did rise and become frozen in another sense before falling once again. Only to be caught once more and uplifted again. No longer was rain present but hail, made of the same thing yet many times more destructive.

Like the hole in the demon's body, there lied a break in the clouds, allowing a view of the outside world, where a being akin to a god was visible before the sun. There it looked down upon the clouds with a relaxed position as it sat upon its throne. Within its very being was a distinct arrogance, as if nothing could oppose it. The concept that something could survive the attack had just sent was novel to it. Not that it was unaware; it simply was curious about what the storm would bring next.

Some of the hail fell to the ground uselessly while the remaining ones gained the demon's full focus and were sent outward. Chunks of ice were haphazardly lobbed towards the god. With minimal effort, the hail was dodged and fell back to the earth. In response, the god threw some lightning back at the demon. The demon simply closed the hole in the clouds and changed position before opening another hole and sending another volley. An air war between the two started with neither having an advantage.

The so-called god held air superiority and a height advantage while the demon could use its own body as cover without obscuring its own sight. The only thing that could tip the scales ever so slightly was the demon's wounds. Meanwhile, the humans and tortoise were stuck in the middle of this warzone, taking cover as lightning whizzed by and ice fell from the sky as if the world was ending. Both sides unintentionally held a direct stake in this fight as the demon would kill the humans given the chance while the being within the sun would not tolerate the tortoise.

Neither sides showed signs of stopping as the war entered a stage of attrition. It became increasingly obvious that the fight would take awhile. With every second of continued fighting, the chances of something bad happening to the bystanders increased. Not only was this war a conflict of ideals, but a conflict of interests as countless outcomes and consequences stretched out from this single battle. Those who stood to lose the most had the least say as well.

An overwhelming sense of inferiority took hold within the tortoise. A battle of metaphorical giants took place and it could do nothing but watch as it was a mere ant that could be snuffed out at any second. Forget rejecting the destiny of the world; it could not even change its own destiny at this present moment. If only it was stronger in some way.