"What the hell is wrong with you, Slade? It's been 400 years it doesn't matter anymore!" Dion shouted.

I frown. "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? I'm doing this for you!"

"You're ruining a perfectly good strategy for empty revenge against someone I don't even know! Just admit it's a shitty idea?"

"Having a son? Or getting revenge?" I cross my arms looking away.

"Prolonging a war when we have primordial gods to defeat -are you so old your mind has gone foggy?!"

I sigh. Monika looks between the two of us awkwardly. Fallon shifts.

"Gotta go," she murmurs, speeding out of the stronghold.

"Are you going to attend to Fallon?" Monika asks softly.

I rub my temple. "I can attend to Fallon or I can be a god of war and I don't know if I have the capacity to do both."

I look over at Fallon who's miles away from us. "Fallon, what are you doing?" I shout.

She looks back at me moving her hands. "I'm just gonna..."

"You're just going to what?"

She moves her hands again, making me sigh in exasperation.

"Stop doing that. Stop moving your hands because you know I can hear you, you're doing it since you were 10 and I know that you're doing it."

She lifts her hands shrugging speeding away.

I lean back. "She's going to try to take the cannons out. I'll provide her with cover. You four stay here."

"No, this is awkward," Solice says, getting out. "I'll get her."

I rub my temple again. Take the kids to war she said. It'll be a wholesome family bonding activity, she said.

"At least you boys are well behaved," Monika smiles at them.

She didn't see them in their teen years. I'm glad they were never together. They may have proved difficult. They're a lot alike, actually, hell raisers at that age.

The main difference between the two is that Dion has an off switch. Nathaniel...Nathaniel doesn't.

Monika drops the barrier with an exasperated sigh, her feet leaving the ground. I follow after she lets my wings unfold.

"This is your fault you know," she raised her brows glancing down at me.

I roll my eyes. Isn't that just fatherhood? Everything is my fault?

I flap my wings, hovering next to her, sliding my hand on her back.

"Hey...I'm not the bad guy."

I send my sword down one of the cannons. It explodes in the distance, s she looks at me from the corner of her dubious.

I chuckle, pulling her closer, tucking my wing over her shoulder.

"Ah...Okay...perhaps, I'm sort of the bad guy."

My eyes close for a moment, and I'm surrounded by black. A familiar pair of eyes stare back at me behind a wall of fire.

"Burn, Father,"

My eyes fly open, I can still feel the fire consuming me. My Monika rushes toward me, holding her hand out.

I'm falling. I flap my wings, giving me leverage, as Monika slams into me. I catch her, looking down at the state of the battlefield.

The front line is destroyed, Fallon has destroyed the cannons, and Dion and Solice wreak havoc on the reinforcements.

Nathaniel crouches inside their ranks, performing reconnaissance.

"One of my blood will betray me," I whisper softly.

Monika stared out at the field. "Who...who do you think it is?"

I open my mouth to answer her, but more aid floods the field. They flank us, attempting to herd us into a circle it appears and kill us off that way.

"2nd point formation," I shout from the skies, watching them scatter. I nod approvingly.

My mind flits back to her question. Who could be betraying me? I look at them, each of these children I raised.

And I don't know. I can't think of one of them who would betray me.

That's an issue.