Heaven and Hell

THIRTY-TWO

C O N Q U E S T

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BOTH SIDES OF the war collided in a burst of metal and blood. Souls of men and demons alike were slain mercilessly. There was no place for friendship on the battlefield and that was made very clear through their actions. Right at that instant, they were all chess pieces, pawns to be used and sacrificed for what was thought as the 'greater good' by their respective leaders.

The five leaders leading the rebel forces split up, bringing their own groups of soldiers with them to take down their enemies. Originally, Calvin stuck close to Wilhelm, both brothers swinging their great swords and easily taking down demon after demon. But at some point, Lucifer himself arrived onto the field instead of staying back to watch his demonic army.

The king of Hell arrived onto the battlefield with a smug smile and a menacing thirst for blood in his eye. Not a single soul that dared to cross his path made it out alive, all taken down with a heavy blow to their necks that severed their ties to Hell.

There was a reason why the mortals in the human realm had dubbed Lucifer as the devil. In all of his existence, Calvin had not seen anyone fall from the very top to such a level of chaos and evil.

"I didn't expect him to take the field," Wilhelm confessed. At the same time, he swung his sword away from his chest, relieving a few demons of their heads simultaneously.

"I know what you mean." With a grunt, Calvin chopped off the heads of the enemy, sending them rolling down the beach. "He seemed more like a leader that would stay behind to command the troops and watch the show rather than attack at the front lines with the rest of his army."

The once pristine sandy white shores of Hell's beach was now drenched in blood. Red dyed the grains of fine sand, trailing off into the waves which pooled with scarlet seafoam. There was nothing serene about the beachside anymore, nothing available to admire, nothing there to praise. All of its beauty had been violated, tarnished, and defiled.

As the two armies grappled for an edge over the other, they also inched closer to one another. All six main contenders of this war were gathered around the center of the conflict, fighting at the heart of it all. While Dimitri and Qiu Xia used magic in addition to physical weapons to the far right where the waters were, Fabian was situated nearer to the forests to the left. At the heart of it all was where Wilhelm and Calvin fought, along with Lucifer who was nearing them by the second.

While the souls of the once-mortals fought with great diligence, the demons were on a whole other level. They did not show a single shred of emotion, tearing their razor-sharp claws into their opponents mercilessly. Flesh ripped from flesh, blood spewing forth endlessly as groans of agony echoed into the brightly lit sky.

The number of bodies that laid on the ground soon grew to the heights where it was impossible to count. With such a sight, Calvin silently wondered if Dimitri would see those deceased faces in his mind's eye for a second time.

His moment of thought was too much of a distraction, however, for he had not seen a sword edge his way. Wilhelm had separated from him, fighting a few feet away and surrounded by an endless stream of demons. As a result, Calvin had no one to warn him of the oncoming attack.

Thankfully, he was able to react just in time, bringing his sword up just as the opponent's blade came into contact, barely cutting into the fabric of his clothes.

Gritting his teeth, Calvin summoned all of his strength to push back the sword that threatened to cut through his face. A shower of sparks rained from the violent contact between two blades, flying through the air like a flash of golden rain. Mere inches away, Lucifer's grin was right in Calvin's line of sight, smirking away as if nothing was wrong with the world.